I'm dedicating this entry to my bored at work readers (Hi Jade! Frantic hand waving!) This entry should clear up Michele's latest entry for those of you who were confused.

So lately on our way home from the confines of lovely UC Berkeley, Michele and I have seen Turkeys, (yes Turkeys) standing in the middle of the road right as we are about to merge onto 680 after decending from the Berkeley Hills. So normally they are just sitting to the side of the road and we both scream "Turkeys!", giggle, perhaps contemplate what the hell they are doing there and then continue on our merry way.

Yesterday however was a rare treat. As we are coming down the hill Michele and I were both wondering where the Turkeys were, as we hadn't seen them in a couple of days, and low and behold all of a sudden two cars in front of us there was a sudden stop. The Turkeys were trying to cross the street. Why I don't know as across the street there is only a chain link fence and dirt and not the nice green hills they are used to playing on. So while this car is trying to get passed them to get on the freeway, the Turkeys are just wandering around in the middle of the road Michele and I are happily screaming "TURKEYS! TURKEYS!" and wondering why these people aren't beeping their horns at them.

The antics of the Turkey with the car directly in front of us was even funnier as they also didn't beep their horn and kept moving like an inch and then breaking as all the Turkeys were wandering too and fro in the middle of the lane with no clear direction. One in fact ran over to the car as if it wanted to check it out or hop in. (Turkeys are not very bright). Keep in mind that now there are at least 10 cars behind us probably wondering what the hell is going on, one of them being Bob, Kristen's dad. Then it was our turn and I immediately beeped my horn and the Turkeys knowing authority when they hear it all moved to the green side of the hill double time. As I start to drive past, Michele quickly rolls down her window and screams, "Turkeys" directly at the Turkeys as we drive by. I couldn't stop laughing and almost crashed from not being able to see the road with the tears in my eyes. I am in fact giggling about it right now with the mere thought of it all.

I still wonder if Bob gets as much enjoyment out of these Turkeys as we do. I hope so, because no one should pass up the chance to scream, "Turkeys!" when given the opportunity. I also wonder what these Turkeys do the rest of the day. Do they have other places to hang out? Why are they almost always there on our way home? Does someone take care of them? How did they get there? Is there a whole community of wild Turkeys in the Berkeley Hills? So many questions and no answers.

And for my avid conspiracy theory readers a conspiracy can be read into the strange appearance of these Turkeys. I mean it must be a consipiracy that the Turkeys are randomly there. Someone is trying to make competent drivers try and crash by distracting them with Turkeys, or someone is watching from the bushes tapping these antics for Funniest Home Videos. Or it could be a cover up for an even bigger conspiracy that my tiny brain cannot contemplate beacuase all I can think about is "Turkeys!" All I'm saying is watch out, those Turkeys are confused and dangerous (they are not bright like those squirrels though, they're just diabolical) but remember the way to foil the Turkeys is a good blast of the horn. Remeber that, blast of the horn. I'm still working on a way to foil the squirrels.

So I don't know if anyone cares but the radio station Alice is doing this "everyday awards" promotional thing where you can earn points by really doing almost nothing which you can then redeem for prizes. (So really Doing Nothing = Prizes) Here's the info page and the catalog of stuff you can get. Basically every day they tell you the word of the day and if you enter it on the website you get 200 points. You can get points for other things too, but this is the easiest and because I hear it everyday on my way to Michele's house anyway I might as well get something out of it. And if you're like, "but I'll never hear this word of the day", I have only one thing to say, "duh. I'll know it and I like to share." And that is equal to 1000 points a week. Some of the prizes are pretty cool although for some of them it would take a while to get THAT many points. Whatever though, I'm going to attempt it anyways. They also update it every now and again with new prizes.

Right okay so the point of this entry was not for the following, it was informational only, but if you're interested in participating and getting the free stuff well I can get some points when you sign up and don't you want to do something nice for me? So if you're going to sign up let me know before you do and I can send out an email that will get me some points. Yea. Yea. Prizes, Swag and more stuff for me.

That is all.

So this was the first Indian made movie I ever saw. Sumit made me watch it a couple of years ago and it was then that I fell in love with bollywood. Not that I've watched many Indian movies since then. I'm deathly afraid of getting duds I know are out there, so I keep asking Sumit to tell me what's the big movie of the moment as he's in the know, or should be, being Indian and all, but he never remembers the names and so is no help to me at all.

Anyways, I recently decided to rewatch Mohabbatein and I'm telling you those 3.5 hours flew by. Indians took the musical format and ran with it and then sprinted some more and then threw it into another time zone. The movie is admittedly more about how to get another song in than actually following a serious plot. Not that the plot is horrible mind you, just sappy, with lots of dramatic sudden close ups and overacted dramtic statements. I love it anyways. I embrace the sappiness! But there are pretty, pretty girls, and upbeat songs and lots of color, oh god and the dance numbers. I giggle from the meer memory of them.

After the movie was over and I was awash with the glow of happiness that any good musical will bestow I thought, "Why can't life be more like a musical?" Why can't I have a demon come and cast a spell so that everyone sings about anything emotional? Why can't I live in Buffyland? Oh right those pesky vampires. Right okay I'll take it without the vampires thank you very much. I mean if I feel this happy after watching people sing about their make believe lives imagine how happy everyone would be if we randomly sang about our own. It would be brilliant. You can't convince me otherwise.

And so then I've been reading The Subtle Knife where there are multiple worlds that touch and I'm thinking there could be a muscial world. It could happen. I want to visit there and see what it's like, all I have to do is rip a hole between the worlds and I'll find it. And then I remember the show Sliders where they travel between multiple realities and then it's all gone to hell. You see how my mind works. Disturbing isn't it.

My whole point here though is:

1. Mohabbatein = Good clean Indian fun, if a little sappy.
2. I like musicals a little too much and need therapy to keep me from bursting into song next time I have an emotion, especially since I can't sing.
3. I should never be allowed to find a way to travel between multiple realities.

OOOOO Sexy Librarian

**Note: So this post was up on Wednesday 1/22, but Michele made me take it down cause she was going to suprise Kristen with the cd. Kristen then foiled my plans to put it back up when she didn't come to work Thursday so now finally, two days later I am allowed to post it, although now the entry is irrelevant but I thought the pictures should be shared anyways.**
**2nd Note: Having listened to the album in the car with Michele all I can say is "Good God"**

I'm sure I'm behind on the times, but I was just browsing Amazon.com and found out that Giles (aka Anthony Stewart Head) has an album out. Did everyone know but me? Did I know and forget? I thought it would at least be entertainment value one way or another so....here it is for your browsing pleasure, Music for Elevators.

Mr. Head in leather. (aka Giles in leather)
Mr. Head with a glass of wine? (Don't forget the nailpolish!)

So you people have failed to amuse me today (exceptions go to Sean who had a whopping two entries today and maybe Kristen except that she never tells the truth). With boredom bearing down like a little black cloud which is threatening rain over my head I started purusing the internet. With a glazed expression over my face, I came acorss (ominous dun dun dun) pictures from Kathleen (the cousin who got married in October) and Larry's honeymoon. Now while many of you won't give a hoot about these pictures, me in my bored almost catatonic state, was highly amused by them all. "Why?" you ask. Well mainly because it's obvious that in most of them Kathleen is forcing Larry to pose and he ain't too happy about it. My favorite I believe is the one where he is sitting among the "poohs" and Kathleen's caption is "pooh with poohs". (She calls him pooh) I nearly wet myself with laughter.

So I thought I would share my day's few seconds of amusment with the rest of you, although really I should hoard them to myself. If you're out there and bored, toggle through some pictures. But you're not bored, I'm sure you're not, because otherwise you would be writing in your blogs to amuse me right? RIGHT!? Right....

So has anyone else noticed how unafraid all the squirrels on the Berkeley campus are? They freak me out. They walk the paths with nuts or scrounged food in their mouths like they're going to class or to a business meeting. They scamper as if they OWN the path. The most terrifying aspect is that if you happen to be coming the opposite way on the path from them they freeze and look at you and all I can think is nice little squirrel, I'm just going to go this way and you go that way and don't bite me! Don't bite me!

I'm convinced that one time instead of slowing scampering by as I side step them it's going to bite me out of sheer malice for walking on "its" path. In fact today as I was walking to Sproul Hall I ran across one that had a giant walnut in its mouth and as I come up he freezes and then I freeze and then I move and then he moves the same direction so that I almost step on him! It's a squirrel conspiracy I tell you. They're looking for a reason to bite me and when they finally find one the squirrel will have rabies. All I'm saying is don't trust them. They're scary little critters, and the ones on campus are freakishly aware of what's going on. I think they're super evil mutant squirrels and they're plotting to take over the planet. But hey, that's just me.

I have just found out that Harry Potter Book Five is to be released on June 21st. I am so excited even if it is 6 motnhs away. New Harry Potter! New Harry Potter! Whoo. I'm going to have to calm down here. Deep breaths.

SO EXCITED!

First it was the California Quarter, now it's the "New Twin Towers". Vote if you like or just stare in bemusement, because some of these designs are just plain weird. Happy viewing!

Well I saw Gangs of New York this weekend and I was highly disappointed. I wanted to like this movie, I went in hoping it would stand up to the hype and prove it's mettle. Maybe it was the build up. The critics have been claiming how great it is, it was billed as an epic, a type of movie I usually enjoy because of all the drama and pull of heartstrings, and even Michele raved about it, and yet it fell flat. Maybe it was just too big a task, maybe the subject was too gritty or "real", or maybe the story just sucked, but whatever it was the movie caused no emotion except indifference. I cared nothing about any of the characters or their predicament. I have in fact felt more concern for characters in much a stupider movie (i.e. On the Line)

Now some of you may be going, "but it's Scorsese, he's great, he's grand and he loves New York. He's made us love gangsters, how can you not feel for his new creations?" Well the truth is I love his movies as much as the next person. Goodfellas is a classic and even though I can't watch half of it becuase of all the violence I still enjoy it, I just try and forget the violence by covering my eyes. But while in Goodfellas I felt invested in the fate of Ray Liotta's character I couldn't have given a damn about Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Amsterdam. Leonardo, who I feel is one of the better actors of his generation, didn't do well in this role. I never felt any sympathy for him, nor did I ever feel like he ever had ANY feelings of revenge, to me it looked as if he was just going through the motions and would never have even gotten around to it if he hadn't been made to feel guilty about saving his father's killer. The boy who played young Amsterdam made me feel more in the 10 minutes he was in the film than DiCaprio did for the next two and a half hours.

As for Daniel Day-Lewis the truth is I love this man. I have loved him since his role in the Last of the Mohicans. In every role I have every seen him in he is different and always amazing. He was no less brilliant here than he is in any other role and yet I still did not have much feeling for his character. Bill the Butcher was deftly portrayed and yet I still couldn't even muster up even a little bit of dislike or contempt for him.

I think that my main problem with the movie was its main story. It felt forced and predictable. It was one predicable death, betrayal, and plot twist after another. It's been said to have "sweep and vision" by the critics. Gangs of New York neither swept me away nor made me feel as I was being shown anything of importance that could not have been revealed better by someone who is an authority on the time period. I say leave the sweep and vision description to a movie who deserves it, like Lawrence of Arabia.

There were some things I enjoyed about the movie. The sets were incredible, but while they were wonderfully done and great to look at to me it felt as if it was a wonderful stage for display and not a living inhabited place. It felt as if everyone was just visting for a while. The most interesting thing to me in the film was the depictions of the people who inhabited the Five Points and of the poor in general in New York at the time. I did feel as if I was seeing what types of conditions the poor were living at the time and how awful it was, and yet I felt as if the movie's plot rotated around merely depicting the draft riots. The story worked towards that end, the riots being the culmunating background event to the story. It was if Scorsese wanted to show the Draft Riots place in History, but instead of focusing on it he merely used it as a plot devise and the end result made it feel as if it was stuck in there as an afterthought to make the movie historically viable. To me the movie would have been better served if they had actually focused on the riots for the whole movie, as in the couple weeks before, and the actual riots following certain people involved in them, and the recovery afterwards. The stories of families and individuals actually effected by the riots would have made for a much more riviting tale. As it was depicted in the film it was like yea here are the riots, they happened. Weren't they horrible and violent. Gangs of New York gave me an understanding as to why the masses rose up and rioted, but I had no sympathy for them or for thsoe being attacked by them.

So basically I did not get any sense of what the time period was like. I got a flash here and there, as when the film wonderfully showed newly arrived immigrants coming off the boats, becoming citizens, joining the army and in turn getting on another boat to go join the war while coffins were being unloaded, but on the whole it was a story that to just happened to be chosen in that time period so that Scorsese could film the violence he revels in.

I could probably say more, but I won't as I think I've ranted enough.

So I'm sitting here, being very bored at work, surfing the web, wishing I could just put it out in plain sight and read my book and actually feel like I'm doing something, and suddenly I find myself at www.historychannel.com I'm not thinking much of it, just looking to see if they have any interesting shows coming up or random facts to entertain my brain for a few seconds and then I see it at the bottom of the page, "What happened on your Brithday?" So being naturally curious I put in my birthday and here's what I found out:

1. The biggest thing to ever happen on my bday, at least according to the History Channel, besides me being born, was the murder for Lord Louis Mountbatten, 2nd cousin to Queen Elizabeth II by the IRA off the coast of Northern Ireland. How's that for having a mother from Belfast? Pretty damn interesting I'd say.

2. A lot of interesting people share my bday:

Ira Levin - Author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives (Again there is a weird mom connection as he is one of her favorite authors, her name is Rosemary, and her second child is named Adrienne, like the baby in the book)

Mother Teresa - How's that for being born under a good sign

Lydon Baines Johnson - Former President

Confucius - Yea I've got nothing to say about this one except, "cool"

Pee Wee Herman - Yep. Mr. Pee Wee himself.

And that's what I learned today being bored at work. Not bad for a days work I say, not bad.

So I just heard about this lawsuit against various record companies and retailers for causing the price of cds to go up. The defendants decided to settle instead of paying legal fees for a lenghty court battle. Part of the settlement is to give money to the consumers who were effected by the hikes in price. Depending on how many people file a claim you can get anywhere between $5 - $20. As of the end of December only 30,000 people had filed a claim. Now I'm sure you're thinking, "Why would I be able to qualify to get this $20?" The answer is because you bought a cd from a retail store sometime between 1995 and 2000. Did you? I'm sure you did. So to get a potential $20 dollars at no additional cost to you, all you have to do is answer three questions and give them your address.

This is the artice I read that explains the situation much better than me.

And this is the actual website where you can file a claim.

Now go get your $20 from those mean old record companies.

Screw voting at Election time. What you want to do is vote for something that really matters. Vote for the California Quarter. Go on! Go vote! Pick the one you like! Soon all the states will be looking at it. Don't let it be a crappy one. Please. Cause then we have to be the state with the crappy quarter. And who wants to be that state?! Not me. Don't give them another reason to mock us, they already have so many (Gray Davis, Education, Power shortage, etc)

My only qualm is that you can vote as much as you want. Do you think they have it rigged like Michele's polls? Where she can give herself the most votes with the click of a button. Is someone secretly plotting to make us the crappy quarter state? I shudder at the very thought. Violently.