Personally, I never understood Frodo's test in "The Fellowship of the Ring" where he offered the ring to potential allies. What if they had answered "thanks" and kept it??

Watched movie: "Låt den rätte komma in" (2008) a.k.a. "Let the Right One In" (2008)

Cute movie if you don't think about it for too long. :) In the back of my mind, I kept questioning whether this boy really belonged with a girl who could never age past 12. After all, in "Buffy" and "Underworld" I considered the human old enough to make a mature decision. I also considered the vampires in those two relationships somewhat more ethical in that to my recollection, they didn't kill humans for food. Perhaps "Let the Right One In" wanted to push the envelope. Admittedly, the movie's dark humor made me smile a lot...even during scenes that probably should have horrified me. :) Rating: 7

Attended concert: "OneRepublic"

A decent bay area concert where four bands (OneRepublic, Augustana, The Spill Canvas, and The Hush Sound) performed over 30 songs. Although I only recognized about one-fifth of the songs (including an interesting rendition of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy"), I certainly felt like I got my money's worth. Ryan Tedder's talent with the piano took me aback--he pounded those ivories like a man possessed. My only criticisms of the night: a) OneRepublic played "Stop and Stare" too loud for me (unlike their concert from "Smallville"), and b) I really hated Ryan Tedder's hat. My favorite moment of the night: when everyone in the auditorium hushed up so that Augustana could perform a purely acoustic version of "Clementine". Rating: 7

Watched movie: "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008)

Hip, emotional Danny Boyle flick about a gallant underdog's incredible streak on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (Hindi version) thanks to a lifetime of personal experiences. Oddly, every answer happened to trigger a different (and usually painful) memory for him--almost as if karma wanted to repay him for every tragedy that he endured. Props to Danny Boyle's directing and choice of music--particularly when it came to the chase sequences and the "Bollywood homage". Also, nice touch when one peeping eye swapped places with another (you'll probably have to see this shot yourself to understand what I mean). All in all, I would've rated the film higher had the climax delivered more of a payoff. Side note: How did Jamal get on the show (did he pass "Fastest Finger")? Also, I doubt that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? airs on TV live. :) Side note #2: If Danny Boyle depicted India's standard of living accurately, remind me not to visit there. :P Rating: 8

Attended concert: "Trans-Siberian Orchestra"

Less like an orchestra and more like a heavy metal band. At first, the concert made me drowsy with deep-voiced narrations, lounge singing, and sentimental Christmas jingles (my sister's family treated me so I didn't know what else to expect). Fortunately, the musicians really blew the roof off in the second half. As the electric guitars, pyrotechnics, lasers, strobe lights, and jet streams overstimulated my senses, the band belted out a relentless rock medley of classical numbers, holiday music, instrumental solos, and...the theme to Peanuts. Rating: 7

Funny story: while visiting my apartment, my sister asked if she could borrow a hand towel. A hand towel? I laughed. What is this, the Ritz?

I once came to the conclusion that those sign-holders (like the individuals advertising Circuit City's clearance sale) represent the worst job in America...even worse than sanitation or those other "dirty jobs that someone has to do". I can't imagine a more boring, unimportant job than sign-holding. :)

Watched On Demand movie: "Splinter" (2008)

Like John Carpenter's "The Thing" without the snow and paranoia. In my view, none of the characters deserved to survive. Their incessant carelessness frustrated me. Maybe it's just me, but my first reaction to a deadly organism would not be to close in on it for a better look. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" (2008)

Absurdly fun but terribly corny. I liked all the animal herds, the penguins, and the "playa" hippo. One unanswered question though: what do the lions in the animal reserve eat?? Rating: 6

Update 11/6/2008: Where'd all the newspapers go?

On another subject, I happened to watch a Million Dollar Mission on "Deal or No Deal" where the contestant successfully won one of the nine million dollar cases. I like these Million Dollar Missions because the game only holds my interest when the million dollar case stays in play. It entertains me when the contestant agonizes over the button as if it would trigger a nuclear strike. :)

On YouTube, I watched the first contestant to win the million dollar case. Her calm demeanor disappointed me. But I guess I can't judge because I'd probably react the same way. :) The thought of a million dollars just doesn't excite me.

Watched movie: "Max Payne" (2008)

More like Max "painful to watch". I can't decide what to blame most for this mess of a movie:

• The script. Who wrote this tripe?
• The cast. Bad enough that the film starred Mila Kunis--after Ludacris and Nelly Furtado attempted to act, I could no longer take the movie seriously.
• The directing. I never played "Max Payne", but I strongly suspect that the director modeled his pointless slow motion scenes after bullet time. Clearly, this director learned nothing from failed video game adaptations such as "House of the Dead" and "Doom".

Also found it pretty ridiculous that Max could outrun and shrug off automatic fire. I did find one saving grace in the film though: the whole segment where Max Payne "ate his spinach" and went berserk. Cool music during that segment. Side note: Stay after the credits so you can groan at the foreshadowing of a sequel. Rating: 4

Watched On Demand movie: "Peur(s) du Noir" (2007) a.k.a. "Fear(s) of the Dark" (2008)

A disappointing anthology of black-and-white animations that ranged from charcoal texture to computer-generated. The movie reminded me of an old MTV show called "Liquid TV" in three ways: a) the animations lacked plot; b) the animations lacked closure; and c) they saved the best animation for last, in my estimation (kind of like how "Liquid TV" used to save "Aeon Flux" for last). Side note: I kept smiling in the last segment because the main character eerily resembled a friend of mine. :) Rating: 4

Watched movie: "Changeling" (2008)

I don't get why Clint Eastwood started directing these melancholy dramas. How about another Western like "Unforgiven"? :) I've also seen much better work from J. Michael Straczynski, i.e., a TV series called "Babylon Five". For this film, they dramatized a real-life case--kind of like how "Law & Order" rips stories from the headlines. In most cases, I prefer documentaries to dramatizations because I just hate it when films turn sanctimonious. "Changeling", in particular, almost made me roll my eyes. Had Clint not appended that realistic touch where Christine Collins never received closure, I'm certain that my eyes would have rolled. :) Rating: 5

Say what you will about that movie "The Fountain", its musical score sure makes trailers sound exciting. First "I Am Legend", now..."Frost/Nixon"???

I'm still thankful that I rebalanced my 401(K) at the first sign of trouble this year. Even though I lost about a fourth of my savings, I probably could've fared much worse.

Recently, some low prices on Ticketmaster caught my eye. When it comes to concerts and musicals, I browse for seats away from the stage. I'll never forget what happened to me during that broadway show, "Chicago". :)

My schedule for the rest of the year:

• Friday, November 14: OneRepublic at the Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco
• Tuesday, December 2: Bryan Adams at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco
• Wednesday, December 3: The Phantom of the Opera at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco

I decided to watch "The Phantom of the Opera" again while I'm in the area. This time I reserved a premium seat (as opposed to New York, where I peered down from the mezzonine section).

Watched movie: "What Just Happened" (2008)

A movie business rendition of "Wag the Dog" that troubled me because it reminded me too much of real-life--specifically, the parts where De Niro (the Hollywood producer) had to dignify unprofessional behavior because his career depended on it. Personally, I hate entrusting my fate to other people. When the "Fiercely" director and Bruce Willis threw tantrums over a dog ending and a beard, respectively, I saw nothing amusing about it. I also didn't care for the sub-plots involving De Niro's teenage daughter and estranged wife. Maybe I just don't get this director's sense of humor. :) Rating: 5

Watched movie: "Rachel Getting Married" (2008)

A drama that bordered on "chick flick", but didn't quite get there because Anne Hathaway made me squirm so much. I guess her family's nervousness rubbed off on me. Part of me wants to reveal her "elephant in the room" because it defined the premise so meaningfully--but I'll refrain from spoiling it. Instead, I'll just ominously synopsize her character as a recovering addict who returns home on the eve of her sister's wedding a.k.a. the happiest day of her sister's life. Side note: this film extensively illustrated how women differ from men. :) Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Saw V" (2008)

Finally...a "Saw" movie that addressed my problems with the previous four films. Namely:

• The absurd notion that these booby traps "help" people. I actually found the Jigsaw killer's lesson profound this time around--like something from an Aesop fable. :)
• The booby traps' ridiculously perfect timing. This time the Jigsaw killer rigged the rooms so that the characters had to trigger the next trap or die--leaving a lot less to chance. In one flashback, Jigsaw even attributed his gift for foresight to an "understanding of the human mind". Do I consider the "Saw" movies any less contrived because of this? No. But at least "Saw V" made the most convincing effort to date.
• The authorities' worthlessness. "Saw V" finally featured a resourceful investigator...well--resourceful in lieu of all the useless cops who pursued Jigsaw. :)

"Saw" sequels sure focus on the details. "Saw V" flashed back to all four of the previous "Saw" movies whether the audience remembered them or not.

All in all, I'd consider "Saw V" one of the better "Saw" movies. I only left the theater with minor complaints:

• I hated Julie Benz's hairdo. I guess I'm used to seeing her as Darla.
• I wished that the FBI agent would stop talking to himself.
• The remaining survivors should have bled to death...unless their story's not over.
• Surprise endings in "Saw" movies feel so forced to me. Maybe it's time to stop coming up with them.

I still have open questions about "Saw" (what happened to Cary Elwes?), "Saw III" (what was the reason behind that trap for the little girl?), and "Saw IV" (why did Jigsaw leave Det. Hoffman that ominous message?)...but maybe "Saw VI" will answer them. :) Rating: 7

Whenever I think about the Buddhist philosophy about "Hell", I recall that story about a dinner table of starving people who could not feed themselves because their arms had turned into very long utensils (I guess they lived in the circle of Hell that punished selfishness). Interestingly, the dinner table in Heaven also featured people with very long utensils for arms--however, these people ate well because they used their utensils to feed each other.

I also gave in to curiosity and clicked through the EW countdown for Fine Finales: 20 Movie Endings We Love despite their spoiler alert. Looks like I only saw about half of the movies on their countdown. But based on the endings that they chose, I have no desire to see the rest of the endings. :) I dug their #15 and #17 at least.

I decided to compile my own list of favorite movie endings, ranked below:

I voted in the Presidential election over the weekend. I strongly recommend voting by mail. I'll never forget that one election day when I waited for over half-an-hour in the freezing cold.

I recently ordered individual tickets for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver--and snubbed the travel packages even though they would bypass the lottery and guarantee tickets for 3-5 events. The packages forced way too much variety. Each one only offered one short track event at best, and nary any figure skating. None of their schedules matched what I wanted at all.

I also had to use my debit card since my only Olympic-accepted credit card will expire before February 2009. I guess they won't charge it for awhile. Looks like I can't reserve my hotel yet either, until 50 weeks prior to February 2010. Pretty tricky, planning this Olympic vacation is.

Watched movie: "Quarantine" (2008)

A stressful, hair-raising film with a lot of memorable highlights. I liked it despite a number of problems kept me from rating it higher:

• Previews that spoiled some of the best scares.
• The lame banter at the beginning of the movie.
• Some cliched horror movie mistakes that hurt the realism of the film for me. Case in point: what idiot would reach out to a rabid kid that had just bitten her mother??
• Needlessly shaky camerawork.

When "Cloverfield" succeeded at the box office, I dreaded the motion-sickening imitations that would spawn from it. "Quarantine" nearly fell in this category when the camera kept shaking relentlessly--even darting from person to person even during periods of reprieve. Fortunately, this "camcorder" style worked very well for horror and action scenes. Some scenes had a "28 Weeks Later" quality to them, e.g., intense moments where rabid attackers suddenly popped into the frame (or in one alarming scene, ran with such frenzy that they slipped on the floor). Some scenes had a "Blair Witch Project" quality to them, e.g., one suspenseful part where the cameraman used his camera light to scan an attic. Some scenes had a "Resident Evil" video game quality to them, e.g., the distressing parts when I could hear the monster but couldn't see them due to the camera angle (by the way, nice touch to blur the focus at a most inopportune time). One scene even had an "Exorcist" quality to it. :) Rating: 7

Can't believe that I got carded when I bought a ticket to this movie. Guess I still look like a student. :)

It sure rained a lot in Portland. I wonder if that happens all the time there given its proximity to Seattle.

A couple of laws caught me off guard in Oregon:

• No sales tax. I usually double the tax to estimate a waitress' tip, but the tax on my bill read $0.00.
• No self-service. A Shell attendant caught me trying to pump my own gas, and explained that state law required him to fill the tank for me. "Oregon's not your home, is it?" he deduced politely.

Picture of the day:

Watched movie: "Appaloosa" (2008)

I heard a review that called "Appaloosa" this year's "Unforgiven". Why, because they're both Westerns? I didn't see the likeness. I felt that "Unforgiven" ended way stronger. Although "Appaloosa" started out promising, it lost my interest near the end. Perhaps Ed Harris should pursue another genre. Rating: 6