Woo hoo!

We just booked our little apartment for our summer holiday. We'll be staying in Tribunj for 6 weeks during the summer. Nice!!!

For those who don't know, Tribunj is on the Croatian Adriatic coast. Doesn't have any castle or heavy tourist destination, just some nice swimming and easy life. Nice!

If you're curious, I took pics when I was there before and they're in these blog entries:

http://matthollingsworth.blogspot.com/2006/11/tales-of-croatia.html

http://matthollingsworth.blogspot.com/2006/11/tales-of-croatia_25.html

http://matthollingsworth.blogspot.com/2006/11/tales-of-croatia_116449361134064344.html

Nara and went to see "There Will Be Blood" or "Bit Će Krvi" at Cinestar in the Branimir Centar last weekend. For anybody who lives here, it's still playing and is really well worth checking out.

It's the story of the rise of an oil baron from the early 20th century. I also enjoyed it from a different perspective as my father is an oil worker and has been his whole life. He works running the rigs that do the drilling for oil and he worked in Signal Hill when I was a kid, which is in the movie. Other California locations that I recognized from both living there and my father working in the oil fields were also of interest to me.

It's long, at 2 hours and 40 minutes, but it's not boring in a single instance. It's great all the way through. It's an acting and writing film, not some FX spectacle or anything like that. It's one of the best films of 2007, I'd say, and well deserving of its Oscar nomination. Other films I enjoyed in the last year that fit into that same vein, of being mostly writer, director and actor driven, are: The Prestige, The Departed, No Country for Old Men, Zodiac and American Gangster. If you enjoy that kind of film where you can really enjoy the performances, then go check out There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis hands in a truly fantastic acting job, really earning his Oscar win for best actor. Go see it before it's gone.

Man. Delayed again.

We went to MUP, the police station, on Petrinska yesterday. Waited about 2 hours. That's not the worst. We had to wait 4 hours once. But, this is, hmm, I think our 5th time there, working on my visa renewal. Last time we went they told us all of my papers were in order and that I just had to go to a different police station that's in charge of my district for an interview. Those guys never got around to calling me like they were supposed to so we had to go to them on our own. Got that done. Just a basic interview asking why I'm here, where I live and all that. Easy.

I had a 30 day extension from my last visit to MUP on Petrinska. And it was up and they still hadn't called me, so we had to go in. And wait 2 hours. I was hoping they'd take us in and give me my renewal finally. But no, of course not. My joke has been that to get anything done in Croatia requires at least 3 visits to any place. For instance, we had all sorts of different places to go to renew my visa and each one required about 3 visits before we accomplished what we needed. Same thing with most things here. But with MUP, it's been 5 visits already. Anyway, after 2 hours we finally go in and she tells us that they're still waiting to hear from some finance ministry or something and she extends me another 30 days.

We've been at this for 60 days now. Ah, lovely red tape. But I'm extended again, so that's okay. As long as they eventually approve me it's okay.

Yes, it's started to happen. I seem to be losing touch with American culture a little bit. I tend to go see movies here a bit. And most of the big American movies come here. And I still watch Lost by downloading on iTunes. But I don't have as much contact with Americans. I frequent some message boards for comics and that tends to be how I see some of this stuff. Basically, though, in America, language is largely affected by movies and television. If a hit movie comes out and has some funny line, it becomes frequently used and becomes part of the culture. It happened during Wayne's World, for instance. And I hate that shit. I find it hugely annoying. It's like an insider's club. Someone will drop a bit from a movie into their language and kinda wait to see if you get it. Well you know what? Fuck you. I don't care to be an insider with you. And fuck Wayne's World. Or Austin Powers. Or any other film you're taking your fucking language from. It doesn't mean you're smart. And it certainly doesn't mean you're cultured or witty. It means you have no personality of your own and have to borrow it from a crappy film or TV show.

On that note, some recent things I don't get.

I think this one came from a comic. I keep seeing the word "taint" as in the area between your balls and your ass (or between your vagina and your ass). Evidently in some comic someone was kicked there and now everybody is dropping this goody into their language, like "wow, that kicks so much taint". Well, fuck you. It sounds stupid. And you sound stupid when you use it. You're not funny. You need to leave your apartment or house more often. Says the guy who's been working 7 days a week. Fuck. I need a day off. Maybe tomorrow.

There also seems to be some phenomenon of making fun of "gingers" or people with red hair. Uh, ok. I don't get it. I think I'll make fun of Slovenians instead. They're my friends so I can do this. Maybe some of them have red hair so I can double up on this.

And, god damn it, I am sick of hearing "my bad", as in "Sorry, my bad." Where the FUCK did that come from? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? It's not funny. And you're fucked. Stop trying to manufacture some wit by leeching of of some crappy pop cultural reference.

Now if you want to quote the Simpsons, *that* I can forgive.

;-)