Author: briancollapsing

usually i’m good about not slacking off just because it’s the weekend. nothing against workday bloggers, i’m just not in that category normally. this time around i’ve just been busy i guess. i still managed to have a relaxed and pleasant weekend though. so you’re not left wondering…

friday night we watched godfather part II. not the first time i’ve seen it (second, third maybe?), but not a movie you can watch often, clocking in at 3 hours and 20 minutes. however, it is by far (i think) the best movie of inordinate length and an excellent thing to own on dvd. jesus that movie is amazing. sure, it felt like we were watching it for an entire day, but i didn’t mind. i would have sat there all day and watched it. afterward i couldn’t really do anything else even though it was only 10:30 or so, so we just sat around and played rock music loudly. good night.

saturday afternoon some associates and i worked on our presentation for the big consulting challenge we’re doing on wednesday. we get to pretend we’re management consultants and present a proposal. it’s actually pretty fulfilling because i’m working with a group of guys i really like and respect, we work well together, and oh yeah, we get to split 1000 dollars if we win, plus get a free trip to st. charles, illinois to compete nationally. so the stakes are high and we’re going to kick ass. i’ll let you know how it goes.

that night my roommates and i went over to a friend of ours’ who invited us to have dinner with her and some other girls, and we did, and it was delicious. then we played a crazy board game called cranium which is like the bastard son of every other party game ever invented all at the same time (pictionary, charades, name that tune, trivial pursuit, etc). we all had a really good time. it’s such a pleasure to hang out with fresh faces sometimes, and those girls are the tops. a night to remember and hopefully repeat in the near future.

today, well, homework and working on the consulting project more. and watching some super bowl, naturally, even though i don’t even like football. actually, i was assigned to watch the commercials for advertising class, so i was leaving the room during the football parts until i just gave in and sat down on the couch and hit the cheese ball and crackers…yum. i started watching when the score was rams 3, patriots 0, and since the other guys in the room were cheering for the rams (and i know nothing about football), i started cheering for “the blue team”, as i called them then and all through the game. then i gloated loudly that my team won despite the fact that i didn’t care at all. i have to say though that i thought early on in the game (while they were still losing) and still think that the patriots won because they’re called the patriots, and that the CIA rigged the game somehow. damn the man.

final note: britney spears is pretty attractive, but that 90 second pepsi commercial was the worst-sounding musical montage i’ve ever heard. luckily i wasn’t really listening.

oh my, i almost forgot to share my thursday afternoon adventures with you.

to begin; we saw the new todd solondz (welcome to the dollhouse) movie, storytelling, which although quite messed up as was expected, was still very very well done and thought-provoking. i enjoyed it thoroughly and would say if you like slightly disturbing/depressing films then check it out for sure. super cool.

to continue; after the movie we went to the virgin megastore on sunset (same complex as the most excellent laemmle theatre which is my preffered indie theatre in LA), and as we were leaving, we walked right past shannon doherty. damn, living in a city with movie and tv stars is weird. we walked past her as she was being helped by some clerk in the dvd secion, and i said, “hey was that shannon doherty?” to my friends. one of them went around the long way then looped back to get a subtle second look and confirmed. the voice was also very distinguishable. so it was really her. and you know? she’s really short. i don’t think she would have come up to my shoulder, and i’m only of average height myself. also: famous people don’t seem nearly as hot when you see them in normal-mode, i’ve noticed. it makes you feel a little better that you won’t ever get to sleep with them, doesn’t it?

and to conclude; i’m still thinking about that girl from advertising class. *coughpatheticcough*.

(see post from last night which was really only a few hours ago because this is thursday night not friday morning. gotcha.)

i think i have a thing for cute girls with cute hats.

at my (*ahem*, our) birthday party last weekend, i was talking to this one really cute girl with a hat for a large portion of the night, and the hat was a big part of why she seemed so cute. but for some reason she didn’t bite. and she left while i was, uh, cleaning out my insides. so that came to nothing but she was still very cute.

now, there’s a girl in my thursday night advertising class that i’ve got it for pretty badly. i think she’s so perfect looking to my tastes. she’s really cute, but really…well, sort of dark, i guess. not like dark-skinned; dark like…troubled. (sigh). and she happens to always wear a knitted stocking cap to class that sure doesn’t make her any less cute. i keep imagining this conversation happening after class as a means to begin some sort of speaking relationship:

boy: hey, what’s your name?

girl: [tells me her name in a tone that says “who are you and why are you asking?”]

boy: oh, hi [girl’s name]. (pause for effect). i like your hat.

girl: (nervous but slightly flattered and interested) umm, thanks…

boy: (walks alongside her for a second silently, then) well, see you next week [girl’s name again].

girl: (puzzled, charmed, smiling) okay, bye…

boy:(skates away on skateboard)

for some reason i feel like that would be all it took to get things going. but, of course, i’m too shy to even do that, and will continue meekly trying to catch her eye during class.

god i’m terrible at this stuff. perhaps i should build a robot girlfriend instead — it may be easier.

uncontested quote of the day (or night, really):

i’m in the kitchen getting some popcorn, two of my roommates are in front of me doing their crazy engineer’s math, and the fourth roommate, from the depths of his room, yells/whines with anger and frustration:

“god, this homework is so easy! . . .(pause) . . . CHALLENGE ME!”

it was the pleading part at the end that made me crack up enough to have it bear recording. poor intelligent dustin, having nowhere to turn.

i feel like my musical attention span isn’t lasting a whole week anymore, because the song of the week is becoming the song of three or four days and i’m picking a new song of the week right after i put up a new one. for example, i’ve had standing on the edge of summer by thursday in my head since sometime last week but to be fair i had to wait until today to share it. and i already have next week picked because, well, i’m an addict.

(sidenote: hey look, thursday’s website is fullcollapse.com. how about that.)

anyway, this song has me by the throat, if only because of the last 50 seconds. that’s some good rocking right there. one of those songs that made me wish i was on a stage with a guitar just so i could fling myself recklessly about while i slammed down the chords to show everyone how it made me feel to hear this music. sitting here in my desk chair playing air guitar or pounding my fists on the desk is great and all, but maybe not quite the same. anyway, there it is slapped up at your left ’til next wednesday. enjoy your day.

a few questions:

–is this not the worst thing you’ve ever seen?

(answer: yes, if you’re me. i had to look over this site for business communications class. look at that domain name. ugh. (shudder) i hope my professor assigned that as a joke).

–why does malcolm in the middle make me want to commit grievous acts of violence?

(answer: i can’t put my finger on it, and i’ve only seen one episode i think, but just seeing the commercials that always air during the simpsons make me want to weep and/or unleash my rage on its producers).

–why didn’t anyone tell me the state of the union was tonight?

(answer: i guess it’s no one else’s duty to keep me informed about the world at large. but i was oblivious until we talked about it in comm. class today. i feel so out of the loop. is there going to be some sort of mocking coverage on comedy central? otherwise i guess i don’t really care).

–is it even possible to win that first game of blitzball in final fantasay X?

(answer: i am a dork).

–so brian, what do you think of gulliver’s travels?

(answer: i don’t know, let me go find out right now).

–isn’t your outstanding radio show on tonight at 7pm pacific time?

(answer: why yes it is, are you going to listen? are you a fan? if you are, i have even more questions for you because it’s not very good; but i’ll ask those in a more appropriate forum and thanks for listening anyway).

–more root beer sir?

(answer: yes please).

been reading all night, avoiding the temptations of television and final fantasy, and i finished love in the time of cholera just before the day ended, accomplishing my goal. i think that was almost a hundred pages in an evening, which is pretty good for me. i don’t read very fast because i like to savor a good book. i read darwin pretty fast because there wasn’t much to pore over, but this one i took my time on. it just so happened that i was able to dedicate many hours to finishing it tonight and still taking my time. so worth it. very good book, at least if you like romance. which i do. ladies, keep that in mind.

tomorrow i’ll start the next one, a book of stories by jonathan swift; mainly gullivers travels and a modest proposal are what i’m interested in, but the book has a ton of other stuff in it too and it was only four dollars, so i might flip through the rest of it if i feel like it. or i might not because i’ve got three books in the queue behind it. i’ll let you know, because it’s so pertinent that i make my reading conquests public.

for the moment though my eyes deserve a rest. so i will sit and listen to the Mixtape of the Year (2001-2002 season) and relax.

i was reclining here in my desk chair with blogger up on the screen trying to think if a single interesting thing happened to me today and you know what? total blank. i thought it was funny that during my business law a girl sitting right behind us in the big auditorium said pretty firmly and clearly, “i hate you,” pointed toward our professor, but you kinda had to be there.

so i will reach instead into yesterday for something worth sharing. i bought plane tickets yesterday to visit cities far away, all the way across the country, for spring break in march. i hope the northeast can handle me. and it excites me that i am going new places in the near future, not just saying how i wish i could, or think it’d be fun if i did. the tickets are bought. i’m straight going. and that’s that.

oh, and as a bonus i get to see a second stop on the death and dismemberment tour as they go through boston while i’m visiting my friends there. just a coincidence, i swear. a super fantastic rocking coincidence. hell yeah.

now if you’ll excuse me, i’m going to try to finish a book.

last night was the Super Duper Double Birthday Bash that celebrated the passing of justin and i into legal drinking age, and oh my god did we pass with gusto. we bought over 150 dollars worth of party supplies to add to what we both already had waiting at home, marking our first legal purchase of spirits. it was almost disappointing, the lady at the store didn’t even think twice about it. i guess we look like nice responsible adults. uhh, right.

the actual party was a success too in that plenty of people showed up, and plenty of those people were cute girls. plus, justin and i both got plenty of drinks into our birthday bodies — more than plenty in my case at least. but there’s still an awful lot left in our kitchen right now so it would appear another party is in order in the next few weeks.

the only problem i had with this party is that i wore a tie and a collared shirt and looked extra suave, and still i didn’t get a single birthday kiss. and the cute Girl With a Hat i was talking to left the party while i was in the bathroom, umm, cleansing my system, and hence i was unable to say goodbye or tell her not to leave. weak. but so it goes; we’ll just have to throw another one soon and i’ll have to wear another tie and try it all over again with maybe a little less poison in my body.

oh, and apparently one of my friends puked something like four times off of our fourth floor balcony. damn, i wish i could have seen that.

i’ve decided that i want a monkey.

today in my anthropology discussion we were watching this video about evolution, and one of the segments was about how smart chimpanzees are. there was a chimp in a little cage/room with a glass wall, and inside was a screen with numbers on it. the scientist woman would put two pieces of candy on a little shelf on the outside of the glass wall, and then ask the chimp how many there were, and the chimp touched the number two on the screen (out of the five or so choices). then the chimp would get the candy. it was funnier though the next time through, demonstrating that they’re smart enough to even understand the concept of zero. the scientist would put no candy on the shelf, and then say something like, “how many are there here now?”, and the chimp touched the zero (very smart creature), but then the scientist just said, “yeah, that’s right! there’s no candy! too bad huh?” i thought that was pretty funny.

the clincher though was them showing a little child chimp climbing on a rocking chair in the play room for chimps, dressed in shorts and a university of ohio baseball shirt (that’s the university where the lab was located). i think it was cuter than a lot of human children.

so since they’re so smart and heartwarming, i’m going to see about getting a monkey. if you have any monkey-getting leads, let me know.