ET

Belly full of Reese's Pieces, and I don't feel like blogging.

repo

As a potential future wearer of a sort of bionic ear, I felt a huge commiseration with the underdogs in Repo Men: those who have artificial (shiny/future-y) organs and body parts that they can't pay for.

In this ultra-graphic, bloody version of our near-future they've really take it to the extreme: You get sick, you have to buy a new lung. You can't afford it? No problem. Monthly payments. Can't keeping paying for your lung? We'll take it back (which includes stun gunning you in your home, at night, and slicing you open).

I have a tendency to like alternate, but not unimaginable worlds in movies. Something that explores the ideas of "the way things are going" or "the way things could be" instead of a total departure from everything ever. (Although neither very good), I liked this better than Avatar or something. Even better than Star Trek, I guess. In general, I want to suspend my disbelief, but not that much.

There's bad guys and good guys, and best friends with morality clauses, and child prodigies, and even a twist. It's also super violent (to a weird, over the top extreme, which often turns me off to a movie), but I think I was able to get over that because I was interested in all the Future Body Parts. Like an ear you can plug headphones into so someone else can hear it! What!?

So, I have to say this: I really did like it. But it's probably not good.

Qs as us(ual)

Another round of questions, all answers welcome.

1. How's this healthcare reform effect me? I'll be honest: I don't totally get it. I already have insurance. Am I just supposed to be happy for those who didn't?
2. Best shorts for under skirts for biking?
3. Why doesn't the Rock-n-roll Exxon sell gas?
(2 and 3 mean that I'm back in the bike game, and back in the scooter game. Great news.)

I have some other questions too*, but they're already being handled by the internet librarians.
More surgery today (another crown lengthening). Maybe movie reviews later if I feel like it.


*about casino dealers wearing armbands. Watching Big Love, Season 4.

yard

As is the case with most weekends, I won't be posting, because I'll be really busy. Busy hanging out in my yard.
My yard which is free of rats.
Because we won, or at least it seems like it.
This is good because it's less gross and scary, but bad (not really bad) because this project we started with the dead rat portraits has come to a halt.

I didn't like the last one I did anyway (4), so that's an older one from Flickr. Rat 5 might not ever even get drawn.

Instead I started drawing a self-portrait before bed, with some notes about the day. It's probably time to start learning about drawing, right? They're pretty weird (the self-portraits). And, I have big intentions of a multi-person collab effort for next month - stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'm grilling, eating and drinking outdoors, hopefully riding bikes, trying to learn my new Vespa, and trying to save Matt leBlanc from the neighborhood.

for Sandro

Remember the end of that funny 30 Rock where one of the nurses at the dentist's office says she wants "Don Cheadle on a bed of rice" for lunch?
It was funny.
Brooklyn's Finest was not.

Nor was it especially moving, intriguing, or interesting (but Don Cheadle IS in it).
Imagine watching a highlights episode of ALL of The Wire (perhaps with the exception of "the school" season), starring most of the cast of The Wire, and casting Richard Gere as McNulty. Set it in Brooklyn. That's what it's like.
Stealing and crooked cops and drugs and prostitutes, chases under the el, on the job drinking, racism, you name it.
From the opening sequence on, they explore the ideas of "righter and wronger" (actual terms from the movie). There's three separate, cliche plots (that, to be fair, could have been three boring movies I guess, instead of one) mixed up magnolia style, culminating at one salty Brooklyn locale. OMG! They all ended up here! At the same time! Facing different moral dilemmas! Will Gere, Cheadle and Hawke choose good or evil? Yawn.
It was really violent, which at some point for me crosses a line into really looong. Bang bang boring.
There's way better cop movies than this. I can't think of any off hand, but I'm pretty sure I've seen some, and so have you.

getting Lost

This is not about the TV show LOST.

You know how when you listen to NPR shows they sometimes are sponsored by, or plug Audible?
Well, I always think, "Oh, there's no reason I'm not doing that. I would listen to a book".
So today, I set up an account, got all logged in and everything, and the only thing I could think of that I would want to listen to was this:

So...I have that now.

Oh, there's a hundred other good books I should have chosen, and I blew it? I know, but it's too late now. While you're thinking about which books would have been better, I'll be listening to the Lost Symbol, and after a million hours of commutes and waiting rooms, I'll tell you how it was, possibly even spoiling the ending.

And Happy St. Patrick's Day. Green food tonight.

hiphop

Last night (after getting pizza dough from the place on the corner so Kimmy and I could make toaster-over pigs-in-blankets) I saw a black and white bunny in the big lot next to our house.

Obviously, I called Marilyn outside, because she and I have a history of trying to grab small animals out from under cars (saving them from certain demise). We chased it a lot. Were scared it was going to bite us. Marveled at how white it's white parts were. Had no plan for it if we caught it.

Where did it come from? What was it doing just hanging out like that? Can we definitively know it's not one of Dr. Chang's bunnies?

It jumped through a hole in a fence into a scary yard. We quit.

drupdate

I got pretty bad at the internet again: bad at writing, bad at reading.

Seen a lot of doctors lately, and yesterday, Doctor Artz, my otolaryngologist (or, "Dr. Handsome" as my mom calls him.)
Got MRIs from last week checked, and no brain tumor. Another MRI in a year, and then I can cut back to the leisurely pace of one MRI every five years.

He really wants me to "just hear the options" about hearing aids. One option is a set of two that send fm transmissions or something, and the other (more recomended one) is Baha. You know, Brain Anchored Hearing Aid, which is a titanium implant with a little bionic robot ear that clips onto it. Here's the least sick picture of it:


So I have to go back. And hear about hearing aids. And, if my tonsils are still scratchy and gross we'll "talk about our options". That's next month, and there sure is a lot of things between now and then.

Dr. Linus

Guess what tonight is?

(Only ten more times ever).

And, speaking of doctors, I'm on my way for an MRI. Fingers crossed.

peanut butter & cat food

Don't think you can handle this post? Don't read it. It's gross.

If you've been over for a late night grill sesh at our house, you might have seen a RAT.
We're rallying against these intruders, and the latest arsenal?

TOMCAT Rat Snap Traps. If I had to recommend a product, it'd be this. We've tried a couple different things, including poison, which leads to a big dramatic, epic Shakespeare type death. This one just seems to clamp down, break their necks, immediate death. (We're accepting other recommendations as well).

If you really want to read about this ongoing struggle, and hear details about what foods rats like, and how gross they are, you can try out Kimmy's blog:
http://girlskillingrats.blogspot.com/


First two victims.

We'll get all y'all. And then we'll probably have to move.

downsize

They're finally coming to take our trash. All the fake snowstorms, and it just keeps piling up in the yard. I was going to take a picture of it, but it's Just Too Gross.

Anyway, an easy part of downsizing my life (or "having less things in my backpack" if you're familiar with Oscar nom Up in the Air with George Clooney...) was getting rid of dvd cases.
Dropping this:

In favor of this:

Not ready to actually get rid of the dvd's yet, but absolutely ready to never have to sort though/find a spot for/move all those cases again*.

Other things that could/will get the ax:
That extra old bicycle that sits in the yard. I'll probably just set it outside our gate someday soon.
Art supplies I haven't used in years (I did just get rid of all my old screens last garbage day, so that was good). Also paper. So much paper.
Old bras, underwear, socks, tights that aren't the best.
Hair/makeup/beauty products that I don't actually use.
Books I don't read, or could be libraried so easily. I think I could get by with only keeping...25 books? Last time we moved I really purged them, even a lot of the big art books. And know what? I haven't missed them once. Books are heavy, get dusty.

Marilyn is pretty good at keeping our kitchen situation under control, and makes sure we're not keeping too many crock pots and unmatched tupperware and everything. Which is awesome.

I think if I keep taking these steps, I'll be better off, right? What could I possibly miss?

*if you need/want 3 bags of dvd cases (maybe a hundred or so?) to build a cat fort or something, let me know really quick.

marching on

You know me: Big, Monthly Ideas.
I'm always trying to have less stuff - so this month, I'm planning on adding at least one item a day to my clothes swap pile. I already had a lot of stuff in the pile to start with, but now, hopefully even more.

This weekend, when I was going crazy looking for my wallet (which is still lost, I think in my room), I pulled everything out from the walls to vacuum and give a look. I also turned my whole "closet" around, so all the hangers are backward. The idea is, you wear something then hang it back up with the hanger facing the right way. At the end of a month or two, you can be realistic with yourself about what clothes you wear regularly enough to keep. Obviously going to be hard with some of the more seasonal stuff, and there's definitely a few vintage party dresses that don't make it out more than once a year, but hopefully this will really get me cracking.

Separately from that, losing my wallet (and all my cards) has ultimately led to a halt on online shopping (and real life shopping, and going out in general), which is great. Poor? Lose your wallet.

4 sale

Our house is for sale.

We always knew it would be (except for when we asked the management company about it at the beginning, and they assured us "Oh, Ralph? He'd never ever sell").
The sign went up yesterday, and although I've heard much lower numbers tossed around, they're listing it at TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. Good luck.
Because of the absurd asking price, the condition of the house, and the amount of taxidermy we have around, I'm not super worried about new buyers and having to move and everything, but I guess it's a possibility. Thinking about new places, even when it's non-eminent, is fun but mostly daunting.
If you have any questions about this pre-foreclosure gem in the heart of Olde Kensington, and you want to be our landlord, get at me I guess. We do have a nice back deck.

shutterwolf

I spent this weekend going to the movies and looking for my wallet. And looking for my wallet at the movies (really).

I saw Shutter Island. The less you read about this movie, or expect, the better, so I'll be brief. It was a kind of traditional psychological-thriller-twist kind of plot, but I'll be honest: I like those plots. And it was really good looking (as usual, Martin).
I will let you know this: If you were thinking about not seeing it, because of that creepy lady in the previews with weird hair who does the "shush" thing, don't let that deter you. (I thought that was a pretty big indicator that the movie would be terrible. Know this - she doesn't appear in the movie more than that. It's not one of those movies).
It's no Departed, but it's pretty okay.

I also saw Wolfman, which was boring and ugly CGI, and very dark (in the traditional sense, as in "not very much light"). The best, and possibly only good part is that the werewolf looked classic-monster werewolf, which is more than I can say about Lupin or Greyback (of HP lore), or any of those kids from Twilight.

I did not find my wallet.