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Oscar nominations are up.

Immediate thoughts: I’m glad Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon cleaned up, but Wonder Boys got shafted big time. Damn. I love me some Tobey Maguire. I’m suffering from a case of severe Kate Hudson Backlash and I haven’t even seen the damn movie yet. She’s on the cover of every bloody magazine in London! Gladiator has got to be the most overrated film since Titanic. Yes, Russell Crowe was hot. But his swordplay didn’t even come close to Ewan McGregor’s in The Phantom Menace (which shall be my all-time standard for such things). And it even recycled the “revenge-your-dead-soulmate-while-still-hooking-up-with-the-royal-hottie” plotline that I loathed so much from Braveheart! I tried to watch Erin Brockovich on an airplane and it was just too damn boring. Yes, that’s right, I’d rather read the in-flight magazine for the 3rd time than watch plucky lawyer Julia jiggle her breasts for two hours. She can sport all the lower-class SlutWear in the world and carry three brats on each hip, and little ol’ non-celebrity me still ain’t gonna identify with her. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far. And what’s up with Soderbergh‘s double-nod? I guess Hollywood just loves to congratulate the sell-out. (Note to Steve: Re-watch sex lies and videotape, write something along those lines, and give James Spader a call. Please. Love, Kris)

Whew! I feel better now that I’ve got that off my chest. Now I’m off to Plastic to reproduce my rant on the inevitable post there. What fun!

Wow! I just got spam a helpful reminder from Amazon.com. They write:

Your birthday is right around the corner--March 15, to be exact.
What better reason to update your Wish List?

Thanks for the tip, Jeff.

I’ve been wanting to get a digital camera for a while now… and articles like this make me think I definitely should. My sister used to work in photo-processing and — while she herself only handled the film canisters and not the prints — she would occasionally tell me about pictures that her boyfriend (who did work with the prints) had seen. *shudder* Not that I’m takin’ nekkid pictures or anything, but the idea of skeevy high schoolers looking at my stuff creeps me out.

I’ve seen this link to “Things my girlfriend and I have argued about” before and simply skipped over it, thinking that it was probably non-funny crap. But today, on a whim, I clicked. And oh Lordy, is it ever hilarious. Seriously.

Some chick at my university tried to defend Indiana in the campus newspaper. (Most of the student body come from elsewhere and slagging off the Hoosier State is a popular pasttime.) As a Hoosier myself, I defend Indiana all the time. I disagree with her on two points though: A) Corn rocks, and B) Most people from Indiana do not have street smarts (with the notable exception of those unfortunate enough to grow up in Gary or Indianapolis). That’s not to say we can’t ever acquire them, but growing up outside of big cities pretty much limits your opportunities to cultivate them at a young age. Heck, my town only had one stoplight. I understand the writer’s frustration, but even I admit that northern Indiana isn’t exactly the cultural center of the world (which is why I’m outta there).

Some chick tried to defend Indiana in the Observer. As a Hoosier myself, I defend Indiana all the time. I disagree with her on two points though: A) Corn rocks, and B) Most Hoosiers do not have street smarts. That’s not to say we can’t ever acquire them, but growing up outside of big cities pretty much limits your opportunities to cultivate them while growing up. Heck, my town only had one stoplight. But just because we’re rural doesn’t mean we’re stupid.

Hey! Check it out! Tambre Paster, a junior aerospace engineer and fellow Weasel, just became the first African-American drum major in University history! (Hey, Liz, she was in your section, wasn’t she?) CONGRATULATIONS, TAMBRE!

There apparently was a power blackout on South Quad last Friday night. Unlike the one that affected most of campus my senior year, the students did not run around starting fires and demolishing furniture. Damn. Those were the good ol’ days.

I’m deeply skeptical about Bush’s plan to fund “faith-based intiatives,” but this article linking it to Notre Dame’s ACE Program made me pause. I mean, I have friends who’re doing this Program (it sends graduates to teach in under-resourced Catholic schools) and I definitely think that the work they do is a good thing. If Bush could guarantee that there wouldn’t be any sort of bias in giving out the money… But I really don’t think that’s possible, do you? Do you really believe that if, say, a Wiccan group was running such a similar Program, that their chance of getting funding would be anywhere near the same as a Catholic group? No way, José.

Salon’s running an interesting story on those Y2K “wack-jobs.” (Seriously, the author actually calls them that. Ha!) I hate those people. They remind me of when I used to work in a grocery store in my small town, and every time the weatherman predicted a storm we’d get a rush of old people buying jugs of water and flashlights. I’d stand there at the cash register, all of sixteen-years-old, thinking, “Wolcottville, Indiana is the last place anything remotely interesting would happen, let alone something environmentally catastrophic.” I really think there’s a deep human desire to hole up in a bunker for some reason. Either that or my natural optimism is once again setting me apart from the hordes of paranoid wack-jobs around me.