In short: No, I did not abandon my site. You may all relax. All three of you, my regular visitors!

I just turned around and it’s April 16th already! So, what’s up, you may ask? Not much (as usual). I got sick and I was feeling crappy. My throat hurt and I sounded like a 60 year old guy on crack (not my usual high pitch voice- yes, in case you didn’t know, my voice is like that, well, not all the time, but I can reach some reeally high notes, especially when talking to hamsters or other animals. Yes, I talk to animals. And no, I don’t expect them to talk back, not in human language at least. Stream of consciousness paragraph ends… Now).

I am feeling better now, but I still need a few days to get into shape.

Now, about the news.

I got a new hamster. Yes, that’s right, I have a hamster again! I wanted to buy a male, because they tend to be tame and bite less than females, but I got a female instead! Her name is Polina (as you might guess, she was supposed to be Pol, read as Paul), and she is long haired Syrian. She doesn’t bite, but she is still a bit scared of me. Oh well. At least she lets me hold her a bit. I didn’t know females can be that visibly longaired!

Once again, I am sorry for not posting that long. I don’t like when I don’t update often. I do have some ideas for posts, mainly rants about crappy movies (when you’re ill you get to watch many of them), but I just didn’t have time (or energy) to update. Hope you understand!

PS- It’s nice to notice Jefflion is getting more hits, even if I don’t update. “More” means “around 15″, but I don’t complain!

Here’s what my stats have to say about searches:

Top Searches: eddie vedder, how to know if a guy is a virgin, mira buva, how to tell if a guy really lost his virginity, download mask paint shop pro.

So yeah, Eddie still rulez (apparently), even after he transformed himself into Dude Lebowski.

Please, tell me this is an early April Fools joke!

“Before “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” hits theaters on June 30, “Twilight” fans will be treated to a new glimpse into author Stephenie Meyer’s vampire universe.

On June 5, the 36-year-old multimillionaire author will release “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner,” a novella that takes place concurrently with the events in the third “Twilight” book, “Eclipse.”

Source: Stephenie Meyer’s New ‘Twilight’ Book

WTF?!?!

Shit! Fuck! Crap! Shit!

Ok, now let me rephrase that: What the fuck is this woman doing? Why don’t people stop her?!? This is insane. I mean: insane. There are so many talented writers who actually spend time researching, writing, trying to find a published, struggling, caring, trying to do their best (for example: me ), and this talentless… individual recycles her wet dream cash cow novel over and over and over again. And people are actually interested in this?

Please, tell me it’s an April Fools joke.

Related:
“Eclipse”: The logic behind a boring mess
“New Moon” movie: Not worth the LULZ
25 things I learned reading “Twilight”
… and other “Twilight” spittings.

In thinking about race in the ancient societies, one can go way too far. Suddenly, this issue seems like a very important one, due to several historical and political reasons.

When it comes to media representation, we all know Hollywood (and media in general) tend to influence people’s opinion. Speaking of which, a friend and I had an argument about whether Brad Pitt “looked like Ancient Greek” and if he was a right choice to play a Greek character. Race was also an issue there. It was very interesting to hear his opinion, so I’m asking for more.

What do you think, what kind of look (you can read that as “race”) is required to realistically portray an Ancient Greek character?

Our models are:

So, all things being equal (acting talent, paycheck, personal sympathies), who do you find the most appropriate to play an Ancient Greek?

We all have our ideas about ancient societies. What is yours? You may use any source to base your opinion (Greek pottery, written sources, what you learned in school, etc).

Note: This is not a trick question… more or less. So yes, I am asking for your opinion. (But I won’t deny I already have an answer and I think I am sure is the right one ).

In no particular order, really…

1. Action movies (and romance movies for that matter).
2. Political correctness.
3. Chick lit.
4. Certain words.
5. Money.
6. Shopping.
7. Cultural elitism.
8. Politicians.
9. Liam Gallagher’s voice.
10. Writer’s block.

Your turn.

This year’s Oscars were boring and predictable. Simple as that. Also, the ceremony looked less glamorous than usual. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I was definitely surprised to see that.

In fact, I am surprised to hear good TV ratings and overall satisfaction with the Oscars night (the show as well as the winners). People actually liked it! They think it was the best show in years. Definitely not the way I saw it.

The show didn’t look like Oscars

The show itself was… nothing special. Sure, there were stupid host jokes, pointless show songs and the red carpet madness- but for some reason, it all looked plainer, uglier and much less glamorous than usual. The whole place simply looked so… small. With less people. It looked like many nominees were also presenters. I don’t remember this from the previous years.

Once again, the lack of glamour is not what generally bothers me, but it simply didn’t look like Oscars. Did they have a small budget this year? Or was there another reason behind it? Not sure. In any case, it didn’t look and feel like Oscars night. Which basically means it didn’t look important. (Now when I think about it, it’s actually ok, because Oscars aren’t- or should not be- that important anyway. And given the fact all the snubs and the way winners are chosen, especially in the recent years, I don’t think Oscars mean anything anymore). Still, it is considered THE most important movie award, so I expected it to look more important. On the other hand, I guess everybody just wanted to get to the parties and didn’t care about the show itself that much. Except for the winners. Maybe.

Oh, an another thing. Young stars. Yes, they actually decided to include many young stars as presenters (because we all know Zak Efron’s “talent” will effectively prevent him from ever being nominated). I don’t get this. It did look and feel a bit like MTV awards, or even teen choice awards. Yes, I know they wanted young people to watch the Oscars, but this was a cheap and degrading strategy, if you ask me.

The changes

There were some changes in this year’s show, that obviously worked for many people, but not for me. 10 nominated movies, for example. I simply don’t see any point behind this decision. Ok, we all know they decided to do this because of last year’s “Dark Knight” snub. But frankly, does this system really change anything? SF, fantasy, comedies, adventures, animated movies are still not going to win. All they will get is a nomination. If it’s all about being nominated, then fine, I have nothing against more nominees. But I don’t think these “additional 5″ will ever have much chance of winning. After all, we all know what an Oscar bait movie looks like, and it’s rarely a comedy or a SF film.

Another change I dislike is a new system of voting. If I understood it correctly, from now on it’s possible a movie to win for a best picture even if nobody thought it was the best . I mean WTF?

And one more thing I hated and everybody else seem to like: the new way of presenting best actor and actress awards. The system of 5 colleagues on stage, talking about the nominees might seem like a good way to personalize the presentation. But in reality, it sucks. Way too many cheesy compliments, way too many pointless anecdotes. What’s wrong with the good old clips of the nominated roles? After all, that’s why these people are nominated, not because they had fun on set with a presenter 15 years ago. I must admit I miss the clips. At least we got to see clips for supporting actors and actresses.

The winners!

Finally, the most important thing. Or, is it? I must admit it was predictable and I don’t actually have anything important to say here. I did like the fact Jeff Bridges won, and I disliked the fact Sandra Bullock won. I liked “Avatar” not winning, but I hated “The Hurt Locker” winning. That might be a great movie (artistically), but I must admit I loathe the subject (and propaganda) behind it so I can’t be happy about it being voted the best movie of the year. I am glad “Up” won for the best animated movie. And that would be about all, really.

All in all, just like I said in the title: the whole show was boring and predictable. We didn’t get any surprises, and I fail to see how the changes make the ceremony better. Oh, and please, bring back the live performances of songs and clips of nominated actors, if nothing else.