Tempting...

Hello, internet. How are you?

Now, I don't drink but I think I might have just found something that tempts me just the tiniest bit. Just a little...

Bubble boy

The other day I saw a presentation on SCID, also known as the Bubble Boy disease because people who suffer from it are confined to a sterile life in a bubble. As part of the presentation, the group gave away a bottle of bubble solution with a bubble wand to people who answered questions. I managed to get my hands on one, and put it in my backpack.

Today I was in a really good mood walking home from campus, so I got it out of my backpack and blew bubbles all the way home. It was interesting to see how people reacted. Most people (including a couple people I know but not that well) avoided eye contact. They just kept their eyes down and kept on with their gray rainy day (it had stopped raining long enough for some bubbles, but it was still gray and cloudy). It was kind of sad.

One dude got this big grin on his face and chased the bubbles as they blew away. That was definitely the highlight of my day. The moral of the story? Bubbles are fun. Watching your feet isn't.

Samur-ific!

Yesterday I went to UVU to watch Yojimbo. Their foreign film club (or something like that) was having a screening, but only 8 or 10 people showed up. It was kind of sad. Nice theater, awesome movie, and nobody there to see it.

The movie itself was freakin awesome. If you don't know Toshiro Mifune, you need to find some of his movies and watch. Yojimbo is a good place to start.

It tells a great story (that will seem very familiar to Clint Eastwood fans who saw Fistful of Dollars) about a Samurai who drifts into a town torn apart by rival families. Toshiro Mifune plays this man with no name, who is called various things including Sanjuro ("Thirtysomething"), Yojimbo ("Bodyguard") and "that two-bit Samurai". Anyway, whatever you call him, he decides to help clean up the town by getting the two sides to kill each other.

I think my favorite part of this movie (along with other Samurai movies) is that there is no real boss inflation, and the Hero and Evil Boss aren't elevated to superhuman status for their final showdown. They're still just people. There's lots of build up and sharpening their claws, but once the actual fight starts, the two run at each other and one of them sticks his sword in the other guy. Then the other guy dies. There's something beautiful about that simplicity. No Die Hard-esque villain resurrection, just a good guy vs a bad guy.

Well, I'm tired of rambling about this movie. Go watch it. It's playing in a couple weeks on the International Film Channel if you have it.

I should keep a list...

The other day I went to a water polo game that some of my friends were playing in. As is my habit, I shouted myself hoarse. When I woke up this morning, I had the most awesome gravely voice. I felt like Edward James Olmos or Will Arnett. The only trouble was that I couldn't think of anything awesome to say with my deep voice. So, I've decided that I need to make a list of things to say just in case I ever find myself in that situation again.

Here's what I've got so far:
Permission not granted
Frak
Where's Sean Miller?
He's no good to me dead
[edit: I can't believe I forgot these:
They hit me with a truck
War, war never changes]

Any suggestions?

Awesome

Now I hate to just post a link that I saw on John's blog, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I've just got three words for you: Naked Obama Unicorn. Nuff said.

Jobs

Lately I have heard a lot about the bad economy. People are losing their jobs left and right. Today, I realized that it is not as bad as we all think.

There's a story here. My roommate Scott just bought a very nice TV (a very nice TV), and when he took it out of the box, it didn't work. He called Sharp and they sent over a couple guys to fix it. When they got here, I was a bit underwhelmed. The technician was about 45 years old and looked very tired. The assistant was 30 or so, and definitely smoked pot while playing D&D in his mom's basement.

They asked where he bought the TV, and gave eachother a secret scoff when he told them he had bought it online. They told him that buying anything online was really risky and he should only purchase from stores with a physical location because there were more people to complain to when things broke.

Next, the technician (let's call him Harold) stared at the TV for a few minutes while the assistant (let's call him Milton) whipped out his cell phone and started playing solitaire. Harold told him to put it away, so he hid it by standing behind the couch and continued to play. Harold asked Scott the same questions he had answered over the phone ("so, it's not working?" and "are you sure it's plugged in?"). Then Harold called tech support, and they asked him those same questions. They unplugged it and plugged it back in a few times, and then decided that it was unfixable. All this while Milton continued to play solitaire. They told Scott to ask newegg for a new TV because this one was broken.

While these guys were here (about 45 mintes or more) I realized that somebody was paying them. Somebody paid these two guys to come over to our house, play soliatare, and ask the same questions we had already been asked. The only thing they did was take information they already should have had and determine that the problem was beyond their skill.

Then here comes the great part. While these two were being paid, they called somebody else (who was also being paid for his time) and all he could do was ask them the same questions and determine that it was also beyond his skill. There was something beautiful about seeing the three of them being paid to have a conversation about how none of them knew how to do the job they had been sent to do.

So, my thought is this: as long as these guys are getting paid, I don't think I have to worry about my job future.

Best dream ever

Last night I dreamed that I was Jeff Foxworthy's personal assistant. But not in his normal job as a comedian. I helped Jeff in his secret job as a hostage negotiator.

We were out negotiating the release of a little girl who was kidnapped, and when we met the kidnapper, it was Sayid from LOST.


Jeff kept his cool pretty well, but he kept calling Sayid all these really bad racist slurs. As his personal assistant, I felt the need to let him know this was a bad idea, but he just told me to relax and let him do his job. I woke up before the end, but it was looking like the little girl was going to get to go home. Hurray!