--------------------------------------Spoiler Free---------------------------------------------------------
I’ve never been the first to stand up and defend batman. While I’ve always found the caped crusader intriguing and entertaining (I watched Batman Begins and Batman: The Animated Series non-stop as a kid) I’ve never considered him “super-hero material”. I’ve been a loyal Spiderman follower as long as I can remember (I still think Spiderman: The Animated Series was a much better show). And the shock and awe campaign I’ve lead against batman countless times is that he is not super! he has no powers. Trevor will tell you I’ve said it a million times. Batman is a poster boy for the you-can-do-anything-you-set-your-mind-to-as-long-as-you-have-unlimited-time-and-resources movement. Here’s my apology: I’m sorry Batman.

The Dark Knight (TDK) was a fantastic movie, not a perfect movie, for there are but a scarce few of those (cough Casa Blanca cough), but it stands head and shoulders above any super-hero movie I’ve seen. The one thing about this film that makes it stand out is the same thing that prevents it from being perfect, that is, The Joker.

I’ve not heard a single complaint about The Joker since the film’s premier. My Dad, who doesn’t even like movies, was howling blissfully for more scenes with the clown-faced foe. To say that the Joker was the performance of Heath Ledger’s life is no understatement. This would be true if Heath were alive today! The Joker was perfect. his lines were flawlessly delivered. His mannerisms were precisely blurred. And what I absolutely loved is that his character underwent next to no development (which was a refreshing side of a film which has a lot of its greatness caught up in the increasing complexity and development of its characters). Almost every seemingly “developed” attribute of The Joker were simply deeper glimpses into the depths of his depravity. From the moment he nods “yes” to the question “He’s out (of bullets) right?”, (after which his accomplice is, rather hilariously, shot in the shoulder), to his interrogation, and on to the end of the film, every last scene is glorious. For me, there will never be another Joker.

Unfortunately TDK isn’t a good enough movie to contain Joker. The plot was good and strong, not unlike many of the other Marvel/DC films we’ve seen over the last 5 years or so (Spiderman 2 a former jewel in the industry’s crown) (and for politeness we won’t mention Ghost Rider, Punisher, or Spiderman 3, the movie that destroyed my faith in the industry). In fact, I would go so far as to say that the film stands among the greats in super-hero history. BUT, the Joker out-shined the rest of the film. He was perfect in a film that was only excellent.


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For me, what made the Joker so good was the innocence with which he commits his violence. The audience knows exactly what this looks like after Joker makes the pen “disappear” into the eye of one of Gamble’s henchmen. the skill with which these writers have been able to make us laugh and at the same time feel guilty for laughing is genius. Don’t mistake me though. This isn’t the Tim Burton-esque i-don’t-know-weather-that’s-funny-or-sad emotion. This is the audience genuinely being amused by irony and surprise. But what’s ironic and surprising is the death and suffering. It’s at the point in the same scene when Joker has his thumb on the pin to several explosives in his coat that the innocence I mentioned is revealed. Gamble stands up and yells “You think you can just come in here, steal our money, and walk away?”. The intonation with which the Joker responds “yeah.” is not sarcastic, inflammatory, or mocking. It’s not as if he’s saying to Gamble, “Yes, Gamble you buffoon, don’t you see that i’m holding bombs right now. i’m in charge and i’m stealing your money.” Rather, it’s as if Gamble asked you, “you think you can just pay the bill on-time?” or “You think you can just take a good grade that you earned?” to which you responded “yeah.” Joker is not your typical villain. He’s not your Two Face (more on him in a bit) or your Riddler, or your mugger in a back alley of Gotham. He’s the innocent criminal. The depths of his depravity have brought him full circle to sanity. Except now he sees morals as inverted colours.

I know I said that the Joker undergoes almost no change, but there are two things about the Joker that signal small changes in him.

1) when we meet Joker his plan is to simply “kill the Batman.” As the movie evolved, his motive changed. He fought against batman not because he needed batman out of the way, but because Batman has become what he intended himself to be: a symbol (this is a running theme in the film though they change the word ‘symbol’ into ‘hero’). But Joker too is an idealist, a symbol. These two men are tools of much larger abstract forces in the DC universe. Joker remarks so appropriately and mystically as he’s hanging from the top of a Gotham skyscraper, “I think you and I are destined to do this forever, Batman”. I think this change in Joker is really more of a change in direction not a change in his character. 2) The 2 second spot after the Joker was broken out of jail. with the dark blues of Gotham muting his red lips, white skin, and green hair, a look of transcendence washes over his face. it’s as if he’s regressed from his state-beyond-sanity back into the dark realm of depravity for just a moment. He is human again if only for one sick and twisted fraction of a car ride before returning again to the tranquil meadows of bloodthirsty violence. dj_jonny_flash has a different interpretation as to what this moment in the movie means and I think it’s quite good.

yeesh . . . there’s a lot to say about this movie . . . go get a drink of water your brain is thirsty.

The film’s weakest points are Two Face (TF) and the whole sonar telephone thing. Now, I say that TF is one of the two weakest points but he’s really not that weak. I felt like the only thing in this movie that was rushed was him. He crumbled from the heights idealism to shooting old mobsters in bars? I didn’t feel like his descent was as believable. Look, we’ve all been angry at the world. we’ve all wanted other people to hurt and sometimes it’s because of a losing a loved one (will the real hypocrite -me- please stand up). But most of us, especially American public servants, don’t typically hold little boys hostage. Then all of the sudden TF is fixated on his coin. It was basically a gimmick in the rest of the movie but now it’s deciding life or death? sarah_chantal’s thought was maybe TF’s quick decay was a flipping coin metaphor. He changed so quickly it was like we flipped a coin. that’s about the only reasonable interpretation that i’ve heard and I could live with it I guess. I would rather have seen TF not appear until the end and leave the movie open for him to reappear instead of telling his whole story in 30 minutes. TF’s special affects look great! Harvey Dent is mostly a believable character. I thought that “the night is darkest before the dawn” speech as well as the “ . . . live long enough to see yourself become the villain” line were both a little contrived. Can you even see Barack Obama saying stuff like (for as much as his rhetoric is criticized). But other than those minor discrepancies Aaron Eckhart was pretty good, and I liked him a lot. If Spiderman 3 taught us anything its that too many super villains make a film feel rushed. The Joker could have stood alone

The cut to CG animation joker hunting was a little over the top for my taste. it’s was cool that they used it once for the Chinese guy but “every cell phone in Gotham”? no way. the white eyed batman was kinda cool, but I would have made that sacrifice for them to put together a different way of mapping the building or even changing that section of the movie. The film was already great. it didn’t need stupid little stuff to distract from the artistic nuances of the whole.

I thought the symbolism of the Wayne Enterprises building (the one black building amongst Gotham’s white skyscrapers) was really cool. The muted tones of the film set the mood very well. the brightest scenes were indoors. Gotham scenes were mostly covered in fog, or night time.

dj_jonny_flash writes a fair amount about Batman as a Christ-figure. Christ-figures are notions that I’m usually against interpreting into films but I think it’s inescapable in this movie. So i won’t go into it. I’ll just let you read his blog.

That’s about all I can think of/want to say for this movie. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5. Go see it! . . . now go see it again!

Nicole and I saw Speed Racer for the third time on Sunday. That movie just keeps getting better and better. I can't say enough good things about it.

Don & I recorded a new podcast episode today, 'covering' a unusual film for our podcast, but one that I think a lot of Christian audiences should see and would probably enjoy. We ended with a 10 minute discussion on The Dark Knight that covered much of what I wrote about on Sunday night. Don encouraged me to write about it in more detail for publication, and I might. Speed Racer and The Dark Knight are two light and dark halves of the great film coin of this year so far. It all seems downhill from here. There's not much hope that Star Wars will be anything more than just dumb action fun, and after that I can't even think of anything I'm really looking forward to. We'll see. From here on out it is uncharted, unexpected territory. Let's hope for a surprise.

I took Nicole for a bike ride today, and she really hated it. Granted it was hot, but I really thought that she could enjoy just a quiet ride. I guess I still don't know her as well as I thought. Lots to still learn in this relationship. That's good.

For Torrey (the honors program I'm in at Biola), I had to buy this book called Writing Well, which is kind of like the MLA Handbook, but I find it more interesting. I have to complete all sorts of exercises before my first session (Torrey-speak for "class"), and yes, I'm actually kind of enjoying it (so far, at least). It is rather time-consuming, but I'm finding the reading to be interesting, informative, and sometimes witty. Take this passage, for instance, about using (or rather, avoiding the use of) "Fancy Verbs":

"Some verbs are too fancy for normal use. Writers use them when they think their prose ought to wear fancy clothes or when they do not fully trust what they are saying. Depict is usually inferior to paint or draw or describe. 'He depicted a scene of unparalleled magnitude.' Maybe that means 'he painted a big picture' or 'he told a good story' or half a dozen other things, but its real meaning is its would-be fanciness. Of course, depict is not the only culprit here - 'A scene of unparalleled magnitude' sounds like something W.C. Fields might conjure up in an inspired moment. Indeed, the whole sentence is busy admiring itself in the mirror."

I found that particularly enjoyable. I admit it, I am a nerd. Which is probably one of the reasons that I'm in Torrey.

I'm not tan.  I'm not a dancer.  I'm not outgoing.  I'm not an amazing pianist.
I need to wear glasses, and sunscreen.  My eyes are sensitive, so I can't wear contact lenses very often.
I'm not muscular.  I don't have abs.  My skin is not clear.  I get breakouts often.
I'm shy.  I don't like parts of my personality and parts of my body, and I'm self-conscious about both.
I'm not neat.  I'm not a fast reader.  I procrastinate. 
I do not have a heart-shaped face, or hair that falls perfectly. 
I'm always late.  I bite my nails. 
I'm not that girl with the pin straight hair, or that girl with the amazing voice. 
I'm not like that girl who's always cool and confident.
I'm not her, or her, or even her.
I'm me.
And I'm okay with that.

Sometimes, anyway.

thelifelist
A forum for exchanging lists of things you'd like to have done before you die.

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mourning_souls
A community for cemetery photographers, dark poets and anyone else who appreciates and admires the beauty of cemeteries.

So...The Dark Knight.

Short, spoiler-free version: awesome. Better than I had any hope it would be. It did have some pacing problems and some ridiculously bad gadgets, but it successfully brought the "freaks" into the hyper-realistic world that Nolan & Co. had created for Batman Begins. I want them to keep making these movies forever, until Christian Bale is old enough to star in The Dark Knight Returns(and maybe they'll go insane and do a movie version of The Dark Knight Strikes Again to really end the whole franchise on a nutjob note). Like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight mines the Batman comics for some of the ideas that work well, while leaving behind the often terrible stories from which those ideas originated. This is a movie for comic lovers that comic haters(and comic no-specific-harm wishes) will think is for them. But make no mistake, the more you love Batman, the more you'll love this movie.

( Spoilers for The Dark Knight )

I'm procrastinating on reading The Odyssey.  It's not exactly a requirement to have it done before I go to Biola, but it sure would be nice.  I'm freaking out because summer's almost over. 
We had a pretty good show today.  After Sunday matinees of The Crucible we have what's called "talk backs", where Matt, various cast members and anyone else who wants to get together and talk about the show, Arthur Miller, character analysis, themes, etc.  It's pretty cool.  I saw this couple that I'd seen before at church, married in the last couple of years, sitting near where I was sitting.  Last year at a Christmas thing at the church I sat near these two, and I was a little taken aback because the girl was practically sitting in the guy's lap, and she had her bluetooth in her ear.  At a Christmas service.  And again today, this girl seemed to be sitting in her hubby's lap.  I guess there's nothing wrong with it, it just seems a little . . . juvenile, I suppose. 

Nicole came out and joined me in Texas yesterday. I picked her up at the airport, and we spent the remainder of the day at 6 Flags Hurricane Harbor. The water park was great, but it had the over-crowding that usually ruins places like that. Standing in long lines is much harder when you are barefoot, shirtless and alternately wet and cold or dry and hot. We went on all of our rides together, and I never had the desire to leave Nicole and stand in the long line for the tallest and steepest slides. The worst(ie. scariest) that we did was something called a "mega-wedgie," not because you get a wedgie, but because it is literally shaped like a large wedge. It was the type of ride that you slide down one side of a steep bowl, up the other, then back and forth until you end. Pretty nice. Overall the park was great, but I just go so tired of standing in lines and my feet hurt by the end of the day. Happily, we were diligent enough with the sunscreen that the only real sunburns I got were on the tops of my feet, where I forgot to put anything for several hours.

We also saw The Dark Knight. I'll have thoughts on that later.

So, I was messing around with Audacity today for a top-secret project I'm working on. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was listening to old podcasts I did for The Trib.

I had no idea how much I would miss it. Podcasting is a blast when you have someone to bounce stuff off of. We're thinking of doing a podcast for the women's ministry at church, which will be awesome. I guess I just really miss doing radio stuff in general. Perhaps I'll start my own podcast one of these days.

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So, as I was typing this, my doorbell rang, followed by a series of knocks. I thought it was the kid next door, who always wants to know what I'm doing. It wasn't. It was a young guy named Brock who was trying to sell me on a new (different) security system for my home. I thanked him, rejected him and tried to send him on his way. So the guy turns to walk away, then asks if he can have a glass of water. I told him I'd bring him a bottle, because I wasn't comfortable having a stranger in my house while I'm by myself. So when I bring it back, he says, "While you were gone, I noticed that you are a Christian." He was pointing to my Bible study on the table by the door. "Yes, I said." He says: "This has nothing to do with security systems, but I'd like to share with you a special book." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ton of LDS literature. TWO sales pitches in one! Holy crap.

I've been working on and off on editing the photos from my friend's wedding.  I want to get them done and mailed to her soon, mostly because I don't want to end up taking forever and seeming like I have no motivation because I'm not getting paid for it.  I am very frustrated, though, because Gimpshop hasn't been working super well for me.  For one, it seems that when I open a photo in Gimp, any color editing I did with it on iPhoto seems a bit off, a bit less vibrant.  Tonight I accepted that, and admittedly it's not super noticeable and won't make a huge difference.  But Gimp has been doing this weird thing where it'll run for ten minutes or so and then freeze completely, I can't even quit it sometimes but instead I have to restart my computer entirely (which I'll have to do after I finish this blog).

All in all it's very annoying.  Anybody have suggestions?  Or a copy of Photoshop that I could bum off of them?

I played out over 3 hours of Civ 4 last night with David. My civilization was stagnated by a several hundred year long war with the Mongols, a war that I long suspected was provoked by David. He confirmed it when he mentioned that my culture was listed as disliking his for "bringing in an ally against me." That only shows up when you pay off another civilization to attack, so that sealed it. He told me today that he was also paying other civilizations not to aid me, and he was supplying Kahn with advanced troops whenever I started doing well in the war. David had the advantage of being more technologically advanced, as well as having no scruples about trading away technologies in order to provoke wars. My problem was that my civilization lacked access to horses, so until the development of automobiles I had no rapid moving units, so Kahn's horse-bound units could pillage my resources with impunity. We were also on a pangea map, so everyone was within relatively easy striking distance of one another. I hate pangea maps since they mean that warfare is almost constant.

It also didn't help that anytime I started having successfully campaigns David would bring in Kahn as my enemy, and then Kahn wouldn't make peace without exacting one of my border cities as a price.

It was fun, but I don't want to finish it as the long war has put David in at pretty much un-reachable advantage. Anyway, I have to go to bed early tonight to meet Nicole tomorrow morning.

I can't believe I watched this entire thing, just to see how bad it could get. It seems like they gave their ad guys a couple of old logos, some old sound clips, and said "it has to be the length of the theme song." Combine that with some motion graphics plug-ins, and you have this. It is horrible. But. But. If this game somehow contains any of the greatness of the original 3 Duke Nukem games for my DS, I'll probably still give them my money. I just want this as an unlockable extra so I can watch it forever.

So, first things first:
Katy Perry is the new Vanilla Ice.
I got totally tricked into listening (loudly) "I kissed a girl" because the first 5 seconds of the radio edit are "Rock N Roll Part 2."

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We, officially, are multi-console people.
Because Matt bought some blow-terrorists-to-bits war game that makes me sick (literally), I rented a few we could play together: Rayman and Don King's Prizefighter.
I had never seen Rayman, but Matt had mentioned it a couple of times. It's fun, and it helps me get used to the huge controller. I'm horrible, though, and Matt killed me at a slew of games with silly titles.
Prizefighter is hard and fun, and I get knocked out almost every time that I don't win by blows. I'd like to play the career mode. My thumbs are sore, and Matt's staying up til 1 a.m. enamored with his new prize.
Happy birthday, baby.
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We've seen a TON of movies lately (more to come this weekend!), but I still haven't gotten around to seeing "Wall-E."
Instead, we've seen a ton of opening-night blockbuster types: "Hancock," "Hellboy 2" and "Wanted." Oh, and we also saw "Speed Racer."
The real shame: I missed "Poultrygeist."

I've been thinking a lot about marriage lately.  I have a friend who just got married, and every time I think about her I think about the concept/purpose/societal view of marriage.  In recent conversations I've had with friends and family I've mentioned that there seems to be this trend of "we're in love but we're not getting married" idea going around.  I never read Cosmo, but at a friend's house for a sleepover I was flipping through an issue and there were several stories about summer romances, and one was called "The Summer I Chose Love Over Marriage."  The author, a man, told the tale of how he and his long-time girlfriend decided one summer that they were above the institution of marriage (not his words exactly, but that's the impression I get;  i.e. "we're dedicated to each other and, more importantly, to love, and marriage is just a nuisance and a distraction from what's really important: our love").  The author described his moment of epiphany, at a friend's wedding.  The exhausted groom turned to him and, nodding towards a drunk relative stumbling around the dance floor, said, "That's the problem with getting married.  You have to have a wedding."  And to make a short story shorter, the author and his girlfriend decided that they didn't want to get married.  Not that they didn't want to be with each other.  On the contrary, they found not-marriage to be much more . . . effortful, to make up a word.  That is, they felt that since they weren't married, it felt like they were still dating, and thus they made more of an effort to please each other, to keep each other happy, etc.  "We had sex because we wanted each other, not a baby," said the author. 

As I've been typing this my mind has been flickering back to Van and Davy.  Sometimes I talk about them as if they were old friends, because after reading A Sever Mercy, I almost feel like I know them.  Well, maybe not in the "old-friends" way, but in the way you feel close with C.S Lewis after reading something of his.  Heartbroken, hopeful, real . . . and very much in awe.  The way that makes you wish you were old friends with them, the way that makes you wish you could sit down by a crackling fire with a cup of tea and just talk.  That's how that A Severe Mercy makes me feel.  It's also the only book that's ever made me cry, so maybe that brings a feeling of particular closeness.  A chance stranger once told me that a Harry Potter book made her cry.  Harry Potter makes me cynical. 

But there I go, getting off topic again.  Where I meant to go with that was here:  thinking about the whole love-over-marriage idea reminded me of Van and Davy, how they got married merely as an act of finalization of their already deep, unbreakable vows.  I remember Vanauken saying something to the effect of how being married might come in handy in the event of an emergency.  It was more to humor the institution than anything else.  The fact that Van and Davy loved their love more than marriage, more than anything, even each other, if you think about it, makes the whole idea seem more appealing to me.  But I must remind myself that the Shining Barrier, that is, the great defence they created to protect their love, was raised in their pagan years.  They worshiped their love;  they were (eventually self-titled) pagans. 

And yet sometimes a little pagan somewhere inside me wishes that Hollywood and Cosmo were right.  Sometimes, however fleetingly and half-sincere, I wish that romance really was the be-all and end-all of life.  Or maybe I don't.  Maybe when I think about my friend who got married, it makes me remember how distant marriage seems to me.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is, sometimes, a lonely thing. 
But then I think, marriage is so huge, so life-changing, so monumental, and I am absolutely not ready (I know, stating the obvious here).  While sometimes I get a little love-lorn and girly, I can't imagine taking that kind of step in my life. 
I keep remembering how late it is, and I keep wondering if I should be writing at such an ungodly hour.  Feel free to disregard.

Account Structure Update
Back by popular demand, Basic Accounts will be available to all users again by the end of the (northern hemisphere) summer. More information on the decision-making process and proposals relating to the future of Basic Accounts are in lj_2008.

New Themes
Two attractive and all-new Flexible Squares themes, "Circular" and "Circular Brown" are now available.


L to R: Circular and Brown

New V-Gifts
Give someone you care about the gift of enticement. With the new Chocolate Ice Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream, Tea, Coffee, Curry and Sushi v-gifts, all the significant people in your life will be able to share in the longing for the tasty edibles below. Plus, it reminds loved ones you think they're really sweet, really savory or just plain satisfying.


L to R: Chocolate Ice Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream, Tea, Coffee, Curry and Sushi

Ж-Men...but not the ones you might expect!
This week LJ Russia launched Ж-Men, a new comedy series about superheroes, inspired by the LJ communities dedicated to superheros, comics and cartoons. The title's "Ж" comes from ЖЖ, the nickname for LiveJournal in Russia.

Ж-Men's script is written by a group of LJ enthusiasts who also happen to be television professionals. Who knew? Following the premiere, five more episodes will be broadcast over the next two weeks. We hope you find the series fresh and enjoyable.

This is, of course, an experiment for LiveJournal. As always, we'd love to hear what you think!

I went out to dinner with some of the guys in my class today, and I was really glad that I did. You see, this class is for mid-level supervisors in my military career field. Most of the people here have similar amounts of experience as me, in the 5-8 year range. Although most of them are active duty, I've already had one guy tell me that I've dispelled everything he's thought about National Guard people being lazy, part-time idiots, and all I did was keep my mouth from saying anything stupid and only talk when I actually knew something about what they were talking about.

I also like the maturity level of the people here. It might sound strange, but I'm so used to interacting with people who either are, or act like, they are in their early 20s. We went to dinner tonight and I opted out of a drink at dinner, and then I declined an invitation to the bar afterwards and everyone was just "ok, cool, see you tomorrow." Usually in military situations like this there would be lots of peer pressure and immature expectations of being a "party-person." It is refreshing.


In other news, Salon has a nice write-up of the final volume of Y: The Last Man. Even if they are about 7 years late to the game, they give it its due. Beware a major spoiler in the second page, although if you've read the comic you'll know that particular revelation is intended as an anti-climax, so maybe it doesn't even matter.

Also, any network people on my flist who know why I keep having to click the "renew DHCP lease" button in the network settings to make my internet work? I'm connected to a DSL router and I have to do that every 15 minutes.

I'm having a lot of trouble getting organized.  I guess it's always been a problem for me, but the pressure to get it together is building.  I have mail from Biola, Torrey, miscellaneous other schools, the bank (about my new checking account) coming in almost every day, and while I'm trying to keep it sorted, it still stresses me out.  My room is less than orderly, as well.  I purged it of a lot of trash and stuff recently, so I guess in some small degree it's better, but it's hardly noticeable.  The way it always happens is like this:  I'll put off cleaning until my room is a disaster, then I'll spend a couple of days cleaning everything up, and then slowly over the following days it deteriorates into the mess it was before.  When I shared a room with Rebekah, I would get annoyed at her for getting on my case to clean all of the time, but maybe I need someone on my case.  It's kind of depressing.  I'm hoping that when I move to Biola it will be sort of a fresh start.  I definitely won't take all of my belongings, mostly clothes, toiletries, books, and a few desk/room/laundry items.  I know I won't have as much closet or room space, but that actually sounds good for me.  My plan is to try and keep it simple.  For instance, I want to keep all of my makeup and toiletries in one zip-up bag, and I'll take only some of my favorite staple clothes. 

I got my class schedule from Biola today.  I don't think anything is set in stone, I myself have to get online and register starting August 5th, but the "suggested" schedule they gave me is this:  Physics in Everyday Life, Beginning Acting, Greek Thought and Old Testament Beginnings (the ladder two are Torrey classes, as you probably guessed).  I'm also supposed to be in a "welcome to college" seminar that varies on my major, which I need to call them about, because I told them I wanted to be in Communications + Speech/Drama, but they put me in the Undeclared seminar.  I need to call financial aid to see what the status is on my Stafford Loan, too. 

I've been relaxing for a few days because I finished the Iliad on Sunday, but I'm going to start up the Odyssey tonight.  Plus, Torrey sent me another book for my first mock session which I'm supposed to read/take insightful notes on.  It's really cheap-looking, though.  It resembles a paper-back pamphlet, and basically looks like they photocopied it a million times and stapled it into a "book".  Christian schools are so cheap.

All in all, after a couple of days of not worrying about school stuff, I'm back in that place where I can't really relax at all.  Even as I write this, everything that I have to do/buy/read/prepare/order/register for/call about/apply for/mail/organize/clean is racing around in the back of my mind.  I'm completely frightened and stressed and overwhelmed and worried and I don't know if I can handle all of the responsibility that I need to handle starting, well, I guess it's been starting ever since last August.  Is this how every college freshman feels?

bram452 has a very well thought out critique of Hellboy 2, which hits upon something that I couldn't quite put my finger on the other day. Why did the ending seem so insubstantial?