The Collected Writings of Sardonicus

X-Men III: The Last Stand
At last! A story truly worthy of the X-franchise has finally been weaved together by Brett Ratner. Of course, it was no Spider-Man II, but it definitely had its moments and, to my surprise, I was quite pleased with the product. But, naturally, there were a number of weak points. First and foremost, in the opinion of this writer, was the exceptionally large cast. I appreciate how the breath of characters helps illustrate the magnitude of the events on screen, but ultimately, no characters were satisfyingly fleshed out, although each were appropriately given their moment to shine. Recommended, but only if you are in the mood for some action. B+

Man... I did astoundingly bad this past semester... Unforgivable.

Went on my maiden voyage to the Manhasset Public Library this afternoon, and intend to acquaint myself more thoroughly with the establishment in the future. By all appearances a great place to work.

Hooray! I bought my first cellphone today from Verizon. I only had a cellphone once before, but it was a rental for when I was in Korea. I only had it for a few weeks, but I could definitely see how a person can become dependent on one. It's a relatively shabby phone (see pic), but it's still nice and shiny (I like shiny things) . It's an LG VX5200. Now I just have to install some secret agent devices into it (e.g. death ray), and I'll be set!

LOST 2006/5/24 - 2nd Season Finale
!!Spoiler alert!!
Wow... that was a pretty cool two-hour finale. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were taken by the Others, Michael and Walt have be given a way off the island, Hurley is told to return to the beach and tell the others that they shouldn't go to the other side of the island. Meanwhile, in the hatch, Locke let the numbers roll down and whatever the hatch controlled had to be destroyed. But before that happened, the sky turned white for some reason. The big surprise... "Henry" turned out to be the leaders of the "Others." I had wondered if that was going to be a twist a few weeks ago, but it was still quite a surprised.
It was a pretty good season. A dramatic shift from the first season, but I'm digging all the twists and turns. Thankfully, my favorite character, Sayid is still out there and has managed to avoid falling into the clutches of the bad guys. Hopefully we see him knock some heads around next season! Sayid, Jin, and Sun are coming to the rescue! B

24: Season One
I'm digging 24 so far. I'm even a few episodes into Season Two now.... it's so addicting. I can't wait to find out who killed Jack's wife this season. But Jack's daughter is starting to be a HUGE pain... gosh I hate her storylines. She's such an idiot. Season One was okay... but not up to the hype. Hopefully the stories become more compelling further into the show. And the mole that was revealed in the finale... WOW, that shocked me. I am glad that Tony and George are good guys (as far as we know)... Dennis Hopper was cool as Victor Drazen, and Keifer Sutherland was cool as Jack, but I wasn't too fond of everything else. I can't find myself caring too much about the Presidential primaries and such... But generally a good season. B-

Got a new white Macbook this past day (Monday). I didn't think I would ever get a Mac, and I'm not a huge fan of Apple, but they said it would be much more reliable than a PC, and apparently the newer Macs allow you to use a windows operating system. THAT was a relief. The downside is that the screen is a little small, but I can get used to it. I haven't actually turned it on yet, because I need to get my hands on Windows XP installation CDs to install the operating system. I don't even want to bother with the pre-installed stuff. But exciting times! Hooray!! I've been waiting for an upgrade. Better everything. My thinkpad is too old... I'm like living in the stone age.

Building the proposed "wall" on the Southern border really has nothing to do with terrorism. It's because too many people are coming in through Mexico too quickly, and they, overall, contribute very little to the country. Some people argue that they're helpful because they are willing to work for very little. First of all, that's condescending, and second, it's not as true as it sounds. Yes, they cost employers less because hiring American citizens would mean higher wagers, but the undocumented workers also leech off of social welfare programs on the taxpayer's dime. Individual employers can make bigger profits, but the rest of us have to foot the actual bill. It's getting harder and harder for the US to absorb the costs of people of whom the vast majority do not, and never will make enough to pay taxes. Fine, the US should allow a certain amount of people to cross every year (as they do from most countries), but it should refocus its immigration policy to also attract people from other areas of the world that are also skilled and educated. If people continue to cross the southern border at the present rate (and it's only likely to go up), then our country is really going into the sh*thole in a few decades, especially with out Social Security problems. So yes, SOMETHING needs to be done. But NO, building a fence doesn't seem to be the most effective way to solve the problem. Likely, it'll achieve minimal results, and cost a heckuva lot of money.

The best policy? I agree that Bush should send more National Guard troops to patrol the border, and the United States should continue to build its relations with Mexico so that one day, our southern neighbor's economy starts to flourish and retain its own workers. For the time being, Congress should NOT consider giving our illegals amnesty and then citizenship. That'll just make the border problem worse.

You know what pisses me off? When I'm talking to someone, and I am clearly aware that the other person is lying straight to my face, I call them on it, and they still won't admit the truth. My goodness, it's like some people just like to play these little games as if they think they're being clever. Look, if both of us know that I know you're full of $%#@, then just drop the act. Don't insult my intelligence.

Sometimes, it just feels like everyone is playing these little games to protect themselves. But drop it. Maybe you don't understand, but these little acts don't work. Crazy people can't hide they're crazy, as much as they try. True, they think they're doing a good job acting normal, but please... For the rest of you, if you're acting like an idiot, just pretending everything is normal doesn't solve anything. Saying that it's okay because a lot of other people are messed up too doesn't prove anything other than to say that you're painfully normal. Pretending you're something you're OBVIOUSLY not is just pathetic. How about everyone try to find some consistency with their characters? What? Afraid you might actually have to learn something TRUE about yourself?

This isn't quite directed at anyone in particular. Just something that's been bugging me.

HEEE-LARIOUS.

Mission Impossible III
Admittedly not that bad. Most of the action scenes were pretty cool, and it definitely got the testosterone running in me. Unfortunately the other half of the movie consisted of Tom Cruise being lovey-dovey and acting all married. This, of course, has its own good moments, but this is an ACTION movie! I WANT SOME ACTION. That was sorta a drag. Getting married and having it be happily ever after kinda took away the edge. Regardless, it was heads above MI:I and MI:II, so I guess I'd recommend checking it out. B

OH NO! Malcolm in the Middle has been cancelled :(

Got a haircut.

Man, my sleep schedule is way off. I've been going to sleep late and waking up at noon everyday the past week. I need to gradual shift back into a more reasonable routine. I'll try to start waking up by 9, and then slowly move it earlier and earlier until waking up to go to work next fall is no problem.

Spent the day doing work at the East Asian Library at Frist. I have my notes for two of my papers, but now I gotta turn some attention to my history paper... I dun wanna. I barely even went to that class at all. I MAY have gone to one or two of the lectures in the second half of the semester... I hope I didn't miss anything important. It's sorta pitiful when you think about it... an 11AM class was too early for me. How am I gonna handle waking up at 6AM everyday to go to work? I am so screwed.

Think I need a haircut...

I can't wait until I don't have these papers to write... compiling my notes is such a drag.

A British military helicopter apparently was hit by a missile Saturday and crashed in Basra, triggering a confrontation in which jubilant Iraqis pelted British troops with stones, hurled firebombs and shouted slogans in support of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric. The Iraqi state television and on the Al-Jazeera satellite station broadcasted the scene.

It is definitely frustrating to see how unpopular the US-led coalition is among the people in Iraq, and it calls into question whether or not this war can really be "won." Sure, sure, the US military has wins military battles, but our leadership needed to be better prepared for the task of post-war reconstruction and nation-building. It needed to keep Al-Qaeda out, negotiate with Iraqi leaders (even if it meant making some concessions to clerics), and show the Iraqi people the benefits of getting rid of Saddam. Life, as far as I can tell, years after the initial invasion has been worse than pre-invasion standards. Eventually, the US will continue to be villified amongst the Iraqi people, and in a few years any US-sponsored plan will basically have no chance of success.

That is not to say that I think President Bush himself lied to get us into Iraq. I wouldn't be surprised if virtually every government on Earth pre-2002 was absolutely certain that Saddam at least had plans for a nuclear weapons program. And I understand the merits of pre-emption and acknowledge that modern weapons delivery systems make non-proliferation all that more important. What worries me is the behavior of people in the Bush administration (like Rumsfeld, Cheney, and their supporters) who if they don't recieve the answer they want from their intelligence sources, simply coercive their agents to tell them what they want to hear, regardless of the best available information and experts. It was war-mongering at the highest level. Bush was duped along with the rest of us.

That is, of course, not to say that he is without blame. After all, according to our president, we invaded Iraq because God told him to in a dream... Perhaps there are a large number of people on this Earth that believe that or at least consider it as a possibility. Those people are idiots. I cannot believe that the leader of the free world is this clueless. But, in my humble opinion, problems in United States when it comes to our worldview is much worse than most people believe. US news is dominated by Michael Jackson, Angelina Jolie, the abortion issue... pointless. Isn't is scary that most people probably wouldn't be able to tell you the first thing about the candidates they vote for other than their party identification and their stance on gay marriage? And journalism in America... God forbid our news organizations begin to care about the laws and policies that affect us day-to-day, global disease, or genocide in Darfur.

Sigh... what the #$&@ is wrong with you, ____. It will be a happy day when I finally get away from this crap. HOORAY, I think it's better... spoke too soon. :(

Yanks and Mets are both on top of their division. Good time to be a New York baseball fan.

Wow... Porter Goss has just resigned as the director of the CIA without much of an explanation. Of course, I can only speculate as to why, but I have the impression that it is a result of his frustration with the Bush Administration and its appalling mismanagement of our country and the skyrocketing corruption within our government. Perhaps he just wouldn't play ball their way. I'm going to have to wait for Goss' memoirs to know for certain.

Potentially some REALLY REALLY REALLY good news. The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction has signed a peace agreement after intense negotiation. A smaller rebel faction, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has rejected the deal, but there is still cause for hope. Unfortunately, there is also cause for skepticism. Cease fires in the region are frequently violated, and as far as I can tell, the peace is not stable enough to last for long. Still, a temporary solution is better than no solution at all, especially when it comes to ethnic-cleansing. Let's hope that the UN and nongovernmental organizations take the opportunity to help where they can.

So far, the DOW is doing well today. Apparently some analysts are expecting a 6-year high. But considering what's going on with America today, I doubt many expect it to last.

Well, yesterday afternoon I had my final class at Princeton University. I'm ambivalent about it. It was hardly a life-altering event, but I believe it was enough to give me pause. I've been dedicating too much of my time recently to introspection. Typically, I'm relatively apathetic about things of little consequence, but something is different. Can't put my finger on it though. I almost feel like I'm in the process of mourning, but I'm not quite sure what it is that I lost. Normally, I oddly take comfort in other people's stupidity and misfortune, but that hasn't been as amusing as of late. Either I have become desensitized to the entertainment value of pain and suffering, or something else has been ruining my mood. I blame one person in particular, who EVERYDAY seems to annoy the HELL out of me. From morning til night. And I've made a lot of progress with this person so as to pacify the situation, but it's still not working for me. Well, a large part of the reason why I have a constant headache is because this person is just one of the most annoying people I've ever had to be around... but I'm also willing to acknowledge that a lot of it has to do with my legendary intolerance of other people. One day bards will sing of it. Sleeping in my room at home again will be wonderful... here I can't get a good night's sleep or a moment's peace... On some level, I'm proud that I hold people around me to such high standards of behavior, yet sometimes it would be great if I just didn't care.

The thing pissing me off today: People who compulsively need to pretend not to care about something when they really. Are you just "too cool" to give someone else the satisfaction of knowing something matters to you?

Also, on a higher note... the new Superman Returns trailer!! Play it on quicktime here
I CANNOT WAIT.

Today apparently over a million supporters throughout the nation skipped work to take part in the "Day Without Immigrants." I guess I'll have to check the papers tomorrow morning to see whether or not it translated into any real economic or political clout among legislators, but so far it feels a little ho-hum. Regarding giving undocumented workers a legal status in the United States, I'm ambivalent. On one hand, I'm not sympathetic. Even illegal immigrants benefit from public goods like our school systems, which many of them don't directly pay taxes for, so who are they to complain that they are entitled to more? They are ILLEGAL immigrants. The United States should recognize their human rights, but they don't have the same civil rights as US citizens. Basically what they're asking for is to virtually give legal status to anyone that can enter our borders, whether they go through legal channels or not. Even if these people became legal citizens, the vast majority wouldn't even make enough money to contribute taxes to our nation anyway. The fact of the matter is that regardless of how poorly they feel they are treated in the US, they don't want to go back where they came from. So now they're biting the hand that fed them.

Of course, that's a little simplistic. They were, of course, protesting recently proposed legislation that would make it illegal for employers to hire illegal immigrants and criminalize those business. Now... correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that "illegal" anyway? I guess the point is that the government will be more likely to seek out a prosecute them. Without a doubt, the exploitation of undocumented workers has been central in keeping wages down in the States, and I don't really think all too many people want them to leave. So it's hard to say what the solution should be. I would have no problem with temporary legal status for seasonal workers, but I do think that most people in our nation need to be kept track of. People shouldn't be able to enter our country and just "disappear." I only have a rough understanding of the plan Bush proposed a few months ago that seemed to meet resistence, but so far that one seemed to be the most reasonable and effective. I guess we'll see how that goes.