The Avengers.

As you've probably deduced from my wonderfully creative title, I saw The Avengers yesterday. 

It was so good. For some reason, it seems like it's been forever since I've seen a good old action flick with no romantic subplot/random chick-flick moments in the middle. 

Not that there's anything wrong with romantic films, and other such tomfoolery. I've just not been in the mood for them. In the slightest. And then the Hunger Games decides to spring all that stuff on me when I least expect it. I'm sure you understand my grievances now, such that they are. 

Anyway. I digress. It was a good movie in its own right. A bit confusing, but hey, that's kind of what you get when you chuck in a bazillion guys with different superpowers into one movie. I expected it to be more in the flavour of Iron Man, but surprisingly, it played more like Thor, except better. It had the same kind of weird humour that me (and I think most other people) find absolutely hilarious. That was kind of the best thing about it, really. 

Oh, the other best thing, because I'm such a history nerd, and because I've been reading a lot about German history lately, was when Loki landed in Germany and attempted to subjugate the people. German people. Who I've just learned, really, really hate authoritarianism as a general rule. For obvious reasons. Good one, Loki.  

Here's the trailer (or a trailer) for those of you that have been living under the proverbial rock. 

What are you asking me to do?

Apart from that, not a whole lot going on except for this essay that I'm trying to smash out. Hopefully works out ok. 

Next movie to look forward to: Batman. Oh my. 

Word of the Day: Avengers

Oh snap

It feels so good when someone thinks you're wrong, and they're really convinced of your wrongness, and then you unequivocally prove them wrong, and that you are, in fact, right.

This happened in our accounting presentation today. I thought we'd screwed something up because this guy at the back of the room seemed certain that we had. Turns out he was very, very wrong, and very, very confused. What a reversal. From him thinking that he'd got us, and could laugh at us, to us getting him, like a rabbit caught in the headlights, and almost laughing at him.

It did, however, turn out that we had in fact done two things wrong, which were later picked up by the tutor. But the fact remains that nobody else picked up that we were wrong.

How petty of me. I'm usually not as vindictive as this, but I feel that way today. Just thinking about past events, and the vengeance associated with it. I'm trying not to seek revenge for anything at all, because I've found that it provides a kind of satisfaction for a millisecond, and then you feel worse than ever because you've done it. That's why Batman is a vigilante, not a...revenge-seeker. That reminds me of a conversation I had with a few homeboys last year.

Me: "What're we going to do for extra-curricular next semester?"
Meng or Banh (I can't remember): "Become vigilantes."
Me: "Oh yeah. The BatMeng."

Ok, so not much of a conversation. Still, it satisfies the criteria for a conversation. Not that I know what those criteria are, or whether they exist at all. I think they do. I'm fairly sure I learnt about that in linguistics. And it was funny.

ANYWAY. I don't know what prompted that rant. But I am now in 90% holiday mode. That's my last assessment for this...half semester. I'm trying to think of a better word for it, if you can call that a word at all. Term? Too junior. I'll think of something clever soon enough. Looking forward to tomorrow for various reasons. We'll see what happens.

Word of the Day: Vengeance

Me. The City.

Ok, so it doesn't look like I'll be going out to the city at all for New Year's Eve. People either have better people to hang out with, or have made their own thing to do, or just generally can't be stuffed going out to the city. Which is understandable. I mean, it is me. And the city. It's like, two negatives in one. Which is not good. At all. If I were given the choice, I wouldn't want to spend the night with me. Especially in the city. On New Year's Eve.

My main motivation for going out to the city was originally to get Linda to come along. Failing that, spending time with friends would've been nice. But seeing as she's spending the night with her family, and I have approximately 0 friends who want to come out to the city, with me, I guess I'll do the same, and see if I can find something to do with my homies during the day. With me. Possibly in the city.

Look for my Batlight thing...you know, that light that Batman shines on the clouds to get everybody's attention...ok, forget it. It's not important anyway. Just look out for it. It might be in the shape of me. And it may or may not be in the city.

Word of the Day: City

Deja Vu

A new semester, but, in a sense, more or less like the one before. The more astute of you will pick up on the delay between the start of semester and this post, but in case you haven't, there it is: this post is late. Again. Which fits in nicely with this repetition theme I have going on here. Repetition theme.

Anyway, about Batman first. So yeah. I saw Batman with the Victor on...some Friday, can't remember which. I was really hyped up for it, because other people were. So anyway, we went in and came back out. To be honest, it didn't really live up to my (ridiculously high) expectations. I really expected to be fully blown out of the water. But I guess the premise already determined that Batman couldn't be better than The Godfather. It's a sequel for one. And it's constrained by the fact that it has to be about this guy, with certain characteristics and features. And then there's the fact that it's based on a comic book. Don't get me wrong, though. It was a great movie. Just not the best of all time, in my opinion. Hell, stuff the my opinion. Everything here is my opinion. Obviously not yours. Anyway, Heath Ledger was awesome, because I surmise that he's already half-gone by that stage in his life. Worth going to.

Then there was this business of the Olympic Games. I watched the Opening Ceremony at 8:08pm, on the 08/08/2008. It was amazing. The Australian team uniform was a huge letdown. Huge. So ugly. Like some cheap tracksuit 10 years out of style. And even they don't have pants that are the same colour as the jacket. Even amongst all the fanfare and hoo-hah, you can't help but wonder what all that money could've done for education and the medical system. Such is the conundrum of China.

Some highlights (or otherwise) so far:
- Phelps winning his eighth. However, I still believe that that does not make him the greatest Olympian of all time, due to the comparative ease with which multiple medals can be obtained in swimming. In swimming, if you can last the distance, all you basically have to do is change your stroke for different events. However, in something like 100 metre sprint, you can't also go for the 1500m as well. It doesn't work like that. An even more extreme example is sports like football or basketball, where there is only the possibility of getting one per Olympics. So no, he's not the greatest. It's just that other athletes are limited by practical complications.
- Usain Bolt winning 100m sprint. Even though I didn't watch it, I heard all about it and the exquisite ease with which he won gold.
- Nadal. Pure perfection and power. Awesome display in destroying Gonza. He's improved out of sight since the Australian Open.
- Lowlight was Grant Hackett. I watched the live as well.
- On the subject of lowlights, Olyroos. Enough said.
- Phelps and his iPod was another lowlight.
- Lowlight no. 4: Asafa who?

At this very moment, I'm watching Argentina vs Brazil. They have Messi. Game over. Unless Brazil put Pato on.

I love the smell of the new football season. New players, new teams, new spirit. And Arsenal have three points from their first game, with Nasri scoring the first goal of the season on four minutes. Good team, that Arsenal.

So back to this semester of uni. I thank the friends that still remain by my side, because a lot have not. You know who you are. I can't really blame them. I mean, it's me. I think it's something inherently "me" that turns people off me. I just get these looks from certain camps, and friends are hard to make. People just aren't interested in talking to me. Maybe I should improve me as a person. Or get plastic surgery. Or something of the sort. Whatever. At least I've met a few new people, who still do not seem interested in sustaining a conversation with me, bar a couple. Maybe my humour's to dry. That could be it. Maybe I should smile to take the bite off my humour. Maybe I should stop speculating about what's wrong with me, because I'll probably never find out.

Assignments coming on thick and fast now, mid-sem test soon, stressed-out people. Deja Vu. Again.