8/21/09

We went to see “District 9” last night. I'm disappointed. It was a mish-mash of styles, telling an outlandish story, with so many plot holes you’d think George Lucas wrote it. As we were leaving, I said to John, “Well, I suppose if you can suspend disbelief long enough for an alien ship to just sit there over Johannesburg for twenty years, then you can suspend disbelief about general human nature.” The human element in the film as so over-the-top with their douche-baggery that I was almost offended. The “hero” was such a prick I was hoping the aliens would just eat him and get it over with. Speaking of eating, “Cat Food” is the aphrodisiac for the aliens? What the fuck? How is ground up meat products marketed for felines different than ground up meat products marketed for canines? Sure, cats have different nutritional needs and therefore they are different products, but for crying out loud, not that different! I don't know, I thought that was a bit silly. And then there’s the “Prawns” themselves. Are they mindless scavenging beasts or are they intelligent victims of a bad situation? Most are shown to be the former while one, our co-hero if you will, seems to be the latter. By the way, I love the derogatory use of the word “Prawn” for the aliens, I'm not sure why. The thing that irked me the most was how it started out in documentary fashion with hand held camera shots and everyone involved in the action. Then, all of a sudden, there’s “third person” shots of the Prawns talking to each other. I wanted to say, “Wait, where did that cameraman come from and why are they just chatting in front of him?” Then we pop back into documentary mode for a bit and then we’re back to watching a “regular” movie. Seriously, choose a style and stick with it. At least have the documentary stuff look different, or something. When the film began I thought, “Oh great, a ripoff of ‘Cloverfield,’” which was itself a ripoff of “The Blair Witch Project,” albeit a good rip there off. This turd however, just got lost. I didn't hate it when I walked out, but the more I think about it the more I think I do. In fact, I'm going to start referring to it as “District Nein!” with a sharp slashing motion of the hand to signify that I mean the German for “no,” as in “Don’t go see this film.” So, there’s that going on in my world. Oh, I went to the doctor yesterday. He didn't finger my butt-hole so there’s that in the plus column. He does want me to start watching my blood sugar to see if I'm becoming diabetic. And finally, he wants me to have a sleep survey to see if I've got that sleep apnea thing, or something. Whatever. I go in on the 12^th of September for that. So, yeah. I guess all in all I'm going to survive, for a while at least. OK, the pictures of the last Birkinstock (as I'm wont to call the Southwest Sevens Festival) just came up on the work computer. I really need to get Shichi back into operational order. I really hope John balks at, or is at least able to come to the shop after, cleaning his garage tomorrow. It’s not that I don't want to help, OK there is some of that, but I really want to get cracking on installing those carburetors. We’ll see what he has to say after reading that ever so subtle hint just there. Tee hee. I got a late start today because when I woke up I thought it was Saturday. I didn't make it in to the office until 0900 h, an hour late. But even with that late start, the day is crawling by. It is only 1050 h now. I'm not sure I'm going to make it to 1700 h today. Well, we’ll see. I think I'm done with y'all for a while. In fact, I'm going to call this a rant and... I don't know, maybe go ride around with Larry Shuttlebus for a while.