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1. Set the challenge to yourself that you will start doing X after you do Y; for example, you’ll continue working after you have achieved Level 6 ranking in Grand Theft Auto Multiplayer (I’m nearly there).

2. Set an arbitrary deadline for yourself that will hang over your head like some kind of swinging torture device in an old Roger Corman movie starring Vincent Price, so all you’ll be able to think about is this date and how every second is ticking, ticking, ticking, closer and closer …

3. Reformat your hard drive and reinstall …

The trailer for the new Ron Howard film, “Frost/Nixon” is now online (Yahoo! trailers link - HD available). I’ve been looking forward to this. Nixon/Watergate is a topic, which, for some undefinable reason, has always fascinated me, and Opie does good historical movies (”Apollo 13″).

HOWEVER, boy, has the studio (Universal in this case) ruined things for me. WHY does EVERY trailer need to be…

Already predisposed to despise this remake — the most pointless remake in the pointless history of remakes — I imagine (judging from the trailer) this is how the high-level conversation went, browsing through a glossy, hardcover picture-book of classic films:

“Here’s one. Ooooh look.”

“That guy has black hair, I’m seeing Keanu Reeves.”

“What’s it called?”
…
“‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’.”

“Wha? ‘The Day After Tomorrow’?”

“No, ‘The Day the Earth…

Call it the excitement of youth or puberty or whatever, but I remember actually feeling an electricity in the air the year “Star Wars” was released. Like a lot of young fans I just couldn’t get enough of the movie, having seen it probably 20 times in 1977 alone. It was the must-see movie for my generation, like “The Exorcist” was for the generation previous …

Fast-forward to January…

So, apparently tomorrow night, the U.S. is going to shoot down a rogue, dead satellite over Hawaii that’s expected to rain debris over Western-Northern Canada. First, isn’t all of this vaguely reminiscent of Wim Wenders’ “Until the End of the World”? I think so …

Secondly, I was just sitting here, reading a very good article on Wired News about the whole thing and made the terrible mistake…

Still trying to wrap my mind around something I read on Twitch yesterday about the film “Paranormal Activity”, the domestic remake rights of which were purchased by Dreamworks at Slamdance. Well, apparently the original, still in the festival circuit, is no longer available for viewing …

I mean, well, it makes sense, Dreamworks legally has every right in the world to do this, but is it right for them…

All I want to do is sell my in-excellent-condition, very cherished, much treasured black MacBook. You’d think that wouldn’t be too much to ask, but it seems to be everything in the world …

I’ve always heard good things about Craigslist, so I thought I’d check it out. I looked up current prices for new and refurbished units, knocked off a few dollars and came out with a reasonable…

I love travel, I just hate getting there … if that makes any sense at all. For the bulk of my day yesterday was devoted to one of the most hellish flights I have ever been on …

It all started with not being able to select a window seat on B.A.’s online check-in form. I just can’t stand being in the middle (jostled by people on either side)…

In 1967, Jean-Luc Godard declared with the closing credits of “Weekend”: End of Film. End of Cinema. He was right, but a few decades off. Cinema is currently suffering a slow and painful death; weekly box office returns bear this out if that’s the way you measure things, diminishing quality bears this out if you prefer to look at things that way …

Movies have changed and they…