Dinner + Dessert + Flower = 6.66 €

Yeah, I smirked too.

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

While reading the newspaper today on my way to work, I found out that Blade Runner: The Final Cut will be shown at the movies in my city. This movie is based on Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, another book that’s on my never ending to-read list.

This means, of course, that I will go watch it, even though I’ve seen the movie half a dozen times at home. It is one of my favourite movies, not to mention it’s the best Cyberpunk movie I’ve seen to this day. In fact, the 80s seem to be filled with really awesome flicks, like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the Indiana Jones movies, and many others.

On my Artificial Intelligence classes in the University, I always wondered why the professor would give 2001’s HAL the spotlight as the best example of AI in popular culture. Blade Runner’s replicants, especially one of them, raise issues a lot deeper in that area. The paragraph that follows will be filled with plot spoilers so if you haven’t watched the movie and don’t want to be spoiled, skip it.

*spoilers* First there’s the concept that the replicants, learn and develop personalities the longer they exist. To avoid having unpredictable replicants around, their lifespan is limited to only a few years. The issue is that some of the replicants developed enough self awareness in those years, and are afraid to die, wishing to prolong their existence at all costs. The quote at the beginning of this post is said by one of them, and you can see how aware he was of what it is to exist and of what it is to experience life. Then, there is another replicant, Rachael, a different model who was brought up as a human, given the memories of a real human, and who doesn’t even know she’s a machine. *end spoilers*

Other than all the questions it raises about existence, emotion and living (and not in a boring pseudo-intellectualoid way like so many other movies do), another thing that makes this movie great is the soundtrack. Vangelis at his best.

Sometime during this next three-day weekend I will be sitting in a cinema in Lisbon and absorbing all of this in a huge screen as if it was the first time.

I passed by Fnac this weekend and saw this beauty exposed there - the 21 inch one. It didn’t have a price and was near a bunch of other shiny unpriced, expensive-looking stuff. Anyway, it seemed awesome so I did some research and the smaller one (twelve inches) costs around 1000 euros and upwards. I didn’t bother researching about the 21” version as I’d probably have to sell my liver and both my kidneys to afford it.

I’m obviously not going to buy it, but a girl can dream. Maybe I should dust off my crappier version and try it out again. I didn’t enjoy using it much the last time, but it’s been a few years, and I have been wanting to digitally paint some drawings I’ve been doing on my new Moleskine…

Edit: Found a video of the 21” one being used. I want one. Damn it. :(

I’m going to a classical music concert tomorrow night with a few friends. I might dress up a bit, but since I ended up sort of stranded sleeping elsewhere tonight due to an accident, I’ll have to improvise.

Also, it’s going to rain a lot tomorrow and I won’t be able to take my nice asian-like jacket so it’s not ruined. Maybe I’ll take short asian-like one I have underneath the coat I usually wear. I wonder if I should use my funky tie. I can’t wear it at work, as it’s not very… lets just say it’s not work-friendly. I can always take it in my bag and put it on when I’m on the way, I guess.

Now that I think about it, it might not be very classical concert-friendly either.

Decisions, decisions…

I found a few links interesting so I thought I’d share them.

Overheard in New York is a site where people post random stuff they’ve heard by strangers in New York. I remember when I was in college, we were often amused by parts of conversations we overheard while walking around the city. Not that it doesn’t happen anymore, but we used to be able to hang out more than nowadays. Anyway, take a look.

The previous link reminded me of PostSecret for some reason, so am linking it here for those who don’t know it. It’s a blog that posts postcards people send anonymously with secrets. Sometimes we think we’re the only ones stuck in a particular situation and reading what people send there often show us we are not alone.

Little People - Found this through Dave-chan’s blog. Check it out.

Funny thing how brilliant acting can save a mediocre movie and make it decent enough to be watched.

I was curious about The Other Boleyn Girl, and ended up watching it with low expectations. Even though it’s not a brilliant movie, the acting is superb. Natalie Portman delivers yet another excellent performance as Anne (on a side note: it was the first time I’ve seen her play a, well, a manipulative bitch is the right expression I guess), Scarlet Johanson, even though not very expressive (as usual), does the part of innocent Mary very well, and Eric Bana does well as King Henry.

The story itself didn’t appeal me too much since it seemed to be one of those annoying intrigue-at-the-royal-Court things I tend to dislike. Obviously there’s that, but the last third of the movie made up for the somewhat boring political first half. Anyway, it’s watchable, though not a masterpiece.

Things have been pretty calm at work, and the most interesting moment of the day was my getting-some-coffee adventure.

I get to the closest coffee machine and it eats my money. I give up and decide not to have any coffee. However since I had too much sushi at lunch, after a couple of hours I’m too sleepy and end up wanting coffee afterall. So I go outside to the other coffee machines. I stick a coin in, it all seems to be going okay until I look down and see coffee pouring into nothingness, and only when the machine beeps does the plastic cup appear. Empty.

By now I figure nothing else can go wrong, and what are the odds of the other machine being screwed up also? Surely it wasn’t a divine sign for me not to drink coffee today.

It wasn’t. I finally got my coffee.

I go back inside the building I work in, carefully holding the cup, I pass the security door. The next glass door hits me. Coffee splashes everywhere. Miraculously, my clothes are intact - I just got some coffee over my hand. The floor however wasn’t so lucky. (sorry, people that had to dodge the puddles of coffee on the floor! *puppy face* )

The good part of this: I drank the half of the coffee that remained in the cup and I got very amused at the whole sequence of events.