Supernova Juice Journal

I phoned my friend after running low on options.  I figured she was still out of town - but in actuality, she had lost her address book.   So she was happy I called.  After a delightful dinner at her place, we caught the movie at 5th Avenue Cinemas.   The movie was gripping, funny, raw, honest, and thought provoking.  Not bad for a first feature by it’s director, Courtenay Hunt.   The native woman in it was fantastic.  I know everyone is raving about Melissa Leo, but it was Misty Upham who often stole the show in a subtle and very nuanced performance.   A lot of “gasp” moments and edge-of-your seat moments throughout.    Highly recommended.

Ah,  my second film contest win and third contest win of the year.   I enter a lot of contests - heavy on the concerts and movies.   I won’t play the lottery though.

The last movie I won tickets for was Snow Angels, a tale of a relationship gone wrong, set against a coming of age story.  Bleak, but strong performances by Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell and the two people who played the teenagers.

Frozen River is about a single mother who gets drawn into smuggling humans across a Mowhawk reservation that exists on both the Quebec and New York State sides of the border.   It’s been getting great reviews and was named Best Drama at Sundance.  These are the type of movies I enter -  the ones for previews of crap like The Mummy:  Tomb of the Dragon Emperor I usually shy away from.  Plus fewer people enter these independent movie contests, so your chance of winning is higher.

The bummer-side of this is that my movie going friend is in Winnipeg right now.   Time to start flogging a free movie pass to people who normally don’t see stuff like this.

There was an ad on TV several month ago for free Robaxet if you went to their website and signed up.  I had completely forgotten about it.  Then today, a package arrived on my desk … and what did it contain?   Free pills.   W00t!

Zip.ca is our answer in Canada to Netflix, an online DVD rental store.   I had some minor problems signing up,  but customer service was quick in responding.   I signed up for the $10.95 plan, which allows me 1 DVD out at a time up to as many times a month as I can watch and return DVD’s.  However, given that it’s a 5 day estimated mailing time for my first DVD,  I don’t think I’ll be able to rent more than 2 movies a month at this rate.

They do offer a service where you can let them know you have dropped a movie back in the mail and then they will try to get a movie off your list ready to ship as soon as they can confirm the movie has been returned.   I imagine this would shave a few days off.   Still, 5 day delivery for a movie is not that impressive given you can rent a movie off of iTunes for less and 3 rentals would cost about the same.  The problem with the company seems to be that it’s another Ontario based business and everything has to come from there.   My gods, Amazon shipped me a book from Ontario on Friday and it arrived Monday, so I am not sure what zip.ca’s problem is.   I suspect that their online estimate is generous.  If this movie is not here by Wednesday,  they probably sent it via bike courier or hitchhiker.

And what did I rent?     War of the Worlds - the Tom Cruise edition.   I missed a lot of big budget movies there and some of them I never saw, but had always wanted to.   Syriana, Serenity,  The New World, A History of Violence, and Wolf Creek were some of the movies I caught that year that were actually good.   Episode III put me off big budget movies so harshly though, that I distrusted almost anything that came out of Hollywood.

Still,

from brunching.com

I just had the strangest dream. I dreamt I was watching a trailer for a Japanese anime movie. Afterwards, I was a guest of a pre-release event promoting the film. A large multi-leveled halll with many rooms had been dressed up to look like a building in the movie. A giant screen played the movie trailer, while red books were scattered about tables that contained pictures and information about the movie. Brochures in japanese and english were being displayed as well. I had arrived early as people were still walking about, dressing the room. In the small side rooms, there were demontrations going on, including one on grace in which participants had to pull a napkin from between two greeting cards without moving the above card. It was harder than it looked.

The strangest part of the dream was that before I arrived at the event, ads promoting the movie appeared. Now what was strange about the ads were that, in this universe or future or whatever, people projected 2d holographic ads in front of their faces. I guess it was the last place advertising had finally travelled. But the ads for the movie were pink versions of the movie poster, which was odd given that the movie poster was mostly red and black.

I don’t remember anything in detail about the movie itself. There was the building that the room I had been in, but it was populated by round bodied creatures with no head, just a round body with eyes. There was something about this place that was supposed to be paradise and there was quest by two young women trying to find it and unlock it’s secrets.

One odd detail about the room i was in that I just rememberd - one of the tiled walls was this pale blue / turquoise and it had a pattern on it. What was unusual was that the pattern was drawn in chalk and while an effort was made to make them all look the same, there were visual differences, including a tile where it looked like it had been wiped clean and redone - but there was a layer of chalk residue left over.

What was the movie called? Heck if I know.

Sure, they are out there all the time.  But this time they are capitalizing on the horrifying death of Tim McLean.   I can understand where PETA comes from and they have made good inroads into the treatment and slaughter of animals, such as at FKC.   However, they have no respect for the friends and family of this poor man who met an untimely end in Ontario.   This organization and the people who support them deserve nothing more than to be swept under the rug and be ostracized from general society.  Their callous disregard for human life puts them in no better than Vince Weiguang Li, the man who murdered Mr McLean.  Sure, PETA hasn’t murdered anybody.  But they show the same inhuman disregard for human life.  And people like that need to be removed from our society for the betterment of humankind.

Last night, I watched this program on NOVA.  It is the first time I’ve seen something that actually explained the differences between global warming and  global dimming, but also how they are intricately related to each other.   The program was also hugely depressing because it presente best and worst case scenarios - with the best being the Amazon rainforst catching on fire and burning by the end of the century.  This scenario is only preventable if we do something within the next 10 years to stop pollution.  And what makes me said is that our government and others are looking to 2050 to do something, by which time it will be too late.   Oh, I also finally learned how clouds really form as well - something which was never properly explained until I had watched this program.

The site link above has lots of information, including a full transcript of the program.

Paris Hilton For President

Blizzard has really stepped up the game here.  You get a free level if your friend goes up 2 levels?  Triple experience if you quest together?   An exclusive mount?   This is way too awesome.

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Our new Recruit-A-Friend program has added features that reward you even more for bringing your friends into Azeroth™. Recruit-A-Friend and earn:

• An exclusive ZHEVRA in-game mount* when your friend pays for 60 days of subscription time.
• 30 Days of FREE** WoW gametime when your friend pays for 30 days of subscription time.

Also, from the moment your friend creates a character and starts adventuring with you (including the trial period), both of you will receive these additional in-game benefits:

• You and your friend will earn triple the experience when grouped together.
• For every two levels of experience your friend earns, they can grant one level of experience to any one of your characters of lower level.
• You and your friend will have the ability to summon each other from any point in the world.

For more details on the new Recruit-A-Friend program please click here.

To recruit your friends now click here.

The World of Warcraft® Team