This morning at work sometime around nine I thought, "This time yesterday I was still sleeping. I liked that a lot better than this."
When I was at Scott and Stacy's for dinner on Sunday, Scott said, "I don't want to go to work tomorrow."
I agreed with that sentiment and mentioned how I'd failed to take Monday off.
When the Monday that I'd failed to take off came around, I found myself thinking, "I should call in sick," but ultimately decided against it.
When I got to work I noticed that Scott wasn't online and wondered, based on our conversation from the day before and from my own thoughts that morning, if he had come down with the same "Monday Morning Virus" that had almost led me to call in.
So when he copied me on an e-mail he'd sent out at work letting people know that he was out with a sinus infection, I replied saying, "Yeah, I almost had a 'sinus infection' myself this morning."
Later, when I saw Stacy online, I IMed her about it and learned that he really did have a sinus infection.
So when he got online this morning we had the following exchange:
Me: So I guess I was unfairly giving you a hard time about your "sinus infection."
Scott: I don't blame you.
Me: Well, more importantly, I don't blame myself.
On his boss' orders he's working from home for the rest of the week, so naturally we didn't do the Riff Trax thing tonight.
I did have some issues of my own this morning. Last night I put my contacts in and went to bed and everything was fine. However, I woke up around 4:30 to find that my face was soaking wet from my eyes watering and that my right eye felt like it was on fire.
I got up, took the lenses out, and got back into bed, only to find my stomach demanding to be fed. I said, "Fine, I'll get up and eat something, and I'd better not hear any complaints about it!"
I got up, had a bagel and a bowl of cereal, tried putting my lenses back in, took them back out, and spent about an hour lying there listening to my stomach complain. (Lousy deal-breaking stomach.)
Though it was well before the time I'd normally get up, I'd felt wide awake and thought about just staying up, but eventually I got hit with a wave of exhaustion and fell fast asleep. When my alarm went off 45 minutes later I god up feeling as tired as I should have felt when I'd firsst woken up two and a half hours earlier.
Seriously, WTF?
I also found that my eyes had decided to largely ignore the 5 and a half hours during which I'd worn my contacts and focus on the time that I'd slept without them, so my vision was blurry most of the day.
So all in all it made for a tired, cranky day. I came home and took a nap, but I'm still tired and might go to bed right this zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Showing posts with label damn these eyes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label damn these eyes. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Maybe Not An Epic Fail, But A Fail Nonetheless
The notion that the advent of the Internet, and, more specifically, the World Wide Web, has dramatically altered the way we do, well, almost everything, has become something of a truism.
While the validity and accuracy of much of it is an open question, there is a vast wealth of information literally at our fingertips, and if you want to be successful in the 21st Century in a wide range of professions, having a basic understanding of how to sift through all of that information is essential.
I’ll get to my point in a minute, but before I do, I want to take this opportunity to share an anecdote that relates to my point.
While watching Heath Ledger’s mind-blowing performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, I noted some mannerisms and vocal tics in one scene that reminded me more than a little of Jimmy Stewart.
(That may seem like an odd thing to say, but trust me, it worked, and was entirely appropriate for the scene in question.)
However, at the time, while I recognized the similarity, I could not, for the life of me, think of Jimmy Stewart’s name.
I could picture him, imagine his voice and his delivery of lines, think of the titles of movies he was in, and even recall Jim Carrey’s impersonation of him in a Saturday Night Live sketch. But I just could not remember his name. One of those all-too common (and increasingly common) “brain fart” moments.
Because the theater effectively blocks cell phone signals, I couldn’t break out my phone and fire up IMDb to find his name. Unlike many people, I haven’t totally abandoned my pre-Internet methods for recalling information (taking my conscious mind off the task and letting my brain work at it in the background, asking someone), and was able to pull his name out of somewhere before we left the theater.
However, if I hadn’t remembered it on my own, I would have immediately looked it up on the Internet.
Which brings us that much closer to my point, but first, a couple of pieces of information.
Last week, I watched the 2007 movie No Country For Old Men, which was based on the 2005 novel by author Cormac McCarthy.
The character of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, portrayed by actor Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight (As Scott pointed out, he did a great job, but couldn’t help but be overshadowed by Ledger. Also, the Two-Face effects were mind-blowing, just like the rest of the movie.) was introduced in Detective Comics #66 in 1942. Two-Face had previously appeared on the big screen in the 1995 movie Batman Forever, portrayed (execrably) by actor Tommy Lee Jones (who also starred in No Country For Old Men, coincidentally enough).
(Bonus geeky trivia: When introduced, Harvey Dent’s name was actually Harvey Kent. It was later changed to avoid confusion with a more famous character appearing in comics published by DC.)
Now, I managed to find all of the above information (except the Harvey Kent thing, and Tommy Lee Jones being in Batman Forever; I already knew that) about publication dates in a matter of minutes through quick searches on the Internet.
Finally, we start to approach my point.
On Friday I read a review of The Dark Knight in which the reviewer, in desperate need of something negative to say, stated that one of his major complaints about the movie was Two-Face’s habit of leaving life or death decisions up to chance, in the form of a coin toss. This was, the reviewer stated, clearly derivative of a similar habit of a character in No Country For Old Men.
And here’s my point: Two-Face, along with his coin-tossing gimmick, was introduced in 1942. No Country For Old Men was published in 2005.
So, my question to the reviewer is, “Umm…WTF are you talking about?”
Okay, so not everyone is a comic book geek, but surely the reviewer – it’s his job to watch movies, after all, and one would assume that even before getting into that line of work he watched a lot of movies – saw Batman Forever, which, despite all its many flaws, did include the coin toss gimmick, back in 1995, or at least sometime before 2007.
But more to the point, one would assume that before making such an assertion, he would have made sure he was correct, which, as pointed out above, would have been astonishingly simple via a quick search of the Internet.
Obviously such a mistake seems trivial to the non-geek segments of the population, and honestly, it is, at least in the context of the review itself, but it does lead you to wonder just how widespread this lack of fact-checking extends, and to speculate as to the kind of lazy, sloppy work being done by people who should be adept at fact-checking and finding information even without the advantages offered by the Internet.
So, in closing, I have just one thing to say to the unnamed reviewer, using the parlance of the medium that he proved himself so inept at using: FAIL!
Back To Your Regularly-Scheduled Threshold Department:
Despite being exhausted by The Dark Knight, I found myself pretty wired when I got home Thursday night, and so I had a difficult time getting to sleep, so when I got home on Friday afternoon I decided to take a nap.
In addition to allowing me to get some rest, the nap also allowed me to improve my vision slightly; Thursday had been my night off for my gentle molding lenses, so on Friday my vision lacked some of the clarity. So I wore the lenses while I napped, and woke up to find myself seeing much more clearly, which was a must for 1. Night driving and 2. Movie watching.
I wore the lenses again that night when I went to bed, and woke up on Saturday to discover that my left eye was extremely irritated. This prevented me from going out and doing some of the things I’d intended to do, and interfered with my plans for doing any work on new images for the Heroic Portraits Gallery, though eventually the irritation eased up and I was able to do some of that.
Naturally I didn’t wear the lenses last night, but this morning I found that my left eye didn’t care; it was just as irritated as it had been yesterday morning.
Not sure what’s up with that. It seems to be fine now.
(As a total unrelated aside, as I write thins I’m listening to the song Sunspots by Nine Inch Nails, and it seems abundantly clear that Trent decided to use an electric hand mixer– as in the kitchen appliance – to provide some of the music.)
Apart from doing some work on Gallery pictures last night and today (they should be up in the Gallery soon, for the curious among you), I haven’t done much.
I watched the movie Renaissance last night, which is an animated French film – dubbed into English with current Bond Daniel Craig providing the voice of the main character – that was done almost entirely in high-contrast black and white, with a few bits of gray and even fewer bits of color.
The story was okay, but it was the stunning visuals that really made it worthwhile.
Even though I was evidently won over by the Watchmen trailer, I should note that I do have a few complaints. I’m not sure that I like the fact that Snyder is applying his slow-motion/fast motion technique from 300 to the action, as it’s not really a good fit, and seems sort of, inappropriate.
Also, I’m not thrilled about the costumes. They’re altogether too modern-looking, and in some cases stray way too far from the original designs. For example, while she does look very sexy, the Silk Spectre, as she appears in the movie, would more properly be referred to as the Latex Spectre.
Anyway, I think I’ll round out this entry with the latest installment in the series I call Why is Jon So Quiet?
Why is Jon So Quiet?
Because nobody cares.
Given my ramblings earlier in this entry, this one seems especially appropriate.
The other day when I was waiting for my lunch order over at the café, I sort of zoned out and stood there staring into space.
Someone I knew came up to me and said, “Good morning!” in an effort to steer my consciousness back onto this plane of existence. She then added, “Wake up!”
In response, I said that I was simply lost in thought.
She didn’t ask what I was thinking about.
(For the record, I was thinking about the acclaimed/controversial comic book series Preacher. Note: Wikipedia appears to be down; look it up your damn self.)
Years ago, a friend once said something to me that went something like, “Nobody is as interested in the things you’re interested in as you are.” I think he also added that if I’m not interested in something, it’s almost as though, for me, that something doesn’t exist. I’m not sure if he said that part or not, as I wasn’t particularly interested in what he was talking about...
In any case, if the person who had stirred me from my thoughts on Preacher had asked me what I had been thinking about – and the fact that she didn’t is something that will be discussed in a future installment – she would have been bored shitless if I started talking about my thoughts on Garth Ennis’ over-the-top caricature of the idea of the inbred, Southern redneck, or how the series was in large part an exploration and examination of the mythology of America, both in terms of the myths within our culture and the myths about our culture, and she would have quickly made a mental note: Never ask Jon what he’s thinking about.
So why am I so quiet? Because you aren’t interested in anything that I want to talk about.
Really, it’s a lack of common ground with the greater mass of humanity. When engaged, I’m perfectly willing to listen to things that other people have to say, even if I’m not particularly interested, but most people aren’t that willing to return the favor, or at the very least, they aren’t willing to do it well; it’s usually immediately apparent when I’m talking to people that they aren’t really listening.
So honestly, why bother? If I’m just going to bore you with what I’m talking about, it seems easier to just not bother talking at all.
Now if only I would take this same approach to Threshold entries…
While the validity and accuracy of much of it is an open question, there is a vast wealth of information literally at our fingertips, and if you want to be successful in the 21st Century in a wide range of professions, having a basic understanding of how to sift through all of that information is essential.
I’ll get to my point in a minute, but before I do, I want to take this opportunity to share an anecdote that relates to my point.
While watching Heath Ledger’s mind-blowing performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, I noted some mannerisms and vocal tics in one scene that reminded me more than a little of Jimmy Stewart.
(That may seem like an odd thing to say, but trust me, it worked, and was entirely appropriate for the scene in question.)
However, at the time, while I recognized the similarity, I could not, for the life of me, think of Jimmy Stewart’s name.
I could picture him, imagine his voice and his delivery of lines, think of the titles of movies he was in, and even recall Jim Carrey’s impersonation of him in a Saturday Night Live sketch. But I just could not remember his name. One of those all-too common (and increasingly common) “brain fart” moments.
Because the theater effectively blocks cell phone signals, I couldn’t break out my phone and fire up IMDb to find his name. Unlike many people, I haven’t totally abandoned my pre-Internet methods for recalling information (taking my conscious mind off the task and letting my brain work at it in the background, asking someone), and was able to pull his name out of somewhere before we left the theater.
However, if I hadn’t remembered it on my own, I would have immediately looked it up on the Internet.
Which brings us that much closer to my point, but first, a couple of pieces of information.
Last week, I watched the 2007 movie No Country For Old Men, which was based on the 2005 novel by author Cormac McCarthy.
The character of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, portrayed by actor Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight (As Scott pointed out, he did a great job, but couldn’t help but be overshadowed by Ledger. Also, the Two-Face effects were mind-blowing, just like the rest of the movie.) was introduced in Detective Comics #66 in 1942. Two-Face had previously appeared on the big screen in the 1995 movie Batman Forever, portrayed (execrably) by actor Tommy Lee Jones (who also starred in No Country For Old Men, coincidentally enough).
(Bonus geeky trivia: When introduced, Harvey Dent’s name was actually Harvey Kent. It was later changed to avoid confusion with a more famous character appearing in comics published by DC.)
Now, I managed to find all of the above information (except the Harvey Kent thing, and Tommy Lee Jones being in Batman Forever; I already knew that) about publication dates in a matter of minutes through quick searches on the Internet.
Finally, we start to approach my point.
On Friday I read a review of The Dark Knight in which the reviewer, in desperate need of something negative to say, stated that one of his major complaints about the movie was Two-Face’s habit of leaving life or death decisions up to chance, in the form of a coin toss. This was, the reviewer stated, clearly derivative of a similar habit of a character in No Country For Old Men.
And here’s my point: Two-Face, along with his coin-tossing gimmick, was introduced in 1942. No Country For Old Men was published in 2005.
So, my question to the reviewer is, “Umm…WTF are you talking about?”
Okay, so not everyone is a comic book geek, but surely the reviewer – it’s his job to watch movies, after all, and one would assume that even before getting into that line of work he watched a lot of movies – saw Batman Forever, which, despite all its many flaws, did include the coin toss gimmick, back in 1995, or at least sometime before 2007.
But more to the point, one would assume that before making such an assertion, he would have made sure he was correct, which, as pointed out above, would have been astonishingly simple via a quick search of the Internet.
Obviously such a mistake seems trivial to the non-geek segments of the population, and honestly, it is, at least in the context of the review itself, but it does lead you to wonder just how widespread this lack of fact-checking extends, and to speculate as to the kind of lazy, sloppy work being done by people who should be adept at fact-checking and finding information even without the advantages offered by the Internet.
So, in closing, I have just one thing to say to the unnamed reviewer, using the parlance of the medium that he proved himself so inept at using: FAIL!
Back To Your Regularly-Scheduled Threshold Department:
Despite being exhausted by The Dark Knight, I found myself pretty wired when I got home Thursday night, and so I had a difficult time getting to sleep, so when I got home on Friday afternoon I decided to take a nap.
In addition to allowing me to get some rest, the nap also allowed me to improve my vision slightly; Thursday had been my night off for my gentle molding lenses, so on Friday my vision lacked some of the clarity. So I wore the lenses while I napped, and woke up to find myself seeing much more clearly, which was a must for 1. Night driving and 2. Movie watching.
I wore the lenses again that night when I went to bed, and woke up on Saturday to discover that my left eye was extremely irritated. This prevented me from going out and doing some of the things I’d intended to do, and interfered with my plans for doing any work on new images for the Heroic Portraits Gallery, though eventually the irritation eased up and I was able to do some of that.
Naturally I didn’t wear the lenses last night, but this morning I found that my left eye didn’t care; it was just as irritated as it had been yesterday morning.
Not sure what’s up with that. It seems to be fine now.
(As a total unrelated aside, as I write thins I’m listening to the song Sunspots by Nine Inch Nails, and it seems abundantly clear that Trent decided to use an electric hand mixer– as in the kitchen appliance – to provide some of the music.)
Apart from doing some work on Gallery pictures last night and today (they should be up in the Gallery soon, for the curious among you), I haven’t done much.
I watched the movie Renaissance last night, which is an animated French film – dubbed into English with current Bond Daniel Craig providing the voice of the main character – that was done almost entirely in high-contrast black and white, with a few bits of gray and even fewer bits of color.
The story was okay, but it was the stunning visuals that really made it worthwhile.
Even though I was evidently won over by the Watchmen trailer, I should note that I do have a few complaints. I’m not sure that I like the fact that Snyder is applying his slow-motion/fast motion technique from 300 to the action, as it’s not really a good fit, and seems sort of, inappropriate.
Also, I’m not thrilled about the costumes. They’re altogether too modern-looking, and in some cases stray way too far from the original designs. For example, while she does look very sexy, the Silk Spectre, as she appears in the movie, would more properly be referred to as the Latex Spectre.
Anyway, I think I’ll round out this entry with the latest installment in the series I call Why is Jon So Quiet?
Why is Jon So Quiet?
Because nobody cares.
Given my ramblings earlier in this entry, this one seems especially appropriate.
The other day when I was waiting for my lunch order over at the café, I sort of zoned out and stood there staring into space.
Someone I knew came up to me and said, “Good morning!” in an effort to steer my consciousness back onto this plane of existence. She then added, “Wake up!”
In response, I said that I was simply lost in thought.
She didn’t ask what I was thinking about.
(For the record, I was thinking about the acclaimed/controversial comic book series Preacher. Note: Wikipedia appears to be down; look it up your damn self.)
Years ago, a friend once said something to me that went something like, “Nobody is as interested in the things you’re interested in as you are.” I think he also added that if I’m not interested in something, it’s almost as though, for me, that something doesn’t exist. I’m not sure if he said that part or not, as I wasn’t particularly interested in what he was talking about...
In any case, if the person who had stirred me from my thoughts on Preacher had asked me what I had been thinking about – and the fact that she didn’t is something that will be discussed in a future installment – she would have been bored shitless if I started talking about my thoughts on Garth Ennis’ over-the-top caricature of the idea of the inbred, Southern redneck, or how the series was in large part an exploration and examination of the mythology of America, both in terms of the myths within our culture and the myths about our culture, and she would have quickly made a mental note: Never ask Jon what he’s thinking about.
So why am I so quiet? Because you aren’t interested in anything that I want to talk about.
Really, it’s a lack of common ground with the greater mass of humanity. When engaged, I’m perfectly willing to listen to things that other people have to say, even if I’m not particularly interested, but most people aren’t that willing to return the favor, or at the very least, they aren’t willing to do it well; it’s usually immediately apparent when I’m talking to people that they aren’t really listening.
So honestly, why bother? If I’m just going to bore you with what I’m talking about, it seems easier to just not bother talking at all.
Now if only I would take this same approach to Threshold entries…
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
DAMN THESE EYES!
So the eye doctor was pretty much baffled by what’s going on with my eyes, particularly given that things were going so well and then, randomly, I just started having trouble.
The best theory she could come up with was that while the lenses fit well when my eyes are open, it’s possible that because my eyes have fairly small apertures (Shut up) when my eyes are closed my lids are putting too much pressure on the lenses. This could explain why my eyes responded to the molding so well after my first night wearing them, as the extra pressure initially helped force my eyes into shape.
The solution she came up with was to order me some looser-fitting lenses and have me stop wearing my current ones. Also, as I’ll not be wearing any lenses for at least two weeks, if there’s something else going on with my eyes the period of not wearing the lenses might let things sort themselves out.
So that sucks, as it means I’ll be back to wearing glasses in the interim.
My eye trouble reminds me of a sketch on that old MTV comedy series from the early 90s called The Idiot Box, starring Alex Winter (Bill of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey), called “Damn These Eyes!”
“Eyes” was a spoof of 50s sci-fi movies and told the story of a scientist who was in an accident that caused visible dotted lines to emanate from his eyes which pointed to whatever he happened to be looking at. This, of course, led to all sorts of problems, as it became apparent, for example, that he was staring at women’s breasts, or that when he was at the newsstand buying scientific journals he was really interested in the girlie magazines. Naturally it all led him to periodically exclaim “Damn these eyes!”
Fortunately I haven’t had that particular problem. Especially today when I was at the eye doctor’s, as one of the girls working there has pretty big cans and was wearing a shirt with a plunging neckline.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to be polite, you just can’t help but stare.
There was a bartender who worked at my regular bar back in Michigan with whom I – and pretty much everyone else – had that problem. Even women, by their own admission, could not help but stare. I theorized that her breasts were so massive that they actually had their own gravity and pulled your eyes inexorably towards them.
One night I actually told her, “Look, I’m sorry, and I don’t mean to be rude, but I just can’t help it.” I went on to say that it was almost – almost – a shame that they were such attention-grabbers, because she was also extremely pretty, but people almost never noticed simply because their eyes were always drawn elsewhere.
(The nephew of one of my friends had stopped by the bar one evening before coming over to his aunt’s house, and when he arrived he kept talking about this girl who had a great ass. We couldn’t figure out who he was talking about until we all went to the bar later on and he pointed her out, because while she did have a great ass, and pretty much a great everything else, it wasn’t the most obvious attribute to use to describe her.)
Luckily she was very good-natured about the whole thing – and just good-natured in general – so she seldom took offense, and being aware of what an asset they were, she generally dressed to maximize her tits in order to maximize her tips.
Hastily – and poorly – drawn artist’s rendering of a typical interaction.
Speaking of eyes, and her effect on them, when I was in rehab, there came a point during which clients established enough trust that they could venture out into the world for brief periods of time on their own, though we were generally encouraged to take along a buddy. (Certain areas of town, obviously, were off-limits.)
On one such trip out to a local store I bumped into her (not literally, sadly), and while I was standing there talking to her, the guy who’d come along with me spotted the two of us talking and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw her.
(For the record, yes, I did once ask her out. I think you can guess how well that worked out.)
In any case, the latest news on my eyes is pretty much the only news for today, so I think I’ll give my damnable eyes a rest and post this.
The best theory she could come up with was that while the lenses fit well when my eyes are open, it’s possible that because my eyes have fairly small apertures (Shut up) when my eyes are closed my lids are putting too much pressure on the lenses. This could explain why my eyes responded to the molding so well after my first night wearing them, as the extra pressure initially helped force my eyes into shape.
The solution she came up with was to order me some looser-fitting lenses and have me stop wearing my current ones. Also, as I’ll not be wearing any lenses for at least two weeks, if there’s something else going on with my eyes the period of not wearing the lenses might let things sort themselves out.
So that sucks, as it means I’ll be back to wearing glasses in the interim.
My eye trouble reminds me of a sketch on that old MTV comedy series from the early 90s called The Idiot Box, starring Alex Winter (Bill of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey), called “Damn These Eyes!”
“Eyes” was a spoof of 50s sci-fi movies and told the story of a scientist who was in an accident that caused visible dotted lines to emanate from his eyes which pointed to whatever he happened to be looking at. This, of course, led to all sorts of problems, as it became apparent, for example, that he was staring at women’s breasts, or that when he was at the newsstand buying scientific journals he was really interested in the girlie magazines. Naturally it all led him to periodically exclaim “Damn these eyes!”
Fortunately I haven’t had that particular problem. Especially today when I was at the eye doctor’s, as one of the girls working there has pretty big cans and was wearing a shirt with a plunging neckline.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to be polite, you just can’t help but stare.
There was a bartender who worked at my regular bar back in Michigan with whom I – and pretty much everyone else – had that problem. Even women, by their own admission, could not help but stare. I theorized that her breasts were so massive that they actually had their own gravity and pulled your eyes inexorably towards them.
One night I actually told her, “Look, I’m sorry, and I don’t mean to be rude, but I just can’t help it.” I went on to say that it was almost – almost – a shame that they were such attention-grabbers, because she was also extremely pretty, but people almost never noticed simply because their eyes were always drawn elsewhere.
(The nephew of one of my friends had stopped by the bar one evening before coming over to his aunt’s house, and when he arrived he kept talking about this girl who had a great ass. We couldn’t figure out who he was talking about until we all went to the bar later on and he pointed her out, because while she did have a great ass, and pretty much a great everything else, it wasn’t the most obvious attribute to use to describe her.)
Luckily she was very good-natured about the whole thing – and just good-natured in general – so she seldom took offense, and being aware of what an asset they were, she generally dressed to maximize her tits in order to maximize her tips.
Hastily – and poorly – drawn artist’s rendering of a typical interaction.
Speaking of eyes, and her effect on them, when I was in rehab, there came a point during which clients established enough trust that they could venture out into the world for brief periods of time on their own, though we were generally encouraged to take along a buddy. (Certain areas of town, obviously, were off-limits.)
On one such trip out to a local store I bumped into her (not literally, sadly), and while I was standing there talking to her, the guy who’d come along with me spotted the two of us talking and his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw her.
(For the record, yes, I did once ask her out. I think you can guess how well that worked out.)
In any case, the latest news on my eyes is pretty much the only news for today, so I think I’ll give my damnable eyes a rest and post this.
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