Author: grid

So recently my friend Dr. Bombay posted a list of 100 best sci-fi films as decided by the Online Film Critics Society. It�s not a bad list, I mean, there are some great films on there. But there are also some notable absences, in my opinion. I started thinking about this when I realized that City of Lost Children makes the cut, while Jean-Pierre Jeunet�s earlier and more coherent masterpiece, Delicatessen, is nowhere to be found.

Ok, so that one can be explained away. It�s a relatively unknown french movie, and the english overdub version is known to be horrible. Not everybody likes subtitles. But far more disturbing in its absence is one of my favorite movies of all time, The Dark Crystal. That kind of negligence is criminal!

Also notably missing are humorous sci-fi movies. Toward the top of my list would be the parody Spaceballs. (Along with another great parody, Galaxy Quest.) Not to mention Mars Attacks!, which is hilarious and great.

I would like to have seen a list of all the submissions. I can think of a ton of other films that would maybe (probably) have made my cut, above some of the crap that was included in their list. (The x-men movie, Cocoon, Explorers, Final Fantasy, Ladyhawk, Legend, lawnmower man and David Lynch�s Dune, to name a few.)

Alright, so I haven�t thought much about the possibility that they were going for all sci-fi, and no fantasy. That would scratch the dark crystal, Ladyhawk and Legend off my list, I guess. But they include some that I would consider fantasy as well — Highlander (albeit low on the list), King Kong (which Nate pointed out was about as sci-fi as Jaws), Jacob’s Ladder, Pi and Donnie Darko. None of these movies were particularly sci-fi, for crying out loud!

My personal least favorite on the list is The Cell, although I know many people liked the movie, The Cell was barely sci-fi in my opinion. And while it was pretty to look at, the pathetic plot and poor acting would put the movie itself high on my list of worst movies of all time, lack of sci-fi not withstanding! I suppose it was technically more sci-fi than fantasy, however.

The list included Starman, (a shitty movie), but not The Last Starfighter! (Laura and Nate would also add Flight of the Navigator.)

More understandably, (especially if you were taking �how sci-fi were they� into account,) they included Superman, but not Batman (or Spider Man).

If we are including fantasy, a few more I would add to the list are Labyrinth, Willow, The Princess Bride, The NeverEnding Story, LOTR, and Harry Potter.

I am seriously thinking about making my own list. Almost as hard as putting them in order will be thinking of all of them. I wonder if that was the OFCS�s real problem. (I could make a separate list of top fantasy movies.)

Nate and I have been talking for a good hour now about what makes a movie sci-fi. I personally would rate movies that show the science above movies that are just conceptually sci-fi. Unfortunately, this leaves a lot of the older sci-fi classics right out of the picture, and also my original beef with the list, Delicatessen.

Anyway, this is a huge issue that I could probably think about until the end of the world.

OK, so here’s a story I haven’t told yet. My desk is the color of sunflowers, cans of lemon-scented-anything, non-gender-specific baby showers, and the sun. Yes, it’s yellow. But why is it yellow?! Because it’s covered in boxes of peeps!

You know what I’m talking about, I’ve posted about them before.

It’s no secret that I love these little marshmallow babies, but this was all made possible by someone I don’t even know (and his kids)!

I guess this guy at work won a year’s supply of peeps. You can see his kid’s winning easter basket submission here.

When he brought a box of 5 peeps for everyone in the building, I guess he had a lot left over, and since everyone knew I liked them, I got about 20 boxes on my desk before I got in that morning.

This was about a week ago, and my cube is still peepsville, Peep City, peep central.

Normally I would eat about a box a day, but for the past week (mostly due to this toothache) I haven’t eaten hardly any at all. Just now I ate about three of these succulent sugar-chicks, and suddenly I feel dizzy. Light headed even. I’m about to leave for the day, so lets hope I can make it home in one peep… I mean piece.

Well, I heard back from the vixen. No dice on the date night. Clark is right, it may be impossible to convince anyone to be part of my dating schemes. (See yesterday’s comments for a gargantuan exposition on non-monogamy.)

I feel really rejected. She was so clearly interested! She claims that she doesn’t feel “led on” or anything, she’s just not interested in being second, which is of course not the way I put things — but I can hardly argue the point.

Damn.

While pondering a subject line for this entry, it occurs to me that I could have saved telling her till after the date. I mean, did I do the right thing? If I’d been right there when she found out, would it have been better or worse? She made it clear that this was a tough decision for her to make… I still haven’t responded, and I’m liable to make a fool of myself trying to convince her there’s no harm in trying… Moot point now, but I think everything is probably better this way. No big surprises.

And now I have an appointment on Tuesday to have all my wisdom removed! How will I pick up chicks then!?!

my tooth hurts. I need to make an appointment with the dentist. That’s bad.

But worse, is the situation I’m in with a girl I met last Saturday night. I just sent an email revealing to this sexy young beast that I am not quite entirely “read-the-fine-print” single. She was definitely interested. Now we find out a bit more about her morals and/or ethics.

Is this possibly blossoming relationship poorly timed? Perhaps, but fortunately, things with Laura are (for now at least) very good. She knows of said vixen.

Now I wait, my gut like a 3 ton cement truck, for the vixen’s response.

(In other news, there are now quite a few pictures of Zelda over on thorsday.)

This afternoon I wrote an essay (for the blog) that was about a page long. Definitely the longest bit I’ve written in quite a while. Then, most of the way through it, our network died. I will post it tomorrow. It was all about sex, and if there’s anything this blog needs, it’s more sex.

BTW, we got a second kitty tonight. Her name is Zelda, and she was born on Valentine’s day.

…turns out it’s just the track number being displayed. Not the number of times I’d hit snooze after all. I’m pretty sure I must have been waking up just about once a song though, because it really seemed like that’s what was happening.

When I pull into the parking lot in the morning, and a good song comes on the radio, what do I do? Do I turn the song off and walk inside? No! I continue to listen to the song, bobbing my head, and no doubt looking like an idiot. Many fellow employees (especially the ones I have never seen before,) will walk by and think I am deranged.

This is not so personal. Here is a more personal tidbit. Sometimes in the morning when I’ve looked at porn just before bed the previous evening, I will see flashes of porn just behind my eyes much like I see flashes of some video game I’ve been playing regularly. Lately I’ll close my eyes and see a chess board, but this morning it’s two women smacking each other’s asses — in the corner of the elevator, in the building lobby, and then standing next to my cube like I’m stuck in an episode of girls gone wild meets office space.

I think these “flashes” are as close as I’ve ever come to hallucinations. Even though there’s a pretty clear distinction between them and reality, I’m not consciously willing them into existence. Maybe I’m just sleep deprived, and my brain is still trying to dream, despite the best intentions of my alarm clock.

Aside from the rain, I have no idea how plastic umbrellas relate to last weekend. I didn’t even use an umbrella. I did go to unicycling yesterday, and watch The Transporter (crappy action movie), went to Balls on sat, before that watched Two Weeks Notice, and before that went to a Ballet performance, and before that had dinner with KR and S, and before that went to a HS graduation party for someone who is, by many people’s estimation, the best unicyclist in the world.

KR wants me to come up with a short story or something for me to read while she dances at Balls next week. She wants something about beauty. I’m not sure how much beauty I see these days, but I’m going to do my best.

I’ve finally figured out what the number that appears on my alarm clock immediately after I hit the snooze button means. I always look to see what time it is, and there’s always this one digit number there instead. It never hit me until just this morning that the number actually means anything. It’s the number of consecutive times I’ve hit snooze.

This morning’s total was 7.

I was remarkably unproductive today, but I almost feel like I accomplished more than I did yesterday. Yesterday, I played a game of Go, and a game of Chess, and lost both misserably. Today I played two games of chess and one of go, winning all three, then played another game of chess just now, and lost. (I could have probably won if I had been paying closer attention, but don’t tell J that, it was her first win here at work.)

I played a game last night on Yahoo and took most of my opponent’s pieces before he mated me unexpectedly. I was up by so many points that I had assumed it was a foregone conclusion.. but I was wrong.

I think I’m starting to get obsessive. I’ve been fantasizing about years down the road… being ranked and playing in tournaments.