It took about 45 minutes with the Saturday morning cartoons in the background for me to realize that Pokemon 2000 has been on. I got the VHS of this for Xmas one year in the late 90's and tried hard to like it, cuz I found the first Pokemon movie so touching. I'm not sure why this one doesn't work -- the scope of it is pretty epic and the arctic climax should be awe-inspiring. Maybe it's cuz it's more plot-driven than character-driven, or should I say pokemon-driven. In the first movie, there were some serious themes, but they were expressed by individual conflicts and convincing sentiment. In this movie, they're expressed by broad scifi ecological allegories and mysticism, but no beating heart. Actually it kinda reminds me of the anime remake of Metropolis.

Is it just me, or is this just unnecessary and stupid? They can't make an exception this once?

Three t-shirts I saw today inside of the five minutes it took to walk from the C building to the M building:"I'm Definitely Up to Something""I Hate My Girlfriend""Nobody Cares about Your Blog"

If you can groove on some trippy scifi techno, trance, ambient, and drum-n-bass stylin' then this site has some good mp3's to put on while you work:http://www.sampleswap.org/music/And in case ya never heard of it:http://g2p.org/

I got hitched! Quick random update before it's back to the school year prep zone:The ceremony was AWESOME. Outdoors, in gorgeous weather, on a secluded lawn beneath a giant sycamore, I think. The processionals were Morricone music from Love Affair and Cinema Paradiso. (Funny how interchangeable some Morricone stuff is. gigademon turned to me as we were standing there and said "Is this from The Untouchables?") The recessional was the opening song from My Neighbor Totoro, the English version from the Fox/Lorber dub which was gotten with a VCR, an iRiver line-in port, and a mighty effort. The DJ made one mistake -- the "entrance theme" for the wedding party and our parents. It was sposed to be the celebrational end credits music from The Empire Strikes Back and she accidentally played the Darth Vader theme! AAARRRGGGHH. The one thing that made that amusingly appropriate was that one of my cousins from Atlanta who wasn't there, couldn't make it because he and his wife had just given birth, and they named their kid Anakin.I'm not very sociable, but I wish I had circulated among the guests and talked to people more during the reception. I think I was afraid of all the people I didn't know, and also all the childrens including nephews and nieces whose names I should have had memorized in advance but didn't.On the brighter side our officiant, coordinator, and multilingual emcees were all old dear friends and they plus our wedding party were really there for us at every second.Random fun memory: when the news arrived that THE BRIDE HAS ENTERED THE PREMISES I got sequestered in a little room by myself to stretch and pace and almost have my second panic attack this year. When two of the groomsmen came by to keep me company, they told me to sit down and I said I didn't wanna cuz I was afeared that if I did I'd turn into that guy from the "Weapon of Choice" video by Fatboy Slim. They were like, what do you mean and so I described the vid, that has that famous guy who told young Bruce Willis the story about his father and the watch during the Korean War, who's dressed in a suit and sitting in a deserted hotel lobby looking very old and tired and like a cross between Willy Loman and J. Alfred Prufrock and shit, and suddenly the music kicks in and he gets up and starts to bust a move or two and then it's like The Matrix with him flying all over the hotel and then the music ends and he lands back in his chair and looks old and tired again. So, yeah, I didn't want to sit down out of this irrational fear that if I did in that dark quiet room while wearing my tux I'd somehow become that guy. And then we were going crazy trying to remember his name and joking about how we'd be at the ceremony and instead of saying "I do" I'd be like "YES!! THAT'S HIS NAME!" and then finally one of us remembered who he was. I leave it to you to figure out his name but he also played Leonardo's dad from Catch Me If You Can.Honeymoon was nice, a quiet few days at a bed-and-breakfast in the Berkshires. Driving at night in Massachusetts is NO FUN, DOCTOR JONES. But we saw Yo Yo Ma from the big lawn at Tanglewood, ate lots of surprisingly (sorry I guess I'm a New York snob) good food (including an unforgettable chilled Lime and Chili Pepper soup with celery and turnips, and a divine Warm Sugar and Hazelnut Cake with Peach Ice Cream at the Red Lion Inn) and S bought me the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack, that comes with a bonus DVD that can only be described as Complete Star Wars Fantasia.So I just made the rounds and tried to comment on many of your journals but didn't hit all of em yet but will try to!athena_jess your baby looks beautiful! And in the top picture, very aware of how cute she is.cid_ascendant, nice to see your poeticalness emerging again and let me know if you're driving distance from Dallas.eldogo, hope your boss has not embraced the Dark Side. gigademon, thanks for everything kisskissbambam, can't wait to see pitchers of Alaska.liradralyn, congrats on all the writing stuff and your new office.miss_mcdonald, where ya been? I had my first Big Mac in over a year yesterday. mrshannibal, I see I'm not the only one who recently got married to my soul mate. I'm afraid I won't be joining you for dinner. mudpuppy83, congrats on your own nuptials!professormortis, congrats on yours too!taterjane, look for something in the mail!usagivindaloo, thanks for the mutual!and zmarlowe, my first "real" (as in I'd never met ya before) LJ "friend," it's great to see your writing plans taking off to the next level! I just finished Lamott's Bird by Bird, which I loved and you must read it even tho you probly knew about it already cuz I think I was the last so-called writer on earth to get around to it...And for all faithful readers of Fateplan, a gift! Just better hope the RIAA ne parle pas Francais...http://claninfinity.free.fr/Dede/Ma%20musique/

That's one small glimmer of hope for Andrea Yates, and for all of us. But we all still got a long way to go.

Idiots.And sure the drivers were ultimately responsible, but still. I'd like to see how any of them tries to explain why this happened to the parents of the one who died.

From AmIRight.com, misheard lyrics from Trent's "Right Where It Belongs"Original Lyrics:What if all the world you think you know / Is an elaborate dream?Misheard Lyrics:What if all the world you think you know / Is in a lab or a dream?In a way the misheard version is even better than the original...

Meme pirated from usagivindalooYour Life: The SoundtrackSo here's how it works. Open your Windows Media or iPod or whatever BIG COMPLEAT PLAYLIST you use. Put it on shuffle. Press play. For each successive question on the list, type the song that's on. And when you go to a new question, press the next button. Follow the questions in order, no matter what song it is. Ready? GO!Opening credits: The Palace of the Sun and Moon, Tomohito Nishiura, Dark Cloud OST. Never played this but Ive heard that Dark Cloud is one of those neverending, randomly-generated dungeon spelunkfests. The somberness hints at tragedies imminent, and starts this movie right in the middle of some action too. Waking up: Tactics Miki Higashino, Suikoden OST. Good fit up at the crack of dawn to say hello to everybody, send a subordinate out for coffee, and lean over a table mulling over maps and strategies for the mornings campaign. Average day: Im Your Girl (remix) SES. Well, I guess if my life belonged to a Korean high school girl chewing bubble gum and roller-blading to school to see her lovely boy, then this one would be perfect.First date: You Make Me Feel Brand New The Stylistics. Just now one of the custodians walked in to take the garbage and said beautiful song. A bit heavy for the first date, but the feelings right.Falling in love: Turbid Guidance Lufia II, Overclocked Remix. I have a lot of MP3s from games Ive never played. This one makes falling in love sound mysterious. And dangerous. Maybe shes a spy. Maybe shes an assassin. Maybe shes a prisoner I need to spring from an underground complex. In any case the piano makes her sound too pretty for me. A little Spanish guitar in there now Im pitchering Salma Hayek. I wonder what "turbid" means?Fight scene: So Broken (live) Bjork. The audience cheering makes it sounds like Im about to step up on a glad' in a busted-up coliseum. Spanish guitar gives it some Old West spaghetti sauciness. Then we sit down and the fight begins chess, best out of three, loser to the lions! Of course Ill win the first and third, which means the princess will lose her pretty-boy suitor forever, and then shell have to marry me, muhahahahaaaa.Breaking up: Acid Crash (remix) Tyree. Years later, I bring her to New York and she dumps me in the middle of a crowded sweaty dancefloor in the basement of whatever house music club the kids go to these days.Getting back together: Opening Suikoden II OST. Years after that, after the downfall of New York, she and I will be reunited on a desolate, blood-soaked battlefield. Well pledge our hearts anew and organize the survivors to join the Resistance. Secret love: Plant Me Suddenly, Tammy! Ha, very nice. Ah, the irony of my secret love turning out to be some folk-singin piano-playin emo white chick. She lets me hear this new song and Ill be so vain I'll know that its all about me. Life's okay: Yuri FinKL. This ones soothing but melancholy. Dont unnerstand Korean but it sounds like theyre saying that everythings okay cuz lifes just like that sometimes. As good as any.Mental breakdown: Shadowgate Mystic Piano Shadowgate, Overclocked Remix. Ah, very good. I actually put this looping, unnerving, claustrophobic drum-n-bass mix onto a Halloween mix once in 2003. Dungeons and Dragons meets Memento. Driving: Dirty Outskirts Silent Hill II OST. Good in theory, but this one has no action to accentuate the mounting dread of getting lost while driving at night. Just gotta turn it up as high as itll go and pretend like it works.Learning a lesson: People Change Rockapella. Some of the lyrics here sound like they might be scarily spot-on yet I refuse to pay enough attention to find out. Deep thought: Wounds of the Past Phantasy Star IV The Coop, Overclocked Remix. Another one I never even played. But its got a good cosmic vibe set to a steadily dawning, profound realization, like Jack Handey saying "There is no deeper pain than that caused by the wounds of the past, especially if its the imaginary pain of the imaginary past wounds of an RPG character in the latest Final Fantasy game. Dude." Flashback: Madagascar (Ferry Corsten Mix) Art of Trance. The first truly wrong one of the lot. Unless its a flashback to my getting dumped on the dance floor by the princess, back in the day before the revolution. But why would that be the subject of my one flashback? Am I that kind of person, or is this just that kind of movie? Partying: I Walk the Line (live in San Quentin) Johnny Cash. Okay this is fine. This songll probly be on at the weddin anyway. Happy dance: The Stalin Channel Qaid. This would be the slinkiest, smarmiest, most annoying victory dance ever. Regretting: Kanes Entrance Theme, WWF (circa 2002). Haha very good. This is the kind of regret you feel when you suddenly realize that youve been suckered by the serpent, and its now too late to undo all the unwitting evil that has been carried out by your own hands. Long night alone: Rainbows South Park. Yeah, I can see being alone in a quiet house and sitting up staring at South Park eps all night, feeling lonelier and lonelier each time my solitary laughter is swallowed by the unmoving quiet.Death scene: We Can Funk Prince Graffiti Bridge sdtk. Hmmmmm. Rave against the dying of the light? But I dont want to go into the Great Mystery with a Prince beat in my head. Now if it'd been "Joy in Repetition," the song that comes right after this one on the CD, that I could see.Ending credits: Darlin Companion (live in San Quentin) Johnny Cash. Nice note to end on cuz its a light, snappy duet, but dammit I just deleted the file by accident. So now . . . well, now theres no trace of it ever having existed.

There's a new study just out, funded by The National Institute on Drug Abuse. Basically, it says that for some people, anticipation of pain is worse than pain itself -- to the point that some people would actually prefer to endure more pain right away, than endure less pain after being made to wait for it. Some of you know that I'm interested in Freudian psychoanalytic theory. One of the reasons why Freud's Interpretation of Dreams is so important (aside from the fact that Mulholland Drive doesn't make any sense without it) is that, in Freud's view, the forces which drive our dreams are the same -- in both form and content -- as the forces which drive our waking, relatively "conscious" thoughts. Both sleeping and waking "thought," Freud argued, are motivated by desire, or as he put it, dreams are a form of "wish-fulfillment." The obvious problem is that not all dreams seem to be about desirable things. If dreams are wish-fulfillment, then why would we have nightmares? Freud suggested one possibility: that nightmares are "punishment dreams," which satisfy our desire to be punished for some transgression against the superego. This might explain why we watch horror movies. We gladly suffer the fear and anxiety of seeing gruesome violence onscreen so that we can get the satisfaction of seeing punishment -- "justice" -- meted out to the serial killer, the unholy monster, or the annoying teenager. But isn't some of that fear also vicarious? Aren't we meant to identify with the victim's pain? Why would we ourselves want to be punished? Isn't that kind of perverse?Melanie Klein, who differed with Freud on fundamental concepts, but insisted that she was a better Freudian than Sigmund's own daughter Anna, studied the play of children for insight into their unconscious desires and anxieties. Klein considered it a truism that children sometimes act up or out of turn because they somehow "want" to be punished. If this new study can be trusted, we now seem to have a way of conceiving the desire for punishment and nightmares. If the anxiety over anticipated pain is sometimes felt as worse than the pain itself, then people might sometimes choose pain right away in the belief that this choice will help them avoid pain later on. Thus Klein's "desire for punishment" can be explained, and Freud's theory of wish-fulfillment survives the counter-example of nightmares. Now imagine a person with a certain low confidence or low self-esteem. Suppose that person is set to accomplish a task -- a high school exam, a college major, a job, or parenthood. Or maybe it's something more long-running and general, such as moral survival in a neighborhood, city, or world that she or he perceives as filled with cynics, nihilists, and predators. Let's name her Beth. Should we wonder that Beth should be afraid of failure? Should we wonder that the very fear of failure -- the mere anticipation of a humiliation that she has already experienced despite what she believed were her best efforts at the time -- might be so powerful that she finds herself surrendering before she's even begun to fight? Or does things unconsciously to sabotage her own conscious efforts? Or grows to hate with all her being those who keep challenging her to "try, try again?" Or even seeks the destruction of those who are trying to help?Neergaard, Lauran. Research shows anticipating pain hurts. The Associated Press. May 4 2006. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2006-05-04-brain-dread_x.htmAnyone who's ever taken a preschooler to the doctor knows they often cry more before the shot than afterward. Now researchers using brain scans to unravel the biology of dread have an explanation: For some people, anticipating pain is truly as bad as experiencing it.How bad? Among people who volunteered to receive electric shocks, almost a third opted for a stronger zap if they could just get it over with, instead of having to wait.More importantly, the research found that how much attention the brain pays to expected pain determines whether someone is an "extreme dreader" suggesting that simple diversions could alleviate the misery.The research, published Friday in the journal Science, is part of a burgeoning new field called neuroeconomics that uses brain imaging to try to understand how people make choices. Until now, most of that work has focused on reward, the things people will do for positive outcomes. "We were interested in the dark side of the equation," explained Dr. Gregory Berns of Emory University, who led the new study. "Dread often makes us make bad decisions."Standard economic theory says that people should postpone bad outcomes for as long as possible, because something might happen in the interim to change improve the outlook. In real life, the "just get it over with" reaction is more likely, said Berns, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. He offers a personal example: He usually pays credit card bills as soon as they arrive instead of waiting until they're due, even though "it doesn't make any sense economically."So Berns designed a study to trace dread inside the brain. He put 32 volunteers into an MRI machine while giving them a series of 96 electric shocks to the foot. The shocks varied in intensity, from barely detectable to the pain of a needle jab. Participants were told one was coming, how strong it would be, and how long the wait for it would be, from 1 to 27 seconds. Later, participants were given choices: Would they prefer a medium jolt in 5 seconds or 27 seconds? What about a mild jolt in 20 seconds vs. a sharp one in 3 seconds? When the voltage was identical, the volunteers almost always chose the shortest wait. But those Berns dubbed "extreme dreaders" picked the worst shock if it meant not having to wait as long.The MRI scans showed that a brain network that governs how much pain people feel became active even before they were shocked, particularly the parts of this "pain matrix" that are linked to attention but not brain regions involving fear and anxiety. The more dread bothered someone, the more attention the pain-sensing parts of the brain were paying to the wait. In other words, the mere information that you're about to feel pain "seems to be a source of misery," George Lowenstein, a specialist in economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote in an accompanying review of the work. "These findings support the idea that the decision to delay or expedite an outcome depends critically on how a person feels while waiting," Lowenstein added.The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the research. What's the link between dread and drug use? It's indirect, but now that scientists know how healthy people's brains anticipate unpleasant consequences, future studies can compare how drug abusers process such information.

For anybody who hasn't heardI probably won't get this unless it has some shocking extras. I didn't mind the Special Editions at all. (If memory serves, nobody minded them until the prequels started popping out. If memory serves even the hardest of the hardcore geeks were first on line on opening nite, and I should know.) I like the enhanced Death Star splodey with the ring of fire. I like it when Han steps on Jabba's tail and the Hutt's eyes bulge out. I do not need to hear the original Ewok celebration song ever again. I do not need to see the grey boxes around Vader's TIE Fighter and his wingmen when they first take off. I don't care if Han or Greedo shoots first because being anti-PC was always the new PC anyway. The only "updates" I don't like (and I've only heard about them, not even seen em for meself) are the ghizzosts at the end of Jedi and the unambiguous dialogue between Palpy and Vader in Empire, but whatevers. And anyway, isn't a new DVD format already gettin' the push? Don't believe the hype, I says. This ain't news. I'll save my excitement for when the TV show comes out. Or when the rumors start to fly about EPISODE SEVEN, yeah baby.Right. I don't care about this. I don't want it.Nope. I don't even like talking about it.Not at all. . . . And anyway, how many times would I really watch it if I did own it? . . . I mean what's the big deal? It's just a movie.I wonder what the extras are gonna be.

How to appreciate this flash object by 3dzoef: http://members.home.nl/gazoz/1. Use Windows Explorer (it wouldn't work on Firefox).2. Turn the sound up.3. Follow the link.4. Let it loop at least ten times.5. Go to "File" then choose "New" and "Window"6. If it opens the same link automatically, let it do so. If not, just copy and paste the same link in.7. Repeat steps 4-5 until you have at least three windows going at the same time. 8. Turn it louder and louder and keep adding windows until either your computer crashes, or your neighbors call the cops.

In honor of mudpuppy83's new car, here's how to find the cheapest gas per zip code, heisted from mrshannibal and my moms:http://www.gasbuddy.com/ http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=NetxI revised my YouTube movie on Friday evening, by the way. You may commence lavishing me with compliments any time you're ready.

Finally finished watching Volume One of Clone Wars. That shit was nuts. It just occurred to me that I would like to teach a Star Wars-themed class someday. Anybody read any good essays about Star Wars? I feel like, from an academic pov, I could use Matthew Stover's Shatterpoint as a central text, with some connections to Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now and Anakin's battle on the forest planet in the rain, but that kind of postcolonial approach would be too serious and not true to the spirit of the series.

And in today's faculty development thingie I learned how to use Windows Movie Maker! Again, don't ask me what this has to do with teaching English. Silent Night (with revised music and effects -- I been obsessed!)Warning: it's about a sad story. Not more than one or two of you could remember that I posted about it on December 26th, 2002.

Some have argued that we should "protect" kids from violent video games, music lyrics, and movies -- as if censoring depictions of violence might cure the causes of violence in real life.Some have argued that publishing the Columbine tapes would be "contrary to the public interest," too. But who, and what, are we really trying to protect?Article at Westword.com: "County officials have treated the killers' writings and tapes as an anthrax-like deadly contagion that must not, under any circumstances, be inflicted on an unsuspecting populace."

So this week is Spring Break, in case you were wondering ... Since there are some movie lovers on my flist, I'm copying my recent post to the Mini-Reviews thread of the BMMB.Barefoot Gen -- Borrowed this from a co-worker, then put off seeing it for over a year because the blurb on the box said it was "the most important animated film ever made!" Who the hell wants to spend an evening doing something "important"? Finally sat down to it and got completely caught up. I still don't know if it exactly earned my undivided attention; but it totally wrenched it. In many spots you could see the influence this film had on Miyazaki and Takahata -- even more than Grave of the Fireflies, this is like My Neighbor Totoro in a crueller universe and without any of the magical wish-fulfillment. The nuclear blast sequence was even more horrific than you would expect, partly due to a surprising and properly insane beauty. The scenes leading up to it very economically and effectively make you feel the correct emotion towards the people flying the Enola Gay -- absolute incomprehension and moral disbelief. Many scenes, especially the comic relief "optimistic Gen" moments, feel like a comic book come to life, and like Life Is Beautiful, they are so funny that it almost feels wrong to laugh so much. A moving, terribly sad, but also wonderfully courageous and vital children's story.Good Night and Good Luck -- Beautiful film -- probably the most beautiful use of black and white I've seen (although I've never seen all of Raging Bull.) The characters feel alive and believable; there's a consistent sense of humor even in the worst moments (and even when it has to be cynical humor); and the splicing of new footage and old is seamless -- I was never distracted by it. I don't think the film did enough to make a case for its own importance or the importance of its subject matter, but maybe that point is itself not important. I did not see anyone precisely heroic (or truly villainous, for that matter, but maybe that's because in the age of Fox News we're all a little bit too cynical already) -- just people with loads of honesty, dedication, and moral clear-headedness. Some of the more dramatic elements -- the suicide, the network exec's angst -- were not explained as much as I would have liked, but I was definitely left wanting to learn more about the characters and the time.Kung Fu Hustle -- In the rich and imaginative visuals, the gloriously goofy satire, the slaphappy fight choreography, and the sentimental subplot, this movie is even more enjoyable and satisfying than Shaolin Soccer, which was already one of my favorites. So many films are sent up here -- The Matrix, The Untouchables, Deadful Melody, Citizen Kane, and I'm sure there are many others -- yet nothing feels out of place; everything feels like it could have emerged organically from this story where nothing is new and yet everything is rhythmically delightful. Tarantino woulda been proud of Chow, or should that be the other way around?

Good workout. One nice thing about our gym is the TV's all have cable which thank god we don't got at home. Couldn't find the Yankee channel, and some dumb action series was on G4, so I settled on AMC, which was showing the last twenty minutes of Altered States. Yo. I had never seen this movie before, so just seeing the final act was a BIGTIME WTF. It was a disturbing, undefinable horror/sci-fi movie hybrid that seemed to be trying to tease out and graft together the freakiest implications of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Incredible Hulk, and the ending trip from 2001. What made it even more unsettling was that it seemed to just end exactly when things were getting clinically interesting. The whole thing was suffused with this grim, humorless 70's horror movie vibe the bleak epitome of which, for me, would be Roeg's highly unpleasurable Don't Look Now. I don't think I want to see the rest of the movie now.And yet, of course I want to. That's the thing about horror movies. Not unlike William Hurt's character in Altered States, we are, on a certain level, impelled to find out the worst.

Is websurfing addiction any worse or better than turning into a couch potato in front of the TV?Update 3pmFuggit, I ain't going to work today. I'm heading off to the gym... there ain't no couch there

Fatal Planetarium Special EditionIn Which Necrosorrow Realizes That The Govmint Likes To Play Stupid And Evil For A Reason, This Reason Being That It's Secretly Controlled By Libertarians Whose Concealed Agenda Is To Be Infuriatingly Stupid And Evil Enough To Incrementally Persuade Otherwise Intelligent And Sane Citizens To Finally Lose Their Fucking Minds And Become Libertarians Themselves . . . It took me about 30 minutes to finish my Federal 1040EZ. Without a calculator. So WHY THE FUCK did New York's so-called "Short Form IT-150" take me two drafts and more than THREE HOURS OF MY DAY OFF?The instructions are jargonistic, dry, and unclear, and they do not preview or summarize, and most unforgivable of all they are written in such a stupidly self-absorbed, obliviously earnest way as to oblige every person to read through every item even if it turns out that not every item even applies to every person or even most people who are gonna read the booklet. Arcane terms are not all explained in a central location like a glossary -- one acronym in particular I had to rifle back and forth through the pages aimlessly to find out what it meant -- and yeah there is an 800 number and yeah the person on the other end was helpful and nice but wait a fucking minute, why should I even have to call up the govmint for "help" when I'm the one who's been giving the fucking fuckers my fucking money? And why the fuck after all that work and squinting and neckache is my refund less than $50? I mean if they calculate my withholdings so it comes out that close at the end of the year, then why make me go through the work at all? They can't use some of that money I paid out of every check to do their own math and correct their own overcharging? Well of course not me silly boy, because it's not actually their fault for overcharging -- it's my fault for "OVERPAYING." Like all they're trying to do is save me from MY OWN fucked-up math!I swear, I've seen Final Fantasy VIII FAQ's written by 16-year old kids that are much clearer and more transparent and easier to use than the New York Tax Form Instruction Packet. There's a reason why some publications don't contain the names of the people who wrote them.Update Tuesday April 11So I was about to send the New York return out and called up the 800 number again to do a last-minute check, and was shocked to discover that there's a whole different form that I completely missed! ARGH. It's a new form called IT-2. Now what is the point of having a simplified "short" form if you're still required to fill out supplemental forms? Interestingly enough, the woman on the phone did not sound the least bit surprised at my surprise. And as she walked me through the IT-2, she cheerfully admitted that one of the steps would have been confusing if I hadn't had her on the phone.