zrath

Just poking my head in here to say "hi" and confirm that I still exist.
Operation Lego Tub is winding down, so I'll have some free time soon.
I finally located the final 4 pieces I needed to complete the last two sets.
And I actually built something with the Mega Bloks. I plan to horrify my fellow LUGOLA members at our
next meeting, which is amusingly being held on "International Talk Like A Pirate Day" (the 19th).

In other news, I finally interviewed at the "Consulat Général de France a Los Angeles" last Wednesday.
This is the job listing I saw on Craigslist that was entirely in French.
It's a general computer guy position and the ideal candidate needs to be a French citizen.
I had mentioned this in a previous post, and the original interview had been canceled.
I was then recontacted and did have the interview last Wednesday. It seemed to go kinda okay.
Much to my surprise, I have a second interview, scheduled for tomorrow.
It seems my first interview was with the Adjunct Consul. This interview is with the Consul himself.
Oh boy...
By the way, this definitely goes under "Places I Never Thought I Would Ever Apply For A Job At".
I would be awesome if I got this job.
There's been darn few responses to all the résumés I've sent out. And by "darn few", I mean "1".
And the position would provide me with living wages again, the likes of which I last had at Amp'd Mobile.
And since it's the French Consulate, there would be more paid vacation days and medical coverage.
Believe me when I tell you I'm more than a little surprised that I seem to have a shot at this.
All I can do is go in tomorrow and do my best, and hope for the best.

I plan to have dinner with a friend at Souplantation tomorrow night.
We will either celebrate or commiserate. :)

Arrr mateys! It be Talk Like A Pirate Day today, so be arrrrrrty!!
And have some non-piratey Netflixing!


The Corsican File aka "L'Affaire Corse", starring Jean Reno and Christian Clavier.
I found this one while viewing Jean Reno's page on IMDB. It looked like fun so I rented it. I was a bit apprehensive though
because last time Jean and Christian were together, that was in the "Les Visiteurs" films (1, 2, 3, and "Just Visiting"),
and Christian Clavier was acting like Louis De Funès or Robin Williams on methamphetamines!
I was happy to discover that he had calmed down since, as he played the role of put-upon Parisian private eye with
appropriate restraint and amusing mundaness. Monsieur Clavier plays Jack Palmer (real name Rémy François), a gumshoe
hired by an attorney to locate Ange Léoni, a hard-to-find Corsican gangster-type, who seems to have inherited a rather
sumptious mansion in Central France. Little does the P.I. know that the amusingly-named attorney (Maitre D'Argent) is
in fact a law enforcement type trying to lure Ange out of hiding. Palmer travels to Corsica and hilarity ensues.
This is pretty much a fish-out-of-water story, with the Parisian trying to cope with Corsica's quirkiness.
Much like the Spaniards and Italians, Corsicans are proud, family-oriented and quick to take affront.
One of their more endearing traits is the habit of blowing shit up, though usually at night when no one's there.
Also, the last Corsican put in charge of a country almost conquered the world. Napoléon Bonaparte, I'm looking at you.
At times, it feels a bit like "Astérix In Corsica", but it's really all in good fun. If you're curious as to why
Corsicans feel insulted when you tell them they're French, this movie will tell you all you need to know. However...
The DVD is pretty crappy. The transfer is not very good and some scenes look washed-out.
The movie is in French with English subtitles only. The DVD does not use the language and subtitle options of the DVD
player. The English subtitles are hardwired into the movie, so 1) you can't turn them off and 2) they are at the bottom
edge of the movie area. Since the protagonist wears white a lot, the subtitles have a tendency to disappear. Outstanding!
I can't really recommend this to non-French speakers because of this.
Also, the dialogue is so heavily accented that really good French-speaking skills are required.
But, if you understand French, check it out! It's a lot of fun!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - the newish CGI film
I'm not really a fan of the Turtles, but I was curious. And the Sibling is a martial artist, so he was curious too.
The movie was okay. It had the characters I vaguely knew from seeing the toys at Toys'R'Us over the years.
I totally did not recognize Patrick Stewart voicing the immortal general. It was fun and not stupid. So yea!

Apocalypto - a really cool film that a lot of people probably missed seeing because it's by "Crazy Mel Gibson!".
If you're into ancient civilizations and watch as much Discovery Channel as I do, you can't pass up seeing this film.
It's really impressive in its reconstruction of Aztec life prior to the Europeans' arrival.
It's also an interesting study of cityfolk versus countryfolk, as the forest-dwelling natives are captured and brought
to the city to be sacrificed to the angry god, and we see the contrast between them and the city dwellers.
The leader of the city warriors reminded me oddly of Christopher Lloyd. Not the crazy Christopher Lloyd seen in "Taxi"
or "Back To The Future", but the serious, professional side that you don't often see. The warrior was, of course, a lot
more muscular, but the facial expressions and mannerisms were spookily similar to Christopher Lloyd's.
Overall, I enjoyed the film. It's only as brutal as things actually were brutal back then.

The Fourth Man - Noted pervert Paul Verhoeven serves up torrid hallucinatory gay porno nightmare
While watching the documentary "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession", I wrote down a few movie titles that had been shown
on Z Channel but I had missed for one reason or another (probably being too young and not into the subject matter).
This 1983 Dutch release was one of them. Knowing next to nothing about it, I Netflixed it and watched it with the Sibling.
It's about this hallucination-prone lecherous catholic gay novelist (with me so far?) who finds himself trapped into a
bizarre love triangle partly of his own making with a chick who looks like a blond version of a Nagel painting and her
lover who is some Germano-Dutch male model. There's occasional gore, copious WTF moments, and nudity, mostly male.
And to make things even worse, it's in Dutch with English subtitles. Dutch sounds like German and Flemish in a blender.
I wanted my money back.

300 - "Spartans! Tonight, we laugh all the way to the bank!"
I saw this in the theaters and enjoyed it a lot. The art direction is totally awesome and the movie's just plain fun.
Watching it at home revealed how inadequate a 27-inch Sony TV was to the task of doing it justice.
I do not for a single second entertain the remote possibility that this is historically accurate in any way.
But it's sure a lot of fun to watch. More fun than "Troy" even.