I have longed to visit Antarctica for quite some time, so Antarctic Diaries – Life Behind the Science is my chance of getting a feel for it until I get to visit and make my own diaries.



By the way, Suzanne Vega’s story on how she learned to drive, made me feel a little about my current struggles and driving-school adventures.

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.

Last night, we saw The House of Yes. A very weird movie starring the likes of Parker Posey, Tori Spelling and Freddie Prinze Jr. I’ve been thinking about since last night and I still haven’t come to a conclusion on whether I liked it or not. I guess that proves it was interesting at least.

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.”

Oh and before the day ends, Rabbit Rabbit.

More Than Words
Yesterday’s lyric: “I just don’t understand how you can smile with all those tears in your eyes.” was from Everclear’s Wonderful.

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.

With all the talks about copyright going on at MetaFilter I found this article about whether imitation is flattery or thievery really informative and well put. Thanks to Brigitte for pointing to this link on her site.