I think live-blogging is an activity that should be more widespread. I've only ever read live-blogs for 1) sports games, 2) tech conferences/product announcements and 3) U.S. election debates. Here is a list of things I would like to see live-blogged:
-paint drying
-writing a blog post
-sex
-whitewater kayaking
-eating turducken
-diahrrea
In order to try to spur this live-blogging revolution, I will be live-blogging my train journey from London to Ottawa today. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to shell out the 20 bucks or whatever it costs to get internet on the train, so consequently this live-blog will actually be a tape-delayed live-blog, which will air later tonight.
12:03 PM: On the train! It's a fairly empty train since most students went back to school yesterday. Snagged a spot in one of the 4-seat sets, meaning more leg room. Yeah!
12:08PM: just booted up Revolutionary Road. It's Oscar season - watched Milk a couple weeks ago, The Wrestler last night and Slumdog Milllionaire is waiting on my desktop.
1:05PM: part 1 of RR just ended, decompressing part 2.
1:07PM: decompression finished! Yeah!
1:10PM: at first the audio of part 2 was misaligned, and I panicked. Then I came up with the brilliant idea of playing the movie in Quicktime and VLC simultaneously, muting one, and aligning the audio of the non-muted one with the video of the muted one. Then the problem somehow resolved itself, which was a little bit disappointing.
1:56PM: with about 20 minutes remaining in the movie, we're about to arrive at Union. I'll have to pick it up again later.
3:43PM: A friend came down to Union to drop off boots that I forgot at his house on New Year's Eve. My hour and a half between trains consisted of waiting for him, going to the bank, and waiting in line for the next train. I'm now on said train, hurtling towards Ottawa eating some grapes.
3:44PM: I was disappointed when, despite the fact that the train car was only about half full, some dude sat down beside me, possibly making me the first person on the train to get an unknown companion. Maybe I should be flattered for being such a welcoming and unthreatening looking guy. Or offended. Either way, there were a lot more people getting on that I hadn't noticed and the car ended up full, so no big deal.
3:45PM: Back to Revolutionary Road.
4:03PM: done the movie. It was fantastic, probably my favourite of the year so far (with the possible exception of Batman). Kate Winslet is every bit as good as she is purported to be, and Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon are excellent in supporting roles. I like Leonardo DiCaprio a lot, and he was fine, though not as good as in other recent roles such as The Aviator and Blood Diamond.
4:12PM: since movies are the only thing I brought to entertain me on the train, time for Slumdog Millionaire.
6:09PM: finished, and it was also very good, but RR is still topping my list for the moment. Slumdog had awesome music though, as I'm reminded by the credits music currently playing. I have some more movies on my computer and almost 2 more hours on the train, but I think I'm all movied out for today.
6:17PM: you know what sucks? When you put your sweater in the overhead compartment and sit in the window seat and someone else sits in the aisle seat and then you're cold. Oh well, I have to go to the bathroom anyway. At least he's not asleep.
6:24PM: Seven minutes later, I still haven't gotten up, due to equal parts laziness, aversion to making people get up even though it's expected and I shouldn't even have to thank him, and concern that my computer will fail to wake up when I get back, a problem that first manifested itself last night and has happened twice already today.
6:31PM: HOLY SHIT! Some guy just sprinted down the hallway followed by a Via Rail dude, bowling over some poor soul who just wanted to use the bathroom.
6:34PM: We just stopped in Cornwall, and a bunch of cop cars sirened up and they're apprehending the sprinting dude!
6:34 1/2PM: They seem to all be pointing at a black case that he's holding, but he won't let it go.
6:35PM: WHAT?! Police brutality! A cop just punched the dude in the gut, forcing him to drop the case.
6:37PM: The cops can't open the case. They've tried their nightsticks, some of which are stuck on twirl (just kidding, Simpsons reference).
6:38PM: The "renegade cop" who punched the guy just shot the case open! As if that weren't enough, a brightly coloured bird, which the cop's bullet apparently missed, jumped out of the case and flew away! This is bizarre, to say the least. Unfortunately, the train's moving, so I'll miss the rest of the situation. But I think I got the gist of it... the bird was a metaphor, right?
6:41PM: I just remembered none of that happened. Must be some sort of weird magnetic field around Cornwall. That or I'm really grasping for straws to make this live-blog interesting.
6:44PM: I'm listening to a playlist I made themed around my Europe trip in the summer. It consists of all the songs I had stuck in my head at some point on the trip (might be missing a couple, but I was pretty diligent about writing them down... though I'm definitely missing the theme from the SNCF in France). I might devote a whole post to it at some point, but for now I'll just say the song I'm least proud of having on the playlist is Barbie Girl.
7:21PM: I've spent about the last half hour fleshing out a post about my prediction for Apple's Next Big Thing. Stay tuned over the next few days if you're interested!
7:30PM: Playing Minesweeper with no mouse is really unsatisfying, since the crappiness of the trackpad ensures there's no way you can get a good time. I just placed 41st on the all-time list with a time of 455.9 seconds (on expert)! w00t. Then again, I am improving quite a bit at playing without marking any mines, since that requires right clicking, which is also annoying with no mouse, and is an important skill if I ever decide to devote my life to becoming the One True Minesweeper.
7:33PM: The theme from Indiana Jones just came on my Europe playlist, which I got stuck in my head on a train from Nice to Genoa because some American kids were watching one of the movies on a little portable DVD player instead of marveling at the beautiful Cote d'Azure. (by the way, I know for a fact they were American, New Jerseyan to be specific, I'm not just jumping to conclusions here.) Anyway, the music is making Minesweeper WAY more fun and now that I've spent most of the song writing this update I'm gonna have to start it again.
7:43PM: The 10-minute warning just aired. Live-blog out!
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