Toys!!!!!!!!!

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Today, after years of suffering with substandard audio/visual equipment (having a Technics stereo that I bought nine years ago at Future Shop: not cool), we bit the bullet and bought some new stuff. We were going to wait until we moved into the new place, but Nellie suggested last weekend that we should just go ahead and get it. And when your wife suggests that you buy a new TV and stereo, you don’t ask twice.

We got a 37″ Sharp Aquos HDTV with 1080p resolution (which you can see on the left), a Yamaha receiver & DVD player and Definitive Technology surround sound speakers. Nellie was happy ’cause everything’s silver or titanium.

They also threw in a Rogers deal where they pay for the HDTV PVR/digital receiver rental for 10 months, which is great. The only downside is that we have to clear all the movies off the old PVR by Friday when the new system arrives and gets set up. We still have ten movies on there, so it could be tricky…good thing it’s a long weekend…

.:.

We watched a movie called Duane Hopwood (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. It was a low-budget indie film I only heard about because Ebert and/or Roeper mentioned it sometime last year, and it was good if unspectacular. David Schwimmer plays a reasonably nice guy from Jersey who doesn’t think he’s a drunk, even as his drinking slowly takes over his life and pulls him away from everything he loves, especially his wife (Janeane Garofalo) and kids. It’s not a terribly happy film, but it’s perhaps more affecting than you might think at first simply because it’s not fantastic or extraordinary. Everyone knows — or knew — a guy like Duane.

[tags]sharp aquos, duane hopwood[/tags]

Theta to the left of me, sigma to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with mu

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Mahir! Mahir is back! He kiss you!

.:.

I am now officially at the low point of this MBA program. The administrators warned us we’d bottom out somewhere around the beginning of the third year, and they were right. It feels like we’ve been at this forever (it’s been just over two years, in fact) but it also feels like we’re still far from finishing (just under two years, obviously). We also just finished off one of the worst courses (as far as workload) and moved immediately into another — quantitative methods — which is as boring as watching paper turn yellow in the sun.

Quants is no picnic either when it comes to the amount of work to do: in order to avoid schoolwork over the Christmas holidays I have to read about 30 pages — of stats, mind you — each night and work on perpetual assignments. I’m trying to run 2-3 miles 5-6 times a week, plus there’s work and the usual errands like groceries. There’s also my daily RSS compulsion; I feel a little lost if I can’t see what’s going on in the world. I’d love to write more interesting things on the blog but I just don’t have the hours. Luckily Nellie takes it upon herself to cook for my sorry ass pretty much every night or I’d be the walking dead.

I’ll be really glad when I can watch TV or go see a movie without feeling guilty for not studying.

54.62% down. 45.38% to go.

[tags]mahir, i hate quants[/tags]

Since when does "card" rhyme with "world"?

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More musical pain: corporate bonding a la David Brent. [via]

.:.

The 2007 rock n’ roll hall of fame nominees have been announced: R.E.M., Van Halen, The Stooges, Patti Smith, The Dave Clark Five, Chic, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Joe Tex and The Ronettes.

The first five I agree with. Grandmaster Flash and The Ronettes I could live with. I have no freaking idea who Joe Tex is, so I’d be surprised if he/she/they made it. If Chic gets elected, I will make it a goal in life to visit Cleveland and piss on the hall of fame, nay, on the very essence of rock n’ roll.

.:.

I watched Cinema Paradiso (imdb | rotten tomatoes) over the weekend. I liked it a lot; I’m really annoyed that I read an article several months ago giving away the last scene (the article was about films that make men cry, and this was a popular choice), but it was still very worthwhile. Highly recommended, unless you’re my mother or Stanzi, in which case you’ll cry for the last 20 minutes.

[tags]bank of america, rock n’ roll hall of fame, cinema paradiso[/tags]