Watching Runaway Train. I started out having no idea what the movie was about. Instantly my expectations were lowered to the ground by over-acting and cliche prison boxing scenes. Then Jon Voight stepped in and saved this movie. And then it was fantastic.

If you look on amazon.com for Driver San Francisco for the ps3, apparently my review is the only negative one there. And game fans are hating it. Every few days I get an email from amazon saying there's been another angry comment on my review. It's keeping me mildly entertained.

I've sorta loss steam with this blog after watching a King of the Hill episode where Hank is forced to read an employee's exhaustive blog about every petty issue in her self-centered life. "It's no wonder she didn't get any work done!"

I spent a long weekend driving around Texas. Texas, where the weather is beautifully warm and the highways have unavoidable surprise tolls. I dig that southern hospitality too. People say it's a fake niceness, but at least they pretend to be nice! Try to talk to a clerk in DC and you'll get nothing but passive hostility.

I got pulled over by a cop because the ticket I had wasn't the right ticket to get through an automatic toll. So I had to back up and find a new lane and the cop thought I was backing up too far. He didn't give me a ticket though, just stopped me and checked my license through his computer. Luckily he didn't notice that "must wear glasses" provision on the back of my license because I definitely wasn't wearing them at the time. (I really only need them at night, and when I'm trying to read signs.)

I have a new grey hair. This one is on the side of my head and is not very flattering. I'm not happy about it.

More later.

I'm watching The Family Stone. It's sorta like Meet the Parents except the family is super liberal and the guest girl is very up tight. I saw it in the theater with my family 5 years ago and enjoyed it then. Upon a second watching I'm not so sure.

The family in this movie is ridiculous. The mother tells one son that this year's Christmas will not be clothing-optional because they have guests. Umm, gross. Thank goodness. There's an 8 year old granddaughter walking around and you're going to have a clothing optional Christmas?? And then the mother makes condescending remarks about their guest being silly when she says she'd be uncomfortable sharing a bed with her boyfriend in the boyfriend's parents' house. Have a little empathy. I've never met a family that gossips and makes fun of someone behind their back to this extent. Even the grandparents in this family are like little kids.

Sarah Jessica Parker does make some bad moves. She stiffly holds out a hand to everyone she meets like it's a diplomatic event. She speaks really loudly at the deaf brother (though to be fair, I'd probably just not talk to him because that'd be so easy to mess that up). And she makes an insensitive comment about gay parents hoping for straight kids. She immediately starts backpedaling afterwards but that doesn't work. This would cause a awkward silence at most tables, and the gay son was a bit offended, but instead the grandparents start yelling. Sarah Jessica Parker keeps trying to backpedal until finally grandpa bangs his hand on the table for silence. This whole family is out of control.

I don't think my dad has ever banged his hand on the table, actually I can't even remember a time that he's yelled because he was angry. Maybe that's why I have so little patience for impotent outbursts of anger. I'll tell you right now, if anyone ever bangs their hand on the table, I am out of there. I will not be bullied into silence by anyone's childish hand banging. Well, I guess I would be, but I would also immediately leave in silence. Always have an exit strategy.

(talking about the groom's brother at a wedding. I'd been the only one to meet him.)
Lauren: Is Dave short?
me: Umm, he has the proportions of normal man.
Kristen: What, you mean he's not a hobbit?

My hair stylist yesterday said that she could tell from the texture of my hair that I'll have a full head of hair until I'm 50. Score! At this rate though that'll be my greatest achievement as a 50 year old. I just have to hope that men continue to be self-conscious about their hairlines and that there are no new breakthroughs in hair rejuvination medicine in the next 20 years, then I'll be sitting pretty.

The work calls to me. Another 58 hours!

I'm watching a little Teen Wolf. I was looking at something else on wikipedia and found a link to the show, and noticed it had received mild approval from critics. So today I watched the first two episodes. Some observations:

-What kind of person hears that there has been half of a dead person found in the nearby woods, and decides they want to go look for the other half??? Why would you want to do that? And why would you let that person be your best friend? In high school my best friend wanted to go see a bad movie and I refused to go. Hunting a corpse is absolutely out of the question.

-The main character has an awful lot of hair. He's reminds me of John Travolta in the '70s. People who have a lot of hair are usually really into brushing and styling it, but this guy is more of a "run to school wearing whatever" kind of guy. Maybe it's a Justin Bieber influence on kids today.

-Lots of "I can't control my emotions" and "I can't control my werewolf transformation" moments that don't interest me. I realize it's occasionally hard to control yourself, but grunting and rolling around on the ground is not how real people handle these moments. Man up teen-boy!

-None of the girls are hot. I'm not sure if this is my fault because I'm just too old for high school girls now. But there are only two female character and I don't find either of them to be particularly attractive. They remind me of the girls on the OC. Angular chins and long wavey hair. At least the popular one is competent at Algebra II. Friday Night Lights had some hot high school-ish girls. Let's get it together, Teen Wolf!

-Do most people know how to play lacrosse? I certainly don't. I was going to call BS on there even being lacrosse in California, because we didn't have it at my high school, but apparently there is a small league out there. I know I hadn't even heard of the game until seeing it in American Pie. What exactly are you supposed to do when someone has the ball in their- ...basket-stick-thing and comes running towards you? Apparently "tackle" is not the answer. But not knowing what the defenders are even trying to do makes the guy's spins and leaps less impressive. Lacrosse is heavily featured in this show. I wish they'd included a scene explaining how it's played.

-I like how the "super speed" isn't conveyed using fast motion film, the way it is in Vampire Diaries and True Blood. That never looked very convincing.

(Trent Reznor, to fans after finding out his new album was retailing for $30)
"You know what that means. Steal it. Steal away. Steal, steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing."

Hello, All. (Rachel, Sarah, family.) This month I need to do work, so I won't be updating again here until October, but I should update now while I'm thinking about it.

I made it to NYC two weeks ago just in time to get hit by Hurricane Irene. I didn't think it would be a big deal, but all the buses shut down 24 hours before the storm. So I couldn't get back to DC and ended up unexpectedly spending a few days at my cousins Brian and Linda's place. They were very nice about it and power didn't go out or anything. It would have been fun if I wasn't stressed about late work and if I had more than a single change of clothes.

Then last weekend I was in New Orleans in time for tropical storm Lee. That was really just a lot of rain but I think it was the first storm since Katrina and a lot of people were worried about flooding. We had sandbags ready, but I was unconvinced as to their standing-water effectiveness, which my host did not appreciate. Apparently blind optimism is preferred in some situations.

I'm buying some Vietnamese coffee equipment from Amazon because Linda showed me how to make it in NYC. It's surprisingly easy, but my order is $2 short of Amazon's free shipping. Now I'm looking at videogames to add. How did I not hear about a Donkey Kong Country sequel being released for wii? I thought about buying that, or Super Mario All-Stars, or Punch-Out, but in the end bought none of the above. Next month though I'm hoping to redbox rent the new Deus Ex. It's gotten good reviews but I've been fooled by glowing videogame reviews before. Instead I'm going for a $3 mouse pad. I spilled a drink on this one and it's all gross.

Oh, according to facebook Julie is getting married this weekend! I hope to spot photos on facebook later.