Need Blood Flow To Brain

I had a pretty productive morning and then I slammed into the wall here at work.  I am torn right now between the need to refocus and the need to just give up and take a nap!  I thought I would pivot over here and write for a bit hoping it increases the blood flow to my brain. 

I think it's wrapped in the nature of what I do that it's equal parts rewarding and frustrating.  When the frustrating part starts to win that is when I slip into a fugue state where I am working, but I don't feel like I am making any progress.  It feels like I'm moving but not going anywhere.  That is the spot I find myself in right now, so I am hoping thinking about something other than work will kick-start the brain and let me steal a productive afternoon back.

I just noticed that it has been almost a week since I've written out here so I thought I would play a little bit of catch-up.  I had a good weekend all in all.  I only did a little bit of work on Friday morning, mostly watching email, before I slipped into the three day weekend.

Three high points pop out at me as I'm sitting here and looking backward.  I spent about two and a half hours on the phone with my friend James in Oregon on Saturday night.  That was a good conversation and long overdue. We talked about dang near everything, LOL, but mostly around our shared love of fantasy and science fiction in all it's various pop culture forms.

Earlier on Saturday I went out and saw "The Lost City of Z".  That was an excellent movie.  It was fairly long, but you didn't really know it.  It starred Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattison and it's based on the true story of based on the life and disappearance of the English explorer Percy Fawcett.  He was exploring the Amazon and attempting to find a lost city.  He didn't - or if he did he died before he could come back and report it.  I had read the book and enjoyed it, so I was primed for the movie when it came out and the film definitely lived up to my expectations.

Then, on Sunday, I saw "Split", the James McAvoy and M. Night Shyamalan film.  I got to say, definitely a recommended movie.  A worthy addition to both men's filmography.  I won't tell you too much about the film because I think with Shyamalan's films you have to see them to appreciate them or understand them and all the discussions about them often set your expectations off.  However, in this one, he delivers and I absolutely loved the ending scenes!  I am all in for the sequel.

Monday and Tuesday it was a pair of very full days.  I worked and, well, work was work.  Then in the evenings I went over to my friend Bob's house.  On Monday I was there awaiting the delivery of a power chair I had ordered for him - which didn't show up, so he and I sat around and watched a pair of older movies.  The chair finally arrived on Tuesday, so I popped back over to help him set it up, but they had already managed to get it squared away by the time I got there.  I am told that assembly was pretty straight-forward.  So, I spent most of the evening visiting with him anyway, then headed home.

Tonight, I am planning on no going anywhere.  I am due for a quiet night at home and that is the plan for the night.  Well, this helped and I feel like I've got the blood flowing back through my brain, so I am going to take a short walk and then pivot back to the work computer and dive into the 50+ email I've got waiting for me there.  Wish me luck!

Three Good Things

Let's start this entry with a triplet of good things.  Last night I finished up Orson Scott Card's "Earth Afire", the second book in his Formic War series. I enjoyed it very much and found it to be classic Card. I am looking forward to the third book, which I think is due out later this year.  The series comes with my readers readers recommendation.

Then, today, I slipped out and met Ty to see "The Worlds End"', the third movie in Edgar Winter's Cornetto Trilogy (the trilogy that really isn't a trilogy).  It was up to par with the other two entries in the franchise, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.  I enjoyed it very much - I may slip out and see it again. 

From there, I came home and basically napped the rest of the afternoon away, then went out and met Tony at a Chevy's for dinner.  Initially, we'd been headed to Frankie, Johnnie and Luigi Too in Westgate West, but, alas, it has closed.  Fortunately, Chevy's was close by and the food was good enough. 

I had a moody day today.  I have a little bit of the work burnout going on - too many projects, not enough resources. I may write about it later, but for now I am going to drop off for a phone call.

An Evening with The Replacement Killers

I slipped out of the office a little early today, so I could stop at the electronics store and pick up some DVD-RW's for backing up my data. I wandered the store a bit, just looking at things and enjoying the walk, but nothing else caught my mind as either a need or a want.

At home, I made a quick tamale pie for dinner, accompanied by the remnants of yesterday's potato salad, then watched some stuff from my DVR as I slide into the evening. (Modern Family, Up All Night, and Ghost Hunters). Once the sun set and the day started to cool off, I took a long, hot, soaking bath with softened my mood from earlier in the day.

I'd slipped into a mood mid-afternoon, after dealing with a set of problems with a vendor. Two of the three issues were resolved and the third is in the pipeline to be resolved, but there really wasn't any need to have lean on the vendor the extra amount. I often struggle to understand why people and organizations simply don't honor their commitments. Layered on top of that was a personal item that I may write about later, as I am mulling it now. It also has to do with people not honoring their commitments.

My brain pulls to mind that classic proverb ' "Trusting no one, never weep when you are betrayed." It is a little dramatic, since there was no betrayal involved, but it does amply illustrate the problems of expectations. Anyway, that hot bath sure covered a lot of ground in resetting my mood.

After the bath I have been sitting here watching a classic bit of "American-Hong Kong Cinema", the movie "The Replacement Killers" with Chow Yun Fat and Mira Sorvino. If you have never seen it, it is a great little action/drama, in part since Chow Yun Fat is always amazing. I also count "The Corruptor" with him and Mark Wahlberg, as another classic action/drama movie in the same vein. If you are in the mood for a stylistic shoot-em-up, either of those two will do. Personally, I also liked the charming Mira Sorvino in "The Replacement Killers".

My plan tonight is simple, conversation, reading, sleeping. Tomorrow is Friday, my work Friday, so it will be a slow day and I am planning on spending most of the analyzing a large report, the second such analysis in this week. I would have done it today, but I ended up jumping from customer service issue to customer service issue, since they had been stacking up earlier in the week.

The Third Day of Vacation - An Incidental Day

If I had to characterize today I would call it a day of odds and ends. Breakfast with friends, I stop at the car wash, a few errands, a movie, some cleaning, and assembling some empty boxes for use tomorrow. Tomorrow will feel like the first true day of vacation because tomorrow will be the first day where I have to go to work but don't. The last three days were simply like an extended three-day weekend which happens to me every other week. But tomorrow, tomorrow morning when I wake up, I will lay there in the full realization that I don't have to go to work.

I have four things planned tomorrow. I want to do a couple loads of laundry. I want to wash the bathroom walls. I want to box the contents of my DVD collection. Finally, I want to pack my bags for San Diego. That should fill the day nicely. It might sound like a lot but really it's not, and should flow smoothly. I've got 10 empty boxes sitting here in the living room but I won't need them all for my DVD collection. Some of them will end up holding some stray books that have to go. I'm anticipating that sorting my book collection is actually going to be much tougher than sorting my DVD collection. I've already been through multiple sorts of my books, so what remains are the cream of the crop. I guess what I have to do is skim some of that cream off. Will see how good I am at it tomorrow.

As I played on the computer tonight I struggled with sleep. I should've taken a nap in the afternoon. I thought about it but then I got caught up washing the ceiling in the bathroom of all things. It had to be done! Of course, that's what we compel me to wash the walls tomorrow. You can't just wash the ceiling, you have to do the whole thing. Well, I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow! I am going to love that feeling when I lay in bed and realize I don't have to get up. Realize that Monday belongs to me. It's going to be a great feeling.

Movie Review - Stone

Last night I caught a movie on my DVR and then watched it tonight, after dinner, as I eased my was into the evening. The movie was "Stone" with Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton and Milla Jovovich. I had seen it pass by in the theaters last year, but missed it. It was...unexpected.

First off, that is just an excellent cast, pure and simple, DeNiro, Norton and Jovovich are all great actors who can brilliantly portray badly damaged people. Without providing any spoilers, let me just say that both the arc of the story and the arc of the individual characters take some unexpected turns - and for me, as a jaded movie goer, to say unexpected, then it must be - not even the expected unexpected, but the truly unexpected.

I'd recommend the movie if you have a quiet evening and want to feed your brain something of a little substance.

Daily Life: The Art of Robust Napping

Today I worked on perfecting the art of robust napping. I am sure I haven't quite successfully perfected it as I anticipate many a future day of practicing, but today was a day of dedicated practice. I think I took four distinct naps today - mid-morning, mid-day, mid-afternoon and mid-evening. I feel like a Hobbit of Napping.

It has been a good and relaxing weekend. The only things of note I did this weekend that pop into my mind in my post-nap state were a pair of movies I saw. On Friday I saw "District Nine", an independent low budget science fiction film about aliens in South Africa. On Sunday I saw "The Perfect Getaway", a thriller about couples hiking on Kaui, where one of the couples is a pair of killers. Both of them were good genre films. No academy awards in their future, but solid and well made in both cases.

My plan tonight is a long lingering bath and then watching a little television and close the weekend out very deeply in relaxation, so I can lunge into Monday. Well, okay, I probably won't lunge into Monday, but there will be a spring in my step when I get out of bed tomorrow morning. I am relatively sure of that.

Waltz with Bashir

Waltz with Bashir

Powerful. All the hype aside I think there are few movies that deserve
the words "tour de force". This is one of them. It is a simple, spare,
animated movie about the one soldiers story of the Israeli invasion
of Lebanon and the subsequent massacres at the Palestinian refuge
camps by the Christian Phalangists in revenge for the assassination of
Geyamel Bashir.

If you go to the movie theatre with the intention of being
entertained, skip this one. If you go to the movies because movies
have the power to be transformative art, then make this one a must
see. There is a spare, unflinching, elegant, terrible beauty in this
film.

Sent from my iPhone

The Pride & The Glory...Almost

I really, really wanted to like this movie a lot. LOL - and that should tell you enough about what happened right there. It had some good moments, it had some good actors, but they never quite pulled it together. It felt mostly like a set of scenes strung together without a compelling narrative thread. Some of the scenes were very good, some of them rang false. There is one scene, toward the end of the movie, that is simply completely out of place and relatively stupid.

I enjoyed it, because I tend to enjoy most movies, but it is not a keeper by a long shot.

Lunch on the other hand was very good. I have no real plan tonight, I am just going to flow into the night and see what unfolds.