thoughts

Keanu Reeves sold his soul to the devil

Yup. This is the conclusion we arrived to today. Olga, Hazard, and I were watching yet another movie with Keanu “acting”. I mean everyone knows that he cannot act. But if you look closely, you wil find something more.

No matter what scene he is delivering, what words he is speaking, what role he is speaking, he does not show any emotions. Not even one. His eyes are as empty as beer bottles around my house. When he hates someone, he just says “I hate you”. When he loves someone, he just says “I love you”. When he wants to know what time it is, he just says “What time is it”. His speech lacks intonations. His body language sucks big time. And his eyes are empty. Always.

Now, how can you explain this? Looking totally empty and emotionless on one hand, and having huge salaries for acting in box-office breaking blockbusters on the other hand – that is just … well, strange at least. The first and only explantion that came to us was that he sold his soul to the devil. We cannot see his soul in his eyes, and he gets whatever is that he asked for. Oh, and if you are not convinced enough by that, just check out some really strange and mysterious facts from his life at his trivia page at IMDB.

Getting ready for parenting

Olga and I went all over kids’ shops today. So far we are not in a hurry and just checking out prices and what those shops have to offer. We need lots of things – bed, perambulator (aka pram aka carriage), bath, and what not.

We managed to visit four shops before Olga got tired. “Jumbo” is the biggest and the cheapest kids market. It offers best of choice too. Except for beds. Good prices for carriages, clothes and toys.

Than we moved to Agios Filaxios street, where three other big shops are located. “CTX Toys”, “HyppoKids”, and another one which I don’t remember the name. All of these have more children furniture to offer. All of these are kind of expensive.

I was surprised at home few bed designs there are. I mean they are all in the same shape. The difference comes only in color (dark wood vs. light painted wood), rocking vs. wheels, and prices (from 200 CYP to 400+ CYP). At first I thought maybe I am just seeing similar stuff. But I was wrong. I checked the catalog, and all the beds there were of the same design. Really, only minor variations. Boring.

Before making our minds on which furniture we want to buy, we had to decide if we were to make kids’ room. If you don’t know, we live in a two bedroom apartment. One bedroom is used for …hmm… bedroom where we sleep and another bedroom is used for the office. We have all the books, computers, and all sorts of crap there. If we were to make kids room, we would have to get rid of all that office stuff. That means that we have to find a place for two tables with chairs and computers and blah blah blah.

After some consideration, thinking, arguing, reasoning, talking, and some more reasoning we decided that we will make a room for the kid. One of the tables (Olga’s, the big one) will be moved to living room, close to the TV. Both of the computers will be desposed/sold/given away/thrown out. Our home server will be the only computer available for some time. It will be stay connected to TV for DVD/DivX playback, connected to the Internet, and it will be the workstation aswell. With the baby and everything we will not have too much time to use it anyway, and even if we will, one computer will be enough. That is I don’t think both of us will be using computer simultaneously any time soon (after the baby will be born).

Why did we decided to have a separate room for an infant? Well, lots of reasons. Firstly, he will need the room earlier or later. It is easier for us to give it to him earlier than later. We need to get used to the idea too, you know. Secondly, having a single space for all the kid’s stuff is good. I mean, of course, it will not always stay there in a single room, but at least, we will know where it should be. Thirdly, we think that it will be easier for the first few month, when baby needs attention every several hours. One parent can take care of the baby in one room, while another ~~sleeps~~ tries to sleep in another. Otherwise, both will have to wake up, use lights and make noise in the bedroom, which is not good. There are more reasons, but they I am sure everyone can appreciate having their own corner…

Now that we have made our minds, we will have to prepare the room, move things out, buy some furniture, get used to it and so on. I’ll keep you posted. Maybe I will even make a picture.

Kill Bill question

Today I decided that enough time has passed since I’ve watched both “Kill Bill: Vol.1” and “Kill Bill: Vol.2“, so I rented both DVDs. I did that for three reasons.

Firstly, I started to miss them a lot and it was about time I watched them. So I did.

Secondly, I wanted to make up my mind if these two are a single movie cut into two pieces of these two are two separate movies. It is kind of difficult to judge on this when about 6 month pass between watching two parts. So I watched both of them in a single day and … I still cannot make my mind. I am closer to the opinion of two separate movies though. They have been shot differently, they have been paced differently, and they different content. First movie is all about setting up the story and providing lots of bloody fights, while the second one is about character development and a small bit of drama and philosophy. Parts are very well connected though.

Thirdly, I was interested in bonus materials. My appetites were satisfied. First disk contained “The Making of ‘Kill Bill’“, while the second had “The Making of ‘Kill Bill: Volume 2’“. Both provided a bunch of interviews with Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman, and few other members of the crew.

Great experience.

Movie fever

I think I have movie fever. I am sick. And I am getting worse. I always feel this need to watch a movie. Even after I do so. Movie after movie. This is getting out of hand. And the problem is that I don’t have any problem with that. I just go rent yet another movie and watch it. Or I go to the cinema. If I am too lazy to go out, I just watch a movie off TV. If there is nothing on TV, I find something on the web…

I remember I had this once. I was about 14 years old than. Video club opened at the bus station not far from my house. It was not the one where you rent films (I didn’t have a video player than). It was the one where you pay a ticket and you watch right there. Sitting on the harsh chair and watching it on the crapy 14″ TV. People who were travelling by bus from city to city and had to wait for their next bus having nothing better to do would go there. And I went. With the friend of mine. I think we’ve watched 20 or so films in one week. That was amazing. I wanted more, but I was broke. And so it stopped.

These days, films are so cheap that I will hardly go broke watching them. Many of them come free on TV or on the web. How would I stop? I don’t know. Do you?

On the other hand, I am still thinking if I should do anything about it. I mean I spend a lot of time watching films, but nothing else. Sometimes I watch them alone. Sometimes with my wife. Sometimes with my friends. Is it really bad?

Why do I watch them? Movies entertain. They change mood. They give something to think about (some of them, at least). They give something to laugh about, or something to cry about. Some are educational. Others are scary. Some make me appreciate things that I have. Others make me appreciate things that I don’t have. Sometimes they take me from the reality. Sometimes they bring me back to the reality.

I guess, I am watching them for the same reasons other people read books. Is reading bad? I was always told that it is good. How different is reading from watching movies? Some say that books push one to think and imagine things, analyze what one reads so that he can draw better pictures in his mind. Same some say that movies don’t give this to you. Movies provide you with ready-made thought-over images and you have nothing to do, just consume them. I don’t agree with that. The fact that I see a picture doesn’t mean that I don’t create a similar picture of my own. It does not mean that I don’t think “How would I do it?”. Also, movies are very limited in terms of time, while books are not. Books can cover huge periods of time with plenty of details. Movies cannot do that. Thus, movies provide you with material spread over a period of time, and it is you who should properly connect and fulfill it.

Why am I saying all of this? Because. I am just filling time between two movies. One that I’ve watched, and another one, which I am about to watch. Off I go…

On Christmas traditions

Disclaimer: I come from a place where Christmas was never a big holiday. I am learning all Christmas tricks and traditions bit by bit every year, but they don’t come all that natural to me. So you’ll have to excuse my perverted point of view.

There is this Christmas tradition that kids follow when they gather together, go from place to place, sing Christmas songs and tell poems, and get “paid” for that with candies, cookies, and, sometimes, money. It is a well known tradition and it is not by any means limited to Christmas. It is usually followed on some other major holidays. For example: Easter.

I knew about this tradition for some time now, but it never stops to amaze me how early local kids start to go around. Today I was visited by a few young girls. Today. 24th of November. Exactly one month before Christmas. Something tells me that if I “paid” them today, I would have these visits on a daily basis until one month after Christmas. Evil me closed the door on poor young ladies.

Another interesting detail about local kids is that they expect to be paid with money. No candies. No cookies. No nothing. Money only. A few times in previous years when I was, as a joke, trying to give them some sweets, they stared at me like I was an alien or something. These days they come with a box that has a whole that only money can fit in. Nice. I guess they would accept checks and credit cards in coming years.

Yet another interestnig detail is that they don’t even think that doing anything is important. They don’t sing. They don’t dance. They don’t tell poems or stories.

Now, put all these together and imagine how it looks. A bunch of local kids knock at your door. Look at you like you are supposed to understand why they are here and what they want. They hold this box with a hole for money and they expect some from you. I stare at them with my “Eh, WTF?” look. And they go as far as saying “Christmas”. Cool.

I am all for Christmas spirit, presents, Santa and everything, but this looks like poor extortion to me. And that, of course, puts me in the right position to slap the door in front of their faces. Which is exactly what I did.