Finally found some sweet pants, 28 28 29. They all need to be shortened of course, one of the hidden fees that always comes with my pants purchases and chicken legs, but otherwise they’re perfect. I even found comfortable jeans that are wide enough at the foot. Orleans is a gold mine of mens clothing.

When people ask me what my favourite novel is, I tell them, “A Hero of Our Time”, and that’s been true for more than eight years now. It’s a prime example of Russian Romantic Literature, and I can appreciate that. It’s brilliant, not only in it’s lyrical style but also for the complexity of the mindset captured by the protagonist, which makes it such a pleasure to read through. It’s intelligent, it’s interesting, it’s creative, yet none of these things make it my favourite. It’s not even the book I’ve enjoyed reading the most.

It’s simply been the most influential.

Lermontov’s novel once offered me guidance (albeit blindly) when I needed it the most. His words have shaped me more than anything else I can think of, even though I’ve cast off most of my former self related to this. I still see his work as being an integral part of my development, in making me who I am at every changing moment, and that is why I hold so much importance in it.

All of it was a matter of timing. Otherwise, I’d probably think that it was just another boring book I was forced to read in grade 10 English.

The same goes with my relationships, something I would never have thought was related to timing. It’s funny to think that my most significant relationship was also my shortest by far, with a person who is most likely to think nothing of it at all. And everything that made it important to me was a combination of a very specific mindset I had at the time and the fact that this person was such a change from my previous girlfriend.

The same goes with my favourite movie and my favourite band. I’ve become a person who holds more significance in the things that change me than the things that please me.

And change is a product of time.

Crashed at Aaron’s last night, and my god how beautiful the sky was at his place. His unblinded windows were filled with an intense gradient, and it really emphasized the stark nakedness of the trees that were barely peering above the horizon. It was the brightest night of the winter, and the room was filled with orange-pink light. I lay on his couch, wishing I could keep my eyes open for just another second longer before I succumbed to exhaustion.

I hate it when there are five strips of bacon left. If I cook three then there are two left and it’s never enough, and eating all five at once is just too much. Three or four strips is always the ideal.

So I went to HMV to buy the latest Dream Theater album, and I see this Scarface package. Turns out that it’s the full screen anniversary edition package that includes extra documentaries, eight lobby cards, DefJam’s “Origins of a Hip-Hop Classic”, and other assorted material. The only problem with the box set is the ENTIRE FUCKING BOXSET ITSELF.

The box says that one of the bonuses of the anniversary edition is that it includes the original 1932 Scarface that “inspired” the 1983 version. However, in an interview with Oliver Stone about his writing of the script, he actually states that he even though he’ll probably lose respect as a director for saying such a thing, he didn’t like the original.

Aside from this, there’s a DefJam documentary about how Scarface has influenced and inspired so many hip-hop artists. Yet what DePalma and Bregman were going for was a movie with an anti-crime message, made rather obvious by the EVENTUAL DEATH OF SCARFACE. The message was misunderstood when the movie was first released, when they had to go to court over the rating, and the message is still being misunderstood, as shown through the lyrics of rap musicians. After the producers of Scarface brought psychology reports as evidence that the movie wasn’t glorifying crime, the idiot censors had to shut up and give it a simple R rating. And now there are tons of rappers using all these Scarface quotes samples in their songs (Big Pun — Leatherface, DJ Clue — Cops and Robbers, etc.), TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT, and box markets this as a feature.

And what else comes with the box set? A money clip that’s probably as cheap as George Costanza, with Tony’s initials engraved on them. My god, how cool would someone look if they’re at a poker game with their friends and they pull out a money clip that doesn’t even have their own fucking initials on it. I’m sure everyone would look up to someone trying to imitate a greedy, confused, drug-addicted, friend-murdering, coke-head who eventually goes batshit insane and kills himself. Maybe some people just identify with Tony Montana, a peasant who fails to learn any class on his way to the top and self-professed gutter trash.

This box set should never have been released. The original DVD was fine. I can understand people trying to make more money out of things, but not staying true to the what the director and producers were trying to do is just too sleazy.