Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Movies are fun.

Well, sometimes. Unemotional Holocaust movies like The Grey Zone aren't really fun, but The Incredibles is.

Possibly seeing seeing Star Wars Episode 3 with my entire office will be fun, but who knows. My boss is the biggest Star Wars fan I know, and somehow that translates to the entire company getting to take off an afternoon in June to go to the movies. Awesome.

Netflix finally sent Sideways. Woo! I also have The Anniversary Party and some other movie when they get The Incredibles tomorrow. If The Motorcycle Diary's long wait holds out, it'll be some TV show.

But mostly, I have been watching TV. VERONICA MARS TOTALLY RULES, YOU GUYS. Yes, I have to mention it in every post now. I am still excited from last night's revelations. It's so insane. I want it to be Tuesday again so I can see the next one. Aaaaaaaasdf. I can't even explain it in a way that doesn't make it sound totally stupid, but I swear, it's an awesome show. And it even got renewed!

God, I'm so boring. I don't even have a commercial to bitch about lately. I don't understand the sheep-boy smoothie Skittle commercial, though. It feels like a bastardized edgy comedy sketch.

Monday is my sister's 21st birthday. I'm gonna go up to San Francisco on Sunday and do some celebratory lunching, but I can't stay for the midnight drink-fest. I have work. You darn crazy kids.

Okay, I'm done. Tell me something interesting.

Friday, April 22, 2005

It is some strange conspiracy of fates that I was home before 6.

It's the same fates who decided that when my department at work would be inundated with work that, even with two people in the office, would appear overwhelming, my boss would be out of the office for three days and unable to do any of it.

I try not to discuss work here, but I'm just saying. I've been busy. It was an unfortunate miracle that I wasn't working overtime--unfortunate because it meant there was something so wrong with a project that it wasn't worth further testing until someone else could fix it, meaning nothing until Monday.

I have really got to figure out how to get exercise in a way that makes sense. Or get over at least one excuse. I know I've complained about this before. I really wish I lived in a city and could walk places; I hate this car-dependent, homogenous, engineered setup.

What I really want, though, is a renewal of the Bop of the Day project. A few years ago, my IRC channel, #n00n, had a private FTP site where about six of us uploaded a song or two every day, called the Bop of the Day or BOTD. I think we all collected a lot of decent and interesting music that way. It's the equivalent of an ongoing mix CD project, and I miss it.

You guys who aren't watching Veronica Mars are fucking missing out, by the way.

Let's see. I didn't review my third movie from last week yet, which was Hotel Rwanda. I don't have any intelligent thoughts on it. I cried for most of the movie because it was just that sad. It felt kind of like a horror movie plot with real events. It was a pretty awful thing to watch, and it was no doubt cleaned up considerably for the benefit of audiences and that PG-13 rating. Very affecting.

This week, I have more Homicide: Season 1, The Grey Zone, and The Incredibles. Yeah, what was that I said about not liking animation much? I think my sister would hate me forever if I didn't watch Pixar movies, though. They are good. More wholesome than my usual fare, but good. Miyazaki and Pixar are the exceptions to my "family-friendly animated films are dumb" rule. Except Monsters, Inc., which I didn't like much. Because I am heartless.

Whether or not I'll do anything productive this weekend remains to be seen. My house needs some cleaning and the yard needs some tending, although the latter aggravated my allergies horribly in last weekend's botched attempt. Anyway, I'm not keeping my hopes up for anything besides watching my DVDs and having pancakes and listening to This American Life tomorrow.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

A bit about the monotony of everyday life.

There's getting up in the morning, driving to work, sitting at my desk, eating lunch, more sitting, driving home, being lazy, making dinner, and going to bed, only to do it all over again. Everyone knows this song and dance.

I have absolutely got to figure out how the hell to work in some exercise. I'd consider even a stupid workout machine dealie that I can stick in my room and use while watching TV. I've been perusing craigslist for such a device. I tried getting up early to walk around the neighborhood and jump rope, but it lasted for three days and I felt exhausted from getting up even half an hour earlier than usual. Going out after work is...unappealing, and I fucking hate the gym. Don't even suggest biking to work: it's 12 miles each way, fraught with danger, and I feel unsteady on a cycle. So while my diet is about as healthy as I'd like it to be (maaaaybe a few too many snacks, but even then), I am one of the bemoaned inactive Americans contributing to the obesity statistics you hear so much about.

Also, I blame living in the suburbs. The suburbs suck really hard in a lot of ways.

And I am full of excuses.

God, KQED is running calls from people suggesting their favorite places to run in San Francisco. Guilt, guilt, guilt. Running is bad with boobs, though.

I am, in a lot of ways, filled with loathing for my current situation, and though I'm not entirely powerless to get out of it, I feel a sense of obligation to keep at it, at least for awhile. Maybe things will improve, or I'll at least feel better about them.

Our lawn requires mowing (supposedly according to the laws of the City of Milpitas). We do not want to mow it because we are lazy and it is very, very tall. I refuse to do it; Kevin said he would, once, last Sunday, "after [he] eats." He ate after dark and went to work and did not mow the lawn. I think we should just hire someone, seriously, because fuck it. I also think people who rent houses should just hire people as part of the lease if they want things done right, but what do I know? I am just a lazy non-homeowner.

Finally, I watched two movies so far this week:

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which I really want to watch with my nieces, for some reason, and think I would have loved to see as a kid. It's a nice little movie. Normally I have zero interest in anime, but I have loved all Miyazaki I've seen.

Bad Education, Almodovar's latest, which has a male lead character for once. (He may have other movies with a male lead, but I've seen more than a few of his movies and they all had female protagonists.) It's an interesting story involving a priest abusing a choirboy and breaking him up from his beloved peer, then writing a story about it as an adult. I'm not sure how it got the NC-17 rating, though, because the sex was no more explicit than a lot of R movies. Maybe because it was gay sex, that is somehow more graphic. Whatever. I'm over 17 and can watch whatever the fuck I want to.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Who likes music?

Anyone? Bueller?

Fri 04/22/05 Pleaseeasaur Hemlock
Sat 04/23/05 Amy Correia Bimbo's 365 Club
Tue 05/03/05 Sloan Slim's
Wed 05/18/05 The Books Cafe Du Nord
Fri 05/20/05 Mike Doughty Cafe Du Nord
Thu 05/26/05 The Gossip Bimbo's 365 Club

Watching Vera Drake today made me cry. We Don't Live Here Anymore was only okay.

I have new bras. They are Wacoals. They are pretty damn nice.

I need to pick an internist at the Milpitas Kaiser facility within a week, or they will pick one for me. That sounds so ominous. I need to go use my benefits.

That is all. I am on the rag, but I was not incredibly sick today. That was nice.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Bad and good.



Bad: I set the DVD-R wrong last night and failed to tape Veronica Mars. This made me irrationally angry. Someone on TUS offered to send me a tape, but I am not sure it is necessary. Sweet of her to offer, though.

Good: Netflix let me report the mislabeled DVD as lost, finally, so this week I should get 3 DVDs again. Maybe Sideways. That would be great.

Also, my cupcakes were good. But also, evil. That's the trouble with things containing a pound of butter, four eggs, and a cup of sour cream. Yummy.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Cupcakes are made of death.

I swear these are going to kill me, anyway. The batter has a consistency approaching dough (drop cookie dough, anyway) and contains 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup full-fat sour cream. I don't know what the fuck I'll do with the remaining sour cream when the two batches are finished.

But HOLY GOD, do they look like they will taste awesome. Like artery-clogging awesome. What better way to honor a coworker who is about to have a baby? I can't think of one.

I don't know what to report about this week. It was a week. Work is starting to get busy. I was forced to socialize with coworkers Thursday after work and drank so much water, I thought I was going to explode. (Needless to say, almost everyone else was drinking something a little less hydrating.) Being a non-drinking semi-vegetarian makes for strange company in most circles.

Netflix is fucking up again, which is wonderful. Last week they sent Homicide: Season 1&2, Vol. 1, but disguised as Vol. 2. I had just returned Vol. 1 (not disguised as anything), so I did what I thought I was supposed to do: reported it as mislabeled and mailed it back on Monday with the other two movies. By Tuesday, Netflix had received the other two movies. As of now, they haven't received the mislabeled disc, but I can't report it missing, because apparently, if you report one problem, you're spent. No more problems are allowed. So I emailed customer service, but have yet to hear back beyond the confirmation message. Grrrr.

Maybe I will write more later, but that was about the extent of my week outside copious Tuesday-TV watching. Why must House AND Veronica Mars be so good and on at the same time? Why are Scrubs and The Office, which I would like to give a second chance, on then, too? And the goddamn Amazing Race? Fuck you, network programmers.