The Oscars

I used to be a much bigger movie buff than I am these days. That said, I still try to see every movie that is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, before the Oscars (which are tomorrow). Last year, I said Crash was my favorite of the bunch, and it (somewhat surprisingly) won.

Here is how I rank the nominees this year.

The Departed was my favorite of the bunch. I remember walking out, and not being blown away by it, but none of the movies in this year's crop blew me away.

Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima were about at the same level for me, so I'm saying they are tied for second. They were both very good movies, but 21 Grams and Amores Perros are both better movies from Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director of Babel. Similarly, Saving Private Ryan was (in my opinion) a superior war movie, when compared to Letters from Iwo Jima. Side note: Saving Private Ryan was robbed of an Oscar by Shakespeare in Love, in 1997.

Little Miss Sunshine comes in 4th for me. I just didn't see what the big deal was, and the best character is only in the first 1/2 of the movie. It was just alright for me.

The Queen was my least favorite of the nominees. I thought it dragged a little, and if it was any longer than its 1 hr. 37 min., it would have been too long for me. The acting was very good, but I still felt like it dragged.

Sadly, I saw a couple of movies that I liked more than all 5 nominees, but that's another post for another day.

Why I could never be a celebrity

I was walking through the cafeteria today, when a complete stranger came up to me and said "hey, Mr. Shirley, are you teaching 49B next quarter?" I really dislike when students do this. Mainly because I don't know the student from Adam. I love seeing students I know, but when a stranger comes up to me, it bothers me. This is why I could never be a celebrity. I'm a private person, and this kind of thing really throws me off.

I once had a student come up to me, as I was walking to my car, and said, "Because of you, my schedule is all messed up!". I had no idea what she was talking about (I didn't even realize she was a student, to be honest). It took her telling me how she was trying to get into my class, and rearranged her schedule, only to not get into my class, thus messing up her schedule. When someone says something like this to me, I think, "why the hell do you think I would care?" I don't even know who you are, and why would saying this as your first words to me, ever, help get in my good graces?

Back to the guy in the cafeteria...

Him: Hey, Mr. Shirley, are you teaching 49B next quarter?

Me (being curt): No.

Him: When are you going to teach 49B?

Me (being curt still): I dunno.

There was no thanking me for my time, or sorry to interrupt me from paying for my cookie, he just walked off. I thought that was kind of rude.

A Good Evening

You know that feeling right after you take your final final exam of the semester. I had a little bit of that tonight, at about 9:30 pm. My accounting class is now over. I have to say, I REALLY like the professor, and it's too bad he only teaches accounting. I wish taught other classes in the program.

The bad part is, my next class starts next week! Finance! We'll see how that goes.

To top off the night, I was driving home and heard that MSU beat Wisconsin (the #2 basketball team in the country). This could secure a spot in the big dance for MSU. That would be sweet. Gotta love March madness (even though it's still February)!

Testing

I realized I haven't taken a test in a class in 5 years. The last test I took was a Spanish 1 final, in March 2002.

I have an accounting exam on Tuesday. It's kind of scary to think of taking a graduate level accounting exam, but it has to be done. I'm not completely sure how to go about preparing for such a task, which is why I'm here doing blogging.

I feel like I've bad at this blogging thing as of late. I just feel like I have nothing of real interest to say. There's only so much one can write about a cat (his new thing is jumping on the kitchen counter), or a soccer team (I scored my first goal of the year last week!).

Anyhow, I have an accounting test in 6 days, so I guess I should work on some accounting right now.