It's SPACE MADNESS!!!

I flipped through a book the other day that taught you how to make things with office supplies. They had works of art, ways to decorate your cubical with plastic cups, and helpful suggestions on making work more interesting.

This morning I attempted to play a little game they called Office Meeting Bingo. I changed it to Manager Meeting Bingo.

I had planned to come up with a couple of different cards this weekend, but forgot due to nice weather and Kirk Hinrich sweating away in shorts (take that Shaq). I remembered it this morning so I hastily drew up a "card" on my legal pad. Had I not spoken or if someone would have talked about Dunkin' Donuts' coffee I so would have had BINGO.

Other spaces included the following:

sports metaphors

too much information

talking too long

Sparky tells his personal tailor story

"that's great"

lame sales lingo

I'm half asleep

I haven't decided if I'm going to dare share this with anyone during the meeting. Although, the ASM I was sitting next to seemed to find it amusing and was actually prompting me to mark a square when it was satisfied (as it were). Somehow I'm thinking I'll be back to the attitude issue if I pass this along to the rest of the class.

That's about it today other than my digital cable has been out for two days so thank goodness I'm paying about $70 a month for it. I can get the "extended basic" package channels just fine, but my beloved BBC America is awol. Crappily, Waking The Dead is on tonight and I'm going to have to miss it. Bastards! The channels have been squidgy for the last couple of weeks. I called to get it taken care of and the guy tells me there's a problem with the cable box. I told him I have this same problem every 3 or so months. So now, I'm not going to get a replacement box till Friday. They could have come on Wed., but seriously, who can be at home between 1-5pm these days? So now I'm getting up early for a 8-10am appointment. This of course means he'll show up at 10:15am and I'll get to glare at him to go faster so I can get to work. Lame I know, but annoying none the less.

Woo.

Action with a Homoerotic Subtext

Went and saw Hot Fuzz yesterday. It comes from the same team who brought us Shaun Of The Dead. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star as two cops who work in a sleepy little village. Pegg just got transferred there for being too good at his job. His numbers were screwing over everyone else's in the Met.

Hot Fuzz tackles virtually every cliche in the cop/action movie genre. Two guys of differing styles forced to be partners--check. New guy is considered an outsider--check. Nothing exciting happens (at first)--check. Sexual humor via single gal in department--check. Over the top evil dude--check. Homoerotic subtext between the leads--whoo-ha! check. Multiple gun fights involving redemption and one-liners--check, check, and check.

I enjoyed Hot Fuzz, mostly because Pegg and Frost are buddies in real life and that transfers big time onto the screen. They also poke fun at the cliches with clever puns, gags and just pointing it out openly (like the moment when Frost asks Pegg if he said a clever one liner while taking out one of the baddies and Pegg says he didn't get the chance). It's a little slow going at first story-wise, but when we eventually find out what the baddies are really doing, it's quite a nice little trick. There are plenty of laughs and some pretty sweet action sequences at the end. The down side? There are 3 action sequences at the end. One after another and all are a bit similar. I think two would have been enough, but that just means it's a cool movie and not a super cool movie.

Was playing cards with some friends last night while the children were in the living room watching a movie. We could hear them talking, etc. and one of them says something along the lines of "what a dumb ass." Now, this is not something an 11 yr. old should be uttering--atleast not within earshot of his mother. She goes in to talk to him and I start laughing. I thought he'd said "Who's in my ass?" I told this to a friend at the table and we couldn't stop laughing for about 5 minutes.

GO BULLS!!!!

Look, it's a penis

You have to love a culture that tries to be helpful and point out the nearest brothel to visiting sailors. I took this picture at Pompeii. Our guide through the ruins got a serious giggle pointing this feature out to us.

A quick addition to the seemingly never ending saga of crap being chucked into our dumpsters. The other day Jinn found a perfectly good purse/bag that had been tossed into the cardboard dumpster. It looked like someone purchased a new one and got rid of the old. Have people not heard of Goodwill?

The U.S. trailer for Harry Potter is online and it's pretty sweet. I enjoyed seeing Voldy decked out in his black suit, black shirt and black tie. Monochrome looks good, whether you're evil or good. Dolores Umbridge's look and demeanor remind me of a co-worker that shall go un-named but I will give a hint--no one works the system better in regards to personal injury.

So, I over-analyzed Lost. The baby isn't Sawyer's. Perhaps I had one too many film studies classes during my college days. Was very surprised to see the weird eyepatch guy that we thought was dead come sprinting through the shrubbery. And, I very much enjoyed the new chick telling Hurley that flight 815 had been found and everyone was dead! My reaction was pretty much like his, but with more cussing.

I'm looking forward to seeing Hot Fuzz this weekend. It's the new flick from the guys behind Shaun Of The Dead (which is an absolute fave of mine). Much like Shaun paid tribute to and satirized zombie flicks, Hot Fuzz hits the same notes in regard to buddy cop action flicks--only with a very British slant. I may also check out The Invisible, but I think I'll go to rottentomatoes.com first and see what they say.

WATCH IT:

Finding Neverland--I can't believe it took this long for me to check this movie out. Friends of mine have praised it up and down, but I knew I would have to be in the right mood because I knew it would make me cry. I watched it last night, and I kid you not, I sobbed through the last 40 minutes of it. It is funny and beautiful and lyrical. Depp and Winslet really play well off each other (it would be nice to see them together again). It was directed by the same guy who did Stranger Than Fiction if I remember correctly.

LISTEN TO IT:

Arctic Monkeys--Teddy Picker---As I mentioned on my last post, I was picking this up this week. And, it did not disappoint. While still retaining all the things that make them great, the band is progressing as far as their songwriting, etc. There is still the British sort of youthful, somewhat drunken, exuberance, but it's been tempered and the songs are showing a little more depth than before. Perhaps some of this is the perspective of someone growing up. "Teddy Picker" is just a blast of a song. It's very infectious and I essentially dance to it in the car as I am driving.

READ IT:

Fair And Balanced My Ass!--written by the same guys who did the brilliant Sweet Jesus I Hate Bill O'Reilly, F & B takes a look at the Fox "News" Organization as a whole, in addition to looking at how the public views journalism today. I've only just started it, but I laugh out loud on a regular basis.

Static or Jesus

Today's title has nothing to do with anything. Laura mentioned it to me as a description given in regards to an area with crappy radio stations. I thought it was a perfect name for a band so I'm laying claim to it now.

Not much to report as I haven't done much besides work and listen to the new Nine Inch Nails cd for the past week. I will toss out a couple of quick bits though.

I think it was Friday of last week. I was in back with Jinn and we heard a loud thud outside the door. It was obvious someone had tossed an item into our dumpster. Jinn quickly opens the door and I got outside to see some "soccer-mom-esque" chick in her Abercrombie and Fitch pullover sweatshirt slamming the lid of her trunk down on her SUV-ish vehicle.

I asked her if she'd just tossed something in the dumpster. She said yes and asked if there was a problem. I explained to her (and I'm sure she already knew this) that the dumpsters belonged to us via the landlord and they were not for public use. She said, really?

No shit dumb ass. Gee, here these are behind a business, accessable by a service only road, blocked from the residents eyes by a big, fucking fence...of course they aren't freakin public!!! I HATE PEOPLE!!!

I peeked inside and she'd tossed a computer monitor (a fairly large one) in there. Thank the lord she'd chosen the regular trash dumpster and not the card board only one. Just last week, I was digging out paint cans and other painting supplies from that one because the guys won't pick it up if it has anything other than cardboard in it. I tried to make her feel guilty by explaining to her that there are dangerous chemicals in monitors and it was really irresponsible to toss them out like this to be put into a landfill. I told her that there was a place on Adams St. that recycled unwanted computer items (and other electronics) to donate to lower income families and groups in need. I wanted this bitch to atleast suffer a little before she smacked her ass back down on her heated leather seats and popped in Maroon 5.

The monitor took a hard hit and broke open a trash bag so there was no point going in after it, as much as I was tempted to tell her to do. The main reason I didn't was she could just turn right around and put it back in quietly after I locked the doors back up. I hope I made her feel a little guilty. I should have taken down her plate number just to make her nervous.

I have pulled out chairs, a front door to a house, the backseat to a truck, carpet and more from the dumpsters just so we can toss our own shit. About a month or so ago, someone left a queen size matress and boxspring leaning against our fence by the dumpters. Seriously, what the hell? I wouldn't even consider tossing crap into someone else's dumpster. Rude, rude, rude. I hope karma bit these people in the ass.

On a lighter note, saw the new international trailer for HP 5 (hence the photo). It was pretty sweet. The new American trailer comes out tomorrow online.

WATCH IT:

Fracture--An above average thriller with a great sense of humor and two solid performances from Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. I thought the psuedo romance could have been dropped as it was only there to set up two later scenes. It could have been done another way that wouldn't have seemed quite so pointless and predictable.

Planet Earth--This mini series documentary on Discovery is freakin' amazing. I got caught up on Sunday while doing laundry. The photography is astonishing and someone deserves big bucks for the score. The music perfectly fits the images slipping, flying, and swimming across the screen. It actually gave me hope to see that beauty continues to exsist even in the remotest places. Plus, penguins rock.

LISTEN TO IT:

I know you're probably tired of me talking about you know who, so I'll pre-recommend the new Arctic Monkeys album which comes out on Tues. I've heard the first single and its just enough of a departure to give me confidence that they have decided to evolve rather than rest on their style.

READ IT:

I am horrible. I used to be such an avid reader and right now I am only picking up magazines. And they are pretty much only British movie and music mags. Although, I did read a chapter of Little Children, but I made myself stop because I still haven't read a book I borrowed about a month ago. Sad, sad, sad.