A Zero Dark Thirty Day

If you happened to watch the national news, then you know how cold we had it in California today. I could tell it was cold outside when I woke up, but I really didn't think too much about it.  I had a shower, a cup of coffee, a container of Greek God's yogurt, and I settled in to watch the Sunday morning news shows and spent a nice hour online with T.R., during which I ordered a pair of books for my Kindle - Tenth of December (a collection of short stories) and Sky Above, Great Wind (a collection of zen poetry).

From there, I headed out to meet Tony for breakfast, a few errands, some box shuffling, and then we went to see Kate Bigelow's new movie, the controversial Zero Dark Thirty, starring the immensely talented Jessica Chastain. Now, I will tell you, I think there is a great movie in the hunt for UBL, but, unfortunately, this wasn't it.  There were two problems - first, there was a lack of narrative structure - the movie felt like a series of vignettes strung together.  Then, second, it would have benefited from a far more aggressive hand on the editing machine - it simply ran on too long in many scenes.

I think that is a risk that happens with directors and authors when they become very successful.  They get the ability to successfully resist or disregard the advise of their editors - and we, as the reading or watching public, suffer.  All of that said, I did enjoy the movie, it was good - it just wasn't great.  (I was a huge fan of The Hurt Locker.)

From there, I came home, took a hot soaking bath, and then a short nap and now I've settled in to watch the Golden Globes.  Which I can do while multitasking.

I did watch a surprisingly good little piece of film last night - the SyFy Channel's mini-series "Riverworld".  I'd watched it when it originally aired, but I was not terribly impressed at the time.  Last night I watched it on DVD and I basically watched all three hours continuously.  It was pretty good in that format and I would recommend it as a nice, user friendly, bit of Science Fiction - though of course, the classic novel is a source of constant amazement,

Daily Life: Vacation Day One 4:20 PM

I thought I would take a little bit of a different slant on this vacation and journal each day as it flows by. This morning I woke with the dawn, the sun slanting in through the tree outside of the window. The tree is starting to turn lighter shades of green as we move through the summer, so the light that fills the bedroom in the morning has a different tint to it – equally beautiful, but different from the lush green of spring.

I made a pot of coffee and toasted some wheat bread, slathered with strawberry preserves and then came online for a while, to move slowly into the morning reading #haiku at Twitter. I talked with T.R., which always makes my day. Then, unexpectedly, there was a knock at the door…

Fortunately, it was not a zombie, an alien or a S.W.A.T. team. (Though, in San Jose, we have “Merge” and not SWAT. I am not sure what MERGE stands for. I am sure it is something sufficiently scary.) It was my nephew Tom, checking to see if I wanted to go get some breakfast and then catch the movie “The Hurt Locker” at a matinee. We had talked about it early in the week, but had not really confirmed it. However, one of the great things about vacation is that, when we are freed of the confines of the clock, we can simply say “Yes” and go.

We had breakfast at The Skillet in Campbell, then ran a few errands while we waited for the matinee. We stopped at Fry’s Electronics so Tom could pick up a movie (he was looking for “Born in East L.A.”). I picked up some odds and ends for my upcoming trip and some electronic cleaning supplies.

From there, we stopped at Stevens Creek Surplus and I picked up a day pack. My old day pack is nearly twelve years old and has logged thousands of days and hundreds of hours and was on its last legs. It is now officially retired. It has been replaced by a brand spanking new High Sierra “Stretch”. I also picked up a package of heavy duty socks. San Diego will involve a lot of walking, both at the Comic Con and just as a general part of vacation.

Next we stopped at Big Five Sporting Goods and I bought a new pair of Speedo’s. Before you get all excited and start visualizing, it is a trunk style swimsuit. Leaving Big Five, we went over to CineArtes theatre in Santana Row and saw “The Hurt Locker”, directed by Kate Bigelow. It is a drama about an E.O.D. (explosive ordnance disposal) team in Iraq. It is an excellent and engrossing movie, well written, well acted, and well directed. After the movie, we popped down to Westgate Shopping Center and spent a little while drinking smoothies and people watching. Tom had to go to work, so I dropped him off, then stopped at the grocery store and picked up some ice cream (Sheer Bliss) and some Yoplait yogurt. I figure that the yogurt cancels the ice cream.

Once I got home, I carried my loot into the house and then took the new swim trunks for their inaugural swim. I am happy to report they are comfortable and worked perfectly fine. By luck of the draw I had the entire pool to myself, unusual on a hot day. After that, I slipped back inside the apartment, turned on the air conditioner, and have been reading Tweets and the news online. I’ve yet to decide if I am going out for dinner of if I am going to cook something simple up. I have a craving for Italian, but just haven’t decided if I am going to cook or let someone else do the cooking. All in all, it has been a very good first day. I posted some pictures earlier from my iPhone. Tonight the plan is to continue the slow fall into pure relaxation. My friends are getting together tomorrow to socialize and grill, so I am going to make an appearance over there later in the afternoon.