Typos are from my sorry excuse of a keyboard. I'm going to try to Bold the topics this week.

1. WORK: This week was very tough probably because it was the week I did the most work. My partner on the stack of boxes, his name is Telli, went on a trip to Maryland half way through the week...so the second half of the week left me to unload and stack boxes on my own. The job DOES keep me occupied, however, working this portion of the job takes a toll on me. This weather is getting hotter by the day (especially on Friday...97 degrees). I haven't been properly hydrating myself either because I'm the type of guy who likes to finish his work and then break. Telli will be gone this week as well...I'm kind of not looking forward to it all. HOWEVER, after seeing my paycheck this week, I figure it will be worth it.

2. SPORTS: Hockey has kind of phased out of my focus the last week. I was kind of excited about the Stanley Cup playoffs...then the Stars get knocked out almost a month ago. I continued following hockey, but its kind of tough watching your 4th favorite sport when there are no teams you like still involved. With that said, I might shun hockey aside until the actual Finals. BASKETBALL, however, has been extremely exciting this past week. Three series went to a game 7...often a rarity something like this happens. I'm glad the Dallas Mavericks beat San Antonio...they've earned their due. Ever since I watched basketball when I was younger, the Mavericks were seen as a mediocre team. Now they have an honest chance to go to the NBA Finals (though their current series with the Suns is tied 1-1 as of this posting. I'm pulling for a Miami vs. Dallas final.

3. MOVIES AT THE THEATRE: I saw X-Men 3 last week. I have to say that I did like it and it was a very entertaining film. Shocking...I know since I've dogged on all the movies this year (except Inside Man). HOWEVER, I REALLY didn't like the ending of X-Men 3. I won't spoil it for you, but it just seemed very over the top for the movie to build up to that type of ending. The funny thing is my sister and my buddy Jason sat around Thursday night to see the midnight showing...it was fun. So the total number of movies that I gave a thumbs up to is up to 4 now (Inside Man, Over the Hedge, Thank You for Smoking (barely though), and X-Men 3).

4. MOVIES ON DVD: SERIOUSLY, what a bad selection of DVD's are coming out in the next month. Considering that they are starting to put out the movies from the beginning of this shitty year in movies...its kind of sad to note that I'm going to have to find some OLDER films that I've failed to see over the years. As far as new films on DVD, Transamerica is the one I reccommend seeing. WARNING: the film is not for everyone. It has two great performances from Felicity Huffman (who earned an Oscar nomination for her role) and Kevin Zegers (and TRUST ME when I say this...he has grown as an actor since Air Bud). For those who are not really up to date with the smaller films, the film is about a man trying to have a sex change while having to rescue his lost son from jail in New York City. In this scenerio, the son doesn't know that the woman (Huffman) is actually his father. He struggles to tell his son. VERY GOOD MOVIE, but I know some do not like this subject in film (not everyone can be like me...watch any movie at least once).

5. MOVIE ADAPTATIONS: There is a big reason why some of the movies of 2006 are bad. They are rather rough, and often unfaithful adaptations. When trying to figure out the good of the movies in 2006, I figured that some of my resentment comes from bad book to screen adaptations. Art School Confidential was adapted from screenwriter David Clowes comic...but he over dramatized it (I never read the comic, however, from what I've read about the adaptation, he was even unfaithful to his own work). Thank You for Smoking was not a completely unfaithful adaptation to Christopher Buckley's novel...however, they tried too hard to modernize the story (which was written over 10 years ago). This is tricky...modernizing a movie from a novel. When David Benioff adapted his novel The 25th Hour years ago into 25th Hour...the two were unfaithful, BUT he adapted the story completely to a modern setting. Thank You for Smoking didn't modernize everyting in the world of the film. Some of it didn't work for me...if they could of stuck to the original setting (the book and movie have the same message), then it would be a lead candidate for probably the early good film of the year come Oscar time (there is always ONE early film nominated...this year has a good chance at not getting one). The Da Vinci Code...why screw up the last 20 minutes and why not keep the first cryptex scenerio in the movie. The movie tried to cover too much ground in 2 hours and 15 minutes. It seemed like everyone involved had no ambition to make te movie good as well. Even Ron Howard considered it a rush job. What is on deck for adaptations? Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of As You Like It (Shakespeare), How to Eat Fried Worms (Thomas Rockwell's children's novel I read in the 3rd grade), Beowulf (unknown author from 8th century AD), There Will Be Blood (Upton Sinclair). I don't know, but I'm going to be VERY pissed if Beowulf is no good.

6. John Irving's A Widow for One Year: Irving's A Widow for One Year is the current novel I'm reading (I'm a little under half way through). I'm suprised to say that Irving is the best modern writer period! His style of writing is very smooth and it is hard to put this book down. Someone once compared hi to being the modern day Charles Dickens, but I didn't believe it. I think he MAY be just as good. His details fit well like a puzzle in his story. The story is about a unexpected romance between Ruth Cole and Eddie O'Hare, and the first tird of the novel takes place when Eddie is 16 years old and Ruth is 4 years old. Eddie has an affair with Ruth's mom (Marion who wants to leave Ruth's father Ted). Eddie helps marion succeed in leaving. Now I haven't got to the point where Ruth and Eddie begin their relationship, but I'm at the point where its is 30 years into the future. This book is higgly addictive...dare I say it could be my favorite novel when I'm done. (By the way, I didn't know that I already saw a movie adaptation of the first third of the novel called The Door in the Floor, but I remembered as I was reading. Weird...that one is faithful).

7. CRUSH, and TO BE CRUSHED: Okay, so my crush knows I like her (and for all I know she could or maybe could not be reading this). I knew there was some complexities in telling her, my shyness aside. I was very afraid because I didn't want to lose her friendship (these things tend to change everything). I'm already seeing some signs of a friendship hitting a brick wall. When my crush and I began to start knowing each other, we use to leave each other messages. Now I'm the one who leaves them and I'll be lucky if anything is ever said back. It might just be me, but there is this odd feeling that neglecting me will lead to no one getting hurt. It always hurts worse this way. The biggest problem is I think I'll be in the same class as this person in the Fall, and this will definitely become a distraction (especially if the air isn't cleared). I determined that I'll try to go the rest of the summer just not putting anymore effort (the other day was my last little attempt to show her I was thinking of her). Why does being yourself become difficult when you want a girl to like you (especially if 'yourself' is constantly being overlooked because other people get her attention)? The story of my life.

8. AIM Boycott: I determined around 9:43 pm on Saturday that I will not get on AIM until I go to Summer C. There are 3 reasons for this. One, when I get on to talk to my friends and family, I typically leave my computer to attend to other things. After 2 hours, my computer goes into self shut down mode and whatever messages are left when I'm away, I'll never be able to read. Two, I need to teach myself some kind of discipline when being tempted to do other things than writing. When I get home from work...I need to be either writing or reading. Even though its summer, I can't sloutch when it comes to me learning. Three, my crush is usually always on-line. I always have the temptation to leave her a message, but I start to second guess everything when she doesn't respond. It's painful, so I'm determined to separate myself from the agony for another month. Hopefully this boycott will work out.

9. MY COUSIN & RACISM: Kenny was hanging out with me for a short time last Monday. We went to Wal-Mart to buy some things when suddenly a see a red truck peer out of the corner of my right eye. When I get this intuition, I move out of the way because the guy is usually looking for a parking spot. Kenny, however, keeps walking straight in the middle of the road. The truck approaches him and I ask Kenny nicely to move out of the guys way. He says, 'I have a right to walk here.' I get pissed when pederstrians do this to me, so I felt this man's anger. Turns out to be a black man. The guy eventually goes around Kenny and then stops in front of Kenny. Kenny says, 'What?' Why the hell does he like to intentually piss people off? I told Kenny that if the guy were white, he would have moved. Kenny argued he wouldn't, but that's bull-shit because tthis has happened in the past. The guy turns the corner in the next aisle and stares at Kenny. Kenny this says, 'Is everything Hunky-Dory?' He doesn't realize he just made a racist comment. He claimed it was racist to white people, but no. He said this to a black man, so he obviously ment to reverse the racism. Sometimes, I don't understand why he does this stupid shit.

10. SAME SCENERIO, DIFFERENT SITUATION: I want to leave off with something quite funny to think about if you care to make real life comparisons. As I said before Brandi, Jason, and I sat out in front of our movie for a couple of hours to see X-Men 3. Brandi invited a friend, her name was Kim. Brandi even told Kim to come later, basicly because she would probably be bored waiting outside the movie. Well Kim is the typical, ordinary (and when I say ordinary, I really mean it) woman who has fun going to parties and socializing. The typical party consist of people 'talking'...ususally with some kind of alcoholic beverage. Interestingly, Kim was with Brandi, Jason, and I talking. We talked about a variety of things, BUT Kim seemed not to be having fun. Jason and I had a good laugh about it later...how painfully obvious it was. The reason I thought it was funny is because Kim probably didn't realize she was doing exactly what she would do at a party, minus the alcohol. You can have fun at a party talking with people but not before a movie. Go figure.