Doug's fall movie schedule

I just finished making my list of movies that I plan to see this fall. I thought I'd put them here to maybe stur up some interest in these movies with the few people who read my blog. I'll probably be stuck going to see them on my own, but I might ask some of my friends if they want to go, and if anyone is interested in these movies, then by all means, let me know if you'd like to go. Not sure if any of this makes sense, but anyways, here are the movies I'm looking forward to seeing. I'll probably stop posting for the rest of the week unless something really dramatic takes place. Oh, and I should also say that I might change my mind on some of these depending on content and reviews.

An Unfinished Life - September 8 - Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford, and Jennifer Lopez - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/an_unfinished_life.html

Lord of War - September 16 - Nicolas Cage - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/lord_of_war/

Proof - September 16 - Gwyneth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaul, Anthony Hopkins - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/proof.html

Everything Is Illuminated - September 16(limited release) - Elijah Wood - Trailer:
http://wip.warnerbros.com/everythingisilluminated/

The Corpse Bride - September 23 - Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/corpse_bride/

Flight Plan - September 23 - Jodie Foster - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/flightplan/trailer_3/

Oliver Twist - September 30 - Ben Kingsley - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/oliver_twist/

Elizabethtown - October 14 - Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/elizabethtown/

Jarhead - November 4 - Jake Gyllenhaul, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/jarhead/

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - November 18 - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/harry_potter/thegobletoffire/

Pride and Prejudice - November 18 - Kiera Knightley - http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/pride_and_prejudice.html

Aeon Flux - December 2 - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/aeon_flux/

Chronicles of Narnia - December 9 - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/thechroniclesofnarnia/

Memoirs of a Geisha - December 9 - http://www.dreamworksfansite.com/geisha/

King Kong - December 14 - Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody - Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/king_kong/

Time for another freebie.

I found something else that I have no need for so I figured I'd give that away as well. It's The Iron Giant on VHS. It's a great film, but I now have it on DVD so I have no reason to keep the old crappy tape (VHS sucks!). Anyone who wants it can just let me know and it's theirs.

I promised that I would update and share my experiences from the flea market so I guess I'll do that now. There really isn't much to say about that since I pretty much just went down, set up a table, and sat there for three hours. If it hadn't been for another game obsessed vendor I wouldn't have sold hardly a thing. He ended up buying most of the games I had with me and I took in about $300 from him alone. Not as good as I was hoping, but still not bad in the end. I guess I'll put the rest of my stuff up on ebay and hope it sells. Anyways, I'm now down to 140 some games in my collection. That's approximately 70 of my games gone from my collection.

I got a new puppy!

OK, I'm still not sure what to think of this whole ordeal, but I guess I'll just explain it all. Nintendo has made a new "game" called Nintendogs where all you do is raise and train a puppy. All you do is pet and play with the puppy, teach it tricks, walk it, and enter it in various tournaments. The "game" is something that I haven't been interested in ever since it was first announced, and even after it got "perfect" scores from Japanese magazines and went on to sell 40 million copies (crazy Japanese!), I still thought the whole thing was stupid. Well, after seeing all my online friends down in the U.S. buying the game, I decided to pick it up myself. After all, if Rob (who has been against the game from the start like myself) can get into the game and have a good time than surely I should be able to like it.

Well, after buying it and spending some time with it I'm unsure what I should think. I had no idea that it would require speaking out loud into the mic to the puppy on such a regular basis. This is definitely not a game that I can play anywhere in public without either looking incredibly stupid, or really gay. I showed it to and told a few friends and the general response was "are you retarded?" Making it even more clear that I probably won't be able to take it out of the house. I guess I shouldn't have bought into the idea that people would think it'd be cool and cute. At least not in a craphole like Woodstock where you have to either be into hick activities or drinking beer every weekend. I might still show it to a few friends. Maybe I'll have better luck showing it off to girls without getting crazy glares and looks.

Anyways, here are some pics of the game. I would do some pics of my new puppy Shadow (named after a video game character of course) but I don't have a digital camera. He's a yellow lab, and so far I've taught him to sit, lie down, play dead, and sneeze on command. I'm slowly getting used to feeding, walking, and training him and have yet to enter him in any competitions (I need to win some cash!). Depending on the responses I get to this post I may keep updating on Shadow's progress. So what does everyone think? Am I ruining what little manliness I formerly displayed? Or is this thing awesome and cute? Let me know. Just don't start calling me gay.

Oh, and for the record I'm not too worried what other people think (at least I'm telling myself that I'm not). Hey, it got rave reviews and is from Nintendo! There are some people out there who respect that.

List time!

Well, I got bored today so I went and made a list. Something I do all the time whenever I'm bored. I don't really know why making lists of things is so enjoyable, but if it keeps me from getting bored than I guess it's alright. Today's list is a list of all my favorite actors (and actresses) and the movies that I loved them in. I'm going by performances, so just because I list a movie doesn't mean I enjoyed or recommend the movie itself. It just means their performance in that movie was frickin' awesome and blew me away. Anyways, here's the list. Whether people find it interesting or not is another thing.

Actors:

Adrien Brody - The Pianist
Al Pacino - Heat, The Godfather, The Insider
Alec Guinness - Bridge on the River Kwai, Star Wars
Anthony Hopkins - Silence of the Lambs
Ben Kingsley - Schindler's List
Ben Stiller - The Royal Tenenbaums, Meet the Parents
Bill Murray - Lost in Translation, Rushmore, Groundhog Day, The Life Aquatic
Billy Bob Thornton - Sling Blade, The Man Who Wasn't There, A Simple Plan
Bruce Campbell - Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Bubba Ho Tep
Christian Bale - The Machinist
Christopher Walken - Pulp Fiction
Clint Eastwood - The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Unforgiven
Don Cheadle - Hotel Rwanda
Donald O' Connor - Singin' in the Rain
Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man
Elijah Wood - Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Ewan McGregor - Big Fish, Moulin Rouge!
F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus
Freddy Highmore - Finding Neverland
Gene Hackman - The Royal Tenenbaums, Unforgiven, The French Connection
Gene Kelly - Singin' in the Rain
Gregory Peck - To Kill a Mockingbird
Harrison Ford - Blade Runner, Witness
Hugh Grant - About a Boy, Sense and Sensibility
Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen
Jack Nicholson - Batman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, About Schmidt, Chinatown
Jamie Foxx - Collateral, Ray
Jean Reno - Leon: The Professional, Ronin
Jim Carrey - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show
Jimmy Stewart - Vertigo, It's a Wonderful Life, Rear Window
John Travolta - Pulp Fiction
Johnny Depp - Edward Scissorhands, Finding Neverland, Pirates of the Caribbean
Kevin Bacon - Mystic River
Kevin Costner - Dances With Wolves
Leonardo Di Caprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Aviator
Liam Neeson - Schindler's List
Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront, The Godfather
Morgan Freeman - Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Million Dollar Baby, Glory, Driving Miss Daisy
Paul Giamatti - American Splendor
Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove
Ralph Fiennes - Schindler's List, Quiz Show
Robert De Niro - Heat, Ronin, The Godfather Part 2
Robert Redford - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Roberto Benigni - Life is Beautiful
Russell Crowe - The Insider, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind
Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction, Unbreakable
Sean Aston - Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Sean Penn - Mystic River
Steve Buscemi - Fargo, Big Fish, Ghost World
Sylvester Stallone - Rocky
Tim Robbins - The Shawshank Redemption, Mystic River, Arlington Road
Tom Cruise - Rain Man, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral
Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Road to Perdition, Sleepless in Seattle
Toshiro Mifune - Seven Samurai, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, The Hidden Fortress

Actresses

Bryce Dallas Howard - The Village
Cate Blanchett - The Aviator, The Life Aquatic
Emma Thompson - Sense and Sensibility
Eva Marie Saint - On the Waterfront
Frances McDormand - Fargo, Almost Famous
Gwyneth Paltrow - The Royal Tenenbaums
Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
Ingrid Bergman - Casablanca
Jennifer Connelly - A Beautiful Mind
Joan Fontane - Rebecca
Jodie Foster - Silence of the Lambs
Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music
Kate Hudson - Almost Famous
Kate Winslet - Finding Neverland, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sense and Sensibility
Keisha Castle Hughes - Whale Rider
Natalie Portman - Heat, The Professional
Scarlett Johansson - Lost in Translation
Sigourney Weaver - Alien, Aliens

I must be crazy.

If anyone ever told me that I would someday sell off most of my games, I would've told them they were crazy. I would never sell my precious games! Well, after giving it much thought over the last week or two, I've decided that I am going to do just that. Oh, I'm going to keep a lot of them. No way would I part with Final Fantasy III or Castlevania: SotN, but I feel that I might have too many games to have a reasonable time to play through them all every so often. Also, I feel that I put a little too much time and energy into games when I could try to focus on other things. Not that games are a bad thing. I could just do better going to church on Wednesday nights again, or spending more time doing devotions or hanging out with friends. So I've made the decision and I'm going to look into going to the flea market in Fredericton and setting up a table with approximately 100 of my games. Here's hoping that this decision doesn't destroy me later on.

*EDIT* Just reached the person in charge of the flea market and I reserved a table for Sunday morning. Looks like this is a go. I'll probably post on Monday morning and say how it went.

Fun times at Caton's Island.

Well, awhile ago I got home from a very long trip to Caton's Island with Neil. I guess I'll share the day's events here on my blog even if people aren't too interested. That's what blogs are about, right? Well, it started with me getting up at six' o'clock. I'm not exactly used to getting up early, since I'm used to sleeping in till at least 10 am, so I wasn't exactly too thrilled when the alarm started to ring. But I got up and made it to Neil's by 6:30. We had a great time chatting on the drive and reached the island at 9:00. Neil then did his seminar (one of two reasons for the trip) and the kids seemed to listen and enjoy it well enough. After the seminar we mainly just hung out around the dining hall and got to chat with a few of the kids from our church. Fitz showed up eventually and I rasied the roof for him. Great fun as always. We then stayed for lunch and Katie and some other woman who knew Neil chatted with us over an hour or so. Well, mostly chatted with Neil I guess. I didn't really have much to say. After lunch we headed back to the car and made our way to Beulah.

When we reached Beulah Neil dropped me off at the cottage and left for some important meeting. I won't comment too much on what I did since it was pretty boring. Mostly just laid around since I was so tired. After an hour or so Neil showed up again and we headed back home. When we reached Fredericton we went to the Regent Mall and I speed walked (as always) around the mall to see if I could sell some games and get the Arrested Development DVD set within 30 minutes time. No dice however, since I had forgotten that Electronics Boutique doesn't give cash for used games and I was otherwise broke. It didn't matter to much anyways since all the stores at the mall had sold out of the DVD. So I headed back to where I was to meet Neil and called Greg while waiting. He reminded me that I had a credit card with which I could purchase DVDs (stupid me!), so when Neil got back he took me to the Fredericton Mall, and after some more vigorous walking I managed to find a copy of the DVD and purchased it. Now I can force feed AD down people's throats until they appreciate it as much as I do! OK, I'm just kidding (or am I?!). After this triumphant moment we headed home and there's really nothing else to add. Overall a fun day and worth getting up early just to see Fitz, chat with Neil and get my DVD. Hope you enjoyed this (probably) boring account.

Also of note, I've finally figured out how to do links, so I've put up some links to my collections, the forums I frequent, and to my friends blogs. If anyone feels that they are missed in my links, then let me know and I'll add your blog to the list of links. I was too lazy to think of any more. Oh, and feel free to give me suggestions and comments on my own blog. Thanks.

To all spammers:

Please get the heck out of my blog. Unless you have something relevant to say regarding one of my posts or to a comment made about one of my posts, then just go away. I'm not interested in the crap that you're offering, so please leave. k. thnx.

Just had a great weekend/Elizabethtown is only PG13!!

Well, I just had one of the funnest weekends that I've had all summer. It started with watched four episodes of Arrested Development with my family on Friday night, then on Saturday my parents took off for Sussex, so I had the entire day to myself. I went to Jody's at 1:30 and we went to see Red Eye, which was entertaining enough, and had a good ending despite what Jody says. Then Jody and I went back to his house and we ended up watching About a Boy with Jess, who had just gotten home a few minutes after us. I'm not sure how much they enjoyed it, but I still liked the film as much as I did the first time I saw it. I ended off the day by going home and cleaning up and chatting on msn(as usual).

Sunday morning I went to church, then I went to Pizza Hut with J-Ro, Jody, Jess, Gemma, Derrek, and Becky. The salad I had was the only thing I saw on the menu that was flour-less, and it was pretty good. I still can't believe it was only my second time eating at the Woodstock Pizza Hut. After lunch everyone went to see Red Eye. I wasn't too excited about seeing the same movie twice in two days, but after thinking about it I decided that I'd be better off staying with everyone in case I couldn't find them afterwords, and I ended up having fun goofing off before the movie and making fun of the crappy sound quality. Next we just hanged out at Jody's for awhile before church, and after church we hanged out again at J-Ro's, where we ended up watching Shaun of the Dead. Not really my kind of movie, but it was entertaining I suppose. And that just about sums up my weekend. So like I said, it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad that I got to spend a lot of it with Jody before he leaves town this week. Thanks to everyone for putting up with me and taking my mind off the crap that's going on in my life right now.

Now for the second part of my post title (Yeah, I know this is a huge post). A few days ago I was looking through upcoming movies that I'll be going to see, and was surprised to find out that Elizabethtown was only getting a PG-13. I was totally expecting an R, since the director (Cameron Crowe) has always gotten R ratings on his films. I must say that I'm happy his new film is toned down and I hope it still isn't loaded with cursing or anything. The trailers for the film look amazing and I can't wait to see it if it comes to Woodstock (it'd better!). Now hopefully I'll be able to convince someone to go with me. I'll probably be stuck going on my own to all these fall movies.

Anyone want a free Our Lady Peace cd?

I was just sorting through my small collection of cds, and discovered that I have two copies of Our Lady Peace's Clumsy album. I really have no need for two copies, so I think I'll give it away to the first person to comment and say they'd like it. As long as you live in the Woodstock/Hartland area (I might consider Fredericton too) and I know who you are then I'll give it to you whenever possible. The CD has some scratches on it, but should work fine. It's free, so who's going to complain?

Arrested Development owns my face with its awesomeness.

Since I recently finished watching all the episodes of Lost, I figured I'd move on to another show that got lots of critical acclaim. I saw a few episodes from the last season, but Global was skipping episodes and its really a show that you have to watch on a regular basis in order to understand the goings on of the characters. So far I've watched the first two episodes from the first season, and wow! I've been blown away. This is definitely the funniest show that I've ever seen in my life. I can't remember laughing this much. The characters are all so well acted and you don't have any idea what crazy things they're going to do next. That's what makes the show so good. Amazing writing, and an excellent cast. Finally, I'll give a little warning to everyone who knows me. This show is the new thing that I'm going to be shamelessly promoting. So if you haven't seen it before, get ready for me to insist on you watching it. Especially after I get the DVD sets.

Something else that I've been thinking about lately is how I feel that this summer has been a real transition period for me. I seem to be losing a lot of interest in my favorite hobby (games) and I feel a need to change some things in my life. First, I feel that I need to stop being so obsessed with games (I'm definitely doing better in that area already). I never thought the day would come when I would say this, but I'm seriously thinking about selling some of my rare and treasured games. Being broke helped me come to this conclusion, but I also feel that the games take me away from time better spent doing devotions or spending time with friends. Not that I'm going to quit games altogether. I'm just going to try to spend more time doing other things. Which brings me to the second thing that I'm trying to change in my life. I feel that I need to make more friends and develop interests that are easier to discuss with them. Since Jody and Mike are both leaving very soon I could very possibly have nobody to do things with for the fall, so I'm going to really make an effort to put away my shyness and try talking to new people more often. It'll be hard, but I'm going to do my best. Anyways, I guess that's enough talk for now. Anyone who's reading this can feel free to comment.

What happened to Our Lady Peace?

I just downloaded their new single and I think it sucks. Now I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I thought their last album was a big step back. It just felt so mainstream compared to their first three albums. Listening to Gravity I couldn't help but notice it sounded more like music from artists like Nickelback or Creed. I guess the biggest problem is I don't like their new guitarist. Their first two albums were so great because they had a unique sound that makes them different from other bands. Quite similar to why I love The Smashing Pumpkins. Oh well, I'll just have to keep listening to Naveed and Clumsy and pretend that their new albums don't exist.

I can't wait for youth to get started!

Well, I was talking with Pastor Brett this morning and it seems that they're having a meeting about youth next week. I'm really excited about youth starting again this fall and I can't wait to see all the teens again. It should also be interesting to see which youth leaders stay on to help, since we've already lost Simon and Jody(and I doubt Neil will be helping either). Hopefully Glen, Jenn,and Pam are still around this year.

I do have one big concern though. I just don't know if I'll be able to keep helping out each week if my health doesn't improve (it's been gradually getting worse over the summer). The doctors don't seem to know what's going on so the only thing I can do is pray that I'll either get over whatever is ailing me. I really don't want to give up going to youth because it's been a great privelage over the last two years and I feel that I want to keep helping out with the teens. There are just so many who are struggling and I feel that helping them also helps me to grow spiritually. And then I'm sure Nick (aka: Doug's shadow) would stop coming if I wasn't at youth each week. Anyways, I'll just have to go to the meeting, talk things over with Brett and see how I do physically in the next few weeks.

J-Ro and Jody officially suck.

Seriously. I start up a blog and soon afterwords you guys tell me that blogs are gay and I also find out that you're both losing interest in them (quitting for good in Jody's case). I expect both of you to get back into it so that I will feel inspired to get into my own blog.

Anyways, I just watched Canadian Idol and was surprised to see that Casey actually did a good job for a change. Not that she sucked or anything before. She just didn't wow me. If she keeps singing like she did tonight then I won't complain if she wins it all. Although I'll admit that I'm disappointed to see Daryll gone.

About myself and why I'm blogging.

Greetings everyone! I've been so bored over the summer that I finally gave in and decided to start a blog. I've always thought they were rather lame (nothing against everyone else doing it, just didn't appeal to me) but since I've lost interest in games lately I decided it might keep me from getting bored.

For my first post I'm just going to post some random crap about myself and my tastes. If nobody cares then I'll probably just stop everything, so this is pretty much a test to see how much interest there is. If people seem interested I'll try to keep it up.

Name: Doug Dickinson
Also known as: Dougie, Douglas, keenad, the world leader
Born in: Woodstock, New Brunswick
Favorite hobbies: Video Games, Movies
Favorite food: Baked Potatoes
Favorite meal: Turkey Dinner (Turkey, Potatoes, Carrots, and Dressing all covered in gravy)
Favorite color: Light Blue
Favorite car: Honda Prelude (a sports car that isn't insanely expensive)

Became a Christain: When I was 5, but it didn't really mean much to me until I was in my late teens.

Favorite movie genres: Drama, Spaghetti Western, Thriller, Mystery, Film Noir, Samurai, Action, Romance, Animated, and the occasional sci-fi and comedy.

Favorite music genres: Classical, Movie/Game orchestrated scores, Grunge Rock.

Favorite game genres: Role Playing, Adventure, Action, 2D Platformer

Underrated food: Spinach. It's not that bad.

Favorite pet: Gamer. Never had a cat who would play in the snow with me or come running to me whenever called. Gamer was the only one who ever did stuff like that.

Pet Peeves: Having to shave every day, artsy films always having crap in them, my lack of self discipline, people getting into arguments instead of trying to work things out, the rush of good games coming out in the fall.

I desperately need: more friends in Woodstock who are closer to my age (21-26). Especially with Jody and Mike leaving in the next few weeks.

Favorite quote: "No man is free if he fears death, but the minute you conquer the fear of death, at that moment you are free...I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." - Martin Luther King

Most hated quote: "You don't watch the Simpsons?!" - Nearly everyone I know

Thing I can't get over: The fact that I can't remember the last time I bought something that wasn't related to games, movies, or music.

Humerous memory: Raising the roof in the middle of a flock of geese and then being chased by them all. It was scary at the time!

Grew up on: watching He-Man

Sad but true: Took me four years of playing Castlevania: SotN to realize that Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards.

Favorite actors: Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, Jack Nicholson, Bill Murray, Johnny Depp

Favorite actresses: Scarlett Johansson, Emma Thompson, Jodie Foster

Favorite movies: The Shawshank Redemption, Monty Python, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, Casablanca, Almost Famous, Spirited Away, Rushmore, Groundhog Day, On the Waterfront, Singing in the Rain

Favorite TV shows: Lost, Seinfeld, Arrested Development, Freaks & Geeks, I hope Darrek reads this so I can tell him that Survivor sucks.

Favorite books: Harry Potter series, The Wheel of Time series, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, She Said Yes, The Zion Chronicles/Covenant series (series of Christian books based on fiction and fact with lots of intense WW2 drama and romance)

Favorite Albums: Our Lady Peace - Clumsy, Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill, Sloan - Greatest Hits, Matthew Good Band - Underdogs, The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream, Chantal Kreviazuk - Under These Rocks and Stones, Savage Garden - Self Titled album.

Favorite Soundtracks: The Lion King, Gladiator, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Schindler's List, The Empire Strikes Back, The Cider House Rules, Final Fantasy VI, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, any score from a Miyazaki film.

Favorite composers: Mozart, John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Rachel Portman, James Horner, Joe Haisashi, Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu.

Favorite Games: Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Radiant Silvergun, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dragon Force, Final Fantasy IX, Metal Gear Solid, Sonic 2.

It took me forever to type all this crap out. I'm losing interest already.