I felt ahead of the game today, given that I finished a couple of film readings early, but I decided to get back to investigating wikis. I signed up for one hosted at Wikispaces but the code control sucked ass, so I added another at PBWiki, which seems to function a bit better. Honestly, though, the WYSIWYG editors at these sites are awful and wiki markup isn't nearly as friendly as HTML. I did manage to create a couple of pages on a free membership. The idea is that if I start paying, I can mess around with the CSS and eliminate the need for templates. As for being ahead of the game, I spent a few HOURS messing around with it without realizing how much time was passing. It always happens that way when I'm designing. It's probably why I don't remember much about college, all that time spent in front of a computer screen flying by as fast as it did.

I did manage to finish the majority of my readings. The plan is to go in a bit early tomorrow and work on Death in Venice-related research for my group meeting on Wednesday.

I heard back about an email I sent to the Canadian Council for the Arts, who told me that I couldn't apply for the grant I had my eye on. There is still one option I have if I apply as a collective, so I'm going to give it a shot. Thankfully, the application isn't due until the end of next month. I bought a phone card online that will allow me to call Andrea on her birthday and watched Night of the Living Dead, which made me think back to past Zombiethons with Ottawa folk. Ash was kind enough to catch me up on some of the action from this year's installment.

Reading Landow and discussing him in class prompted me to look a little further at wiki technology today. I went online and messed around with editing and attachments at TWiki.org. I could see myself really becoming absorbed in it.

I tried making a list of my ten favorite horror films, but I couldn't count off more than six. I don't watch as much horror as I used to (yet another indication that I'm mellowing, perhaps). That said I watched Nosferatu for the first time tonight and found Max Schreck's performance utterly creepy. Take a look at the moment he rises from the coffin in the hold of the ship. Tell me that didn't make people completely WET themselves in 1922.

I also watched Schindler's List, which is an obviously heartwrenching movie, but I didn't feel truly affected until Schindler breaks down towards the end. It's a triumph of Liam Neeson's to allow his character to shift the way he does, and I can't recall the last time I've seen such a realistic flow of character development in a film. That scene MAKES the film, because you see a man who has spent the last three hours onscreen slowly changing his mind about Jewish inferiority without blinking finally pour his life at the feet of the people he ultimately tries to protect.

I've got a copy of Bergman's Wild Strawberries to watch. It's going to be a dour weekend.

I spent some time in the library searching out work by Barthes to no avail, though I did nab a copy of Foucault's Archaeology of Knowledge. I also sent off some mail and listened to SModcast. My cough has still not gone away, so it might be time to hit the IDA.