Ok, I’m irritable. I’m dealing with a lot of crap now, who wouldn’t be? But I’m not mad, I’m not angry, I’m just… irritated. C’mon, a little snappishness doesn’t mean I’m going to go all Wrath of God Day of Judgement… I just need to kill the tension.

Rebuilding all my Magic: The Gathering decks, no deck over 65 cards. My soldier deck still needs a small tweak, it’s sitting at 67. Pimp Lord of Unix is locked and ready to roll. It’s at 60, but I’ll bump it to 61 if I can get one more Nemesis of Reason, ’cause I want to keep the Clone, just in case someone has something totally rad on the board.

Going to rope some people in doing a Top Gear like segment for GiXP. Me and Ducks are natural, Gunz wouldn’t be so bad either. I just don’t know about Ace. He’s got to lighten up a little. I think I’ll go all Londo Mollari on him this weekend. There’s an idea, I’ll play Btech in a suit on Friday, be totally over the top… if the weather holds, yeah…

I’m finding out that I like Alara block a lot more than Zendikar. Other than the lands, Zendikar’s coming off too gimmicky, and way overbalanced. I’m going to be playing the same goddamned Vampire deck for the next three months. Snooze.

…but that’s nothing new. I’m just sitting in my cubicle, sipping on my lukewarm tea from this morning, and wondering what the hell is wrong with me. I’m thinking I’m depressed, but I’m not altogether sure why. It’s kinda funny, I still seem to have all the same sence of humor, same sence of self-depreciation, and same dismissal of what other people think of me. That said, things just seem to be getting me down, and I don’t know why. I got a “boost” as I made a breakthrough with my history project, but I’m still not quite as go-getter as I was. Mainly, I’m just so damned tired. Tired of the fourteen hour days in the first half of the week, followed by the pressure from the friends and family to be the “go to” guy for everything. I’m thinking that after this weekend, the family reunion, and OTHER than the official CBT event, I’m going to have to tell everyone to take a flying leap. It’ll be hard, but I’ll probably even give up the internet communities for a solid month. I don’t know what else to do. I don’t care what people think about me… but I’m beginning to care too much again about what other people think about each other. And frankly, I’ve too much on my plate to deal with that kind of sixteen-year-old drama.

Shit, that’s not where I wanted to go. Oh hai, what about Zendikar, I gots me some Allies!

Listen, there are two ways I look at movies: Great movies, and entertaining movies. Every now and again there’s a special “sweet spot” that nails both categories, but before we get to that, let’s see what I mean.

Great movies are the ones with the deep plot, great cast, phenomenal cinematography. They’re not always big-budget, either, but they can be. They arrive, change the way we see movies, give us a dozen years of people trying to emulate them… or they become cult classics, and 12 years later someone tries to “make the next X” movie. Blade Runner and The Right Stuff are the top picks in this catagory for me, when it comes to big budget, Citizen X and The Killing Fields are the smaller budget verson.

Entertaining movies don’t have to have all that, though Right Stuff for me, proves they can. They’re popcorn and soda films, a way to lose three hours with friends and family. They can be comedys, blockbusters, or indie films. I’ll admit, I loved all those 80-90s “teen” films from Gleaming the Cube to Pump Up The Volume, to Airborne. I also love some of the classics. Despite the negative connotations that go with the film for me personally, I cannot put aside The Great Race (like I have with both Groundhog Day and In The Line of Fire, both which I believe are pretty crappy movies 15 years on). The Quiet Man, likewise has a regular place in the rotation. Blockbusters such as Independence Day (god, this is campy), Running Man (Richard Dawson, woo!) and the Fast and the Furious films (1-3… I’m not sure 4 should count) let me zone out.

But you know what’s funny? The sweet spot is occupied by a pair of animated directors. Brad Bird and Don Bluth have found success in making deep meaningful and terribly enteraining movies. The Secret of Nimh is, to this day, one of the most magical and amazing movies ever brought to life. My sister has totally hooked her kids on her favorite animated film, the Land Before Time. And Bird’s now brought us Pixar’s Incredibles, but made a more lasting effect with me with his Iron Giant.

I’m not sure what it is about non-Disney animation… let me take that back, because I enjoyed Robin Hood and Fox and The Hound… but recently they’ve been not-up-to-snuff, eh? But there are certain animated movies I can appreciate on many levels, from story to art to voice acting… I can laugh at Dom Deluse’s Jermey as he’s tied up by the Brisby kids, I can’t help but be moved to tears when Charlotte sings “Mother Earth and Father Time”, I can’t help but be stunned by the visuals of the Iron Giant, and I could spend hours talking about Michael Ansara’s performance as Mr. Freeze.

I just wish there was more good ones, ’cause I got most of them already.