Home madness

I'm guessing my absence isn't completely unexpected. You hit St. John's after being away for a little bit and the demands on your time are extraordinary. Couple that with the fact that neither Cathy nor I had much in the way of Christmas shopping done and the past few days have been insane.

We think we've got the back broken on the shopping. Cathy is doing one last mall run tomorrow morning while I'm at the dentist, then we head downtown to get a few things we missed the first time around, and then I think, please God, that's it. Then I think the stress finally starts to evaporate a bit. Which would be nice. The past few days have been a bit more stressful then you ordinarily like when starting a vacation.

Cathy's also become our official schedule planner. She keeps whipping out her little book and putting it dates and times we're suppose to be meeting people. I think we've already got just about every evening between now and the 2nd of January booked. Our afternoons are still pretty good, though. Oh, and I have at least one official death threat from a friend, who says he will kill me if he doesn't see me before I go.

You know, I'm oddly touched by this. Every time I wonder if I'm a touch too insular and don't get out and socialize enough, a friend comes along and lets me know, in his or her own special way, that I'm special. Well, special enough to want dead, at the very least.

I guess the other thing of note was that we saw Avatar this evening. Still kind of digesting it, but first thoughts are the following.

1. James Cameron is a deeply mentally disturbed man, and God love him for it. And I don't mean insane like some artists where you wonder where they get their ideas. There's nothing startling original about the story, plot or characters. It's just that Cameron has OCD or the biggest stick up his ass in the history of the world. Because the obssession for details and wanting to get it just right and just right his way is what makes the movie.

2. Seriously see it in the theatres. I imagine it's going to look lovely in Blu-Ray and all, but you really need to be in a movie theatre, preferably one with the digital 3D, to appreciate it. The theatres in Iqaluit are lovely and all, and you should go see it, but you will be missing a little something from the experience. And even more if you wait until DVD.

3. Having said that, would have been nice to have seen it in a seat other than one in the second row. That's what we get for showing up late. Ow, my neck.

4. Damn, Sigourney Weaver still looks hot. Seriously.

And I`m sure I`ll have more later. It`s not the greatest movie ever made, or even the best I`ve seen this year. But it`s a spectacle, a good one and certainly one worth experiencing.

Oh, one last thing. A reminder. We`ll be doing a night at the Duke of Duckworth on December 27th. If you`re in town and would like to see either one of us, we`ll be there from 8pm onwards. It`s our attempt to see people we might not have a chance to visit otherwise, so please, come on down. We`d love to see our friends.