Rants

Got A Letter From Liz Godard Today

That name will mean absolutely nothing to 100% of you, but to me it means I have been summoned for jury duty.

“When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.” -Norm Crosby

While searching for the source of that quote I stumbled on several blogs/newspaper columns/stuff that gave good and bad arguments supporting or debunking the idea. Secretly I want to dodge it, but I know it will definitely be more interesting than my normal workday. That and it will give me something interesting to blog about.

The Quiet American

Today’s movie was The Quiet American and while this is a totally unremarkable film, it is much better than the last two movies I’ve seen in the last 2 days. Modern production values, decent acting and a plot even an imbecile like me could follow. In the opening titles it told me this book was based on a Graham Greene book. When I went to IMDB to get the above link I found out it was also a movie in 1958 with Audie Murphy in the title role. Probably won’t go back and rent the original, but I may see if I can find the book and read it.

Right now I’m reading the Michael Crichton’s Timeline. Interesting premise so far. As with all Mr. Crichton’s work, it reads pretty much like a movie for your mind. Surprise, Timeline was recently released as a movie. A friend at work thought the movie paled in comparison to the book, so maybe I won’t even bother with the DVD when it comes out.

I Hope Tomorrow Is Better

Did hardly anything at all today. I walked to the mailbox and got the mail (in it came a jury duty summons for me for January.) This afternoon we watched Basic and after yesterday’s “Gone In 60 Seconds”, the 1974 version, I now know that even with good actors and good production values you can still end up with a movie that sucks. This thing was so convoluted that even though I think I know what happened, I’m quite sure I don’t know what happened. The highlight of the day was an evening trip to the China Palace to get the din-din.

Gone In 1 Hour & 38 Minutes

I’m kind of a car guy, but for what ever reason, I just don’t really appreciate car movies. I rented the Nicholas Cage Gone in 60 Seconds remake and was not thrilled at all. When a co-worker mentioned he had the 1974 original, I borrowed it from him and watched it last night. There is an hour and 38 minutes of my life I won’t be getting back. It was like an X-rated feature from the same era, some interesting, but badly lit and staged action scenes tied together with stilted dialog delivered by lousy actors. I expected John Holmes to show up at any minute.

Where ‘s West Wing?

For like the 3rd week in a row, Wednesday rolls around and no West Wing – not even a re-run. Guess I’ll just go to bed early.

Underwear Update: The mediums fit fine. This time of the year with all my dry skin, I need to stick to light colored skivvies though….

Haircut and a Band Aid

The only relation of the title terms to each other is that they are both on my head, neither one caused the other. In chronological order:

Band Aid – We need paper in my area for the LaserJet printer. When I load the last ream of either size I schlep on down to the stockroom and stack 4 boxes of the paper on a dolly and wheel it back to the cube next to mine where the printer is. This morning when unloading the dolly I slightly misjudged my bending over causing my forehead to smack the counter top on the neighboring cube. Not hard enough to make me see stars or anything, but enough to cause me to have to hold a paper towel to my head for about 2 minutes using some pressure to get the bleeding to stop. Now I look like a Hindu in training or something as the little circular bad aid is perfectly centered on my forehead. I wonder if it will be black and blue tomorrow?

Haircut – Tonight was our every 4 week haircut appointment. I am always amazed at the color and amount of hair trimmed from my head. It all comes from the sides too, as the top doesn’t need cutting anymore. It has stopped growing up there. It hasn’t all fallen out (yet) but it is thinning very slowly. The hair color is a lot darker on the little shawl thing they put on you than it appears on my head. When I look in the mirror I see predominantly gray, but the stuff that gets trimmed still looks light brown/red.

Big Underwear

While in no means a fat person, my waistline has grown with my advancing years. A lot also has to do with the fact that I’m not nearly putting as much time in on the bicycle as I was 10 years ago. The last time I bought some low rise briefs I went ahead and admitted that the medium (32-34) ones that I was replacing were just a little too snug. I swallowed my pride and bought some in large (36-38).

After 2 tears and the elastic in the waistband no longer very elastic, the time had come to replace my underwear. We went to Target and I found a nice box with 5 briefs for 10 bucks. They were opened and tossed into the hamper as the first thing I do is wash and then dry any new item of clothing purchased. Not because I’m afraid of who might have touched them last, but because the fit has to be tested after drying to allow for shrinkage of the cotton. After last night’s shower I put on a pair of my new skivvies for beddy-bye time. Yikes! They fit me like Baby Huey‘s diapers.

Today we went back to Target to get me some in Medium (32-34). They are in the dryer right now, I hope they don’t come out too small. I’ll let you know tomorrow. In the meantime if you would like 4 pair of 36-38 low rise briefs in various dark colors let me know, they are yours for the cost of postage. I can’t in all good consciousness sell the pair I wore to bed, but you can go bid on them on ebay if you want. đŸ˜‰