We didn't start the fire...

Wow the world is really a mess right now. There is another war in the Middle East. This one is a little different though, moderate leaders while are not supporting Israel have condemned the actions of Hezbollah. This is a major shift in thinking and one that is a de facto recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia. Things in Gaza are going to hell too. Second, bush has officially used his first veto. Today he vetoed a bill from the senate that would allow federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. Here are some facts that the 700 Club fans may not know. First, embryos that are not used for researched are destroyed. Second, this research has a great potential to cure many life threatening medical problems. So Mr. Bush is not saving any unborn babies, and he isn’t helping in saving people with cancer. America continues to be bogged down in Iraq, with no end in site and our allies leaving a fast as they can. Major heat wave is crawling across Europe and America killing people and knocking out air conditioners. Cubs still suck. The United States government is charging to evacuate their own citizens (I’m glad my country is looking out for my interests). Taliban resurgence… I didn’t start the fire…

Fuck this I’m going to Las Vegas tomorrow!!

Aloha honolulu, Aloha Chicago

Well I’m back in Chicago and I must say that I’m really happy about it. The last few days in Honolulu were a disaster. The entire time that we were there we never ate at Roy’s which is the premiere restaurant in Hawaii. That is what Cassie and I love to do when we’re anywhere, eat at good restaurants. We scheduled it so that we would go there our last night there. Well the movers were supposed to be there at noon which should give us plenty of time. They showed up six hours late, yes six hours!!

We moved the reservations back. When the movers finally arrived they took one look and said it could be done in one hour. We didn’t have that much stuff so we thought we could still make it. After talking my way out of a fine for moving out after 5:00 we thought that we were on our way; except for the concept of Hawaii time.

One hour in Hawaii time is really four hours normal time. So the movers were done at 10:00, Cassie and I missed our dinner, and we had not eaten the entire day. That still was not the worst part. The movers completely ignored what can and can not be packed and therefore out NetFlix movies were packed, empty boxes, cigars, garbage, and maybe some of our landlord’s things (we were in a furnished apartment). Still not the worst part.

It seems that the moving company made a bad estimate and well, we got charged twice as much. Then the movers left without leaving us any paperwork. We got fucked, but what were we supposed to do? Our plane was leaving the next morning and they had already packed our things.

The result, we’re ruling out any chance of us moving to Honolulu again. That is along with several other horrible things that Honolulu represents. Viva Chicago!!

I'm a Toys R Us Kid

Cassie and I are waiting for the movers and I was just thinking that my grade school had only one spelling bee, no science fairs, and a slide that had graffiti of a large penis on it for the entire six years I was there. Damn that grade school sucked. I lost my keys one time and for the rest of my father’s life he told people that I lost my keys all the time. I hated that. It rained every Halloween that I went to that school. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m glad I’m a grown up because I can eat and spoil my dinner, I don’t have to go down slides (they really are not that much fun), and if I choose to enjoy kids things that is only a bonus.

I leave tomorrow morning for my flight to Chicago. It is warm there so I can wear slippers all the time there too.

DONE

Yes! I am done with my classes. One July 13^th I’ll be flying out of Honolulu and will arrive by the end of that day in Chicago. I’m really looking forward to returning to Chicago. I’m going to see a Cubs game, and see them lose I think; and see some concerts which there is a deficiency of in Honolulu. I’ll be heading to Tokyo Japan in about a month.

In the meantime I plan to drink and read and finish off some loose ends (my business plan). Cassie and I saw a couple of movies and are planning some wonderful last nights out in Hawaii. Personally I wish I was leaving a little earlier, but now I want to just get off the island.

Two more movie reviews

Superman Returns is simply a painful movie to watch. I have mad it clear that I’m not a big fan of Superman, but I was hoping for a better story, more action, and a great Lex Luthor, but I got none of it. The movie takes place after the first two Superman movies (throw out the shitty ones) and has Superman returning after five years. He makes it known that he went to his home planet to see if it was still there or not. Superman comes back and things are pretty much the same as they were, except now Ms. Lane is engaged (to Cyclops!!) and has a child that is a little two sickly. There are a few action sequences, Superman saves a crashing plane and foils a bank robbery, but little in the way of action in the first two hours. Lex Luthor himself switches between vanilla evil bad guy to someone who hates Superman because he doesn’t share technology. In the end there is another land sale based plot that is weak and doesn’t give Lex Luthor justice. The last half hour is when the shit hits the fan, but it really doesn’t. The fictional city of New York, I mean Metropolis, is hit with some natural disasters but they are ultimately weak to what they should be. Superman fight Kumar, that was pretty cool. In the end Superman wins because he’s Superman which is stupid.

My main beefs with this movie is that this isn’t so much a sequel as it is an homage to the original two movies. There are a lot of parallel scenes that are just different enough. The plot is essentially the same as the first movie. Also there is an attempt to make this a deeper movie, but the characters are just too shallow. Superman is good, Lex Luthor is bad, Clark Kent is a dweeb and Lois Lane is a career minded professional. Finally Lois’s son wasn’t needed and takes away from the movie. No one is fooled about this character and it simply wasn’t needed. What was good about this movie was Kumar beating up Superman and that Superman does not rip off his super symbol and fling it at the enemy like in Superman 2. I do not recommend watching this movie unless you wish to satisfy a curiosity about a movie that took something like 15 years to make.

The Devil Wears Prada is not an action movie at all but involves a fashion inept Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway who isn’t ever topless) working for a stuck up bitch of a boss who is the number one fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Both performances are top notch especially Meryl Streep whose performance alone makes it worth seeing. We get to see Andy dive into her work because it could be an opportunity of a lifetime and even become successful at it. Andy overtakes the other assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) who first hates her because how fashion deficient Andy is, then hates her because Andy does her job better. As Andy starts putting in all sorts of hours, and gainig fashion her personally life with her boyfriend begin to slip, and persistent freelance writer, Christian Thompson tries to move in. At first I did not like this aspect of the plot but it turns up really good and answers some strange plot questions that you may have.

In the end Andy needs to make some choices and the ones she makes fits with the movie and not with what should be expected. She learns from each of her choices and from each of her failures and it is fascinating to watch her character morph. There are certainly several scenes that are classic. One where Miranda proves that fashion is important and how Andy wearing something unfashionable is linked to the world of fashion. One of the primary characters getting hit by a car is certainly classic. Well there are many more but I don’t want to spoil the movie, watch it for even a a person that thinks fashion is silly (like me) loved this movie. I have no doubt that it will be one of the best movies that I will see this year.