so i guess there's a Lost in Translation DVD backlash? at least that's ebertroeper said tonight on their show. i guess those that didn't see it in the theater aren't getting the same warm-fuzzies from watching it for the first time on DVD. that somehow the isolation and loneliness isn't "translate" as well thru the small screen or something. i wouldn't know; i saw it in the theater. shame if you didn't... the movie rocked. but at least there's a reason if you're not feelin' it off the tv.

long day started w/Kill Bill Vol 2 around 2pm w/past0r and sal. afterwards into the far north side for the best biryani on devon @ghareeb nawaz. totally fulfilled on the verge of uncomfortable we stopped to shop at traders where i picked up 4 or 5 different bars of soap. raydeen convinced me that going back to the bar was a good idea afterall. hit some more stores and finally got outta their hair after about 9hrs together. back in time for roep a dope and roger.

oh yeah, KBv2 was excellent as everyone says despite being an almost completely different move than KBv1. it was a rich experience and i look forward to seeing it again soon.

another fried friday in the office. i'm getting tired of friday being the worst day of the week in terms of work. took an hour bike ride down to the cementary to purge and ran into 3 large whitetail that managed to survive the winter w/o getting run over on higgins rd. they just stared at me as i cruised by.

finished watching The Vampire Effect (Twins Effect) which was a really stupid HK flick esp. considering the all-star cast and hoopla surrounding it. the cute actresses (Gillian Chung is smokin'!) and their fight scenes are the only redeeming qualities of this silly disaster.

picked up a small giordano's special and finished watching Kill Bill Vol 1 in preparation for KBv2 tomorrow. man, i love that flick. i think it may be one of my favorites of all time. too early to tell. glad i was able to convince _some_ of my friends to catch it in the theater. (yeah, that was a jab)

how bad was that dentist visit yesterday? mouth is still sore. love it. UT2004 is calling...

acquisitions:
dvd-
American Splendor
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2-disc)
Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed
Goldeneye
Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere Vol 2

so much for that healthy tax return.... i just dropped another $471 at the dentist. so glad my company decided to eliminate dental insurance. at least i can punch myself in the face for the next few hours and not feel it.

impressive: Tarantino's 'Bill' Makes a Killing on DVD.

sry to take up a whole hella lot space w/1 image but the smaller she gets the less detail can be seen:



i'm not terribly all into mcfarlane toys much anymore... 'cept maybe the cheapy on sale or the exceptionally well sculpted ones (i.e. Mandarin Spawn). well, it appears there are few gems in the upcoming reborn series 2 line hitting this summer. one is the remake of the She-Spawn (above). the original arrived early in the line (series 2 or 3 maybe?) way back in '95. she was due for a makeover. and now she looks pretty hot.

(watching Al Franken on Howard's E! show and it's just as funny as the original radio broadcast) i'm always relieved when i finish my taxes. sure, mine are easy but i'm such a procrastinator w/them even tho i always receive a nice return. which in turn prompts me to buy more gadgets (see below). w00t! my celebratory dinner was a small lou from Lou Malnati's. w00tx2!

i told myself before the week started that i would leave the office early everyday to make up for the work infringement on a company holiday last week. instead i've somehow managed to work an additional 1.5 hrs on top of my regular hours! wtf?! that and this confounded cold virus i picked up during the montreal trip have put me in a rather cantankerous mood. hrmph!

tuesday acquistions:

dvds-
Kill Bill Vol 1
Reservoir Dogs SE
The Vampire Effect (aka The Twins Effect)
Samurai Fiction

books-
Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld
"Out" by Natsuo Kirino

gadgets-
Game Boy Advance SP - Flame on! ($81 shipped)

hot GBA news: "Square fans will be pleased to find out that Final Fantasy I & II are coming to the Game Boy Advance, along with updated graphics and some brand-new extras, all in a one package. Square fans will probably be equally crushed by the fact that a US release date has yet to be announced for this tidy little RPG package."

first honest sleep in a long time last night. easter dinner was great as usual but the after-dinner pro-Bush, pro-war, pro-republican banter was a bit much. made it back to my apt in record time (2hrs 10min) after driving 85-95mph all the way. catnapped then off to the soldout Fantomas show...

amazing to get there as late i did and still get a prime spot along the rail. caught about 20min of Melt Banana who were amazing (and the bass player so adorably cute!). then Clie'd until 9pm when Fantomas took over. i stood roughly 8ft from Dave Lombardo w/Patton facing me on the other side of the stage. set was only an hour.ten but watching a mad scientist at work it was plenty. i figure half the crowd was there only to see Patton anyways (heard a girl take a cell call behind me yelling, "just waiting for mike patton to take the stage!") since even the all-star nature of Fantomas doesn't lend itself to accessibility. esp. their latest opus, which isn't accessible whatsoever. pull a file from the STK drive and you'll instantly see why. ^_^

yesterday i'm back at my car @10AM after the most agonizing flight i can remember in a long time. make a beeline to the library to pick up a bunch of holds they've been calling and leaving msgs about. walked out w/half dozen or so of books (incl. a couple of trades) and 5 dvds. finally home to unpack and repack for the weekend away to visit the 'rents for easter dinner.

nap for 5 hours. finish packing the car and on the road at 10PM (@folks' by 12:30). the sleep doesn't suit me so well and i remember last looking at the clock around 4AM this morning. up early to kick into the massive laundry i've been saving up for such an occasion. after a few loads head over to my dad's station for my free car wash (after unloading all my recyclables). take pop to Hungry Hobo for lunch then hit the davenport mall in search of cheap toys. pick up the only two micros left at suncoast ($2.24/each). stumble around the mall-gawkers for a bit then stop by Griggs Music to get the number of the guitar tech who worked on my guitar years ago.

slide in the bettendorf blockbuster that always has plenty of PVDs that most others don't have. only found 1 thing of interest; didn't buy. headed over to Good Will to drop off some items and then shop the attached Video Games Etc store. weekend sale was buy 1 get 1 half off. not really buying VGs right now so i picked a couple of used DVDs: slipknot's Disasterpiece (2-disc) for $12 and a strange (old) view askew release "Drawing Flies" starring Jason Lee for $5.

home to a snack, nap, and dinner. split for worst buy and was tempted by the GBA SP selection but passed... for now. checked the minidisc selection then cruised over to TRU and picked up a couple of clearanced DC controllers (madcatz and intec) for $5.46 total. also grabbed a bunch of those Stan Winston creature figures for $1.98/each (original srp $14.99!). according to his site, apparently he's involved in some lawsuit w/TRU hence the cheap prices for these. whatever. i'll take just about any cool hunk of poseable plastic for cheap.

off to Whitey's for a soft cone then back home w/the 'rents and my annual rejection of mom's invite to join them for easter services at church. i can't remember the last time i went w/them for easter but you'd think she'd give up one of these years. ah well. off bed and some anime watching before crashing. 'nite!

8:45AM after a horrible night of sleep and no b-fast i meet up w/our clients and jonboy in the lobby and drive over to the client's office. and i'm just dying from lack of sleep as the fogginess and haze can't seem to leave my head or eyes. coffee not doing the trick. the toronto attendee throws out "no word of a lie" at some point and we acknowledge it as some canadian thing.

noon-1PM: lunch at some bizarre chicken joint across the street. feeling a bit better now. but the sleepiness seeps in and i'm wishing for type of amphetamine or cocaine about now.

2PM: can hardly keep my head in the meeting. still wishing for the cocaine.

3:30PM: play bejewelled a few times during the meeting and run some anki flashcards just to stay awake.

4:05PM: so fucking tired. eyelids heavy. struggling to stay awake.

4:30PM: finally i'm up. deliver my presentation among a few goodbyes (jlawrence & toronto attendee have flights to catch - lucky them). my deal goes well and i'm actually feeling awake for the first time.

5:30PM end the meeting and fight the traffic back to the hotel - get a side tour thru westmount where the rich ppl reside incl. an incredible old mansion once inhabited by charlie chaplin when he was kicked out of the US. freshen up and head to dinner in the old town area of the city. very cool. dine at a french restaurant and feast over one rich course after another. lots of wine and cheese to break it up. cap it all w/an expresso. bad move.

10:15PM back @the hotel and decide to walk off the meal. the food was rich almost to the point of nauseating. walk a mile down sherbrooke to the 1500 block and the gallery district. my stroll spans the length of McGill University (canada's Harvard) on the other side of the street. students and hotties abound.

11:15PM attempt to crash but instead stay awake all night. wonderful. i regret the expresso and wish i was home.

observations from the short stay in montreal: lots of french canadian hotties, everywhere. lots of mazda mx-3s, everywhere. lots of graffitti, everywhere on everything.

recapping wednesday flight into montreal...

tip #1: get a passport. period.

besides being the all-purpose best ID you can have, flying into canada requires it. birth certificate? forget about it. they don't care about that anymore. somehow, i made it thru customs and immigration after much ballyhoo and interrogation. fun stuff. no, not really. so now i'm a on list that says i cannot enter canada w/o a passport next time. merci.

after checking in our hotel we stride up to st laurant street where cheeky restaurants line the street... jonboy decides on the one w/the best looking scenery. no non-smoking/smoking sections here... all-smoking all the time. nice! waitress was a ringer for mtv's trishelle only hotter but equally as ditzy. i have the best seat as the other blonde number waiting tables is in my line of sight most of the evening (waitresses here clad in matching black leather minis and go-go boots... hhhhhot). also plenty of french canadian hotties at all the nearby tables. dinner was excellent despite the shoptalk until 11pm. and trishelle entertained us w/her story of seeing the britney spears concert.

turn in and end up partly watching one of the star trek movies in french (almost all of 40 channels are in french). catch a talkshow that features several of the french hotties from Les Gladiatrices and later Carmen Electra shows up. interesting to watch despite the language barrier. ah well. bedtime.

meet your next star wars villian: General Grievous. don't laugh.

thanks to the sleeping pills i'm hung over this morning. can barely keep my head up. i may try to locate my additional ID info at lunch since my 12:30 was cancelled (wasn't planning on taking a lunch today).

this just in: our lead creative director (who replaced capt'n satan last summer) is quitting. ha!

QotD: "April is Alcohol Awareness Month! Take a bottle of rye whiskey to lunch and introduce it to people who may not be aware of this excellent American spirit." - Lew Bryson

i won $55 in the pool. 1st place b/c evil brad forgot to include a final score (which is the tie breaker). whatever. i won. first time. lots of 2nds and 3rds over the years but never 1st place. despite that, plenty of nervous tension in me. i fly to montreal tomorrow and i'm not prepared to go. and i didn't want to go in the first place. i have no clue where all the identification items are that i need in order to get into canada in case they ask for them (no, i never got that fucking passport so stop asking me). so i have to look thru all my crap tonight in hopes of finding *something* i can use for ID. that and pack for the stupid trip.

i should be happy. besides winning $55, i picked up the new In Flames album released today. That along w/the latest Muse and Fantomas releases. but alas, i am not very happy right now. i'm not looking forward to digging around for ID material.

i just want to take a nap. i'm not getting consistent sleep so i'm constantly in a haze... this morning i had some weird dream with rasputina in it (likely due to listening to them just before falling asleep). and there was some cool g/f i had w/the same name as the guy from australia that builds xml feeds for overture. the dream was all sorts of weird but i cannot remember much of it now, unfortunately. all i remember was that it was wacky and cool somewhat. head's just not in game today.

so there was like 10 of us out tonight at champps to watch the final NCAA game. and the whole thing was about as underwhelming as it gets. besides the game sucking ass, the girls seemed more interested in their cell phones, how they looked and what they were ordering to eat than the actually game. blah... whatever. i had my eye on a waitress all night anyways.

my pick to win it all won it all. first time i've done that. i think i came in either 1st or 2nd in my office pool. at least i got my $$$ back. that 16oz burger is killing me right now. they call it the Pepperjack Bacon Stack... stakked indeed. i'm uncomfortable and tired. need new Palm games.

yesterday (up to this afternoon) was rather fulfilling for a change.
crashed around 4AM and back up between 8 and 9.
9:30 on the road into the city to meet raydeen for b-fast @Wishbone.
after our satisfying meal we head over to hi-fi to find out they are closed.
so we hoof over to evil clown, buy some CDs then back hi-fi to buy 2 brides tix.
noon on the road to yorktown to meet capt'n gristlecakes.
arrive 1:30, get hellboy tix and proceed w/watching the 2hr flick. it was decent.
afterwards we split - those 2 head back to batavia. i head home.
5:30 grab grub, eat, organize DVDs for movie nite.
6:30 back on the road into the city to pick up phixed.
7:30 w/phixed in tow arrive at park west for the buckethead show.
8:30 buckethead begins; over at 9:23. take phixed home.
9:56 hit 290 in the loop; 10:30 take hwy 31 exit to batavia.
arrive a few minutes later for movie night w/the guys.
chat for a while then fire up "wisconsin death trip" followed by "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla"
then "Hell's Highway - The True Story of Highway Safety Films" caps the morning as we doze off around 5AM (6AM).
up around 11:30 (daylight savings time) and off to IHOP for brunch.
back at my apt around 3PM; nap at 4, up at 8 for the sopranos. whew.

so i found out at around 6PM today that i'm flying to Montreal next week on the 7th for a couple days. get back Good Friday morning. wonderful.

our lead creative sent around yet another email aprils fools jokey joke, this time saying "i promise this one won't fry your computer".

um, isn't that what you said about the first one?