Birthday!

So it's been a while since I blogged at you; things have kind of been crazy lately, and my computer's screen getting cracked did not help matters very much. Let's suffice to say that due to work, studying, and other matters I haven't had very much time to do anything, let alone blogging.

But now I am at work with a bit of a break in my schedule, so let's see what we can recap. This past Sunday, March 8th, was my birthday, and I am pleased to say I had a great time of it. The day started off kind of slow with lots of studying, but when 8 pm rolled around the party got started. Karen and Russell came by first and handed me a very miscellaneously wrapped gift that appeared to be some kind of attachable seat. Inside, however, were three beers that look very interesting, and one if had my name on it!

Next arrived Becky with a bad pun, then Teagle and Pechous with cookies. Lisa and Caroline also made appearances, and off we went to Town Talk Diner for a late dinner. You may remember my talk of this place in my Valentine's Day post, when I had the adult malted. This time we were here to both drink and eat, and let me tell you, neither disappointed. There were drinks with habenero infused scotch, drinks with names like "Hot Shot" and "Hotter Chocolate", and enough alcoholic shakes to... well, make us a bit loopy. The food included donut-like onion rings arranged like a wedding cake, fried pickles (Frickles!) that somehow tasted much more awesome than they should have, bacon wrapped pears and plenty of tasty, tasty burgers. And then, just as we were finishing up, the staff gave me a crispy banana split (strawberry, vanilla, and chocoloate scoops with fried banana bits, whipped cream and walnuts) bedecked with candles for free!

We then headed out to Southdale to watch the Watchmen. Some of us were in full regalia- I was dressed as Rorschach (sp?), Rachel as Rorschach with his mask off, Teagle as Silhouette, Pechous as Daniel Dryburg/Nite Owl and Karen as somebody with Fancy Pants. As far as the movie, it was enjoyable, but I wouldn't say it was a good movie. It was simply a live action + CGI version of the comic book, and at that it was spectacular. It remained incredibly faithful to the novel, and only changed a few parts to either make them more cinematic or a bit more rational. The songs were sometimes out of place with the scenes (Hallelujah during the sex scene? Hilarious!), but for the most part made it feel a bit more campy and enjoyable than they otherwise would have been. I guess why I don't feel it was a good movie was because it was so faithful to the comic book. It was way too slow paced, dense, and background dependent to make a good movie. Anyone who read and especially those that enjoyed the comic will love the movie because it is about as direct an adaptation as one could hope for. Others might get into it, but it's probably too dense to swallow in one sitting for most people not already familiar with the source material.

Two more notes about the movie:
1) Buckets and buckets of gore. I personally don't remember the book being that gory, but it definitely goes with the whole realism aspect that they were going for.
2) There was a lot of nudity in that film, especially male nudity. I applaud them for not making a big deal of it and simply accepting the human body for what it is, but I kept on giggling whenever Dr Manhattan moved around on camera. I know, I'm five.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome b-day. I'll have the few photos of it posted up at some point soon.

Until next time...

"You can't reach old age by another man's road. My habits protect my life but they would assassinate you."
- Mark Twain's 70th birthday speech, 1905