Sunday, August 30, 2009

how cool people spend their Saturdays:

1) get up early and take the car for regular service
2) have awesome tea in a specialty tea store and read a while
3) buy a few pots and a big bag of potting mix and spend all afternoon re-potting plants
4) and finally, have a glass of wine, grill a frozen pizza, and watch Michael Jackson in concert on TV!!!!

I bet you all wish you were that cool, don't you?!

Read the rest...

Monday, August 24, 2009

Of vampires and zombies

having the great experience of watching six feet under previously from HBO, I was really excited about watching " True Blood", despite its vampire-falls-in-love-with-mortal-girl plot which inevitably reminds one of "twilight" (may all existing copies burn in a sudden and selective fire accident). Unfortunately I was disappointed!

Actually, the beginning of the series is pretty strong, The starting credits are just awesome with a song that goes really well with the images. And then you meet a few of the characters and it all seems very interesting. it's not until the third or fourth episode that you kind of realize that it's not really that well-made, and actings are not the best they could be and that some characters are constantly on your nerve. and in my case it took me six episodes to realize I don't want to watch this anymore. I might be tempted to follow the story though, just because I'm an addict like that and have to know what happens in the end. maybe I'll just read wikipedia! Anyway, it's a shame!

Here's the starting song by the way:

Title: Bad Things, By: Jace Everette

Also, I have been reading Pride and Prejudice, and zombies. So far, so good... it's funny, but not hilarious, yet!

Read the rest...

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Just a note:

skype add-on on firefox creates a mess when using facebook.

Read the rest...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Jane Austen, yet again

Remember a few months ago when i was reading Jane Austen novels? For some reason, I just keep getting drawn to them again. Last week I started listening to the an audiobook of "Sense and Sensibility"... of course the whole thing was triggered by me turning on the TV one day to find the 1995 movie adaptation of the book showing on a channel. I realized I had forgotten the details of the story (surprising after so many times of reading it!!!) and would like a review. In order to avoid having to read a 5.0 kg book in bed (I have all of Austen novels in one giant binding), I decided to listen to the audiobook and it was such a great decision. I picked the version read by Nadia May, and absolutely loved it. She made me realize how to read the super long sentences in Austen's novels and make sense of what's going on in the dialogues.

I also think that after reading her novels time and time again, I am finally beginning to see the comedy in them, and find myself laughing quite often, which was not the case before! So yeah, another round of Austen novels in audio is probably on the way! :)

Read the rest...

Monday, August 17, 2009

When hell freezes over

...today, for the first time ever, I got to experience real customer service from Apple Canada's support staff. It took a long time alright, but after hanging up the phone everything I wanted was taken care of without me needing to do much other than giving them the serial number of my phone! It probably should be an everyday experience with customer support staff, but well, unfortunately for me that doesn't seem to be the case.

anyway, I just thought I should publicly announce my gratefulness!

Read the rest...

Saturday, August 15, 2009

ermmm, I thought I was smart

My mind has been a bit unwell these past few weeks for a number of reasons. So I have been frequently forgetting stuff, misplacing things, and unable to focus on anything important. But the highlight of this constant confusion came last week when I went to a food place on campus to order a burger:

I ordered my food and paid, then the cashier lady gave me a piece of paper with the number three on it:






Of course, I'm looking at it from the other side of the counter, so what I see looks like this:






(if you're not Iranian, that's how number four is written in Farsi). So then I , using my brilliant mind, thought to myself: "this is very confusing!" and then actually asked the lady:" Is this a three or a four?!"!!!!! of course as I was saying it, it occurred to me how stupid my question was, but too late! ... the poor woman looked at me like she was looking at a retarded kid, and then very slowly said :"I think it's a three."... I was embarrassed beyond measures! and my friend almost peed himself laughing at me! [sigh]

Read the rest...

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Your romantic comedy correspondent reports

One month and a few romantic comedies after my last post, here I am! If you're following the news on Iran you understand why it's hard to find the inspiration to blog these days, and if you aren't then you probably think i'm a lazy good-for-nothing blogger! either way, here's what I got to watch in the past few weeks.

The proposal: I lost my interest in Sandra Bullock movies a few years ago and the only reason i went to watch this movie was because it was a girls night out. Surprisingly though, it was an O.K. chick flick. at least it was funny! I liked the ending credits the best where there was a weird questioning session going on between the immigration officer and random characters. I wouldn't recommend watching it in the theaters, wait for the DVD.

A break from romantic comedies came with Harry Potter and the half-blood prince: At last, the movie I've been waiting for since 2007 came to theaters! As a big HP fan, I have long lost my faith in a good movie adoption, the movies so far have been average at best compared to the books. This book especially was one of my favorites in the series, since it revealed a lot of history on Voldemort and of course you had the terrible ending and all! So I went in the theater expecting an average movie as a separate entity from the book, and that's why I wasn't disappointed. If you compare it with previous movies, it is as good as the last one, and I also liked some of the locations like the cave where the locket was hidden. Anyway, don't have high expectations, but go watch it in the theater if you can, you'll want the whole package to enjoy the sound and the special effects.

I love you, man: do I really need to write anything about this? It was a romantic comedy that I think guys would enjoy a bit more than girls! It was funny, but not all the time. I didn't find any hysterical funny scene in it (unlike Hangover), but that might be just me! definitely wait for the DVD, or even download it!

and last but definitely not least (500) days of Summer: one of the sweetest, most honest romantic comedies I have seen in years. It was so simple and light, but true at the same time. Anyone who's ever been in a one-sided relationship will relate to this movie 100%. The soundtrack was AMAZING and the cinematic tricks were also smart and well-used. The movie tells the story of a guy who falls for a girl that doesn't believe in relationships, and as cheesy as it may seem to you in text, I guarantee you'll enjoy it whether you're a guy or a girl. I don't think Zooey Deschanel is the prettiest of girls in her photos, but on screen she's just adorable!

Read the rest...