Saturday morning I woke up to some sad news, my computer "Frankenputer" had ceased working. I had to replace it.

Of course, now the story starts. I drove to Fry's to buy some new components. I bought a Motherboard, a processor, a case, a hard drive and a new video card. So I drove back to my apartment, and put it all together. It didn't work. I was frustrated, so I drove it back to Fry's, and wanted to return it, but they said they would test it. The told me everything I bought was in good working order. So I drove back home and tried again. It didn't work again. No power, no fans turning on, no nothing. I was upset. So the next day I ended up returning the stuff I bought, and I bought a new computer, that was already put together. So I put some stuff from my old computer in my new one. So its specs are AMD Athlon 3500+ with 1.5 Gb of RAM, Two DVD writers, 5.1 surround sound, a 512 Mb ATI Xpress video card, with 230 Gbs of HD space. Its pretty friggin sweet.

So my weekend was stressful, and most of it was a waste of time, so I was mad at myself.

In other news girls in my Sunday School independantly described me to their mom as being like Napolean Dynamite. I don't know if I should be proud or not.

We left Indiana one day last week and went to Chicago with my grandparents, sister and cousins. We also met Sara's friend Julie. We saw the Field Museum, Art Institute, Cloud Gate (The Bean), Sears Tower and Navy Pier. It was a very full day and we all had a great time. You can check out the pictures in the Chicago Trip photo album.

Okay, everyone knows I've always hated Tom Cruise, so it's not part of being on the bandwagon that makes me say that his acting was quite amusingly terrible in this movie. So there you have it: comedy at its best is Tom Cruise getting flung by an explosion against a car, hopping back up like nothing happened, then taking a running jump over a gaping hole in a freeway ramp and shooting (with terrible aim for a secret agent) at bad guy Philip Seymour Hoffman (who was great)..

I have never been able to completely suspend disbelief in these movies because they are so unrealistic, even for action movies. The movies usually have slow-mo sequences at the dumbest moments, and the whole face mask thing got really old after number two.

All that being said, this movie was much better than the second in this series. The action keeps it moving, it's nice to have Rhys-Meyers as sidekick eye candy, and the whole thing is adventurous despite its ridiculousness. I'm glad I didn't spend any money on this one (coupons at the dollar theater took care of that), but it was entertaining.

On Saturday Erika and I went out on a date together for the first time since Daniel was born. We have not been to the movie theater in a very long time, so we decided to go see Lady in the Water.

I did not like this movie.

I feel I should start by saying that I like the films of M. Night Shyamalan. Even The Village, which was reviled by many critics, I thought was decent (though not as good as his other films). Because of this, I wanted to give Lady in the Water a chance as well. Unfortunately, it's as bad as people have been saying.

What ruins this movie is its ridiculous and complicated mythology. The story goes that there is a race of water-dwelling people that used to give guidance to humans on land. Long ago they parted ways, but the water-dwellers are trying to re-establish contact (all of this is revealed in the opening two minutes, so don't worry about me ruining the story for you). As the movie goes on, though, this premise is gradually expanded with details about other mystical creatures, magical healing balls, and humans with special gifts. A silly vocabulary is introduced to discuss these things, with words like "skrunt" and "narf".

It's all just too much. Part of the illusion of this film is that it's supposed to take place in the real world (or at least a realistic world identical to ours), but the more the silly mythology is revealed, the more unrealistic and one-dimensional every other aspect of the story becomes.

The best thing about the film is Paul Giamatti's performance. He brings some subtlety and complexity to his character that is lacking in the rest of the film. The worst character by far is a nerdy, pretentious and arrogant film critic, who seems to exist only to get back at the critics who panned The Village (and would probably hate Lady in the Water just as much). I'm sorry, Mr. Shyamalan, but I'm siding with the critics on this one.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

100 Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings by E. E. Cummings

I just read this announcement that Ed Helms from The Daily Show will be joining the cast of The Office. Sweet! I really love this show. I can't wait until it starts again. If you're like me, you can get your fix by watching the exclusive webisodes here. Good stuff.