I just saw The Lake House. I actually enjoyed myself. It’s not going on my top 10 list or anything, and Keanu is definitely as stiff as a plastic action figure, but it was rather more interesting than the standard Hollywood romance/drama fare.

Some critics seemed to think that the movie was “convoluted” or “hard to follow”, but it isn’t at all. The big “mystery” wasn’t really much of a mystery.

The thing that made it interesting was the creeping sense of fantasy. You could either take the movie literally (Yes, that mailbox really *does* let you talk to people two years in the future), or interpret it as a big fantasy in the mind of Sandra Bullock’s character – a reading I found to be much more appealing.

“The Lake House” raises an interesting question: if your fantasy lover is better than your real life lover (and why wouldn’t he be? You can give him whatever qualities you want: if you’d like a tall and handsome brooding architect living in your dream home, that’s exactly what you’ll get), should you give the real-life boy a chance or just live in the fantasy?

The other bit of intellectual satisfaction I got from this movie was playing the “I wonder if I can figure out how the writers are going to tie all this up” game. They threw enough curves that I wasn’t entirely sure how it would all end.

One other little complaint: the titular house is fairly nice but they don’t really make enough of it in the film: it’s more of a device to help the plot – it could have played a larger role in the fantasy.

I started out to write a blog entry about some combination of Superman as Jesus, the coming End Times, and William Blake poem I happen to like when I stumbled upon something… unexpected.

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For those of you who like your sports to be more contemplative but still want to get caught up in the madness.

My new Chinese friend made dinner for me and another friend last night, and oh my, can she cook. She made several dishes, including home-made spring rolls, which were very tasty.

She also presented us with a thousand year egg. If you’ve not seen one of these things: it’s a duck egg that’s black on the outside and green on the inside.

We westerners were quite skeptical of this, though our host shook her head and said “It’s just an egg”.

I tried some, and somewhat anticlimactically, it tasted like, wait for it… an egg.

Also, despite previous threats, she didn’t make me eat with chopsticks. I did give the chopsticks a try, causing a bit of amusement for the others, but in the end I was told “We don’t want to wait all night for you to eat” and handed a fork.

It was Jamie who created my title when he said the above in response to news that I joined the computer science department’s softball team. Well, let me tell you: today we played the IT group, and those guys are hardcore. Nerds with bats, indeed.

The stated purpose of the league is to “play recreational ball and tell lies about it afterwards”, so it’s pretty laid back. Today was the first game I’d played (though the season actually started with a game last week). I did pretty well considering I hadn’t held a bat since the late 1990s. I went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs and a run scored. Despite coming back to tie the game early, we eventually lost it 16-12. It was looking a bit more grim than that in the middle innings, but we put up a 6 run rally in the last inning, including an 2-out RBI single by yours truly.

I played second base, which doesn’t see too much action since all but one member of the other team bats right-handed, and thus most balls get pulled to the left side of the diamond. I did make a catch and a 4-3 putout on a ground ball, and took some relays from the outfield. To balance that, I also dropped a fly ball and almost collided with our right fielder who ran in and caught a high fly in shallow right field.

The only bad note of the game was when our first baseman (first basewoman?) took a throw in the face. Ouch!

I slept late. It’s sunny outside, the birds are chirping, and I’m sitting here in my pajamas. Sounds like the perfect way to kick-start the apocalypse.

If you are wondering what I’m talking about, glance at that calendar on your desk: today is 6/6/6, a date that only comes around once a millennium! Or at least, once a century. Well, not very often, anyway, so we should all panic.

A few beastly links:

Times Online story about mothers afraid to give birth to the antichrist and other 6/6/6 issues.

God fails to save man from lions

And finally, the satirical-to-the-point-of-being-downright-offensive (fair warning) Landover Baptists have a “Is My Child the Devil’s Son” checklist.

Update: I’m listening to a Jays game on the interweb, and the sportscaster just pointed out that despite this being 6/6/6, The LA Angels beat the Tampa Devil Rays 12-2. “Good has triumphed over evil”.

Stephen Harper says he will reopen the gay marriage debate in the fall.

I’m with Layton on this one: “[T]he courts have decided, the Parliament has decided, couples are getting married and the idea that we would go into the House of Commons and roll the clock back on an issue of human rights makes no sense to me.”

Let’s hope lots of other people are with Layton on this one too. My suspicion is that Harper is doing this not because he wants to, but because he has to show his supporters that he’s “doing something” on this issue. Hooray for playing politics with other people’s rights!

Also, score one for the boys in red: Gay Mounties to Wed in Halifax