You know, I got about 30,000 hits on my website last month - that was a lot for me. I don’t advertise, or plug my stuff much so I understand if I don’t get billions of hits. I got about 2 comments from unknown people. Let’s do the math, 30,000 - 2 = the number of people that just blew through my site (almost breaking my bandwidth) without even a “hello” or “hi”. I jump on other sites all the time and leave comments and say hello. Trying to make friends. I think there’s about 5 people out there that actually know who I am. They at least know of me. Don’t even get me started with Twitter.

I had a co-worker today ask me if I drew. I had drawn a few things for her before and posted them to her MySpace page. Apparently even people I work with have no idea who I am. Am I really that uninteresting? Most of the time I feel like a stranger to this world, and shit like this only confirms it. Do I draw? I swear… Do I draw?

Like a mofo… (end rant).

And on a lighter note, this was Flickr’s welcome header today:

We must stop them before they take over.

Jamie over at Angry Zen Master had this article. While I agree with what he say 100%, I’ll only add that at least it wasn’t a shaved beaver. And besides, at least the thing was cute. For us guys, do you know how many times we’re watching TV during dinner and are bombarded with flowery ads for women with that “unclean” feeling? I say this is genius.

I’ve been wanting to post some of the movies I’ve been watching from Netflix. I was thinking that, while giving my opinion on movies many people would never watch, it would be a good way to waste some space and start some conversations.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
The first in Director Chan Wook Park’s Vengeance Trilogy - this was actually the second movie I watched (I was confused about the order). It doesn’t really matter which order they’re watched. All three movies are completely different stories, only linked by the theme of vengeance and complete insane chaos that usually ensues. I would start with the order however, if you want to see how Park progresses as a director and storyteller.

In Sympathy for Mr. Vengence, a deaf man tries to help his sister who is dying from some sort of kidney failure. It is very Shakespearian in tragedy and very Hitchcock in it’s twists - something that carries over in the other two movies. If you can follow this movie and like it, you’ll like the other two as well.

Oldboy
This was the first movie I watched, and looking back, I wish that I’d watched Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance first, just for the sake of ramping up the weirdness that happens. The story, like the first one, is very simple - a man is locked up and kept prisoner by an unknown jailer for 16 years, he is the inexplicably released to find out why. Real simple - but what follows slowly turns to madness. I had to watch this one at least 4 times to catch everything. Also, pick either the subtitles or english dubbing, both don’t do both - it’s confusing as they don’t match translations from Korean. I’d go with subtitles, because I prefer hearing the voices of the original actors.

Lady Vengeance
This is the last and most polished of the bunch. It really has a strong story and a really good ending that closes the entire trilogy; sort of like a coda. It does use actors from the other movies - so you’ll have to detach yourselves from the other movies if you had just watched them; the characters are different. I’ll have to look for the box set of these if they’re ever releases as such…

Battle Royale
I had heard about this movie for a very long time and I’ve never gotten around to see it until now. The premise is simple, a class of bad schoolchildren are placed on an island and forced to kill each other. It sounds crazy, and it is - I wasn’t really sure who to root for as some of the children are complete bastards and the school teacher is painted with some sympathy (and some creepy pedophiliac tendencies). The fight scenes are brutally realistic and the emotional states of the children really make an impact. I say it was good enough to see but probably not good enough to own.

The Last Supper
Liberal college grads invite people of opposing views to weekly dinners. They come up with the notion that by killing the guest with poison they can make the world a better place. It’s sort of quirky and snowballs into a big mess (not as grand as the Vengeance trilogy). I would put it right next to Very Bad Things (also starrting Cameron Diaz) in terms of tone.

Innerspace
Ah, something light in tone. I had good memories of this back in the 80’s, mostly because of Meg Ryan (back when she played cute characters) and the great special effects of ILM. The premise: hotshot test pilot Dennis Quaid gets shrunk down and accidently injected in
hypochondriac Martin Short - fun times.

All links go to the movies at Netflix.

I think it is what the true others are. I believe the true others (natives not people that came to the island) are a race of Atlantians who are able to separate their souls/consciousness from their bodies (smoke monsters), move through time and space - their species are dying off and looked to Ben to protect them from foreigners while helping them re-establish their population and control over the island. Once you arrive on the island, your soul/consciousness slowly evolves to the island’s power, especially if you’re chosen or marked. Once you begin to change, you cannot leave the island for extended periods of time. True Atlantians have evolved with the island to the point that they exist without a body and can re-insert their souls into unborn children - in order for immortality, but human invaders have screwed up the island preventing their re population … or they’re aliens with four toes…

I miss the Carol Burnett Show. The one skit that will forever keep me rolling on the floor is Tim Conway’s Pops in the diner sketch. Unfortunately I can’t find it - but this one is the next best thing, see if you can make it to the very end.

I need to find “The Best Of” DVD.

I’ve gotten past a week of not smoking. I really haven’t had the urge to light up either. It’s been kinda easy actually. I’ve ordered some Col-Erase pencils from Dick Blick and dusted off my sketchbooks…

Juliet - The Home-wrecker
We knew from last season that Juliet was playing “Hop on Goodwin” - now we know that he was married to a woman named Harper. We also now know that Ben really likes Juliet - as in restraining-order likes. Apparently Juliet looks like Ben’s ex/dead wife/girlfriend. This all plays in some sort of demented love triangle through Juliet’s flashbacks on the island. It was an okay episode, but it just made Juliet appear all too eager to hop into the sack with anyone that gives her the “blue steel” look and has a PhD.

Of course, Juliet in a bikini - yaaaooowwww baby.

Then there’s the question of whether or not Harper is dead. I think she killed herself when she found out about Goodwin being staked. And Juliet knew this in the jungle. I think the real question is who is the island working for? Is the spirits working for Ben or the island? Why does the island want everybody dead - including the Others who went to the temple?

It’s clear that Ben solves his problems by genocide. Heil to the king. And the new station, the Tempest, is an obvious nod to Shakespeare’s play and of course, Ben is Caliban. And what purpose did DHARMA have in mind for a station that can produce a deadly nerve gas? I say get on with the Orchid station.

Preggers
The episode also explained the pregnancy thing better. The island’s healing abilities are turning the mother’s body against the fetus. Interesting.

Daddy Widmore
Big shocker here - the question’s going to be if that guy in blindfold was anybody significant. Locke was being a douche like he has been all season. This is season 2 Locke all over again - pushing a button. Exciting stuff. /sarcasm

Michael Row Your Boat
Michael is on the boat. He’s the mole. The question is, why? Do the Others track him down and blackmail him somehow? Did the Others take Walt - again?

The List
Here’s a theory, I think Ben is the one who came up with the list. When he came across the Others - they were dying out and disorganized - savages. He came along and proposed “society building” partially taking orders from Jacob but mainly positioning himself as king of a new country. A “Good Person” is someone that exists in the Others’ society as a functioning member. A “Bad Person” is someone that doesn’t fit, thereby, in the case of DHARMA, marked for extermination. Juliet being marked is still bugging me though.

Luckily, Arcadius is an indoor-only cat. Although he bugs me while I’m in the bathroom…

This is best smoke monster explanation I’ve read in a long while. The problem is, I don’t think the Lost writers are that smart. They could be, but I’m going to have to go with “no”. There’s also the theory on “Vile Vortices” over at Wikipedia which is neat. There is another theory floating around lately, which is the “Hollow Earth” theory. I would elaborate on it further and simultaneously call bullshit, but there’s enough on the Lost blogasphere to dismantle it without my help.

And for a fun mind-numbing read, I give you this thread. People don’t get it. The rat DIED. I’m pretty sure it takes a good while to teach a rat a maze so it doesn’t miss a turn going through it. More than 75 minutes to be certain. But the kicker is this, Daniel would have had to of known that the rat was going to die before 75 minutes (the rat was clearly expired when Desmond saw it in the cage) before sending it to the future. And what would have happened if Daniel sent the rat into it’s future after it had died? And I’m not buying the bullshit that since Daniel was intending to teach the rat the maze, it learned it without being taught it. ::head’plodes::

It’s been 4 days since I’ve quit smoking (as you can see by my handy-dandy custom sidebar counter), and I’ve through the worst of it. The patch helps out the physical addiction to a point - the rest of it is all psychological. I had to spot the places I smoke the most and at what points I felt like I really needed one. I tend to smoke the most when I’m in my car or in a bar - so I’ve made sure I have gum in the car and just have been avoiding the bars right now. I also tend to take a few smoke breaks at work, well - I’ve stopped that, but try to get out of the office and walk around the building - or better, walk over to the nearby gas station and buy gum. At my apartment, I don’t smoke inside anyway, but I’ve cleaned up my balcony and thrown away all the butts that were laying around (I’ll have to wash the balcony when it gets a tad warmer). So far, so good. I’ve also told the people around me that I’m quitting. That’s a bit of incentive not to appear as a loser and light up. It also serves as a warning to them that you’re going to appear kinda tweaked for a few days. Most people will support and help you.

Now for the Patch. The patch isn’t a cure-all, like I said before. It’s merely an aid. It does have some great benefits. I keep a fresh patch on my upper arm all day and through the day - giving me a constant flow from it’s 21mg of nicotine. It does itch when you put it on - and undoubtedly you will be pressing on it throughout your more “nic-fit” moments. You also have to understand that you can’t just rip one off and light up a smoke - the film from the adhesive is still on your skin still dosing you to a certain degree - and that stuff is tough to rub off. You will have to shower to get it off (and I use a brush). So that deters me from spur of the moment wanting to buy a cigarette and light up. Here’s the best bonus of the patch so far… It gives you completely realistic and LUCID dreams. Wear that sucker to bed and see what I mean. You will have the most realistic fucked-up dreams you’ll ever experience and you’ll be completely conscious inside of them.

I had quit smoking back in October 2006. I was clean until June 2007, when I foolishly lit up because I became depressed over something completely stupid. Live and learn. Now I know better to let anything get in my way. The next step is to restructure my life so it becomes more active and healthy…