As part of this intensive cleaning process (which I’m getting through only by thinking about how much easier it will make it to move in the fall), I purchased a paper shredder at Staples since most of my waste is paper which I hold onto because it’s related to taxes or expenses of one kind or another, or because I don’t want to throw it out since it contains sensitive information. In the colder months, I use my family’s fireplace since we always need paper for kindling anyway, but it’s too hot to use the fireplace and I seriously doubt any apartments in my price range will have fireplaces of their own. Now, I have a large trash bag filled with shredded paper bits for recycling. It looks pretty cool:

I’ve also got a big bag of clothing to donate to Goodwill, as well as a large box of books, CDs and DVDs. They opened the first Goodwill store in my county of NJ late last year - if you want to find one near you, there is a locator on the site.

One other thing that’s proved invaluable throughout the cleaning process has been Netflix Instant Viewing. I’ve got “Camelot” going… because musicals are so terrifically inane and unrealistic and they remove me from my situation.

This next one has a very “Eye of Sauron” kind of vibe going for it:

The one below reminds me of dandelion fluff:

And here’s what the camera caught as a firetruck raced by during the fireworks:

Just do that for yourself. It’s as good as “they” say it is. It’s as good as I say it is. I laughed and my friend was laughing so hard she snorted. I didn’t notice if she was crying, but I was damn close - and THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN. TO ME!

It is, as the title of this post states, a charming dystopian vision. I’m not going to tell you anything you wouldn’t learn from a preview or a non-spoiler review - but it’s quite stunning and has been called “subversive.” I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I suppose if your political leanings are along the conservative pillar, you might.

Picture it: the future. The planet Earth is one big garbage dump - literally. Our rampant consumerism has taken us to a point where we can’t handle our own garbage anymore, so we just up and leave the Earth and decide to come back once the robots have cleaned up. Here’s where we meet Wall-E - Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class. He’s one of the robots left behind to clean up the mess; actually, he’s the last robot left to clean up the mess. The others have run down and he’s working the place alone, save for his pet cockroach-type insect. He’s fascinated by our detritus; watching this little robot investigate our trash with child-like glee (yes, even for a computer-animated robot - he’s quite expressive) cemented a smile on every face in the theatre.

Anyway - he’s going about his business, doing his job, when a spaceship lands near where he’s working. It leaves behind a shiny new robot (who was designed/conceptualized by a designer for Apple - there are many Apple connections and references throughout) named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). Wall-E is enamored of her instantly - but she’s all business and on a mission. From there on, it sort of becomes your traditional “robot meets robot, robot falls in love with robot, robot loses robot, robot must save robot” story.

What kills me is how expressive the animation team was able to make these robots through (not despite) their limited vocabularies/speech (the entire movie is very light on dialogue and EVE’s entire vocabulary, for example, consists of only four words) and through their eyes since they have no other facial features - mouths, ears, noses… it’s all about the eyes. And I’m a sucker for that anyway, so I was basically conquered when I saw the trailer months ago.

Sometimes, working within constraints and limitations (whether actual, artificial or self-imposed) leads to incredibly good results.

Anyway - yes. The love story is sweet. The hero story is noble. The social commentary is wicked. When the people of the future resemble the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man more than actual human beings and the world of the future resembles what Mike Judge presented in Idiocracy, something is being said.

Next up: might see “Mongol” tomorrow… and will definitely be ponying up the extra cash to see “The Dark Knight” in IMAX two weekends from now.

Driving to the movies tonight, I spent a good 20 minutes driving in a sunshower… it was hot, the A/C was cranked, the sun visor was down because I was being blinded, and the windshield wipers were at the medium speed setting because it was a goodly amount of precipitation. I tried to see if I was on the leading edge of a storm cloud because all I could espy ahead of me and around me were fluffy clouds with sunlight streaming through them.

In the end, I thought to myself, “The rain must be coming from the next cloud over. The one I can’t see.”

I realize this is usually the case.

Today, I took down all the craziness I used to have hanging above my desk at work and replaced it with the four photos and a postcard of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh botanical illustration which had been hanging there, but was surrounded by xkcd comics, book covers, and pictures of animals from CuteOverload.

I like that I will have my own photographs hanging at my desk; granted, they’re not framed or anything, but they’re lovely all the same and I’m proud of them.

There’s other excitement happening tomorrow at my desk. It will be a good day.

(Also, to bring me back from emotional wreckitude from “Away from Her”, I’m now watching Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in “His Girl Friday”. It’ll cure what ails ya.)

It’s quite lovely, though — just incredibly sad and emotionally penetrating.

Julie Christie is such a beautiful woman… she was lovely back in 1966 in “Fahrenheit 451″, and she’s equally lovely now. But I guess it’s a lot easier to remain good-looking after 40 years when you’re stunning to begin with. May we all be so lucky…

I am far too tired right now to do much writing, but I must note that I’m pretty jazzed about two of the roller coasters we went on today - Kindga Ka and El Toro.

With Kingda Ka, it’s all about the bragging rights; it’s the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. It gets up to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds (via a hydraulic launching mechanism - fancy, and has to be sprayed with water after every launch since it gets ridiculously hot - or so people were saying). The main tower the coaster climbs after the launch is 456 feet high. Then we all dropped 418 feet straight down. Allow me to provide a visual representation:

What was especially nice was that we did this first thing in the morning when we got there, at about 11 a.m. Hence, the wait time was about 25 minutes. This was pretty terrific since it was up to 2 hours by the time we got off the ride. It was thrilling and exciting. Honestly, I didn’t feel very connected to my body at all through the whole ride. I had the distinct feeling that I was looking out through someone else’s eyes, though that impression passed rather quickly once we got to the little hill post-418′ drop.

And #2, El Toro. It also comes with some bragging rights, and I think my sister said it best, “El Toro wins today.” It has the second steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world (76 degrees). It’s third tallest (188 ft) and third fastest (70 mph) in terms of wooden roller coasters around the world. The first drop is 176 feet down, followed by hills measuring 112 feet, 100 feet, and 84 feet. While this may not sound like much compared to the 418 feet of Kingda Ka, El Toro was actually a much more frightening/exhilarating experience.

Just by way of comparison, when we got off Kingda Ka, we didn’t really have any problems walking a straight line. It was intense, but there weren’t many lasting effects. After riding El Toro, we all felt a little drunk, had trouble walking straight and had some mild headache action.

But we had funnel cake and corn dogs (healthy theme park fare) and lots of overpriced lemonade, so it turned out OK. It doesn’t look or feel like I burned (I applied sunscreen a few times) but I’ll be certain tomorrow. I can’t feel much right now… just the Tired.

On the left, the original untouched photo. On the right, the same photo with some increased saturation and a fun multi-layer effect consisting of Gaussian blur on one layer, the “multiply” effect applied to the other layer and the brightness increased on the total package.

Eez very different, no? It gives it a surreal effect I enjoy. Maybe I’ll get craziness printed up and framed. Hrm.

Also - in the category of f’ed up things parents can say to their fully grown children, the following is a portion of a phone conversation I had with my father last night while I was on the train back from work. Said he:

“How much are you earning now? I’d like to be able to brag to everyone about how much money my daughter is making. The more you make, the prouder I can be.”

I wish I was kidding. This is quoted verbatim; uncharacteristically, he spoke this entire bit in English instead of Polish. There was no humor behind it (he doesn’t joke about salaries); he was quite earnest about making this a compliment for me. It backfired; I was dumbstruck and just said I’d talk to him later.

And there will be a large bruise on my shin tomorrow, surrounding the split in my skin where my leg smashed into an arete (outside corner).

But, on a positive note, no new blisters since my hands have somewhat re-established their protective roughness.

Man, could I go for some chicken McNuggets right now. Too bad. I’ll have a cool, refreshing glass of water instead.

Still, I got home, ate some soup, took some photos, refilled the windshield washer fluid receptacle under my car’s hood and debated installing new wipers (but then read the instructions. Not tonight. These yotches are silicone ones from PIAA and they require some prep work. This is a project for another night.)

And now, le foto.

And below, a close-up from the first photo and a reason I love my camera. This is without a macro lens and it’s not the sharpest ever (a lens would help), but you can see the fine “hairs” around the edges of a CLOVER.

Hungry insects make quick work of leaves.

More on this last photo tomorrow…

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