Ten Tuesday Tidbits

1) I took a vacation day yesterday. Before the holiday, the office let us out early last Wednesday. I haven't set foot in the building in nearly a week, and for all intents and purposes today should have been a Monday for me. Yet I awoke in an anticipation similar to the first day of class after being off all Summer in college, and enjoyed being at work. I have noticed my mind is clearer now that my desk is organized in the wake of the cleanup required for the new carpet installation, so I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. Sometimes I have so much to do, I don't know what to do first. Right now I feel like no matter what I do, I'll always know what to do first. I expect that to wear off sometime around Thursday when I have two meetings on the same day for the two catalogs I design. By then I'll be looking forward to the weekend. I think it all comes down to excess. Five days off led to boredom and stagnation. Four or Five days of work leads to exhaustion and apathy. I think instead of weekends off, the standard work structure should include Wednesday as a regular day off. Work two days, take a break, work two more days, then have a weekend. That seems like a good balance.

2) Before I woke up this morning, I was running. My friends from work and I were in a race through the woods. At one point we stopped and my friend sent me back to delay the other runners while he set up a trap, digging a pit and covering it with branches. I ran back and met the other runners, one of whom was a former illustrator colleague I've not seen since he move out of state. We ran along the path which led out of the woods into a room in a modern art museum. The friend who'd sent me back showed up, and we all chatted for a few minutes about paintings before I remembered I was in a race. Without a word, I ran out of the room and back on to the dirt path through the forest. I passed a few of the women from work, ran down the escalator that was suddenly in my office, and leapt the last few steps almost landing in a shopping mall. Across from me I could see people through glass in a gym, and noticed a girl on an elliptical machine watching me. I also noticed my wallet had fallen on the ground. I was still in midair at this point and after making sure she was still watching me, put my hand out against the wall and suspended myself for a moment, before dropping back to the ground like a superhero and scooping up my wallet. Without missing a beat I continued running, past the gym and through a department store leading to the parking lot outside the mall. There was a table and people counting who ran through, but when the woman asked to see my plate I noticed I only had string around my neck. Other runners had paper plates with numbers written on them. I assured her I was part of the company and that I was number “33”. She checked a list, found my name, and when I presented my driver's license from my wallet, marked me complete. I came in 36th in the race, and then I woke up. Too bad this didn't happen before I answered my test.

3) For the first time since joining Netflix, I rented a movie I'd seen already. It's not that Passenger 57 isn't a memorable film, but I wasn't completely sure. I've taken out many movies I thought I'd watched already, at least in part, only to find large portions wholly new. Maybe this one had slipped by me too. Maybe I was confusing it with Drop Zone. But as the story unfolded, I realized I'd viewed it before, albeit on broadcast television. When I was in high school, Wesley Snipes' “Always bet on black!” line seemed ridiculously cool. Tonight, there was an extra dramatic pause after the villain admits to the hero that he has, in fact, played roulette on occasion. There's a wide shot of Wesley holding the phone before the camera zooms in for the signature phrase and he hangs up on the bad guy. Ridiculously cool was now simply ridiculous. What a ridiculous movie, and great because of it. Hollywood doesn't turn out these guilty pleasure formulaic action pieces as much as it did in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Other observations from tonight's repeat viewing: Elizabeth Hurley has always looked flawless, and Tom Sizemore REALLY let himself go in less than a decade. Aside from his voice, the young Italian guy in this movie was virtually unrecognizable.

4) The new Barnes & Noble near my job is amazing. It has two levels, two escalators, and it's immense. I could fly a small plane through that store there's so much head room. Walking through the grand columns, I didn't feel like I was on Long Island at all. It almost felt Manhattan, and then it didn't feel New York at all. I liked it.

5) While in the bookstore, I snatched up the long-anticipated Ultimates Volume 2 trade paperback. I may not collect comics anymore, but some merit picking up in trade form, especially a continually fresh new take on one of my favorite teams.

6) Speaking of good comics, I read the first three Preacher collections nearly back-to-back this weekend. The series started in the late ‘90s so I'm a little late in discovering it, but I can honestly say I've never read or seen anything quite like it, and the term “comic” can only be used in the loosest sense to describe the medium. It really feels like reading a movie, or a really tight television series complete with seasons, story-arcs, cliffhangers and full character development. I'd caution Christians that it does get blasphemous in its portrayal of the character of “God”, but approached as a fictional reality it's telling a really compelling tale about flawed people, where good and evil are abstracts and the only constant is humanity. If you liked The Prophecy movies, or the potential Spawn once had, this might be something to check out. Thanks Jerry, for getting married and getting rid of stacks of old books like these!

7) No sooner do new episodes air then a third volume of Family Guy DVDs are released. As I watched this new purchase this afternoon, I realized the episodes were very fresh in my memory, since I just saw them this past Summer. The great thing is noticing all the scenes FOX cut from the original airing seamlessly reinserted. I bought the set at lunch, and had eight episodes finished before I left work for the gym.

8) My right leg works again. After the agony that woke me in the middle of the night on Sunday, and the difficulty I had yesterday, it was good to be almost back to normal today. The elliptical in the gym was the true test.

9) Pepperoni Pizza, especially from the right pizzeria, is AWESOME.

10) I chose ten for alliteration, but I really didn't have ten things to share tonight. Discuss my duplicity in the comments.