theMediaman.com

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I’ve got PRESENTS!!!!

Simi gave me a Dilbert desktop and wall calender, reeeally nice necklace (guy necklace, not some frilly, girly thing) and one of those brain-twisters where you have this metal puzzle and you’re supposed to get the ring off… I did, but I can’t get the damn thing back on.

Other kewl stuff I get to add to my collection of goodies includes the Fellowship Of The Ring 4-disc DVD set and the Terminator 2 Special Edition DVD. I’ve added another “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader” to my collection, the Nirvana Collection CD, new jeans, new winter jacket and a new wallet - I’m warm and lookin’ good!

I’ve been travelling a lot over the last two weeks, splitting my life between Barrie, Ajax and Richmond Hill. I have a lot of work to do for the New Year’s Party, but Simone has really helped by taking over a lot of duties. Good thing I’m dating someone who has an affinity for being organized… makes up for my sloppy and procratinative nature.

More details will be coming in an email about the party later.

Oh, and don’t call my cell phone anymore. I’ve cancelled service. After five years of service by Clearnet and Telus, I’ve finally had it. My cell’s microphone died a few months ago, so if I called anyone, I could hear them, but they couldn’t hear me unless I press the keys on my phone and blast a few “BEEP”s and “BOOP”s in their ears. I got a replacement phone last June or July or something but the problem cropped up again recently… exact same problem, different phone.

I took it in to Telus yesterday, and they wouldn’t fix it because I had bought the ORIGINAL phone over one year ago. It’s going to cost me $75 to fix it!!! F*** that. Screw Telus, and I suggest that anyone who’s looking at a cell phone stay away from Telus. They have no concept of Customer “Service”. I tried to call this (Sunday) morning to cancel my service with them, and the Customer “Service” department isn’t in on Saturday or Sunday until noon.

*ppffttt*… some “Service”.

Finally, a thought regarding the alleged cloned baby in that Florida cult… Why does CNN consider “Bill Nye: The Science Guy” as a resident expert to talk about this?

Quote of the Day:

[The new Video Game] on-screen awards will focus on celebrities both real (Dennis Hopper), artifical (Laura Croft, perhaps), and in-between (Jenna Jameson)

Everyone else is reviewing the Two Towers, I’ll talk about Femme Fatale - The movie that Roger Ebert says is the most “underrated movie of the year”. Normally I don’t agree with Ebert on anything - he usually follows up a review of the latest Rob Schneider flick with some Import French movie about a street performer trying to unravel the mysteries of Life.

However, Femme Fatale is a deceptivly simple plot. The storyline is quite basic, but complex to follow without thinking back periodically. Not until the last ten or fifteen minutes will things get really bizarre. You have to pay attention during the films climax, but you’ll be so drawn into the film by that point that it won’t be hard.

I went last night with my brother, John, to revive a tradition of going to AMC whenever there’s a “Survivor” season finale. We wound up at Boston Pizza for an hour or so afterwards just piecing the movie back together and seeing if we could tie everything together…

A lot of people are pissed at how a movie costs thirteen bucks or more now. However, this is a film that’s worthy of it. HELL! It’s worth $26…. $13 for the actual movie and another $13 just for the ten-minute lesbian scene at the beginning of the movie!

The part that’s confusing me is how a film with some explicit sex scenes, violence and one full-frontal shot of Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets an “AA” rating.

Anyway, the movie is beautifully shot, has an entrancing plot, excellent ending and, of course, the cool sex scenes! The director, Brian De Palma, also directed one of my other favourite movies of all time, “Mission: Impossible“. He also directed that great one-shot, opening scene for Snake Eyes (one of the only Nicolas Cage movies I don’t hate him in), The Untouchables (which I haven’t actually seen, but I know it’s good) and Body Double (another suspence from the mid-80’s with lots of sex and nudity).

He also made the monumentally lame 2001: A Space Odyssey homage, “Mission To Mars“, but I have to reiterate… he DID make “Mission: Impossible“.

YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

Okay, so I admit it. There are a few things that I miss about living in a white-bred city like Barrie… like going to the Shoppers Drug Mart and asking for Christmas present name tags, and the employees having even a faint clue about what those are.

Boy am I White. I’m still getting used to the idea that many of my friends have never celebrated Christmas… and that’s okay. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because Christmas for me was such a culmination of everything it is to be a child: Toys, candy, food, games, family and lots of cartoons on prime-time television.

This time of year is so integrated with how I remember my childhood that I’ve actually caught myself thinking, on occasion, that it’s cruel and unusual to do that to a child. Simone says that they treat it like a family holiday, but simply don’t observe the holiday. That’s what I would expect, but things like the anticipation of Santa Claus’ midnight visit and the house dressed in lights was such a part of my childhood that it brings me back every time this season comes around.

At the worst, I think it’s small-minded of me to have thoughts like this. However, it still pisses me off that I wasn’t able to get name tags for my Christmas presents. Looks like I’ll be living in GTA for a few years more to help me continue to open my mind.

…although I am confident that I am better than a Shoppers Drug Mart without Christmas present name tags.

I just took the Nature Challenge at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/WOL/Challenge/

The David Suzuki Foundation has researched the top 10 ways Canadians can conserve nature. The challenge is to pick three and do them over the next year. That’s it!

It’s a great way to get involved and really do something tangible to help make our world a better place.

I encourage you to visit http://www.davidsuzuki.org/WOL/Challenge/ to learn more.

Thank you.