"Victory through mediocrity."

No, I don't mean that a young monk was recently excused from performing a portion of a monk's duties.

I mean what my friend uttered after a less-than-rousing - rather annoying, actually - game between the Raiders and the Redskins. But hey, we won. Yippee.

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You so knew I was going to blog that, right?!

Question of the day...

... do I apply for the job where I don't really understand one "requirement" but have experience in all the other "requirements"?

I'm thinking yes. Maybe I can wing it.

Pot kettle black.

I was highly amused at the young couple sitting next to me in the theater, scoffing at all the "nerdy" teeny boppers in the back who squealed in delight for the Narnia and King Kong previews... in the theater on opening night for Harry Potter Part IV. Uh huh.

Tonight was my first real endeavor into Hogwarts land, and now I get why people are into the Harry Potter phenomenon. I can't say that I will go forth and read all the books and see all the other movies though... Hermione gets on my nerves, Ron needs a spine, Harry reminds me too much of Frodo, and quite frankly I just can't take the stress that accompanies long-term emotional investments with fictional characters anymore. (I think the Lord of the Rings trilogy really did me in. I DON'T KNOW THEM. THEY AREN'T REAL. IT'S JUST A FREAKIN' MOVIE.)

Perhaps if I had a life of my own I would feel differently. For now, though, I'll stick to things like Nip/Tuck. When the show is done, I can think, "boy, what assholes," and move on.

I could go around the world 3.6 times!

I have seven weeks of vacation saved up. SEVEN WEEKS. How did that happen? I've already taken several weeks off at a time this year. So weird. And crazy.

So... where should I go? :)

Sharing the pain.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! indeed. What the hell part of EMMY WINNING does Fox not understand...? Fucking America and their fucking need for blood and guts and gore and violence. How about a LITTLE HUMOR for a change, for Christ's sake?!? Read the fucking NEWSPAPER for your blood and guts and gore and violence.

Ahem. Sorry, I just really really really like this show. It made Monday worth looking forward to.

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No worries, Bluth-loving comrades. I am certain that some cable channel will pick it up and run with it. It just better not be HBO, because I don't get that channel, is all I have to say.

What's not to love?

I never watch MTV and I haven't read Spin in eons (until yesterday at the airport - it's such an airport magazine) so I'm a little slow on the pop culture uptake these days.

I liked their music a lot before seeing any of their videos, but now I just have to say that I am so in love with all four members of Franz Ferdinand.* It's quite pathetic, really.

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* For the easily-startled or "hardly working" IE users - this link opens up their latest video which automatically starts playing. I don't know how to get it to play in Firefox. Anyway, allegedly, the lyrics for this song came directly from conversations overheard at a party. I'm such a sucker for art imitating life imitating art.

And stop calling me Shirley.

On the flight to Southern California yesterday, I sat next to a woman who found out this weekend (while on a business trip in San Francisco) that she'd lost her house in the tornados in Indiana. LOST HER HOUSE. Literally. According to witnesses she'd spoken to on the phone, the roof was blown off, everything got sucked up through the hole, and her house was ripped off the foundation and carried 300 feet away. She was holding up pretty well, considering she hadn't seen the damage and she had no idea what was still there, where she would stay in the meantime, if she even still had her car...

I walked off the plane marveling at her ability to revel in the fact that she and her husband, and their animals, were not on the property at the time. Instead of getting mired down in the loss and sadness of the whole thing, she was thankful for what she still had. Truly inspiring lesson for us all.

And then on the flight home tonight, I sat two rows up from someone who apparently passed out on the flight. It was really interesting to see the flight attendants react - they were immediately by her side, on headsets talking with (what I guess were) medical assistants, on the loudspeaker asking if there were any medics on the flight. And all the while graciously apologizing to the folks who'd ordered drinks that they were not going to get during that flight.

These events were interesting and inspiring and memorable, but next time I fly can I just have one of those jive dudes in the seat next to me? I can help - I speak jive.

Soy un perdedor.

Note to self - next time you think about bringing the folks out for the holidays, check the expiration date on your free tickets BEFORE offering.

Note to readers - if you have an expired free Southwest ticket, you can get the expiration date extended for a mere $50. Ask me how. Might not seem worth it for an in-state flight, but for a coast-to-coast trek over the holidays, it is. She says, four hundred fifty bitter dollars later...

The senior rates at Southwest are also quite good... if you happen to be flying a senior who wasn't going to change their mind about coming out after hearing that their return flight would land at home after midnight with an hour's drive still ahead.

HA-ha!

I cannot help but gloat that all of Arnie's propositions were vetoed by the general public in our state. I did actually read each proposition, do additional research, and make educated decisions about all of them. But I can't say I'm surprised that a lot of people "just said no" on principal alone. And I can't say I completely agree with that - but I can't say I completely disagree either.

And yes, I was dismayed but not shocked that Prop 73 was as close as it was... Did those "yes" voters not see Dirty Dancing, for Christ's sake??

In other election news... BOO to the Bible Belt.* YAY to the Borough.

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* I can't make excuses for Texas. I gave that up a long, long time ago. But Kansas? I know there's not much going on in Kansas - wouldn't a few curved roads be a more interesting time investment than this issue, though?

Mon Dieu!

What the hell is going on in France?? I really need to get over this policy of not watching/reading the news for days at a time.

Don't forget to vote ...

... for the 2005 Weasel Awards! Winners announced November 8. Some were really hard choices, especially the weaseliest individual (it was really a toss up between Dubyah and Tom Cruise).

(Oh, and don't forget to vote in this election either.)

Oh, and seriously??

WTF happened to all my Firefox bookmarks, settings, etc?? They're all gone. All of them. And I swear I did NOTHING to cause that to happen.

Where were you when I needed you, Susan?

Why I suck at being a leader, exhibits A through H:

A. A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice. - James Callaghan

B. There's nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can't clearly articulate why we're doing what we're doing. - James Kouzes and Barry Posner

C. Whoever is providing leadership needs to be as fresh and thoughtful and reflective as possible to make the very best fight. - Faye Wattleton

D. Leadership can be thought of as a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future. - Edwin H. Friedman

E. The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes. - Tony Blair

F. Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it. - Marian Anderson

G. I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. - Indira Gandhi

H. Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences. - Susan B. Anthony

TO JEANS!

Oh my God. I can't believe I forgot to mention this yesterday. After the offsite a few of us learned we could wear jeans to work whenever we didn't have any mucky-muck meetings.

Talk about the easiest way to boost morale. I gotta buy more jeans.

Hmmm...

They changed this Sunday's church sermon topic from "The Joy of Sex" to "The Joy of Friendship" recently. Unless I totally hallucinated that whole sex thing. I really don't think I did, though.

The church is right next to a middle school. Wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Or perhaps it's a conspiracy. "Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you."

At least I don't have to go to church on Sunday now.

Start 'em young, I always say.

This made me laugh. Arrrr.

"You know how I know you're gay?"

Last night I saw 40-Year Old Virgin. On the Parkway's 2-for-1 night. Thank God.

Here is my review:

It was a guy flick. In case you couldn't tell from the quote used as a subject for this post.

That's cool - we have our flicks. You need yours. You want to imagine meeting a grandma as hot as Catherine Keener? Go for it. You want to think that doing nothing but asking questions is the way to seduce a girl? OK. You want to brag about your "accomplishments"? Whatever. While you do that, we'll be watching John Cusack movies and cursing the day that you were born.

I will say, in its defense, that the very end of this movie was worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY of my $2.50.

And damn, Paul Rudd is hot. But, even several movies later, I still don't know what it is about him.

I thought 30 was bad.

I have walked past Searching For Debra Winger so many times in the video store* because I thought it was about... well... what the hell happened to Debra Winger after Terms of Endearment.

But now I know it's about this. And it's by her. And I am soooooo renting it.

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* Yeah, I have Netflix. Yeah, I go to the video store. Just when I walk the long way home and pass by it... and have 2 more days till I get my next Netflix fix.

Yeah, I have no life. What of it??

"We accept you, one of us!"

Last night I watched Freaks for the first time. This movie made #15 on Bravo's list of 100 scariest movie moments.* I don't know... It was a very sad movie. But scary? I wasn't scared.

The only thing to really freak me out (no pun intended) was the armless, legless guy who lit his own smoke and squirmed across the ground like a snake. But then I started thinking, shit - if he can do that and seem to be at peace with it, what the hell am I always bitching about?

I am probably the only person I know who would find inspiration in a movie like this.

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* Jaws was #1? Seriously? The Exorcist and The Shining were way scarier than Jaws. It was a freakin' mechanical shark, for Pete's sake. And I don't care what you say, Freddie still creeps me out. Not as much as the silver ball flying down the hall in Phantasm, where about ten feet from the kid's head, metal spikes shoot out of it. And Pinhead? Hello?? Still gives me shivers.

So... What's YOUR favorite scary movie?

Note to self.

Stop volunteering for public speaking events even though it's a skill you would like to develop. Especially public speaking events that you think will be one thing, but that you know will morph into something stupid and impossible.