2008-01-16

geek moment '08

Does your TV ever suck you in?

I'm sorry, this is not going to be a post about books. I mean, I could take a moment to discuss how the University of Alberta gouged me out of nearly $200 for two text books for a night course I'm taking, but that's just whining and I'm fairly certain I covered all those angles when I was actually a university student.

(Besides, there's this little socialist inside me who can't help but think that, if it were fair to overcharge anyone on text books, it's more fair to gouge professionals who take night courses than starving students who scrimp away and live on just a few hundred dollars a month. Perhaps if I knew the money I overpaid subsidized someone studying social work or engineering or law or whatever, I would feel better.)

Anyway, I got sucked in by my TV the other night.

It started when I happened upon a channel called "Encore Avenue," which was broadcasting When Harry Met Sally... (I know, I have issues. Don't judge yet.) But what came next was much, much worse, no matter who you are. Because of the music and the opening scene of something flipping through space, I thought I was watching the beginning of Supergirl (I was really excited) when the credits came on announcing a movie called Krull.

Hilarious. But horrible. There was really bad acting, men crying on-screen, terrible fighting scenes, a wimpy main female character (who made traditional princesses like Cinderella or Snow White look tough as nails -- I really, really hate it when girls run around the screen screaming for boys to save them), and Liam Neeson.

That's right. Liam freaking Neeson. That's why I got sucked in for, like, an hour. As I listened to terrible dialogue and watched something that seemed to be the poor man's Star Wars meeting the poorer man's tale of King Arthur, and the absolutely penniless man's visual effects (even for 1983), I just wanted to see what Liam Neeson's part in the horror show was.

Answer: a bit part with very little dialogue. What was he thinking?

As penance for the loss of time I will never, ever get back, I have to keep my TV off for the rest of my life (read: today). And read a book or something.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

dude, I didn't know you were taking a night class? Which one?? And rest assured, people like Logan and myself would love to believe that high textbook prices somehow help out our education, but I feel more certain that it's helping to nourish the fat profits of textbook publishing companies... sigh