Boredom is to blame for many things...

Grumplestiltskin.

At this moment in time… and probably for a while, I am unemployed.

Well, sorta. I’m actually at work while I write this. Except that it ends… today, actually. So let’s just say that I am indeed without income.

More background for you folk: I just got out of college, double-majoring in two pointless degrees, and had just gotten used to the whole college bubble before it was ripped away from me and forced me into something they call “the real world.” Which I believe is a place where everything is miserable, and you’re better off dead.

(Oh. Actually, I have one three week class starting next week. So I’m not done with college just yet, I suppose. What’s the point of this post again?)

I'm supposed to hate everything and bemoan the fact that I have to pay the bills and worry about finances and what not... but I don't, really. Well... actually, I do.

OK. OK. Ignore everything that I have said so far. We're just going to start this all over again.

THINGS SLASH JACKSON HAS BEEN DOING IN HIS FREE TIME

by Slash Jackson

1) Playing this flash game. Over and over again.

(I want you dead, cat.)

2) Nintendo 64. As I mentioned, I recently stole my brother's N64 from home when I went back to pick up a mattress for my new place. Unfortunately, the games my brothers had were limited at the time to only Super Mario 64 and a bunch of wrestling games. I like Super Mario 64, but I was playing and the Little Big World pissed me off in various ways, so I haven't touched it since then. The wrestling games are fun, however... even if it makes me feel uncultured for even touching them. I blame you and your pretentious bias against anything sleazy.

3) Movies.

So a while back ago... way back when I was naive and deciding to expand my cinematic horizons or something like that. I decided that I would attempt to see every film on the IMDB top 250. Cause that's a cool goal to have, right? Completing it means you get to watch a bunch of movies, and a bunch that the popular consensus deems to be pretty doggone awesome and everything. I'd be the coolest kid on the block.

Of course, I found myself rather disinterested in the whole pursuit once I realized the amount of dreck actually on the dang list. (Like Braveheart. And The Matrix.) But still, I find myself trying to hit 250, even if it's less of an active pursuit now. Maybe it's because I have little else to do with my free time. Maybe it's because I want to be able to say "yeah, I've seen all the movies on the IMDB Top 250. And they all SUCKED BALLS." That'd sound pretty impressive, right?

Well, impressive to a 12 year old, in any case.

Anyway. So yesterday I saw M, Brief Encounter, & All Quiet On The Western Front, all of which appear on the Top 250. And honestly, were it not for the list, I probably wouldn't be seeking out the last two films to watch either.

...

*goes back to the cat game while he tries to figure what he was going to say*

Aha! You are bested once again, little kitty!

Anyway, as for Brief Encounter & All Quiet On The Western Front... I didn't really care for any of them. The latter I didn't care for because I watched it at 4 AM in the morning, and was essentially using it as a sleep deterrent. As for Brief Encounter... eh. The film plays out as an insignificant diversion for two Britians bored with their mundane upper-class lifestyles or something... and that's pretty much it. I suppose it was competently made and all that crap, but they weren't trying to do anything but present a doomed romance here, and if you're going to do that, you better have characters and ideas that are new and intriguing. It didn't, so there.

I guess what I'm getting at is that... well, the IMDB list doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. You knew that, though. You don't need me to tell you that. I'm stopping right here.

(M is really good, though. But again, you should know that. It's really remarkable how effective the use of sound is here--especially considering it was Fritz Lang's first sound film. But not just the whistling and all that jazz, but the way in which he sometimes doesn't use sound, or lets one particular sound just float out there in space on its own--makes it all the more tense and chilling. Oh, and the first time I watched it, I fell asleep. Cool, huh? You just ain't gonna get that sort of insight anywhere else, kids!)