Slice: Movieclips.com, Heavenly-Dire Clips, Time-Suck

Last week, the movie gods unveiled a sweet online paradise when Movieclips.com went live. I was straight off the heels of remembering my first (and, hopefully, last) layoff from a corporate behemoth, The Blerg, and I was looking for fictitious commiseration. This website provides cinephiles like myself with most anything they need.

You can hover over the tiny icons that promise a minute or two of your favorite movie scenes; it suggests a bunch beneath your search results to entertain yourself while your specific movie-choice loads.

While we close PopSci for February, I've been checking out some favorite scenes of telling the "Haters. Gonna Hate." (see above animation) of the corporate world to go shove off.

See below iterations of a couple fun movies from the past decades, where the characters tell their bosses and/or stories of their disillusionment--and their desire to QUIT.

Lordy, me, the resolution and nice capsulized versions of these bits gives me goosebumps. Please check out the Movieclips site, yourself.

"Half Baked"

Steve Martin, in "Parenthood": ("I have been KILLING myself, aren't you Dazzled?")

A seven-figure settlement in "Office Space." This is from YouTube, since the MC site is giving me errors (it could be my fiddling with the html so it won't Autoplay), but ... I can't watch/relate this scene enough. It's brilliant. I work hard and very, very well at PopSci; at The Blerg, I was Peter:

And, finally, a new tawdry favorite, "Wanted" scene:

A Day Off Work, More Office Space, New Movies to Review!

I came back from lunch yesterday to an e-mail from my boss's deputy. It sat in the inbox, glowering at me.

I circled it like a vulture, nibbling on the bits of e-mail spam surrounding it. I didn't want to click. Why was he e-mailing me? On a day like yesterday, the mind went wild.

I clicked to find a gift:

"Morgan, I'm making the schedule and realized I have you down as taking a vacay day tomorrow. Is that still happening?"

Say what?

Ahhhh! I requested today off long ago, an amazing show of forethought on my part; I'm still impressed.

I sat thinking about it, and realized he'd just told me I'd found 20 bucks in my back pocket.

I explained that my trip was no longer happening, but why not? I'll just take the day.

"Well, you don't have to. You could still work."

"Hmm, no, no, [sloth, sigh.] I have some things to take care of."

Oh, the day will be my oyster, I thought. I could take care of apartment stuff, maybe go out to Brooklyn ... always wanted to tromp around the park there ... so many things.

Nope. I've read about movies, watched two of them and started thinking about writing a Choose Your Own Adventure. I realize that maybe I'm okay with doing nothing?

Like Peter's response to what he'd do with a million dollars in Office Space.



I also found out the new movies I'll be reviewing!! Yesterday was pretty awesome.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: Kevin Smith movie, with Seth Rogen ... saw the posters for it in L.A. Meh, SR needs to slow down his movie pace.

Splinter: There's only one person I'd take to the screening to see this with me. "Trapped in an isolated gas station by a voracious Splinter parasite that transforms its still living victims into deadly hosts, a young couple and an escaped convict must find a way to work together to survive this primal terror." Yikes, awesome.

Dear Zachary: "A filmmaker trying to memorialize his murdered friend discovers that the woman who killed him was pregnant with his late friend's son." Oh, no.

The next week is:
Role Models: "Danny and Wheeler were just sentenced to 150 hours mentoring kids. Worst idea ever." Ahhh, sounds like worst movie idea ever.

Repo! The Genetic Opera: He said I could skip this one. Might. "A worldwide epidemic encourages a biotech company to launch an organ-financing program similar in nature to a standard car loan. The repossession clause is a killer, however."

Eden: "A married couple's relationship begins to fall apart as their 10th wedding anniversary approaches." NEXT!

The Boy in Striped Pajamas: This one's supposed to be good. "Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences."

`If they take my stapler, I'll... I'll... set the building on fire'

Oh, how I lamented working from home. The loneliness. The discomfort. The inability to fume quietly at my coworkers.

Dear God, I will never take it for granted again.