Day 26

Ranger: "That sounds like a great show. What channel is that on?"
Bart: "Why, NBC, of course!"
Lisa: "NBC has lots of great shows, and their sports coverage can't be beat."
Homer: "I wonder whats on NBC right now?"

I should note about the above episode, which was on last night - following the above quote is the ending credits, and while they're running Homer reads some disclaimer about 'NBC bad, Fox good'; but channel 10, with its obsession of running previews for other shows at the end of shows, drowned it out with meaningless babble about shows I didn't want to watch, but had already seen countless other previews for. Not happy, Jan!

Finished breakfast about 10, after downloading another 4 songs. I thus had enough for a CD, and added them all to my ipod. I felt like Amon Goeth from Schindler's List - "ya, I've got another 18 coming in and a I have to make room", ruthlessly cutting songs to 3 stars.

I completed Mandarin lesson 13 - again, without too many problems. I remember learning something that would be quite useful, but now I've forgotten what it is. Too bad.
I had a go at trying to learn some actual characters yesterday, but they look so cruddy written with a pen compared to the strokes in the book - its very discouraging.

I finally got Murder Most Horrid for about $23, and paid for it like straight away. AOEII is still about a day away, currently at about $42, with a $3 buffer. I'm not that hopeful, really, but it would be nice. I keep checking everyday just in case the amazon stuff is here, when, in reality, it will still be another week or so, I think. It seems like forever since I worked, but it will only be 4 weeks on Friday - its like an extended holiday only.

I did a tiny bit more on Isaiah, but I always feel so tired in the afternoons - so I just ended up resting when I should've been reading etc. It means that, again, its due in two days, and I haven't really done that much since last Friday. Hmm....

I also think that tommorrow I should be well enough to start the sax again - and, even if not, I should anyway, cos its been almost two weeks already.

I watched The Emperor's New Groove today, and, despite the title, its a wonderfully funny film, and would probably be close to my favourite Disney film ever. This would almost certainly be David Spade's best work outside of Just Shoot Me (and maybe even in) - it also stars Nina Van Horn from the same show as the peasant's wife (don't ask me the actresses name), John Goodman (from countless shows) as the peasant, and, although I didn't pick the voice - it was really familiar, but I couldn't place it - the "High five!" guy from Seinfeld - Putty. Or Puddy. Or whatever his name was. David Spade really was the star - it worked especially well as a llama. He was at his irritatingly arrogant best. I read some thing about Sting pulling out all but one of his songs, and, I guess, Tom Jones is the one who took his place.

I also watched Shark Tale at night - another one of those 'placing animals in a human world so its funny' movies. I mainly enjoyed the mafia side to it - especially with Robert de Niro and Michael Imperioli (Christopher, from the Sopranos), who played their parts to perfection - oh, and the octopus, of course, who, I think, was Pussy from the Sopranos, although I don't think I placed his voice at the time, mainly cos he didn't have enough mobster type lines.
The ending was a bit stupid - Oscar makes this one silly little speech, and suddenly the big tough mafia shark becomes all mushy just like that. Plus, a lot of the animation was really ugly - using, like, the actors real faces on the fish was just wrong.

House was on today - but it was a repeat! Unbelievable! I was so disgusted, I went upstairs to finish watching Shark Tale, and did church accounts. Cos now we're 'back' (although its a first for me) to 4 paid staff, and I had to make up the flack for October.

I think I'm up to about chapter 10 or so in Numbers, but its on hiatus while I skip ahead to read the 8th century prophets. I've done Amos, Hosea and Micah, but have only read chapter 1 of Isaiah (thats 65 left). And you can cross off Judges too, cos I read that at the start. So, between me and the lectures, is just 3/4 of Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. Thats about - 180 chapters, give or take. Right...