Blog appearance

Wouldn't it be weird if I died somehow (maybe by murder, maybe by a more innocuous method, who knows) and people read my blog after my death??? I wonder what that would be like and what kind of an impression my blog would leave on people. I wonder if this blog gives off the impression that I am fascinated by death (and drug addicts). Speaking of drug addicts, I think it could be interesting to learn about drug addiction from a sociological standpoint. Sociology and linguistics (and pyschology as well, I guess) are areas that are very interesting to me and it angers me that linguists are not as appreciated as engineers. I wonder what it would be like to work in a modern art museum and choose the artwork that gets to be shown in the museum. I think that would be an interesting thing to do, among other things. Maybe someone would do artwork about drug addicts and I could choose to have that exhibited in the museum. I wonder if there's a museum about drugs somewhere. Speaking of drug addicts, it turns out that the National Institute on Drug Abuse has their office not that far away. Maybe I should pay them a visit sometime. I wonder if there's anything worth going to their office for, however. 

I forgot that the Champions League final was the previous weekend and therefore I wasn't able to watch it. I didn't want for Real Madrid to win. 

Anyways, there look to be some new themes available for blogspot blogs, which on one hand are kind of nice looking, but on the other hand I like the functionality of my current one, rather than a newer more funky looking modern one.

I wonder when/how I'll stumble upon my next favorite actor, and also who it will be. I haven't seen eyelashes guy on tv in awhile. The last time he was on, I didn't even really pay attention to what he said. His eyelashes are still nice and eyelashy though. I wonder if he hasn't been on as often as in the past and that's why I haven't seen him. Or maybe it's because I haven't been watching the news as much.  

Double review

I watched two things recently that I'm going to review here. One was a movie and the other was a documentary, both on Netflix.

We Need to Talk about Kevin
This movie was about a mother who has an unpleasant and detestable son who does bad things that eventually turn into violent things. It was told in a non-chronological fashion, which was kind of interesting. Overall it was a decent movie, but not brilliant like some things that I've watched. I think it could have been better, somehow. 
A vast majority of the movie was Tilda Swinton's character, the mother of Kevin, having an anguished expression on her face. It was somewhat... schadenfreudenly pleasing that the name of the son who was bad in this movie is the same name of an awful person that I had the misfortune to know of in real life. I hope he gets run over by a truck or burned to death in a fire or something and then the world could be rid of him. Wouldn't that be wonderful??? 

The Thin Blue Line
I didn't exactly pay as much attention as I maybe should have, so I think some details might have been lost on me and therefore that I need to read about the case so I understand what happened more clearly. This was a documentary from 1988 about a man who was wrongly convicted of murdering a police officer. The events happened in Texas so the people in the documentary had southern accents, which I thought was going to be distracting but their accents were actually surprisingly mild, and gave them an amiable feel. I thought it was a well done documentary and it didn't feel particularly dated - I guess the general elements of a documentary don't change that much over the years. The title refers to a concept that law enforcement is a "thin blue line" between society and anarchy, which is kind of interesting. Currently, it is also a symbol that represents support for law enforcement. 

I still want to watch Requiem for a Dream again. And I need to find time to watch the Wolf of  Wall Street. Plus ideally I would like to watch some movies that Peter Sarsgaard has been in because he is one of my new favorite actors. 

Alas

The situation to which the title refers is the existence of a certain fairly recent movie, which has (now) two of my favorite actors in it.
Ostensibly (it took me awhile to remember this word) you would think that I would want to watch this movie, especially since it has two of my favorite actors in it. And I sort of do, but I also sort of don't. The reasons that I don't want to watch it is because a) it is a western movie which isn't my thing. I prefer to watch things that are more sophisticated and/or deep, which I don't expect from this movie. I feel like if I watch this movie I will end up having a similar feeling to the one I had after watching Apocalypse Now. Although I might have a very slightly more positive opinion since this movie has some actors that I like and Apocalypse Now didn't. Regardless. The second reason is that Vincent, who is in this movie, does not look particularly appealing in his role. He is large and covered in facial hair (which I guess was the style back then) which is not my preferred look on him. I don't think Peter Sarsgaard looks particularly tasty in this movie either (this is an oblique reference to the British version of the Office, which I have been watching recently since it's now on Netflix).

So those are my hangups regarding this movie and I will continue to fret over them and possibly eventually give in and just watch the damn movie, but I haven't gotten to that point quite yet. I wonder if Leonardo DiCaprio will ever be in a western movie. Or maybe he already has been and I'm not aware of it. I wonder the same about James D'Arcy. There's probably less of a chance for him because he's British and western movies are an American thing. But who knows. I think he can do a pretty good American accent. And hmm. I just remembered. A few years ago I watched a science fiction western movie that had Daniel Craig in it. It was... not that good, as far as I can remember.

Postsecret review #2

As promised, here it is, although it's nearly the end of the week. 

"I got back with my ex because I needed editing software." A truly utilitarian relationship. Although certainly there have to be other ways? Let's hope that this person's ex isn't a terribly loathsome person and therefore that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to get back with him or her for the use of their editing software.

"I turn 18 tomorrow and I could not be more excited for the rest of MY LIFE!" Ah, the optimism... I'd say that I can be fairly cynical at times. Maybe this person has ended up/will end up becoming a drug addict (one of my favorite topics to consider...) Or maybe they met an unfortunate end somehow, by murder or a car accident or a house fire or something. Who knows! I certainly didn't have that kind of optimism on my 18th birthday. Instead, in recent years I have felt old, even though relatively speaking, I'm young compared to many people. Alas. Hopefully this person had something worthwhile to look forwards to, I guess, because I can't think of any other reason someone would write a secret like this. I can only imagine being that optimistic... (says the possible future starving linguist) 

"I look at chandeliers above me and wonder if I'd move fast enough from it smashing me." I like this one because it's sort of eccentric and also somewhat morbid. The perfect combination. I think it embodies me perfectly, among other things.

"I once stole herbal supplements because I couldn't afford my prescriptions" Good for you! And I say this without sarcasm. I hope this person doesn't feel guilty about obtaining those herbal supplements by any means necessary. 

"I smoke and take drugs so that I have more interesting stories to tell" Well, that's one way of doing it, I guess. Maybe it's cheaper than traveling the world, or even just the country. Imagine telling the story of how you overdosed and nearly died! Or maybe you won't survive the overdose and therefore won't be able to tell the story... "Bad choices make good stories" and "Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse" are some quotes that this secret makes me think of. 

Those were the only secrets that spoke to me enough that I felt compelled to comment on them. Unsurprisingly, there were a number of sex related secrets in this week's batch. Come on, Postsecret guy. I'm telling you, there are things that are more interesting and less vulgar (or at least, vulgar in other ways) than the sex related secrets that seem to pop up rather frequently. Why can't someone write a secret about, say, really, anything else? There are tons of other things in the world to write secrets about. 

And with that, I conclude this week's edition of my Postsecret review. More to come sometime after next Sunday, at least that's my plan. 

(satisfied, pleasured sound)

Let it be known that I have a new favorite actor. New as in an addition to my current favorite actors, not as in a replacement of them. For posterity, I want to put down the story of how he became one of my new favorite actors which took place not long ago. (an aside: does my writing resemble that of David Sedaris??? Semi rhetorical question.)

I decided to take a chance and I watched a movie unknown to me on Netflix a couple of weeks ago. I might look up the specific date if I can find it and add it later to this part of the post. I didn't recognize the actors that were listed as being in it. The movie was called Experimenter and it is about a semi (in that, in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it was at the extreme end of the scale. I'm a big fan of looking at various things this way) unethical psychological/sociological experiment. That kind of thing fascinates me, among other things such as murders both fictional and real. So naturally I thought the movie would hopefully be interesting. And thankfully, it did not disappoint.

In the movie, the actor Peter Sarsgaard played the main character. I think he did a nice job and what really struck me was that he had a lovely speaking voice. It reminded me of Vincent, who also has a nice voice. So from there I wanted to watch other things that he had acted in. Unfortunately there aren't many things that he's been in on Netflix at the moment. Still, the point about wanting to watch more of him still stands.

I think I might just rewatch the one movie since it's on Netflix and I did enjoy it the first time around. In other matters, I still want to watch Requiem for a Dream again.

I am aware that I'm due for this week's installation of my postsecret review, so that should be coming soon withinthe next couple of days, ideally.

Edit: I was... treating my eyes to looking at someone good looking (the actor who this post is about) and I had a realization that he reminds me a bit of Ben Whishaw. They have a similar something to the way they look. Maybe delicate but scruffy would be a good way to put it. Also, I came across this, which contains the picture that I was looking at in the moment that I had this realization.

TV review: The Killing seasons 1 and 2

In the course of being relaxingly lazy, I have watched a number of movies and assorted tv episodes. One movie that I watched starred an actor who I thought had a particularly nice voice. It reminded me of Vincent. It was soft and light. Unsurprisingly, I wanted to watch other things that he has acted in. He meaning the new to me actor, not Vincent. This new actor guy's name is Peter Sarsgaard and there aren't that many things he's acted in on Netflix, unfortunately. However, one of the things that he is in and is also on Netflix is a show called The Killing. Which is kind of an odd title as killing is not usually used as a noun. Maybe it's supposed to be interpreted as a synonym for murder, as in "the murder" that the detectives are trying to solve. Or perhaps it's supposed to mean killing in a broader sense, in a more general way... "the killing" that goes on and that the police have to deal with. I'm not sure. I'm just speculating. It was based of off a Danish show, which I'm not sure of what the title translates to. I think I might have tried to watch that show but I didn't watch it completely. I have watched another Scandinavian crime show in the past which I enjoyed.

In any case, Peter Sarsgaard is in this show but in the third season. Since I thought that there would probably be context that I would need to understand the show, I decided to start from the beginning instead of going right to the third season. 

Seasons 1 and 2 deal with a single murder case, which was different than the ~24 murder cases you get in a season of Law and Order that I'm used to. The first 6 episodes of season 1 were a bit of a drag, but the second half definitely picked up and was fairly riveting. The murder gets solved at the end of season 2. It was an interesting case, but after awhile there were too many details to really keep track of and I felt like I should have taken notes. I wasn't completely lost, but some of the various details from episodes prior were cloudy to me as to how they fit in to the current situation. At first, I didn't particularly like the characters, although later I began to like them somewhat more. The detectives' relationship is unlike the dynamic that the detectives from Law and Order have. In addition, they have a particularly lousy lieutenant, which I think is below captain, which is what 2 out of 3 Law and Orders have. I just did some googling and lieutenant is indeed below captain. Not that it really matters. Anyways, the captains on Law and Order, for the most part, had good relationships with the detectives under their command and cared about them. The lieutenant in The Killing openly has dislike and disdain for the main characters. So that was different.

The male detective reminds me of Mr. Brooks because of his voice. He has kind of a southern accent or something, which is kind of weird and not explained in the show, which takes place in Seattle, which is why the accent is kind of weird. Mr. Brooks is from South Carolina. I wonder if he thinks that he sounds like the guy on this show. 

I have currently begun season 3, which features Peter Sarsgaard and he plays a murderer. I'm glad that he didn't decide to do a menacing accent or something for this character, because that way I can enjoy listening to the things that he says. After the first episode, he kind of reminds me of the Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs mostly due to his haircut in this show. I wish he had more hair because he looks weird nearly bald. The Hannibal from NBC Hannibal is a totally different thing in my mind. As I continue watching the show I'll probably do another blog post about it. For season 3 I am taking notes. I wonder if it'll help keep all the things straight.

Postsecret review 1

There have been a few things that I've been meaning to blog about lately. I have been being really lazy and also not really doing that much of anything interesting, so... alas for my Warhol style journaling. Too bad.

I have decided to start a new series of blog posts, in which I will review/critique the secrets published each week at Postsecret.com, which is a blog that I like/dislike. Only the secrets that I have particularly notable thoughts on will be reviewed.

So, let's get to it.

One secret is about a person who does house sitting and confesses that the rich people never notice when their houses are robbed. I think the more accurate term would be burglarized or stolen from, as a robbery involves violence. Perhaps if I become a house sitter this is something that I could get into.

"The fact that most people in my grade are considered adults is both terrifying and hilarious." Get over yourself.

Then, the next secret is a... somewhat trashy one concerning sex. I don't understand why there have to be so many secrets regarding sex in some way or another. Honestly, there are way more interesting things in life. Like drug addicts, for example. Or shopping.

"I'm trying so desperately to be original" Written in blue ink, in all caps, on a blank white postcard. I think that speaks for itself. 

Then there is a secret about someone who wants to climb trees but doesn't because it's not something that adults do. Come on. Go in the woods and find a tree where no one can see you and climb it. Some people are ridiculous... this is literally a problem with SUCH A SIMPLE SOLUTION. Which I have conveniently provided above. 

"I always wanted my life to look like a picture frame insert." Now this is a fairly interesting secret that doesn't have to do with sex. Imagine that! How novel. 

Anyways, that is is for the secrets that I felt compelled to comment on this week. I plan for this series to be published on a weekly basis, but not necessarily on a specific day, just whenever I get around to it. It's very relaxing to be lazy, even though you don't get much done aside from eating, sleeping in, and watching tv or movies.