holiday parties... dvds galore... Chainfire

I went to the gf's company holiday party on the weekend... trying to determine if I like the "sit-down" formal type party (like her's) or if I like the buffet-style casual party (like ours this weekend) better... I think I've determined I like to dress up, but I like to be able to eat fast (instead of sitting there til 11pm, like on Saturday), so I think my happy medium is to have the option to dress up, but have it buffet style (but with enough food stations so that we're not just waiting in line forever)... I dunno, I don't think there's a right way to do it especially with 1000+ ppl. There will always be unhappy people one way or the other... I guess that's another problem... finding people is a nightmare at these massive parties... you end up having to call people on your cell phone, or else there's no way to find them... So is it better to have a smaller group party, or a big one? Hmmmmmmmm.... I certainly have a new appreciation for the organizers of these types of events... So what would you prefer?

So I've been watching a bunch of movies and doing a lot of reading lately... probably a little too much... but I have such a backlog of DVDs right now, need to keep watching!

so here goes... recent DVDs:

Team America (2004) was the puppet movie by the guys who invented South Park. They basically offend everyone in this movie, jabbing at everyone from Americans in general, to Alec Baldwin, to Matt Damon, to pretty much every political leader in the world. They also manage to do a puppet sex scene where poop is involved... yuck. Anyways, it has it's funny moments, but don't take it seriously at all... the theme song is pretty funny... good for the South Park fans I guess, bad for the rest of society (3/10).

Office Space is a hilarious comedy based on a comic strip called Milton or something like that. Basically about these guys who work at a tech company, who get tired of working there, and concoct a scam to defraud the company of many $$ through using the old fraction-of-a-cent scheme... basically the scheme where for each transaction that goes through a financial institution, there may be a fraction of a cent involved, particularly where interest is involved, so the scheme is that the fractions are put into a separate account, so that over time, with millions of transactions, those fractions of a cent add up... anyways, lots of hilarious stuff in this movie, including Milton, a four-eyed total geek who is attached to his stapler, and some reflections of what work is SO really like sometimes (sigh, those TPS reports)... great movie (8/10). Oh, and Jennifer Anniston is in it too.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp, directed by Tim Burton, is weird. Just like it's original, but probably more so. This movie looks nice, I suppose, but the movie itself is not good at all. What a waste of time it was watching this crap. Kids around the world vie for 5 Golden tickets that allow them to tour the famed Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory. Naturally Charlie is one of the kids who goes on the tour, and he eventually befriends the very lonely and very bizarro Willy Wonka. Oompa Loompas are dumb. Don't subject yourself to this garbage (1/10).

Season 7 of Cheers had some of my favourite episodes of the entire series, and saw the introduction of Kelly Gaines, Woody's super-rich girlfriend, who I thought, brought out the best in Woody (including Woody's great birthday song for Kelly), as well as more shenanighans with Gary's Old Towne Tavern... You also see a lot of realization that Sam Malone is getting older. Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives, Melrose Place) also stops by as Rebecca's sister... and Lilith gets pregnant. Fun season (8.5/10).

Here's the lyrics to the Kelly Song:

Kelly my darling, you are my sunshine; When we're together I feel fine. Your smile is so lovely; your hair is so clean; You make me feel that the whole world is mine.
Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, K-E-L-L-Y ... Why? Because you're
Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, (pause) Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly of mine!
(applause)
Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, ... Mine!

Brilliant stuff!

Recent books: Chainfire (2005) by Terry Goodkind is the latest in the Sword of Truth series, following the continuing adventures of Richard Rahl. This series is probably my favourite of all the fantasy series out there, as the quality in stories has consistently been good (whereas in other series, the story tends to decline significantly in quality - ie. Robert Jordan). Admittedly, Chainfire was not as good as the other books have been, but mostly because of the writing. The plot was for a 400 page book, but the book ended up being 750 pages... so a whole lot of pointless words and discussion... Still, it was a great read overall (8/10), but definitely a step down from the rest of the books.