musings of a neurotic mind

welcome to the beautiful world of digital satellite television. before i sold my satellite receiver pci card on ebay a year ago, i recall receiving appr. 300 channels. well, that number has almost multiplied within one year, because now we are holding at 540 channels! that is almost too much, i hardly manage to watch a handful of channels, usually channel-surfing between the various music channels to avoid the commericals. the most useless channels i have discovered so far: Bahn TV (apparently about trains), Bibel TV and the GOD channel (the name says all) and the Spielekanal (airs presumably an interactive gameshows). i think these are yet other reasons not to watch television…

have i already mentioned that matrix reloaded sucks? i consider revolutions a bit better than reloaded, but still… the sequels suck big time. this is only a cash thing: just take enter the matrix, the animatrix and now the matrix online… yeah, keep the money coming in. intertextuality is great provided it is used in a constructive and fruitful way and not just for the sake of making profit. maybe i am that cynical because i am disappointed how the trilogy ends. so what is next? matrix recycled? how about that?

after watching Equilibrium a few times this week i cannot help myself: there are several scenes that are undoubtely inspired by Matrix. not that this is necessarily bad, but i find that, well, surprising i guess. the most obvious example is a duplicate of the famous “hall fighting” scene from Matrix (yes, the first part). see for yourself:

“people who aren’t watching Alias are fools”, says a guy on a radio interview with Victor Garber. it is really great that they have included some really fun stuff as bonus on the boxset of season two. well, i am happy that my copy arrived today along with the season season of Frasier. so, a lot of stuff to watch and so little time - as always. btw. Lacan and Zizek are going to make my head explode or crack or something. that stuff is giving me a serious headache. i really thought that i would be way easier to merge the theory with practical examples from the selected films.

the net has changed considerably. i have been online since 1996 and back then you were quite happy if you got one e-mail per day - now i get up to 250 spam e-mails daily. call it nostalgia or plain romantic but times where way different then. this article reminded me how life online was like back then… and yeah, i actually “played with the big boys” with my 28.8 modem.
np: The Calling - Our Lives

a good friend of mine told me today that he finally got the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD. i am thinking of getting the TNG box sets as well, but they are still quite expensive and so i’ll wait for yet another special offer. this conversation reminded me that i haven’t been watching Star Trek for ages. as a result, i just finished watching Star Trek VII: Generations. i must have watched this movie for at least 10 times or more and i know almost every dialogue by heart. and still, i never get tired or bored of it. however, my favorite Star Trek film is Star Trek VIII: First Contact.

finally i managed to watch the highly-acclaimed film Fight Club. i am surprised how weird and innovative this movie actually is. it is one of those “hate it or love it” type of films. i need to re-watch it several times to get all those small notions and stuff.
np: The Pixies - Where Is My Mind?

according to Our Lady Peace, happiness is not a fish that you can catch. Aristotle offers quite a different definition of happiness: the exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope. that is an intriguing statement i have to contemplate…

It was the year of fire, the year of destruction, the year we took back what was ours. It was the year of rebirth, the year of great sadness, the year of pain, and the year of joy. It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed. The year is 2261. The place: Babylon 5.

somehow i feel closely connected to the intro of season 4 of Babylon 5. maybe 2004 is the year of fire and the year everything changed for me as well.