Month: December 2001 (Page 3 of 4)

Heard on NPR today that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is saying the events of 9/11 prove the need for the U.S. to have a missile defense shield (aka Star Wars). Yeah, that makes sense.

It infuriates me that those tragic events play so well into the hands of conservatives. The list of things they’ve jumped on is long: legislated patriotism, increased military funding and presence, erosion of personal freedoms, confidence in shaky national leaders, xenophobia, censorship of contrary opinion, and probably a bunch of other stuff I’ve forgotten.

What a world. Come and get me, FBI.

Finally, an online personality test I couldn’t resist taking (via Miguel):

“You don’t like having your picture taken and you have an irrational fear of giant fish. You have a visceral dislike for A-list bloggers, while still desperately wanting to be as popular as they are.”

Which attractive, witty blogger are you?

Can’t wait to see this movie. Stockard Channing rocks. It’s actually too bad they made her a regular on “The West Wing,” because now rather than build an episode where she is an integral part, she pops in once an episode to say something like, “See you in the residence!” This is a gross injustice. If Stockard were the real first lady (which isn’t such a bad idea, by the way), you can bet she wouldn’t suffer being shoved aside like that.

I must plug my new favorite weblog, Blogatelle, by Sekimori (aka Stacy Tabb). She has so much funny and interesting stuff there, I’ll forgive her obsession with online personality tests (and that she’s never watched The Simpsons). I think my favorite post so far was her hilarious Osama memo. Another good one is 10 Things I Hate About Tom Cruise. Enjoy.

Unlike some people, I have no trouble with others buying me things. In fact, I heartily encourage it. In that spirit, I have updated my Amazon wish list. Thanks in advance. 🙂

I was in CompUSA yesterday, and I happened by a group of youths playing Halo on the Xbox. I began drooling. My lust for this thing (which is even more dirty since it’s a Microsoft product) is exactly matched by my inability to afford it. Did I mention I need some new clients?

New motto: everything is a discretionary purchase.

Just got finished watching “The Godfather” on DVD. As a movie fanatic, I thought it weird that I’d seen chunks of it on TV, but never the whole thing. Well, call me a heretic, but I don’t see what the big deal is about. It was interesting, and well-acted, but that’s about it. And it was very elliptical for a three-hour movie – not a lot of delving into what made these people tick. One thing that struck me was how there were basically no women in the movie. Michael’s great love, Apollonia, has maybe two lines, and none before they get married. I’m sure Mama Corleone was shown at some point, but she definitely had no lines. Diane Keaton’s Kay is an incredible doormat, and Talia Shire’s Connie is barely there except to get beaten by her husband. I mean, what would “The Sopranos” be without Lorraine Bracco and Edie Falco? If you ask me.

Best Christmas Music Album: Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas
Second-Best Christmas Music Album: We Three Kings – The Roches

I’ve extolled the virtues of “Monsters, Inc.” several times on this page. Along with “Princess and the Warrior,” I think it’s one of the best movies of 2001. (Which isn’t saying much, unfortunately. But these two stand on their own.) Now they’re advertising that after keeping the animation “outtakes” out of the closing credits, they’re adding them back in starting today. (Outtakes, for those who don’t know, are extra little scenes Pixar animates that are like traditional movie flubs, where characters blow their lines, the microphone gets in the shot, etc. The outtakes for Toy Story 2 [are you listening, Xkot?] are absolutely priceless.) This is an evil plot to make fans like me see the movie yet again for the outtakes. Evil, but effective. Anyone want to go with me?

This week I told a friend of mine that he’s high maintenance. I didn’t mean it in a mean way, it just seemed like the truth to me. He got really bent out of shape over that, which, frankly, I think is a mark of a high-maintenance person. 🙂 I’ve always thought of myself as extremely low maintenance, but friends I’ve polled over this issue rate me “medium maintenance.” I guess this qualifies as a sort of non-online open-ended personality test: what maintenance grade are you and why?