T-Shirts and Broomsticks

I have approximately 50 or so t-shirts. I only wear about 15 on a regular basis, this means I have a surplus of about 35 t-shirts. I want to get rid of the extras, but I kind of feel like there are more than enough T-shirts in circulation, so I don't really think I could give them away. For some reason I have this incredible compulsion to burn them. Is this an acceptable method of disposing of unwanted t-shirts? I think it is, but I'm willing to debate the matter.

I've been stuck on the same boss in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for approximately 2 months. It is the hardest boss in the game (so far) and I just don't feel like grinding up a couple of levels is going to give me the edge I need to beat it (also, grinding in Castlevania is fairly tedious, as far as grinding goes). So I suppose I'm done playing that game. Wait, an idea just came to me. I bet Jonathan could beat that boss. He's kind of a ninja. Maybe I'll let him try it. Good talk.

Cultist Behavior (or Behaviour, if you prefer)

So this morning, at about 9:45, I joined Facebook. I've resisted joining any social network for as long as I could (except for that one time I joined Myspace to talk to Marcus Legrand), but I realized with my impending graduation and graduation of some my friends this semester, I needed some means of keeping in contact with people I won't ever see again. So there you have it. I've sold out.

In other news, Christmas is over. Who knew? I got Mermaid Avenue volumes 1 and 2. I've become completely enamored with the song Hoodoo Voodoo by Wilco.

Twas the night before the night before a week before New Year's Day...

So I'm still in my end of the semester funk (not that that really means anything. Me depressed is really just like regular me, only a little more sleepy and slightly more introverted). I think I've figured out why this pseudo depression has lingered as much as it has, but I'm not going to go into it, because it's pretty stupid. If the cause is what I think it is (which it is, obviously) than it's probably not going to go away for a while. Anyway it's not really that big of a deal.

I'm finally done Christmas shopping! I finished at like 3pm this afternoon, and it feels good to be done. I spent a lot more money this year than I have in the past and I'm afraid to look at my bank account, so I probably won't until I get another paycheck or two in there.

In music I'm not really that impressed by news, I listened to that Fleet Foxes album everyone has been ranting and raving about and frankly, I'm not that impressed. It's the kind of music I would put on to have in the background while I'm cleaning my room (which happens to be exactly how I finally ended up listening to the album). The lead singer still sounds exactly like Jim James from My Morning Jacket. Also, I'm listening to Wolf Parade's newest album at the moment. It's not that good either. The best album I've heard all year is Vampire Weekend. I don't care what anyone says, that album is gold.

End of the Semester Blues

Today was the last day of the busiest and best semester of my college life. I worked harder and better, on more things than I have ever done in my entire life. I started the semester with two jobs and fifteen hours worth of classes. I ended it with one job and still fifteen hours, but it was probably the best fifteen hours of classes I've ever taken.

This semester I wrote three really good short stories, three fairly good three minute short films, one really good (if I do say so myself) fifteen minute short, 37 pages of a feature film screenplay, twelve boring, but well written essays about my musical taste. I made two documentaries that I'm really proud of, and one that I'm sort of proud of even though it is terrible, one short film that is the best thing I've ever shot/directed/edited, I acted decently in a really good short film, I learned how to use After Effects (sort of), I submitted a screenplay to a writing competition, a short story to a literary magazine and I read that same short story at a public literary reading (albeit to a crowd of about 12 people, but still, a big step for me). Most importantly, this semester I made some friends.

The end of this semester means the end of what was, without a doubt, the most productive four months of my life. It also means the end of my film classes, and the end of my classes with Jones, who is the best teacher I've ever had on a lot of levels. It's the end of working with Jim, Katie, David and Brandon (who graduated), with Nate and Joe (unless they're taking Adv Video, which I think they are not) and it's probably the last time I'll see my friend Hao (who graduated and is moving back home to China). Hao's been in every film class I've ever taken and she was always a joy to be in class with. She was fun to work with, she was a really good filmmaker and she was a genuinely really sweet person. She was in my first real movie. She had to lay on ground for an hour or so, pretending to be asleep in the middle of November. She never complained. She was very patient and always kept her sense of humor. I'm sad to see her go.

Of course the biggest reason I'm sad to see the end of this semester is because it means in five months, I'll (hopefully) be done with college. In five months I'll be saying goodbye to even more friends. I'll be looking for (or going to) a real job, where I don't have Matt Shead or Jeanie around to talk to or fix my problems. I won't have the convienent excuse of class to see my friends all the time. I'll have to become a grown-up (or partially a grown-up, at least). The next five months are probably going to be just as busy as the previous four and a lot scarier, and I'm not sure I'm up for it.

At least there's Christmas coming up to take my mind of those kind of things. Anyway, I need some sleep.

Hiatus

So did October happen already? Where have I been? What have I been doing?
I'll tell you.

Not much really. I've been functioning at about 65% of normal awesomeness levels since the middle of September, and I'm not really sure why. I have a lot of shit to get done before the end of the semester and I just don't feel like doing it. I have to finish the screenplay for my short film (the second draft anyway), I need to do my multimodal project for advanced comp, I need to work on my writing journal for Advanced Creative Writing, as well as the revisions for the end of semester portfolio. I need to be keeping up to date with my after effects lessons, I need to figure out what I'm doing my discover Cape project on. I really don't know where my time goes. I certainly don't have anything to show for it.

So starting this tomorrow, I'm going to buckle down and spend at least an hour every night working on one of my many ridiculously huge projects that is due by the end of the semester.
Also, at least one day this week I vow not to go out to eat at all.

In other news, the last two episodes of the Office haven't pissed me off that much. Ok, that's not entirely true. I was pissed off a couple of times with Thursday night's episode. My newest thing to hate about the Office is the cold open, which for those of you who don't listen to DVD commentaries is the two minute or so segment before the title of a show. The cold open is usually a bit not related to the rest of the episode, it's usually a stand alone piece.

Anyway the reason I hate the cold open on the office is because it accentuates the jokes before plot strategy of the American Office. The show is 22 minutes long (21 after the theme song), and they spend 2 or more minutes setting up and executing a joke (or a series of jokes) that serve no purpose to the narrative thread of the episode. I don't know why this bothers me, because the "drama" of the show has been pretty lame this season (except the Dwight v. Andy stuff that's been going on). One of the reaons I liked the original series, and the first couple of seasons of the American show, is because it was a comedy, but it was a comedy with realistic characters with realistic problems. It sounds cliche, but I liked it because it had heart.

The conflicts this season (the multi-episode, seasonal conflicts) have been pretty lame. Pam moved to another city and has fun with her new friends, while Jim stays at work. Is that a realistic conflict? Yes. Is it being presented in an overly dramatic way? Yes.

I'm getting off topic. Why I am pissed about Thursday night's episode: Their cold open was Halloween. Their Halloween episode was a two minute bit about three people in the office dressing up as the joker. It was a great joke. A great premise for an episode, and they spent two minutes on it. I'm mostly irritated by this because I love Halloween and I wish more shows would devote entire episodes to it. Every show has a Christmas episode every year. But Halloween always gets the shaft. Also, if that really is the end of the Michael/Holly story arch I will be much angried.

God, I talk about the Office a lot.

30 Rock is the bes show on television. Why aren't you watching it?

A few weeks later...

I'm watching Jimmy Kimmel Live right now. I don't know why. So there's this band on there called Buck Cherry. They are incredibly terrible. That is all.

I'm in a creative writing class this semester, it's essentially a short story writing class and I got my first short story back from being work shopped this week. Most people were fairly complimentary with their comments. Although one person wrote "Not really sure what the point was... Okay I guess". They also didn't sign their name. It was incredible. Someone had the exact same opinion of my short story as I did, and they didn't sign their name.

In other news I'm tired, what else is new. I'll try to blog more later.

End of Summer Postravaganza!

Well folks, here it is: the Sunday night before the first day of school. I think it's going to be a good semester, but before we talk about the future, let's talk about the past, ie what I did this summer. And since this is the internet, my reminiscing will take the form of lists!

Ok list 1:

You may remember this from my post from May 11 (probably not though). It's my list of things I wanted to accomplish this sumer. For those who don't remember I'll recap.

Goals for the summer:
1. Get another job (we've seen this one before)
2. Save money to pay for school in the fall (this one is more a corollary part 1)
3. Get a DVD player
4. Become a better guitar player (we've seen this one too!)
5. Run or Bike everyday or almost everyday
6. Eat better.
7. Sleep more.
8. Read books.
9. Punctuate more consistently

Ok, let's see how I did.
1. Check
2. Check (we'll see about this one)
3. Check (Yay birthday!)
4. Not really
5. Sort of. I did pretty well until I got the pesky second job. But I still went at least once a week.
6. No. Not at all. Lots of fast food. Bad Matt.
7. Nope. 2 jobs = less sleep.
8. I did read a few books. Two of the Otori books, Michael Ian Black's "My Custom Van", and one of Bruce Alexander's Sir John Fielding mysteries.
9. Yes... and no,

So not too bad on the goals. I'm satisfied. Ok, next list.

Favorite Things of this summer (in no particular order);

1. Starting and continuing Food Night at Droid's (Pizza night 1 was a flop but it's been great since then)
2. Writing a screenplay (sort of)
3. Riding part of The Tunnel Hill Trail with my dad
4. Spaced DVD's
5. Stella DVD's
6. Watching all of Wes Anderson's movies in successive weeks.
7. Getting a better job

Least Favorite things of the summer:

Obviously losing Buster was the worst thing that happened to me this summer. He was my first dog, and I miss him. That being said here's some other stuff that wasn't nearly as unpleasant as the death of my dog.

1. Summer Comedies. Forgetting Sarah Marshall was the best comedy I've seen all year in theaters. Every other comedy was just not that funny.
2. No concerts. There was once concert I wanted to see this summer, (Raconteurs) but I ended up not going.

That's all I can think of really. So I was going to quite Kohl's today, but I didn't really. I told them I couldn't do adset anymore, and I told them I could only work three days a week. I told them if they could use me those three days then I'll work those three days. The ball's in their court. There were several reasons that I didn't outright quit Kohl's the most important being that I like having money. I'll be working about 20 hours a week at Wal-mart and it would be nice to have a bit more money floating my way.

So that's all for now. I'll probably post about how much I hate/love my classes sometime later this week.

Better than Wall-E.

That's my review of Clone Wars, which is not a bad movie at all. Wall-E on the other hand... don't get me started on that piece of excrement (I have never, nor will I ever see Wall-E). Clone Wars wasn't perfect, the dialogue wasn't great, but the action was good and the plot wasn't terrible. Anakin is a completely different character than he is in either of the movies, which is ok with me, because I'll sacrifice continuity for not having a terrible, terrible performance any day of the week. My biggest problem with the movie was the overabundance with nicknames. I noticed that nicknames are a device used by writers to demonstrate characters familiarity with one another. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't work in Clone Wars. The little girl jedi appears onscreen and within 2 minutes she's already assigning people nicknames. Bad, unoriginal nicknames (Anakin, her Jedi master, whom she is supposed to obey implicitly and respect totally, becomes "Sky Guy").

On the plus side there are some actually funny moments in the movie, not a lot, but I did laugh out loud a couple of times. Also on the plus side is a character named Ziro the Hutt. I don't really want to say too much about him, but he's pretty awesome. Here's how I imagine the genesis of his character came about:

Clone Wars Writer1: I bet you can't make a character gayer then C-3PO.
Clone Wars Writer 2: Watch me.

Anyway... it's a decent film and it gives me hope that the TV show will be tolerable... they should let me write it.


In other news: There is no other news. All I do is sleep, eat and work. I'm going to do one of those things right now (hint: it's something I do with my eyes closed and not while I'm awake).

The Geekiest thing I've ever said

Brad Bohannon called me Friday afternoon. He had an extra ticket to the Cardinal's game and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him. I told him that I couldn't because I was DMing a session of Dungeons and Dragons that night. If Joe knew about this and was dead, he would be rolling around in his grave.

Speaking of DND *here begins the DnD rant, you've been warned*

It went pretty well I think. It took a little less than three hours, and we covered everything I had planned, storywise at least. The combat didn't really go as well as I would have liked. Especially the second encounter, when Jonathan destroyed pretty much all of the opponents in one attack. But I determined that I don't really like running combat. It's a lot to remember and a lot to coordinate. I do very much like the non-combat aspects of DMing though.

I think the biggest difference between me and Matthew when it comes to DMing is that I tend to see the role as more of a narrator, moving the plot forward and directing the action, and Matthew sees the role as more as a fascilitator ( I don't think that's how that word is spelled), he sort of allows us to do whatever we want and gives us hints every once in a while. Maybe as I get a little more experienced as a DM, I'll feel more comfortable letting the characters wander for a bit, but for this session I had a very clear idea of what needed to get accomplished and I wanted to make sure everything that needed to happen for the story happened. I'm pretty excited about what's in store for the next few sessions, it should be fun. I just need to get better at running combat.

*End DnD Rant*

News Shorts:

1. I'm thinking about re-reading book 7 (Harry Potter). I never re-read book 5 last summer when I was re-reading the whole series, I've tried to pick it up this summer, but it hasn't took. Anyway, that's something I'm considering.

2. The Bank Job is a pretty decent movie. The actual bank robbery part of the movie wasn't very good but the subsequent parts were pretty decent.

3. I read the Wanted graphic novel. I don't know what the movie was about, but I don't think it was about what the comic was about. I still kind of want to see it though.

4. Walmart is still pretty fun. I think we're going to be in the warehouse all the time from now on, which kind of blows because:
a. The warehouse isn't as fun as working at the store because
i. there are only the four of us there (as opposed to the 20 of us that work at the store)
ii. the work at the warehouse is kind of tedious
iii. the warehouse isn't airconditioned (which isn't a big deal for me because I'm a solja)
b. I don't get to hang out with Spants on my breaks
Working at the warehouse is kind of ok because
a. I can ride my bike to work (yeah right)
b. I can go home for lunch (or bring my lunch for that matter)
c. it's more convenient to go to lunch with any of my Cape friends (pretty much all of my friends)

5. I've been watching a lot of Spaced lately. It's so good, with 1.5 exceptions. (episode 2.1 and Daisy's story arch in the Battle Bots episode). Edgar Wright is kind of my hero.

THAT IS ALL.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good:
Dark Knight isn't as good upon the second viewing! Why is this a good thing? Because it means there's room for improvement. Don't get me wrong, Dark Knight is still an amazing movie, but it has problems and almost all of them are either Batman or logic related. The good parts of the movie are still good. The Joker continues to be the most interesting film character since Jack Sparrow, the action is still loads better than Batman Begins, etc. etc. But there are a few times where the viewers disbelief is suspended to nearly the breaking point (cell phone, bullet building/fingerprint finding computer, Batman's miraculous immunity to falling off buildings). I could go into more detail, but the chances are that if you see me in person, I'll will probably list all the flaws of the Dark Knight without you asking me to.

The Bad:
Step Brothers is bad. It was a lazy movie. There was pretty much no plot to speak of (which isn't inherently a bad thing in my book). It was pretty much a riff-fest, with a point the camera at the funny style of shooting. This film did no one any favors.

The Ugly:
They showed this preview before Step Brothers.

Pushing Daisies Update

Ok, so last night I put Pushing Daisies on my list of three things that are awesome. I just watched the second episode and am a little unsure of my prior pronouncement.

Problem 1: Chi McBride. He played the tough as nails principle on Boston Common (and on an episode of Boston Legal). He played the tough as nails millionaire benefactor on the first season of House. And he's playing the tough as nails private investigator on Pushing Daisies. Anyway, it doesn't really matter who he is playing, I don't really like him. I know I'm being a little hard on him, as I've only seen him in two episodes, but I don't really see him being much different from the characters I have seen him play historically. I don't really see him doing anything interesting with the character.

Problem 2: The show appears to be a murder mystery show. But the mysteries so far have been of Monk-like caliber where you more or less have them figured out by the time they introduce the first suspect. Again, I've only seen two episodes, but I kind of have a feeling that this is going to be representative for the rest of the series because I'm kind of a genius.

I'm going to watch the third episode before I go on. Wait a second.

Ok I watched the third episode, and it's not that the mysteries themselves are dumb (the one in the second episode was though) it's that they wrap them up in sort of lame flashbacks.

Problem 3: Everything and everyone in the show is a little too adorable.

The show is like Murder She Wrote if it was directed by Tim Burton, but not Sleepy Hollow Tim Burton, Big Fish Tim Burton (which isn't really a good comparison, because Big Fish Tim Burton has only made one movie, Big Fish, whereas Sleepy Hollow Tim Burton is responsible for every other movie in Tim Burton's career). The point is I can't really figure this show out. It's quirky, but without rules to it's quirkyness. Wonderfalls was quirky, but it had rules. Pushing Daisies doesn't have a lot of hard and fast rules, except for the three that have been stated at the beginning of every episode so far (one touch brings them back, a second touch kills them again, and if something is brought back for more than a minute something else has to die). Other than that... not so much. It's a world where a body that bad been dead in the ocean for a while, suffered little to no sign of decomposition, then it goes to a mortuary and isn't preserved in any way noticeable, because when the love interest is brought back from the dead, she shows no signs of being worse for wear, she doesn't complain of having all of her organs sucked out. I mean, I understand that would sort of make it a bit more disgusting for her and the main character to have a physical relationship, but they never even address these points in the show.

All the dialogue on the show is quick and witty, but the stories for the murder mystery parts of the show seem kind of forced and dumb. Aesthetically the show seems to be geared toward women, but then every female character wears extremely low cut shirts (which, I assume, is for the male viewers). I guess it's a case of trying to be everything for everyone. Overall I like the show, but it perplexes me.

I just read that the girl who plays Chuck on the show is David Thewlis's (Professer RJ Lupin) ladyfriend. Way to go Mr. Thewlis. Anyway, I'm going to bed because I'm tired and it's past my bed time.

Three Things that Are Awesome

1. The Dark Knight. Believe the hype. This is the best movie I've seen all year. It is an intense and exhausting movie, but well worth it. It isn't a perfect film, but it's not far from it. As with Batman Begins, Christian Bale's Batman is the weakest part of the film. The way he speaks as Batman is just ridiculous. His delivery makes some pretty good dialogue seem laughable. There is also some gadget nonsense that is really unnecessary (the cell phone thing, if you've seen it). The movie would've been just fine without that, I don't know why they put it in their. But yeah. The Dark Knight is what a Batman movie should be.

2. Walcott by Vampire Weekend. I've been listening to this album a lot lately. Mostly just this song actually, but the whole album is pretty good. Really.

3. Pushing Daisies. I've only seen the first episode, so I might be jumping the gun a bit by declaring it awesome. But I really like the first episode and I needed a third thing for my "three things that are awesome post". I suppose I could have included "My Custom Van" by Michael Ian Black, but I'm still not sure about that one yet.

Anyway there's your update on things that are awesome. Deal with it.

Batman ate my neighbors

Dark Knight opens tomorrow. I have every reason to believe it will be as good as it should be. Bob said that it's 2 and a half hours long, which is nice. There are supposed to be trailers for Harry Potter and The Watchmen in front of it. I saw the Watchmen trailer. It concerned me, but only a little.

In other news Hellboy 2 was not a good movie. Hellboy is a good movie. Believe it.

So I'm off this weekend. I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but it's nice to have to not have plans.

Also I finished the script for the short film I'm working on, but I think I decided it will be a three part film, so... yeah. That'll be fun to write.

Anyway, I'm hella tired and partly distracted by Batman Begins, so I'm going to end this post now.

A Post about Dogs.

My dog Buster died Monday at about 1 in the morning. His kidneys had been failing and he had developed a heart murmur. He had been deteriorating pretty quickly these past couple of weeks, and late Sunday night he got to the point where he was in a lot of discomfort. My mom's friend Karen, who is a veterinarian, came over and administered something to help with the pain and he died not long after.
It's been fairly well documented that I get pretty emotional about the death of pets, and Buster's passing was particularly hard for me. Buster was a very misunderstood dog, and it was pretty much all Geoff Seyer's fault. A couple of days after my mom brought Buster home from the humane society I had a few friends over, and as they were coming in the house Buster was getting pretty excited, he was barking playfully and scampering around my friends as they came in. Then Geoff came in and responding to Buster's barking by kicking at him and making his own barking kind of noises, not maliciously, he wasn't actually trying to kick Buster, regardless, ever since that day Buster treated all people that came into the house as enemy combatants (with a few exceptions).

On Thursday my mom brought a puppy from the humane society. His name is Tobias (Toby).
He's the one that's not a shoe.

My Keyboard is on the Fritz

The $3 keyboard I bought with my computer 6 years ago quit working last week, so I am using the old keyboard from my mothers keyboard. It will not let me type apostrophes or quotation marks, so you will have to deal with my incorrect spellings and punctuations.

We played DnD tonight. It was fun. I rolled a Warlock and kicked major quantities of rat and zombie ass. At first I was a little worried that the guys were not going to take it serious enough, but once we started combat it was all business, the business of blowing up rat swarms.

On another note, Katy Segal almost single handedly ruins the fourth season of Futurama, by being involved in it.

Um... not much else to report.

Update!

Sorry it's been a while blog, I've been busy.

Busy doing what?

Working mostly. I started working for (but not at) the Jackson Walmart 2 weeks ago. I work in a warehouse. It is a lot more fun than I thought it'd be. I get to drive a forklift occasionally, which is a lot of fun. Kohl's is not so fun. They don't schedule us much, and it takes us a lot longer than it should to get done with adset.

Other things that happened since last I posted:

I spent last weekend in St. Louis, hanging out with Pete and Steve on their birthday and going to the City Museum (which is the coolest thing ever).

Terrence is home from Iraq (which is a good place to be home from).

I bought a pair of new shoes.

Blizzard announced Diablo 3.

I watched Life Aquatic several more times.

Pretty boring actually. Hopefully I'll have some more interesting posts later this week, but I kind of doubt it. Anyway, I think I'm going down to Brad's.

Happy Birthday, Matt B, by the way.

Not Particularly Bloggy.

I watched Rushmore last night. It's such an amazing movie. It has inspired me to do two things. Write down my idea for a shortfilm and make a list of some of my favorite uses of pop music in movies. The former is pretty much for my eyes only, but the latter will be today's blog post, so without further ado:

Matt Essner's Top Five Pop Music in Movie Moments:

First I feel like I must explain what I mean by "Pop Music in Movie Moments". What I mean is this, scenes in movies that are underscored by pop music instead of music composed for the movie. So although the appearence of the Executor accompanied by the Imperial March is an amazing bit of music and film, it doesn't count because it was composed for the film. This list will represent what I think to the finest marriages pop music and filmaking (at least as many as I can remember).

1. Rushmore Finale
This is what inspired me to make. Although there are some great musical moments in this movie (and pretty much all of Wes Anderson's movies) this one tops the list. It is a great ending to a great film.

2. A Knight's Tale: Golden Years
This movie is awesome and if you don't like it (like the movie or like the fact that it is an awesome movie) you deserve to go to prison. The same prison where all the people that shout "FREE BIRD" at concerts deserve to go. The kind of prison where they show reruns of Friends all day every day. Anyway this scene is great because of the way it seamlessly blends the chamber music into a David Bowie song. The best part is at about 1:46, when you hear Mr. Bowie sing "Angel". It's at that point you know that some seriously funk rock is about to be dropped on this here madrigal society.

3. Donnie Darko: Head Over Heels
I don't think this movie is as good as I remember it being when I watched the summer after my senior year of high school, but this scene still does it for me. The first shot of the school bus is still pretty cool. Also the in frame camera speed changes are pretty nifty, even though they've been done to death at this point (300, anyone?). Also Tears for Fears rocks your mom's face. My favorite part is when the girls are doing the celebration after they finish their dance and they're all trying to high five and miss and be like "this is totally normal, we are very self congratulatory people"

4. American Beauty: Baba O'Reilly
This one is kind of cheating but I'm going to allow it because I'm running out of ideas. This is technically the trailer, but it's still pretty awesome use of music. There's actually some pretty good songs elsewhere in the film, like the cover of "Because" at the end.

5. Big Fish: Let's Work Together
I couldn't find a clip of this one, but you'll just have to believe that if I had it would be pretty much just as awesome as the video I did link. It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but as I remember it Ewan MacGregor's character, Edward Bloom, is at a bank and he notices the man in front of him, Steve Buscemi playing himself, is an old friend of his. They start up a conversation then when Steve gets to the front of the line he pulls out a gun and robs the bank. Steve and Edward high tail it out of their in Ed's suped up Camero. The cops give chase and they end up evading them till dusk, at which point a full moon comes out and Steve Buscemi and all the cops turn into werewolves and fight a bloody, lupine battle all over the state of New Mexico. Ewan MacGregor enters the fray only when it looks like the cops might get the upper hand. He pulls out his silver broadsword and goes to town on the werewolf cops like a wombat (I'm not going to qualify this simile). Anyway, at some point during all that Canned Heat's "Let's Work Together" plays and it's pretty nifty.

This list is in no way exhaustive nor is it necessarily in any sort of order as far as quality goes. It seems like there should probably be something from a Scorcese movie on here (probably Goodfellas) , but there isn't. That's mostly my fault, but I think Marty is not without some blame blame. I could've also put about 10 more Wes Anderson scenes on here, but I didn't because I'm too lazy. You'll also notice a complete lack of scenes from Almost Famous. In your face Cameron Crowe. Even though I love the movie, it's a bit pretentious at times and it was trying a bit too hard at times to get on this list, especially the "Tiny Dancer" scene. The same goes for School of Rock (although I don't really love that movie).

Honorable mention goes to:
1. Shanghai Noon: The training montage that uses the Kid Rock song. (Kept off the list for obvious, Kid Rock related reason)
2. The entire movie Stranger than Fiction (Even though the soundtrack is pretty much all Spoon songs, I think some of them might have been written for the movie, or maybe not, either way no dice Stranger than Fiction)
3. Any movie before the 1998. Nice try older movies, but I couldn't remember any of you when I was making this list.

So yeah. That was fun.

Sunday and Sunburns

I was outside a lot yesterday. My arms are hella sunburned. Dig it.

I finally caught up with QC. It's only taken me like 2 months to do it. I was reading the archives, I hit next comic, and then nothing happened. It took me a second to realize that there wasn't a next comic yet.

NAP UPDATE: Sunday June 8.

I have taken 2 naps today. I woke up at 7 this morning to practice for this week (I have to be at Wal-mart at 7am Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week). I went to mass at 7:30, bought some donuts, then when I came home I didn't really have anything to do. So I took a little nap. I woke up, ate some lunch. Read for a while, then took another nap. Naps= awesome.

I saw Kung Fu Panda last night. It was incredibly unspectacular. It wasn't a bad movie. There was nothing wrong with it. The fight scenes were actually pretty awesome. There just wasn't anything else particularly good about the movie. It wasn't very funny. The "five masters" that are all over the previews aren't really in the movie much (I'm pretty sure they could have just gotten all of Jackie Chan's dialogue from other movies, he had like five lines and they were pretty generic). The thing about the movie that impressed me the most was a complete lack of fart jokes, which, it seems like are mandatory for all non Disney/Pixar animated films, and which are my least favorite brand of bodily function humor (my favorite type is vomit; see Mafia and Team America).

I'm going to try to get off work on Thursday to go see the Raconteurs. We'll see how that goes. We're supposed to ask off weeks in advance at Kohls, but the way I see it is since when people take off on adset they don't schedule people to work for them, the result would be the same if I asked off tomorrow as if I had asked off a month ago. Besides we have three new people now, so if I'm off we're still up 2 compared to the last month or so. Although Crystal's probably off on Thursday too, because she doesn't work Thursdays, Wednesdays, some Saturdays, an occasional Monday, and every other Friday.

Anyway, I'm going to try to convince myself to go for a bikeride.

Bottle Rocket and other things

I saw Bottle Rocket last night. It is definitely my least favorite Wes Anderson movie, and I'm going to go ahead and say it's his worst film. It is amazing how much better Rushmore is than Bottle Rocket. It's also amazing that James Caan is in Bottle Rocket, and how unsuited to a Wes Anderson movie he is.

So I called Brian to talk about the 48 hour film festival yesterday and he told me that we are on the waiting list to be in the festival. He doesn't really know what the means, but he doesn't think we're going to get in, which kind of blows.

In other sleep related news, I'm kind of tired.

Plan for today:
Go to Library
Go to interview at Target (probably not take the job if they offer me one, unless it's ridiculously good)
Eat lunch
Come home
Nap/run
Read
Eat
Work
Come home
Sleep

So.... TO THE LIBRARY!

Been a long time

It's been a while since I've posted. I blame the government. Actually I blame work, cause I've been doing a lot of that lately. Sort of. Anyway, it looks like I'm going to get a job at Wal-mart (pending a drug test). It'll be about 40 hours a week, which I like, but it's not permanent, which I'm not too thrilled about, but the guy who interviewed me, this really cool guy named Tim, said that if I work hard etc, when a permanent job opens up I have a better chance of getting it as a temp employee than a non employee. So yeah. New job and new DVD player that's two things off the list.

Sorry, this is going to be a short post. I've got to got work on number 5 on the list, followed by some number 6, and maybe a little 8 later this afternoon. (7 is pretty much a given. It's going to happen at some point, whether I want it to or not).

I heart Liz Lemon

Thirty Rock is the best show on television. The American Office is ok too.
The finale (of the Office) was pretty good. It wasn't a cliff hanger in any way. It made me not hate Kevin as much (i hate Kevin by the way).

Highlights from Prince Caspian:

Peter: We're back in Narnia, but everything is different.
Lucy: We've already lived at least one lifetime, but I'm still precocious and no one ever listens to me!
Susan: Look, some grownups in a boat, and one of them's holding a dwarf! Let's murder them!
Dwarf: Thanks for saving me.
Peter: No problem. That's what kings and queens of Narnia do.
Dwarf: You're not kings and queens of Narnia.
Peter: Oh yeah? Well fight my brother, then we'll see who's a king of Narnia.
Edmund: Grrr!

Centaur: Welcome Kings and Queens of Narnia. It is time for you to meet the army we have assembled, but first you must RUN THE CENTAUR GAUNTLET!!!

Aslan: So it turns out all you bad guys are all from Sicily, if you walk through this tree vagina you can go back to Italy.
*no one comes forward*
General: Well I guess I'll go.
Aslan: Cool, since you decided to go first, you'll have a good life back in Sicily. The rest of you poor bastards won't be so lucky.


I didn't like the movie, if you can't tell. It kind of sucked.

My birthday was fun. I got a DVD player, so that's one thing off my list of things to do this summer. I also got the third season of House from Josh, which is pretty awesome (even if David Morse's story arc goes on for WAY too long. It does have Patrick Fugit in it, which is nice)

Also I work 4 days this week, which is pretty cool. It's some hours. I need hours.

Let's see... what else.... Um today I was a really useful person... for about three hours. I stopped being useful about 1. Tomorrow will be better though. I think. Anyway, I'm going to go to sleep and read some Ultimates comics (probably not in that order, but we'll see).

Quick one

I'm about to watch the season finale of the Office. I don't know what's going to happen but about 7 months ago I predicted that Jim was going to be leaving Dunder Mifflin by the end of the season. I still think that's a possibility. Obviously if Jim leaves, Pam is going to leave, and the last episode I watched pretty much said explicitly Pam is going to leave Dunder Mifflin. So yeah. Here I go.

Movies, The Office, Work and Summer Class? (Not necessarily in that order)

I saw Iron Man again today, it's still good. Forgetting Sara Marshall is good, Speed Racer is good. I'm going to go see Prince Caspian tomorrow, I hope it is good. (this paragraph brought to you by "Good": It's not comparative. It's not superlative. It's just good.)

I got a call yesterday morning from the communication department asking me if I still wanted to take a summer section of Comm Law. I said yes, so I'm taking that this summer and by this summer, I mean for the next four weeks. I have my first test tomorrow (technically I could take the test today, but I'm not going to because I'm not prepared, I've read the first of three chapters. It's pretty dense) Anyway this class is going to be crazy. Four weeks is not a lot of time for a class (it's an online class. I think I forgot to mention that).

So last night I worked till 2:30ish, I had today off and tomorrow I have to be at work at 6am for truck. Here's the problem with that. Since I worked so late last night,I slept till 11 this morning.To not be hella tired tomorrow I need to go to sleep by 11 at the latest (this didn't happen. It never happens). Working ad-set and truck completely sucks because it is hard to get a consistent sleeping pattern. Anyway, I work till 1 tomorrow and I have to take that test before midnight tomorrow, which shouldn't be a problem, but I need to make sure I have enough time to get through chapters 2 and 3.

Commence Office Talk:
For whatever reason I got back into the American Office (because I like the American Office and the season is almost over). I hadn't seen any episodes since they've been back from the writers strike
so I decided that I would catch up. So tonight I watched episodes 10 and 11 (9 wouldn't download but I saw part of it when it aired. I lied about not seeing any episodes since the strike). 10 wasn't great, there were a couple of sort of funny moments. It featured Kevin pretty prominently, which is something I don't really like in my episodes of the Office. It introduced some other members of the Scranton Business Park. Andy had some cartoon moments. All in all a pretty mediocre episode all around (except for Dwight, who continues to be the greatest person on television right....now). So on the original Office scale of goodness (which is a system I just now devised) I rate this episode a Big Keith.
This might seem like high praise, considering how funny Keith can be, but remember, the majority of the time, he is just kind of there. Plus when you think about every other member of the original British cast (except Dawn) everyone's awesome, so he's probably somewhere in the middle as far as awesomeness goes.

Episode 11:
This episode got a lot of work done plotwise that I assume would've taken place over several episodes if this season wasn't so short, but then again taking into account the American Office's complete lack of subtlety,probably not. It turns out Ryan is a coke-head and Jim and Pam are falling out of favor with the rest of the Office folk (which will factor in next season when they both leave the show to be on that Office Spin-off we've been hearing so nothing about). Dwight is still awesome. Michael is still really lame.
This episode gets a Roland.Whatever that means.

SLEEP!

End of the semester wrap-up

As of like 7:15 yesterday evening, I'm done with school for the Spring 2008 semester. This semester I made my first narrative shortfilm, my first real documentary, and my first "commercial". I'm pretty pleased with how all the projects turned out. I'm pretty sure I got all A's this semester... well I know I got A's in three of my classes, I don't know about my creative writing class yet, but I'm pretty sure I kicked its ass.

Goals for the summer:
1. Get another job (we've seen this one before)
2. Save money to pay for school in the fall (this one is more a corollary part 1)
3. Get a DVD player
4. Become a better guitar player (we've seen this one too!)
5. Run or Bike everyday or almost everyday
6. Eat better.
7. Sleep more.
8. Read books.
9. Punctuate more consistently


So Brian M called me tonight and he was like, "you want to do the 48 hour film festival?" And I was like, "Why the hell not?"
So Me, Brian, Shank, Nate and Rob D are probably going to do this film festival thing. The only problem I see with this group is that there is no defacto leader. We're all pretty much alpha dogs, lone wolves, tough as shit renegades who don't give a damn about anyone but ourselves. Not really though. I think Shank will probably end up directing. He has the most experience, we'll probably be using his camera and he fronted the money for the entry fee. Brian or I will write the script because we'll be the ones that complain the loudest if we don't get to. And everyone will probably act and be in the crew. It should be pretty exciting.

Also, in the good news category: I got a call from Pete Wiss the other day, and both he Steve have teaching jobs lined up for next fall (although Steven is still entertaining other offers), which is totally awesome. They finished college in 4 years and already have jobs, what a bunch of grown-ups. Speaking of grown-ups, Droib bought a house. It's true, I've seen it. It's pretty spiffy, except for the fact that it's in JACKSON!

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now.

Almost done with school!

Finals week is upon us. I had two finals, they were both one Monday. I got a 92 on one, I'll find out about the other one when I go talk to Jones tomorrow. I got my portfolio turned in today. Now all I have left is the documentary.

Oh, the Auteur film turned out really well. I had to reshoot everything I shot last Sunday, this Sunday because the audio was no good last Sunday. But the reshoot turned out really good, and the edit is pretty good too. It took all of my Monday to do. It was my first marathon Avid session. I'm sure there will be many more to come.

Also this song has been stuck in my head for the better part of a day. The first 20 seconds or so comprises the best intro in all of pop music (the rest is pretty good too). The video is pretty much amazing. With two semesters of film production classes under my belt, I could probably make something as good. It's pretty satisfying to know that even with thirty plus years of advances in video production technology, I'm still only about as good as a music video director circa 1977.

I need new shoes.

Good News and Bad News

Good News: My team won the trivia night at the UC on Thursday (it was about movies... yeah)
Bad News: My team lost the softball championship on Thursday (by the mercy rule in the 5th inning)

Good News: My documentary filming went really well today.
Bad News: My auteur project did not go well on Wednesday.

Skip this part if you don't like whining, or you just don't like my whining.

(And now I will interrupt the my "good news/bad news formula" for a little bit of rationalization/ranting/explanation {their's probably a better way to describe it but I've only had about 12 hours of sleep in the past two days, which is normal to some people, but I need at least 8 hours per night to function, usually nine though, so anyway, I'm not firing on all cylinders}

The big project for film history class this semester is a short film done in the style of an auteur. I've been looking forward to this project all semester, because my group (heavily influenced by me) picked Edgar Wright. Against my better, but well meaning, judgment I let Robert and Rob have creative control (which basically means, I let them submit ideas to me until they had one I didn't hate, I am such a dick). I let Rob write the script, I let Robert direct (again, here, my language here is demonstrating how much of a dick I am, as if in this group project, where we all have equal parts, I have the power to grant people the privilege {it took me one minute to spell that word correctly} of doing things that they want to do), I just sat back and shot down their ideas until they had one I liked.
My reasoning for letting them have creative control was that I had already the chance to write and direct a short film this semester, I got to write and direct one of the class project films in MC 352. I figured they would want the chance to do it. So anyway, I was just going to be the camera operator for the shoot and help with finding shots and maybe some blocking or something. The script Rob wrote was funny, but it wasn't an Edgar Wright script. I figured that would be ok; if we just focused on Edgar Wright's camera technique, we could still make it in his style. Long story short (and in this case, I'm not just using a cliche', we spent about 3.5 hours of our lives trying to make this movie) we shot the movie on Wednesday, it did not go well, it was by far the worst experience I've had making a movie since I started this major (an incredible 8 months ago).
I said I was going to edit it on Thursday, but I couldn't. I just couldn't make what we filmed into an Edgar Wright movie. I certainly couldn't make it into something I would be proud to show to other people (let along my fellow film majors). So Thursday I wrote a new script, a pretty good script if I do say so myself, and I told my group members that I was going to make a new auteur project movie. They were surprisingly ok with it (we're still on friendly...I think) and I was going to shoot it Friday and Sunday (since I already signed up to have a camera for shooting the documentary this weekend). I didn't get the camera till 5 on Friday (instead of 1, which is a long, obscenity-ridden story), and since my whole movie is shot out side, I had lost a lot of my daylight (also it just started raining when I got my camera).
Fortunately I was able to get some filming done on Friday, but I still have more than have of it to shoot tomorrow. Which leads me to (and you thought I'd forgotten about I)

End of Whining. Just kidding, there's more after this, but it's in small bite-size chunks.

Bad News: It's supposed to rain all afternoon tomorrow
Bad News: Spants (one of the two stars) told me that he was feeling sick tonight, and might be sick tomorrow
Bad News: Most of the people I was counting on as extras can't help tomorrow (which is all my fault, not theirs. For some reason, recently, Sundays have become the worst day for getting people to do stuff. Everyone {but me, apparently} is very busy on Sunday and can't play frisbee, or stickball, or be in my movie)

I can rewrite the scene, and film it so the extras thing isn't as much of a problem. There's nothing I can do about the Spaeth thing. He was going to bed early. A good night sleep always does wonders for me. The rain thing though. That's problematic. I was going to shoot the whole thing outside, at Grandma Essner's. If it's raining, that can't happen. So I need to find somewhere I can shoot inside. There's one place I can think of, but it's a bit of a stretch. First I don't have permission to shoot there, I could get it, but there's no reason to think that I would. Second I would have to do a lot of set dressing. Set dressing that I wouldn't have had to do at all if it didn't rain. Set dressing that I'm not prepared in any way to do. Also there would probably have to be some lighting. I don't have lights. I was supposed to film everything outside, where I don't need lights. I suppose I could get lights... but yeah... permission to film there. That's the thing. This is probably the longest post I've ever written. Even the hardest of the hardcore Matt Essner blog readers (I know you're out there somewhere {It also has the most parantheticals I've ever used too}) will have trouble getting though it all in one sitting, so I guess I should probably end it now befor

Some more Blagging

I have mixed feelings on whether or not today was a good or bad day. Regardless of its goodness or badness here is some shameless self-promotion (is there any other kind?)

We had a test in MC 352 today. I pretty much kicked it's ass, at least I think I did. Normally that kind of post-test confidence is a sure sign of failure (in my case anyway, mostly because of the "Rule of Irony", which is the most powerful guiding principle in my life), but there were only two or three questions that I wasn't one hundred percent sure about the answer.

Also I played on Brian's intermural softball team again tonight (I played once before, mediocrely). I played third base, which is fortunately the easiest position in the infield (at least in slow pitch softball, as most of these guys don't pull the ball much; Shortstop on the other hand is the danger zone), the ball was hit to me twice, one time I threw the guy out at second, the second time it just sort of rolled past me into left field. So defensively, not a great night, but not bad. On offense though, I was 6 for 6. Maybe 7 for 7. I don't even remember. Either way, my batting average for tonight was 1.00. I saw 7 (or 8) pitches and I sent 6(or 7) of them right up the gap in center field. Unfortunately every one of those hits was a single, and most of the time it was with no one on.

Actually, I think I only got one RBI, but it was a pretty important one: bottom of the seventh, two men on, tie ballgame, 2 outs. I belt one right over the shortstop into center and score the man on second, we win the game. It was pretty spectacular if I say so myself. I'm supposed to play in the championship game tomorrow night (this was the semi-final game) at 10:15. I have work the next day at 6am. Yikes.

Anyway, sorry for being so self indulgent, I'm sure the next post will be more self deprecating and misanthropic.

The title of this post is a tautology.

It really isn't though.

Walmart Bread is Delicious (not only was that the original title to this post, but it is an entirely true statement).

I'm getting tired of work. I don't like these long gaps between days that I work. For one thing, it means I get paid less because I work fewer days, but the lack of consistency is kind of annoying. Plus I don't really like working so late. I don't like work being the last thing I do on a day.

I read the first Hellboy trade. It's pretty super. Hellboy is a good comicbook.

Sorry this post is so boring, gang. I guess I could talk about sleep...

Here's an interesting fact. Sunday Night I was asleep by 10pm. I woke up on Monday at 8am. That's 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Way to go Matt.

Essner's Blog: Sleeping :: Matthew's Blog: KoL
(although I sleep more than I write about sleeping, I think Matthew writes about KoL more than he plays it. So it's not a perfect analogy)

Ok I'm going to eat some Mac and Cheese and read crappy poetry, then go to class then go to work!

Rudy's funeral

My great great uncle Rudy's funeral was yesterday. As far as funerals go, it was pretty good. I sang in the choir with some of my aunts and uncles and their cousins. Rudy and his wife, Bernice, never had any children, but they had a lot of nieces and nephews, and were very much a part of their lives.

Bernice is my grandma's aunt (although she's only about 7 year older than my grandma), she's the youngest daughter or my great great grandma and grandpa Burger, her brother was my great grandfather.

Bernice was married to Rudy for almost 66 years, which is approximately three times as many
years as I've been born. That's pretty amazing to me.

Anyway, when I was young enough to go trick or treating on Halloween, Bob and I would go trick or treating in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, where Rudy and Bernice live. So when we finished trick or treating, that's where we would end up. Rudy would always give me a lot more candy than I needed, especially since at that point in the evening I already had a pretty full bag of the stuff. While we waited for my mom to pick us up I would talk to Rudy and Bernice, pretty much nonstop (I was much more talkative as a youngster than I am now). I would babble on incessantly, not really saying anything and Rudy and Bernice would just listen and give me more candy. They seemed to genuinely interested in what I was saying (which was odd, because few other adults did, or should've from what I remember). When I got older I stopped trick or treating, but I'd try to go visit Rudy and Bernice on Halloween. Those Halloween nights still stick out in my mind as some of the best times I've ever had, and Rudy and Bernice had a lot to do with that. I think that probably has something to do with why Halloween is my favorite holiday. Halloween pretty much represents the best things about my childhood, maybe childhood in general, which I guess why I always try to make Halloween a big deal now.

Just in case you were wondering, Catholic funerals are about a quadrillion times better than Protestant funerals.

Also, I wasn't joking when I said Carolina Drama by the Raconteurs is the best track I've heard in the past two years.

My First Untitled Post

Have you heard the new Raconteurs album? It's pretty f*ing amazing. The last track is pretty much the best thing I've heard in the last year or so. They're coming to the Pageant sometime in June. June is also when the 48 hour film festival is. There is some talk of doing that. I would like to participate in both of those activities, but they both require money. I don't have money. I need another job. The Raconteurs tickets are $40. It's a bit more than most concerts I go to, but it's Jack White for Christ sake. The Wilco tickets were thirtyish. They're playing three shows in St. Louis May 15, 16 and 17. They are all sold out. Curse my slow metal body (that's supposed to be a Star Wars quote, but I don't really remember exactly what 3Po says. It's something like that, though, I assure you).

I have to go to bed now, because I need to wake up in 6 hours or so.

Night!

Posting twice in one week? What is this 2006?

Thing 1:
Monk is a terrible, terrible show. I borrowed the third season of it from Jonathon (I know he legally changed his name to Jonathan, but I think he should have kept it the other way) and have watched two episodes. They were both atrocious. The writing was sub Diagnosis Murder. The acting is questionable (other than Tony Shaloub and Ted Levine, although they are beleaguered by terrible plot/dialogue) and Monk is a really inconsistent character. Monk is a man with a crippling mental illness, he has difficulty doing things for himself. He has OCD and a bunch of phobias, but these really only manifest themselves when it's comedically expedient (although occasionally amusing, but frequently not, these bits don't really play with me because of their inconsistency with the rest of the character). Also the fact that Monk has pretty much any phobia the writers care to write about is a bit too convenient. I'm going to continue to watch it because it gives me something to hate and also it apparently gets better after the annoying sidekick girl leaves.

Thing 2:
I don't know why, but I have been reading a crazy amount of webcomics lately. Currently I'm reading one called Questionable Content. It's pretty darn (and by darn I mean damn) good, especially for being updated almost daily. I'm on strip 240 something of 1100 something, so it'll probably be a while before I'm caught up. But just to clue you in to how awesome the strip is, the main character has a poster of the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on his bedroom wall.

Thing 3:
I have done nothing this week. I have a lot of stuff I need to do, but I haven't done any of it. Here are some things I need to do in the three (Three? Really?) weeks before school ends.

1. Read the 10 articles for my literature review, which hopefully won't be as boring as I thought it was going to be, and of course, write said review. (End of April sometime)
2. Film/edit my SE TV student profile (Tomorrow)
3. Figure out what I'm going to do my documentary about, film and edit my documentary (Finals Week)
4. Write, shoot and edit my Edgar Write Auteur project (End of April sometime)
5. Write research paper for Jone's class (Sunday?)
6. Write/shoot/edit/ intro video for film festival that I'm trying to start at SEMO (Two weeks from now?)
7. Script stuff for class project/edit class project (Monday)

I could keep going, but this is a pretty daunting list already.
I was going to write a thing 4, but that list took a lot out of me. Time to read some more QC.

Arkham Horror and other stuff

We played Arkham Horror on Friday. The game lasted over four hours and we ended up losing because we couldn't kill the elder god. It was all kinds of suck (the elder god, not the game. The game was pretty awesome despite the 4 hours of play time). So I've been trying to come up with ways to speed Arkham Horror up. I ran a few past Matthew and the one that he thinks would be the easiest to implement is being able to move if a monster attacks you. Usually if you start your turn with a monster on you, then you can't move for that turn. I think we could do away with that nonsense.

In other more interesting news, I had a dream in which Dennis Hopper was an unstoppable, deadly vampire/zombie and he was trying to kill me.


Brazil is not a fun movie to watch, but Michael Palin is amazing in it. I love Michael Palin. I think it goes without saying that he, and every non-Terry member of Monty Python, are superheroes. Terrys Gilliam and Jones are ok too.


shower.

Old Music

I'm listening to some "old music" right now. There's a lot of music on my computer that I've only listened to a couple of times, or haven't listened to for a couple of years or so. Music that I liked, but not liked enough to add to the random playlist that is the soundtrack of my life. Here's some examples of this "old music": Cake Bake Betty, The Lucksmiths, The Shins (for the most part), Page France, Boy Least Likely To, Danielson, Elliot Smith and the Pixies.

There are also a lot of songs on my computer by bands I never really got into. And when I say "never really got into" I mean haven't listened to, other than the tracks that I knew I like before acquiring the album. I have those albums on here because, someday, I intend to cultivate an appreciation of them. These albums include:"You Forget it In People", "Z", "Flying Club Cup", anything by the New Pornographers.

So on this lazy Thursday afternoon, before I go to work, I'm listening to "old music" and doing little else. This is going to be one of those days when I get home from work tonight and realize that I have done of use to anyone or myself all day. But in the interest of keeping the world abreast with the excitingness that is my life, here is a list of the things I've done today:

1. Woke up (around 9am, I went to bed about 12am)
2. Caught up on neglected webcomics (XKCD, which is amusing, if not funny most of the time, The Perry Bible Fellowship, which is clever if not amusing most of the time, and Penny Arcade, which is Penny Arcade for God's sake)
3. Read an interview with Simon Pegg on Aint it Cool.
4. Showered
5. FINALLY got to level 15 on FlyFF, which allowed me to pick a new job (Assist, apparently. You don't really get to shop around though, which I might talk about in a future post)
6. Watched Empire Strikes Back (Sort of. I was playing FlyFF and napping for parts of it. Which reminds me)
7. Nap (That happened around 1ish. The act of being awake for four hours straight is enough to wear me out)
8. At approximately 2:45 pm, I woke and decided I was hungry. So I ate the solid milk chocolate bunny I received for Easter. I covered it with peanut butter (because I can't really abide things that are chocolate and nothing else) and enjoyed a glass of milk simultaneously.
9. Now I'm blogging and listening to Guster? How did that happen.

Anyway, I need to find something to do that will justify my continued existence on this planet. Perhaps something outdoors? We'll see.

The Last Man

It's Good Friday. Only two more days of Lent. Actually, I think Lent ended last Sunday, because I think Holy Week is technically a different liturgical season, but 2 more days till I can drink Dr. Pepper again. Giving up soda is too easy. I really only craved it on one occasion. I don't really drink a lot of soda anymore anyway.

But that's not what this post is about. This post is about Y the Last Man, the best thing I've read in a long time. Y the Last Man is a comic book series about the last man on earth. His name is Yorrick Brown, and I hope the rumors about Shia LaBoeuf playing him in the movie adaptation are false. The series is great because it never stops being interesting. It has a definite beginning middle and end, and it doesn't waste time with adding needless peril just to extend the story line. Occasionally the book will shift it's focus and spend some time telling the story of a minor character or two, but even then, it's relevant and interesting. It's a great book, and it's a little sad. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried when *SPOILER* Ampersand dies (peacefully, of old age mind you). There's just something about pets dying that makes me sad. I don't really mind when human characters get offed, but I just can't handle pets dying (Hedwig is the exception. I felt no sadness Hedwig was killed. Actually I don't think I was affected by any of the poorly written deaths of any of the characters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, other then Tonks' death. I felt much joy with her passing).

I've pretty much spent all day reading Y the Last Man and listening to Wilco albums, both activities I highly recommend. I also folded clothes and dyed Easter Eggs, but I feel like I need to be more productive, so I'm going to find something useful to do (probably napping).

Rainy Day

I realized at about 10:30 last night that I had nothing left to do that day, so I went to sleep, and I kept sleeping till about nine this morning. I'm pretty awesome like that.
I was going to fill out my fafsa stuff this morning, but that didn't happen. I got a call from my dad saying that my uncle Keith's basement was flooding do to the massive amounts of rain that we have received (it's been raining pretty steadily since 1 or 2 this morning) so I went over there and helped him a little. He doesn't have a lot of stuff in his basement, but we got what he did have out. Then I went over to help my aunt Jane. She lives a few houses down from Keith, and her basement was quite flooded too, unlike Keith, she has a whole lot of stuff in her basement. So we got out what we could and she and Wayne, her husband, took some stuff over to my grandma's house where they and their two daughters, my cousins Abigail and Hanna, will stay for the next night or two.

Arena park is pretty much underwater. The creek has taken over all of the baseball fields. It's almost up to the tennis courts, or at least it was when I was leaving Keith's. I wonder how this will effect Pancake day (which is tomorrow).

Speaking of food, since I've been helping people with water problems since about 10:30 this morning, I haven't eaten anything today. I'm pretty hungry, but since I have class at 6 and work immediately after, I have to wait till at least 5ish to eat anything (Because, since I go from class to work, and don't get off work till 1ish, it'll be pretty late before I have a chance to eat anything).

It's still raining.

Anyway, remind me to post about work sometime.

Some Long Overdue Blagging (Blog Bragging)

Three things I've done Scholastically that I'm proud of:

1. Got a 99/100 on my MC 352 test
2. Got a 147/150 on my MC 353 test
3. My script was one of the ones chosen to produce for my 352 class project

Two things domestically I've done lately that I'm proud of:

1. I rearranged my room. It's not entirely clean yet, but it's rearranged.
2. I cleaned up the back porch, rearranged it and got rid of a bunch of stuff.

I've been on Spring break since Wednesday. It's been nice. I'm still looking for another job.
Kohl's is nice, but I really need more hours.

That's all for now, because I'm watching the Godfather.

Writing Machine

I wrote two scripts today! One for the scene that I have to write for 352 and one for the newsreader in my scene that I have to write for 352. My script is 4 pages long. Two more than it's supposed to be, but it's a fast four pages.

Schedule for this week:

Monday: Craziness.Class, film, class, film/study, test, eat, finish short story, sleep
Tuesday: finish filming, edit, class, work
Wednesday: class, edit, class, work
Thursday: find job
Friday: find job, FISH FRY!!!!
Saturday: marrilacs moveables, find job, Work

I love working at the fish fry, by the way. I just like being around all those people. Not because I like being around a lot of people, but because I know so many of them, or know of them, and it's nice to be useful and it's nice to just buckle down and work.

Here's why I like working at the fish fry, but don't want to work at a restaurant, where I would be doing very similar work to what I do at the fish fry:

At the fish fry people appreciate what I do. I work hard, I don't really take breaks, I'm good finding stuff that needs to be done and doing it. People notice that at the fish fry. If I worked at a restaurant, people wouldn't notice and they wouldn't care, and it would make working at the fish fry not fun, because it would be like work.

I won a trivia night on Thursday, I had help. It wasn't just me. It was Brian from class and some of his friends. We kicked ass.

Goodnight.

Mostly about Travelouges

I had a test today in MC 301. All weekend I was like, "I should study for this test. I should do the study guide. I should really devote some time going over the stuff that's going to be on this test." But I didn't do any of that. Saturday I was a disgrace to humanity. I woke up. Did nothing. Ate lunch. Watched 30 Rock. Took a nap. Went to Fazzoli's with the lads. Went to Walmart to kill time before work. Saw Thomas there. Had a nice conversation with him. Went to work. Actually the last four things weren't all that disgraceful, but the rest of the day I was a useless human being. Sunday was slightly better. I went to Mass, did some homework, helped with lunch, watched some long way down, made some cookies and played some Pharaoh, but no studying. So this morning, I woke up early to get some studying down before class. I got to class half and hour early, studied briefly, and got a 96% on the test. Boo-yeah. I guess the moral of the story is, I'm awesome.

Speaking of Long Way Down, which I did briefly last paragraph, I enjoyed Long Way Down, which is the second travel documentary made by Charlie Boorman and Ewan MacGregor. If you recall, last year I watched Long Way Round, their first documentary. It was the story of Ewan and Charlie riding around the world on Motor cycles. In Long Way Down they ride from Scotland to South Africa on motorcycles. Long Way Round is a much better documentary series then Long Way Down, but that's not because Long Way Down is bad, it's because LWR is so incredibly awesome.

Now I'm going to talk about how I came to love travel documentaries:

Two words; Michael Palin. My mom got my dad the book "Pole to Pole: With Michael Palin" for fathers day or something one year, sometime after I graduated high school. I don't really know why; dad had never seen the series, nor expressed a great love for travel documentaries, nor Michael Palin for that matter (although, I think everyone's love for Michael Palin is the kind of love that needn't be spoken). Anyway he got this book, and it just so happened that they had that series at the library. So we rented and watched the series and it was very interesting. It was the story of Michael Palin traveling with a camera crew from the North Pole to the South Pole. He goes through a big chunk of Russia and through a lot of Africa. One of the most interesting things about that series is that he travels through Russia, and gets out like 2 weeks before communism falls. It's pretty neat to see the last weeks of communism through the eyes of a traveler.
They had another of Michael's travel series called "Hemingway Adventures" at the library. I watched that one too and loved it. Then I discovered that both of these series were sequels to Palin's wildly popular first series, around the world in 80 days, in which he follows Philieus Fogg's path around the globe using mostly the same sort of methods employed by Fogg. He does use cars at some point though I think. Anyway, I downloaded that one and watched it and was amazed. So yeah. I love travel documentaries.

Here is a list of my favorite travel documentaries:

1. Long Way Round
2. Around the World in 80 Days
3. Pole to Pole
4. Long Way Down

Anyway... I'm done being boring for the night... well at least writing boring things. I'm going to bed.
5. Sahara

More Icy Goodness

Hey, it's sleeting again and they closed SEMO again! It doesn't bother me so much this time, because I'm not actually missing class. I actually like class this semester.

Speaking of class: Yesterday in Intermediate Film Production we played with lighting. I hate lighting. I hate trying to set up lights in a shot. It's a crapshoot, it takes a long time, and the effect of multiple lights, although noticeable, becomes less so the more you add, and we had to set up a shot with four lights yesterday (which is about two more than were necessary for the shot, and one more than what's necessary for something called "three point lighting", which is a pretty basic lighting technique). Anyway lighting... yeah.... don't like it.

Job!
I have a job. I've worked one night so far (my second night is tonight). It wasn't too bad. The work isn't hard. It was fun to work with Matthew, although that's not going happen every night. I was just working with him while I was training. But he'll still be there, so that's cool. I really need to find a second job. That is something that needs to happen next week or sooner. I might apply at Food Giant if they are still hiring.

Is Semi-Pro rated R? I think it is, which is exciting. Everyone else in that group has been doing R rated comedies, I'm interested to see how Will Ferrell does without the restrictions of PG-13. It doesn't come out till next week though, so I have one more week to wait.

It's been a couple of months since I heard from Jimmy. I've e-mailed him a couple of times but have gotten no response. I think I might call him this weekend to see what he's up to.

Ok off to bathe.

Valentine's Day Math-acre?

What's up internet? Oh really? I'm sorry to hear that. (I'm pretty sure I've used this joke before)


Anyway. It's Valentine's day, which means absolutely nothing to me, nor should it to any sensible human being.

Were you aware that there was an apocalypse of Ice and Frozen Death earlier this week in Missouri? Because there was. There was a lot of Ice (proper noun) on the ground. It got here on Monday and some of it's still here. It made traveling pretty ridiculous. It made me not have class all week (which will make this an 11 day weekend by the time I have school again, Monday). So Matt, you ask, what have you done with these 11 days off you've had. Nothing. Well... that's not entirely true. I did some baking. I started writing Trivia Night questions for next year. I edited (badly) my B-roll project. I got a job. WHAT!? What's that you say? You have a job?

Yes. I have a job. I start at Kohl's tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I told you this, but I probably didn't know for certain at that point, well now I know for certain that I will be employed at Kohl's doing Ad Set with Matthew, and perhaps working on unloading trucks. Yippee!

What didn't I do over this extended break from school is homework. None of it. I really need to be writing a whole lot more than I am. Especially journal entries. I'm like 3 weeks behind in that department.

Anyhoo... I'm probably going to do a ridiculous amount of sleeping pretty soon, so I have to get ready for that.

Trivia night: Success!

The Notre Dame Trivia Night was last night. It went pretty well. My category was very well liked... by me anyway. I'm in charge of the questions for next year, which is exciting.

In other news, I think I have a job. If I pass that drug test I took on Friday, which is more than likely, then I'll be offered a job at Kohl's doing Ad Set with Matthew. It'll be fun to work with Matthew, but my concern with the job is getting enough hours. Matthew works 3 maybe 4 days a week, for like 5 or 6 hours at a time. I'd really like to work 30 or so hours a week, but any job is better than no job.

Also, I am really good at sleeping.

Sick and Tired

It's almost 2 in the morning, why am I not asleep? I'll tell you, because I'm awake, that's why.

I was a little sick earlier, but feel much better after taking a single aspirin. Medicine is magic.

I am still unemployed. This sucks. I really need a job. This is getting ridiculous.

In other news, Lent starts tomorrow, or today if I'm being accurate. This year I'm giving up soda and fast food... well fast food that's fried. It's sort of a vague resolution but I have a pretty clear idea of what I won't be eating for the next 40 days or so. In other news, I still don't have a job, and it still sucks (yes, I realize I just typed that like 4 lines up, but I'm restating it to emphasize the suckiness). Starting Friday I will officially be desperate for a job and will apply to restaurants. *shudder*.

Also John McCain is probably going to be the Republican candidate for president and Hilary Clinton is probably going to be the Democratic candidate. This makes me sad. I don't won't McCain to president, but I don't want Hilary to be president either.

This is becoming the most boring post ever written so I'm going to end it now before I start talking about something else that's really boring.

Extended White Chocolate Experience

The title to this post is something that Matthew Long used in casual conversation today. I thought it was amazing.

JOB UPDATE:

Did I tell you I applied at Ace Hardware and Bargain Hound? Cause I did, about a week ago. They aren't going to hire me.
Today I applied at Sears Grande and The Victorian Inn. I don't think Sears is going to hire me, but the Victorian Inn might, they had the least specific application I have ever seen. Sears had one of those horrendous personality tests that I keep failing. I don't think I come across well when reduced to a multiple choice personality test. Oh.... but seriously. I need a job. If I don't hear back from anyone in a week, I will officially be desperate for employment, at which point, I'll start applying to *shudder* restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, one of the people in my Creative Writing Group, wrote an excellent essay about tipping and how it's bullshit, which it is. We were discussing the essay in class and a couple of people were really interested in it because they disagreed with him. They thought tipping is not bullshit. Ironically these people worked in the food service industries and were both frequent recipients of tips (presumably). Anyway, I found myself really itching to debate these people, but unfortunately debate did not happen. I was sad.

Good news everyone, the G string on my guitar just broke! The same thing happened around this time last year. I remember, because it happened on superbowl sunday, which is this coming Sunday if I'm not mistaken. Last time it took me a month to replace it. That's kind of weird though. Anyway... I'm kind of hungry so I'm going to do something about that.

Gloating

Here's a bit of trivia for you. Almost every time I try to come up with title for a blogpost, e-mail or journal entry the first title I come up with is "Da Business". It's almost never relevant to what I'm writing about at that particular moment, and when it is, I usually don't think of it first, but it is a phrase I really enjoy.

Here's another bit of trivia for you. My trivia night team kicks ass. We got second at the St. Joseph Trivia night in Scott city, which isn't bad if I do say so myself. The other team beat us by like 10 points. They knew the answers to questions like; "What state does Hunter McMuffin represent?" (fake question) and "On the television show Reba, what is Reba's ex-husband's job?"(real question) If the choice is between getting second place and watching Reba enough to know her ex-husband is a dentist, I'll stick with second place.

Oh speaking of bragging...this:That's right ladies, by getting three A's and a B last semester, I was put on the Dean's Honor List. I've always been on the Dean's List of People that Can and Probably Will EFF You Up, but this is the first time I've been on the Honor List... so gloat on you, the internet.

His cane makes me melt.

I love the show House. You probably didn't know that about me. I haven't talked about it much, especially since I haven't blogged much since I've started watching it. I describe it as a smarter CSI, which isn't really accurate. What would be more accurate is that it's a CSI for people smarter than the people that like CSI. I think CSI is kind of dumb. You probably did know that though.

Job update: I've applied for 2 different Pharmacy Technician jobs at St. Francis, and a job at Hollywood Video. I don't think I'll get any of those jobs, because I can't get jobs like those for some reason. By "jobs like those" I mean jobs that pay well or jobs I'd like to have. I am supposed to do inventory at Steve and Barry's on Sunday. It's not a permanent position, but it could lead to one once they start hiring again.

Heath Ledger died. That made me sad. I really like "A Knights Tale".

The Stakes are Raised

The title of this post means nothing.


School started yesterday. Hurrah!

I don't know how I'm going to feel about MC 301, but intermediate film production and film history are going to be fun. We watched City Lights in film history last night. It was pretty good for an old movie. A little long, but pretty good. Tonight I have creative writing. I'm pretty excited about that class.

Job update:
Still unemployed, I've applied at 2 more places, Hastings and Target. That brings the total applications up to 5.

Not my first post about Euchre

I went to a Euchre tournament tonight in New Hamburg. I did not do well. Neither did Dustin. Jody, on the other hand, cleaned up. I've been to three non-Dustin Glastetter initiated Euchre tournaments. One at Scott City, one at St. Augustine and this one. At all three of these tournaments I've felt very much like I didn't belong there, not just because I'm not from the places the tournaments are held, but like a greater sense of outsiderness. I feel like a tourist or something. It's not necessarily a bad feeling but it is kind of strange.

School starts tomorrow. I don't even know what to think about that. I'm excited. I guess that's what I think about school starting tomorrow. I think excited. I'm really looking forward to making more films and seeing some of my friends from last semester.

I've been unemployed for 2 days now. I don't like it much. Last time I was unemployed it was about a month till I got a job, although I don't remember looking too hard that time. We'll see how well I do this time. So just to keep you updated on my progress:

1. Staples: nothing
2. Hospital: nothing
3. Steve and Barry's: nothing

Awesome.

Almost Unemployed

Hello My Blog.
The reason I've decided to start blogging again is to chronicle my job search. I'm looking for a job because as the title suggests, I am almost unemployed. In about 10 hours I will have concluded my term of employment with Commercial Mail Services and will therefore be in need of a new job. Why, you ask, am I ending my nearly three years service at CMS? Well that is a long and painful story... just kidding. I have a couple of night classes this semester so I would only be able to work at CMS 3 days a week and one of those three days I wouldn't be able to come in till 5ish so I wouldn't be able to get enough hours. On a personal note, I'm decidedly not too sad about my eminent departure. I was sad when I quit John's, somewhat less sad when I quit N'Orleans, but I'm not really sad at all about quitting CMS. It's probably because unlike those other places I'll still be connected to my friends that work there through Jimmy.

So far I have applied three places for jobs:
1. Staples
2. Southeast Hospital
3. Steve and Berry's

None of them have contacted me yet, but I just applied for the last 2 yesterday. They are probably still marveling at gift they have been given, the gift of me offering to work for them. Truly a great prize to be sure.

Ok well I need to take a shower cause I'm all sick and gross. Anyway, I'll keep you posted!