Stupid

I was going to write about this last night, but it would have been overly profane and who needs that on their conscience when I know at least my mother-in-law reads this stuff? The last episode of Once and Again aired last night on ABC. It was depressing and it ended poorly. The last episode didn’t measure up (how could it). I don’t know how I wanted it to end, just that it shouldn’t have. It was a great show, as I’ve said before. Oh well. That was the last show I paid attention to on ABC, and probably will be for a good long while. See ya later, Disney. I’ll miss the show, but that’s life. Maybe I’ll read a book.

Crap segue….

Yes, I know I didn’t write anything yesterday. I spent many hours on the phone with lawyers this weekend and many more hours working on Monday. Nope, still can’t talk about what this is all about, but it should happen soon. It’s exciting and frustrating to be working on something that will be so huge. People aren’t sleeping and that makes them crabby. They snap and bark and well, they’re no fun to be around. There are conference calls with many people, most of whom don’t understand what’s being said and are relegated to sighing into the phone and taking notes. I’ve been to so many meetings in the past week I’m about to go crazy. I hate meetings. I hate telling people what to do, why they need to do it that way and then having to explain it slower because they didn’t get it the first time.

I want to work. I want to write code and make things cool and sustainable, maintainable, scalable, etc. I can’t do that in a conference room with a dozen people around a table deciding what not to call things. And on that note, I’m going to get to work…

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Things that suck

I was sick all weekend. It started with a scratch in the throat and an early morning on Saturday taking my sister to take the ACT. Then, a headache and general unwellness later in the afternoon and a four hour nap. Then, Sunday was a blur of cough drops and tissues. No nap, but plenty of headaches and drowsiness. Today I’m a little better, butt-dragging and drowsy. It’s not how I imagined feeling on the first day in my new job (which feels a lot like my old job since I’m still in my old pod).

Watching the news when sick sucks. I watched Israeli and Palestinian spokesheads spout the same arguments over and over again, hour after hour. I watched The Real World for a long time because Jen wanted to catch up since we haven’t been watching this season. I know I’m over my Real World thing now. These kids’ lives don’t interest me any more. Their problems seem small and petty. They appear ignorant and like marshmallow peep versions of previous casts. Oooh, there’s the angry black guy, the cute gay boy, the jock, the bulemic, the lesbian. We’ve seen all this before. At least get us a new crop of socially relevant problem children to feel sorry for. How about a narcoleptic fish farmer from Washington state? Maybe a Native American peyote farmer cut out by the foreign peyote cartel? How about a vato from Tucson who loves his low-rider truck and is feircely Catholic even though he doesn’t know what that really means? How about a fat girl? How about an all-blog cast who sit in front of their computers commenting on life outside without actually doing anything interesting in the house (if I weren’t married, I would be a perfect candidate)? That show has lost all relevance to my life, and while that’s kind of sad, I’m glad I’m not in that post-adolescent, but still stupid stage. I’m a stupid adult now.

Thankfully, there was Iron Chef to dull my pain. The first New York battle between Bobby Flay and Morimoto was a lot of fun, and the one afterwards with rice as the ingredient was really cool.

Ok, I’m done. That was my sickly weekend. Hopefully the week will be better.

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And while I’m up, let

And while I’m up, let me take this opportunity to do my duty and plug NextDraft. Is it a hair cream? A wart remover? Oh no! Would I plug something like that? No no no. NextDraft is a clever daily newsletter that not only gives you some headlines you may have missed from the day, but also insightful and often witty commentary by one Mr. Dave Pell. I highly recommend it and think you should tell all your friends too.

As I sit here, awake

As I sit here, awake because my stomach is conducting a chemistry experiment, I realize that while the Singapore Rice Noodles with chicken, pork and a plateful of curry was oh so good when I ate it, it might not do so well once it settled in. I feel like the symptom list from a Pepto-Bismal commercial.

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Urge

Do you watch Once and Again? You should. Next to Six Feet Under, it’s the best show on TV. The characters are deep and played beautifully. Even the guest stars, tonight it’s Patrick Dempsey returning as Lily’s crazy brother, are fantastic. So, watch it. Reward quality with viewership, and stop supporting crap shows like Survivor. Please?

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In the land of not-caring

I used to love the Oscars. I used to watch the whole show and savor every award. I was an Oscar junkie. Now? We watched the first thirty minutes, Six Feet Under, then another half-hour of the show before going to bed. I was unimpressed. With all the class Steve Martin had last year, Whoopie was the complete opposite. She’s just not funny anymore. Time for new blood. I think they should get someone younger, like Jon Stewart, or hey, let’s go out on a limb and get Jack Black to host the Oscar. The opening musical number, that was lacking this year, would be really interesting if Tenacious D did it.

I think I just don’t care that much anymore. I didn’t see most of the movies nominated. I’m so out of the loop. But hey, I think that’s OK. After Tom Cruise’s If we don’t go to see movies, the terrorists have already won speech, maybe I really don’t want to go support them. Anyone for Iron Chef?

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David Byrne’s Look Into The

David Byrne‘s Look Into The Eyeball is grrrrrrrrrrrr-eat. I got it from Jen’s parents and I can’t stop listening to it. Every song is perfectly layered. If I turn up the volume, there are small nuances that I didn’t hear before, and every listen exposes some new inflection or chord I didn’t hear before. Mr. Byrne, you are my hero.

The Six Feet Under is very nice too, as is Bricolage, by Amon Tobin. I even got Lyle Lovett’s first album and a great little blue’s compilation. Hooray for music!

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Holy crap! (scroll down to

Holy crap! (scroll down to the bottom) They’re remaking Barbarella AND turning Knight Rider into a movie? The world is coming to an end. I can smell it, and nothing can turn it back. The polar ice caps are melting, people won’t stop blowing each other up (which, really, when you get down to it isn’t anything new, they’re just doing it a little more frequently now), Liza Minelli got married to an apparently straight guy, and I joined a bowling league. Do you need more proof than that?

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The Weekend Entertainment Roundup

Ice age: We took Max to see this movie on Saturday and we enjoyed it way more than he did. He got bored with about twenty minutes left and started walking up and down our row flipping the seats down and watching them spring back up. For a movie that made almost $50 million this weekend, the theater was surprisingly empty (which is the only reason we let him wander – no one to annoy). The movie is really funny, much more so than I thought it would be. The only problem was the lady behind me, who exclaimed “Oh my GAWD!” every time something was ABOUT to happen. Jeez lady, it’s a KID’S movie. The plot’s not so outrageous that it warrants exclamations every two minutes. I bet she wet herself watching

Momento: “Oh my GAWD, it’s backwards!!!”

Zoolander: The rental of the weekend. This was a little odd, and I don’t think hit the mark. It’s funny, and there are some great performances, especially Owen Wilson and Will Farrell, but it kind of falls flat. The premise was really funny, and the cameos were kind of fun, but it’s just OK. Worth renting, but I would have been disappointed if I saw it in the theater. Speaking of disappointment…

Rush Hour 2: Can you tell I wasn’t in the mood to think about the movies I watched this weekend? This movie sucked. It sucked so bad I’m embarrassed for Jackie Chan.

Iron Chef: Unisex Salmon Battle: I bring this up just because every dish made my mouth water. It all looked amazing. If you don’t watch Iron Chef, you should.

Saturday Night Live: Is it just me, or does SNL rise and fall with the talent of the host? This week was great! The Donatella Versace sketch was actually funny this time, Weekend Update was better than it usually is and even the throw-away sketches like the Turkish talk show were very funny. And the “kiss” during Weekend Update had to be the funniest moment of the year.

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