I've been listening through the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs. So far this one is my favorite.
My favorite line is "I could smile all night at somebody new. Somebody not too bright, but sweet and kind. Who would try to get you off my mind." It got me thinking if there is in fact an inverse relationship to intelligence and kindness. Discuss among yourselves.
The video has the added benefit of looking like Salad Fingers. If you haven't ever seen Salad Fingers, prepare for your life to be changed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3iOROuTuMA
It may not be changed for the better.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
69 Love Songs
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Humor
Humor is a funny thing.
That wordplay for instance, is not very funny.
I've been thinking of a log thesis about types of humor, learning to be funny etc, but unfortunately I'm too busy to write it.
I wrote 58% of this skit and prepared the visuals. It was really my first experience writing jokes for other people to give. You may not find it funny, since it's very specific to being a med student at OSU, and you probably can't read the screen, but I consider it a successful experiment.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Best of the Worst
TopHat asked me the other day which video game movie was my favorite. In honor of him, of my brother who just returned from his mission (and loves video games) and of my love of making lists, here are my favorite video game movies. Keep in mind that switching from one medium to another is often a horrible mistake, with rare exceptions such as the Goldeneye video game or the Myst books. But for the most part, these adaptations are destined to be horrible. But some are enjoyably horrible.
1. Super Mario Brothers This one is awesomely bad. They tried to shoehorn so many ridiculous elements of the videogame into the movie. Truly a great watch.
2. Silent Hill I don’t play these games (mostly because I don’t play any video games any more) but this was a pretty good movie. Not great, but good. It’s a horror movie that’s not scary, but creepy and ominous for the full length of the movie.
3. Dead or Alive We're back to another awesomely bad one. Fighting games actually do pretty well translated into movies since fighting movies don’t have to have a plot to be successful. This one has a plot, that’s completely ridiculous. But it has some fun fighting, lots of girls, and it’s from a game I’ve actually played. The trailer is a pretty accurate representation of the movie. Thoroughly bad, and thoroughly enjoyable.
4. Mortal Kombat Annihilation - Many people would list Mortal Kombat as the best video game movie, in that it was actually a watchable movie. But I have to put MK2 above it because it’s mostly like MK1, but as an entirely random and unnecessary, and thus hilarious, mud wrestling scene.
5. Mortal Kombat - Watchable. Sad that being watchable gets it into the top 5, but that’s the nature of video game movies.
6. Final Fantasy: Advent Children - I never played the game (blasphemy among gamers) and I watched this movie in Chinese (I was in China) but I had a good time.
7. Resident Evil - These games are great, but the movies aren’t. But a bad zombie movie is better than a good . . . documentary about lint.
8. Fatal Fury/Street Fighter/Tekken - Every fighting game ever has an anime movie. They’re all the same. Adequately drawn characters having adequate fights.
9. Max Payne - Some cool effects, but I kind of stopped paying attention half way through. Not a good sign for a movie.
10. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - Doesn’t really relate to Final Fantasy at all, but it looks pretty.
11. Tom Raider - I’m really surprised I don’t like these movies more. They have Ms Jolie, which usually is all I require in a film. Guess they’re that bad.
12. Doom - The FPS (first person shooter) sequences are entertaining, but the rest isn’t.
13. Street Fighter - Bad, but not really awesomely bad. Just painfully bad.
14. BloodRayne - Beyond bad. In the right mood it can be awesomely bad, but most of the time just a waste of everyone’s time. It’s the kind of movie that makes you feel really bad for the editors and catering people and everyone that had to spend time on it.
Honorable mentions
King of Kong - Not really a video game movie, just a movie about video games. But a great one of those.
Red Vs Blue - Funny web series, based of Halo.
Sonic the Hedgehog - This tv show was pretty sweet because it was Sonic, but in a post-apocalyptic future. Don’t confuse it with The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which is Sonic in a boring cartoon world.
Captain N: The Game Master - A guy get sucked into his Nintendo and has to fight video game characters. It was awesome. At least when I was 8 it was awesome.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? I don’t need to explain why this was great.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Friday, May 01, 2009
My Drive
I read What Women Want Men to Know yesterday. Why? Because I’m weird.
To be fair, I didn’t read it, I listened to the audiobook. Again, not normal, but normaller. And I didn’t go looking for it, I just looked online for what audiobooks I could download the fastest. I ended up downloading The Road (which I have yet to finish [in actual book, not audiobook] though it seems quite good), The Graveyard Book, Bonk, an episode of This American Life, Rescuing the Spectacled Bear by Stephen Fry and What Women Want Men to Know. An eclectic collection, and some commentary could be made as to my personality given the books that I chose to download.
I made the OH to NY drive yesterday. Normally I just make a 6.5 hour playlist and hit the road. But I decided I wanted to add one thing to the list of the things that I “did” this week, and “reading” an audiobook seemed reasonable enough. So I made a 2 hour playlist and hit the road.
To again be fair, reading this type of book is not entirely out of character for me. I read The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands in order to crash our Relief Society book club. I thought it only fair that since I had read the book, and many members of the book club hadn’t read it, that I be able to participate. They disagreed. I also read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. I had won it at a white elephant exchange and a girl said she wanted to discuss it after I read it. So I read it, but she was a liar and didn’t actually want to talk about it.
These books are silly.
That’s not to say they have no merit. That’s not even to say that I disagree with them, though certainly I disagree with parts. They just seem to point out the obvious. If there were a WWWMtK quiz, I think I’d get a 95% without reading the book. Admittedly, I wouldn’t know out of the blue that women need to feel safe, feel valued and feel connected, but I could certainly pick them out of a multiple choice lineup. After reading/hearing one of these books I don’t feel like I’ve really learned anything. I’ve been reminded of things, which is valuable, but I haven’t learned anything new.
The people in these books are SO DUMB. I realize they make exaggerations to make a point, but the exaggerations are so broad that it really just removes it from reality. They depict men in a certain way, when we all know that it’s some men are kind of like that some of the time. I think the way these books would be the most valuable is if you and your partner listened to them together. Then you could say point by point “yeah, that applies to us” or “that is ridiculous. The people in that story shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce.” That would be productive.
In any case, I can’t really recommend the book. If for no other reason because author’s jokes were really bad and she used the term “verbal intercourse” far too often.
* * * * * * * *
This American Life is one of those things that lots of people that I genuinely like and respect enjoy, but that I’ve never gotten around to experiencing. Which is silly really, since not only do people who share common interests with me highly recommend it, but I know for a fact that people I enjoy contribute regularly to the show.
The episode I downloaded featured 4 stories by Scott Carrier, and I thought they were all great. I’m biased because he talked about schizophrenia, amnesia, Utah and writing, topics I’d enjoy, but I think anyone would like the pieces. The last piece involved him interviewing his 11 year old daughter, and she said something that I thought was more insightful than the whole of WWWMtK.
I think a lot of us spend so much time avoiding the fights that we lose the opportunity to understand other people. Fighting is a form of communication, and communication is necessary for intimacy. Fighting isn’t necessary for intimacy, but it can help us in that direction. That was my favorite message of the 6.5 hour trip.
If you have a recommendation for my next 6.5 hours of “reading” let me know.
To be fair, I didn’t read it, I listened to the audiobook. Again, not normal, but normaller. And I didn’t go looking for it, I just looked online for what audiobooks I could download the fastest. I ended up downloading The Road (which I have yet to finish [in actual book, not audiobook] though it seems quite good), The Graveyard Book, Bonk, an episode of This American Life, Rescuing the Spectacled Bear by Stephen Fry and What Women Want Men to Know. An eclectic collection, and some commentary could be made as to my personality given the books that I chose to download.
I made the OH to NY drive yesterday. Normally I just make a 6.5 hour playlist and hit the road. But I decided I wanted to add one thing to the list of the things that I “did” this week, and “reading” an audiobook seemed reasonable enough. So I made a 2 hour playlist and hit the road.
To again be fair, reading this type of book is not entirely out of character for me. I read The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands in order to crash our Relief Society book club. I thought it only fair that since I had read the book, and many members of the book club hadn’t read it, that I be able to participate. They disagreed. I also read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. I had won it at a white elephant exchange and a girl said she wanted to discuss it after I read it. So I read it, but she was a liar and didn’t actually want to talk about it.
These books are silly.
That’s not to say they have no merit. That’s not even to say that I disagree with them, though certainly I disagree with parts. They just seem to point out the obvious. If there were a WWWMtK quiz, I think I’d get a 95% without reading the book. Admittedly, I wouldn’t know out of the blue that women need to feel safe, feel valued and feel connected, but I could certainly pick them out of a multiple choice lineup. After reading/hearing one of these books I don’t feel like I’ve really learned anything. I’ve been reminded of things, which is valuable, but I haven’t learned anything new.
The people in these books are SO DUMB. I realize they make exaggerations to make a point, but the exaggerations are so broad that it really just removes it from reality. They depict men in a certain way, when we all know that it’s some men are kind of like that some of the time. I think the way these books would be the most valuable is if you and your partner listened to them together. Then you could say point by point “yeah, that applies to us” or “that is ridiculous. The people in that story shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce.” That would be productive.
In any case, I can’t really recommend the book. If for no other reason because author’s jokes were really bad and she used the term “verbal intercourse” far too often.
* * * * * * * *
This American Life is one of those things that lots of people that I genuinely like and respect enjoy, but that I’ve never gotten around to experiencing. Which is silly really, since not only do people who share common interests with me highly recommend it, but I know for a fact that people I enjoy contribute regularly to the show.
The episode I downloaded featured 4 stories by Scott Carrier, and I thought they were all great. I’m biased because he talked about schizophrenia, amnesia, Utah and writing, topics I’d enjoy, but I think anyone would like the pieces. The last piece involved him interviewing his 11 year old daughter, and she said something that I thought was more insightful than the whole of WWWMtK.
“I think that people who love each other have to have fights sometimes, or they wouldn’t understand each other very well. Not everybody is exactly the same, so they might disagree about something. But two people who love each other have to understand each other, and to understand each other they have to know what they’re thinking.”
I think a lot of us spend so much time avoiding the fights that we lose the opportunity to understand other people. Fighting is a form of communication, and communication is necessary for intimacy. Fighting isn’t necessary for intimacy, but it can help us in that direction. That was my favorite message of the 6.5 hour trip.
If you have a recommendation for my next 6.5 hours of “reading” let me know.
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