I try to say a lot while saying very little. Get used to it.
Archive for May, 2009
continually making random posts means i’m degenerating to traditional blogging
May 27th
Moving sucks. SUCKS. Period.
And that series of long titles has been in honor of Dinosaur Comics. Bloody frickin’ awesome:
How he manages to get something pretty rockin’ everyday from the same 6 sets of images.. and not make it completely random is beyond me.
On a side note, and going back to the moving thing, I have way too much stuff for a person who’s lived here for less than 3 years. Seriously.
keeping in the spirit of sporadically posting random updates for the sake of it
May 22nd
Yes, I know that’s a long title. Looooooooong.
I appear to have run out of things to say on this site. Every day is like a new deadline. Its been 4 days since you last posted. Its been 5 days since you last posted. Its been 7 days since you had something original and new to say. And then the tension mounts. Maybe I’m out of creativity. Maybe I should have written more when I had the chance. I knew I would eventually run out of ideas. Should really have forced myself into it. Parallels are drawn to random things such as photography. Sucks that you’re killing off stuff you should be improving. You really need to discipline yourself. Your research will go the same way. You guys really don’t want to know what comes next into my head. Not pretty.
But then every day is a challenge to get something or the other done in research (which may not always work), watch something interesting online (currently Star Trek T.O.S. again, since House M.D. and Scrubs are over for now) , and read something good (currently Gaiman’s The Sandman and have to start an Archer). And of course, movies. The list extends to infinity now. I have a complex formatting and color-coding on there, one of the few things I actually think I did pretty smartly. Miscellaneous other activities have to be in there as well, making the day pretty damn full.
Before I go onto other topics, I’ll say it out loud. Angels and Demons (the movie) sucks. The book was half-assed anyway, but a pacy read. I could overlook obvious stupidity like I did with The Da Vinci Code (which I did not watch, now I know why). And did they do a good job of ensuring the movie is a monumental exercise in irritating stupidity. For example, all deadlines can only be reached within 5 minutes of the end-time. Heroes and villains likewise have no issues recovering from really big explosions and/or major life-threatening situations within a matter of seconds. The supposed villains are so cheap they only fax over their logo – no killing/branding unnecessarily for them (like in the book). The fact that they actually use their own name for their “secret society” tells you how half-assed the source material is.. but anyway.
For better or worse, I’m not losing faith in Up. And I have zero expectation from Transformers 2, except for Ms. Fox, so that’s good too. I hear average things about Basterds though. We’ll see. Holmes is only end of the year, we have time to build up expectation for it. Then of course, Mr. Cameron’s Avatar too, but we’ll wait on that a bit (and a few more trailers -seriously, near zero publicity so far.. I’m worried that its not finished yet) before going ga-ga. Am I missing something?just to get a post up here..
May 18th
Guy Ritchie + Robert Downey Jr. + (my all time hero) Sherlock Holmes = I can’t wait for 25th December 2009.
Damn, that seems far. Will have to satisfy with Ms. Fox bending over and, of course, Mr. Taratino’s next.
p.s. Even in spite of these, somehow this year seems thanda compared to last years deluge of big budget big-ass great movies.
cuimhne albannach
May 4th
I left the lab the other night, getting into my car, going through the usual rigmarole of adjusting seat belts, switching on the ubiquitous mp3 player, and putting the car into ‘R’. The first chords sounded…
When I wake up yeah I know I’m gonna be
I’m gonna be the man who wakes up next to you
…and even as the drums kick in, I’m transported back to Hogmanay 2005.
We had left the house after the usual passing of time for the New Years’: some alcohol, some snacks, some dinner, some music, a lot of laughter and fun. Aberdeen had one of the bigger street parties in the UK, and we didn’t want to miss the best part. Even as we entered Union Street and found our way through the crowd and hit the randomly sighted people we knew… the countdown had started.
New Years was ushered in by the crowd of over 2000 people screaming.. as the final echoes of the scream died away.. the distinctive chords were struck. The crowd had turned as one towards the stage.
When I go out yeah I know I’m gonna be
I’m gonna be the man who goes along with you
All at once, the crowd bayed an anthem of their times… and we joined on yowling away to our best. Someone took up a Scottish arm dance, and before we knew it, we were circling each other, linking arms, breaking away.. banging our feet, clapping our hands together.. dancing like so many others around us. I remember at the time, one of the highlights was the fact that random people around us joined… most importantly Scottish girls 
If I get drunk yes I know I’m gonna be
I’m gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you
And if I haver yeah I know I’m gonna be
I’m gonna be the man who’s havering to you
The chorus came once, twice…and we joined in the best we could. We didn’t know the words, the band, the song, the people around us. But I remember that the Scots around us had clapped us on our backs, and joined in our dance, stamped feet in unison with us, and at the end of it all, hugged and wished us a happy new years. We didn’t know them, nor they us.. but the smiles and the nodding stays with me now.
But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
My eyes came back to focus… on the parking lot I was in. The rhythm still gets me… I was banging my feet in my car and snapping fingers to a long-forgotten beat. The song was slowly reaching its end, I reached out to play it again. It shouldn’t have to end, I should be able to go back in time to where I want.. when I want. Especially to the times in Aberdeen.
Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles
To fall down at your door
No matter how many years pass, Scotland can never really leave me.
The Proclaimers – 500 Miles
cuimhne albannach = Scottish memories (roughly)
