i-think Twenty-Two

Well, on Friday night I saw Elizabethtown. I ended up seeing it alone. Why? Because Dave doesn’t like the genre of Romantic Comedy. The fact was that the movie was quite good.

So what was Dave’s real reason for not seeing the movie? The answer: Maintaining Machismo. To go to a movie that doesn’t have people shooting each other and and tonnes of explosions (Elizabethtown actually shows a house blowing up 4 times) would clearer be outside of the boundaries set as “Masculine”.

Whilst I like these sort of movies, I would hardly call myself a girl. Yet Dave was so opposed to the movie that despite having dinner with me before the movie he still decided to simply go home and presumably do something manly like watch sports or build things.

So why do I like the occasional romantic comedy? Hope. I like going into a romantic comedy where I can fall in love with the female character (and where ideally I don’t hate, but rather relate to the guy that ends up getting her in the end). Seeing as this is better than my real life it is a nice escape. If they blow stuff up (like in Elizabethtown) or have decent comedy (also Elizabethtown) that is an added bonus. Considering some of the silly movies I have seen such as Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven, these movies are a breath of fresh air and I can certainly relate to them better. (Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven both had ne falling asleep).

So to this end I need to find a movie buddy who enjoys the occasional romantic comedy. Some upcoming movies that I am interested in seeing, but I’m pretty certain Dave isn’t are:

• Just Like Heaven (It’s more because of the paranormal thing, which seems interesting. The music at the end of the trailer is a bit of a turn off, but I want to see it anyway)
• Date Movie (It has Alyson Hannigan)
• The Family Stone (Has Luke Wilson and Claire Danes)

So if you are interested in the position of movie buddy, with a view to replacing Dave ;-), let me know and we’ll arrange an interview. Remember, I also have the competition that you can enter to see a movie with me (as well as getting half a pizza and a coffee).

This is the first in what I hope to be a long line of competitions in an attempt to create some exposure for The Mill.

The prize package:

• See a movie with me at Schonell Cinemas
• Half a pizza from the Pizza Caffe
• An Espresso Coffee
• The pleasure of my company

What a great prize!! Of course the conditions of the competition are as follows:

• Must see the movie before the 26th November
• Must be able to come to Brisbane to collect the prize
• Must make your own way to the Schonell Cinema
• The prize is not able to be redeemed for cash
• The prize is tranferrable upon discussion
• Extra toppings on the pizza must be paid for
• Must be contactable
• Entries close this Friday. If there are no suitable entries, it will extend to the 18th of November

So how do you enter? Simply come up with the best reason why I should choose you. Submit your reason as a comment. I will be judging entries on:

• Humour
• Attractiveness of the offer
• Creativity

So get cracking and may the best comment win.

Today I received an email from inviting me to join Hi 5. At first I hoped that they wanted me to join the kids band, so imagine my disappointment when I opened the message and it contained the following:

Come join my network at hi5!

I now have over 42 friends in my network! You can meet all of them, plus more than 20 million other Hi5 members! Once you join, you will immediately be connected to all the people in my circle of friends.

Hi5 is an online service that lets you meet new people, view photos, browse profiles, and chat with your friends.

I’ll see you inside,

Chi

Normally I would just say this is standard junk mail ame forget about it, but the name seemed to ring a bell, but only vaguely. After a quick search of my pre-gmail archives I discovered that the source of the email was a member of my group for Marketing at uni. Of course, this was the group member that left after being in the group for one week.

So not only was this one of the people who was exploiting my ability to actually communicate using the English language, but they were building a database of email addresses so that they may pretend to have “42” friends. I met this person once, and it was more of a “look, he’s the only white guy in the room and he seems to know what the hell is going on, let’s nab him for our group and have him do the assignment for us”. Certainly not a “Hi, my name is Chi, what’s yours? That’s interesting. Hey do you want to join our group?”

Now if people are beginning to think that there are racial undertones coming through, you might be right. But my real problem is that I am paying for a post graduate course and I get lumped with people who essentially can’t read or write and barely grasp the subject anyway.

I’m not being harsh, just realistic. In an Australian University I shouldn’t have to spend group time correcting basic grammar and throwing out huge paragraphs for the simple reason that they make no sense. Well, not at post graduate level. I hope medicine is better.

So, because of this blatant mis-use of my email address I am going to adopt a new system for my medical studies (which, fingers crossed, will start next year). All people will need to sign a form to say they won’t send me any emails unrelated to the course material unless otherwise solicited. Alternatively I can give people a provisional address and if they don’t screw with it after a year, they receive a more permanent address (if they still need to communicate with me).

Alternatively I could simply list the email addresses of all violators on a special site and encourage spammers to use it, or better yet, sell the list (although the legalities of that is questionable).