What is the sound of one geek clapping?

I just watched Rent on DVD. Having not had the chance to see it in the theater, I really didn’t know what to expect, and I have to say that as it opened, I was quite skeptical. For starters, they completely ripped apart the opening of the movie. But as it unfolded, I began to understand what they were doing with it and it made more sense.

Thoughts in passing (somewhat chronological, though I didn’t take notes or anything):

• At first I really didn’t like the opening, but then I realized that there’s just no other place that they could have put “Seasons Of Love.” After all, it’s almost as appropriate at the beginning of the show as it is at the opening of the second act.
• My God, they REALLY chopped up “Rent,” didn’t they? And what’s up with Mimi already knowing everybody?
• At first, I was really worried that they chopped up one of my favorite songs, but it looks like “You’ll See” ended up in there, at least in its majority. And just in the right amount.
• While we’re on the subject of things that made it into the movie, I’ll say now that I was very upset that “Christmas Bells” wasn’t included. I can understand why they cut it: it would have cost millions to film a scene that convoluted. But seeing as I think that “kiss me, it’s beginning to snow” is one of the most romantic phrases ever, I still felt awful at it not being there.
• Other than that, I was quite pleased with everything, even Rosario Dawson’s performance. From the previews I’d seen, she was much below the ho-hum level, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.
• So I’m watching the bonus features on Disc Two, and I want to notify any of you who were as upset as I was at not having “Halloween” or “Goodbye Love” in the movie have it in its entirety in the Deleted Scenes section, as is a very interesting and much more stage-like alternate ending.
• Having worked with Wilson, and seen him in the show back in ’99, I knew how his performance could affect me. What I wasn’t expecting was how much Jesse Martin’s performance would affect me. I was ecstatic that they included “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)”, and I just… cried like a little girl.

Overall reaction: Much more pleased with it than I thought I would be. I’m definitely purchasing this one.

I’m playing around with the layout of my website because I never really liked how it looked and I want to make it play nicer with the various browsers. I was able to finally get it to display text at pretty much the same level in all browsers (and make it scalable, which requires a few hacks), so that’s nice. Now I want to make the sidebar play nicely with the main content column, but I think it might take a bit more work. Right now it’s still patched together with a little duct tape and twine, but at least it looks okay.

Lemme know what you think?

Vice President Says He Has Authority to Declassify Items

Apparently, Mr. Cheney thinks that he can retroactively declassify something. In order words, what Lewis Libby did in leaking CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name to the press wasn’t illegal because he says that it wasn’t—even though it’s now years later. Why? Executive Privilege.

I just have to question if the Supreme Court would give this the absolute smackdown that it deserves. Part of me wants to trust that even the most hardline conservatives on the court would see this for the ridiculous asshattery that it is.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the Bush administration isn’t even trying to cover it up anymore? It’s almost like they know that people know that they’re doing things illegally and as a result they’re not even trying to pretend like they’re doing anything else. And yet nobody’s doing anything about it because we’re so damned apathetic. Even the staunchest Republican would clamor for Congressional hearings if his constituency demanded it and made it clear that there wouldn’t be a re-election in store this year. But since nobody’s bothering to actually be bothered by this, nothing’s being done.

And I guess that’s what saddens me the most.

Just popped the cork on bottle o’ wine #2 of the evening. I’m certain that I won’t drink the entire thing, but it does go to show how much I hate Valentine’s Day. For right now, I don’t even want to think about the implications of opening two bottles of wine in the same evening for right now, but for right now I don’t really care, either.

Happy VD to me.

EDIT: By the way, I totally finished bottle #2. I should know better. Who cares if it’s a sign of alcoholism. Fuck it… It’s a special occasion.

I think that this week’s Grey’s Anatomy was probably one of the best hours of television I’ve ever seen, on par with “The Body” from Season Five of Buffy and the finales of Seasons One and Two of The West Wing.

Time Quit: 5 weeks, 6 days

You read that right: 42 days since I had a cigarette. According to QuitMeter, I have not smoked almost 500 cigarettes and I’ve saved over a hundred and twenty bucks.

Probably the biggest change I’ve noticed in the last month has to be my sense of smell. I’m picking up things that I just don’t remember noticing before, and I seem to be almost hypersensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke. I can smell it through doorways and walls. I’m guessing that this will not be changing any time soon, either; from what I understand, former smokers are the people who can most easily pick up on it.

I think that the best thing about this is that I feel like I can really just call myself a nonsmoker. I was worried that I would feel like a fraud calling myself that, especially because I’m looking for apartments closer to work, and there are just a ton of ads that state “No smokers”. But I don’t feel like a fraud, which makes me feel even better than all of the positive things since quitting.

Does anybody else happen to think that the early laps of a speed skating event look like anything but?

Two things that happened to me today:

1) I looked at an apartment. It was about 10 minutes from work, which was nice, and it was newly-built, which made it look nice and clean. It was a little small for my tastes, but only by a hair. I could’ve made it work, but that was when I thought it was $700/month. I had been looking at several ads in the same day, and I had thought that this apartment was advertised for $700/month, which was great because it would save me money from what I’m paying now, even though it was smaller than I’m used to.

Then I found out while talking to the owner that no, it wasn’t $700… it was $825. All of a sudden, the apartment didn’t seem so appealing or workable. Oh well. My lease ends at the end of March, so let’s hope that I can find a place by then.

2) Then, on my way home, I talked with my dad on the phone and told him about the apartment. While I was talking with him, he mentioned taxes and all of that, and I told him I was going to file my taxes this weekend, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to see how much I was getting back from the government.

But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? Turns out I’m going to owe money this year. For both state and federal. What blows the most about that is that I was hoping I could use my tax return to pay my 2005 car taxes. Yeah, it sucks, but I had no other options.

It looks like it’s going to be that I can either pay for new brakes or taxes. I don’t like having to pick between these types of things.

Time Quit: 3 weeks, 1 day, 15 hours, 30 minutes

It takes twenty-one days to break a habit, or so I’m told. I officially quit at 9pm on January 2nd, which makes me past the 21-day mark. And that’s a really good feeling. I feel good that I’ve stuck with it; I feel good that my singing voice is already improving; I feel good that I’m not getting short of breath after small amounts of physical activity (though I’m still fat, so that doesn’t help in terms of the shortness of breath). I feel good that it doesn’t bug me that I quit like it did the last time.

I need to find some way to celebrate when I hit the one month mark (then I’ll do it again at six months, then a year, then two years, etc.). Unfortunately, due to a lack of cash, I think I’ll have to celebrate by getting new brakes on my car.

Time quit: 1 week, 4 days, 1 hour, 32 minutes since 2-Jan-2006 21:00:00.

That’s over eleven days. And it was almost cut short on Wednesday night. Went to another Trivia Night at the bar, and I was pretty damn close to having a cigarette. I know now that I wouldn’t have, even if I’d been handed one. But it would have been a long and tormented several seconds while I figured out that I wasn’t going to have it.

I’ve been good since then, though. I’ll be glad when it doesn’t bother me that way when I drink anymore.