Tainted Litmus

*"God Bless America"- Steve had recommended this movie to me ages ago, and it has languished in my Netflix queue ever since. Finally got around to watching it, and I can see why he recommended it to me. Well, actually, I think he recommended it to me because it was written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. Still, I enjoyed it. Didn't make me feel any better about the state of our country at the moment, though. The sentiment of the movie was one that I agreed with on several levels. Except for the whole random shooting part. That, not so much.

*There is really no good reason for me to continue re-exploring Black Mesa. It was pretty much a waste of time the first time I did it.

*Why should I not go antiquing? Simple. I always find cool, and expensive, stuff. Like last year, when I found a decent drafting cabinet at Kane county. Would have been nice, but I hedged on it, and who knows where it ended up. Fast forward to this past weekend and antiquing in Rockton, IL. While tiki stuff was in critically short supply (and ridiculously overpriced), and the games I found were unremarkable, I did run across another drafting cabinet. Five drawers, solid steel construction, with a stand, and heavy as fuck. Needless to say, it came home with me. Now, I'm just working on getting it cleaned up and finding a place for it in the studio. The latter wasn't much of a problem, except for the size of the darn thing. The former may prove to be a bit more difficult, as the sling dividers in each drawer have bit of a musty funk to them. Definitely don't want to be storing anything in there until I can eliminate that odor. I'm hoping that between Lysol and Febreeze I can get the job done. Maybe I should have bought that 1950's CPR dummy instead.

*Almost starting to think that 3/4" is too long.

*"Stitches"- A movie that had great promise from the trailer I saw (but then again, when has a trailer ever looked bad?). How can you go wrong with the idea that a somewhat sleazy clown who dies at a kid's birthday party comes back from the dead years later to exact his revenge on those same kids? Well, from that awesome launching pad came a rather lackluster execution (pardon the pun). Not to say that it was a bad movie, some of the jokes and the over the top gore were hilarious and a foul mouthed clown with an Irish accent is always amusing, but the overall tone of the movie just didn't hit the right note for me. Could have been soooo much more creepy than it was. Still, it might be able to give someone with a clown phobia a decent nightmare or two.

*To the rather fat mouse living under the snowbank outside my front door, I have only this to say: Die, die, die, you fuzzy gray turd.

*ZZ Top has added a ton of dates to their tour, which is great....but I don't live in Canada....or Europe.

*"Super 8"- Rewatched this the other night since I didn't really remember it, and came to rather disappointing conclusion that it was just a remake of "E.T." with a more pissed off alien.

*OK, here's a thought I had the other day: Does a low knowledge of current pop music limit your ability to enjoy the music of "Wierd Al" Yankovic? I'm not entirely sure. I would almost say that if you didn't know a song was a parody of a specific other song, well, it would just seem like a comedy song. I don't think that would decrease your ability to enjoy it. Since I'm not familiar with the song "All About the Benjamins", for example, I didn't know that that was what "All About the Pentiums" was based on. Didn't make me like the latter song any less, though. Also really gave me zero motivation to look up the former song and do a comparison of the two. I have found that a lack of knowledge about pop music can kill your ability to enjoy any of Al's polka mixes. Not knowing any of the songs that have been polka-ized renders that particular type of translation ineffective. And here's something that I thought was kinda odd: whilst browsing Al's discography, I discovered that there has never been a compilation album of his material released that was solely comprised of his original works.

*Who is my personal Sexy Evil Genius? The movie of the same name has made me wonder. And be slightly afraid.

*"Ted"- This movie finally got around to Netflix, so I finally got around to watching it. Aside from the letdown of an ending, and the fact that I really don't care for Mila Kunis, I was highly amused. I would think that most people would be able to pick out my favorite scene without a lot of difficulty.

*Another place I shouldn't go is the game store. Made the mistake of going and somehow wound up walking out with a copy of the Fantasy Flight reprint of Fortress America. But that process led me to this question: Can the local incarnation of a chain store be considered a "local business"? Since I don't have a knowledge of how franchising works, I don't have a good answer for this. It would seem that the local owner of the Gaming Goat would have certain things dictated to him by whoever it is that owns the whole thing, so as such, it's not really an independent business. The flip side is that it is part of the local economy. Still, my thinking is that I should be doing more of my game shopping at New Game in Town instead of the Gaming Goat.

* While it may be fashionable, and is probably quite warm, Wearing a coat that covers you from the top of your head to your knees and is completely black may not be the best choice for walking around a poorly lit parking lot at night.

* Seriously? A zit?? Inside my nose??? What the hell???

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