Thursday, November 27, 2003

I did it, though I don't know why

Here's a little parable about the dangers of excess free time and cash. On Monday, my friend Brad had his PC's power supply give out on him, at about the same time as half the electrical grid in town. (Events which you might presume to be connected, but I'm a little fuzzy about the chronology.) Meanwhile, I had just been paid and, flush with wealth, headed out to see what I might purchase in order to salvage what was otherwise a fairly humdrum day. (Whose highlight was a broken sewer main that flooded a building and cancelled my Introduction to Java class, if that tells you what sort of day it was.) Brad decided to tag along, in order to see if there were any power supplies to be had at Fred Meyer. Of course, there weren't.

Maybe he and I and Roarke had been out for dinner earlier. Yes, I think we had. Anyway, I didn't find anything I particularly wanted to buy at the moment, when either Brad or I mentioned in passing that we could probably find a power supply as well as a better media selection at Best Buy. In Yakima.

Well, what would life be without unexpected diversions? Prospects were slightly better at Best Buy, and Brad found a power supply, but I was still unsatisfied. Gigantic, the TMBG documentary, had come out last week, and I had heard that Borders was carrying it. With 15 minutes to spare before closing (though we didn't realize that yet) we pulled into the Borders parking lot and I started quickly scanning the shelves. I didn't find Gigantic by the time the staff started herding people out the door, so I had consigned myself to going home with as much money as I had left with when I passed a display of cheaply priced "cult" films.

And, well, there's no sense trying to dress this up: I bought Manos: The Hands of Fate, complete and unaltered. I am not in a habit of watching awful films without professionally crafted amusement accompanying them, but this was an opportunity that I felt unable to pass up. I made a very nerdy Lord of the Rings reference at the time that I won't foul my good name with by repeating here.

After that I bought the first season of Angel to try and cleanse myself, and drove home poor.

Saturday, November 22, 2003

Tom tells me I should check out the band Hawksley Workman.

Saturday, November 15, 2003

The briefest of updates follows, inspired by being incredibly bored, despite having a world of entertainment at my fingertips. (Should I play Medal of Honor or Grand Theft Auto? Oh, I don't know, life is so hard, it's totally unfair.

Books recently read: Genesis through The First Book of Samuel, otherwise known as, The First Book of the Kings. Thanks, King James! So I'm reading the Bible. (Authorized King James Version With Apocrypha, Oxford edition.) I wish there were more extensive annotations. I guess I could get a guide, or something, but where to find an unbiased one? I suppose I could hedge my bets by reading "The Bible Debunked: Joke's On You, Middle East!" and "Handy Explanations of What God Said: Super Believer Edition." For the big picture, see. But that seems like way too much effort.

Things recently slept on: Couches. Many shapes, many colors. (Two.)

Movies recently watched: Kill Bill, Alien, The Matrix: Revolutions. Perfect Blue, if movies watched at home count. The Big Lebowski, in that case. Chasing Amy. Why was Perfect Blue called Perfect Blue, anyway? Japan! (Splice in some footage of me waving my fist, comically.)

Culture recently pondered due to extensive media viewing: Japan. I've been watching FLCL. Huh. Guitars plus dimensional gates found in human heads.

The excitement!

Postscript: Woah. Blogger is checking my HTML now before posting. Neat. There need to be more options like that. For instance, a warning that pops up if you've begun to sound like a 14 year old girl. (Unless I suppose you are one.) Or one that lets you know how completely uninteresting you are to everyone else.