There are few people I hate but once in a while, folks do something that angers or rubs me the wrong way and such is the case here. So no, I don’t really hate this person but I do have some strong feelings that will come out below. Take a breath. Here we go.
In response to Josh Tyler’s recent article over at Cinemablend titled “Twilight Rant: They've Got It All Wrong”, I have a few words of rebuttal. My first thought was two words for you Mr. Tyler: Fuck You. But that’s a bit strong and after sitting with this at lunch, I’m a little calmer.
It’s a well written piece and accurate to a point. What rubs me the wrong way is the second to last paragraph which reads:
Not just any women; squishy, gooey, girly types who still swoon a little whenever they see book covers featuring Fabio. This movie’s audience is the Patrick Dempsey fangirl, the comfortable bodied, wine-drinking ladies who made Grey’s Anatomy a hit. They’re the love obsessed women who bought tickets to Made of Honor, and then went home to wonder why their relationships never seem to work out like the ones they see in the movies. They’re the women who believe men are secretly, well, women… and are dead wrong. Many of these women are teens, whom Summit has done a good job of courting, but most of them are just lonely, besotted, and blighted by society’s unrealistic view of romance.
I can get on board with some of the idea, of how women, and I’d venture to say men as well, are unsatisfied with the view of relationships in movies, but to rack up all of the “Twilight” fans into “squishy, gooey, girly types who still swoon a little whenever they see book covers featuring Fabio” and “the Patrick Dempsey fangirl, the comfortable bodied, wine-drinking ladies who made Grey’s Anatomy a hit” is not simply wrong, it’s down right, to me at least, insulting. I’ve never in my life read a novel with Fabio on the cover, nor do I like Patrick Dempsey and “Grey’s Anatomy”? That show is pure dribble. To
assume that all fans of the book are shallow, needy women hit a nerve, not to mention that it’s down right condescending.
What bothers me most about this entire thing is that for the first time in what seems like a long time, we have a film that has a fantastical element targeted very specifically at teen girls yet folks seem determined to dole out the hate. Where were these articles when
A Cinderella Story or
Step Up opened? It was OK for those films to be released and target their market but it’s not OK for this one? What gives? Am I missing some piece of the puzzle?
At this point, I’m ready to stop reading the majority of the reviews from men simply because they seem more determined to insult the film’s potential audience than to speak about the film itself. And I fully realize that this isn’t any sort of review but it’s mean spirited and something I don’t appreciate. I’ll be sure to go around insulting the fanboys when the next shitty comic book movie is adapted. Oh wait – I won’t do that because I have class.
I don't know the exact number of people that die every year because of drunk drivers but I do know that the number is gargantuan. What I'm pissed off about is WHY celebrities and rich people in general continue to use bad judgement and choose to drink and drive.
It's bad enough that other people do it but these are folks that should be setting an example, not to mention, they can AFFORD to pay a freakin' driver to drive them around. Use your bloody brains! If you drink, DON'T DRIVE. I, and no one else, feels sorry for you!
Rant courtesy of recent news that Rebecca De Mornay is the most recent moron to enter the hall of shame. And I don't care how brilliant or famous she might be. You drink and drive, you ARE a moron.
Not in rhyme though I wish I could make it rhyme. Strong language follow so please, look away if you have problems with profuse swearing.
This is to the asshole in the car driving 60 on the inside lane next to the sidewalk with no regard for the poor pedestrian walking in the pouring rain. Yeah, I'm talking to you dipshit! You in the grey sedan that nearly showered me in sewer water this morning.
SLOW THE FUCK DOWN ASSHOLE!!
You're not the only one on the road and to make matters worse, you're staying dry while I have to balance coffee, an umbrella and my bag not to mention now having to watch the road for idiots like you who are out to make my day that much worse.
I FUCKING hate this. BIG TIME. Now that I figured out what the problem is with MAM, I can't fix it because the bloody FTP access is down. WHYYYYYYYYY MEEEEEEEEEEE??
Oh god. I'm not sure if I'm a moron or just crazy. A few months back I made plans to go with some friends to the Def Leppard concert. I somehow managed to get into my head that the show was on my birthday, the 28th.
So for 2 weeks D has been asking me when the show was. I kept saying the 28th and then Monday he told me he thought he'd heard on the radio the 27th.
"It can't be the 27th! That would mean it's on a school night and to boot, a school night when I have an in-class essay on Virginia Woolf's 'A Room of One's Own'!"
"Double check honey," he says rather smugly.
"Fine, but I know you heard wrong!"
So I check ticketmaster and lo-and-behold, the show is on the 27th.
ARGH!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE? I've been looking forward to this for months and now I can't even go. I just hope we can find someone who does want to go so I can recoop some of the ticket cost.
Worse part is that now I have to find some other way to celebrate my b-day. YUK.
So the day is going much better today though I'm not sure why. I was up until 3AM putting final touches on my Philosophy assignment and I must say, I'm quite pleased with myself. I just re-read it and it's clean, concise and I think I managed to develop and critically discuss the material. We'll have to see if the prof agrees.
Now I'd like to share with you a little event that I alluded to yesterday that actually happened last week. I was over at the coffee shop across the street on Friday. It was really busy, as it usually is at lunch so I'm plugged in, listening to one of my many podcasts when a guy goes up to the counter and even with my headphones on, I could sort of make out what he was saying. Just to be sure, I unplugged one year to listen to his discourse. He was ordering his food and making small talk with the cashier as an ESL student who is just learning a new language might. Stumbling over words, funny accent, hand signals, awkward silences and stops. Before I launch into a tirade, let me preface by saying that I'm not easily offended but some things rub me the wrong way and this is one of them.
This was not only disrespectful, considering that there were a number of people in the coffee shop who are attending the language school which also happens to be across the street (apparent by the fact that they are all carrying their schoolbooks). I'm sorry, but this was completely unacceptable. Not only was he doing this in public but he was doing so in such a manner that it was far from discreet and even when a few people in the shop gave him mean looks (myself included), he just continued ahead completely oblivious. If that's not enough, to make matters worse, the bastard WORKS at the language school!
I wanted to say something and to be honest, I'm ashamed that I didn't confront him directly though I did make a comment to the cashier along the lines of "Wow, so that's how teachers made fun of me when I was learning the language" and I said that loudly enough so that he, the miserable excuse for a man who was standing around the corner waiting for his coffee, could hear me.
Bastard! As if learning a new language, especially English, isn't difficult enough, people have to listen to your demeaning comments? Sure, he didn't directly say anything to put down those learning the language but god damned if his 'little joke' didn't hurt. UGH! It's been 4 days and I'm still angry about it. It was disrespectful, mean and just plain wrong. And the fact that he teaches at the school only rubbed it in further.
To the asshole who works at the language school and to every other moron out there who takes pot shots at people who are stepping out of their comfort zone to learn something as important as a new language, here's a little something for you in a language that assholes will understand:
The weekend was going well until a couple of events that unfolded on my way home from the movies on Sunday night. Needless to say I must have had "trouble" written on my forehead. Nearly got into a fight with a drunk girl on the Skytrain platform and then as I'm waiting for the bus some woman starts talking to me about smoking. By that point, I could have knocked her one. I don't consider myself a violent person but occasionally, I do lose my temper. By the time I got home, I was nearly ready to call it a day. Thankfully, after dinner and a shower, I was feeling a little more like myself.
This morning, the boss lady didn't seem quite 100% on the phone and for whatever reason, that's put me in another mood. Ugh. I can't wait for the day to be over.
Hope everyone's having a better Monday than I am.
Today has started off much better than last week. I'm not as tired and I'm definitely feeling a fair bit happier. I'm starting to think that I may just have been exceptionally tired. I skipped a couple of pre-planned events to just lounge around the house and relax which was one of the best things I could have done. I even managed to watch a movie on TV without falling asleep!
I missed breakfast this morning and I'm starving right now so I'm having my lunch early. Thankfully, I have some instant chicken noodle in my desk that I can eat for lunch!
I hardly pick up the freeby papers in the morning but once in a while I see a story that catches my eye and that was the case this morning. Most of you probably know that Vancouver is the host city of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Before we were selected, living in Vancouver was already expensive but since we were awarded the games, things have quickly deteriorated. Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels in the Downtown East Side (one of if not North America's poorest neighbourhood) were the source of most of the housing. One by one, these hotels are being sold, residents evicted and hotels upgraded into boutique hotels. The government has failed to create additional low income housing and so hundreds of people are put on the street every month. Unfortunately, this isn't just a problem with low income individuals but rather, it's happening all over. In generally affluent downtown neighbourhoods, long time residents are being given eviction notices. Property managers are removing tenants, refurbishing apartments and re-renting for, sometimes, 70% higher rent. A girlfriend of mine recently found out that her building was being renovated and she'd have to move out for 3 weeks while her apartment is fixed up. She thought this was very nice of the property managers considering that generally, the tenants get booted for good. What they didn't tell her right away was that if she wanted back into the suite after the renos, she'd have to pay the boosted price of $1400/month. That's $700 more than she pays now.
This is turning into a massive problem everywhere and I'm starting to fear that D and I aren't going to be able to move away any time soon and we may have to settle for living in my parent's basement until we're ready to buy a place of our own. It's a bit disappointing but I can't complain too much. It's either this or move away which is something I certainly don't want to do. It's getting to the point were Vancouver is just not affordable to live in anymore.
I blame this deep fall on the Olympics. Vancouver isn't ready to host this event. We have a government that doesn't listen to the people, social programs are non-existent, housing shortfall for both low-income and mid-income individuals not to mention some serious health care problems. This was all pre-Olympic bid. These problems have just gotten worse and NOW they're talking about giving back the games??? Well, I say give them back. Might as well try to salvage some of this nightmare.
Sorry for the rant. I needed to get that out. I really, really hope I don't have to leave Vancouver. I'm not sure where I'd go.
Sorry for the rather unexciting posts the last few days. There hasn't been a lot going on this week other than me complaining about the rain (I know, I know. I should just move! Thankfully, I get over it after a 2 weeks and then I'm OK for the rest of the year), trying hard to get out of bed in the mornings (flannel sheets = cozy wake up. Who the hell wants to get up from that sweet cocoon of warmth?), trying to get caught up at work (both real work and personal) not to mention trying to finish the second book for the discussion group on Saturday. Yeah, it hasn't been the most exciting week.
I just read something really sad too, especially considering the current state of our planet. Today, GM celebrated the beginning of production of their H3 in South Africa for distribution in Europe, Asia and basically everywhere else other than North America. Why does this make me sad? Well, the H3 is one of the biggest poluters on the road and GM is doing everything to make this a hot seller. So much for saving the environment and helping prevent global warming. Shit like this pisses me off to no end. I hope to god that the rest of the world sticks to their small cars and gives GM the finger. They deserve it. Seriously, why the fuck do you need a big ass outbacking car like this to drive around town? To look good? WTF? But enough. I'll stop ranting now and just go hide in my corner. At least tomorrow I get to share happy things with you all. Primairly KFF.
