Yes, I took my purple towel along with me this evening for the sneak preview of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I was rewarded for completely geeking out. Not only did the towel actually come in handy several times (wiping the butter from the high carb popcorn off my hands, drying my hands after leaving the restroom, and making a little cozy in my lap for the popcorn to sit in), but those of us who came prepared to hitchhike received a free t-shirt.

I still wonder what they gave the people who showed up wearing their bathrobes. (Which of course, is the American equivalent of Arthur’s dressing gown.)

Oh, and the movie itself? A solid 4.5/5 in my opinion.

I was pleasantly surprised; it was much better than I expected. True, it doesn’t follow the book strictly, but it’s definitely got the spirit of it, as well as the sly humor. And really, considering the book was done after it had been a radio show, and the BBC television series wasn’t a strict retelling of the book, why should it be a direct translation? It is quite evident that Douglas Adams himself had a big hand in a good bit of the script before his death. I applaud the producers for staying true to his work.

Mos Def was actually fantastic as Ford Prefect, which is the one bit of casting I had the most misgivings about, and Sam Rockwell was completely over-the-top, just as anyone playing Zaphod Beeblebrox should be. Alan Rickman’s voice as Marvin… well, hell, I knew that was going to be brilliant the minute I heard about it. The depiction of the actual Hitchhiker’s Guide was inspired, and true to form, Henson’s creature creators did much justice to the ugliness that is a Vogon. The cuts to narration were near perfect in timing, and Stephen Fry brought the perfect amount of dryness to the part.

Still, I have to leave off the half credit that would give this movie the ranking of perfect in my eyes. There were a few moments (but really, very few) that dragged a little, where I found my attention drifting. (Though some of that may have been due to the distraction of the person next to me, see below.) The only other criticism I have though is that so very much of the book is left out… so many fabulous bits of humor that I think could have survived the cut. If they indeed filmed some of these segments, I am truly looking forward to a DVD release for the extras, or (dare I dream?) a director’s cut.

I honestly can’t imagine having not read the books - I have done so repeatedly through the years - but this is one case where I actually think someone who hasn’t read them could enjoy the movie just as much as those of us who could already quote lines without having seen it. (”Here I am, brain the size of a planet…”) I think they might not be able to fully appreciate the quirky qualities of Rockwell’s portrayal of the President of the Galaxy, and I will say there were several moments of hilarity sort of falling into the area of inside jokes that will swoop right over the non-book fans’ heads, which is a pity. But I’d still recommend it to just about anyone.

Just a friendly piece of advice: if you should find yourself in the theater to see this movie, hang around for the credits no matter how badly you have to pee. It’s worth it. Also, pay close attention to the planets that are shown at Magrathea.

Of course, this all means that I, she who actually abhors much of the general public, was forced to stand in line and watch a movie with a full house of actual people, many of whom were only there because it was a free screening. This was slightly torturous at times, especially since the lovely fellow next to me felt the need to exclaim, at every slight turn of plot or funny moment, “Nuh uh!” or “Naw!” quite loudly, sometimes while pointing at the screen. This was made more painful for me because Joe had pointed out his companion as being a movie critic for the Plain Dealer (the newspaper here in town, for those of you who have much better named newspapers). Really… you’d think a movie critic would have well trained movie-going friends.

The best people related moment of the night though was when the group behind us in line began wondering aloud why so many people had towels. (It did actually say on the pass “Don’t forget to bring your towel” - though I’d like to point out the fact that I was planning on doing that long before I saw these passes.) They discussed this amongst themselves for a few minutes, and of course, could not come up with any sort of reasonable explanation. So they asked the group of geeks standing next to us (who were also wearing their bathrobes) why they had towels. One of the boys perfectly deadpanned, “You should never go anywhere without your towel.” I remembered why I love geeks in that moment.

I am a girl with obsessions. My obsessions are varied; when I discover something new that I enjoy, I will devote a lot of energy to that something.

When I find a new musical artist that strikes me (or rediscover an old love), I am a girl on a mission. I must have every song they’ve ever recorded. I must know the band’s history, I must know the gossip, I must find out if they are touring. I will listen to that artist’s work repeatedly, and in some cases exclusively, for days on end.

A book that I really enjoy can set me on number of different paths. If it’s the writing style I enjoy, I will want to read everything that author has published and I will want to know details about that author. If it’s the story content that struck me, I will research that topic until I feel I’m well versed in it, if not an expert. There have been books that I’ve so obsessed over that I have read them more than once in a one week period.

A video game that captures my attention will lead to many late night marathon playing sessions, sometimes playing the game for 4 or more hours straight without even realizing it. I will glance at the clock, realize that I have to be up in 2 hours to go to work, and decide to just finish one more level.

A blog that I find entertaining will capture my attention and hold on for a while. I will peruse archives (sometimes actually reading all of the archives, depending on how old the blog is and how much it captures me) and I will subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up with it daily. A website that’s not a blog can sometimes grab me the same way and keep me interested for a long time.

A movie that speaks to my soul will send me straight to IMDB to find out every bit of information about it I can. I will follow links to the official website and research writers, directors, and actors involved in the picture. Much like the book related obsessions, the paths leading away from the movie can vary depending on what it was about the movie that struck me so mightily. I will seek out every film by that director that I can find, pursue the writer’s other works, or I will devote energy to seeing other movies that the actor was in.

A food or dish that I find tasty will be a mainstay of my menu for a period of time. I have been on a pickle kick lately (Vlasic Zesty Dill Stackers, to be specific), and I’ve made chicken noodle soup and a spinach ground beef casserole at least once a week for the past 5 or 6 weeks.

And just as a side note, I also have a tendency to believe that everyone around me should also be interested in the things I find so captivating, and thus I tend to proselytize a bit. I’m sure this is quite annoying to many of my friends.

The problem is that I only have so much spare time with which to explore or experience these loves, and so I find that one obsession will replace another, or the degree of obsession will wane over time. When I was younger, the obsessive phase would last much longer - months, even years - and many of the obsessions of my youth have remained in my permanent list of favorites. But as I age, I find something nearly every day that drives me to want to know more, find more, absorb more. In doing so, I tend to forget about something that I was obsessing over the day before.

In the past, I’ve thought this was somehow related to obsessive compulsive personality disorder, but I researched that a little this evening, and it seems to be that diagnosis would not be quite correct. I do know that this is not something that everyone experiences, at least not to the degree I do, and I seem to be in a minority group. But I also know that there are indeed others that share my affliction - and I tend to be attracted to these people, as sharing my obsessions brings me much joy.

So help me out here, what is this called? What are we called, the obsessed among the masses?

1. Consuming copious amounts of corned beef and cabbage will be followed at some point in the evening by a large dose of Tums (even if the main ingredient of Tums is sugar).

2. Trying to set up a new computer while in the throes of cabbage fueled gastric discomfort is not a pleasant thing to do.

3. While awaiting delivery of a new computer, gather together the software for the peripherals you already own. You will need it, dummy.

4. A Serial ATA hard drive may be better, but when the case is designed specifically for this newer technology, it’s next to impossible to install an IDE hard drive as a second drive. (More money will have to be spent to get my data. Whoopee.)

5. Think about little things like jumper settings before becoming exasperated and declaring “This sucks!” when trying to install a previously owned DVD burner in addition to the drive that came with the computer.

6. Getting a good deal from Dell is all about timing. (The exact same configuration of computer I ordered on Monday would now cost nearly $300 more than I paid.)

7. Despite a few setbacks and frustrating moments, having a new computer is exhilarating, at least for a geek like me.

8. You should not leave the same pair of earrings in your ears for 6 months without removing them periodically, even if you do clean around them well. You don’t even want to know what happens.

Katamari Damacy is crack. If you have considered playing this game, you should know this fact before you pick up the controller. I have to snicker every time the King of All Cosmos comes to take the Prince back to space via the Magic Rainbow. It’s just so… gay. I think this will be one of my favorite video games, if I can ever get a better score on the Make Ursa Major level. Damn bear carvings.

And I’ve been playing it a bit, because my computer went kaput. I press the power button, it clicks, but nothing else happens. Yes, I’ve checked everything multiple times. From what I understand, it could be the power supply, it could be the motherboard, or a combo of the two. It would cost more than the computer is worth to really find out and/or fix whatever issue it is, and for some reason the tower is made in a way that replacing the power supply or motherboard would involve welding. Genius designers. It’s hard to justify spending any money to fix the thing anyway, as it is over 3 years old and was far, far, far from top of the line when I got it. I think it cost something like $300 then. I suppose it’s good timing, as the income tax refunds are on the way, so I will be getting a new computer shortly. We really had that money earmarked for other expenses, and we have to just hope against hope that they keep extending the boyfriend’s temp job (they’ve kept it up so far) so that we won’t need that money to pay rent or something.

Because the checks aren’t here yet, we’re using credit to purchase it now and then pay it off as soon as the checks come in. Not my credit or his credit, because those are both shot all to hell at this point. It’s my mom’s credit. Bless her for being a wonderful mom; she understands that life without a computer is not something I can even fathom anymore.

So… woooo! I’m getting a new computer! I’m good at finding silver linings strewn about, and there’s the shiny little glimmer in this situation. It’s not top of the line, because even with income tax refunds that isn’t in the budget. But it’s way better than what I had before, so it’s good enough to be excited about.

As long as the hard drives on my dead computer are ok, that is. If I’ve lost everything on my computer… if all that has gone away… I shall collapse into a big ball of quivering flesh in the corner and cry for many days.

Though I didn’t get to hear Alan Rickman as Marvin in it (which is the only bit of casting that I’ve really been able to appreciate so far)… the new trailer for Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has me cheered up a bit. It’s really… not awful looking. It might just be… good. I’m trying really hard to be optimistic, but I don’t want to get my hopes up too high only to have them dashed to bits, you know?

Now I have to resist the urge to read the book again (for what would be the 9^th or 10^th time). Invariably, if I read a book too near the time I see the movie adaptation of said book, all I can do when watching the movie is compare the two. I don’t really want to do this for Hitchhiker’s. It’s been a couple of years since the last time I read the trilogy and beyond, so my lack of memory skills should keep the comparison issue from arising.

I’m not sure I will be able to resist the urge to completely geek out and attend a showing with towel in hand though.

*Updated 2-18 to change the link to a spot where they actually have the trailer now since Amazon moved it away.

I can no longer hide in the closet. I have to be honest to my friends, my family, my readers. I am a fan of the new Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, ok, so more than a few of you already know this because I can’t keep a secret (at least not about myself)… even when it is somewhat embarrassing. (Which would also be why more than a few of my boys know more than they’ve ever really wanted to know about women’s bodies…) Those of you who feel you are above babbling on about silly TV shows, stick with me here anyway. Let me explain.

I am addicted. I make sure I am free on Friday nights at 10. I camp out on the couch, all other obligations aside, to bask in the beauty that is this show. It’s my boyfriend’s fault. He’s a SciFi geek… both the genre and the channel. Friday night has been dubbed “Must Geek TV” in our household, thanks to the Friday lineup on the SciFi channel - Andromeda (starring Kevin Sorbo, need I say more?), Stargate SG-1 (yawn), Stargate Atlantis (almost interesting, but not quite), and then… the holy of holies, Battlestar Galactica. The BF can’t miss a single one of these - not even a minute. I have no interest in the others, but BG has me completely hooked. Line and sinker.

I never watched the original. In fact, until today, I couldn’t say that I’d ever seen a single one. I’ve never been a big fan of SciFi anyway, even as a kid, and the few moments I’d caught of it before just seemed too unbearably cheesy to take. Probably because it was unbearably cheesy. This afternoon, while reveling in the joy of having the apartment to myself, I curled up with my cat and watched an episode of the old one. The plot of this episode went like this: some really cool Count dude they’ve picked up does neat things, and all the people adore him - except for the heroes Commander Adama and Captain Apollo, who share a sneaking suspicion that there’s something a little off about the Count. Then it turns out he might not be so good after all, but only the heroes can see this… until he tries to kill someone. All standard fare really for a SciFi show, and nothing that strange about the basic story.
(more…)

I honestly can’t believe people fall for the phishing scams that go around these days anyway, but it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

The moral? Just don’t ever click on a link in your email ever again. Copy & paste baby, copy & paste.

Quick update, based on Boing Boing’s update:
If you use Firefox (which of course I recommend anyway) you can fix this… check the link above to see how.

I’ve been playing with MusicPlasma for the last half hour or so and I’ve found about 3 or 4 artists I’ve never heard of to try. (An artist I’ve NEVER heard of is relatively hard to come by, at least in the rock world.) It’s also just kind of fun to see the connections that are made, though it seems a bit of a stretch to me to think that there are that many people out there who would find Lynyrd Skynyrd because of Depeche Mode. It only took one click to connect Elliott Smith to Cher, as well as one click to connect Huey Lewis & The News to Nine Inch Nails. Granted, I *do* actually like both of the last two, so I guess the mapping isn’t too far off. (Yes, I like Huey Lewis & The News. You know you do too, so shut up.)

In digging around some, I found that this is built on Amazon’s database of “people who bought X also bought Y”, which leads me to believe that maybe, just maybe, the general public is a little more diverse in its musical taste than I sometimes give it credit for. Hope for humanity?

(I also found that MusicPlasma has been around for over a year… where have I been?)

(link via GeekyKewl)

This appeals to the geek in me, as well as the girl who likes to wax nostalgic. Though I am not truly a member of the Cult Of Mac (I’m writing this from a PC), I am an admirer. Plus, this is just kind of cool, you know?

The unveiling of the very first Macintosh.

(you’re gonna need Quicktime, link found via MilkandCookies)