i m N s h o

 Or, perhaps, simply from my darker sensibilities.  Since I'm between jobs again, once I'm done with the morning's scanning of job listings (I can only spend so much time reading job descriptions till the words stop making sense), I find myself watching a lot of movies and TV. Yesterday was not a banner day for me.  I started with Mike Flanagan's The Midnight Club . I've enjoyed every one of Flanagan's series on Netflix (the Haunting of Hill House , the Haunting of Bly Manor , Midnight Mass ) and am definitely looking forward to what he does with the Fall of the House of Usher . So I figured I'd check out Midnight Club. I should have taken a cue from this for the rest of my day, but 10 minutes in I realized that watching a series about terminally ill teeanagers really wasn't cutting it for me. So I went looking elsewhere.  For some reason, I ended up watching Men after this. Not sure how this seemed like a good idea, but at least there weren't any t...

This holiday season has been  déjà vu  all over the place for me.  It started with Last Christmas... For years now I've realized this song is, literally, timeless. I mean, look at these lyrics...  Last Christmas, I gave you my heart But the very next day, you gave it away This year, to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special One ASSUMES that, last year they thought they WERE giving their heart to someone special... Who gave it away the next day. So what's to stop it from happening to them again THIS year. They literally could be singing this song each year to another person. Timeless, I tell you. (Dani can't unhear this theory now, and now hears the same thing I do each time it plays. She's quite annoyed with me.) Next up, Matrix Resurrections doubled down on every aspect of  déjà vu  to give us a new film every bit as enjoyable, and able to drive conversation and speculation as the first one. Is it perfect? Hell no. But it's a hell of a lot of f...

I gave up wearing t-shirts that said things years ago… it just encourages random strangers to strike up conversations I have no interest in. But I may have to own this one: " Sorry it took so long… "

I've driven in Southern California my entire life and, while I am aware of the law requiring drivers to pass on the left, I'm also well aware that this is a law most often "honoured in the breach" than the observance. (Frankly, I'm as guilty of this as anyone, happy to zip past slower moving traffic in the right lane whenever things bog down on those inside lanes. [Let's face it… I've probably never met a speed limit I didn't like to break.] In fact, there's a section of the 5 near our house where I simply assume the right lane is the passing lane and dodge the incoming merging traffic as I cruise past the slower moving lanes to my left.) I've seen the left lane treated as a passing lane in other states (drivers routinely move out of that lane after passing slower moving cars), but that may simply not be practical here, especially on LA freeways… LA traffic is, arguably, too consistently hectic to keep a lane open as a passing lane. But I don...

Heard about this article on the radio earlier this week. Apparently, along with Bella, Jacob and Barack (yes, you're in fine company there, Mr. President), one of the more popular baby names this year is Messiah. I don't know… seems like you're putting an awful lot of pressure on your kid with that one. I'm just sayin'.

I'm not the most social person. Not that I think I'm anti-social… I'm just not the guy going out of his way to strike up a conversation with total strangers. Hell, I stopped wearing t-shirts that said things years ago, because I realized that they encouraged people I didn't know to think I was interested in talking to them. And yet, somehow, I seem to put out this "come talk to me" vibe at the most inopportune moments. (I remember once in college, looking across the quad at some guy wearing an Imperial Fleet Officer Cap and thinking 'god, what a loser'… only to have him walk over and strike up a conversation with me moments later. And yes, I know what that implies about my social status at the time. All too accurate, I fear.) Last week, we had just seen Alice In Wonderland and were heading to the restrooms before leaving the theater. Outside the women's restroom, presumable (hopefully?) waiting for his wife, I was accosted by an older guy, as...

A couple of weeks ago, Dani and I had just finished the annual post-Christmas stuff-everything-back-in-boxes-and-move-it-out-to-the garage ritual, and were sitting back to watch a little TV. No sooner had we found something to watch, then Athos (Dani's 85 lb. half-Rottweiller "lap dog") jumps up into her lap to make himself comfortable. He's a talkative dog, so we're used to him expressing himself, and we tried to ignore his growsing and chuffing and general noise-making as he got himself comfortable. Pretty much business as usual for him. But, several minutes later, he's still complaining. Short barks, the occasional whine, more chuffing and general displeasure. I look over at him to tell him to shut up (it's kinda hard listening to the TV with all that going on) and notice him looking up at the top of one of our bookcases. On the top of that bookcase, we have a small gargoyle statue. It's about 10 inches tall by about 8 wide. He's been up ...

(From WordSpy : Birther . Deather . Truther .) 3 synonyms for moron? Let me just observe that Google's spell-check recognizes all three words. (Yeah, I know… nearly two months without a post and I come back with something snarky? All I can say is that anyone who's surprised by this probably hasn't read much of my blog.)  

I am an obsessive reader. I hate not having something to read when I'm standing around waiting, or when I'm doing something relatively mindless like eating. I always have a book or magazine in my backpack, and my PDAs and phones have been a godsend in recent years. But, in times of desperation, I've been known to read the backs of cereal boxes and other household paraphernalia. (This is how I discovered my favorite warning label EVER on Kellog's 100% Natural Cereal, a warning to the unsuspecting cereal lover to "chew carefully while enjoying this unique cereal." This, of course, is due to all the whole grains, fruit and nuts of which the cereal is comprised). Sometimes this leads to unexpected discoveries, as in this case with the disturbing notion that I could be an unwitting felon today. I cannot remember the context, nor what I could possibly have been doing which prompted me to read the side of a traveler's size pack of Kleenex Anti-Viral tissues t...

Am I alone in seeing the name Subaru WRX , making the cognitive leap from "WRX" to "wrecks" and thinking "wow, what a bad name for a car!"? At the very least, it seems an inauspicious association. Kind of a " Bummer of a birthmark " moment, you know?  

Bacon seems to be undergoing some bizarre cultural renaissance lately. How else can you explain bizarro products like bacon-flavored salt, bacon-flavored vodka, bacon-flavored mints and bacon-flavored diet coke? A quick Google search is bound to reveal countless other ways you can infuse bacon into your life. It's like we've all suddenly rebelled from all the 'healthy diet' rhetoric that's been flouted for years (rhetoric that few of us are paying any real attention to) and have embraced, once again, the notion of pork fat. But have you SEEN this thing ? That's Taco Bell's new Cheesy Bacon Potato Burrito. Available for a limited time only, they assure us… presumably because it will soon begin to kill off the unsuspsecting among us, those naive or clueless enough to think you can get away with eating one of these things without consequences. I thought the thing was spectacular when I first heard the radio spots, but then I saw a TV ad and realized the magic t...

I've never been particularly… fond of the Sci Fi Channel. Partly it's due to the name. I've spent enough time reading science fiction, and reading about science fiction, to know the difference between Sci-Fi (a generic term used mainly by those unfamiliar with science fiction, or those relatively new to the genre) and SF (as it's generally referred to within the science fiction community). By calling itself the Sci Fi Channel, they put themselves on that broad, lowest-common-denominator shelf that network TV always seems to aspire to (yes, even cable networks). Maybe they thought too many people would see the SF Channel and think it was a channel about San Francisco. Whatever. What I saw was a deliberate decision to cater to the broadest demographic they could reach… which didn't bode well for the type of programming we could expect from them, right? (Obviously, that's what television networks do… they have to reach as many eyeballs as they can so they can pay ...

Bernard Madoff gets 150 years in prison I'm just wondering if giving Bernie Madoff a 150 year sentence is supposed to feel like justice has been served? At his age, wouldn't a 20 year sentence amount to the same thing? (You're gonna die in prison, Bernie. Enjoy.) Not that I think they were too harsh on the guy. Just seems kinda pointless.  

Due to the nature of the business around here, we're ALWAYS talking about stuff happening in the future. In the past few weeks, I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone refer to something happening "in '010'. And I've just gotta ask, is it REALLY that much easier than "2010"? This isn't just me being anal here… '010 is meaningless! It only "makes sense" because this is 2009. 2008=08, 2009=09, 2010=010. But one look at that should show you the flaw in that logic. If you accept '010, then this year would have to be '009, and that makes even less sense than '010. To put it another way, if this were 2109, we'd never have this discussion. It wouldn't occur to anyone to even think next year is '010, because there's no extraneous zeros to add into the date. (2108='08, 2109='09, 2110=... '10!) I will acknowledge that '10 doesn't exactly flow off the tongue ("We'll ...

The Chris Brown/Rihanna trial starts today. News reports state the defense may argue that she started the fight, hitting him first before he retaliated. Have you seen the photos of Rihanna, post-beating? I just want to know what playground these jackholes are living on where "she started it" is an acceptable reason for beating the crap out of a woman. Here's hoping they throw the book at Chris Brown. And I hope it's a large, heavy book. With lots of sharp edges.  

A couple of weeks ago, Joel McHale (The Soup) referred to Twitter as "…the digital macarena." An amusing observation, with more than a touch of truth to it, I think. I can't remember the exact statistic (so I may be misquoting here), but I recently heard that something like 2/3 of new users on Twitter never log in again after their first month. I wouldn't be surprised by that number, frankly. I'm not terribly active on Twitter, but that shouldn't surprise anyone that knows me well. I signed up a couple of months ago and I've tweeted a few times, but haven't felt any real compulsion towards keeping it up. Let's face it, I'm not really into 'sharing'. I mean, I quit wearing t-shirts that said things because I found it encouraged random strangers into thinking I wanted them to strike up conversations with me. (Trust me, I didn't, and I don't.) It's debatable whether the "what are you doing NOW" nature of Twitter is re...

Now, before you go organizing that lynch mob, bear with me while I explain my theory. As any of the Mac faithful will (vehemently) inform you, Apple makes some great technology. The Mac is an excellent computer with a stable, impeccably user-friendly operating system (as a PC user, trust me, I recognize the value of that statement). It loves video, photographs and audio and Apple's brought a sense of style and design to personal computing which makes a Mac an attractive addition to your office, as opposed to the boring beige boxes that were the norm for so many years. The iPod and iTunes have revolutionized the way people listen to music. (Yes, there were other MP3 players before the advent of the iPod, but Apple's the 800 lb. gorilla in this space.) I'm a convert and will no longer even consider listening to CDs in my car. The iPod is an elegant piece of tech, and the iPhone has, seemingly single-handedly, transformed touch-screen technology into something organic, intui...

'cause it can't be spoken about without the attending panic, of course. My favorite headline of the week… Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild Take a deep breath, everyone, and step away from the abyss.

Years ago (more years than I'm willing to cop to today), a couple of my more paranoid friends went off on a RANT about the evils of the Trilateral Commission — this "secret world government" that was responsible for all the evils we, "the common man", experience at the hands of government and big industry. They selected who was going to be elected, what their policies and practices would be, who would succeed and fail… They were the ultimate political bogeyman. This insanity immediately relegated the Trilateral Commission to a place somewhere between Area 51 and the Illuminati in that whole 'mythical secrets of the modern world' area of my brain. Last week I googled the Trilateral Commission (I was looking for a reference to one of these mythical constructs) and lo and behold, it exists ! Not only that, but all the bugaboos and scary notions that had my friends so worked up ("founded by Rockerfeller", the 'trilateral' American, Euro...

I was asked recently what I was going to bitch about now that we don't have Dubya to kick around any more. I told them I was sure I'd find something, but here it is, nearly a month since my last post and I've got nothing to show for it. Admitedly, there have been things that have caught my attention… the continued BS surrounding the banking bailouts (I'm sorry, I don't care what your justification may be, paying massive bonuses when your company's only afloat thanks to a government bailout IS still bullshit), Dick Cheney's arrogance (hardly news, but still), and the continued bickering among Republicans searching for relevance (seriously… the RNC Chairman just went on record saying abortion is a "personal choice" and it looks like Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin are circling Rush Limbaugh for the role of party leader… it's gotta be rough to be a Republican right now, right?). But it's still kinda background noise. Besides, schadenfreude only...