Do-Nothing Day

I talked to my dad today and he sounded good, but tired. I guess he’s been up and around and seems to be doing well. It looks like he’ll actually be going home tomorrow already.
My mother told him that once he’s fully recovered she’s going to kick his ass for scaring her so much.
I’m inclined to tell her to hit him once for me.
In all seriousness, though, I am, of course, incredibly relieved. Like pretty much everyone else in my family, all Friday morning I was having pretty intense sympathy chest pains that finally went away hours after my mother called to tell me that he’d made it through the surgery.
There’s a rather odd coincidence surrounding my dad’s surgery.
Fifteen years ago, almost to the day, my dad’s father had bypass surgery. My dad’s was on May 13th, 2005, his dad’s on May 10th, 1990.
My grandfather’s surgery took place just a couple of weeks before my high school graduation. My dad’s surgery took place just a couple of weeks before Jourdan’s high school graduation.
I don’t know that there’s any significance to that, but it is an odd coincidence, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed it.
It does mean that my mother knows how to take care of my dad once he’s home, though, as she took care of my grandfather after his surgery fifteen years ago.
I didn’t go home for the surgery simply because I’m going to be there next week anyway. If my sisters and my brother hadn’t been there to help my mom out, then obviously I would have gone home, but under the circumstances my mother didn’t want me (or my brother Brad, who’s currently in Rhode Island) going through the trouble.
When I woke up this morning and saw that it was after 10 I decided that I was going to devote the day to not doing anything, and dozed off for another half an hour.
After I got up I did not much of anything for a while, then called the hospital and talked to my dad.
After that, I took a nap.
Once I got up I went for a walk.
When I came back I made dinner. After that I killed some time, and now here I am, writing this.
On Wednesday night, or, more properly, Thursday morning, I’m going to see “Revenge of the Sith” with Scott and several other people. It’s the very first showing at 12:01 am.
It should be interesting, considering that there are a bunch of us going as a group, yet most of us have tickets for different theaters within the multiplex.
We’re going to try to do some swapping with people once we get there to try to get us all into the same theater, though.
In other movie news, Robert Rodriguez has stated that he will begin back-to-back filming of two “Sin City” sequels in February. No word on which SC yarns will be included. Personally, I’d like to see “A Dame To Kill For” and “To Hell and Back” as their own, standalone movies, with maybe a couple of the really short stories sprinkled in as bookends, or as sort of side-stories.
But then again, the three main stories that made up the first movie could have each stood alone, but it worked to put them together in one movie, so who knows? If they took that approach again, it would probably allow them to squeeze in “Family Values” as well, which would be the only remaining lengthy story.
By the way, the “Sin City” DVD will be released on August 19th.
Last night I watched an entertaining new “reality” show on VH1 called “BSTV.” It’s basically a “Punk’d” sort of show that uses the desire that people have for fame as comedic fodder.
For example, they held a phony casting call for a reality show in which contestants compete for the right to flip the switch for a televised execution in Texas. It was funny to watch, if somewhat distressing to see just how low people are willing to sink for a chance at fame and fortune. One person, in fact, had insisted that he’s opposed to the death penalty, and would therefore not be willing to participate in the show…until they told him that a lot of money was involved.
The segment I found most amusing, though, involved Jenna Lewis, who is apparently from “Survivor,” but I only know her from her wedding night video, which found its way onto the Internet.
In any case, she thought she was participating in some new show in which celebrities surprise their biggest fans by showing up at their homes. In her case, she was supposed to pretend to be delivering flowers. If her fan recognized her and realized that she was not just a flower delivery person, he would receive $500.
Of course, the whole thing was a set-up. The person she was delivering the flowers to was an actor, as was his “wife,” who proved to be the world’s biggest bitch.
It was fun to watch Jenna stand by helplessly while the woman screamed at her husband about how she hate surprises and refused to allow him to accept the flowers or the money, and, in fact, sent him to his room.
With so many reality shows rewarding negative behavior, it’s refreshing to see a show like this, which takes people to task for being attention whores.
Plus it’s fun to watch people get messed with.
On Saturday I had the DVR record “Alien Planet” on the Discovery Channel, and last night I watched it.
It was interesting, but I was a little disappointed by it.
The point of the show as to explore an alien world and study the life forms existing there through simulations based on what many scientists think life might be like on other worlds.
The problem I had with it was with the approach that they took. I had hoped that they would set up the parameters of the world first, and then use evolutionary principles to determine what sort of life might develop there.
It seemed as though they did things backwards, though, first creating weird-looking and, on Earth, at least, improbable animals, then creating a system in which they might develop.
At least that’s the impression I got.
Still, it was interesting, and I doubt that it was very well received in the Bible Belt…