Why can't you support my gibberish? I'd do it for you if you were stupid!

[vovat]

I'll be pretty relieved when this quarter of classes is over. I still have my Digital Preservation paper/project left to do, and I'm really unsure as to how to proceed with that. I had to generate three ideas a few weeks ago, and they were pretty general, but maybe I should work with one of them. I'd go into more detail, but I'm sure this isn't the best place to ask for advice, unless someone reading this knows about archives and such. Whenever I have work to do, everything else starts seeming more appealing. And it doesn't help that I just received several new items for my birthday. I started Dragon Quest IX over the weekend, and it's quite enjoyable so far, but I haven't done much yet except build up my levels a bit. It's typical for a game like that to really hook me at first, to the point where I play through a significant portion of the plot within the first week or so, then I get to a part that's kind of tedious and set it aside for an indefinite amount of time. That's basically what I did with DQ5, where I still have to make my way through the Crocodilopolis. It's not that I don't intend to finish someday, just that I'm not as eager to return to a game where there's really nothing to do until I make it through a less fun part. Even the Crocodilopolis strikes me as a blast compared to homework, though.

One thing I still can't understand is why dreams that make no sense can sometimes leave me feeling uneasy. This kind of thing happened a few nights ago, with a dream that was too convoluted to really explain, but it had something to do with a guy who must have been a social worker or something trying to reform an alcoholic. It changed from a straightforward story that I guess I was seeing firsthand to a somewhat darker tale of the alcoholic manipulating the social worker. After that, it was kind of a farce with the social worker not noticing how obviously he was being taken advantage of. If it doesn't make any sense to you, well, it didn't to me either. For some reason, though, I woke up from this dream with an uncomfortable feeling. I've had reactions like this from time to time throughout my life. One of the first dreams I can remember, from back when I must have been about three or four, involved reading a poem that ended with the lines, "And he slept so fast/He slept right into midnight." Didn't make any sense to me even at that age, but it bothered me, and I still can't understand why. My subconscious can be a crazy place.

Is it just me, or are the recent Simpsons episodes basically just reusing old ideas? Perhaps that's unavoidable when the show has been around so long, but when every plot leaves me thinking, "Didn't they do this before?", it's not a great sign. In the most recent show, "How Munched Is That Birdie in the Window," Bart forms a bond with an injured pigeon, but we already saw him taking care of bird eggs in "Bart the Mother." Also, bethje reminded me of the recent episode with Lisa forming a bond with a whale that died, making us wonder what's up with all the deaths of sympathetic animal characters as of late. Lisa's irrational hatred of pigeons was an interesting character touch, but nothing really came of it. The plot shifted fairly abruptly once Santa's Little Helper killed the pigeon, and there wasn't much of a resolution. I do have to give them some credit for addressing an issue that I've come across from time to time, with someone getting upset because their dog or cat killed a smaller animal. While I certainly sympathize with the small animals, I have to wonder why someone would adopt an animal that's a natural hunter and then get mad because it hunts. If you want a pet that doesn't kill things, get a herbivore.

Incidentally, the only thing I really know about Rachel Weisz, who played the therapist in the episode, is that she did a strangely compelling photoshoot for Esquire in which she posed with a snake. And speaking of guest stars, Danica Patrick seemed to have been pretty awkwardly shoehorned in. Why pay for a guest star when they don't really do anything? Mind you, this has hardly been the first episode like that. What about Steve Buscemi in "Brake My Wife, Please," who didn't do anything other than introduce himself? He definitely ranks up there with the most wasted guest appearances.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I thought that while last night's Simpsons was kinda re-tready (seems to be a theme: take a few older episodes, throw 'em in a blender, see what comes out), it was pretty good. Some really great jokes -- the one you used as your post title is one of my favorites.

The Danica Patrick one was... well, when she first goes "I'm Danica Patrick" I was all "Urgh, random cameo..." but I thought the payoff of having to appear in random fans' fantasies was pretty good, plus the cat fight -> beating the shit out of Homer -> Homer's fetish being having the shit beat from him sequence was pretty good.

I also had no idea who the therapist voice was. I was all "Oh, OK. It's some guest star" and didn't find out who it was until I read the AV Club review this morning. I still don't know who she is, though now I know that she did a strangely compelling photoshoot for Esquire with a snake. But yeah -- I think when I saw her name at the AV Club, I thought she was an SNL person. I think I confused her with Rachel Dratch? I guess? I don't know. I still have no idea who snake-boob lady is. But she's good at holding both snakes and her boobs. Perhaps her career is based on that?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. From what I saw, one of her first starring roles was in The Mummy, and while I've never seen that, I get the impression that an actress in it wouldn't need to do much other than holding snakes and her boobs.

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Rachel Weisz is a pretty good actress. I've seen her in About A Boy, Enemy At The Gates, and The Constant Gardener, all good performances. She won an Oscar for that last one. She's apparently in The Lovely Bones, too, but I haven't been able to watch that yet. So, more than snake-holding boobs... or boob-holding snakes. Or hold-snaking boobs?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Maybe she's a Snake Handler.