For Fourth of July, we celebrated by grilling and eating steak. I, for one, feel there is no greater way to commemorate the founding of this great nation than to eat one of it's delicious creatures.

Our other usual nod to the 4th is to watch the movie Independance Day. But we didn't this year because we're pretty tired of it. I think I've seen that movie more than anyone else alive, it used to be the only non-Disney movie we had at the house. So... next year, Will Smith, next year.

I have seen way too many movies lately. Ever since my dad retired, and I ended up an unemployed loser, we find movies a good way to consume some of the extra time on our hands. I can't decide whether my growing disillusionment with action movies (primarily what my dad wants to watch) is because they actually ARE getting worse and more soulless like all the reviewers say, or because I just see way too many of them. Like, I saw War of the Worlds today, and I'm pretty sure I should've thought it was awesome. I am firmly in the Spielburg camp. And though Tom Cruise isn't my favorite, he can actually be pretty decent sometimes. I LOVED Minority Report, the last time him and Spielburg collaborated. And there were lots of cool special effects and things being killed and blown up and even a touch of humor at times. But I pretty much felt meh at the end.

We also rented a couple, including Hitch (which the DVD was scratched, so I can't say how that was), which my dad wasn't so enthusiastic about, but I was able to trade upon his enduring love of Will Smith. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to be the next Citizen Kane either, but I need something to cleanse my palate from all the action movies I've seen lately, I think.

The other was some Robin Williams movie called "Final Cut." It is kind of this sci fi thing whose premise is too elaborate for me to go into here, but it was pretty bad. I think I might just have to switch my rule from, "No Robin Williams movies where he is trying to be funny," to "No Robin Williams movies unless 'Good Will Hunting' is in the title."

Let's see, what all have I seen this summer (and this doesn't even count rentals)? Kingdom of Heaven, Star Wars Episode III, The Longest Yard, Mr & Mrs Smith, Cinderella Man, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds.... pretty much all the big releases. Not that a few of those weren't actually good, and some of them aren't exactly straight action films, but I think we've become exactly the type of people who make it so the big budget action movies with no deep characters rule the movie industry nowadays. The only one this summer that's too insipid for even us is probably going to be The Dukes of Hazzard.

But we'll probably pass on any of the big comedies, as my dad is not a fan of most comedians in movies nowadays. And probably pass on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But I do the latter gladly. I really don't see why everyone's all panting over that, because I didn't love the original like so many other people seem to, though I'm a fan of Roald Dahl most of the time. All his books are good. And the movie adaptation of Witches was downright freaky for a kid's movie of it's time. And one of the few scary movies I've ever been fond of (yes, that's the scariest movie I can claim to like. I fully admit to being lame). And I'm one of the few girls of my age who doesn't think Johnny Depp can walk on water. I can pretty much take him or leave him.

And the trailers on this one say... leave him. Who else thinks that after the sucess of using Keith Richards for a template for his character in Pirates of the Carribean, he decided to use Michael Jackson as a template for Willy Wonka? He's excessively pale, has a high voice, lures children to his factory, attempts to look like he has a freaky plastic face, lives a reclusive life in a fantasy land, wears bizarre clothes? It SCREAMS Michael Jackson. And I've already had my fill of Michael Jackson, I don't need to sit through a feature length film of Johnny Depp "cleverly" imitating him.

That whole rant was probably procrastination. I'm writing a story with Tina, it's a serial for a fan fic, so not the next great american novel or anything, but I would like to do a good job on it. But I have writer's block. It's kind of funny, because she hadn't written in awhile (we take turns) and I was all begging her to, or pestering her on some RP stuff, so I'd have something to do, and then I end up totally not writing for ages.

Last night my procrastination was web comics. It felt almost like being back working at the station. Anyway, I finished off my backlog of Alien Loves Predator (HILARIOUS, btw), and then moved onto Theater Hopper, which is basically about these people who watch way too many movies (...I'm aware of the irony) and fairly amusing, especially if you've seen a lot of said movies.

At the same time I was also reading Dinosaur Comics (with a slow browser it's good to read two different webcomics at a time, you read one while the other loads). About 1/4 of them are horribly boring, because the author will go into some complicated philosophy or scientific concept. About 1/4 of them are HILARIOUS because the author starts by going into some complicated philosophy or scientific concept, but ends in a total non-sequitur like, "I wish we'd never had a homosexual affair at all!" 1/2 of them relate to the T rex being a total jerk or some other random situation, and about half of them are funny and half not. So (for those that can't add), that means only 1/2 of the comic total is funny, but the funny ones were REALLY funny, so I found it worth it. Also amusing: the art is the same for every single comic, only the words change. You'd think it'd be boring, but I actually thought it made it funnier, because you just can't wait for the last panel where the T Rex is alone shouting something random. True story.

But when I saw a big black van run down a bird I had to think about you

--"Broken Record," The Refreshments