The Birthday Weekend Rant

March 30, 2003

The Birthday Weekend Rant

And quite a weekend it has been. By that, I don't mean that I did anything particularly interesting, but I did a hell of a lot of thinking and reflection, which is something I rarely ever do. Just for the sake of simplicity I'll go through everything chronologically.

Friday, February 14th

Ahh yes, good ol' VD. I believe this is the first year that I didn't have any strange girls stalking me. Trust me, I've had some damn strange one's following me around in the past. Surprisingly, not once though did I even think about my birthday which was a mere 24 hours away. I would imagine that demonstrates just how excited I was about this upcoming milestone. Keep in mind, most people start their birthday countdowns WEEKS in advance.

Anyway, I got together with two friends later that night and saw Daredevil. I was actually going to write-up a review of the movie, but Tom beat me to it. Then I figured that Tom and myself would have very different opinions on the movie, so I'll write one anyway. Turns out, we share very similar views. Go figure. I would have given the movie a 7/10. The darkness and gratuitous killing were definitely the pluses. Daredevil was also one of the most realistic superhero movies I ever saw. Crazy gadgets were kept to a minimum, all of the villains were realistic people, and Matt Murdock's "powers" were not all that unreasonable.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

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Maybe I missed something, but didn't Elektra and Bullseye die at the end of the movie. I only ask because everyone seems to be saying that the two of them will be used in the upcoming sequel. Now we all saw Elektra's heart stop beating and Bullseye went through a glass window and fell at least 50 feet into a windshield. In my own medical opinion, he should be dead, but then again this is a comic book movie. In conclusion, Daredevil was no Spiderman. Although, it was a real life version of Batman.

After the movie, my friends and I decided to stop by Wendy's. As we got there, they locked the doors. Supposedly from 11PM to 1AM you can only go through the drive-thru. I do see the logic in that rule, but we showed up at like 11:03. Of course, if we drove to the movies this wouldn't have been a problem. Since we did not, we tried just walking up to the drive-thru. Nothing worked; I was pissed. This all leads us to...

Saturday, February 15

The Birthday. I woke up after 11 hours of sleep. Finally it dawned on me that TODAY was my birthday. Once I figured that out, I became quite depressed simply because it crossed my mind that I accomplished nothing in the last year. Sure I reviewed just about every episode of Confidential, I also hit the 3,000 post mark at the forums, but none of that mattered. Then there is also my "real life" where I did rack up a few minor accolades, but none of them meant anything to me personally. Other people may have been proud of them, but not me. It's not that I set higher expectations for myself, it's just that I don't know what I really want in life. Consequently, I had this strange feeling of emptiness all day long.

For those of you interested, here is my present count:

My friend: Three Ernest DVDs.

My parents: Good Morning, Vietnam DVD, clothes, a VCR for my dubbing purposes, and Choke, by Chuck Palahnuik (author of Fight Club).

My sister: Mafia! DVD.

The fam, my friend, and myself went to a Chinese Buffet for lunch/dinner. Very good food. The highlight though was trying sushi for the first time. Raw salmon kicks all sorts of ass.

Afterwards, we played cards for about three hours. I came so damn close to winning, but just missed in the end. I'm sure that some person could probably take that and make a witty, intelligent analogy between my loss and the last year of my life, but at this point I'm not that person. Or maybe I just don't want to be that person....

That was deep, admit it!!

Sunday, February 16

Today is the day when the extended family comes over to wish me a "Happy" Birthday. I don't even bother with the fake smile anymore. Luckily, all of my bitchy family members live very far away and are too damn lazy to stop by and visit. The worst part of these family, birthday visits has to be the cake. Most of you are probably thinking, CAKE?? I LOVE CAKE!! Well, I despise cake, but no one in my family can that through their heads. There is actually a birthday cake that was not made for me, but for everyone else to eat. God forbid they skip the cake ONCE a year. I mean if they actually remembered that I hate cake that would be OK, but I have to explain myself EVERY DAMN TIME. Fortunately, 9PM tonight, Married... With Children: The Reunion.

Random Thoughts

I got Hitman 2 for Christmas, but first played it the other day. That game is one tough SOB. All the stealth, slow walking, and silent kills. It's unbelievable. If anyone has any tips for me, feel free to send them my way. I could use all the help I could get.

It’s time for some pimping.

In the "Coincidences are Weird" file, Edward Robins reviewed The Beast that Killed Women / Monster of Camp Sunshine and one day earlier Judge Gibron reviewed that same DVD for DVD Verdict. I found this coincidence especially strange because this is one DVD that I would never expect to see reviewed anywhere.

This weekend’s Confidential was a rerun, but it was also one of my better reviews, so check it out again or for the first time if you missed it back in August.

Jay Bower re-posted one of my favorite columns ever with Theme Park Review: Wild Adventures Valdosta

And finally, my tape reviewing counterpart, Peter Kostka WWF No Mercy 2001. I think Pete does a great job, especially since he makes a schedule and sticks to it. Maybe one of the other tape reviewers at TSM should try that out sometime. ; )

That’s all folks. Have a good Sunday.

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