I fully intended to write an entry for yesterday, but after spending an hour in a very uncomfortable position in the back of a bus, I spent most of the night lying down with severe back pain. If I'm still here next Christmas, remind me not to go anywhere near the mall until after the holidays are over.

I appear to have passed at least one course this year, according to the UNC StudentCentral system. A P grade (budget cuts have forced Chapel Hill to grade only with the letters H, P, L, and F), which suits me fine. All I have to do now is finish the report for the other course, and I'll be finished for the semester.

Which leads, ferrofluidicly, to a question for the Bicester people: are we organising a night out before Christmas? I probably won't be able to do anything on Wednesday due to extreme jet-lag, and Thursday I'm going to be feeding my sister's obsession by seeing a few members of the New Zealand army run around in the rain, but as I far as I know, I'm free for any days except those two.

Another interesting link! A huge interview with Gary Kurtz, producer of Star Wars, American Graffiti, Two-Lane Blacktop, and The Empire Strikes Back. I love film history.

Continuing the film theme, I heard a new theory about the end of A.I. today. Consider this a spoiler warning. According to this theory, the robots at the end of the film lied to David; they couldn't bring his mother back from the dead. They also knew that the love he had for Monica was David's only function. So they created a simulation for him to spend the day with, and then quietly killed him while he slept. While I never subscribed to the view that the ending was a happy one in the first place, that's just depressing. Bonnie, you can stop crying now. Just think of the hobbits. But don't think about how the film on Thursday is going to end. I'm not helping, am I?

Al Gore is presenting Saturday Night Live tonight. Quite strange, although I see that Charles Kennedy hosted Have I Got News For You yesterday. Maybe it's the new in-thing for left-leaning politicians?

Don't forget - Mark Radcliffe is presenting the Top 40 tomorrow on Radio 1 from 16:00 until 19:00 (or if you're like me and currently living in the East Coast of America, 11:00-14:00) . I doubt he's going to be playing his "At Least Four Good Songs!" jingle, but it should be amusing nonetheless. Westwood is January 5th...