I'm watching Love Actually, in honor of Valentines day. (Happy VD, everybody.) I have a love-hate relationship with this movie. There are a bunch of stories and they cover the whole spectrum for me. The storylines, as ordered by wikipedia:

Billy Mac & Manager: I really love this story. Billy Mac is a great character, he's like Jack Sparrow but more likable and more real. I love how he's sorta flapping his arms like a hippy when he's singing in the intro scene. As far as I know, Bill Nighy is always fantastic. And this storyline about maturing beyond the rockstar mentality and appreciating your friends warms my heart every time.

Juliet, Peter and Mark: Otherwise known as the weird third-wheel story. I'm not a big fan. The creepster friend likes his best friends' wife so much that he's awkward around her and does... weird stuff. Kiera Knightly is cute but too skinny, and she can't save this storyline. None of the characters are really fleshed out. I did enjoy, the first time I watched the movie, how it kinda tricks you into think the weird one is acting strange because he's gay for his friend. Because that might actually be kinda tragically touching. Instead you find out that he has an unhealthy fixation on his friend's wife. Let down. Maybe if we knew that he somehow knew Kiera Knightly from someone else. But you can't have your friend introduce you to his girlfriend and then decide they you're going to love her too. Or I guess you can, but you're an idiot.

Jamie and Aurélia: I didn't much like this storyline. Some male writer's wish-fulfillment fantasy of having a hot Portuguese maid fall into his arms despite his buffoonery. The end of the story is like something out of a broadway play or a fairytale. They don't even try to make it believable. The story also glosses over how discovering your brother fooling around with your wife will completely destroy a family. That would be a less-than-happy Christmas reunion.

Harry, Karen, and Mia: Kind of an interesting story, and well acted all around, but perhaps too abbreviated. It just isn't given enough time to drive home the drama. And what is up with that scene where Mr Bean takes 10 minutes gift wrapping the necklace while Alan Rickman is trying to rush him the whole time? Is that supposed to be funny? It was just oddly absurd.

David and Natalie: This story was okay, but also clearly a male writer's wish fulfillment of some kind. The young, single prime minister is awkward around women, and happens to have a hot, personable maid working in the white house (or the brit equivalent) who randomly confesses her love for the guy in a Christmas letter. The part about how the president's flirting with Natalie caused David to make a political stand against the USA was clever. But I'm not sure Hugh Grant makes a believable prime minister.

Daniel; Sam and Joanna: Liam Neeson is excellent, as he usually is. And I liked watching him try to connect with his step-son. The Sam and Joanna storyline was ridiculous. First, there's the random acrobatics in the airport at the end. They might as well have made the kid fly like superman. Also the kid looks like he's 12, and is in love with a girl who is 16. Plus she's American. Even if he plays the drums like a rockstar he doesn't have a chance, and that is how it's supposed to be. I'm sure half the guys in high school had crushes on hot senior girls when they were freshmen, and it never amounted to anything because freshmen boy don't really have anything to offer, um, anyone. The writers have stretched reality way too far. At least make the kid likable for some reason. Maybe he's super poetic or witty. Give me an excuse to believe he has a chance with a 16 year old rock star singer girl.

Sarah, Karl and Michael: Gah, this story was depressing. Girl has issues because her brother has serious issues, and you try to help her but you can't. Michael is essentially a non-character and his haircut was like something out of the 80s, and why doesn't he have a british accent?

Colin, Tony, Stacey, Jeannie, Carol-Anne, Harriet and Carla: What a random story to throw in there. It's like they threw in a surreal dream sequence where hot girls are falling out of the sky, but then at the end instead of waking up, the character says "I was awake the whole time!" Again, give me an excuse to believe this story. Milwalkee, Wisconsin? And that has to be the quietest bar I've ever seen. Who knew that's where the hotties go to slum it. It's like the writers went out of their way to make this storyline unbelievable. They could have just inserted this storyline as a cartoon, where all the girls are identical copies of Jessica Rabbit, and it would be equally believable.

John and Judy: Who is this? Oh, the stand ins. I guess a writer thought "wouldn't it be funny if people who are naked together every day for their job still feel awkward about making romantic overtures?" And it turns out that it really isn't that funny. I don't mind them adding boobs to the movie, but I could have easily done without this whole storyline. And then the movie might have been more successful with conservative people. I was at a college church group when they were discussing this movie. The review I got was "That movie is basically porn. I had to walk out." Later I discovered it was because these two characters mime sex as their job and we watch them trying to talk to each other while they do so. Anyway, a mostly boring subplot.

Rufus: Mr Bean. I'm not even going to comment on this non-storyline. Two appearances of a character does not a storyline make.

(comments about a torrent of The Room. No, I didn't download it, I own the dvd.)
animalstack: YOU ARE TEARING ME APART LISA!!!!
djTeka: Thanks! Gonna check this out, thanks to Tim and Eric making me interested in this movie!
seanhart213: I definitely have breast cancer.

I started watching Boston Legal. It has some funny parts, but not as many as I'd like. Is James Spader really that good looking? He's not super witty, definitely not very nice to people, and every girl at that office is all over him. William Shatner is pretty funny and there are some absurdly funny moments.

I've also started season 2 of Breaking Bad. That show just gets better and better, I think because it's giving more screen time to the inept drug dealer kid. I'm not a big fan of all the marital drama.

Kinda bored so looking through meetup.com to see if there's anything interesting. There's a bunch of things, but I'm not really sure what interests me. I'm not an enthusiast about anything. There's lots of sports, scrabble, concerts, writers support groups, things like that. I guess any of it might be fun with friends, but with random people it could so, so easily be a mistake. Also:
-Tapes n' Tapes at Rock n Roll hotel. I have a bunch of Tapes n' Tapes here some reason, I'm not sure why I ended up getting it. I really enjoy a few of their songs and some of the others are kind boring. But I haven't been to any concerts in a while now. And I don't think I've ever been down to the Rock n Roll hotel. That's way out on H street.
-Microcontroller Mondays, where a bunch of dudes get together and talk about their microcontroller projects. Sounds sorta interesting, but odds are it would be a bunch of guys I don't want to listen to talking excitedly about their homemade dvr or robot. And I'm not working on any microcontroller based projects of my ask anyone about. I was not impressed by their homepage's video about a cupcake they mailed to another hacker club in Canada. Being geeky for its own sake is not something to celebrate. Button that down and rejoin normal society.
I will be attending the Three Moves Ahead meet up tomorrow afternoon. A bunch of people (i.e. pretty sure all guys) are going to talk about strategy video games over some beers down in chinatown. Since I like strategy games I'm going to see if they have any insights or anything interesting to say. If it all gets too nerdy I'll just my beer drink faster.

Oh, I watched the Town. It was really good. Surprisingly good. I was expecting to fall asleep because it was right after eating a big dinner. But instead it was pretty much interesting all the way through. It was Ben Affleck's first believable role since Good Will Hunting. I guess he's suited for playing the seedy hoodlum types.

(from 30 Rock, after Jack misses the secret emergency meeting)
Devon Banks: I tried to call you, but not on a phone, so you may not have heard me.

I fell asleep watching Winter's Bone. How did an IMDB reviewer make that movie sound promising? Basically a girl walking around the woods asking people if they'd seen her drug dealer dad. And the backwoods people reacting guardedly or being openly hostile. Boring, and not many hot redneck girls. Surprise. (Looking through some other imdb reviews, I think they're written for movie makers or something. Lots of emphasis on atmosphere or artsy aspects. They need to put more emphasis on the "this movie sucks" aspect of the reviews. Lesson learned: don't believe imdb reviewers.)

And today I booted up my xbox to find that my saved game of Batman: Arkham Asylum was gone. I was going to write a glowing review of the game because it's really quite good. But apparently it has saving issues and lots of people online have had their saves corrupted. (And then other forum deadheads tell them "you can't shut down while it's saving," or "you can't switch to game of the year edition" or other unrelated banalities. Forum bottom feeders almost never have any answers, especially in video game related forums.) I wrote a scathing 2-star review of the game on Amazon, so I'm not feeling as frustrated about it any more. I'm just not sure if I want to replay the first 10 hours of the game.

soulpainter: Me too. I was standing in the main square. Batman had been standing still for a couple of minutes. I then decided to quit, which I did, correctly, through the menus. The game was not saving, and I did everything correctly. Next morning when I went into the game. Guess what, its stuffed. If anyone wants a copy of Arkham I think mine is still half way up the street...

The stylists at the hair butchery have found a new way to mess up my hair. I told the lady "Number 3 on the sides, a finger's width on top" just like I always do, but this lady had other ideas. First, she had a number 3 razor, but her preferred razor uses like the metric system or something, and so she just had "the equivalent" of a number 3.

Then, instead of a finger's width she used a comb and gave me "the equivilant of a finger's width". So instead of having hair that's 3/4s inch long, I have a 3/4 inch shapeless sphere of hair around my skull. I wasn't very happy. But then I went to visit Puja tonight.

Puja: Oh, you got your hair cut.
me: Yep, thanks for noticing. I'm not totally happy with it.
Puja: Why? It looks good... It looks better than your usual haircut.
(Thanks Puja!)

I hate shopping for shoes. You'd think it wouldn't be too bad because shopping online lets you see hundreds of different shoes and filter by style, size and color. But it still sucks because the current state of the shoe industry sucks.

I would wear normal business shoes like a regular adult but they are so, unbelievably uncomfortable. It's like walking in wooden Holland shoes. I'd have to become one of those people who take their shoes off in the office or at someone else's house as soon as they arrive. Yuck.

There was an episode of Grosse Point where the main actress, who was always mean and condescending toward everyone, had to gain a bunch of weight for a movie role. Suddenly she became super friendly and was asking production assistants' names and doing favors and stuff. The staff decided that she had always just been hungry. I'd be like that. Gone would be the friendly, witty, Joe, instead I'd be thinking all the time about how much my feet are killing me. And you can forget walking around DC. I'd be cabbing everywhere.

Running shoes on the other hand are super comfortable, but any one can tell with a glance that they're running shoes because they all conform to that distinct sneaker look with bright colors and fancy tread. Even if you try to compensate by wearing a suit or something it'll look silly. People will think you're wearing a swimming suit underneath to head out to the beach after work. Why can't they try to disguise running shoes as something more formal? I'm not to impress fellow athletes with the style of my shoe. They should make running shoes for non-athletes. I'm not running anywhere, I'm just trying to get through my day.

And why the heck do shoes all cost so much? $100 for a pair of shoes that aren't Nike pumps and it isn't 1991??? Crazy! Where is the money going? I should start a shoe company.

Some quick movie reviews.

You Again: This one was terrible. I was hoping for something like Just Friends, where Ryan Reynolds as a "cool adult" visits home and finds himself being pigeonholed back into his geeky role from high school. But this one was all about women acting like junior highers. Like Mean Girls, but with adults and not as clever. And no normal, straight-man characters to express disbelief and every character's immature. I can't believe I sat through this whole thing.

Centurion: Also terrible. There's a reason you never heard about this movie. It's not as bad as that King Arthur movie with Kiera Knightly, but it's close, and in a similar style but with more sweeping landscape shots a la lord of the rings. (More specifically, imagine that part of the beginning of The Two Towers when Aragon, Gimli and Legolas are running across the plains tracking the orcs. Probably half of this movie was like that scene, but with 6 dudes running away from a bunch of people tracking them on horseback, while the camera cuts from one group to the other and back again.) The other thing this movie had was lots of quick shots where a random guy gets his head smashed or something and blood splatters everywhere. I think there was a big battle scene that was just a series of quick shots of random guys getting hacked in the head or limbs. I guess that's kinda what war is. Things this movie didn't have: comic scenes, dramatic scenes, believable characters or interesting dialogue.

Never Let Me Go: This movie was surprisingly quite decent. I'd seen the movie The Island and the preview for this movie so I had a good idea of what to expect. The movie also starts out pretty slow and never really picks up speed (about a quarter of the way into the movie the story jumps 10 years and all the actors change. It was a little disorienting ). Some of the details about the science or the society seem a little far fetched but these far fetched aspects were sorta crucial to the story. I really enjoyed the way we saw the characters handle tragedy towards the middle and end of the film, which is what the movie really wanted to be about. Pretty good stuff.

Paper Man: This movie was pretty good too. I've never much liked Lisa Kudrow but I didn't totally hate her in this and all the other actors did well portraying believable characters. The story was interesting, the dialogue decent. There was a bit of comedy, a bit of drama. There was a slight plot twist that surprised me. Some of it was a little slow but all in all I liked this one.

(from a review of Action)
But the real stars were the writers. The show seems like it’s all about Peter Dragon, but it’s just as much the story of nebbish writer Adam Rafkin (or was it Alan Rifkin?…). Fighting to retain every sensitive allegorical scene in his magnum opus, Beverly Hills Gun Club (like the ritual slaughter of the pandas), Rafkin is the perfect counterpart to Dragon’s consummate amoral Hollywood insider.