Splendiferous!

Okay, and we're back! It's been a long weekend, but a good one. Cabaret was amazing on Thursday. Kevin Murphy was superb. Splendiferous even. Remember his name, he'll be famous.

Thanksgiving break is almost upon us (I only have chorus left, at 3:30), and soon everyone will be recovering from Thursday. Woo hoo!

I will be playing in the BWB V for the Pimpskins. This is a crucial game, as the series is currently tied up at 2-2. Several unknown elements will be introduced into this game. In addition to myself, Paul Kraynak will be playing, but which team he will be on is as yet unknown. This will prove to be an interesting game. Saturday, November 30, Switchblade Stadium, 9AM. Tickets on sale now.

And now for your moment of Zen.

It's thursday.

Just in case you didn't know.

Cabaret is tonight!

And now for your moment of Zen.

It's that time again! Time when I review some of the current films in the theatre and tell you what to see and what not to see. First up: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

I saw it opening night, at 8:15 last friday. Got the tickets the evening before, still plenty of seats left. I arrived at the theatre at 7:30 to an already long line with eager ticket holders waiting to see the movie event of November. Not surprisingly, at least to me, most of the audience were college kids, with a healthy spattering of high schoolers, a few kids with their parents, and even the occasional adult on his own. A nice mix. So we are allowed entry into the actual building around 8, after the line has doubled (at least).

So we're in the theatre for about 30 minutes before the lights go down, and then we are treated to a lovely 20 minutes of commercials and previews. I like having a lot of previews, but the commercials NEED to go. I dislike them greatly. The previews were alright. The Two Towers was awesome of course, and will be the movie event of December. The Nickelodeon preview was stupid because it ruined the entire movie in the preview. There was one funny looking movie that was promising. Two guys get a hold of a big chunk of money and then go to Australia, where their money is stolen by a kangaroo. Yeah yeah, stupid comedy. It became the epitome of stupid when the kangaroo started rapping with an Australian accent. Ridiculous. I won't even talk about the Jungle Book 2. Disney is pissing me off. GET SOME NEW IDEAS!

So finally the movie begins. With the first notes of the melody, a chill rushes down my spine, I get all giggly, and I cannot help but grin like a fool. This should be good. And oh was it ever. Harry certainly has grown a lot. Dobby actually wasn't as anoying as I thought. I laughed when he started banging his head against the dresser. Ron and the twin's rescuing of Harry was a very cool scene. Nice flying car. The Weasley's house was very cool. Very wizardish. What you would expect from a cooky wizarding family. Ron's father does an okay job. Not exactly how I pictured him, but he did alright. Malfoy's dad though, damn is he evil. PERFECT casting. Absolutely perfect. And Branaugh does a superb job as Lockhart. Amazing. Perfect role for him. On to Hogwarts.

I didn't like the Whomping Willow. Not what I pictured at all. Colin Creevey was a good casting. And the work with the howler was great. It would have been good to see everyone laughing at Ron, but it was still done nicely. That brings me up to two points. First, transitions. The transitions were choppy, rushed, and not at all smooth. But they had to be. As it is, the movie was almost 3 hours long. They couldn't afford to make it smooth. Oh well. Second, the acting. Harry has gotten better. But Ron. Ron is one of the best actors in the film. he is absolutely amazing. Watch this kid. Hermione is excellent as well. And you just have to love Alan Rickman. Basically everyone is awesome, except Harry, who is okay, but getting better.

The feel of the who-dunnit was very well done. Great movie. The scene with the spiders scared me. Which was surprising. Tom Riddle was done PERFECTLY. And the Basilisk, damn was that ever scary. Overall, a great movie. But it was scary. I'd be cautious about taking my kids to see it. The young ones at least. But a great fantastic awesomely wonderful movie. It was MUCH better than the first. So don't listen to the critics.

Overall rating: A

The second movie on the list is White Oleander, which I will get to at a later point, perhaps today.

Harmony has now reached level 13. Using my fun new skills, I have reached an important conclusion and developed a good strategy for handling groups. First, nova costs a LOT of mana. Second, I run up to them and cast off a frost nova. This is followed up by two quick static field blasts, then a nova, and another frost nova(to keep them frozen of course, not much damage at such a low level). I then retreat a couple steps and fire off two fireballs into their midst, and then charge in to finish them off with my staff. As it is, I am doing a lot of damage at this low level with the staff. Later on this won't become a viable strategy, at least at the end. But it has some good things about it.

And now for your moment of Zen.

Results of Poker are in!

Nate and Philip were the big winners of the night, each pulling in $17. I came following up with $5. It cost Josh and Dan $17 and $22 to play, respectively. Fun was had by all.

Next poker night, $5 entry, with dime ante. Woo hoo!

In other news, my tri-elementalist sorceress (using frost nova, nova, and fireball) has soared ahead to level 10. Fireball and nova are coming soon...

So the senate passed the bill for homeland security with all of the added provisions the republican party thought was cool but really aren't. Stupid republicans.

In other news, I cannot find any coverage of the court ruling that the ten commandmants being posted in an Alabama school is against the seperation of church and state. Has anyone else found that yet? I'll keep looking.

The truth will come out.

High stakes poker is tonight. We'll find out how much these months of practicing with the brothers will pay off. So, who thinks I'm going to lose it all?

And now for your moment of Zen.

So, lots and lots of news.

Saw Harry Potter on friday. Very very good. Review to come.

Last marching band performance ever was on saturday. Very very sad.

Going to see Cabaret on Thursday! Very very excited. Going to play high stakes poker tomorrow. Very very excited.

Piccolo died. Very very sad.

Didn't sleep much last night. Very very tired. I did start to record my dreams though. Yay.

And now for your moment of Zen.

(entry v. reminiscent of Bridget Jones' diary - ed.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zork online!!!!!

Holy mother of GOD!

I am in heaven.

For hints, go here. You cheater.

Text-only games are taking the internet by storm! Two classics, one a book, another the most-loved atari game of all time, are finally on the web for your reading enjoyment. First up we have Where's Waldo Online. Secondly, and the most exciting, PONG! Now I can finally say it. I've seen it all folks.

Some kid set himself on fire and had some friends tape it in a manner reminiscent of "Jackass". What a jackass.

Iraq's parliament rejects the UN resolution unanimously. But the final decision is up to the Butcher of Baghdad, who has to decide by Friday. My guess is that it's just an empty statement to the US, and that Saddam will approve of it. If not, he's a moron.

Tomorrow is the first day you can buy Episode 2. For some reason, I am not all that excited. It may have something to do with the ads...

I got a haircut.

The funniest man on the face of the planet, and possibly elsewhere.

Hey, I now have a place that I can put actual content! Yeah, instead of just random stupid comments by me, you can actually look at pictures, and, um, do other, uh, stuff. Yeah.

Shut up.

Just click me.

Well well well, election results are in. In Virginia, the voters had enough sense to vote for the bond issue for higher education, so Virginia's colleges now have 900 billion dollars to spend on construction projects. JMU is getting 99.9 million, the highest of any school, for MUCH needed renovations to some of the older buildings (like Jackson), PLUS an ACTUAL recital hall! Yes, no more recitals in Anthony-Seeger, Center for the Perfoming Arts. Too bad it won't be in enough time for Philip's recital next week.

Nationally, the Republican Party won a lot of elections. They now have control of both the senate and the house. This makes me very uneasy. Anytime one party has the majority of seats in all of congress and has the president...I don't care which party it is, we will be seeing some very party agendized things going through. So what if it isn't a word. They also have a majority of the governors in office.