Homeward Bound (Soon)

Jay's Kinda Weekly Rant:
I don't have anything in particular to talk about this week, so this rant is just going to be an amalgamation of different topics.

My last exam is tomorrow, so I'll be leaving school on Tuesday. I'll be driving home in my new car, the Mazda 6i. In one of my previous rants, I mentioned I was leaning towards the Jetta, but the 6i won me over because of the way it handles (I actually drove the 6, but the 6i should be similar), its dashboard, and its cheaper price as compared to a similarly configured Jetta. The 6i has only a V-4 (the V-6 was too expensive), but the 6i's V-4 is supposed to be pretty good, and, to be honest with myself, I don't need a V-6. Even further, I don't need most of the extra features that are coming with the 6i, but a lot of them were a package deal which couldn't be altered. For example, I'm not a fan of spoilers, but it was part of the package, so my car is going to have a spoiler on it. Of course, I'm not going to complain, because I'm lucky to even have a car. I'm kind of nervous about having to drive it home from Lehigh (for those who don't know, driving is a source of anxiety for me, mostly only when I'm in an unfamiliar area), but I'll have my Mom as navigator, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Over the past couple of days, in between exams (most recent one was on Thursday), I watched all of the excellent anime series Evangelion. While watching it, I was trying to decide whether Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion was the more enjoyable series; by the end of Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop won out. The last episodes of Evangelion weren't bad, but I realized I enjoy the playful tone of Cowboy Bebop more than the extremely somber, pensive, and austere tone that Evangelion adopts near the end. Maybe it's because Evangelion is, beneath all of the heavy philosophical overtones, still a cartoon; maybe it's because that's just my type of personality. Regardless, both series are worth checking out if you haven't seen either one, even if you're generally not a fan of anime (if that's the case, you probably just haven't seen the right series).

Friday night, I saw the movie Van Helsing. While not a terrible movie, it was much worse than it should have been, given the awesome concept. I can't give any specific criticisms without spoiling the movie, so I'll just state some general problems I had with it: The dialogue is sub-par, at best, meaning the characters all have weak or one-dimensional personalities. The attempts at comedic relief are fairly abysmal and far too frequent, taking away any serious sense of tension that the movie might have been trying to create. The plot is too predictable, along with the outcomes of the fights. Every time I expected a surprise, I was disappointed. However, the special effects were quite impressive and nearly seamless. In addition, the alternate takes on the classic monsters aren't bad. So, monster-movie fans won't be completely let-down, but you'll still come out of the movie frustrated at all the potential which was wasted.

That's about it. All of you who are my friends from back home, please inform me somehow (e-mail or IM work) of when you'll be back, so I can start figuring out when and what we'll be doing for our first summer "reunion." See you guys soon.