Lindsay and I watched Runaway Jury tonight, John Grisham's latest successful conversion from novel to film. It was difficult to keep an open mind regarding the subject matter at first, but I was able to free my mind of my biases just well enough to consider the other side of the argument and justify it -- even to the point that, unlike most liberally slanted law movies, I agreed with the outcome of the story. I knew what the outcome was going to be before I even sat down in the theatre, and I was still able to enjoy the movie and change my mind about it...without -- and this is key -- without changing my mind about the issue at hand: gun control and gun manufacturers' accountability.

I don't know if the point is that I enjoyed the movie, that I enjoyed the internal political/ethical struggle, or that I enjoyed Lindsay's company, but since I downplayed her role tonight by barely mentioning her, I should acknowledge that I definitely enjoy having her around. For some reason she doesn't seem to believe that half the time I say it, so maybe if I tell it to the Internet... (not that it's listening)

Happy candy day. I was going to dress up as the Cat from Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, and Lindsay and her best friend Nicki were going to dress up as any of a number of the Cat's sidekicks, but we ran out of time. Oh well. I didn't really want to dress up anyway. Carving pumpkins was a lot more than I usually do, and I even bought candy to give out tomorrow (that I'll probably mostly keep for myself!). Have a good candy day, and remind your dentist friends to give the kids toothbrushes with their candy tomorrow night!

I decided to get festive this year and decorate the site a little. This took all of twenty minutes! I also helped to carve two pumpkins at school. And when I say "helped", I mean that I offered moral support to Gracen while she carved them both. One is a screaming face, the other is a really cool-looking face of Yoda. Halloween is fun. Now I want candy!

An entire week has gone by and I haven't addressed the world (which means, I haven't addressed myself, because I only keep this weblog to entertain myself in the future when I decide to look back on my past and try to remember what I had done with my time). I apologize to you all (to me), and I can only say that I will try not to let it happen again. It will, of course, but I will try not to let it...

School is still fun at the moment, but with projects looming, I'm confident that November will be a hellish month. I only hope that everything is well by December! As long as I'm feeling fine by December 9 (the first day after classes have ended, but before finals), then November will have been great!

For more information on what I've been up to, feel free to inquire, but I don't have much time for just rambling off a few things. Ask specific questions if you want, and I'll get around to listing things off some other time. Thanks for caring!

Wow! That was a long weekend. Here's how it went: Sleep by 12:30, awake by 4:30 for three-hour drive to Tennessee followed by nine hours of academic bludgeoning on Saturday. Sleep by 2:00, awake by 6:30 for nine more hours of academic struggling on Sunday, though the bludgeoning was not nearly as one-sided. Finally, sleep by 12:30, awake by 7:30 for a day full of running events I had never run before, running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and generally having fun before a well-timed, massive headache attacked me just in time for my Ethics midterm. How bad was this headache? I couldn't even remember how to explain the categorical imperative! Ugh.

The good news is that after ten hours of football, frisbees, food, and fun at Macon State College, I made the headache go away with 1000mg of aspirin on an empty stomach, and then Lindsay and I went out to see The Rundown (starring Duane Johnson aka The Rock and Sean William Scott), which was surpringly very good. I classify it as a more badass James Bond movie minus the espionage and gadgetry plus better acting -- well, most of the time.

Anyway, there are three more TV spot trailers on the Matrix web site, so you'd better go check them out. I'm still tired from this weekend, so I think I should take a nap!

What you don't know about me as well as you probably should is that I am a geek -- not just an ordinary geek, but so much beyond the label that my attention to detail to some geeky subjects may seem at first so bizarre that you might wonder how I keep up a social life that seems so normal. (For instance, in the last three weeks, I have gone out with four girls -- ages 19, 19, 21, and 30 -- yet I am unhealthily obsessed with such things as The Matrix, philosophy, and just about anything intellectual except Star Trek.

I'm not much for segues, so I'm going to jump right in. These are some fairly broad ideas that I have about what is going to happen in Matrix Revolutions. We'll all know in less than three weeks, but I thought I would put some off-the-wall theories on the board early, just so you can come back to me in a month and ask me how the hell I "put that together!" Just so you know, I've put together these crazy ideas based on what I've seen in the trailers, and I'm basically guessing about the chronology of events that I don't even know will happen. Fun, isn't it?

Warning! Achtung! This might contain elements of truth! I highly suggest not highlighting the whitespace below if you do not want to uncover potential facts that might spoil the movie! I'm serious!

1. Bane will attack Neo, and before Bane is killed, Neo will be blinded.

2. Neo will realize (if he hasn't already) what he has to do to kill Smith and save the world -- it requires sacrificing himself, which he can't do because of Trinity.

3. Trinity will be killed during the movie, and a heartbroken Neo will jack into the Matrix to fulfill his purpose.

4. Smith will destroy Neo in basically the same way Neo destroyed Smith in the first movie, taking him over. Someone will then unplug Neo, killing Smith.

5. Thanks to the war going on in Zion, almost everyone will be killed. Also, I think that annoying little Kid that follows Neo around is really the One, or at least he is or will be more powerful than Neo.

I warned you! I hope you didn't spoil anything you didn't want spoiled -- that is, if I am even right. If you had worked hard to avoid watching trailers, then you definitely shouldn't have read any of my predictions.

Dalila knows all about that headline.

Tonight, after chatting with Tony for a solid hour about Game 7 of the ALCS, I got tired of typing about it and decided to watch it. I turned my computer off, walked into the other room, and I saw one pitch: Aaron Boone hit a home run off Tim Wakefield to clinch a World Series berth for the Yankees and send the Red Sox home for the winter. Needless to say, I was a very unhappy boy. After dedicating myself to the game and my favorite teams like I hadn't done in at least seven years, I am a bit upset that my least favorite of the four playoff teams from each league are in the World Series.

In that conversation with Tony, I realized that the Cubs had lost a 3-1 series lead in a highly improbable way, leading in Games 6 and 7 after being completely dominated in Game 5. I also realized that Boston blew a 4-0 lead and had the game sent to extra innings in a 5-5 tie. At that point, I muttered to myself and then typed to Tony, "If the Red Sox lose this game, I will begin to question the invalidity of the curse(s) -- that is, my belief in them will increase from 'what a load of shit' to 'maybe there's something to them'". After what I witnessed the last five days, I am beginning to wonder whether such superstitious notions as curses on the Cubs and Red Sox may not be as ridiculous as I would like to believe. It upsets me more still that I have even resorted to such a thought.

World Series Boycott 2003 begins now. I couldn't care any less about who is better between the Florida Marlins and the New York Yankees. Granted, this will be more exciting than the 2000 World Series, but that's like saying homicide is better than genocide. (Any World Series with the Yankees in it equates to involuntary manslaughter. If the NL opponent is unworthy, it's homicide. If the NL opponent is the Mets, it's genocide. If any two teams knock the Cubs and Red Sox out of their respective LCS on consecutive nights, the two teams are guilty of crimes worse than anything we have a law for.)

Aside from little tidbits about 2003's award winners and expectations for 2004, don't expect any baseball out of me for the next five months. It's time to turn up the college football juice!

If you can get past the violence, then you will be treated to the best show of the year so far and quite likely until next February when Volume 2 rolls into theaters.

The line above is the final thought offered by C.A. Wolski in his Box Office Mojo review of Kill Bill Volume 1, Quentin Tarantino's "gloriously violent masterwork":

Kill Bill Vol. 1 is not only one of the best movies of the year, it’s something even rarer -- an instant classic. From its opening black and white frames to its gleefully blood-soaked finale, this is what going to the movies is all about.

I've never been one to enjoy the movies that include scenes described as "particularly grotesque" or "gleefully blood-soaked", but from everything I have read and heard about Tarantino's latest work, Kill Bill Volume 1 is almost certainly worth seeing. I suppose I am spoiled by the clean violence of movies like The Matrix and James Bond films, but I also liked Pulp Fiction (also by Tarantino) and Bound (also by the Wachowski brothers), which weren't exactly clean movies.

So I guess I will try to catch this wonderfully violent samurai-revenge thriller in the next week or two. There's nothing like a good, well organized, properly arranged bloodbath to awaken the mind and senses for a weekend excursion!

I was hoping for a Cubs-versus-Red Sox World Series, and now that can't happen. The pesky Florida Marlins had to play good baseball for three consecutive games, and unfortunately they came through with a two-hit shutout in Game 5, an eight-run eighth in Game 6, and a pointlessly anticlimactic victory in Game 7. If the beat the Red Sox tomorrow, that sets up the second-most boring World Series in the history of Major League Baseball, just barely behind the 2000 series between the Yankees and Mets. But never mind that -- go Red Sox! This is the year for to win it for Ted and forget that George Herman guy.

I picked up my copy of The Matrix Reloaded on DVD this morning at about 10:00, and throughout the day it was shown in the game room at school. I have not had time to enjoy it yet, since I have been busy going to class and planning SGA events that seem to be less sparkly than we once had hoped. Running SGA has been a learning experience so far, and Clarissa and I are hoping that we can use our early mistakes and shortcomings to capitalize on our potential later in the year. We both are very pleased with SGA's progress, and in any event, we both are having a lot of fun with what we're doing, so we don't particularly care if someone doesn't think we're doing good enough!

It's past my bed time, but I thought I would drop another line in here before vanishing into oblivion this weekend. This time I am retreating to Chattanooga, which I have driven through many times but never stopped to enjoy the scenery. I'll be leaving Saturday morning and returning Sunday evening, so don't wait up!

It's been fun, but there seems to be a shortage of time in my days. I still have homework to do for my Ethics class by 5:30, three articles to write for the school paper by 5:00, a meeting with the school's CEO at 3:30, two classes, a make-up test, and two hours of work. All of this will be done before I return home in twelve hours! Keep in mind that I am also planning my campus organization's most involved event of the year for next Monday, which is incredibly chaotic since it seems like no one has signed on to help us out (so it may turn out to be a big, lame dud, but it will be fun anyway!).

I will own The Matrix Reloaded on DVD by this time tomorrow, though I probably won't have time to watch it until Thursday or Friday, which is fall break at Macon State College. I may even go to school on those two days if it helps to ensure that Monday's big day goes off without a hitch. Here's hoping!

You're looking at me funny, as if I was supposed to say something about Arnold Schwarzenegger winning California's gubernatorial recall election. People have asked me what I think about [insert candidate here] winning that election for California, and my answer repeatedly has been that I'll leave California politics to Californians, though I did insist two things: (1) I think Arnold is probably the best of the bunch, and (2) I think Arnold will probably win fairly easily.

I suppose I can back up that first point with a little reason now; the second point needs no defense. Arnold makes a good leader, a good actor, a good [anything he wants to be] for one simple reason: he has an obsessive attitude when it comes to doing things well, and as a Republican, that is especially true when that means doing something for himself. Consider the effort and discipline required to be Mr. Universe, to be the biggest American movie star after coming to America being able to speak almost no English, to make the transition from celebrity entertainer to celebrity entertainer with governing authority over one-eighth of the population of the United States...

Arnold Schwarzenegger has shown skeptics time and again that he has the will and the discipline to get the work done to the best of his ability. He will not let the people of Caleeforneeya down. Of course, no elected official can ever please every individual person with every individual decision, but doing something someone doesn't like isn't the definition of letting that person down. I won't turn this thought into a diatribe, though it's very tempting.

Suffice it to say that the Governator is going to work very hard for the state of California, and regardless of what his skeptics say, only they have the power to turn his administration into a farce -- and if I were one to squander my life away, I would be willing to bet money that Arnold's opponents are going to do everything they can to make Arnold look like a bad governor regardless of how it affects the people of California. That's dirty politics, and that is unfortunately how the game is played. Unfortunately, it's so much easier to play dirty and make things worse than it is to play fair and make things better.

I haven't had the time to watch as many movies this year as I expected that I would, so I've probably seen fewer than ten in the theatre since January 1 (after something like 30 in 2002). Still, I've managed to see a few really good ones, among them Dickie Roberts, a surprisingly well done David Spade comedy that I think everyone should watch, especially if they're between a little and a lot older than me and have watched TV for many years. Dickie Roberts is one of those movies for the lifelong, on-and-off pop culture enthusiasts, and David Spade keeps it funny here and there too. It won't win any Oscars, but it's among my favorites for the year.

I also bought my first CD and DVD in about a month or two yesterday. I don't report my entertainment purchases much any more, so it may be strange that I'm reporting these now, but it's probably because of what they are -- and how opposite each other they probably seem. I arrived at Best Buy with the desire to purchase two specific items and nothing more: The Lion King on DVD and Tool's 2001 album Lateralus. If you're unfamiliar with either of them, then I don't have any idea what to say, except that you shouldn't be, so you should fix that.

Now, quickly, help me write a "review" for A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step for my school's newspaper!

I returned home around 11:30 last night. I left again around 11:45 to pick up a sixpack of something, and I was so amazed to see Smirnoff Ice in a can that I had to pick that up while I was gone. I was in for good only a few minutes later, and after checking my email (four days of backlogged messages -- yikes!), I was back in my own bed for the first time since Wednesday morning. Man, I had missed that. I got my first full night of sleep since Tuesday night, and I haven't known what to do with myself this morning.

It's good to have Jim back home, even if for only a few days, but it's hard to swallow the fact that he's a US Marine. I watched him march out with his company, and he showed us his barracks, and I saw many other things that prove to me that my little brother, as of right now, is now at least partially a product of the US Marine Corps. It's funny, really -- we would be walking down a sidewalk, and where I'm used to gently curling around a turn, he's now used to abruptly shifting direction without much warning. Other little things about his behavior have made for lots of fun discussion, but the best thing is that the family and friends have him back for a few days before he goes off again for another few months.

After his graduation celebration lunch in Beaufort Friday, Jim and the family left for Macon and Warner Robins and I headed in the opposite direction, toward Columbia, South Carolina, for an academic competition. Presumably, all went well with the family, and I know all went well with me. South Carolina traffic is fun! The section of I-95 I used was only two lanes for each direction of traffic, but traffic was steadily cruising between 85 and 90 MPH, so I made it to Columbia (about 130 miles) in just under two hours.

Having never been to South Carolina, I was fascinated by it. I have decided that I like the area very much, and in my not-too-distant future when I am looking for various job opportunities and hoping to stay in the southeast, I might consider areas near Columbia, Charleston, or Augusta, if for no better reason than to go back up there again.

Saturday's academic competition was fun, but that's about all I can say for it. The South Carolina team that ran the event did a very good job, but the questions were much more difficult than any competition to which I had ever been, and despite being the 11th highest individual scorer, I'm convinced that I did a horrible job. Looking over what I missed and what I passed on, I've estimated that I should have performed at least 50% better than I did.

Of course, it was fun, and that's what matters most -- and there are another two competitions during the weekend of October 18 and 19. That's during my fall break, which usually means going out of town with my girlfriend of the time, but because the one with whom I had discussed going to Florida hasn't gotten back to me, because she's in a bit of a financial bind, and because a trip to Chatanooga for a school event would be a helluva lot cheaper than a trip to Florida with a girl for fun, I think I might opt for Tennessee. Of course, there's almost two weeks between now and then, and I could easily change my mind for any of a number of reasons.

I hope you're weekend has served you well. I missed a lot of work in the last few days, so it's time to get back on it.

I'm leaving in less than two hours for Savannah, where most of my immediate family and I will be staying tonight and tomorrow. It's about an hour from Parris Island, where recruits go through twelve weeks of regimented training to be among America's few, proud Marines. That's where my younger brother, Jim, has been since July 6 or so, and he's graduating from boot camp Friday. Thursday is "family day" or something, so guess where I'll be!

I'm making it a point to bring our baseball gloves (just in case) and some study aids for my academic competition this weekend, which is conveniently up the road in Columbia, at the University of South Carolina. Jim and the family are heading back to Macon and Warner Robins Friday afternoon, and I'm driving on up to Columbia to meet up with my team.

Freedom is good. Enjoy the rest of your week without me!