Friday, July 30, 2004

Village Schmillage


I can't say that I'm that disappointed with the new M. Night Shyamalan movie The Village, mainly because I wasn't expecting much in the first place. The idea of it sounded fun, but the trailers didn't really do anything to spark any real excitement in me for the film (unlike The Incredibles which I am dying to see). Plus, period piece films never grab me. So already going into the film, I wasn't expecting much, except that I knew it would be slow.

But man was it slow. There were scenes that went on and on, talking and talking, they wouldn't shut up. And then there were scenes that would build a minute of suspense and then just cut to another scene. In fact, there were a lot of scene cuts; very abrupt, just one scene and then another and another. It sort of felt jumbled and choppy.

And then the big twist was revealed (the explanation of the creatures in the woods) and the feeling of the movie totally changed. I don't want to give away anything really, but I was a little disappointed that the film took that route.

Ultimately, I didn't find the film fun enough. I had a blast watching The Sixth Sense and Signs because there were some really awesomely fun scares. In The Village, there are around 2 jump moments, but only because they were followed by extremely loud crashes in the soundtrack. I did however especially like one part very much. It involved a creature chasing something. That was straight out of one of my nightmares.

I think this film was just too long and too drawn out. I often get really cool story ideas that I can't possibly draw out into a full-length movie and this film's story/idea seems like one of those stories. It feels like it would work better as a half-hour Twilight Zone episode.

So I didn't really like it much, but I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would. I guess it kind of lived up to my lowered expectations, or maybe even exceeded it by a bit (for that cool creature chase). But I don't think I can recommend it. It's just too slow for nothing to happen. The first 75 minutes or so... nothing happens. Character hears something, characters take notice, end scene. That happens over and over, so much in fact that the movie's theme (which seemed like the only tune played throughout the film) gets boring.

Anyway, that's what I thought of it.

And one more thing. Why are teenagers so damn annoying and immature. Who the hell do they think they are thinking they're so funny? The audience I watched the movie with must have been a bunch of just-turned-13-year-olds. The constant "shhhhhh" "shhhhhhh" "shhhhhhh" and yammering and giggling and grabbing is RETARDED! SHUT UP AND WATCH THE MOVIE! And I couldn't believe it. Some little ass thought it was funny to bring daddy's laser pointer and shine it on the screen throughout the film. WOW man! Way to go living in '95! I can't wait till you find the UFO shaped laser projections! How come they haven't added optional headphones for each seat to shut out the stupid kids who can't keep their fat yaps shut?



Annoyed,

Ricky

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Monday, July 19, 2004

Slight Delay
 
 
I was extremely busy this past weekend.
 
I started writing up my Proactiv results on Saturday, but then ended up going to Erico Suave's place for MacArthur's  birthday.  They invited a bunch of Disneyland friends over and we drank and drank.  I was introduced to downing a peppermint schnapps shot and then sucking down some chocolate syrup and shaking it up in your mouth.  It tastes just like a York Peppermint Patty.  Anyway, I was pretty f-ed up at the end of the night and the rest of the party is a blur.  Not really, I remember everything, but am a little iffy about the details.
 
Anyway, then on Sunday, I went to see A Cinderella Story which wasn't good.  The movie is too hyper cute and isn't even funny.  I'll give it the fact that there were some parts that were too charming not to smile, but overall, the movie made me roll my eyes A LOT.  And it took forever to end.
 
So, that's why I wasn't able to finish my Proactiv update.  So I'm just going to hold off on it till this coming weekend.  Then, at that time, there will be two weeks of usage to review.
 
Something that also slightly pertains to this topic, I was riding the train today and while passing a street, I saw that a fire truck had its lights flashing and had to wait for us to pass.  HA!  We had the right of way over a fire truck sucka!  That's probably not a good thing to boast about, seeing as someone's house probably burned down as we were holding the truck up, but I found it empowering.
 
 
 
Sweatin' it out to I Love the 90's,
 
Ricky
 
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Saturday, July 17, 2004

Blogger 2.0
 
 
Check this mother out!
 
Blogger.com recently upgraded their service or something.  Now, it's easier to bold and stuff and you can add color and increase font size!
 
Pretty cool, but one thing that I still can't do is upload pictures.  Well, it's just that lousy geocities doesn't allow me to link picture files that I upload to html.  I've tried it on several occasions and sometimes it works, but 98% of the time, it doesn't.  So, Blogger.com recommends some photo download software, but I don't want another photo editing program.  I already have Photoshop.  I just need a home to upload my crap!  Doesn't anyone understand???
 
So here's a birthday wish of mine (though it isn't my birthday today, in fact, it's MacArthur's and Disneyland's).  Recently Yahoo! Mail upgraded their free e-mail service.  Instead of allowing a laughable 4MB of e-mail per account, they now offer a whoppin' 100MBs!  That's insane, but still not as righteous as Google's G-mail service (of which I have an account) that offers 1 GB of e-mail storage!  Yahoo!, get with it.  Anyway, the point is... if they can upgrade e-mail service, I'm really hoping they will upgrade free website hosting space.  Right now I have three accounts to maintain The Routes.  Each account only gives me 15MB of file storage.  That's like 3 Routes with all the pictures.  So, anyway, that's my wish.  Or maybe I can just get a kickass server and upgrade the site entirely.  I do want to eventually turn my site into a Flash based site, but that's way into the future when I actually care more.
 
Okay, few things.  Today marks the end of my first week of using Proactiv.  I am currently working on my report and it will be up most likely tomorrow.  It will be an ongoing study, so you will see the effects of the system and if it really works or not.
 
Secondly, I'm going to get drunk at Erico Suave's place tonight.  MacArthur is having a birthday get-together and I'm hoping some of my old Disneyland co-workers will be there (and hopefully recognize me).
 
Thirdly, I'm stoked to watch the next episode of The 4400 on USA Network.  The first installment premiered last week and was just awesome.  It's about 4400 people who were abducted by aliens and return suddenly and they have been given some super human powers and must adjust to their regular lives after being away for so long.
 
Fourthly, I went to Abercrombie & Fitch earlier today to get MacArthur's birthday gift and, well, firstly (or is this fifthly), the music is just way too goddamn LOUD in there!  They're nuts.  They're dumb.  It's waaaaaay loud.  You can even hear it from across the mall.
 
And secondly/sixthly, my theory was kinda correct!  Well, being that it's a Saturday and it was pretty busy at the mall, there was barely anyone in the store.  Well, in the back there were some ladies browsing, but all the guys in there were employees of the store.  So, I'd say this is a good sign that the store's popularity (or possibly just its uniqueness) is dying down.  Or maybe they just can't find their way into the store with all the tables and such blocking the path to get in.  Whatever, they're morons.
 
 
 
Apologizing if I've offended anyone with today's rant,
 
Ricky
 
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Monday, July 12, 2004

Proactivists... Unite!


Greetings fellow cannibals!

I have news from the underworld! I am officially on the Proactiv Acne Treatment thing (you know, the thing I should have been on since the 10th grade). Now, Vanessa Williams thinks I'm cool. That now doubles the number of people who think I'm cool! And that ain't not bad.

Anyway, I told a couple of people already that I'm doing the whole expensive Proactiv thing and their response was "You have acne?"

YES! I have acne. I've had break outs and pimples here and there, but there wasn't really a long time (maybe a month at most) that I went without a single pimple. They bug and they suck and any other synonym for "suck" and "bug." Look it up in a thesaurus for me.

But here's the kicker. I'm going to document my results! That's right, let's see if this stuff really works. I promise I won't cheat. This will be a totally scientific research experiment (complete with thesis and hypothesis)! So make sure you visit The Routes in the near future for the most unflattering shots of me you'll ever see (unless of course you're that stalker snapping pictures of me from outside my window right now. YEAH YOU! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!!!).

And perhaps if my findings are positive, even you may feel less apprehensive about spending $60 on three bottles of soap.



Proactivating farewell message... NOW!

Ricky

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Saturday, July 10, 2004

Downgrading Disneyland


Well, it ain't no Disneyland, but I guess Universal Studios will suffice.

Tomorrow, my Disneyland annual pass expires. This is the first time I'm not going to be able to get into Disneyland whenever I want in around 10 years!

Why am I not renewing it, you ask? Mainly because I don't want to pay the $200 to renew it. Plus, with Angel Wing Jasmine moving up north again, I probably wouldn't go as often to justify its price. Plus, I'd have to pay for it myself, and well, frankly, I'd rather get something cooler. Can you say iPod Mini?

Okay, maybe not an iPod Mini, but possibly a digital camera.

But anyway, I may end up getting a new annual pass when the 50th Anniversary celebration kicks off. Or if I don't have the Punky Power to resist the urge to go to D-Land, I may renew in October when the Haunted Mansion Holiday returns.

Okay, so today, I went with Angel Wing Jasmine to Universal Studios Hollywood to try out the new Revenge of the Mummy ride. I heard a lot of negative reviews of the ride, so I wasn't expecting much. We went before the park opened and they make you wait an extra thirty minutes after official park opening before opening the Mummy ride. Now for the review...

The ride was surprisingly good! The line is themed pretty well; your typical Egyptian tomb with cave drawings and such. The story is that as long as there's darkness, the mummy shall reign... and that's what happens during the ride. There is a solar eclipse, so the mummy is wreaking havoc in his own tomb, which for some reason you are exploring.

The coaster car moves forward where you see some scarab beetles, a bunch of living undead mummies, zombie hands reaching down at you from the ceiling, and then Imhotep himself proclaming, "YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!"

Then it zooms you into the fast coaster portion and I must say that it is really fun. You get some good airtime during the sharp turns. Then it stops and then continues backwards until you reach the firey end. It's a lot of fun and I wasn't disappointed.

We also rode Jurassic Park, the tram tour, Terminator 2: 3-D, the sound stages, and the Van Helsing maze. But the park gets so damn packed that it sucks. There are a lot of dumb people there, incredibly annoying people who just get on your nerves. I've found that it's damn near impossible to just sit down, get comfortable, and hang out in that park. The park is dirty and ugly looking and feels ghetto. But it does have a few good rides. Bottom line is that I'm gonna have to suffer through this crap for a year because I bought an annual pass for Universal Studios because it was only $10 more than the park admission price. Actually, I'll probably just never go again.

One last thing of note... There's an Abercrombie & Fitch store at CityWalk and we went into it. There was NO ONE in there. I was browsing the store and found that all their stuff is all the same looking from years ago. So I came to the hypothesis that Abercrombie & Fitch is losing popularity. It just seems like everyone, I guess, has a closet full of Abercrombie looking clothes already and doesn't need to spend $50 for another rugby shirt. All there stuff is exactly the same and boring at this point (though I did see some new pink shirts to reflect the new guy trend that The Gap is trying to establish. Yeah, good luck with that losers).

So, if A&F is losing steam, I'm happy for it. Even though I own a few Abercrombie articles of clothing, their crap was always overrated and way overpriced. Plus they're racist pieces of sh**. And stuck up too.

But then Angel Wing Jasmine assured me that Abercrombie was out and that the new "thing" is Von Dutch. No offense to anyone, but whoever wants to spend so much for a stupid trucker hat is just plain retarded. They're stupid. And so are the hats.

Oooh BURN!



Sun burning,

Ricky

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Friday, July 09, 2004

Kinda Spooked and Unnerved


I'm a little on edge tonight. Something doesn't feel right.

The day started out fine. We went to work on the train, drove through the cardboard box neighborhood (some of those homes are really glamorous), went to work (half-day), went back to the train.

I was listening to music (Me and the Moon by Something Corporate) while sitting in the train, waiting for it to depart, when I heard a faint screaming, as if someone drilled a nail through a man's foot. This was not your typical roller coaster scream, but a truly excrutiating shriek of horror. Well, I didn't think that at first; I shrugged it off naturally. But I heard it again. The same scream, same faintness, same pitch, same man. I turned around, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Of course, it sounded as if it were in the next train, behind closed doors, so maybe something was going on that was unseen by me. When I heard the screaming for the third time, I asked my mom if she heard "that," but she didn't know what I was talking about.

I then thought it might be from the song, so I rewound it to a point where I heard the screaming, but it wasn't coming from the song.

Fast-forward to 20 minutes ago.

I went to get our mail (because no one will freakin' get it but ME dammit); and I went in my sweats, but that's besides the point. As I was making my way up the hill to the mailbox, the street lamp that I was approaching went out. Now to be fair, this has happened many times before, but I always get creeped out when it occurs. THEN, now here's the kicker, I heard that same screaming again!!! I hadn't been thinking about the screaming from the train, but when I heard the screams from 20 minutes ago, it freakin' chilled my spine! I seriously froze.

The screaming was coming from either a house or behind a house, same faintness, same pitch, same nail through the foot.

And just to make things sound a little more weird, as I ran up to the mailbox, a black cat crossed my path and the street.

I really don't know what to make out of all this. I'm reminded of that Twilight Zone episode, Twenty-Two, where the stripper girl keeps dreaming of these sounds and her going to door number 22 (a morgue) where a lady beckons her, "Room for one more honey." Only, this isn't a dream. So perhaps, I suppose, I may cross paths with this "screaming man" in a nightmare. Maybe I'll be the one impaling the nail through his foot.

I just have this bad feeling right now. Something's not right.

So be careful everyone out there. Watch out for nails and all the such. And don't say I didn't warn you because I forsaw bad happenings and they will come.



I'm serious,

Freaky

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Monday, July 05, 2004

A Year Ago Today


How quaint. Two blogs ago, we celebrated our 100th blog entry here at the ranch and now here we are celebrating the one year anniversary of blogging! Who knew I’d actually keep up with this and write a bunch of my thoughts down and stick with it for a year?

Well, not me, that’s for sure. I have this thing about always quitting stuff. I quit swimming way back when. Also, the Boy Scouts became a victim of my borderline Attention Deficit Disorder. Gymnastics also got the ax, along with baseball, soccer, and miniature golf (I used to be the king).

So I guess it’s kind of an accomplishment typing these out for a year now (and in general, updating my site. That anniversary passed a while ago. I just never keep track). Even though my blog entries became pretty scarce at times, I never gave up! And you shouldn’t either! Chase your dreams and you’ll go far and so on with all that inspirational mumbo jumbo.

Bah! There will be time for that later. Drink a beer in honor of me today. Just don’t drive afterward. There are plenty of cops on the road.



Keep Bloggin',

Ricky
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Friday, July 02, 2004

Dalmatians!


I'm tired right now, but ultra pumped for the weekend. Because it's a three-day baby!

Firstly, Thoroughly Modern Millie was really really good. It was entertaining as all hell. There were a bunch of dancing numbers, and not just like ballroom dancing and whatnot, but large groups of dancing. I haven't seen anything like that since, probably, Steps in Time at Disney's California Adventure. So, it's good to watch a large choreographed number once in a while. It's just doggone impressive is what it is.

It's also got a story. A small town Kansas girl goes to New York to be the modern 1920s woman who doesn't marry for love, but marries rich. She plans on marrying her boss, but ends up falling for this other guy. And then there's a subplot involving a white woman disguised as an asian woman who sells orphans off to slave countries. Of course it ends happily.

Something I realized just today...

I walked into a boba place today listening to my iPod. The guy at the counter took my order and then asked if I was listening to the pod. I told him yes and then we struck a short conversation about our iPods. This got me thinking that when you buy an iPod, you are kind of joining a community of iPodders.

Anyway, I thought that was cool. There's a new iPod alternative by Sony coming out that is smaller, holds 20 gigs, and has a battery life of up to 30 hours. It's a good product supposedly, but it just doesn't seem like it'll give the same sort of pride that iPod owners have. It's just kinda like getting the "other" product.

But what do I know. I'm biased. I'm just telling my side of the story.

Is it September yet?



Pronging and Padfooting,

Ricky

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