The Nerd played the bass and changed his oil today.

Today was pretty good. In fact, it was downright awesome.

I woke up at 10 with my friends, and my mother and I had breakfast with them and their family. Then I left around noon to go visit my father and learn how to change a tire and perform an oil change. It was time-consuming and kind of sucked, but I'm quite glad to know how to do both tasks in case an emergency occurs. I can imagine being stuck on the side of a desert road in the middle of the night with a flat tire and not knowing what to do other than call AAA, even though I'm not a AAA member, and believe me, that's a much worse scenario than being able to put on the spare tire and go on driving. Afterwards, I got together with a few musician friends of mine and practiced the song we're auditioning for the talent show with, a cover of Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" from their album Black Holes and Revelations. It sounds pretty awesome, and we're pretty sure we're gonna rock it hardcore. And then I came home, did some homework and now sit here.

So, we're a few weeks away from the most important night of the year for my inner film buff: The 83rd Academy Awards. Seriously, I love the Oscars to the extent that I host a party where formalwear is required. It's nuts. But with the nominations having just been announced, I thought I might take a space to give you all my bets on what's going to win this year.

Best Picture: Black Swan
Lead Actor: Jeff Bridges for True Grit
Supporting Actor: Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech
Lead Actress: Natalie Portman for Black Swan
Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit
Animated Feature: Toy Story 3 (Vote for Pixar. Always.)
Art Direction: Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Doug Mowat for Inception
Cinematography: Wally Pfister for Inception
Costume Design: Jenny Beavan for The King's Speech
Directing: Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
Documentary Feature: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Documentary Short Subject: Poster Girl
Film Editing: Andrew Weisblum for Black Swan
Foreign Language Film: Biutiful
Make-up: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for The Wolfman
Original Score: John Powell for How to Train Your Dragon
Original Song: "We Belong Together" by Randy Newman for Toy Story 3
Short Film Animated: Night and Day
Short Film Live Action: The Confession
Sound Editing: Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague for Tron: Legacy
Sound Mixing: Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick for Inception
Visual Effects: Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb for Inception
Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit
Original Screenplay: Christopher Nolan for Inception


WARNING: ROMANCE PARAGRAPH INBOUND.


What is there to say that hasn't already been said? She's on my mind a lot and I haven't seen her since two Fridays ago. Really nothing further to report for the day.


And now, it's Sunday, so let's first celebrate the one-week anniversary of the blog, and then get the week rolling with a brand spankin' new...


QUOTE OF THE WEEK! {random "oohs" and "ahs" ensue}


"What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere." ~Dominic Cobb, Inception


And on that badass note, I think it's about time to end this post. Have a good week, loyal readers!


This concludes the posting of The Mindless Ramblings of the Nerd for 30 January 2011. I hope to see you tomorrow for another exciting installment!


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