… Is a great independent movie I caught last week at the Calgary Film Festival. It was a really fun, silly, and enjoyable movie.

As you can see from IMDB, it doesn’t have the best rating, but I think the rating was a bit harsh. The film is a great comedy - I’d maybe rate it that badly if I was expecting a hollywood thriller.

I knew nothing of the movie going in - just that it was funny. If I had to summarize it, I’d say it’s about a group of people who dress up for a Halloween as gangsters - and due to complications concerning cars, guns, drag queens, a latex wearing stalker, and a really weird drug smuggling, crazy woman (complete with muscle-men butlers!) - things get a bit out of hand. Watching a ganster threaten someone with a water gun is just a funny thing to see.

Googling around on the net about this film, I found this site with this quote: “I’m not just watching a movie starring Anna Nicole Smith. I’m watching a movie starring a midget drag queen pretending to be Anna Nicole Smith.”

This is a comedy about Hollywood in the same way as Army of Darkness is a comedy of horror films.

The acting was a bit half-hearted at times, but I thought the script was pretty solid - it was a pretty funny film to watch. I’d rate it as something around a 3.5/5, and if you get a chance to see it, I hope you enjoy it - I certainly did.

I used to watch the “Who’s line is it anyway?” show all the time - it was fantastic. This is a clip with Richard Simmons showing up, and it’s absolutely hilarious!

Oh yes they did!
 

As I was walking through the Sears downtown, that’s what I found!

Behold…..THE ZIPPER TIE!!!

End Times?

Continuing R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of Nothing series, this book builds off the first book, and sets up the last book in the trilogy. I guess you could infer from that insightful first sentence that this would be the second book in the trilogy. And you would be so very correct.

Well, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first, but that’s not to say it was hard to read. In fact, there were parts of the book that I enjoyed more than in any part of the first. With the main characters all introduced, this book really just tells a number of trials each character goes through - all of which are related. I suppose that got a bit long in parts, there was quite a bit of theorizing and analysis and not nearly enough wicked action.

I don’t make it through these books as quickly as some other ones that I read, but I still find it worthwhile at the end. In fact, I was about half way through this book and left for a 7 day backpack - the West Coast Trail - and brought this book with me. If it wasn’t interesting, I probably would have brought something light-weight, as this is a pretty big book. I even finished the book on the trail, which should say something as to how good it was. And for you fellow backpackers - yeah, kicking back on the Vancouver Island coast for a day reading this book was just awesome. Yes, it really is a rough life.

This book really brings out some awesome magic. It’s really wicked to read about the magic that goes on ’cause it’s just cool, and I also found it unique to magic I’ve read in other books. I really enjoy how Bakker describes the sorcerer - he doesn’t just gloss over what they’re doing, but starts to get into the mentality of different kinds of magic from the point of view of those that are using it. He describes some of it using mathematical terms, and the mathematician in me really likes that.

As you’d expect, the plots thicken and entwine. The psychological aspects of the characters get much more involved. The main plots move forward, and definitely not in expected manners. Bakker isn’t as adept as Martin in killing off characters, but he does a pretty good job.

I took a couple of things away from this book. For example, at one point, Bakker was explaining the difference between the person that the self knows and the person that is presented to the outside world. He compared them to two sides of the same coin, where each person sees themselves in a particular way, but all they can see is how everyone else presents themselves. It was a pretty interesting description of how people see themselves and others - the actual discussion was a bit more complex, but I’ll leave it as an exercise for the readers to find out more. Another thing I learnt is not to piss off Magicians - they seem to have this ability to make things burn

I look forward to reading the 3rd book and finishing the trilogy. So far, it’s been a fun read.

Ernest Cline made this great video about the human race. Definitely fun to watch, both for the commentary and the slideshow of interesting pictures. Watch, then discuss amongst yourselves.

I have been meaning to throw these up for awhile now - they’re hilarious!

The first is about how guys are completely screwed over with car insurance.

After that, we move on to a classic knock-knock joke.

Both are very much worth watching, brought to us by Barats and Bereta.

I saw this drink at my local convience store/deli and knew that for the good of everyone, I should try it. Well, screw everyone. I am not doing that ever again. This is one of your “Natural Health Product” drinks in the skinny can, a la  Red Bull. But this one had a twist: It’s cherry flavoured.

Perhpaps it was naive of me to think I would like it. I don’t like cherry flavoured things even on a good day. I barely like ANYTHING cherry, other than actual, fresh cherries. I can tell you now, this product should NOT be consumed by humans. I believe this stuff was invented by Nazi doctors in the 1930s. If you see this product, DO NOT PURCHASE it. Tell everyone you know, even people you don’t like. This stuff is WRONG!  It tastes like fizzy childerns cough syrup. It’s not refreshing. It’s not light. It’s sick. I don’t feel my mental alertness temporarily restored. Worst drink ever!

Well, helping to make image searches better, anyway … google is trying to make things better - a nice way to kill some time to better the digital universe!