NDBT

I’ve been travelling around the world for more than 11 months now! Go me! (Also I got a compliment on my abilities as a photographer. Yes, it was from a friend, but I’m still thrilled. I think I’ve done a pretty good job.)
 

I got my power cord yesterday (yay!); 1 day after I ordered it. Got it home and found… it wasn’t the power cord – it was the socket the power cord plugs into. AWESOME. So now I get to take my laptop into a repair shop tomorrow. I did manage to get it to work for about 2 hours last night, by balancing it upright on the old power cord, until that finally snapped completely in half. *sigh*. I just want it to work. I’ve had it for 3 years, but I wasn’t using it for like 9 months of this last year. There is no reason for something as expensive as a laptop to stop working after 2 years and a few months.
 

I’m deathly scared that the repair guys won’t be able to do anything. Granted – it isn’t nearly as bad as getting something which infects your hard drive, but… God, I can’t need a new computer. I can’t afford it. Mac Books start at like $1100.  And I don’t even know what would be required to move all of my stuff from one laptop to another. Please dear god let my laptop live for a while longer.
 

I’m refusing to think about it. To more trivial matters;
 

Ok – So I’m probably seriously behind on this (I’m sure Cleolinda posted about it) but the guy who plays the handsome young Dunstan in Stardust is playing Prince Caspian in the next Narnia film.
 

Ewww… and the guy who played Septimus played the creepy guy in Sunshine. Speaking of which, I saw Sunshine a couple of nights ago (Yeah – its been a Danny Boyle/ Cillian Murphy couple of days. But I hadn’t been able to grab it at the video store till now and as you all know, I’ve been wanting to see it for ages and ages.) It also had Cliff Curtis in it (he was in Die Hard 4.0 as well – yay Kiwis!). I wish I had been able to see it on the big screen – the visual effects were amazing. I seem to remember the NY Times writing to say that light was practically its own character in the film, which I think is a very apt description. I’m sorry some of the interesting philosophical questions it raised got pushed aside for the mildly creepy bit, but overall I found it interesting and visually gorgeous.
 

The Septimus guy played Knightly, too. Poor English actors; they all have to do Jane Austen adaptations at some point to keep working.
 

The seven best westerns since Unforgiven. Yay Jesse James! (Yay also; Dead Man and the 3:10 to Yuma)

There’s an article on Ebert being the most powerful pundit, and it revisits the old “oh my god, college students get their news from the Daily Show theme. Here’s an excerpt about it; “Who else made the top ten? You’ll find Bill Maher and Bill O’Reilly there, but not Howard Stern or Jon Stewart — Forbes decided that Stern and Stewart, although they offer opinions, serve the primary purpose of entertaining. Forbes also finds it “troubling” how many young adults get their news from Stewart’s The Daily Show (what, but Fox counts as “news” in their book? Please.) Just because it’s entertaining doesn’t mean it’s not informative, Forbes — Stewart’s merciless cutting through the crap and political spin is what draws so many of the younger demographic to trust him over mainstream news media. You will find Fox’s Greta Von Susteren on the Forbes list, along with Rosie O’Donnell and Geraldo Rivera (!). Check out the full top ten in pictures or read the full story here.

It’s pretty darn impressive for two guys who write and talk about movies to hold two slots on the Top Ten Pundits list [Ed: Ebert and Maltin], especially at a time when critics are getting canned and consolidated by places like The Village Voice, and the field of film criticism is constantly questioned as to its relevance. The proliferation of individual bloggers writing their thoughts on movies may make it harder for readers to suss out whose opinions to listen to, but at least Ebert and Maltin are still up there.”
 

Do I get my news from the Daily Show? Hell yes. Some of it at least. And that’s because they do some really smart reports that aren’t on anywhere else. They have interns who sift through the c-span footage to find people saying scary shit. They juxtapose George Bush’s stance on war from when he was governor and when he was pretending to be president. They keep tabs on what the mainstream media is up to.
 

Pretty much everyone I know who watches the Daily Show also uses other sources for their news; NY Times, local papers or tv shows, bbc, non-profit groups. But you can get a pretty fair idea of political coverage just by watching the Daily Show. And they are certainly the only ones who can take today’s news and make it funny, rather than appalling.