Synaxis TV

Went to see Chicago at the Music Hall with Jacqui and Laura.
Had dinner at Cafe Express.

I slept pretty late then looked through my new Japanese dictionaries. I made spinach, lentils and rice for mine and Jacqui’s lunch. Then we went to see Chicago with Laura (it was really good). After Chicago we had dinner at Cafe Express (I got another dream bar — so good). Jacqui gathered her things and started her drive back home.

I felt ill again for some reason and took a nap. Then I woke up and did some cleaning, and made a trip to Albertsons to get my March train pass. My site was down all day so I did more reading.

I was still a little upset by the prospects that seem available to me. It’s the weight of everything — grad school, my job, all of the money I owe and the little money that I am making. I lay down and cried a bit just wishing I had some help.

B00005JMUII finally got to see Monster last night, and it was well worth the wait. I didn’t anticipate the movie being as incredibly good as it was, such an intense story of love and personal tragedy. I had been hoping for Naomi Watts to win an Oscar, but after seeing Monster I believe Charlize Theron really deserves it.

I had the simple expectations of finding someone accurately described by the title, a monster, but what I didn’t expect was to find myself having empathy for this creature. In the end it seems as if Aileen Wuornos shared more with Frankenstein than anyone else — they were both creations of this world rather than free choosers of their own fates.

Wuornos’ ugliness and lack of intelligence, and the effects of this combination, gave voice to natural hierarchies in the world that we cannot escape. But it was Wuornos’ fleeting experience of love, which she had sought out her whole life, and the incredible brutality that she suffered, that showed how truly terrible this world can be.

There is some irony in the fact that the messenger for this story, Theron, is someone who is a polar opposite of Wuornos. But rather than read it as a final insult to the character of Aileen who has been displaced yet again by the world that never accepted her, it should instead be read as an understanding that it is up to those who stand on top of the world to ease the pain of others who are not so fortunate.

I worked on the computer a bit after waking up, but I had to go to Best Buy with Laura because a small piece on the tip of her car charger broke off and got stuck in her phone. I looked at it and told her they were just going to pull the piece out and she’d have to buy a new charger, and that was exactly what happened. Oh well.

I went to my Japanese class and had another fun session. I always dread it a bit before going but end up learning and enjoying myself. After class I went to the Seals for a while and played some games then messed around on the guitar after trying to read but instead taking a nap.

Jacqui and I went to Noodles Kitchen for dinner. We shared pad thai and broccoli beef. I think they put too much lime in their dishes because the pad thai still wasn’t that great. We got some coconut shrimp soup too that seemed a bit limey. Also, the beef was a little tough. I need to find a better place for pad thai. That’s what Jacqui wanted and I didn’t know of any other place offhand.

After dinner Jacqui and I went to Borders and I exchanged one of the books Yvette got for me (that I already have) for the Kanji Learners Dictionary. We had tried to stop at the Electrique Boutique, but they closed right when we got there. We did get to stop at Condoms to Go, but they didn’t have ho shoes to go with their ho gear — Jacqui was looking for hot pink heels.

Went to Noodles Kitchen at Mockingbird station with Jacqui.

B00008H2IYI’m feeling like crap for some reason, but I still got the third line to work, and I was 3, 5, and 6. I wonder if I can use more than three lines…

But no use, they just gave out the prize.

I was really tired at work for some reason. I felt sick almost. Even taking a nap didn’t help. I felt a little better after having something to eat other than poundcake though.

After work I came home for a while and wasted some time online. Then Laura and I went to see Monster at the Magnolia theater with Jacqui. It was a really incredible movie, and is now my favorite.

After getting home from seeing Monster I was pretty shaken. I identified with the main character on some level, dejected from the world as she was. I opened up Yvette’s present and seeing those Japanese books just pressed on me futher the fear that I might never do anything with my life. I’ve spent so many years working towards this one goal and I’m getting old. It wouldn’t be so bad if my current job weren’t so meaningless. I silently cried myself to sleep…

Went to see Monster at Magnolia with Jacqui and Laura.

Well, I finally managed to get all of my Xanga posts imported into Movable Type. I’m glad I wasn’t blogging there for long. I can’t imagine how much it would have sucked if I had had more posts. I don’t know if I’m going to go through the trouble of adding all of the Amazon links — they didn’t get saved in the log that Xanga produces in any way shape or form. How lame is that?

Today on Pugs & Kelly they are discussing how companies are nickel and diming their employees to save money. There were some typical stories, like reusing paper to print stuff out and people buying their own sticky notes. But one person said when making copies they had to take what they were copying to their boss and tell them how many they needed, then their boss would give them exactly however many sheets they needed. And another person called in and said they had a water dispenser in their office, but that they would take the jug out back and fill it with water from the hose when it was empty. Oh yeah, another woman said that her company had everyone adopt a plant so they wouldn’t have to pay people to come and take care of them. Finally, a woman said they can get new pens at work, but they have to bring the old pen to their boss.

I called in to get in on the XBox drawing, but I was caller number 6, even using my multi-line method. I managed to ring them up on another line, but it was already busy. I will be number 15. I will.

I think I’m calling too quickly. I was number 1 and number 6 this time. Man, if I had gotten that third line to work right I just might have gotten it.