I love running errands on weekdays when everyone else is at work. It's great! Places like Superstore are actually empty and tolerable. Who knew? And non rush-hour traffic is the best. Sweet sweet sailing.

I finally take off to NYC tomorrow and these couple of days off right now are okay, but I definitely prefer to get out of town when I'm on vacation. Like, I couldn't take a week off and stay home. It feels like a waste of time. Even a road trip to Whistler or Kelowna would be better than staying home. How do people just stay home for a week?! Then again, it really is nice to be out and about while everyone else is at work hehe

Anyway, I won't have internet access for over a week, which is going to be painful. How will I know what's happening in the world of celebrity gossip?! lol. **Oh no - JT just informed me via IM that Christian Bale was arrested. No! Not Christian Bale!!! Not Batman!! Oh well, I don't care - I still love him anyway. I still remember him when he played Laurie in Little Women. It made me so angry that Winona Ryder's Jo wouldn't marry him - what a fool!! lol And then he went and married Jo's sister, Amy, just to be a part of the family. Stalkerish? Kind of. But still love! haha

Alright peeps, I will update when I'm back. Hopefully, I'll have stories of running into celebrities like John "douchebag" Mayer or someone entertaining like that. Have a great week and a half. =)

This may be another movie in the new Batman series, but make no mistake, this is Heath Ledger's movie. And that's no disrespect to Christian Bale, but the fact of the matter is, this role was the most electrifying performance of Heath Ledger's short life. The hype around this performance was buzzing way before he sadly overdosed. It's easy to say that people might be going to see it because it was his last role and they're curious, but that doesn't do Heath or this movie any justice. It is that good of a performance, and it's that good of a movie.

If you're expecting a light and fun summer action movie, then this isn't the movie for you. It's a lot darker than Batman Begins and it's pretty intense. I don't know if I'd recommend this for kids under 12. At the core, the story is obviously about good vs evil. But on a larger platform, there are other themes. I won't go into them, but for me, it's what makes this movie and this series a lot more interesting than the previous Batman movies with Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and ugh, George Clooney.

Christian Bale is fantastic as usual, and pretty much everyone else in this movie is good as well. Aaron Eckhart, as Harvey Dent / Two Face - I love that guy. Great actor, very underrated, as is Gary Oldman, who plays a good cop. The only weak link was probably Maggie Gyllenhaal. I just don't like her. My guess is that they hired her because she sort of resembles Katie Holmes, who played the role of Rachel Dawes in the first movie. Neither Katie or Maggie are right for the role though. Not sure who else I'd have cast though, but Maggie wasn't a great fit either.

But anyway, I thought the action was pretty good and depicted the relentless and ruthless tactics of The Joker. My favourite scene in the movie is when The Joker is hanging out of the window of a police car that he's stolen. There's something really beautiful and eerie in that shot and Heath managed to embody the essence of The Joker in that scene. Only the madness inside the head of a twisted and tortured soul like that could drive a person to be so free - free from conscience, free from consequence, free from empathy. And that's what that short scene embodied to me.

I'm not the sort of person who goes to the movie theater to watch something I've already seen, but I'm probably going to go watch this one again. I think I've only done that once before. But I definitely want to see this again. Have I sold this movie to you yet?

The Verve have finally reunited and here's their first new single in years - Love Is Noise.

Some tool at Mattel thought that this would be a good idea. Moron.

Finally, my vacation starts now! I stayed late at work to finish up some stuff, and I still have a feeling that I've forgotten a few things. Sadly, I actually contemplated going in the office for a couple of hours tomorrow, but then I snapped out of it. Screw that - I'm going to sleep in, then go meet up with a friend and watch The Dark Knight! I'm hoping that the matinees won't be too full. I'll probably still check work email in the morning though. Yeah, I'm lame.

Some neighbour that lives across the alley is sitting on their back deck wearing an enormous sombrero right now. It might actually be larger than a sombrero. Maybe it's like one of those hats that chinese farmers wear? But no, it looks more like a sombrero. Nope - just saw it again. It's not an asian farmer hat. But the top of it is pointier than a sombrero. I've never seen anything like this. It's cartoonish, but the person isn't like some frat boy trying to be funny. The person is legitimately trying to avoid the sun. Gigantic hat, small person. I wish I had a paparazzi lens on my camera so that I could see what the hell is actually going on over there. I'm so nosy.

So JC and I were talking about people who are so afraid of the sun and its evil UV rays that they walk around with those gigantic Star Wars storm troopers-ish visors. I don't know if people in other cities wear this, but it's all over Vancouver - mostly asians. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen a non-asian wear one. But I think it's a definite cultural thing.

In Western culture, it's favorable to be tan, golden, and bronze, whereas in Eastern cultures, they like to be white as can be because it's a sign of higher class and purity. Only lower class people would be dark because they'd be outside working in the fields all day, while the rich would be inside. I'm not making this up - read this.

Actually, I remember when I visited China for the first time when I was 19, and we went to the village my dad grew up in. I was wearing jeans and a tshirt, and all the people were asking my dad why I was wearing jeans, because they thought that jeans were just for farmers. And my dad told them that jeans are what people wear all the time. (I remember everyone there was dressed like it was the 1950s - like I was stuck in a time warp. But maybe things are different now. It's been a long time since I've been.)

But back to my point, it's the reason you see asians walking around with umbrellas on sunny days. Because heaven forbid one ray of sunshine touches their skin! Don't get me wrong, in this day and age of skin cancer, I think it's reasonable to stay out of the sun and protect your skin as much as possible - but come on, can't you just slather on some sun screen and walk on the shady side of the street? Seriously, it's not that hard. You will not die or melt if the sun touches you. In fact, it feels nice. Try it. It's better than walking around like you're going to fight Darth Vadar or like you're on your way to weld some metal. Suck it up, and get some sun already!

The geisha look is not hot.

The first thing I saw this morning when I was walking to work was a guy on a unicycle. Yeah - a unicycle! It's kind of a weird dorky thing, but at the same time, it's kind of cool. I was oddly impressed. How bizarre to see that.

It truly amazes me how some people have the audacity to do the things they do. I'm left shocked, appalled, and disgusted at the sheer nerve. I understand that insecurity drives a lot of people to do stupid things, but there has got to be a limit - a fine line where a person stops what they're doing and says, "you know what? I'm being a real asshole. What am I doing?" What you're doing is a slap in the face and pushing people further away than you already have. Over. Done.

The original James McAvoy has been out and about lately to promote his travel documentary, The Long Way Down. He and his best friend ride motorcycles from Scotland to South Africa for charity. Their last trip, for their first documentary, The Long Way Around, was from London to New York - but they went through Europe and Asia first. I saw that series on tv, and it's really good. Though this man does no wrong in my eyes, so I'm not the most objective person. It's been 13 years since we first saw him in Trainspotting, and he is as hot today as he was back then. Must be something in the Scottish water. Ewan and James should play brothers in a film. That'd be awesome.