Blocks, buster.

I'm used to employing a rather large lump of NaCl when poring over Chuck Taylor's screeds - we hold wildly divergent opinions of what is (and is not) entertaining.

Page One of his latest was no different, but the subsequent three pages found me grudgingly agreeing with some of what he had to say.

However, it's that disagreement that lingers; after watching "Hellboy" (which we enjoyed), one of the first conversations my girlfriend and I shared on the drive home was along the lines of "Those previews [for "Day After Tomorrow," "Troy," "Van Helsing," "King Arthur," and, regrettably, "White Chicks"] look -really- good. I wonder if Hollywood has been sitting on all these good-looking movies, waiting for "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Matrices" franchises to leave the stage so they wouldn't be relegated to #2?"

"Van Helsing" was a confused, overloud mess [http://www.livejournal.com/users/cleolinda/93639.html], despite the potential for eye candy, and a big disappointment. I've heard shockingly good things about "Troy" from history buffs, albeit under the heading of "This was so far removed from Homer that I had to watch it like it was a different story altogether."

I'm looking forward to "Day After Tomorrow" as a visual effects experience first, and if there's actually a plot that's anything above utterly stupid, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise.

Daily life requires us to invest our intellects and emotions in what happens. Just because it offends your higher sensibilities, don't begrudge some of us our decision to just see something that's impressive and cool.

The fact that I think Manhattan would be vastly improved by a hundred feet of frost and that Los Angeles needs a nice tornadic enema is just the icing on the cake.

From inlaterdays:

it seems unreal that someone should be talented and willing to work; have a full-time job, a part-time job, and a roommate, yet STILL be unable to make ends meet, but such is life for too many people in this economy. :/

read about her situation and what she's doing about it in downsize_me...

[the above is quoted, the below is mine]

It's sad and lousy and all the rest of it. . . it's also a byproduct of living where it's too fucking expensive [Metro NY, even in Jersey].

To DS-M: Move. Go somewhere that the cost of living isn't starvation. Your stipulation for the pay scale of part-time gigs is what I make full-time; good luck finding it.

Or, the cynic in me says, write an article for salon.com - they've had a series of essays by underemployed or downsized former-white-collar types, though the authors are often derided for making a mountain out of a molehill; the relative direness of your situation may throw the coddled whiners into a bit sharper relief.