So. The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen it yet, please go see it, even if you don't want to or don't think you'll like it, chances are that you will...or at least that you'll be a better person for having watched it, even if you hate it. It IS without a doubt, the best movie so far this year (and probably will remain so, Harry Potter nothwithstanding). It's much darker than I thought it would be, though, honestly, I don't know why I was surprised because that's the one thing all the reviews I read had in common, but anyways...Heath Ledger is the best movie villain of all time. He's willfully, incoherently, and uncaringly malignant. His only end is to establish pure chaos-- an idea that is particularly frightening in our law and norm-bound lives. Ledger so completely portrays this character, that I find it hard now to think of him in any other role. The cinematography is beautiful. Watching it in IMAX, I maybe felt a little seasick at the full-screen shots looking down at the city, but who wouldn't, it's GIGANTIC. And the picture quality is flawless. And in IMAX, our first introduction to the joker is 6 stories tall. It's thrilling and frightening. Christian Bale is tormented by his own goodness and Aaron Eckhart is just tormented. Maggie Gyllenhal is good in her role, but I think we need something between her own sad Rachel and the bubbly idealist Katie Holmes played.

It's dark, yes, and definitely violent, but still pushes the idea that somethings are still worth fighting for, no matter how high the cost, though that idea may be tested in the next installment. A ver.

Finally!

So after days and days of hopeless waiting, the NYTimes finally posted their review of The Dark Knight. If you're wondering why this matters, it doesn't, not really to anyone but me, who read Manohla Dargis' reviews almost religiously. She's great critic, ok? I'm surprised they waited to durn long, but excited. The reason I love her reviews is because they are never fully good or bad, she always acknowledges the good points without glossing over the negative. That's true here as well.

My favorite review, though, came from Time magazine. This one gave me chills. Well so did Ms. Dargis', but not as many. Just read them.

I don't know why I get so worked up for movies. I just do.

the talkies!

Yes...so...I went to see Hellboy II this weekend. The only reason this is of note is because I wasn't actually intending to. A few weeks ago, while watching tv with my roomates, a commercial for it played and I said to them "that looks slightly interesting, I kind of want to see it." I looked around at them, to find them all looking at me with expressions ranging from utter bafflement to something bordering on disgust. Ever since that day, they have mocked me, until I swore a solemn oath to myself to avoid this film at all costs. With my friends, I made plans to go see "Son of Rambow" on Saturday, and waited with gleeful anticipation for the day to arrive. On Saturday morning, I received a text asking if we could see Hellboy instead because "it got three stars and Kyle really wants to see it." Thus I was forced to break the vow I had made so many weeks before.

I guess my point here is that we watched it and it was hilarious! Take that, roomates! I was right!

So the plot may have been a little cliche, but it's a comic book movie, what do you expect? The kind of film that is so emotionally draining on its actors that they need to start taking prescription drugs to escape its shadow? The fight scenes were spectacular, there were lots of really bizarre creatures (quickly becoming del Toro's trademark), and, as already stated, it was a very funny movie.

Yesterday, I watched A&E's version of that old classic The Mayor of Casterbridge. It's a sunshiny, heart-warming tale of the love that grows between one young girl (Elizabeth Jane) and the father who sold her and her mother to a wandering sailor when she was but a wee babe. It follows her adventures in ye olde towne of Casterbridge as she waits tables at an inn to pay her hotel bill, falls in love with a man who later falls in love with and marries Elizabeth Jane's Father's former lover who he's trying to force to marry him by threatening to reveal their former intimacy, and watches her "father" destroy his own life and relationship piece by excruciating piece. WHEW. But really, it's about her father (the mayor), Michael Henchard and his aforementioned slow road to self destruction. It's amazing to watch the way he alienates everyone with his cruelty and immaturity, and even more amazing that, after all he does, you still pity him.

Well acted, though starting to look a bit dated, I recommend it if you're feeling depressed and would like to go a bit lower.

So...ok. Youtube. Bane of all existence, I know. Well just get over it for a second, because I'm pretty sure that I just found the video that will solve all of the world's problems.

133t h4x0rz!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So today in the lab we were browsing the amazing array of services that google offers (for example, its own attempt at facebook, its own 3d drawing/model program, its own blogging site...etc...) and, while talking about how much "google rocks", I realized that someday, google will even have its own band called, what else, "G00g13 R0xOrz" or...something like that, you get the idea, and all their concerts would be free because it's google, and it would be totally awesome! That was what I learned about infant psychology today.

I just needed this today

Sigh....

Get over yourself already

So...you'll probably think that I'm a lazy bum for this, but one of my biggest pet peeves is......politics! I know that it's important to have an in depth understanding of the way our government works because it affects everything we do, but honestly, I hate talking about politics, I hate people who talk about politics, and I hate everything about it. I hate politics because they rarely accomplish what they mean to. I hate talking about politics because it never brings people together and it never ends well, no matter how good of friends, no matter how amicably the conversation begins, there's always an element of contention that creeps in. I also dislike it because, more often than not, it's merely a way for a person to show off their knowledge or connection to the modern world. I don't care how often you read the news, I don't care how many times you've read through Obama's plan for change, chances are I already think you're smart, and you talking at me will only destroy that. I hate talking about politics because it's a topic that inevitably draws people farther apart, rather than bringing them together, as it should.

I've seen this happen time and time again, and I am, quite honestly, sick of it.

So, I already put all these pictures up on facebook, but I can talk about it more here. Today was the fourth of July andapparently it's a crazy big deal here in Provo. I've only been here for the Fourth once before and I was lving in the dorms at the time and so was rather oblivious to...well...everything.

So the parade goes down the street behind my house and many people started claiming their parade-watching spots 24 hours in advance. By last night, there was complete insanity up and down University Avenue...A large group of people from my complex set up 2 big-screen tvs and played "Rock Band" and watched movies all night long. There were similar scenes every twenty feet or so, while all the space in between was covered with sleeping bags and fold up chairs and taped-off plots of sidewalk and grass. After walking up a couple of blocks and back, we were tired and turned in for the night. At around 3:30. Sigh.

I didn't mention yet that we also had a mini mission reunion last night-- about 20 of us met and went to dinner and had a complete blast. It's always awkward and wonderful to see mission folk in a real world setting.

Anyways, this morning I woke up around 7 because my body is insane, got ready, and headed up to meet the fam with my brother and friend, Fehi, who was visiting from out of town. I took about a hundred million pictures at the parade (I'm a geek like that) and here are a few.

So apparently there's a random brigade of Star Wars geeks in Utah County.
And one of them looks like Lego Obewon Kenobe. This was one of the very first entries in the parade. I kind of wish they had been a little later when everyone was a little bit more excited, because these folks were...just...really impressive. There were quite a few in amazing storm trooper costumes. Strange but ... wonderful.

My little brother... well, my younger brother, Craig, at the parade, waving his flag and just generally looking kind of patriotic. We watched the parade across the street from the indoor practice facility with our Aunt and Uncle and cousins. It was insanely hot, but so much fun! Every once in a while the clouds would come out and shield us from the sun's blinding rays.

I just like this picture. Babar and the glory of July.

Craig and Fehi on the say back from the parade. We're actually following the very end of it. Probably not smart because at the very end was a cannon which they kept setting off.

Me and Craig being totally hot like usual.

"Cheese carver Troy Landwehr brushes oil off a rendition of the signing of the Declaration of Independence carved out of 2000 lbs (907 kg) of cheese in New York, July 3, 2008."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sculpture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence made from a one-tonne block of cheddar cheese glistened on the sidewalk of Times Square in New York on Thursday as an artist's tribute to the Fourth of July.

"It's very patriotic, using the signing of the Declaration of Independence, bringing Americans together for the Fourth," said Troy Landwehr, who carved the sculpture for cracker company Cheez-It to celebrate U.S. Independence Day.

He worked eight hours a day for a week in a 40-degree cooler carving the block of Wisconsin cheddar.
"The cheddar has been pasteurized and will not melt," Landwehr said. "What I spray on it is cooking oil and that stops it from drying out and cracking," he said. "That's why it looks sweaty. It actually preserves the cheese."
The replica of an iconic painting by John Trumbull shows John Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin and others standing around a table signing the historic document.

The work is not the first time Landwehr has recreated U.S. history with cheese. Last year he carved a cheese version of Mount Rushmore, which depicts U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abe Lincoln.

This year he took on another version of America's first "big cheeses" -- Trumbull's oil painting, which hangs in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and shows 42 of the 56 signatories of the 1776 Declaration of Independence from Britain.

"I scanned the painting into the computer, drew a 3D mapping of it and basically did lines and grids," said Landwehr, who has been carving cheese since he was 12 and owns a winery in Wisconsin.
"The hardest part was trying to keep everybody in proportion," he said.

He said putting the cheese on display in New York and Philadelphia would help it age faster and then it would be taken back to Wisconsin to be donated to food pantries.

(Reporting by Claudia Parsons; Editing by Bill Trott)

(this is from reuters.com)

Ok, but seriously, they're seriously going to make poor people eat their rancid cheese after it's sat outside in 2 highly polluted cities? Gj Cheez-it. Gj.

i'm on my computer

Um..

Just ew.

I mean, way to use your powers of deduction, but honestly. *shiver*

Something crazy about dogs

So, I was just reading the most ridiculous article of my life on NYTimes.com. Maybe this isn't news to anyone but me, but this woman, Leona Helmsley, was slightly off her rocker. Please read about it here. My favorite part of this, besides the title, is the original destiny of her fortune. She had set up two goals for the trust which may now go completely to the dogs-- first to help the disadvantaged, and second to help dogs-- the first goal was later scrapped as Helmsley realized her true calling in life-- benefactor of dogs everywhere.

Arg

So... all day at work today...or at least the 4 hours till now, I've been researching grad schools. This. Stresses. Me. Out. Why? I don't even know...which just stresses me out more. Basically what I did today was request information from every ALA accredited school that I would even remotely consider attending. Problem though, there are only really maybe two that I actually feel good about attending, those being the University of Maryland and UT-Knoxville. I think Knoxville seems good just because it's close to home and less of a striking out into the world on my own kind of option, and Maryland seems good just because...I'm not really sure. I love DC, it's one of my favorite cities, and I've always kind of had this dream that I would end up there, so grad school there would be one step closer to that. Also, it's familiar. Not overwhelmingly so, but just enough to not scare me out of my wits.

Thinking about the GRE and my low GPA and having to get references also makes me nervous. I know it shouldn't, but it just does, ok?

Honestly though, right now Maryland is definitely the front runner, because they offer a specialization that I'm really interested in-- archive and information management. Also, I would probably have access to some really interesting internship/employment opportunities there in exciting high drama locations like the library of congress or the national archives. w00t!

Anyways...