Despite the fact that I’ll be doing my Super Bowl shopping tonight, I decided to venture out into the world earlier today to swing by Staples to look for a small desk for my living room.
I’d like to have one if for no other reason than to fill up some of the wasted space, but also to use for when I work from home, as I usually set up the laptop downstairs rather than upstairs in the office, for a variety of reasons.
In any case, I thought that, while I was in the area I’d stop and get a haircut so that I’d have one less thing to do tomorrow.
On the way, I ended up behind this slow-ass driver, who, like Visa, was everywhere I wanted to be.
As I neared the barber shop, he turned into a different lane in the parking lot from the one I was headed for, so I thought that I was rid of him. Instead, he cut across the parking lot and cut me off as he drove across the lane I was turning into. As I was parking, he and his son (I guess) got out of the car and made a beeline for the barber shop.
*Sigh*
Fortunately, even though they were busy, and those two had, despite moving more slowly than I was moving, gotten ahead of me in line, they were fully-staffed and I only had to wait a few minutes.
Still, that sort of thing is exactly why I enjoy my Super Bowl shopping time so much.
I wasn’t able to find a desk that I wanted, but I did pick up a Bluetooth keyboard for the slate, which I’m using to type this post. It was already reasonably affordable, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was even cheaper than I thought once it was rung up.
That is, once I was eventually able to get it rung up, as there had been people in front of me who had unnecessarily slowed down the process of checking out by asking a bunch of stupid questions about whether or not they were really saving $1.45 on their order (they were).
I left there and decided to check out the desks at Office Depot, but I had no luck there, either.
So I came home and set up the keyboard on the slate, then decided to put my $200 Microsoft Store coupon to use by purchasing a copy of Office 2010. I had been considering getting Office Professional, but it would have cost me an additional $200 just to add Access and Publisher, neither of which were programs I actually needed. So I opted for Office Home & Business, which, after applying my coupon, only cost me $80 for two licenses.
For some reason, they ended up throwing in Publisher for free anyway, so, even though, as stated, I didn’t need it…score?
If anything, the Office programs I would even kind of need beyond what are included in Home & Office are Project and Visio, neither of which are included in any version of the Office suite of programs and have to be purchased separately.
I mainly wanted Office just to have OneNote for the slate, as it’s a very cool program and it’s ideal for use on slates. In its inaugural use I put together a shopping list for tonight, saved the list to my SkyDrive, opened the note on my phone, and pinned it to my Start screen.
I’m all tech-savvy and shit, and am kind of like a living commercial for Microsoft products at this point.
In any case, I mostly just typed this up for the purposes of trying out the keyboard – which, incidentally, is also a Microsoft product* – so I guess I’ll wrap things up for now.
*I’m not really an MS fanboy, but settling on one platform does make things a lot simpler for me. I’m also not trying to get in Redmond’s good graces by constantly talking up their products here. Not because I’m morally opposed to getting free stuff from them in exchange for saying positive things about them, but because I know that what I laughingly refer to as my “readership” is far too small to make it worth their while…
Showing posts with label haircut. Show all posts
Showing posts with label haircut. Show all posts
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Another Reason…
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Boxed In
As can be seen in the picture below, I picked up my drawer boxes from the comic shop today:
Even with the cost of this week's comics, after my discount I ended up paying almost ten bucks less than it would have cost to buy them directly from the site and have them shipped.
Now I have to go about filling them up, which means organizing my comics, and, honestly, I have no idea how to go about approaching that task.
I mean, I'm going to go with a straightforard alphabetical order, but, from a strategic perspective, how do I go about getting thousands of comics into alphabetical order?
I knew that Action Comics and Adventures of Superman would pretty much take up their own box, and would actually be the starting point, so it was easy enough to separate those out from the masses, but when I've got titles ranging from Air to Zero Hour, what approach do I take?
Oh well, I guess I'll figure it out.
Last week, as mentioned here, while bagging and boarding my comics I noticed that I had an issue of Adventures of Superman with a missing back cover, so I went through a lot of bother trying to order a replacement while simultaneously filling in the gaps in my collection of Action.
The comics I ordered arrived today, which was cool. However, while I was separating out Adventures and Action I discovered that at some other point I must have noticed the missing back cover on that issue of Adventures and ordered a replacement, as I had another undamaged copy of it already in my collection. D'oh! This is why I need to have my collection organized.
Apart from picking up my comics and my boxes, I got a haircut and did some grocery shopping while I was out in the world.
So that was exciting.
After I got home and put the groceries away I hauled all of the drawer boxes upstairs, briefly considered using them to build a fort, and then got to work on digging through the old longboxes - by the way, does anyone need a bunch of longboxes? - and separating out Adventures and Action.
And that's pretty much been my day so far.
Even with the cost of this week's comics, after my discount I ended up paying almost ten bucks less than it would have cost to buy them directly from the site and have them shipped.
Now I have to go about filling them up, which means organizing my comics, and, honestly, I have no idea how to go about approaching that task.
I mean, I'm going to go with a straightforard alphabetical order, but, from a strategic perspective, how do I go about getting thousands of comics into alphabetical order?
I knew that Action Comics and Adventures of Superman would pretty much take up their own box, and would actually be the starting point, so it was easy enough to separate those out from the masses, but when I've got titles ranging from Air to Zero Hour, what approach do I take?
Oh well, I guess I'll figure it out.
Last week, as mentioned here, while bagging and boarding my comics I noticed that I had an issue of Adventures of Superman with a missing back cover, so I went through a lot of bother trying to order a replacement while simultaneously filling in the gaps in my collection of Action.
The comics I ordered arrived today, which was cool. However, while I was separating out Adventures and Action I discovered that at some other point I must have noticed the missing back cover on that issue of Adventures and ordered a replacement, as I had another undamaged copy of it already in my collection. D'oh! This is why I need to have my collection organized.
Apart from picking up my comics and my boxes, I got a haircut and did some grocery shopping while I was out in the world.
So that was exciting.
After I got home and put the groceries away I hauled all of the drawer boxes upstairs, briefly considered using them to build a fort, and then got to work on digging through the old longboxes - by the way, does anyone need a bunch of longboxes? - and separating out Adventures and Action.
And that's pretty much been my day so far.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Anyone Know What The Chinese Character For "Jon Can Suck It" Is?
Oh, right; I have a blog.
On Wednesday it occurred to Scott that if he put his back seats down we could probably fit the mower I was thinking about buying in his cars, so we decided to meet at Lowe’s to find out.
Turns out it did, so after that we had dinner at Chili’s, then headed to my house and unloaded and unpacked the mower.
That, of course, left the question of what to do with the (not-so) old mower. As mentioned, I’m too lazy to try to go through the effort of actually selling it, and Scott stated that he didn’t really need a mower, even a free one.
However, after I mentioned that the mower mulches, he decided he could use a free mower, and thus room was freed up in my tool shed for the new mower.
And that was pretty much the big excitement for the week, so despite the fact that I haven’t been doing much in the way of regular posts, it’s clear that you haven’t really been missing out.
Today I got up, sat around, showered, dressed, and headed out to the comic shop. From there it was off the barbershop to get a haircut, and then over to Target to do some grocery shopping that consisted primarily of buying stuff to drink and things to snack on.
When I got home I broke out the weed whacker to deal with the dandelion invasion. It probably would have been easier to just mow again, but a. i hadn’t actually charged my mower battery yet and b. it’s 93 degrees out, so I didn’t feel like toiling away too long under the brutal and punishing sun.
After that I made some lunch and watched some recorded TV, then tried, unsuccessfully, to take a nap. After that it was more recorded TV, and now this.
I probably shouldn’t complain about how thoroughly unexciting my life is, as I probably wouldn’t like having an exciting life, if for no other reason than that it would probably require a lot more effort than I’d be willing to put forth. But even so, there’s no getting around it: my life is boring as hell.
Exciting New Developments Department:
Of course, my life isn’t all tedium and malaise, as there have been a couple of new developments, that, relative to what the rest of my life is like, are kind of exciting.
The first one involves TV. Some time back Verizon introduced a feature to their DVRs that allows customers to access their DVRs remotely from any computer to do things like schedule recordings. Further, Verizon Wireless customers could even program their DVRs using their cell phones.
The drawback to this new feature was that it was only available to customers with Verizon’s multi-room DVR setup. Given that I only have the one set-top box, this meant that I was excluded from using the feature.
However, recently Verizon made the service available to all of their customers. I got great amusement from being a jackass and sitting in my recliner, the DVR’s remote just inches from my hand, and using my laptop to go online to schedule a recording.
Verizon went even a step further, making it possible for customers to program their DVRs with their cell phone regardless of their mobile carrier. Of course, once again, I’m excluded from using this feature, as there’s some other service the customers have to use in order to be able to access their DVRs from their phones.
Oh well.
The other “exciting” development is considerably less cool – remember that the Chinese character for “opportunity” is the same one for “crisis,” which goes a long way towards explaining why I don’t really crave excitement – and it involves my downstairs toilet.
Last night while making use of the facilities I noticed a rather large puddle on the floor near the toilet. It seemed to me that I would have remembered if my aim had been that bad for long enough to account for the volume of liquid, so I suspected something was up.
I cleaned up the mess and decided that I’d check in again later to see if the puddle reappeared. Sure enough, about a half an hour later, it had.
Getting down on my knees – which isn’t something I’ve had to do in the bathroom very often since I quit drinking – I did some inspecting and found that the water was seeping out through a crack in the seal between the toilet and the floor. At first I thought that I could just get some caulk and seal it back up, but then it occurred to me that even with the crack in the seal, water shouldn’t actually be leaking out anyway, which means that there’s something else broken somewhere inside.
I’ve watched enough home improvement shows to know that replacing a toilet is a fairly simple and straightforward process, but I’ve also been Jon long enough to know that nothing is ever simple and straightforward, so I set aside any plans for buying a new toilet and engaging in a do it yourself project today and simply shut off the water supply and threw a towel around the base.
After all, I have a friend who’s always willing to help and who recently made some toilet repairs of his own.
(Interested in engaging in a project on Wednesday, Scott?)
I really should just replace all three of my toilets, given how old and eco-hostile they are, but eventually I want to do some major renovations and don’t really want to do everything piecemeal.
This is why, despite the fact that I would really like to get a bigger refrigerator with an ice and filtered water dispenser on the front, and I’ve seen some really good deals, I have not done so as of yet. I’d like to do all of the kitchen remodeling in one shot and get matching appliances at that time. I may eventually change my mind on that, though, as I really could use more freezer space.
Anyway, those are the two exciting developments in my life.
On Wednesday it occurred to Scott that if he put his back seats down we could probably fit the mower I was thinking about buying in his cars, so we decided to meet at Lowe’s to find out.
Turns out it did, so after that we had dinner at Chili’s, then headed to my house and unloaded and unpacked the mower.
That, of course, left the question of what to do with the (not-so) old mower. As mentioned, I’m too lazy to try to go through the effort of actually selling it, and Scott stated that he didn’t really need a mower, even a free one.
However, after I mentioned that the mower mulches, he decided he could use a free mower, and thus room was freed up in my tool shed for the new mower.
And that was pretty much the big excitement for the week, so despite the fact that I haven’t been doing much in the way of regular posts, it’s clear that you haven’t really been missing out.
Today I got up, sat around, showered, dressed, and headed out to the comic shop. From there it was off the barbershop to get a haircut, and then over to Target to do some grocery shopping that consisted primarily of buying stuff to drink and things to snack on.
When I got home I broke out the weed whacker to deal with the dandelion invasion. It probably would have been easier to just mow again, but a. i hadn’t actually charged my mower battery yet and b. it’s 93 degrees out, so I didn’t feel like toiling away too long under the brutal and punishing sun.
After that I made some lunch and watched some recorded TV, then tried, unsuccessfully, to take a nap. After that it was more recorded TV, and now this.
I probably shouldn’t complain about how thoroughly unexciting my life is, as I probably wouldn’t like having an exciting life, if for no other reason than that it would probably require a lot more effort than I’d be willing to put forth. But even so, there’s no getting around it: my life is boring as hell.
Exciting New Developments Department:
Of course, my life isn’t all tedium and malaise, as there have been a couple of new developments, that, relative to what the rest of my life is like, are kind of exciting.
The first one involves TV. Some time back Verizon introduced a feature to their DVRs that allows customers to access their DVRs remotely from any computer to do things like schedule recordings. Further, Verizon Wireless customers could even program their DVRs using their cell phones.
The drawback to this new feature was that it was only available to customers with Verizon’s multi-room DVR setup. Given that I only have the one set-top box, this meant that I was excluded from using the feature.
However, recently Verizon made the service available to all of their customers. I got great amusement from being a jackass and sitting in my recliner, the DVR’s remote just inches from my hand, and using my laptop to go online to schedule a recording.
Verizon went even a step further, making it possible for customers to program their DVRs with their cell phone regardless of their mobile carrier. Of course, once again, I’m excluded from using this feature, as there’s some other service the customers have to use in order to be able to access their DVRs from their phones.
Oh well.
The other “exciting” development is considerably less cool – remember that the Chinese character for “opportunity” is the same one for “crisis,” which goes a long way towards explaining why I don’t really crave excitement – and it involves my downstairs toilet.
Last night while making use of the facilities I noticed a rather large puddle on the floor near the toilet. It seemed to me that I would have remembered if my aim had been that bad for long enough to account for the volume of liquid, so I suspected something was up.
I cleaned up the mess and decided that I’d check in again later to see if the puddle reappeared. Sure enough, about a half an hour later, it had.
Getting down on my knees – which isn’t something I’ve had to do in the bathroom very often since I quit drinking – I did some inspecting and found that the water was seeping out through a crack in the seal between the toilet and the floor. At first I thought that I could just get some caulk and seal it back up, but then it occurred to me that even with the crack in the seal, water shouldn’t actually be leaking out anyway, which means that there’s something else broken somewhere inside.
I’ve watched enough home improvement shows to know that replacing a toilet is a fairly simple and straightforward process, but I’ve also been Jon long enough to know that nothing is ever simple and straightforward, so I set aside any plans for buying a new toilet and engaging in a do it yourself project today and simply shut off the water supply and threw a towel around the base.
After all, I have a friend who’s always willing to help and who recently made some toilet repairs of his own.
(Interested in engaging in a project on Wednesday, Scott?)
I really should just replace all three of my toilets, given how old and eco-hostile they are, but eventually I want to do some major renovations and don’t really want to do everything piecemeal.
This is why, despite the fact that I would really like to get a bigger refrigerator with an ice and filtered water dispenser on the front, and I’ve seen some really good deals, I have not done so as of yet. I’d like to do all of the kitchen remodeling in one shot and get matching appliances at that time. I may eventually change my mind on that, though, as I really could use more freezer space.
Anyway, those are the two exciting developments in my life.
Monday, February 23, 2009
75%
Taxes? Filed.
Hair? Cut.
Groceries? Shopped.
Chiropractor? Still needs to be cracked.
So out of the mere four things I intended to do with my day off I only accomplished three, but hey, 75% isn't too bad for me.
The reason I'm not at 100% is that when I finished getting my taxes done I forgot about going to my Chiropractor's office and headed off to get a haircut. Then I stopped to have lunch, as it was just a little before noon. When I sat down and ordered I remembered about the Chiropractor, and then remembered that the office hours are 9 to noon and 3 to 6.
D'oh.
At least I had a cute waitress. Not that it really mattered, but it's always a nice surprise, given that I usually end up getting a waiter even when the waitress:waiter ratio is 10:1.
After I'd finished eating and she came to take away my plate and utensils, she asked, "Can I get you anything else?"
I never considered actually saying it, but the cheesy line "Just your phone number" popped into my head. I then wondered if there are guys in the world who can successfully use cheesy lines like that. I concluded that there must be, but that there's no chance that I'm one of them.
After that I went grocery shopping and...man, I forgot how nice it is to go grocery shopping in the early afternoon on a weekday.
I delightedly walked through the unobstructed aisles at a leisurely pace. It was awesome. Weekday shopping FTW.
I've considered the notion of heading out to the Chiropractor during the afternoon hours, but I'm already home and settled in, so I don't think that's going to happen. I'll probably swing by on my way home from work tomorrow.
Besides the fact that I'm settled in, it's cold out there. I mean, I'm accustomed to sub-zero temperatures, and we're well above zero here, but there is a vicious, cold, biting wind out there that I just don't feel like dealing with.
And, since I don't have to, I'm not going to.
As for my taxes, I'm getting a pretty substantial refund, though not as substantial as last year's.
Initically I couldn't figure out why that was. After all, while I did make more money last year than I did in the previous year I also paid out more in interest.
Or so I thought. Turns out I paid less. That didn't make sense to me when I actually thought about it. After all, in 2007 there were a few months in which I wasn't a homeowner and wasn't paying any interest, and my current mortgage is much bigger than the one on my condo.
Then I figured it out. On my house I only have one mortgage at a fixed rate. On my condo I had an 80/20 split, with the Home Equity Line of Credit being an adjustable rate. So I actually paid out a lot more in interest on the condo than I'm currently paying on the house.
I also had fewer before taxes deductions last year, as I put less into my Flex account, and it took a few months for them to straighten out my 401K, so I wasn't paying into that for the whole year.
Oh well. It's still a lot of money.
In any case, I need to turn this Monday into a Sunday, by which I mean I need to do the laundry.
Hair? Cut.
Groceries? Shopped.
Chiropractor? Still needs to be cracked.
So out of the mere four things I intended to do with my day off I only accomplished three, but hey, 75% isn't too bad for me.
The reason I'm not at 100% is that when I finished getting my taxes done I forgot about going to my Chiropractor's office and headed off to get a haircut. Then I stopped to have lunch, as it was just a little before noon. When I sat down and ordered I remembered about the Chiropractor, and then remembered that the office hours are 9 to noon and 3 to 6.
D'oh.
At least I had a cute waitress. Not that it really mattered, but it's always a nice surprise, given that I usually end up getting a waiter even when the waitress:waiter ratio is 10:1.
After I'd finished eating and she came to take away my plate and utensils, she asked, "Can I get you anything else?"
I never considered actually saying it, but the cheesy line "Just your phone number" popped into my head. I then wondered if there are guys in the world who can successfully use cheesy lines like that. I concluded that there must be, but that there's no chance that I'm one of them.
After that I went grocery shopping and...man, I forgot how nice it is to go grocery shopping in the early afternoon on a weekday.
I delightedly walked through the unobstructed aisles at a leisurely pace. It was awesome. Weekday shopping FTW.
I've considered the notion of heading out to the Chiropractor during the afternoon hours, but I'm already home and settled in, so I don't think that's going to happen. I'll probably swing by on my way home from work tomorrow.
Besides the fact that I'm settled in, it's cold out there. I mean, I'm accustomed to sub-zero temperatures, and we're well above zero here, but there is a vicious, cold, biting wind out there that I just don't feel like dealing with.
And, since I don't have to, I'm not going to.
As for my taxes, I'm getting a pretty substantial refund, though not as substantial as last year's.
Initically I couldn't figure out why that was. After all, while I did make more money last year than I did in the previous year I also paid out more in interest.
Or so I thought. Turns out I paid less. That didn't make sense to me when I actually thought about it. After all, in 2007 there were a few months in which I wasn't a homeowner and wasn't paying any interest, and my current mortgage is much bigger than the one on my condo.
Then I figured it out. On my house I only have one mortgage at a fixed rate. On my condo I had an 80/20 split, with the Home Equity Line of Credit being an adjustable rate. So I actually paid out a lot more in interest on the condo than I'm currently paying on the house.
I also had fewer before taxes deductions last year, as I put less into my Flex account, and it took a few months for them to straighten out my 401K, so I wasn't paying into that for the whole year.
Oh well. It's still a lot of money.
In any case, I need to turn this Monday into a Sunday, by which I mean I need to do the laundry.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Grinding To A Halt
I woke up around 10:30 this morning still feeling tired, but I decided that I should probably get up if I was going to accomplish any of the things I had planned.
Of course, I did spend a fair amount of time sitting around doing nothing in particular for a while, so it was nearly 1 PM by the time I ventured out into the world.
First order of business was to hit up the comic shop. Due to the holidays, new comics hadn’t been available since the week before Christmas, so I had two weeks’ worth of books stacked up and waiting for me.
After that it was on to finally get the haircut that I’d been putting off for weeks.
Once I got to the barbershop, though, I wanted to postpone it once again, as the place was filled to overflowing with parents bringing in their broods for assorted trimmings.
I think that the owners’ children, who are always huddled off in a corner watching TV, coloring, and playing video games all day, were glad to have the company, but I could have done with a little less noise, and a bit less of a wait.
While I was waiting there was some lady who was attempting to reward her kids for being remarkably good and sitting amazingly still while getting their hair cut with some candy from one of the gumball machine-style candy dispensers. She was digging through her pockets in the vain pursuit of a quarter as I sat there playing Bubble Breaker on my phone. As she wasn’t able to find one, I dug in my pocket, pulled out a quarter, and said, “Ma’am? Here you go,” thus accomplishing my good deed for the year.
I’m glad I got that out of the way early.
After finally getting my turn, I decided that I really wasn’t that inclined to gas up and go grocery shopping, as I wasn’t actually in desperate need to do either, so I decided to just grab a sandwich from Quiznos and head home.
Thinking that I could have half for lunch and the other half for supper, I bought a large sub. That plan fell apart as soon as I got home and scarfed down the first half, which led inexorably to doing the same with the second half.
I guess I’ll find something around the house to eat for supper.
Eventually, after doing some more sitting around and doing nothing in particular, I decided to take a nap, but I wasn’t especially successful, getting in maybe 15 minutes’ worth of napping out of an hour’s worth of lying in the bed.
And now here I am writing this.
I didn’t do a whole lot yesterday. I worked from home, as I did for pretty much most of the week, and at some point near the end of the day, noting that I had pretty much nothing to drink except Coke I ventured out to Super Target to get some green tea and Vitamin Water. I picked up a couple of snacks as well, which is why I didn’t really need to go grocery shopping today.
And of course realizing that today the place would be even more crowded than it was yesterday afternoon did a lot to dissuade me from heading over there.
The most noteworthy thing I did yesterday was finally getting around to watching the Grindhouse movies Planet Terror and Death Proof.
Planet Terror, a zombie movie, was okay, but Death Proof was just boring.
My primary complaint about both movies is that the whole grindhouse style is meant to be sleazy, cheap, and exploitative, with lots of sex, nudity, and over-the-top violence. They both delivered on the violence (and accompanying gore), but they were a little too slick to be considered sleazy or cheap – I think that’s a result of them trying to make intentionally sleazy, cheap-looking movies – and neither one delivered in the sex and nudity categories.
In Planet Terror we had Rose McGowan playing a classic Hollywood trope: the stripper who doesn’t strip. While they tried to get around this by explaining that she was not a stripper, but rather a Go Go Dancer, it still brought to mind some words of wisdom found at What Would Tyler Durden Do? There’s a word to describe strippers who don’t take off their clothes. That word is “fired.”
Of course, one could hardly expect Rose McGowan to appear nude in a film, as she’s the shy retiring flower who wore a fishnet dress and a G-string to an award ceremony (link NSFW).
She does have a sex scene, but is artfully posed throughout so as to prevent us from seeing too much. After all, you wouldn’t want gratuitous nudity in a grindhouse movie.
I think the primary cause of the non-nudity with McGowan is that during the filming of the movie writer-director Robert Rodriguez began having an affair with her. So his approach was to show her off in skimpy outfits as if to say, “Yes, this is the hot young piece I’m leaving the mother of my children for,” but to avoid showing off too much of her.
I’m not intending to pronounce judgment on Rodriguez or McGowan for what happened between them. People cheat, there are two sides to every story, love conquers all, blah blah blah. I honestly don’t give a shit about any of that. My point didn’t have anything to do with making any judgments about the nature of their relationship; it just seemed to me that there was clear evidence of their personal relationship having an impact on the movie.
My other problem with Planet Terror was that there was some lesbian sub-text, but no lesbian text, which is always a negative in my book. If anything, I want to see lesbian super-text.
As for Death Proof, the Tarantino contribution, all of the T&A was fully-clothed T&A, and there was pretty much nothing in the way of sexual content.
That alone isn’t what made it boring, though. A lot of people apparently love Tarantino’s dialogue, though evidently no one loves it as much as Tarantino does.
Seriously, it seemed as though the movie had originally been intended to have a run time of about an hour and a half, and then Tarantino said, “Hmm…you know what this needs? Another half an hour of people sitting around talking about this movie I loved as a kid but that no one else has ever heard of,” and some yes man said, “Brilliant! You’ve done it again, sir,” instead of punching him in his giant head and saying, “Don’t be stupid.”
(I’ve long believed that any sort of creative endeavor needs to have someone filling the role of Head Puncher. It’s like an anti-sycophant, someone who will speak truth to power. And punch power in the head.)
Death Proof consisted almost entirely of people sitting around engaging in incredibly unlikely dialogue that included the obligatory references to all the obscure pop cultural trivial dancing around in Tarantino’s massive melon for long, long, long stretches at a time, briefly interspersed with some images of women being killed in a horrific fashion.
I don’t want to read too much into it, but it seems revelatory that he would spend as little time as possible actually showcasing the female form, but then be sure to include lingering, lovingly-crafted shots of women being killed in an incredibly grisly manner. In fact, we get multiple POV shots of the moment of death so that we can see, in detail, exactly how each woman buys the farm.
I’m just saying, while Rodriguez focused just as much (arguably even more, though that’s simply a function of the fact that stuff actually happened in his movie) on the violence part he did at least give a nod to the sex part of sex and violence, whereas Tarantino…
Well, whatever. I just personally tend to favor the sex part of sex and violence, to the point that, you know, maybe we can just leave the violence part out entirely.
And I’m not trying to rag on Tarantino; I’ve enjoyed much of his work.
Just not Death Proof.
Of course, I did spend a fair amount of time sitting around doing nothing in particular for a while, so it was nearly 1 PM by the time I ventured out into the world.
First order of business was to hit up the comic shop. Due to the holidays, new comics hadn’t been available since the week before Christmas, so I had two weeks’ worth of books stacked up and waiting for me.
After that it was on to finally get the haircut that I’d been putting off for weeks.
Once I got to the barbershop, though, I wanted to postpone it once again, as the place was filled to overflowing with parents bringing in their broods for assorted trimmings.
I think that the owners’ children, who are always huddled off in a corner watching TV, coloring, and playing video games all day, were glad to have the company, but I could have done with a little less noise, and a bit less of a wait.
While I was waiting there was some lady who was attempting to reward her kids for being remarkably good and sitting amazingly still while getting their hair cut with some candy from one of the gumball machine-style candy dispensers. She was digging through her pockets in the vain pursuit of a quarter as I sat there playing Bubble Breaker on my phone. As she wasn’t able to find one, I dug in my pocket, pulled out a quarter, and said, “Ma’am? Here you go,” thus accomplishing my good deed for the year.
I’m glad I got that out of the way early.
After finally getting my turn, I decided that I really wasn’t that inclined to gas up and go grocery shopping, as I wasn’t actually in desperate need to do either, so I decided to just grab a sandwich from Quiznos and head home.
Thinking that I could have half for lunch and the other half for supper, I bought a large sub. That plan fell apart as soon as I got home and scarfed down the first half, which led inexorably to doing the same with the second half.
I guess I’ll find something around the house to eat for supper.
Eventually, after doing some more sitting around and doing nothing in particular, I decided to take a nap, but I wasn’t especially successful, getting in maybe 15 minutes’ worth of napping out of an hour’s worth of lying in the bed.
And now here I am writing this.
I didn’t do a whole lot yesterday. I worked from home, as I did for pretty much most of the week, and at some point near the end of the day, noting that I had pretty much nothing to drink except Coke I ventured out to Super Target to get some green tea and Vitamin Water. I picked up a couple of snacks as well, which is why I didn’t really need to go grocery shopping today.
And of course realizing that today the place would be even more crowded than it was yesterday afternoon did a lot to dissuade me from heading over there.
The most noteworthy thing I did yesterday was finally getting around to watching the Grindhouse movies Planet Terror and Death Proof.
Planet Terror, a zombie movie, was okay, but Death Proof was just boring.
My primary complaint about both movies is that the whole grindhouse style is meant to be sleazy, cheap, and exploitative, with lots of sex, nudity, and over-the-top violence. They both delivered on the violence (and accompanying gore), but they were a little too slick to be considered sleazy or cheap – I think that’s a result of them trying to make intentionally sleazy, cheap-looking movies – and neither one delivered in the sex and nudity categories.
In Planet Terror we had Rose McGowan playing a classic Hollywood trope: the stripper who doesn’t strip. While they tried to get around this by explaining that she was not a stripper, but rather a Go Go Dancer, it still brought to mind some words of wisdom found at What Would Tyler Durden Do? There’s a word to describe strippers who don’t take off their clothes. That word is “fired.”
Of course, one could hardly expect Rose McGowan to appear nude in a film, as she’s the shy retiring flower who wore a fishnet dress and a G-string to an award ceremony (link NSFW).
She does have a sex scene, but is artfully posed throughout so as to prevent us from seeing too much. After all, you wouldn’t want gratuitous nudity in a grindhouse movie.
I think the primary cause of the non-nudity with McGowan is that during the filming of the movie writer-director Robert Rodriguez began having an affair with her. So his approach was to show her off in skimpy outfits as if to say, “Yes, this is the hot young piece I’m leaving the mother of my children for,” but to avoid showing off too much of her.
I’m not intending to pronounce judgment on Rodriguez or McGowan for what happened between them. People cheat, there are two sides to every story, love conquers all, blah blah blah. I honestly don’t give a shit about any of that. My point didn’t have anything to do with making any judgments about the nature of their relationship; it just seemed to me that there was clear evidence of their personal relationship having an impact on the movie.
My other problem with Planet Terror was that there was some lesbian sub-text, but no lesbian text, which is always a negative in my book. If anything, I want to see lesbian super-text.
As for Death Proof, the Tarantino contribution, all of the T&A was fully-clothed T&A, and there was pretty much nothing in the way of sexual content.
That alone isn’t what made it boring, though. A lot of people apparently love Tarantino’s dialogue, though evidently no one loves it as much as Tarantino does.
Seriously, it seemed as though the movie had originally been intended to have a run time of about an hour and a half, and then Tarantino said, “Hmm…you know what this needs? Another half an hour of people sitting around talking about this movie I loved as a kid but that no one else has ever heard of,” and some yes man said, “Brilliant! You’ve done it again, sir,” instead of punching him in his giant head and saying, “Don’t be stupid.”
(I’ve long believed that any sort of creative endeavor needs to have someone filling the role of Head Puncher. It’s like an anti-sycophant, someone who will speak truth to power. And punch power in the head.)
Death Proof consisted almost entirely of people sitting around engaging in incredibly unlikely dialogue that included the obligatory references to all the obscure pop cultural trivial dancing around in Tarantino’s massive melon for long, long, long stretches at a time, briefly interspersed with some images of women being killed in a horrific fashion.
I don’t want to read too much into it, but it seems revelatory that he would spend as little time as possible actually showcasing the female form, but then be sure to include lingering, lovingly-crafted shots of women being killed in an incredibly grisly manner. In fact, we get multiple POV shots of the moment of death so that we can see, in detail, exactly how each woman buys the farm.
I’m just saying, while Rodriguez focused just as much (arguably even more, though that’s simply a function of the fact that stuff actually happened in his movie) on the violence part he did at least give a nod to the sex part of sex and violence, whereas Tarantino…
Well, whatever. I just personally tend to favor the sex part of sex and violence, to the point that, you know, maybe we can just leave the violence part out entirely.
And I’m not trying to rag on Tarantino; I’ve enjoyed much of his work.
Just not Death Proof.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
And The Reason For The Struggle Is...?
Shortly after I got home yesterday I decided to take a nap. I woke up around 6 and thought, “I’ll give it another hour,” and went back to sleep, waking again, to my dismay, at nearly 8.
It’s not like I would have done anything worthwhile or exciting with the time, but I was annoyed to have slept so late.
Once I got up I gave my brother-in-law Dean a call to see how he’s doing. He seems to be doing okay, though the prospect of being laid up and unable to do anything for an extended period isn’t seeming very attractive to him.
That would appear to be a point on which our thinking differs.
As I was wrapping up the call I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything in over seven hours, I heated up a pizza and sat down and watched an episode of Monk.
After that it was several hours of doing nothing in particular, engaging in some random Web surfing and watching bits and pieces of different Riff Trax movies, as I didn’t really have the patience to sit and watch one in its entirety.
Today I went out and finally got around to getting a haircut, though once again not as short as I would have liked. I didn’t say anything because she had already put gel in my hair – without asking – and slicked it all back before showing me the results, so it wasn’t immediately apparent that it wasn’t short enough.
At least the sides and back are short, though, so I guess I can live with it.
And I can’t complain too much, as the place was pretty deserted, so I didn’t have to wait at all before getting my haircut.
After that I gassed up the car and went grocery shopping. It was exactly as exciting as it sounds.
Now I think I’ll spend my time struggling to stay awake and trying to come up with a reason to struggle.
It’s not like I would have done anything worthwhile or exciting with the time, but I was annoyed to have slept so late.
Once I got up I gave my brother-in-law Dean a call to see how he’s doing. He seems to be doing okay, though the prospect of being laid up and unable to do anything for an extended period isn’t seeming very attractive to him.
That would appear to be a point on which our thinking differs.
As I was wrapping up the call I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything in over seven hours, I heated up a pizza and sat down and watched an episode of Monk.
After that it was several hours of doing nothing in particular, engaging in some random Web surfing and watching bits and pieces of different Riff Trax movies, as I didn’t really have the patience to sit and watch one in its entirety.
Today I went out and finally got around to getting a haircut, though once again not as short as I would have liked. I didn’t say anything because she had already put gel in my hair – without asking – and slicked it all back before showing me the results, so it wasn’t immediately apparent that it wasn’t short enough.
At least the sides and back are short, though, so I guess I can live with it.
And I can’t complain too much, as the place was pretty deserted, so I didn’t have to wait at all before getting my haircut.
After that I gassed up the car and went grocery shopping. It was exactly as exciting as it sounds.
Now I think I’ll spend my time struggling to stay awake and trying to come up with a reason to struggle.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Not Much To Report
I haven’t really done anything terribly productive today.
I did go out and get a haircut, and do some grocery shopping, but beyond that? Nothing, really.
I’ve spent most of the day messing around in Photoshop testing out different techniques for enhancing/restoring images.
Why? Well, in my constant search for reference images I often find pictures that I really like, but that I can’t actually use because they’re tiny and low-res, with lots of JPEG artifacting and whatnot.
So if I can find ways to edit the original images to get them to a point at which I can actually use them as source material for drawings, that would definitely be a plus.
(In particular I have a low-res, heavily shadowed screen cap of Scarlett Johansson that I would love to draw – and have tried to draw many times – but it just doesn’t have enough detail to work from.)
Beyond that I’ve been attempting to restore some deleted files on one of my external drives, files that I just realized that I needed today – mostly image files, but some documents as well – and then remembered that I’d deleted a while back when I hadn’t realized that I would one day need them.
I’ve tried a couple of undelete utilities, but they all get to about the 80% mark in scanning for recoverable files, then crap out. I figured that this was due to some bad sectors on the disk, so I did a scandisk and set it to attempt – which is the keyword – to repair bad sectors, and it came back and said that it had fixed the errors, but the undelete utility crapped out at the same point again. I’ve just run another bad sector repair utility, and now the undelete utility is chugging away yet again. This time it found one more recoverable directory than it had in previous attempts, and it’s also making a shorter estimate as to how long the scan will take, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.
If not, oh well. I don’t really need the files, I’d just like to have them.
(They’re mostly sketches and unfinished pictures, which I thought I had backed up somewhere else.)
I decided I’ll (probably) mow tomorrow morning. So there’s something to look forward to.
I’ve been looking at some business card printing sites, as I’ve been thinking about printing up some Heroic Portraits business cards so that I can leave them lying around in public places the way evangelists who aren’t bold enough to actually evangelize leave Chick Tracts lying around.
I meant to do some work on some more sample Portraits for the Gallery today, but got too caught up in the whole undeleting thing and the photo enhancement stuff.
Other than that it’s been a pretty quiet day here at Casa de Threshold.
I did go out and get a haircut, and do some grocery shopping, but beyond that? Nothing, really.
I’ve spent most of the day messing around in Photoshop testing out different techniques for enhancing/restoring images.
Why? Well, in my constant search for reference images I often find pictures that I really like, but that I can’t actually use because they’re tiny and low-res, with lots of JPEG artifacting and whatnot.
So if I can find ways to edit the original images to get them to a point at which I can actually use them as source material for drawings, that would definitely be a plus.
(In particular I have a low-res, heavily shadowed screen cap of Scarlett Johansson that I would love to draw – and have tried to draw many times – but it just doesn’t have enough detail to work from.)
Beyond that I’ve been attempting to restore some deleted files on one of my external drives, files that I just realized that I needed today – mostly image files, but some documents as well – and then remembered that I’d deleted a while back when I hadn’t realized that I would one day need them.
I’ve tried a couple of undelete utilities, but they all get to about the 80% mark in scanning for recoverable files, then crap out. I figured that this was due to some bad sectors on the disk, so I did a scandisk and set it to attempt – which is the keyword – to repair bad sectors, and it came back and said that it had fixed the errors, but the undelete utility crapped out at the same point again. I’ve just run another bad sector repair utility, and now the undelete utility is chugging away yet again. This time it found one more recoverable directory than it had in previous attempts, and it’s also making a shorter estimate as to how long the scan will take, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.
If not, oh well. I don’t really need the files, I’d just like to have them.
(They’re mostly sketches and unfinished pictures, which I thought I had backed up somewhere else.)
I decided I’ll (probably) mow tomorrow morning. So there’s something to look forward to.
I’ve been looking at some business card printing sites, as I’ve been thinking about printing up some Heroic Portraits business cards so that I can leave them lying around in public places the way evangelists who aren’t bold enough to actually evangelize leave Chick Tracts lying around.
I meant to do some work on some more sample Portraits for the Gallery today, but got too caught up in the whole undeleting thing and the photo enhancement stuff.
Other than that it’s been a pretty quiet day here at Casa de Threshold.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Timber!
Despite getting to bed late last night and making the mistake of having a Coke at the movie (the caffeine kicked in just as I closed my eyes to fall asleep), I was up shortly after 8 this morning, and, feeling ambitious, got showered and dressed shortly thereafter.
I decided to head to Lowe’s to see if they had the leaf blower in stock. They did, so I grabbed one, and then decided to take a look at the TV stands.
A while back I found one there that I liked, which consists of multiple separately-purchased components. When I found it the time before, one of the components was not in stock, but given that I’d had more luck with the leaf blower this time, I thought that maybe I’d have some luck on that front as well.
Nope.
Once again one of the components – probably the same one – was not in stock.
However, I noticed that they did have that exact same component in black, as opposed to the stainless steel used in the display model, and that there was no reason that I couldn’t just go with the black rather than the stainless steel, so that’s what I ended up doing.
From there I went to Wal-Mart, where, after having breakfast at the in-store McDonald’s, I wandered around aimlessly without buying anything, and then headed to the barbershop for a haircut, and to Shoppers to pick up some groceries.
I came home, tried out the leaf blower, and assembled my new TV stand.
I plan on putting the old TV stand up in one of the guest bedrooms, and given that Scott is coming over later, I was wise enough to realize that I should wait until he gets here to try hauling it up the stairs, as it is kind of heavy and unwieldy.
However, I did decide to move it out of the way and closer to the stairs, figuring that this was a short and straightforward enough path to take with it.
Of course, I totally forgot about the case of bottled water that I’d set down on the floor earlier, and as I moved to set the TV stand down, my leg pressed up against the case and sunk into it and the end result of this was Jon fall down go boom.
I sighed and decided to stay where I was for a little while before getting up and assessing the damage.
Nothing appeared broken, and it seemed that the worst of it was an abrasion on my leg where it rubbed up against the edge of the TV stand as I fell.
I would say that the worst part was the wound to my pride, but honestly it’s not as though I have any of that left to injure.
I decided to head to Lowe’s to see if they had the leaf blower in stock. They did, so I grabbed one, and then decided to take a look at the TV stands.
A while back I found one there that I liked, which consists of multiple separately-purchased components. When I found it the time before, one of the components was not in stock, but given that I’d had more luck with the leaf blower this time, I thought that maybe I’d have some luck on that front as well.
Nope.
Once again one of the components – probably the same one – was not in stock.
However, I noticed that they did have that exact same component in black, as opposed to the stainless steel used in the display model, and that there was no reason that I couldn’t just go with the black rather than the stainless steel, so that’s what I ended up doing.
From there I went to Wal-Mart, where, after having breakfast at the in-store McDonald’s, I wandered around aimlessly without buying anything, and then headed to the barbershop for a haircut, and to Shoppers to pick up some groceries.
I came home, tried out the leaf blower, and assembled my new TV stand.
I plan on putting the old TV stand up in one of the guest bedrooms, and given that Scott is coming over later, I was wise enough to realize that I should wait until he gets here to try hauling it up the stairs, as it is kind of heavy and unwieldy.
However, I did decide to move it out of the way and closer to the stairs, figuring that this was a short and straightforward enough path to take with it.
Of course, I totally forgot about the case of bottled water that I’d set down on the floor earlier, and as I moved to set the TV stand down, my leg pressed up against the case and sunk into it and the end result of this was Jon fall down go boom.
I sighed and decided to stay where I was for a little while before getting up and assessing the damage.
Nothing appeared broken, and it seemed that the worst of it was an abrasion on my leg where it rubbed up against the edge of the TV stand as I fell.
I would say that the worst part was the wound to my pride, but honestly it’s not as though I have any of that left to injure.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Because If There's Anyone Who Needs More Suction In His Life...
My vacuum sucks.
Or, more accurately, it doesn’t suck.
It worked fine back in my condo, but the carpeting here in the house seems to have killed it. When it still didn’t need to be emptied even after multiple uses, it became clear that it just wasn’t working anymore. The big balls of carpet fibers that it flung all over the place also served as a clue.
So when I was at Target today looking at handheld vacuums that would at least allow me to vacuum the stairs and get the crumbs off the couch, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Dyson.
While I have a lingering pet hair problem from the previous owner, I don’t have continuing pet hair problems, so I opted not to go for the bigger, more expensive pet hair model, and chose to get the slightly cheaper Dyson Ball.
It’s actually kind of cute.
It works much better than the old one – needing to be emptied multiple times – and so, I suppose, was worth the expense.
So that was my big excitement for the day, apart from getting a haircut and, once again, coloring my hair. Just because I’m going to be a year older doesn’t mean I have to look a year older, I guess.
Or, more accurately, it doesn’t suck.
It worked fine back in my condo, but the carpeting here in the house seems to have killed it. When it still didn’t need to be emptied even after multiple uses, it became clear that it just wasn’t working anymore. The big balls of carpet fibers that it flung all over the place also served as a clue.
So when I was at Target today looking at handheld vacuums that would at least allow me to vacuum the stairs and get the crumbs off the couch, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Dyson.
While I have a lingering pet hair problem from the previous owner, I don’t have continuing pet hair problems, so I opted not to go for the bigger, more expensive pet hair model, and chose to get the slightly cheaper Dyson Ball.
It’s actually kind of cute.
It works much better than the old one – needing to be emptied multiple times – and so, I suppose, was worth the expense.
So that was my big excitement for the day, apart from getting a haircut and, once again, coloring my hair. Just because I’m going to be a year older doesn’t mean I have to look a year older, I guess.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Trip Preparations
Most of today has been spent getting ready to leave for Michigan tomorrow morning.
I went out and got a haircut, then hit a bookstore to get something to read on the plane (Fall of Knight by Peter David), and, while I was at it, because I’ve been meaning to, picked up a new watch.
I didn’t really need a new watch, but I was sick of my old one and the broken loop on the band seemed like as good an excuse as any to buy a new one.
The new watch has a solar-charged battery and a radio connection to the Atomic Clock so that it always has the correct time.
It also has a metal band, which I normally don’t like, but I was willing to put up with for the sake of the cool features of the watch.
Of course, my dislike of metal bands didn’t improve any when I got home and found out what a huge pain in the ass it was to remove links so that it would fit a wrist smaller than the Incredible Hulk’s.
Given how heavy the thing is, though, maybe after I wear it long enough my wrist will bulk up.
It’s going to be strange to go home this time, though I suppose last time was strange, too.
Still, it’ll be odd to have to rent a car and to not stay at my mom and dad’s house at all.
And naturally it’ll make me miss my dad even more than I already do.
But it will be good to get away from the tedium of work and the barking of dogs and to crawl out of the rut for a little while.
Hopefully this time around I won’t get stuck anywhere over night. I shouldn’t, given that I’m leaving early enough in the day that there should still be flights going out if somehow I miss a connection, but I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that at all and that everything goes according to plan and schedule.
In any case, my mind isn’t really on blogging, as I still have some laundry to do and some additional tidying up so that I don’t have to come back to a mess once my trip’s over, so I think I will bring this entry to a close.
I’m sure that I’ll manage to post some entries while I’m away.
I went out and got a haircut, then hit a bookstore to get something to read on the plane (Fall of Knight by Peter David), and, while I was at it, because I’ve been meaning to, picked up a new watch.
I didn’t really need a new watch, but I was sick of my old one and the broken loop on the band seemed like as good an excuse as any to buy a new one.
The new watch has a solar-charged battery and a radio connection to the Atomic Clock so that it always has the correct time.
It also has a metal band, which I normally don’t like, but I was willing to put up with for the sake of the cool features of the watch.
Of course, my dislike of metal bands didn’t improve any when I got home and found out what a huge pain in the ass it was to remove links so that it would fit a wrist smaller than the Incredible Hulk’s.
Given how heavy the thing is, though, maybe after I wear it long enough my wrist will bulk up.
It’s going to be strange to go home this time, though I suppose last time was strange, too.
Still, it’ll be odd to have to rent a car and to not stay at my mom and dad’s house at all.
And naturally it’ll make me miss my dad even more than I already do.
But it will be good to get away from the tedium of work and the barking of dogs and to crawl out of the rut for a little while.
Hopefully this time around I won’t get stuck anywhere over night. I shouldn’t, given that I’m leaving early enough in the day that there should still be flights going out if somehow I miss a connection, but I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that at all and that everything goes according to plan and schedule.
In any case, my mind isn’t really on blogging, as I still have some laundry to do and some additional tidying up so that I don’t have to come back to a mess once my trip’s over, so I think I will bring this entry to a close.
I’m sure that I’ll manage to post some entries while I’m away.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Follicle Follies
As I mentioned the other day, today would have been my dad’s 72nd birthday.
Though it’s hardly as if I would have really needed something to make me think about him – I think about him a lot – I couldn’t help but be reminded him as I went to the barbershop to get a hair cut. I could hear him say, “Why not get them all cut?”
Sure, sometimes – okay, maybe 99% of the time – his sense of humor was exactly that cheesy, but he could always make me laugh.
Ten years ago, when he was turning 62 my mom wanted to throw him a big party. The only problem was that his birthday was during the week, and a weekend would be much more suitable for the party, and more likely to get guests to show up. For a variety of reasons it was decided to have his birthday party ten days later, on a Sunday.
Of course, that particular Sunday was actually my birthday, so I got to turn 25 and spend the day watching someone else get presents and birthday greetings.
I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little bent out of shape by that, but I could deal with it because it was for my dad. I was willing to let him have my birthday.
I’d happily give him this one, too, if it meant that he were around to accept it.
(Especially if it meant that I wouldn’t have to turn 35.)
Okay, time to swallow the lump in my throat and get my eyes to stop burning and write about something that doesn’t make me choke up (and no, I’m not talking about turning 35).
I’d actually thought that it had only been a few weeks since I got a haircut, and I was surprised at how quickly, even for me, my hair had grown, but a quick search of Threshold showed that it had actually been over two months.
Once you get to a certain point it seems that time flies whether you’re having fun or not.
I was thinking about that when I watched TNMT last week, as there was a character who was 3,000 years old featured in the movie. What would time be like for him, I wonder? I mean, when I hit 30, time just started whizzing by, and I find myself frequently thinking, “Holy crap, that was five years ago already?” When you get to 3,000 it must be like, “Hey, wasn’t it just 1904 a minute ago?”
Anyway, for my haircut I went to the local barbershop that I went to over two months ago
The place appears to be owned or at least run by a Chinese couple, and it was the wife who cut my hair today while simultaneously keeping an eye on her young son.
Well, kind of keeping an eye on him, as his brother ended up having to go outside to collect him after he wandered off.
Periodically she would say something in Chinese (I’m going to guess Cantonese and not Mandarin, though I could very easily be wrong), though it was unclear who she was saying it to, as she said it so quietly that I could barely hear it and she was right behind me, so there’s no way that anyone else could have heard what she was saying.
After she finished cutting my hair she broke out a personal massager and started massaging my shoulders, neck, and head. It was unexpected and not entirely pleasant.
Then she lathered up the back of my neck and broke out the straight razor, which I was expecting, though I’ve never actually had the back of my neck shaved like that anywhere but here in VA, but I remembered it pretty distinctly from last time.
From there it was off to the grocery store, where I had to pick up only a few things, like milk. When I was getting my milk, I learned that that things were getting pretty hot back in the dairy cooler, as I heard one employee shout at another, “That isn’t the point, man!”
I’m not sure what the argument was about, as I didn’t stick around to eavesdrop, or rather, coolerdrop, but I did hear the person getting yelled at say something about being on a different schedule.
Before my haircut I went to Super Target to pick up some new socks and replacement brush heads for my toothbrush.
And that’s been my exciting day so far.
Though it’s hardly as if I would have really needed something to make me think about him – I think about him a lot – I couldn’t help but be reminded him as I went to the barbershop to get a hair cut. I could hear him say, “Why not get them all cut?”
Sure, sometimes – okay, maybe 99% of the time – his sense of humor was exactly that cheesy, but he could always make me laugh.
Ten years ago, when he was turning 62 my mom wanted to throw him a big party. The only problem was that his birthday was during the week, and a weekend would be much more suitable for the party, and more likely to get guests to show up. For a variety of reasons it was decided to have his birthday party ten days later, on a Sunday.
Of course, that particular Sunday was actually my birthday, so I got to turn 25 and spend the day watching someone else get presents and birthday greetings.
I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little bent out of shape by that, but I could deal with it because it was for my dad. I was willing to let him have my birthday.
I’d happily give him this one, too, if it meant that he were around to accept it.
(Especially if it meant that I wouldn’t have to turn 35.)
Okay, time to swallow the lump in my throat and get my eyes to stop burning and write about something that doesn’t make me choke up (and no, I’m not talking about turning 35).
I’d actually thought that it had only been a few weeks since I got a haircut, and I was surprised at how quickly, even for me, my hair had grown, but a quick search of Threshold showed that it had actually been over two months.
Once you get to a certain point it seems that time flies whether you’re having fun or not.
I was thinking about that when I watched TNMT last week, as there was a character who was 3,000 years old featured in the movie. What would time be like for him, I wonder? I mean, when I hit 30, time just started whizzing by, and I find myself frequently thinking, “Holy crap, that was five years ago already?” When you get to 3,000 it must be like, “Hey, wasn’t it just 1904 a minute ago?”
Anyway, for my haircut I went to the local barbershop that I went to over two months ago
The place appears to be owned or at least run by a Chinese couple, and it was the wife who cut my hair today while simultaneously keeping an eye on her young son.
Well, kind of keeping an eye on him, as his brother ended up having to go outside to collect him after he wandered off.
Periodically she would say something in Chinese (I’m going to guess Cantonese and not Mandarin, though I could very easily be wrong), though it was unclear who she was saying it to, as she said it so quietly that I could barely hear it and she was right behind me, so there’s no way that anyone else could have heard what she was saying.
After she finished cutting my hair she broke out a personal massager and started massaging my shoulders, neck, and head. It was unexpected and not entirely pleasant.
Then she lathered up the back of my neck and broke out the straight razor, which I was expecting, though I’ve never actually had the back of my neck shaved like that anywhere but here in VA, but I remembered it pretty distinctly from last time.
From there it was off to the grocery store, where I had to pick up only a few things, like milk. When I was getting my milk, I learned that that things were getting pretty hot back in the dairy cooler, as I heard one employee shout at another, “That isn’t the point, man!”
I’m not sure what the argument was about, as I didn’t stick around to eavesdrop, or rather, coolerdrop, but I did hear the person getting yelled at say something about being on a different schedule.
Before my haircut I went to Super Target to pick up some new socks and replacement brush heads for my toothbrush.
And that’s been my exciting day so far.
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