I love the smell of napalm in the morning

This time last year, my sweetie was keeping me company in Newcastle. She wasn't my sweetie back then, but we were best of friends, and it's always great to be able to hang out and catch up with someone you're really close with.

To prevent myself from reminiscing about the past, I've been keeping myself busy by watching loads of tv lately. A LOT more than my usual 1-2 hour per night. Now, it's more like 5-6 hours at the very least. Usual timetable consists of waking up in the morning, chatting with sweetie, watching telly, and going to bed. In between all that, there're bits and pieces of eating and going to bathroom and reading a few paragraphs of Joseph Stiglitz's brilliant 'Globalisation and its Discontents' or flipping through the pages of a comic book I haven't read yet.

I've been getting to watch a few pretty good shows. I've come to the conclusion that Johnathan Ross is quite a funny fella. Spent the whole of today afternoon watching re-runs of 'My Wife and Kids', which is quite a hilarious show, and also caught Apocalypse Now. It was pretty good (heck, it had Brando, Duvall and Martin Sheen in it, and it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola), one of the better Vietnam movies I've seen.

One of the lines that stayed in my mind was a monologue narrated by MArtin Sheen's character in the bloody aftermath of his little group of soldiers butchering an innocent farmer and his family 'It was a way we had over here of living with ourselves. We cut 'em in half with machine guns and give 'em a band aid. It was a lie. The more I saw them, the more I hate lies.' I couldn't help but wonder how similar the situation might be in Iraq. I guess soldiers have to justify their actions and believe in the moral righteousness of their actions - if not, the whole system will crash and things won't get done. But if things are really fucked up, there'll be a limit to it somewhere, somehow. Hmm...wonder how long it'll take before we gets movies about the Gulf War?

Also watched a 2-hour long show in the 'Biography' channel (which prior to today, I never knew existed) on Star Wars and its conception. It was brilliantly done, and I was really amazed at the length and breadth that Lucas went to in order to perfect his vision. It's a shame that Episode 1 was as bad as watching an episode of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I could've strangled that annoying Jar Jar Binks. I thought that Episode 2 was a heck of a lot better, and watching this documentary just made me itch for Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith. We might've been disappointed with the 2 latest movies, but that isn't going to stop the wave of anticipation that will be sweeping across the globe come May 2005. It'll be just before my finals, but heck, it's the final Star Wars movie!! And we all need to take a break right? Right...??

For me, the only other movie that comes close to matching the anticipation of Star Wars in 2005 is 'Batman:Begins', the latest addition to the franchise that will hopefully elevate it to the Michael-Keaton-era levels. As much as I love Batman and admire Uma Thurman, 'Batman and Robin' was one of the worst movies I've ever seen and makes The Phantom Menace seem worthy of an Oscar for Best Picture. The list of cast/director in the new movie is impressive, and here's hoping they'll live up to their reputation. It'll also be interesting to watch the villainous characters of Ra's al-Ghul and the Scarecrow come to life.