Repentence

For reasons, I have been thinking a lot about apologies lately. Sometimes, apologies can be swift resolutions to situations, sincere or not. Other times, apologies are only the beginning of the resolution. These apologies are the most painful for both the apologizer and the apologizee. The apologizee because something horrible has occured at their expense. The apologizer, because they caused the horrible occurance and they wish they could undo it, but they can't. These apologies are often met with verbal forgiveness, but the real forgiveness comes over time as the person who apologizes proves they are truly apologetic. Until then, both sides of the apology are in this weird state where they both feel crappy about they who had to apologize. It's also strange how much sincerety hurts sometimes.

Anyway, I'm sorry to you. I probably will be for awhile. In a way, I guess I will be forever.
Thanks for your forgiveness.
I'll stop now.

Know who I've been thinking a lot about lately? Cybill Shepard.

This brain is out of practice

On the side bar on page 52 of the January 26 edition of Entertainment Weekly is a "Ask The Critic" section answered by Owen Gleiberman.

Q - What do you think has driven the recent on-slaught of zombie films? Do they tap a current fear or is the genre just a cyclical thing? - Vincent

A - When George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead came out in 1968, it didn't just give birth to all those relentless flesh-eating gouls; it gave rise to a hundred metaphors. The image of clawing, lumbering corpses chomping on the innards of the living was said to express the madness of Vietnam, and then - 11 years later, in Dawn of the Dead - it became a blood-red satire of consumerism. (Where would college pop culture departments be without George A. Romero?) The revival of zombie films certainly reveals that the genre is cyclical, yet its meaning, I'd argue, has slowly leaked away. Yes, 28 Days Later tweaked our fear of disease, and the inspired Shaun of the Dead lampooned Britain as a nation of zombified couch potatoes, but in Romero's Land of the Dead (2005) and 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake, the living dead expired as vital symbols. They were just monsters.

Interesting, but I think Gleiberman is selling Land of the Dead short. Sure, it was shoddy as far as zombie movies go, but I'm not so sure it didn't have a "metaphor" to it. In the movie, the rich business man of the city (played by, bless his heart, Dennis Hopper) ruled the city with his money and turned the city pretty evil. The zombies lived in the outskirts of town, and some lower-class people were given the job to go kill them and get supplies. Anyway, the zombies end up making their way to the city. The people of the city were ready, surrounding the city with a wide man-made body of water. But, the zombies broke one of the chief rules of zombie movies and walked in water that was over their head to the city. This could show that things in the world have gotten to the point where rules don't stop anyone from doing what they truly want to do. Then, at the end of the movie, those who survived the attack had to leave the city to the rule of the zombies and find another place to live. This might signify the lack of control the good guys have.
Or, maybe Gleiberman is right. I've never been great at discerning movie metaphors.

I know. I've missed posting about zombies as much as you have missed reading my posts about zombies.

Talking to you, girl, is like long division

Just so you know, I haven't forgotten about finishing the Sundance blog. I just don't feel like it now. And more daunting is that I just read the other one and it is in need of some editing and adding of pictures.

I'm so vain, I probably think this blog is about me

Ever since Christmas, work has been boring. The few customers who do come into my department are pretty adament about "just looking". Emphasis on the words "few" and "customers". This has left me with a lot of time to fill. Part of that time has been filled with watching shows like Mythbusters, NEXT, Real World Denver, and the History Channel. Even more time has been devoted to reading. I'll read magazines like mental_floss, ESPN The Mag, Sporting News, and as of yesterday, GQ. I'll read my textbooks for school (though this is where I usually decide to watch television instead). Other times I'll go print of sports articles by Mike Kahn, Charley Rosen, and Bill Simmons and read them. But what has become my favorite reading material is the "I Saw You...." section at the back of City Weekly. It's so great. Sometimes it's pathetic. Sometimes it's creepy. Sometimes you can tell that if the person who was seen ever reads the plea to be seen again, they will not only not answer said plea but they will never frequent the place they were "seen" at.

I wonder how one feels when they realize that they are the one being talked about. Is it the ultimate compliment, or the ultimate horror?

Here are some of my favorites (whether specific or general):

• Those that proclaim 'love', even though the two people have, in most cases, not even officially met.
• Those where the "seeing" happened at the gym (if by a boy, it usually tells of him staring while she was working out and/or includes the word 'chick'.)
• Which leads us to: those that say the word 'chick'. How stone age is that? I really like to picture the people who write the ads. Whenever the 'chick' is used, I picture a kid who can't doesn't grow a lot of facial hair with a dirty goatee, big thick hoop earings (whatever those are called when boys wear them), an oversized white Adidas pull-over jacket with navy blue trim, a "spouse beater" underneath said jacket, and dirty white Nike Airs. The kid hasn't showered for two days, but he does have a better than average body. While writing the ad the to the chick, he was listening to Fifty Cent. He could also use some Proactive. I hate to stereotype (okay, I love to stereotype), but some people deserve it.
• Any meeting that happened in a coffee shop. This is my favorite to hate. Didn't Tom Hanks have a movie where he met a girl in a coffee shop? If so, 'nuff said.
• One of my all-time favorites was a kid who wrote the ad from the University of Utah's Marriott Library (where I sit right now). It went something like, "I am sitting next to you in the Marriott Library. You are so beautiful....." and then he went on to describe him and her. Another one from a public library told of the time that both were on the computers and the time and finished with, "I'll be on the same computer at the same time for the next to weeks if you want to meet."

In honor of that, I will now write my own "I saw you..." to the fellow next to me at the library (if there was a girl, I would write it to her, but since there isn't.....):

Hey dude. You are sitting next to me in the computer lab. Wanna meet?

This guy I work with...

This guy I work with likes to watch one of those People's Court shows because he thinks the judge is "a cutie".

TRENDS

"In my/your pants" is the new "that's what she said".

So I am reading the Old Testament and am in Deuteronomy

Every time I open it the Book up, I think to myself, "Ha. Dude-eronomy."