As seems to be happening with increasing frequency, the last seven days have seemed to be a whirlwind of activity, but now that i look back i can't recall doing all that much. The long Memorial Day weekend was spent with Rob and Roo, as well as with MC Fonix (a.k.a. Bill), in Providence. We caught The Matrix Reloaded again on Saturday afternoon, which has enabled me to expound at great(er) length on the philosophy of the film. Then we went ghetto-style and drank 40's of malt liquor while watching Eminem in 8 Mile. The movie wasn't so bad, but the DVD contained an short on the making of the rap battle sequences that showcased the director, a short wiry graying Jewish man who seemed completely out of place. It was like Judd Hirsch from Taxi dropped in the projects, as Rob pointed out. On Sunday we had some beers and played some darts with Rob's friends at the Wild Colonial. Monday was a super-lazy affair filled with Xbox and Trading Spaces.

I'm happy to report we now have a mover for our trek westward. I'm thrilled beyond words that all packing and loading will be done without any labor on my part ... oh, the joys of corporate-financed moves. Of course, we still have to get things in a manageable state and take care of numerous other issues before the movers knock on our door. I'm equally happy to report that my skills in Winning Eleven 6 International have been progressing nicely, on the 3 star difficulty at any rate. Before we left for the weekend, i managed to win the International Cup with England, in a thrilling 2-1 victory in the finals over the Netherlands. Last night i won the European Cup with the Netherlands. I'm not so into Holland's counterattack strategy, but i must say it obliterated Ireland 6-nil, with 4 goals coming on end-to-end sprints on the counterattack. In the semifinals i twice came back to force Italy into extra time at 2-2, then won on penalties. Yes, describing video sports is rather pathetic, but it's amazing how well done this game is, and how it conveys the actual soccer experience.

My online mp3 library and playlist has been evolving rapidly over the last week or two. Veronica is of the opinion that it's a bit of overkill, and she's probably right ... i imagine i'll be the one looking at it the most. But it's a nice piece of Perl programming that i'm proud of, so up it stays. Humor me and have a look sometime.

Also have a look at Friendster if you haven't already. It's an online friend network that seems to be really taking off. My old friend Leslie found me through it, and i've located a few other long lost acquaintances through it.

go back to those gold soundz, and keep my advent to yourself because it's nothing i don't like, is it a crisis or a boring change? when it's central, so essential it has a nice ring when you laugh at the low-life opinions and they're coming to the chorus now keep my address to yourself, 'cause we need secrets we need secrets back right now because i never wanna make you feel that you're social, never ignorant soul believe in what you wanna do and do you think that is a major flaw when they rise up in the falling rain and if you stay around with your knuckles ground down the trial's over, the weapon's found keep my address to myself because it's secret 'cause it's secret back right now so drunk in the august sun, and you're the kind of girl i like because you're empty and i'm empty, and you can never quarantine the past did you remember in december that i won't eat you when i'm gone and if i go there, i won't stay there, because i'm sitting here too long i've been sitting here too long, and i've been wasted advocating that word for the last word last words come up all you've got to waste

My curiosity got the better of me on Saturday afternoon, as i peeked on fandango.com to see if any showings of The Matrix Reloaded weren't sold out. Lo and behold, the evening shows were available, so i eagerly clicked "buy" and grabbed Veronica to head off to Boston Common. The ticket lines were horrendous, but as we had bought them online (i still don't understand why more people don't use the ticket kiosks instead of the tellers) we bypassed that atrocity and headed to the line to enter the theater.

I spent a while doubting the film. I watched The Matrix again a week ago, which deepened my appreciation of it even further. The original has a few scenes that i think are brilliant, particularly Neo's realization of his powers, thrashing Agent Smith while making it look like he could be reading TV Guide at the same time. About halfway through Reloaded i began to grasp the vision of the brothers Wachowski, and then the movie had me in the palm of its hand. The visuals were incredible ... the fight between Neo and the horde of clones of Agent Smith was awesome of course, as was the duel between Morpheus, several agents, and the twin albino assassins on the roofs of cars and trucks on the 101 outside downtown Los Angeles. But even the "mundane" martial arts scenes were breathtaking. In the opening of a battle between Neo and a rogue program's bodyguards, Neo throws one of his opponents against a Greek marble statue. The statue shatters as the bodyguard moves through it, and all fall in slow motion to the floor. I don't do it justice, but it had me tearing up. The movie is a large part philosophy, containing several extended rants on the paradox of free will. While slowing the initial acceleration of the film, these components serve to accentuate the suspense of the latter half and set the scene for November's The Matrix Revolutions.

I'll end my fanboy gushings at this point. It's a film i think i need to see a few more times to completely understand the magnitude of the story the Wachowskis are trying to convey.

After being referred to an html catalog of someone's mp3 library ... and being appalled with how poorly laid out it was ... i spent a little time writing some perl code to generate a database of my own mp3s, and to query it online. Have a look by clicking on the little musical notes above (notes ... music ... mp3 ... get it?). I hope to add some functions to display my recent listening statistics, if i can find a Winamp plugin that generates a log of the songs played.

And let me scream "THANK YOU!!!" that the San Antonio Spurs managed to defeat the supremely arrogant Los Angeles Lakers in the Western conference semifinals. Shaq, Kobe, Phil, and co. have gotten it in their heads that they are the greatest collection of demigods ever to grace a basketball court. Having won three consecutive championships, this season they seemed to think that they could win at will with little or no effort. So they slumped to a fifth seed in the playoffs, and rallied past the T-Wolves in the first round after dropping behind two games to one. However, reality rightfully caught up with them. Seeing Kobe leave in tears was a thing of beauty. I don't know if i could've survived any more Laker championships.

I've had nary a free minute this week ... work is running me ragged ... so i haven't had a chance to mention that V and i saw The Faint on Sunday night at the Roxy. We missed openers Schneider and most of Les Savy Fav because we were [conveniently] having dinner then. I actually like most of what i've heard from Les Savy Fav, particularly the music. My problem with them is that it's like Jello Biafra fronting Fugazi ... two great tastes that most definitely do not taste great together. Anyhoo, on to the Faint. Electroclash is not really my cup o' tea but i'm moderately into these guys. They came out and immediately launched into "Glass Danse", playing in front of two giant video screens. The crowd was the most enthusiastic i've ever seen in Boston, despite the show not having sold out. As usual, i'm going to play the party pooper: i felt the band were confined by the backing tape and the synchronized video. The show lacked the energy of their last performance at the Middle East, perhaps because everything was rigidly dictated by the prearranged movies. To give you an idea of how little improvisation was possible, one song was accompanied by doctored news footage in which the news anchor's lips mouthed the words to the song (think Conan O'Brien's interviews with Bill Clinton). Moreover, the Faint played for a scant 30 minutes before leaving the stage, returning for another 10 minutes of encore for a grand total of 40 minutes of music. The band has three albums plus a remix album, it's not like they ran out of material. Well, maybe they ran out of movies.

I came away with two amusing quotes. The first was overheard while exiting the venue, coming from a group of scenesters praising the show and the videos: "I liked the one with the water". The second was between-song banter from the lead singer: "This next one's a remix of a song from our album Blank Wave Arcade". When you play a song live, isn't calling it a remix a little redundant? I guess not, when the majority of the instrumentalists on stage are doing precious little besides dancing.

i recall when we were younger we shared the streets of home spoke of our dreams and soaring schemes and places we would go if i stay around much longer, i’ll never leave again i have to move, i cannot stay believe the voice that tells me leave it all behind me i know that i am wrong i’ll never leave now it has been so long and now i'm getting older, i still can’t find the words to empathise with what’s inside, express the way i feel now i'’m getting older, it’s easier to hide to run away, day after day betray the voice that tells me leave it all behind me i know that i am wrong i’ll never leave now it has been so long

My beloved Chelsea rose to the challenge before them today. Needing a win or draw against hated Liverpool to finish 4th in the league and qualify for the European Champions League next season, they rallied after giving up an early goal to equalize on a Marcel Desailly header and then scored the winner shortly thereafter on a strike by Jesper Grønkjaer. We're still definitely a step behind Manchester United and Arsenal, but we're moving in the right direction. The last time Chelsea were in the Champions League, we made it to the final 8 before being denied a semifinal spot by a furious Barcelona comeback.

V and i headed down to Providence yesterday for lunch with Rob and Roo (and Olive), followed by an early evening showing of X2: X-Men United. That was quite good. I liked the portrayal of Nightcrawler, and the brief appearance of Colossus was great. Plus, Wolverine really got his hands dirty in this one, which is always a thing of beauty. We'll see if The Matrix Reloaded fares so well.

Hank: "Bobby, I hate to tell you this, but I'd be a bad parent if I didn't. Soccer was invented by European ladies to keep themselves busy while their husbands did the cooking."
Bobby: "Why do you have to hate what you don't understand?"
Hank: "I don't hate you, Bobby."
Bobby: "I meant soccer."
Hank: "Oh. Oh yeah, I hate soccer."

I rewarded myself for finishing two papers last week by going out and buying a shiny new PS2 game. V bought me The Getaway a month ago, a Grand Theft Auto-esque romp through London in the shoes of a former wiseguy being framed for his wife's murder. It's decent. The developers did a superb job modeling 40 square kilometers of central London, down to the store facades. The gameplay is a little ragged though, and once you're out of the car forget about it. So i changed gears, picking up Winning Eleven 6 International, the suffix-laden descendent of International Superstar Soccer, my all-time favorite soccer game from the Nintendo 64.

The strength of ISS was the realism with which it simulated the game of soccer. While i've enjoyed FIFA 2003, it suffers from weaknesses that you can exploit to essentially score at will. For example, the central defenders appear to mark only your strikers, so if you can slip a midfielder past your opponent's midfielders, he can basically stroll past the defense for an easy shot on goal. This lackadaisical approach to defense is characteristic of the game. Older versions of FIFA were also guilty of this: in the 2001 offering, your striker could spin and hop his way from end to end while the defense sat around looking befuddled. Enter the painstaking attention to detail of W11. You can control nearly everything: formations, on-pitch strategies, marking assignments, individual player attacking tendencies, you name it. There are a multitude of control variations allowing you to pass, cross, and shoot in an endless number of ways. For Christ's sake, you can set the announcer's bias! Of course, with all these options the learning curve is quite steep. I can do fine at one and two star difficulties so far, but just break even at three star, and haven't had the courage to yet go to four or god forbid five stars. The defenses play like real defenses: a center back isn't going to let a pass to a striker just roll right over if he can prevent it. Any downsides? Well, Konami doesn't have all the licenses that EA and FIFA do, so the club sides, while portraying actual teams, have new names. Chelsea is there, as "Liguria" for some reason. Ditto for many of the player names. Luckily you can edit most everything and thus make things right, but it takes friggin forever. My other curiosity about W11 is the goal celebrations. Now i usually don't pay them a whole lot of attention, but these antics have me scratching my head. For example, in one animation the scorer leaps onto a teammate, putting his legs around him and being held up as he pumps his fist. Okay, that happens all the time. But in the W11 version the two just kind of sit there locked in some carnal embrace, with the scorer rocking his hips every now and then. Nearly pornographic.

My weekend was otherwise occupied with finishing off the aforementioned two papers for work. The move back west is creeping up on us, beginning to worry me. A friend of mine just gave me a copy of his grant application so i can have a look at what's involved in getting research monies from the federal government. Holy god, i can barely pick this thing up. At any rate, V is back from England tomorrow, hopefully with goodies for little old me!