Category: Uncategorized

THE TIME MACHINE 2002

I just finished watching the 2002 movie, The Time Machine. It was awful.

I’m not sure how this movie became so bad. It had Guy Pearce in the central role. He’s a great actor, so you’d think that wouldn’t be a problem. The special effects were done by ILM, Digital Doman, and Stan Winston Studio. Those are three big name, capable companies. So that shouldn’t be the weak link. The whole thing was directed by Simon Wells, who incidently, is the great-grandson of author H.G. Wells, who wrote the novel (which this movie is based on) The Time Machine. You’d think he’d want to do great-gramps proud with this film.

I think the root of this whole mess begins with the unfulfilling and pointless climax to this movie. I’m not sure if we can totally fault screenwriter John Logan because apparently last minute reshoots were ordered by director West based on some of his new ideas. You know there’s a big problem when the bad guy in the movie shows up right at the end, and he’s on screen for less than five minutes. Worse still, in those five minutes, he does nothing of importance. The whole ending made no sense! I usually don’t write about films I see, but I just had to this time. When a movie’s ending makes you go, “Why the f*ck did he do that? I’m so angry now”, it makes you want to get your money back.

I guess part of the reason I’m complaining is that I love movies about time travel. Time paradoxes are very cool plot devices. Also, as a child I saw the original The Time Machine movie from 1960. It was very good and I was hoping this new incarnation would live up to its predecessor. Unfortunately, it failed miserably.

If you want to see it, get someone to pay for the rental.

DON’T GO TO DENNY’S HUNGRY

On Friday night, I went to Denny’s (hey, what else is open at 11:30pm in Coquitlam?) to meet with my friend Trevor before he left for his trip to South Africa.

I made the mistake of going to Denny’s while I was extremely hungry. I will admit Denny’s food isn’t the greatest, but when you’re hungry everything on that menu looks really appetizing. They had this new Big Texas BBQ Burger that I had never seen before. It was basically a chicken burger but in the burger was a mound of onion rings, cheddar cheese, and slices of bacon. All that with a side of fries. This particular menu item was the definition of dietary excess, yet it was calling to me. Also calling to me was the Country Fried Steak. Here we have two ground beef steaks, deep fried with a crispy coating, and then smothered in country gravy.

Somehow, restraint took over and I managed to order a Two Egg Breakfast, which consisted of all things, two eggs (scrambled), two sausage links, two pieces of bacon, a large mat of hash browns, and some toast. I ate that pretty quickly and here’s where the stupidity took over. Knowing full well that the human body can take as much as 20 minutes before it knows it’s full, I decided I wanted two more scrambled eggs. There’s something about the way Denny’s makes their eggs. I swear they must melt butter on them because they smell so good when they’re done.

Well, my two additional eggs came, and sadly they were slightly overcooked to my liking. After I ate those, I was beginning to feel quite a bit full. Ignoring the obvious signs, I began looking at the dessert menu. After Trevor, decided he was going to get a slice of pie, I too decided to take the plunge and ordered a Coke float.

I nearly finished the Coke float before the rest of my body began to overrule the impulse to consume mass quantities of food.

After wishing Trevor a good time on his trip, I somehow made it back home. For the next few hours, I just sat around waiting for the bloated feeling to go away.

The next time I go to Denny’s while hungry, I will attempt to show more restraint.

A FEW TECHNICAL NOTES

For the five people who visit my site, I just wanted to shed some light on why this page has been loading so slow recently. The comment system I use is made by Enetation. They are relatively new service and as such, they have suffered some growing pains. As many free services on the web have discovered, demand can far outstrip quality of service. This is what happened to Enetation. When their servers get overloaded, anyone who uses their system gets affected. They’ve promised this won’t happen, but it does. That is why sometimes, it takes forever for this page to load or why the comments are missing. Well, you get what you paid for!

Also, I’ve finally got off my ass and fixed the archive bar to the right. Nothing a little cut and paste couldn’t fix.

And we return to your regularly schedule programming.

GOSSIP

You know gossip can be a potentially dangerous thing. A few months ago, I attended my ten year high school reunion. While I was there, I talked to this one girl. We were mentioning names to see if anyone knew what had happened to them. I mentioned the name of one particular fellow who I went to school with. The girl I was talking to said, “Did you know he’s gay? Someone told me that!”

I was completely surprised because he showed no signs of being gay when I went to school with this fellow. I guess there aren’t any telltale signs of being gay, but sometimes you can see it coming. Anyways, this girl didn’t directly give me any evidence of my former classmate being gay, so I took it with a grain of salt.

Anyways, tonight, for some strange reason, I put my former classmate’s name into google.ca. Only two hits came up. One was for a page related to a sports team. The other hit? It was for a gay sports league!

Now this would seem to add evidence to the rumour my former classmate is in fact gay. However, his name isn’t exactly unique. So, who’s to say this is in fact, the same guy I went to high school with? Well, it could be. Also, it’s really interesting that both hits register on pages originating from the Lower Mainland. What if someone else had put his name into google.ca and then just decided, yep, that must be him. What if that’s how the rumour started?

Anyways, he’s probably gay. Or not. Who knows? I need water.

TEN YEARS AND ONE DEGREE LATER



circa 1992



about ten days ago

So, on Friday, I picked up my new library card. I needed to sign out a book before school started. After ten years, I finally have a new card and picture. That old picture might be the weirdest, oddest, and worst picture of me yet. It doesn’t even look like me. I am uncertain what odd combination of angles, lighting, and my ugly mug caused such a poor photo. I had to carry that thing around for five years at UBC.

The new photo is much better. The funny thing is that I had my haircut not two hours after that picture was taken. Oh well, it doesn’t look that bad anyways. I look a bit fatter in the new picture. I can vaguely remember the day the old picture was taken. It was a sunny afternoon in September of 1992. I weighed about 120 lbs. back then. I don’t think I’ve weighed 120 lbs. since. Heh.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Wow, I can’t stop posting. Anyways, some random thoughts. First, yeah I know the column for the archives is screwed up. Blogger sometimes alters the .html code for no apparent reason when I post. The problem is correctable, but I’m being lazy. I’ll do it soon.

I went to lunch with my friend Garrett Knights today. We went to this pho place in Chinatown called Pho Van. In my mind, it’s the best pho in the Lower Mainland. Anyways, around 11pm, I start craving for pho again. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, good pho must contain an addictive substance. It’s like culinary crack! Oh my, the hearty beef stock, the succulent beef slices, and the soft noodles!

So, it’s like 1:30am now, and I’m hungry again, but there’s nothing in the house I want to eat. Crap, I should be reading a textbook instead of wondering what to eat. Hmmm… I wonder if I can go back to Pho Van tomorrow.