My Favorite Things

My Computer

My computer is an ever-changing phenonmenon. While at the mall in a near-blizzard on the day before New Year's 2001, I happened across an incredibly good deal, and bought myself a new computer. It's not exactly what I wanted--I wanted a P4--but until those go down in price, this will do. It's an AMD-Athalon 1 GHz, with 128 MB of RAM, a 40 Gig hard drive (finally, maybe enough space!), a 16 MB video card, a CD-RW drive and a DVD-ROM. It's pretty enjoyable. It kind of looks like the computer to the left, though mine didn't come with a monitor or speakers.

About a year after getting that computer, I decided I needed a laptop, so I bought a new Sony VAIO. It's pretty nice--about a 14" screen, 1 GHz Athalon 4 Processor, 256 MB of RAM and a 30 Gig hard drive, as well as all the now-standard peripherals. I also got a wireless card for it and a wireless access point, so I now have a wireless LAN in my apartment, which is just excellent.

TV

I am a big TV watcher. In fact, it's usually on while I'm playing on my computer--I have a real attention span problem, so usually need to do multiple things at once. I go through periods of obsessiveness about various shows (you should have seen my bedroom during the 90210 phase of 91-93, it was a shrine), and I have recently adopted a new addiction (thanks, Aida!): Xena, Warrior Princess. Though the addiction waned somewhat during the sometimes-ridiculously-preachy Season 5, Season 6 was a veritable joy--well, until the god-awful Series Finale, that is. But I try to block that out of my mind, and am enjoying watching it daily on Oxygen. I really do love the show. Some other shows I watch a lot of are Real World, Friends, The Amazing Race, and of course, the Simpsons.

Movies

I, like the rest of most of the civilized world, really like watching movies. I try to avoid going to them in the theatres, 'cause they're so expensive--so instead, I just get digital cable . Anyways, some of my favorites:

The Age of Innocence

This is, in my humble opinion, probably the best movie ever made. I adore every bit of it. I've watched it a billion times, and get something new out of it every time I see it. The suppressed passion, the inner conflict, the utter adherence to such a rigid code of social behavior. . .it was all portrayed brilliantly, in nearly complete accuracy to the book, and beautifully presented. Daniel Day Lewis (as Newland Archer), Michelle Pfeifer (as Madame Ellen Olenska), and Winona Ryder (as May Welland) are all excellent--I feel that these are the performances of their career. As an extra-added bonus, my mother is an extra in it--you can see her in the background when Newland is walking up and down the street in Boston, waiting for Ellen to emerge from the hotel. Anyways, it is just an amazing, superb movie, which everyone really should see.

Another excellent Daniel Day Lewis film. This movie made me really angry when I first saw it; I was ignorant about that awful period in North Irish history. The British are bad people sometimes. Anyways, it was a really great movie. Really moving, and excellently acted. I highly recommend it to anyone. I thought it excellently portrayed Gerry Conlon's (played by Daniel Day Lewis) growth, and was not overly biased in either direction (though apparently, it wasn't always accurate to what really happened to Gerry Conlon and the rest of the Guilford 4 and Maguire 7), and was just wonderful.

There aren't really any other movies that stand out enough for me to want to give them their own blurb, though there are a lot more that I really like. Some are Much Ado about Nothing, SpiceWorld, Dances with Wolves, Thelma & Louise, High Art, Bound, Little Women, Contact, and The Breakfast Club. I'm sure there are more that I can't think of at the moment, but those are some of my favorites.