Showing posts with label Julie Delpy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Julie Delpy. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
A waltz for a night...
Wednesday Night Music Club: I’m not making the following story up.
Last night I dreamt that I was dating Julie Delpy. Well, not actually dating. There was this big connection between us but she wasn’t sure about the whole relationship thing and needed time to take a walk and think things over. (Even in my dreams I have a hard time getting the girl.) As she was getting dressed to leave my hotel room in London I complimented her on her cool outfit and her bracelet that was made out of dice from a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Yep, the literal girl of my dreams would wear jewelry consisting of 12 sided dies.
Sometimes my level of geekitude astounds even me.
I mention Julie a lot in this blog (and post her picture and review her movies and whatever else I can think of). I’m not even sure any more how I became a fan. It literally may have been a review of Killing Zoe for all I know. But she just represents everything that I’m looking for in a woman. Beauty, intelligence, quirkiness, it’s all there. Oh, and she plays guitar and sings as this clip from Before Sunset shows. She’s number one on my Perfect Mate list and if she knocked on my door and went “EC, want to get married?” I’d say yes in a second. And then probably faint.
(Plus it’s my blog and for a three year anniversary present I owe myself a purely indulgent Julie Delpy video.)
Changing subjects, after tabulating the votes from both the comments and trivia night the final tally is “EC is a moron” five and “Let’s hear it for gender equality” zero. Wow, this might explain a lot of my problems. Now my point of view has always been if when the check hits the table if she immediately reaches for her purse just don’t argue. That’s a result of my belief that confrontation should be avoided if at all possible. If there’s a delay, feel free to volunteer to pick up the check but otherwise I thought we had moved on to splitting it on the first date. Apparently, this might be the first part of the root cause analysis of my social life.
(This does disagree with what Mystery taught me, though. Mystery clearly states that you must demonstrate higher value and by immediately buying drinks or dinner you are showing that you believe that you have to pay her for her time whereas your personality and company should be payment enough. At a bar his idea was have her pay for the first round and you’ll pay for the second. I’m not saying that’s right, I’m just saying that it works for Matador and J-Dog.)
There was one comment though that I really want to touch on. It’s the idea that if you buy the girl dinner she then feels a further obligation to you. I find that to be false in my experience as I have bought dinner only to have the girl never return my calls or in fact, acknowledge my very existence. If there was some agreement to meet again, even if it was stated during the dinner itself, it appears to be non-binding and can be broken with no requirement to inform the other party. I have no problem with buying dinner, in fact I’d probably prefer it. I have no issues with someone saying, “Look, this just isn’t going to work. It’s been fun but it’s not going to happen.” That’s life and not everyone is perfect for each other. I just hate the “I’ll just ignore you and at some point you’ll get the hint” aspect of it. And buying dinner doesn’t mean I’m owed another date. I would just hope to be owed acknowledgement.
Closing Random Note: While driving home today I passed a subdivision entrance with a sign “Hemlock Drive”. I figure that when I build a subdivision I am going to follow that theme and have “Cyanide Lane” and “Anthrax Boulevard”. Ah Kansas, where people read Shakespeare but don’t bother to have a dictionary nearby.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Living in a Daydream
On tonight’s edition of “The Best of 120 Minutes” I thought that I’d pay homage to one of the great movies of the early 90’s, “Singles”. Starring Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon, that chick who ended up marrying Kevin Bacon, and that guy who always looked like a complete tool in an examination of single life in Seattle. Movie is best known for its music with one of the main cuts being this track by the Screaming Trees. I’ve always liked this video as it showed how pretty much anyone could get a video made in those days. Seriously, it’s just a bunch of fat dudes playing guitar. Awesome song though.
Anyway, I went to see “2 Days in Paris” last night, the film that was written, directed, produced, edited, scored and starred by Julie Delpy. That’s not a joke according to the credits she did all of those things on this film. Now I’ll start off by saying that this will not be an impartial review. The first thing you see when you walk into my apartment is a poster for the movie “White”, which is basically just Julie lying in bed and looking seductive and quizzical at the same time. For about a decade my computer background has been pictures of Julie. So I am definitely a fan and maybe too intense of one at that.
Still, I was worried going into this film. This just screams of a vanity project gone wrong and even though she was nominated for an Oscar for being one of the writers on Before Sunset I wasn’t sure what the point of this film was. Especially as on the surface it seems to just be a retread of Before Sunrise/Sunset. A couple spends two days in Paris walking around and talking. I wasn’t sure if there would be anything of note or if it was just going to be disjointed as hell.
I have to say, I was really surprised by how good this film is. It is a definite three star film and a really nice romantic comedy. The plot is pretty straightforward, Julie and Adam Goldberg play a couple who have reached that two year point in their relationship and wonder what is next. They travel to Europe and end up in Paris for two days to meet and stay with Julie’s parents (played by Julie’s actual parents who both happen to be actors). Adam has to deal with language barriers, cultural barriers and the fact that everywhere he turns he seems to run into one of Julie’s ex-lovers.
It’s a very funny film. There is some universal humor of the absolute horror involved in meeting someone’s parents and knowing that there are references being made that you’ll never understand. Plus there is the American abroad aspect, which is done really well. Julie makes some beginning director mistakes (relying too much on narration) but it is a really well done film. It’s a definite rental, a good date movie and for someone like me it means about a thousand things more than that.
See, when I talked about meeting Kelly Willis I mentioned that she was #3 on my Perfect mate list. Well, Julie is #1 and has been on the list since I first made it in 1995. And for me, watching this movie is like discovering what it would be like to actually date Julie. I mean, it’s like “here’s what it would be like to meet her parents and have her dad quiz me on French literature.” Or “how would you react to having a high strung, neurotic girlfriend who will launch into someone in a language that you do not understand.” It’s literally like having one of my daydreams brought to life on screen and it is almost disconcerting to see. One of my goals is not to live a life of regret, where I wonder what could have been. This movie shows me what could have been even though there was never any possibility that this could ever happen. And that’s a lot to process while reading subtitles.
So, in the end this is a really fun film to see. Maybe more so for me than other people but it is still a good night out. Hell, just to see Julie wear black rimmed glasses is worth the ticket price. But again, maybe that is just me.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Freedy Johnston “Never Home”
2) Sheryl Crow “Sheryl Crow”
3) Iris DeMent “Infamous Angel”
4) 10,000 Maniacs “Our Time In Eden”
5) Gillian Welch “Revival”
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Comments...I got comments...
I have to say, the comments section on the blog has gotten quite a bit interesting as of late. Now I want to state up front that I really don’t care what people write in the comments. As long as they pass the human being filter I’m pretty much game for whatever anyone wants to share. This also means that I am open to people promoting their own work on my blog. Just when you do, at least make it clear that you actually read the posting. The writer from Ireland did that and it was one of the coolest things that has happened to me for a while. The comment promoting the Judy Garland newsgroup, not so much. Especially when you go to pitch.com and read their review of the same concert and see that the exact same comment posted there as well. I’m all for promotions, just as long as it is not the cut and paste variety.
(Actually, if you do check the Pitch review the pictures in it are Forester’s, one of the many trivia compatriots that I have assembled over the years. We are seemingly everywhere.)
On the other, more realistic comment, I wouldn’t say that Neko Case is my voice crush. She’s more along the lines of my “every ounce of my being” crush. The type where in the real world I claim to be smitten but what that means is that I’d follow her around like a sad puppy dog ruining any possible chance that I would even theoretically have. Obviously, I’m speaking from experience here. Basically, I’ve just always found Neko to be one of the coolest people around. She’s just so normal on stage and so cool and confident with so much talent it is incredible. I’m not joking when I say that the female lead in my novel (which I am going to start writing in, yikes, two months) is based partially on Neko. Which is more than enough of a reason to post another picture of her.
And I did see Julie making the top search terms in Yahoo, which was just hysterical. First, I have to point out that Yahoo doesn’t actually list the top search terms on their engine. You really wouldn’t want to see that list. Trust me, I know of which I speak. What they really show are terms that had a massive percent change from the previous day. Now I am partly to blame for that just due to my regular Julie Delpy web crawls but there is a more legitimate reason for her newfound popularity.
See, she has a new movie coming out called 2 Days in Paris that she wrote, directed and starred in as well as composed most of the music. It is about a young couple spending two days in Paris talking about their relationship, which seems to be the exact same plot as Before Sunset. I did read a review of it and the conclusion was “it doesn’t suck nearly as much as you would expect.” Because even as a fan I wonder about her writing, directing and acting at the same time. Remember, this is an actress who recorded a CD of original songs in something other than her native language. Julie writing songs in English is much like my writing my novel in French. Points for effort and style but the little mistakes make you wonder why you bought it in the first place.
Anyway, the movie is opening in KC at the end of the month so I’ll see it then. I mean, I still think she is an amazing actress and beautiful and I still have three movie posters in my apartment that feature her. As I get older and she gets older I still find her beautiful just in different ways. In Before Sunrise she was this ethereal French beauty, the type of girl you dream of seeing from afar. In Before Sunset she became the neurotic, somewhat flighty, woman whose flaws now accentuate her and give her depth. And what the hell, I’ll post a picture of her as well.
The five random CDs for the week (even though I still haven’t finished all the discs from last week):
1) Death Cab For Cutie “Transatlanticism”
2) Neko Case “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood”
3) Henry Rollins “Talk is Cheap Volume 4”
4) Wilco “Kicking Television”
5) The Subdudes “Primitive Streak”
(Actually, if you do check the Pitch review the pictures in it are Forester’s, one of the many trivia compatriots that I have assembled over the years. We are seemingly everywhere.)
On the other, more realistic comment, I wouldn’t say that Neko Case is my voice crush. She’s more along the lines of my “every ounce of my being” crush. The type where in the real world I claim to be smitten but what that means is that I’d follow her around like a sad puppy dog ruining any possible chance that I would even theoretically have. Obviously, I’m speaking from experience here. Basically, I’ve just always found Neko to be one of the coolest people around. She’s just so normal on stage and so cool and confident with so much talent it is incredible. I’m not joking when I say that the female lead in my novel (which I am going to start writing in, yikes, two months) is based partially on Neko. Which is more than enough of a reason to post another picture of her.
And I did see Julie making the top search terms in Yahoo, which was just hysterical. First, I have to point out that Yahoo doesn’t actually list the top search terms on their engine. You really wouldn’t want to see that list. Trust me, I know of which I speak. What they really show are terms that had a massive percent change from the previous day. Now I am partly to blame for that just due to my regular Julie Delpy web crawls but there is a more legitimate reason for her newfound popularity.
See, she has a new movie coming out called 2 Days in Paris that she wrote, directed and starred in as well as composed most of the music. It is about a young couple spending two days in Paris talking about their relationship, which seems to be the exact same plot as Before Sunset. I did read a review of it and the conclusion was “it doesn’t suck nearly as much as you would expect.” Because even as a fan I wonder about her writing, directing and acting at the same time. Remember, this is an actress who recorded a CD of original songs in something other than her native language. Julie writing songs in English is much like my writing my novel in French. Points for effort and style but the little mistakes make you wonder why you bought it in the first place.
Anyway, the movie is opening in KC at the end of the month so I’ll see it then. I mean, I still think she is an amazing actress and beautiful and I still have three movie posters in my apartment that feature her. As I get older and she gets older I still find her beautiful just in different ways. In Before Sunrise she was this ethereal French beauty, the type of girl you dream of seeing from afar. In Before Sunset she became the neurotic, somewhat flighty, woman whose flaws now accentuate her and give her depth. And what the hell, I’ll post a picture of her as well.
The five random CDs for the week (even though I still haven’t finished all the discs from last week):
1) Death Cab For Cutie “Transatlanticism”
2) Neko Case “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood”
3) Henry Rollins “Talk is Cheap Volume 4”
4) Wilco “Kicking Television”
5) The Subdudes “Primitive Streak”
Monday, July 16, 2007
Better living through technology
Sometimes you have to love modern technology. I went out and bought a new printer this weekend. Not because I had an issue with my old one, which was a ten year old HP that simply would never fail. I’ll still hold on to it just because it is such a workhorse. No, what happened is that my new laptop for some reason doesn’t have a parallel port so I literally could not connect my old printer to my new laptop. So I went out and bought a new HP printer (which also doubles as a copier and a scanner) and when I went to hook it up yesterday I discovered that HP in its infinite wisdom decided to sell it without a USB cable. Which means that I replaced one printer that I couldn’t connect with my laptop with another printer that I couldn’t attach to my laptop. Would it be that much of a challenge to include the cable in the packaging?
Oh well, one trip to Best Buy later and it is up and running. I’m looking forward to actually having a scanner. This means that I can post all of these pictures of myself from back in the days before digital cameras. Not sure if that would be a good thing or not. Plus, I could probably break down and just scan the magazine articles that I like and not have half of my closets filled with back issues. Seriously, I found copies of Writer’s Digest from 1993 last night during another ill-fated attempt to organize my life.
In other news, I found out the results of the Notre Dame ticket lottery and as opposed to last year I actually won tickets to a game. Of the five games I asked for I only one ticket for one, which is the Duke-Notre Dame game. Because when I think of epic football rivalries I think of Duke-Notre Dame. Plus, it’s the last home game of the season so I’ll get to relive the experience of freezing my ass off during the Rutgers game while wondering why several of my classmates had disappeared.
To be honest, the Duke-Notre Dame game is going to be a rather awkward experience for me. I’ve never been to a Duke game where I wasn’t cheering for Duke. Not even during a Duke-Illinois game when I was technically an Illinois senior. Everyone knows that I did not take a single exam at ND without wearing something that said Duke on it, often several layers if I felt that I needed some additional luck. But that said, those bastards have rejected me from every school up to and including the college of divinity so I hope ND crushes them. Not that it should be a major challenge.
(Note to the usual suspects: as always I have two tickets and there is only one of me so if anyone wants to join me at the game, or the Backer, which is probably more likely, let me know.)
One last note for the night. In this month’s issue of Esquire, featuring a cover story on John Edwards and a rather sub-par essay by Chuck Klosterman, Julie Delpy is featured with a piece on 8 Things You Do Not Know About Women. This makes me happy for two very different reasons. The first is that I consider her to be the most beautiful and amazing woman in the world and she still tops my list of Perfect Mates so anything that brings her more publicity is a good thing. The other reason is her 2nd point in her essay “We only want to date guys who can troubleshoot computers. The broken laptop is the leaky faucet of the twenty-first century.” This means that I have a skill that Julie Delpy finds attractive. I might just have a chance after all.
(Ok three reasons. It gives me a chance to post a picture of her to my blog. It classes the place up a little.)
Oh well, one trip to Best Buy later and it is up and running. I’m looking forward to actually having a scanner. This means that I can post all of these pictures of myself from back in the days before digital cameras. Not sure if that would be a good thing or not. Plus, I could probably break down and just scan the magazine articles that I like and not have half of my closets filled with back issues. Seriously, I found copies of Writer’s Digest from 1993 last night during another ill-fated attempt to organize my life.
In other news, I found out the results of the Notre Dame ticket lottery and as opposed to last year I actually won tickets to a game. Of the five games I asked for I only one ticket for one, which is the Duke-Notre Dame game. Because when I think of epic football rivalries I think of Duke-Notre Dame. Plus, it’s the last home game of the season so I’ll get to relive the experience of freezing my ass off during the Rutgers game while wondering why several of my classmates had disappeared.
To be honest, the Duke-Notre Dame game is going to be a rather awkward experience for me. I’ve never been to a Duke game where I wasn’t cheering for Duke. Not even during a Duke-Illinois game when I was technically an Illinois senior. Everyone knows that I did not take a single exam at ND without wearing something that said Duke on it, often several layers if I felt that I needed some additional luck. But that said, those bastards have rejected me from every school up to and including the college of divinity so I hope ND crushes them. Not that it should be a major challenge.
(Note to the usual suspects: as always I have two tickets and there is only one of me so if anyone wants to join me at the game, or the Backer, which is probably more likely, let me know.)
One last note for the night. In this month’s issue of Esquire, featuring a cover story on John Edwards and a rather sub-par essay by Chuck Klosterman, Julie Delpy is featured with a piece on 8 Things You Do Not Know About Women. This makes me happy for two very different reasons. The first is that I consider her to be the most beautiful and amazing woman in the world and she still tops my list of Perfect Mates so anything that brings her more publicity is a good thing. The other reason is her 2nd point in her essay “We only want to date guys who can troubleshoot computers. The broken laptop is the leaky faucet of the twenty-first century.” This means that I have a skill that Julie Delpy finds attractive. I might just have a chance after all.
(Ok three reasons. It gives me a chance to post a picture of her to my blog. It classes the place up a little.)
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Where's Carson When You Need Him
I don’t really need a reason to post a Julie Delpy picture. I mean, other than the fact that today did end in a Y and that means that I am more than justified in posting a Julie Delpy picture. I’m not sure when I crossed that point of regular fandom into this other realm that I currently occupy. Probably when I bought a copy of the movie poster for White off the wall of a Borders bookstore. That’s not a joke. I literally bought the store’s display poster while it was still on the wall. That’s impressive to me at least.
Anyway, I was able to find this picture thanks to the fact that this month’s issue of Best Life has an article with Julie. What in the world is Best Life you ask? It is the magazine that I for some reason buy whenever I am stuck in an airport. Mainly because they have headlines like “8 Rules of Fitness Made Fast and Easy”, “5 Perfect Foods for Men” and “Save Your Own Life in Just 3 Minutes.” It gives me the impression that I’ll be able to turn my life around while stuck in the middle seat. Of course, none of the hints are that useful and I barely read it but still, it at least looks like I’m trying to change my life. Why in the world they chose to interview Julie in Paris is beyond me. I mean, I’m grateful but as I always say, when you make a marketing decision based on what makes me happy you’ll be out of business in a month.
Also, I have to give a shout out to the Replay Lounge in Lawrence, which was named one of America’s top bars in the new issue of Esquire. I’m not quite sure I would consider it the best place ever but where else could you see Immaculate Machine perform a set and play a few games of pinball?
Given that I am on the subject of men’s magazines, which I have to admit our piling up in my apartment at an alarming rate, I find myself once again struggling with my personal style. I am in a serious rut as best indicated by Rodolfo noticing that I was still wearing the same shirt that I wore the last time we saw each other. Which was four years ago. I mean, I really like the dress shirt, vintage t-shirt and jeans look but it is time for a change. Hence all of the magazines discussing clothing that I can’t even define much less figure out where to go to buy.
As a result I am once again putting out a request for volunteers to help me update my wardrobe. Since I apparently can’t get cast for a reality show I’ll have to do it on my own. I’ll take any and all advice, will actually be dragged out shopping if necessary, all for your fun and amusement. If there are any takers please let me know. Otherwise I’ll just be the guy walking into a store with a copy of GQ going, “See this page? Yeah, I need that.”
Oh, and to follow up on yesterday’s post, I want everyone to go to Jail Paris Hilton and sign the petition. We must all lend our voices to insure that Governor Schwarzenegger does not pardon Paris Hilton. Wow. I understand all of the words in that last sentence but it makes no sense at all. I really wonder why I bother writing fiction anymore. Why hold up a mirror to the world when it is a funhouse already.
Anyway, I was able to find this picture thanks to the fact that this month’s issue of Best Life has an article with Julie. What in the world is Best Life you ask? It is the magazine that I for some reason buy whenever I am stuck in an airport. Mainly because they have headlines like “8 Rules of Fitness Made Fast and Easy”, “5 Perfect Foods for Men” and “Save Your Own Life in Just 3 Minutes.” It gives me the impression that I’ll be able to turn my life around while stuck in the middle seat. Of course, none of the hints are that useful and I barely read it but still, it at least looks like I’m trying to change my life. Why in the world they chose to interview Julie in Paris is beyond me. I mean, I’m grateful but as I always say, when you make a marketing decision based on what makes me happy you’ll be out of business in a month.
Also, I have to give a shout out to the Replay Lounge in Lawrence, which was named one of America’s top bars in the new issue of Esquire. I’m not quite sure I would consider it the best place ever but where else could you see Immaculate Machine perform a set and play a few games of pinball?
Given that I am on the subject of men’s magazines, which I have to admit our piling up in my apartment at an alarming rate, I find myself once again struggling with my personal style. I am in a serious rut as best indicated by Rodolfo noticing that I was still wearing the same shirt that I wore the last time we saw each other. Which was four years ago. I mean, I really like the dress shirt, vintage t-shirt and jeans look but it is time for a change. Hence all of the magazines discussing clothing that I can’t even define much less figure out where to go to buy.
As a result I am once again putting out a request for volunteers to help me update my wardrobe. Since I apparently can’t get cast for a reality show I’ll have to do it on my own. I’ll take any and all advice, will actually be dragged out shopping if necessary, all for your fun and amusement. If there are any takers please let me know. Otherwise I’ll just be the guy walking into a store with a copy of GQ going, “See this page? Yeah, I need that.”
Oh, and to follow up on yesterday’s post, I want everyone to go to Jail Paris Hilton and sign the petition. We must all lend our voices to insure that Governor Schwarzenegger does not pardon Paris Hilton. Wow. I understand all of the words in that last sentence but it makes no sense at all. I really wonder why I bother writing fiction anymore. Why hold up a mirror to the world when it is a funhouse already.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
End of an era...
Correct me if I’m wrong but did CNN have Wolf Blitzer discussing the life and times of Anna Nicole Smith today? Somehow I don’t feel that is what Wolf imagined his career would amount to. Sure, it is a news event when a celebrity dies but I’m not sure that it ranks as breaking news requiring your top anchor to drop everything to cover every detail. It just seems so bizarre that the biggest news story of the day was the death of a former Playboy Playmate. If you want to know what our priorities are as a country, there you are.
(Oh, and I found out that Newsweek had a big article last week on kids who are idolizing Paris Hilton and her ilk. The only thing of note from the entire article is the term used to describe the young girls who dress like their skanky idols. They are called “Prostitots”. Man, I feel dirty just writing the word.)
I’m going through a bit of a transition right now as I finally accomplished one of those things that has been on my list of things to do for months and bought a new laptop. Of course, I’m not using that to write on right now as this change is going to take a bit of time as I’ll explain. It’s a very strange story.
I’ve been wanting to get a new laptop for months as Julie the laptop, my faithful companion for the past five and a half years, is really beginning to show her age and I don’t know how long her lifespan is. And since I knew that Microsoft was going to release Vista I figured I might as well wait until it was out so I can get a top of the line system with everything pre-installed. Which I did, getting this massive laptop with a 17 inch screen that is portable in the sense that you can move it from room to room but probably shouldn’t take it outside. Seriously, when I fire this machine up the lights dim. As I got it started and configured it asked for the machine’s name and I, after much consternation, typed in “Natalie”. Thus, naming my new machine after Natalie Portman. And the moment I did it I felt like I was cheating on Julie. And even as self-aware as I am I can’t quite make sense of this emotion.
First off, I’m not sure if I’m upset at myself for cheating on Julie Delpy with Natalie Portman. Mainly, this just means that my screen backdrop now features a moderately known actress as opposed to a nearly completely unknown one. But I still feel bad even though I’ve never come close to meeting either of them. It’s like I’m letting someone down who I’ve never met before because I’m no longer dedicating a computer to them. So even I think this is a bit nonsensical.
Which means that I am really saddened by the fact that I won’t be using this particular machine any more. There is at least a reason for that. I truly have used this machine day in and day out for five and a half years. It earned my MBA with me, spending more late nights at the Doermer Center than half of my class and running more regressions than any machine this side of a supercomputer should have to attempt. It’s made more than a few trips with me around the country and has always worked, no matter what I’ve done with it. The biggest thing is that every word that I’ve written over the past few years has been typed on Julie. 99.9% of the blog has been written by me sitting down and looking at this screen and writing whatever comes to mind.
I know it’s odd to feel emotion to a bunch of silicon but given all that we’ve been through I really feel like I owe a lot to this machine. That’s why Julie isn’t going to be retired just yet. Sure, I’ll start transferring more and more of my work to Natalie, especially once I get her configured and running Office and install the high speed internet. But I still have a few things in store for this old girl. This is still going to be my main writing machine, especially for my big projects. I am just too used to the keyboard to switch to anything else. Plus, I can actually use it as a laptop again as opposed to just leaving it on my desk every day. Even more, I think I’m going to turn it into a really big MP3 player and use the drive space to store most of my CD collection. Admittedly, this will mean that I will have more active computers than I have desk space but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
So if things look a little screwy over the next couple of weeks or I seem a little ill at ease know its because I’m making a pretty major life change. True, it’s involving computers but most of you know how much time I spend at a computer so, yeah, this is big. Also, for those of you wondering why I keep on talking about Julie Delpy and don’t know who in the world I am referring to I ask that you go to Best Buy and pick up Before Sunset. You can get the DVD for five bucks. Watch it and you’ll understand my attachment.
Speaking of that, next Wednesday is the big day that I always dread. Which means I’ll have to relive my tradition of watching Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. And then listen to Morrissey discs in the dark.
(Oh, and I found out that Newsweek had a big article last week on kids who are idolizing Paris Hilton and her ilk. The only thing of note from the entire article is the term used to describe the young girls who dress like their skanky idols. They are called “Prostitots”. Man, I feel dirty just writing the word.)
I’m going through a bit of a transition right now as I finally accomplished one of those things that has been on my list of things to do for months and bought a new laptop. Of course, I’m not using that to write on right now as this change is going to take a bit of time as I’ll explain. It’s a very strange story.
I’ve been wanting to get a new laptop for months as Julie the laptop, my faithful companion for the past five and a half years, is really beginning to show her age and I don’t know how long her lifespan is. And since I knew that Microsoft was going to release Vista I figured I might as well wait until it was out so I can get a top of the line system with everything pre-installed. Which I did, getting this massive laptop with a 17 inch screen that is portable in the sense that you can move it from room to room but probably shouldn’t take it outside. Seriously, when I fire this machine up the lights dim. As I got it started and configured it asked for the machine’s name and I, after much consternation, typed in “Natalie”. Thus, naming my new machine after Natalie Portman. And the moment I did it I felt like I was cheating on Julie. And even as self-aware as I am I can’t quite make sense of this emotion.
First off, I’m not sure if I’m upset at myself for cheating on Julie Delpy with Natalie Portman. Mainly, this just means that my screen backdrop now features a moderately known actress as opposed to a nearly completely unknown one. But I still feel bad even though I’ve never come close to meeting either of them. It’s like I’m letting someone down who I’ve never met before because I’m no longer dedicating a computer to them. So even I think this is a bit nonsensical.
Which means that I am really saddened by the fact that I won’t be using this particular machine any more. There is at least a reason for that. I truly have used this machine day in and day out for five and a half years. It earned my MBA with me, spending more late nights at the Doermer Center than half of my class and running more regressions than any machine this side of a supercomputer should have to attempt. It’s made more than a few trips with me around the country and has always worked, no matter what I’ve done with it. The biggest thing is that every word that I’ve written over the past few years has been typed on Julie. 99.9% of the blog has been written by me sitting down and looking at this screen and writing whatever comes to mind.
I know it’s odd to feel emotion to a bunch of silicon but given all that we’ve been through I really feel like I owe a lot to this machine. That’s why Julie isn’t going to be retired just yet. Sure, I’ll start transferring more and more of my work to Natalie, especially once I get her configured and running Office and install the high speed internet. But I still have a few things in store for this old girl. This is still going to be my main writing machine, especially for my big projects. I am just too used to the keyboard to switch to anything else. Plus, I can actually use it as a laptop again as opposed to just leaving it on my desk every day. Even more, I think I’m going to turn it into a really big MP3 player and use the drive space to store most of my CD collection. Admittedly, this will mean that I will have more active computers than I have desk space but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
So if things look a little screwy over the next couple of weeks or I seem a little ill at ease know its because I’m making a pretty major life change. True, it’s involving computers but most of you know how much time I spend at a computer so, yeah, this is big. Also, for those of you wondering why I keep on talking about Julie Delpy and don’t know who in the world I am referring to I ask that you go to Best Buy and pick up Before Sunset. You can get the DVD for five bucks. Watch it and you’ll understand my attachment.
Speaking of that, next Wednesday is the big day that I always dread. Which means I’ll have to relive my tradition of watching Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. And then listen to Morrissey discs in the dark.
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