:: Quiche of the Day ::

:: 9.23.2002 ::

Conrad Freaking Hall came to our school last Thursday to screen Road to Perdition and talk about being an Academy Award winning cinematographer, which was the biggest film school event since Star Wars Episode Freaking One. I haven’t been in a line that was more driven by mob mentality since I was in seventh grade and the Special Editions were out and Star Wars was still not crappy. No one brought lightsabers, though maybe they might have if Star Wars didn’t get crappy. Lightsabers would certainly have made the showing more exciting, especially since the place was so packed that more people were on the floor than were in the seats. It was like the Roman coliseum in there, except no one was getting killed. Well, in real life. In the movie quite a few people got killed, so that analogy worked out better than I had planned. Unfortunately, I never got to see exactly how many people got killed since in the middle of the movie the lights came on, public safety came up, some speech about violating the fire code was given, and everyone on the floor had to get out. I was on the floor. I had to get out. This was before Conrad Hall showed up. How sad was my soul? Quite.
:: Aaron Humphrey 12:45 AM reply [+] ::
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The funny thing about homework is that if you don’t do it when you don’t want to do it, you have to do it at another time when you don’t want to do it. Either way you lose. Unless you actually like your classes, but there’s no way I’d admit that kind of thing in public. No one likes a goody-goody spoil sport two shoes.
And even if I did like my homework and classes, there would most definetly be times I would not want to do it, like in the morning before class. This usually happens when I’ve stayed up too late to finish my homework the night before it’s due and have to wake up early the day it is due. Let’s think about the logic of this for just a moment: I get up early because I went to bed late. This is not a productive way to work . . . it’s the only way!
It also meant that I missed lunch today. Fortunately there was Easy Mac waiting for me back at the dorm like a cheap, cheesy, preservative-ladden slut, and it was more than willing to let me have my way with it, although at the time I was not thinking about that particular metaphor. Let me tell you that easy is certainly a good description for 406’s “pasta” of choice, though: it gets used by everybody here and it likes it.
And while we’re exploring this particular theme, I went out for dinner with Grant, Christina and Emma to Schlotzsky’s Deli tonight and mispronounced it Slutsky’s. Is there something Freudian going on here? I guess I just take whatever comes my way, no matter how easy (or mac. Ha!) because I just haven’t found any food I’m ready to settle down with first. Eating my wild oats, if you will.
No wait, I take that back. Got a two-pound bag of Apple Zings from the grocery store today for under five bucks (including tax!), and I have a feeling we’ll be spending a lot of tasty nights together. Now I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right: they don’t taste like apple. But you know what? I don’t care! I don’t care what you or the rest of the world says or thinks! It’s my cereal and I’m hip and independent and I eat what I like, doggone it!
::
Changed a few things around here, most of which should have been done long, long ago. Got rid of dead or stupid links, added a couple of “friends” (because who doesn’t need more friends?) and archived all of last year’s entries so that everyone can see how much wittier I was a year ago. It's not my fault! I blame it on entropy!
:: Aaron Humphrey 1:46 AM reply [+] ::
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Has it really been a week?
Tonight everybody wanted to do something, but no one wanted to go anywhere. Figuring out the evening’s entertainment under these conditions usually requires a lot of deliberation and sitting around, but finally we ended up renting Bottle Rocket and eating apple pie, which was not a bad way to go in my opinion. For a movie that’s got three guys holding guns on the cover, it’s pretty dang low key. And for being low key, it’s pretty dang funny. Without Bottle Rocket, there would be no Royal Tennenbaums, Rushmore or Shanghi Noon, and come on, what kind of world would that be? OK, well maybe there would be a Shanghi Noon, but it probably wouldn’t be the one we all know and love so well today. Seriously.
I’ve spent both a lot of time and not enough time reading lately, which is a strange situation to be in. I finished the popular, feel-good Tuesdays With Morrie today. Just as public opinion suggests, it’s pretty good, and refreshingly light compared to the other books I’ve been reading, all of which seem to be about death. Death of Vishnu, Death of Ivan Illych, I swear. It’s a good thing I like reading and got over being sad about fictional people dieing. Life = the process of dieing, so I guess it’s good to read books about it. That’s what my soc. teacher says anyway.
Listening to: Something Corporate. They’re no Ben Folds Five, but then, who is?
:: Aaron Humphrey 12:51 AM reply [+] ::
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Grant is watching The Crow for the umpteenth time; Ed is making another bowl of EZ-Mac, our staple source of “nutrition,” and I’ve just returned from watching American Beauty, which I’d never seen before, with Josh and Christina, who’ve both seen it a buncha times. The movie had been hyped to me a lot, even my mom told me to watch it (but not until I was older, which I guess I am now), but I wasn’t disappointed for a change. And the cinematographer is coming to my freaking school! Sweet ace. From what I’ve seen of The Crow it looks pretty good, too. Cool visuals, crappy dialogue, fight scenes that got totally ripped off by The Matrix . . . everything a good film should have. I really wish Grant would stop trying to dress up like the guy from that movie though, because it freaks me out. Still plugging along on the zombie movie, though I’ll probably have to hold off on it tomorrow so I can get some homework done. I got a record four minutes edited today, and think I’ll probably have a rough picture edit done early this week. Cleaning up sound is going to take a lot longer though. La la la. Tomorrow I think I am going to the beach. Tonight I think I will make some EZ-Mac.
Eatting: a lot of preservatives and saturated fat Listening to: Don't Fear the Reaper which has been stuck in my head all day. :(
Reading:I didn't do a lot of reading today, but I returned Death of Ivan Ilych to the library on time! that's like a first for me!
:: Aaron Humphrey 12:51 AM reply [+] ::
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After sleeping in too late again and spending half the afternoon either editing or reading I decided to take a break and get some fresh air, but in California this time of the year being outside feels like being inside. I desperately wanted either rain or wind or somewhere to go, but today wasn’t my day for those things. Today was my day for Russian and Indian literature, for eating cheap Mexican rice in the lounge out of a Styrofoam bowl while the band practiced new songs, for editing with headphones on, frozen cake and a regulated climate.
To my surprise I cut through the scene that’s kind of like the second in command to the scene I’m dreading the most like proverbial butter today. Now all I’ve got to do is take down his legion of smaller, dumber henchmen and I’ll have a shot at the big one himself. Take that, editing! The period during which I shot most of the scene I edited today was at the low point of my directorial control and confidence, so I was surprised to find that the rough cut actually made sense and didn’t look like crap. I’m up to about six minutes now. It’s a rough cut with no sound, but at least it’s done enough that I can show it to some people and some of them can find some of it kind of funny. If I ever stop having homework I’ll put some pictures from the movie up and you can vote if they’re hot or not.
Reading: The Death of Ishnu by some guy who is both a math professor and a good author. weird.
Listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers
:: Aaron Humphrey 12:51 AM reply [+] ::
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I'd come from my first college Spanish test, relieved that I remembered the word consejero at the last second, but otherwise feeling like I'd just come from a typical Spanish test in the typical warm, dimmly lit Spanish class room at the typical Spanish siesta time of day, which is to say I was confused, slightly depressed and more than a little tired. Yesterday in my In Search of Self class we had a freewrite prompted by the words "when I think of myself," then went around and each fired off a word that summed up "how we see ourselves." I was third in line and didn't have time to think, so I blurted out what felt appropriate, without thinking whether it was appropriate or not. "Confidence," I said. Someone giggled, then it was on to the next person who said "saddness" or "identity" or even "laugther." But why I had I said confidence? No one says confidence. Especially not college students. Otherwise what would all those inspirational books and movies be all about? There aren't posters all over our cafeteria that say "perseverence" "dream" and "respect" because we believe in ourselves. Only pompous jerks who everyone hates say they're confident, and even then everyone knows they aren't, 'cause otherwise why would they be jerks? Even when you are genuienly confident, you don't say it, 'cause it's seriously not cool. Just watch Felicity (wait, is that still on? I don't know. I swear.) or Dawson's Creek, and see how much self-doubt and self-loathing tears up college students every day! I'm not confident! I can't be confident.
But I said it.
Maybe it's not the truth, but I don't think it was supposed to be a joke. On the way from Spanish class to my Latino culture class I stopped and pretended to read Roommate Wanted flyers, I was really trying to figure out confidence, the riddle for Aaron, created by Aaron and quite possibly starring Aaron.
Reading: Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy (depressing)
Listening to: Counting Crows (would be depressing if I didn't know the album by heart), classic Beatles (really good!)
Eatting: Cinnimon Toast Crunch (boo yah!)
:: Aaron Humphrey 12:51 AM reply [+] ::
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Happy labor day everyone! Or is memorial day? I never can remember. I guess memorial day's got the flags. Maybe labor day does too, but I know memorial day does. Anyway, it's not like it matters, since the only time I've been outside today was to go to the cafeteria for dinner. Everyone else went to the beach, but I stayed here to edit my zombie movie and eat reheated pizza. It's fun enough, trust me.
I haven't updated in over four months, and thought about calling it quits, but I guess for some reason this page had an audience, and since that may be the only audience I'll ever get it would be kind of silly to quit. I'll take my fans where I can get them, thank you. Plus it's fun! Pretty soon I'll revamp the whole page, fix the dead links, update my movie stuff and get rid of the banner ads, but I wanted to get back up and moving soon, and all that stuff would take too long. Ask my friend Christina who's been promising a new page since last spring and still hasn't made good on that.
I guess I've only been back in school for a week, but it seems like way longer than that. We've got a beanbag in our room, a new food service and less money, but other than that not a lot changes. The same day we started talking about how we weren't being dumb and staying up until three in the morning every night no one ended up going to bed until 3:30 at the earliest. Last night it wasn't until after four. in the morning. No ants yet though! Anyway, I'm updating again. Stick around, I'll try to make it interesting! :: Aaron Humphrey 9:37 PM reply [+] ::
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