Sunday

Movie>
I just saw the latest Harry Potter movie last night. I don't think I can pass a good judegment on the movie itself due to the location that I saw the movie. I wanted to see it, but the best time available was at a theater that I loathe... Lowes. It's been a very long time since last I visited lowes (at least a year or more) so I thought, 'well maybe things have changed.' No.
I got there maybe 20 minutes before showtime. There was a long line. I didn't stop for popcorn (as it cost way too much), and yet I had to sit in the third row. Ok, I guess that's my fault for not getting there sooner, but I didn't think it would have been that crowded after 3 weeks since the release date. (wrong again as it's the number one ranked movie for the 3rd week in a row). I sat through what seemed like 10-15 previews, one was for a movie that will be released in November of 2006! Really, should you be doing previews 11 months ahead of time? The film was too dark (until about 7/8ths when it seemed like someone flipped a switch on the projector and it became noticably brigther) not to mention scratch lines and dark shadows on the edges of the screen. So... It was hard for me to enjoy the movie with all these distractions. In spite of all that, I did like the movie overall. I think it was probably about 20 minutes too long (cut a lot of stuff at the beginning). I enjoyed the charaters, and the effects, and for short periods of time I was transported to Hogwarts.

Books>
I'm actually reading Harry Potter as well. Enjoying it so far.
I'm also (finally) reading a small book i picked up at a small bookstore in Berkeley, CA... called the "Stolen Sharpie Revolution". Interesting book about a subculture who independently makes there own "zines". Usually small budget magazines done on a photocopier. I will probably never make my own zine, but reading about the process was/is interesting. It's also interesting to me because the zine community were almost like the first "bloggers". I would imagine that with the ease of blogging it probably has diminished the zines.

Politics>
I just finished watching a debate with Alan Dershowitz and Noam Chomsky on C-span's Book TV. I'm not sure if I consider myself a "fan" of Chomsky, but I like a lot of things that he says and stands for. I will admit though that much of what he says goes over my head. Even the subject of this debate was beyond me, but at the same time I found the exchange of ideas interesting. The topic of the debate was "Israel and Palestine After Disengagement". One thing that I was rather shocked and very dissapointed with, was that this was a debate sponsored by Harvard, and was between two highly educated men, and yet neither one could speak to one another in a civil manor. Each one was taking "cheap shots" at the other, interrupting one another, and at times even over-shouting the moderator who was trying to keep things in line (and failing). These two men of such high esteem, education, political backgrounds, etc... can't manage to have a civil debate about peace in the middle east... It was very sad. If you are the slightest bit interested in this, you can watch it online on C-span's website here. (The opening comments of each speaker are tedius to listen to, but once the questions from the audience start things heat up quickly.) You'll need "realplayer" to view this.

Table>
I was inspired by sister's blog to finally fix a small rickety end table that I've had. The glue of the legs had long since dried up, and there was only one screw holding each leg on. So I took the legs off, sanded them down (by hand at first, but then I used my dremel and saved a lot of time). Then put some new glue on, and reattached the legs. One leg may still give me problems as it didn't sit too well, but the other three snugged up nicely. I've got it clamped now, and will let the glue dry overnight. Thanks to my sister who finally gave me the motivation to fix this little table.

Well, this is turning into a small book, so I'll sign off now.
Cyen