Kathy Lin

Currently reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond.

From the Publisher: Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the other way around? In this groundbreaking work, an evolutionary biologist dismantles racially-based theories and reveals the environmental factors actually responsible for history’s broadest patterns. A whirlwind tour through 13,000 years of human history, beginning when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire population. Here is a truly a world history, brilliantly written and radically new.

I think the only Kevin Smith movie I saw before this one was Dogma, which was really funny (and features a great scene involving Mooby’s, the restaurant the clerks are currently working at in this movie).

So, yeah, I saw Clerks II without seeing the original, which is quite good, according to an extremely informal survey conducted by me on my friends. Although Clerks II was funny enough (and bizarrely awkward at some points) it was quite “Hollywood.” You know, guy falls in love, guy gets the girl, and the main character(s) learn its best to loosen up and live life the way you want to, not the way society tells you to.

That being said, I’m sure this movie is missing a lot of the indie charm of Clerks. Acting was fine, there were some good lines and nerd-tastic scenes (debate on which is the “real” trilogy, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings), but overall, pretty generic storyline.

Oh, well. Now I guess I’ll have to see Clerks to get all of the inside jokes.

When Gary, my college roommate and I, went to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, we were somewhat skeptical. Hell, I was really skeptical. Disney + Jerry Bruckheimer usually = crap. Also, the movie’s title is from a 30 year old ride and Disney World. But what a delightful surprise that first one was, thanks to Johnny Depp. So I went to go see POC: Dead Man’s Chest with a bit more enthusiasm.

Well, that was wasted. Ok, I admit that my first mistake was seeing it on opening weekend … without preordering tickets … and at a movie theatre that is attached to a mall that is rampant with teenagers. Conclusion: I got a really crappy seat. Somewhere along the lines of second row, two seats from the far right side.

That being aside, the plot was so very meh. Probably because (like Lord of the Rings) the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed at the same time. This sort of filmmaking always leaves the second part of a three part saga disappointing because of the cliffhanger (think Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back). Anyway, long story short, this movie had a shaky plot because a lot of the story remained unsaid. For instance, Davy Jones, the embodiment of the sea, decided to keep his most vital organ on the LAND he can’t step foot on save once a decade is beyond me. Why he would even let it out of his sight is a bit confusing as well.

Other gripes include: not enough screen time for Captain Jack, barely any character development for Will Turner (well, I suppose he had to deal with his dad suddenly showing up), lots of unnecessary footage (why put a dress floating in water on screen for so long), overdone computer graphics (look, we can make a guy look like a crusty barnacle or a hammerhead shark OR a ship’s hull), and no ending. Elizabeth was also all over the place with her love for Captain Jack and Will Turner (go figure – girl has to choose between shiny Good Guy (think Cyclops) and Hunky Bad Boy (think Wolverine).

At least Johnny Depp was still at his best, with even more sauntering and slurred speech.

Perhaps the final installment of this series will tie all the loose ends together. This movie ended with ::gasp:: the return of a Curse of the Black Pearl character and the possibility of finding dear Captain Jack, so I suppose I have something to look forward to.

From now on, there will no longer be any posts in the “Chris vs. Sam” category.  Chris has moved on to another project, and is working with the Booz mothership in McLean.  The rest of us will probably move on as well, as our project is downsizing as of the 1st of October.  Maybe there will be an occassional post, if any poker game happens to spurn interesting conversation.

Well I’m one year older but am I one year wiser? Probably not. This is pretty evident by the fact that I overate at Ruth’s Chris, and therefore gave myself a tummyache. Well, at least I only felt crappy for the last part of the day.

The first part of the day was taken up by work. My older sister called me and was shocked I didn’t take the day off. Well, I guess I could have, but what would I have done? I guess I could have run some errands (post office and going to the bank come to mind, but that’s boring). So, work was fun because I got to eat a Blondie (warm cookie and vanilla ice cream) at Ruby Tuesdays, thanks to my co-workers. Yay. It was tasty.

Of course, I really should have saved room for the scallops, Petite Filet, hashbrowns, spinach au gratin, banana cream pie, and merlot that I had for dinner. Ruth’s Chris is known in particular for serving their steaks on a 500 degree plate with melted sizzzzling butter. It actually said sizzzzling on the menu. There are no sides with the steak, you get those separatey. I highly recommend the Hashbrowns. It came out on a big plate, was a perfect circle, and was light, fluffy, not oily, and had a great potato texture and taste. I know I went primarily for the steak, but my favorite food is potato.

Yum! Food was really good (although I later paid the price by feeling blech) but presents are more fun. Aaron got me an Aeropress coffee press (why press with a French Press when you can press with air?), a Starbucks Valentine’s bear, and a Nintendo DS Lite. The best part about the DS is that it’s black. Yes, that’s right. WOW! Here’s a picture, so you can fully appreciate it.

My twin scister got me a great series of books, the “Art of Pixar” ones. I got to add Monsters, Inc., Cars, and Finding Nemo to my I Love Pixar collection. Yay. She also got me the ultra hilarious Legend of Zelda series on DVD! I think I’m going to watch some right now!!