Blues on Parade

This week has started out rather harshly. Moment to moment it has not been too bad, but there seems to be a slew of bad news that has popped up.

The thing that has upset me most is my cat. She's old (15) and has hyper-thyroid and on Saturday she was out all night and then she wasn't eating at all Sunday or Monday. She was such a sad sight we were sure we'd have to put her to sleep. For various reasons, we weren't able to get an appointment to euthanize her right away. Then yesterday she ate a little so we decided to wait and see if she kept improving. Today she's eating a little more and is more like her vocal annoying self. So things are kind of up in the air about her. Hopefully she's rallying, but she is a very old cat so who knows what will happen. I really hope we don't have to kill my kitty. Worrying about her and about what would be the best thing to do has cast a sad note on the week for me.

That's the most personal bit of news. It seems like bad things are happening all over the place though. I feel like all I hear about is people getting sick or dying or losing their jobs. It's all very depressing. Most of it doesn't really affect me directly, which is why I'm more upset about my cat than death and disease and unemployment. Still it's worrisome and it doesn't do anything to cheer a person up.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman!

If you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet, you're probably the only one in the country. It opened at $155 million (Mama Mia, the second biggest movie this weekend, only made $27 million) this weekend, breaking all sorts of records including biggest single day and biggest opening weekend ever. I was one of the 22 million people who saw it over the weekend. Thursday night, specifically, at midnight (which is technically Friday I guess).

It is a really brilliant movie. Especially if you remember (how can you forget) that it's based on a comic book. I guess I don't really have to gush about it. If you have any interest in the movie, you've probably read all the reviews already that laud it as a fucking awesome flick. Critics everywhere loved it, except a bunch of New York rags, including the New Yorker. I actually read that review and it made me very sad. David Denby completely missed the point and basically whined that TDK wasn't campy enough to measure up to Batman ala Michael Keaton. And yeah, I guess if what you want out of your movie is a bunch of two dimentional fluff and a few laughs, TDK is not nearly as good as Batman. But if you want some real pathos, believable characters, plot depth and a villian who is actually villanous, TDK wins out by a long shot.

Let me clarify what I mean by believable characters. I will readily admit that it's a little far fetched that Bruce Wayne would deal with his rage over his parent's death by dressing up in a batsuit and fighting crime. The Joker is another character that makes you go "yeah, that's cool, but there's no way that would really happen." My point is that the characters are portrayed in such a way that they become believeable. And once the premise of the character is set, the way they react and interract with each other is consistant and makes sense.

I'm sure it doesn't need to be said, but holy cats was Heath Ledger brilliant!

I'm still excited about Batman five days later. It really was mind blowing amazing. I need to see TDK about 6 more times, I think. Anyone want to go to a movie this weekend?

Come Up With Your Own Clever Title

Since Aaron gets all Whiney McWhiney-Pants when I don't update, and who am I to ignore my adoring public, I decided to jot down a few random thoughts today at work. I didn't blog in real time because... well technically I'm not allowed to while I'm getting paid. And that kind of makes sense, really, if you think about it. I also have to make it clear that the thoughts herein expressed are in no way representative of my employer etc. But you all know that.

The point is I now have two little pieces of paper with a collection of random things that came floating through my head. I am going to type them up now so that you can get a feel for what it's like being inside my head when I'm at work and it's really slow and I'm on desk all by myself. I present to you (in a bulletted Warhol Soup Canned list) the random thoughts from work today:

A lady was in here with puzzle pieces tattooed all over her head. Her head is shaved and the whole effect is really neat. I wanted to say something complimentary, but what does one say to someone like that? "Dude, sweet tats" is so cliche... not to mention stupid. The best I came up with was, "I like your head" but it amused me so much that I just sat silently laughing at myself until she left and it was too late. Which is fine. I didn't really need to talk to her anyway.



Skirts are fun. They are nice and cool in the summer. Much nicer than pants. Pants suck. If I swivel in my chair I get a little bit of a Marilyn Monroe effect from the fan under the desk. It's sort of fun. And potentially embarrassing. Skirts are fun, but risky.





According to the stupid book I'm reading (How To Make Someone Love You Forever in 90 Minutes or Less) the best and quickest way to connect with other people is simply by making eye contact and smiling. That was in the chapter that doesn't really have anything to do with making someone fall in love with you; it was about meeting new people. Anyway, people don't make eye contact much these days let alone smile. It's so simple, and no one does it. Just think about all the people you miss out on when you're looking down all the time. All the interesting people you could meet, or at least see. It's the simplest of connections, but I think it could be really powerful. I resolve to make eye contact with and smile at as many people as possible today. And tomorrow too. All week. Hell, It'll just be my policy to look up and smile and look people in the eye. Who knows, maybe that will lead to me making someone love me in 90 minutes or less after all.



There's a girl here with a bandage on her nose. She can't be more than 15 or 16. Nose job? Sad, if it is. She's way too young to be getting a nose job. That said, if I ever get Wegener's again (knock on wood - to not get it) I totally get a new nose out of it! Seriously, the chances of my nose collapsing if I have a relapse are pretty high. So I can get a new one. But who's nose should I pick???? Yours! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha. Just kidding. Your nose would look kinda funny on my face. I would probably just take and old picture of me and say "I want my old nose back please." It would be a picture from before I got sick the first time though. My nose is a bit wonky since then. You wont notice it unless you spend a lot of time looking at my nose, which I do, apparently.



I love it when guys try to show off and then fail. I just got winked at. Then the kid ran into a wall. Classic! And you thought that only happened in the movies! Yes, boys, I take much pleasure in your pain!






na-na-nana-nana-nana na-na-nana-nana-nana Batman! I'm totally going to see that tomorrow night. At midnight. Then I waking up at 6 to take the parents to the airport the next morning. And I have a paper due Friday too. Crap. And I'm working all day tomorrow. Hmmm I have some time between 6 and 8... or nine. Good thing it's a short paper.




The Batman theme song... the oldschool one from the TV show... is a traditional blues chord progression. Aren't you glad you know that now? So if you ever are with me and a jazz concert and you notice I am singing batman under my breath, it's only because I'm trying to determine whether they are playing blues or not. That's pretty much the only thing I remember from the Survey of Jazz (or whatever it was) class I took a year or so back. That and Johnny Hodges is an amazing sax player.

Greenify Your Love

This is pretty amazing.


Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

It just goes to show that it's really not hard to make a difference. Check out the CarrotMob Website for more of their stuff.

Slurpeeeeeeez

As many of you know, today is 7/11 and that means it is Free Slurpee Day!!!!!

Free Slurpee day is an event not to be taken lightly. It takes true dedication, endurance and awesomism to fully do this day justice. This year my friend, Nick, and I set off on a quest to hit as many 7-elevens and consume as many slurpees as possible in one afternoon. This is our story:















Slurpee #1- University of Utah Sev; My flavor: Coke; Nick's flavor: Coke
















Slurpee #2 - Sev by East High; My flavor: Monster Death Grossness (it turned my tongue black) Nick's flavor: Mt Dew
















Slurpee #3 - I told you the Monster slurpee turned my tongue black. Sev on 800S and 200E; My flavor: Mango Tea (so the mysteriously handwritten sign said) Nick had the same.
















Slurpee #4 - Sev on 800S and W Temple. My flavor: Pina Colada Nick's: Monster Death (doesn't it look gross?)
















Slurpee #5 - Sev by Liberty Park; I got Sour Apple Nick got Pina Colada.

Sev at 500E and 1700S failed. They were out of cups. Weak Sauce.















Slurpee #6- Sev 1100E and 1700ish S; Nick had Cherry, I had Banana.















Slurpee #7 - Sev on 3rd Ave; We both had Slurparita Pomegranite. It didn't taste like margarita or pomegranite. I think they mayhave lied to us.















Slurpee #8 - Sev on 300E and 100S; We both had Twizzler Strawberry. It was really sweet and since our teeth were falling out of our heads anyway at this point, really sweet was not so good.

Sev by the downtown library failed. They were out of cups. Sad day.
















Slupree #9- 300W and 400N; Both had Green Hulk whatever flavor. Nine slurpees = too many.

Nine 7.11 oz slurpees each. That is a lot of slurpee. That means we each had 64oz. All in the span of about 2 1/2 hours. This is what happens:

Adventures are to the Adventurous

The summer right after high school was a really great summer. My friends and I spent a lot of time doing really stupid stuff and enjoying every minute of it. One of our default activities was to go to a park nearby with slupees and sit on the Knoll. If we tired of sitting, we would play on the playground or go "explore" the gully behind the park. I have many fond memories of that park, and the gully, including (but not limited to) the discovering of The Gully Monster by Jacob and Peter and the expedition I led Arrakis on which led to us scrambling up the hill and going through a random back yard.

Today, after Swing Club, I went back to this park with my new friend, Jake. I simply wanted to swing, but once we got there, I quickly started thinking about and recounting all my adventures there. I ended up going with Jake into the gully. I led him (though sometimes he led too, I guess) on a treck not entirely dissimilar to the one with Arrakis years ago. It's hard to really get lost in that place, but we didn't necisarrily know where we were at any given time, or where we could come out. We ended up having to jump a fence to get into a church parking lot, then walked back to the park via the road.

I've forgotten how much fun stuff like that can be. Maybe it's just part of growing up, but we don't go on random adventures like that anymore. I don't see why. It was exciting to go forth and not know exactly where we would end up. There was very little danger in it. Why don't we do stuff like that anymore? I guess as we get older it gets harder to lose ourselves to enterprises like that. We get too caught up in other things to really enjoy the moment and just go forth and take what comes.

This Shit is Bananas

What. The. Fuck.

Ironic T-Shirt in Book Form

I just got home from seeing Wanted with my friend, Nick. It's an amazing movie, and one you should all check out. It is actually directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the same guy who did Night Watch and Day Watch, which I have actually mentioned here before. All three are really brilliant movies, stylistically speaking. Wanted has kind of a weak plot (and it's a comic book movie to boot) but it's done in such an amazing way that you don't mind. Pajiba described it as being a mess of Office Space and Fight Club with the awesome visual effects of The Matrix. That just about covers it.

That's not what I really want to talk about now though. Nick lives just up the street from me and we're both conveniently close to trax, so we took the train down to the theater. On the way back, we had to get off at the Library stop because that's when the Free Fare zone ends and a UTA officer happened to get on there. Nick accidentally left his pass at home and didn't want to get slammed with a ticket. So we're waiting for the next train, and this kid sits down by us and starts talking to us. He was carrying a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma and most of the conversation involved various points included in that book.

It was fairly interesting for a random conversation you have on public transportation. A "single serving friend" who had some interesting ideas to throw out into the world. Random Stranger got off one stop before us and as we exited the train, we started discussing how amusing it is when these random conversations with strangers happen.

I blamed the book. For causing the random conversation, I mean. Or at least for creating the opportunity- for sticking something to talk about in the vacume that exists between people who have never before met. Nick, more or less, agreed. We decided that, in order to spurn more spontaneous trax discussions, we would start carrying around books that would be great conversation starters. Something en mode that our peers would have heard of, even if they haven't read it. Something that screams intellectualism - that wouldn't be at all out of place in your local college coffee shop. Something that is also relatable, that speaks to our generation and is accessible to our peers.

Nick wanted The Ironic T-shirt in book form. I suggested Dryden. I joked that I was actually carrying around Virginia Woolf with me... I'm more pretentious; I'm reading stream-of-consciousness. Seriously though, what would be the perfect book to carry around to hopefully prompt conversation? What, dear readers, would you pick to open a door to conversation with strangers who might think like you do? Would it be Reading Lolita in Tehran or The Kite Runner to bring up conditions in the middle east? Would you go with more obvious choices like Fight Club or Clockwork Orange - two books that have been the "edgy" thing to read for ages. Do you pick something by Christopher Moore to show you have a sense of humor? Or do you pick Jude the Obscure to show how bleak and hopeless your view of life is? What book would you pick, and what does it say about you?