D’Arvit!

My semester ended several weeks ago, April 30th, if I remember correctly. I wasn’t really expecting to take summer classes this time since I’ve been studying my ass off since the Summer of 2006 nonstop. And you know what I think about studying. I hate it. I don’t believe in studying. If a person were really innately smart, there really is no need to study. I especially hate those I refer to as the “book smart” people. They study soooo much, get awesome grades, memorize stuff, regurgitate material and all that crap, but when you talk to them about various things, like general musings in life, media, pop-culture, politics, art–basically on stuff that matter–and their minds are as empty as iHOP on a gloomy Friday evening. Bad analogy, sorry, but you get my drift. My point is, these people are only “smart” because they study. Outside the classroom–heck, even inside it, like in classes you don’t have to study for like English, History, and general aptitude tests–they can’t even form opinions and do poorly. That’s what I hate about these “book smart” people. They’re mindless drones who operate well on the Institution. They aren’t well-versed–they’re not at all “well read”. They don’t deserve to be called intelligent because their so-called “smarts” are merely borrowed from the textbooks they gobble up. It disgusts me. But I digress.

The fall semester’s looking a bit heavy from what I can see right now, so I’ve decided to take Research in the summer. It starts, oh, tomorrow evening. An evening class. Once a week. In the summer. Greeeeat. I’m taking Patho as well, since I do have to retake it anyway. I really want to raise my GPA, so I’m trying out some new ways to get things done. We’ll see.

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For the past few days, after going back and forth from HM to the BEACH!!!, I spent most of my time catching up on about a year’s worth of missed television. I finished watching the epic yet shortlived Sci-Fi series called Firefly [it lasted up to only 14 episodes before Big Bad Fox cancelled it], its spinoff big-screen bonus called Serenity, the infectious and totally entertaining Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and the first season of Castle. The common denominator in all of these is actor Nathan Fillion. That actor is just brilliant. Aside from the fact that he’s the first Nathan I’ve ever known who isn’t an asshole [enter snickers and lols here], the guy’s just really really good. And hi-larious.

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Also, last night, I finally saw the unofficial LOTR fan-made film, “The Hunt for Gollum”. It’s surprisingly very good. For a fan-made film, it’s AMAZING. It looks just like the ones New Line made. The fans based it off the stuff from the appendices, when Aragorn and Gandalf looked for Gollum. It happens before the Fellowship of the Ring. They only spent $4000 on it & nobody got paid. It’s made by fans, after all. It’s only about 40 minutes. Click here to see it.

As my friend pointed out, “The Hunt for Gollum” isn’t entirely accurate, but the general plot sticks to what happened [according to what Gandalf told the Hobbits in RoTK and the stuff I've looked at on the appendices, History of Middle-earth & The Unfinished Tales].

This whole thing now makes me think of the future of film. First off, we’ve witnessed the huge success of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog as a purely web-distributed work. The continued success of films for the web may perhaps open up to a brand new business model for distributors and filmmakers alike. I know that this isn’t a new thing, especially with the rising popularity of the indie film scene, but mainstream cinema is dying… would people now turn to the Internet?

Anyway, enough rambling for now. So go and watch it!

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And lastly, I just want to post this here:

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test
Your results:
You are Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)

Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 85% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 75% Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 65% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 65% Inara Serra (Companion) 60% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 60% River (Stowaway) 55% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 45% Wash (Ship Pilot) 40% Alliance 15% A Reaver (Cannibal) 5%

Medicine and physical healing are your game, but wooing women isn’t a strong suit.