And April has come.

Have you been reading my daily tidbits?

Have you noticed the weekly pencam shots?

Just making sure.

Every now and then a movie comes and it totally blows your mind. I am so glad that I dragged Jake to see Memento. Even though I knew the subject matter to be disturbing, I've been dying to see this film ever since I heard about it. Not to mention the amazingly fascinating site.

Memento is a rare example of a movie which combines an interesting plot with artistic shots. It forces the audience to interact with the movie in a similar manner as the movie's main character. It pulls you in, keeps you attached and has you trying to put the pieces together the entire time. Just when you know who's good and who's evil, you find out you're wrong. Just when you think you understand what happened, you find out you're wrong. And you leave the movie more confused than you began.

I hate movies that don't end. When the plot is not resolved, I leave the theater with an empty feeling. I get aggravated like I was cheated. Memento left me with a million questions. I still don't know what was fact and what fiction. And the most important part of the movie didn't get resolved. Yet the minute the credits started rolling, I smiled. I loved the ending. I loved it cause the plot didn't really matter. The experience did.

I'm so glad such movies are made.

Especially when they also make incredibly moronic ones such as this. Argh.

Previously? Celebration.

I can happily say that this has been a good weekend so far. I've written over 4,000 words of my novel and studied quite a bit of Japanese (not as much as I should have but still, I'm not complaining) and I got to do some of my redesign. On top of that, I went out to dinner with Jake and his parents last night and we got to see Mike and Steve today. All in all, a very successful weekend.

Last night, after dinner, the four of us walked over to the Empire State Building which is a few blocks from our house. If you ever visit New York, I highly recommend going there at night. Most tourists go to the building during the day, but the view is much better at night. Actually, it's breathtaking. From that level, all the lights look like candles and the moving cars make a beautiful picture. I remember the first time Jake and I went up there and I saw the enormous Pepsi-Cola add. It's so large that there is no way to ignore this terribly distasteful ad.

Checkout CNN's election page. They took New Mexico's electoral votes away from Gore but they forgot to decrement his "states won" section. It still says 19 states when it should say 18. Heh.

Apologies for not having an excerpt today, I still have several hours of writing and studying to do and it's already almost 11pm here.

Before?

This glassdog banner is, by far, one of the greatest personal banners I've ever seen. It's the small white one at the bottom of the page. It's really funnie.

Before?

Last March, on a trip from New York to Japan, my ears suddenly started making clicking sounds when I swallowed. After several Japanese and American doctors and six months, we still don't know the actual cause of the sounds. The big theory is TMJ since I actively grind my teeth in my sleep. Then again, I've been grinding since I was 3 so I'm not sure why the injury would pop up after so many years. All I know is that it's painful and really, really annoying.

If you ever took the SATs and scored low you should read this week's Slate diary. Brendan Mernin, a tutor with the Princeton Review for the last 11 years, talks about his adventures in tutoring. The fact that the SATs don't really prove any level of intelligence is no revelation to anyone who has even glimpsed at an exam, but Brendan's tales are really neat to read. My favorite part is the very end and I quote:

"The story students tell more than any other is the one about the friend who scored a perfect 1600, even though he got drunk the night before. I'm sure you know him. So many people do. Who is he? (It's always a he.) He's a genius, they say. I haven't yet met him, but I can say this: Whoever he is, he's not necessarily who you want to be."

Wanna read yesterday's?

Here's today's lyric: "Trying to make some sense of it all, but I can see that it makes no sense at all."

Know the source? Mail me.

Have suggestions?

Goody Links
I can't imagine there's anyone who reads my page and doesn't read MetaFilter, but I figured I should mention it anyhow. Since I read it often, I don't repost the links on my page. If you want neat links with interesting discussions, check it out.

If you want food for thought, checkout inequality.org. It's a site created by a bunch of journalists, writers and researchers. It's nonprofit and tries to cover information that isn't widely covered by the media. I also like their quotes.

Thoughts
Last night, Jake was away recruiting in Baltimore and the house didn't feel the same to me. Most nights, at least one of us comes home really late so that we don't get to spend a lot of time together, but when I wake up in the middle of the night, he's always there, sleeping. Knowing that gives me a level of comfort that I just came to take for granted.

Most of the ribbons are for sicknesses of serious messages. However, there are some fun ones. We have the Less Crap Online one and the Anti-Gravity Campaign. People asking you to Ban the Blink and to Fight Against Decaf Coffee. This one wants you to stop calling those annoying e-mails spam. And this guy is so pissed at Yahoo! that he launched an Anti-Yahoo Campaign.

What would your ribbon say?

If you like the cows, you might like the fish or the moose.

Wanna read all the candidate's speeches? As a non-American, I don't qualify to vote, but I still think it's kinda cool that all the candidates have their own homepages. The fact that they can't afford not to have an online presence says so much about the importance of the Net.

I've been in love with the Herman Miller Aeron chair for quite a long time, but it's way too expensive. Today, I found a place that claims to have it for much cheaper. Their price is just 50 bucks less than the Herman Miller store. And for a chair which costs 750 dollars, 50 bucks less is not "much cheaper." If anyone knows where this chair is sold for a more affordable price, I would worship you forever if you share the info.

It seems we can't use the phrase going postal anymore cause it's upsetting the postal workers and it's a myth. Hmmm.

What kind of country changes their grammar and spelling rules?

Here's the link to the fire I mentioned last night.

In case you didn't already know, coffee is bad and chocolate is good. I'm glad everyone agrees.

Care about the world we live in? Check out oneworld.net. Their mission is: "OneWorld is dedicated to harnessing the democratic potential of the internet to promote human rights and sustainable development." Here's some press about them.

For some online activism, try out VoxCap. They have everything from Economy to Education.

Wanna read about psychology instead? Try out PsycPort or brain.com.

Hate it all? Just like to take tests, you say? Have fun with Kingdomality or use this iVillage allHealth test to figure out what career is for you. Still not satified? Here's another one that measures your charisma. Know some fun tests? Mail me.

Checkout this Shot Glass Chess Set and the Slam Man both proudly brought to you by Firebox's Bachelor Pad.