So, it was a weekend. Thankfully, not much going on. After another five hour drive home from work on Friday, I wasn’t up for much anyway. However, I kind of expect this, and have more or less built it into my expectations by now. The job, it’s myriad drawbacks and frustrations considered, has, at least started to become routine. I’ve developed a feel for what to expect, and what’s expected of me. It’s still not optimal, but I’ve become okay with that, for now. There’ll be other opportunities in the future; I just need to be alert for them. The last month or two has been easier. Part of that, I think, is the combination of finding a couple of non-work outlets to release some stress and frustration, the welcome addition of an additional scheduled telework day, and the welcome knowledge that I’ve got a boss that’s supportive, understanding, and has my back, despite all the crap the organization throws at us – that sort of thing counts for a lot.

The actual weekend was otherwise uneventful, beyond a couple of trips to the store for basic essentials (Friday being payday and the cupboard being bare), and a trip with the boy over to the local cineplex to take in a screening of Iron Man Three, which was, as they say, a lot of fun, and a decent ride. I didn’t mind the Mandarin “twist”, because for me, a comics guy of the old school, the Mandarin is a Fu Manchu simulacrum with ten magic rings he stole from a crashed alien spaceship, and who occasionally hangs out with a giant space dragon wearing purple underpants – I knew going in I wasn’t going to get that, so my expectations were dampened. The Extremis storyline wasn’t one of my favorites from the comics, but at least it was a story that didn’t boil down to two guys in powered armor wailing on each other, which is where most Iron Man stories eventually end up. The new director, Shane Black, brought a lot of himself and his particular buddy action comedy sensibility to this one, though for my money, his best work is the excellent and underrated Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (also starring Robert Downey Jr.), a film you should seek out right now if you haven’t yet had the pleasure.

The other movie I saw this weekend was A Talking Cat?!?, which has become something of a low budget underground classic, largely because it’s so unintentionally hilariously awful. It’s about 10 minutes of pedestrian family fare plot within a 90 minute movie with laughable special talking cat effects, starring a couple of former porn “actresses”, the grown-up child star of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, the (perhaps literally) phoned-in voice of Eric Roberts as the cat, and looks like it was shot on the set of a porn film, because it was. However, the pre-schooler seems to love it, and has been turning it on the Netflix box whenever somebody turns away long enough.

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and having spent the last couple of days telling the spouse she wasn’t allowed to open that box UPS delivered on Thursday until the weekend (and watching her squirm a bit, which is always fun), we presented her with her big box of Doctor Who stuff from Thinkgeek, which is exactly the kind of thing my wife wants for Mother’s Day, which is, frankly, one of the many reasons I married her (beyond, of course, the biggest reason, which is that she consented to actually do so). After the usual morning rituals, we had lunch with some friends, and then spent a quiet afternoon at home, with Colleen playing video games, and me reading some comic trade paperbacks and drinking some good beer from Center of the Universe Brewery.

All things considered, I’ll take it.

Had two different people tell me that I looked like, um, that up there ↑ at different points this week, unsolicited. Both did it out of concern and sympathy. I’ll concede that I’m tired as all get out, thanks to life the last couple of weeks. I’ve been busy.

Hasn’t been all bad, though – I put a new car audio system in this week, which allows me to avoid using tweezers to eject CDs, and gives me the option of plugging things into it like mp3 players and such via USB port or ¼ inch audio jack. It’s cool, but is taking some getting used to, and I think I want to have it reseated in the dash in order to satisfy my OCD and minimize an aftermarket gap (although my wife says that’s just me being a little insane).

Also, I got together with a couple of folks, friends old and new, for an old-fashioned jam session the other day. It was fun, and I hope we’ll do it again sometime.

But this weekend, I don’t think I’m going to do much of anything: I need to not look so awful next week.

In the meantime, here are some tunes:

1. “Shoe Box” – Barenaked Ladies
2. “Never Enough” – The Cure
3. “Wild In The Streets” – Bon Jovi
4. “Hopeless Wanderer” – Mumford & Sons
5. “Rocky Raccoon” – The Beatles
6. “Someday We’ll All Be Ghosts” – Jonah Knight
7. “Hot” – Avril Levigne
8. “Sweet Malinda” – Earth to Bob
9. “Condemnation” – Depeche Mode
10. “Beetz in my Salad” – SJ. Tucker and Big Bad Gina

Just wanted to take a moment of mentorly pride for the efforts put forth by Alicia, Michael, Selene, and William over the last couple of weeks. Things really came together, and I think all those present took something positive away from the experience. Thanks for making my volunteer gigs so easy and rewarding.

You guys continue to amaze and impress me.

When I see stuff like this, I think there’s a chance humanity might still have a shot at sticking around a while, especially if there’s folks like you leading the charge.

because, it’s Star Wars Day.

Also, it’s Free Comic Book Day, so why don’t you go track down your local indie comic shop, get some free books, and make a friend?

Given the day, you all kind of expect this by now (audio is, as they say, NSFW):

It’ll be Friday when you read this, at any rate. Oh well – it’s been something of a week; not awful, perhaps, but plagued with a few of the usual frustrations that are going to stick with me a while, plus I think the eject mechanism on my car CD player is starting to flake on me, which is no good at all. In any case, I’m not going to dwell on the unfortunate things here, because…

Beyond the frustrations, there’ve been a few nice, if small, surprises to balance the scales. On my drive home from work on Thursday, I found a dented, dirty and beaten Nintendo DS cart without a label on it on the ground near the gas pumps. I picked it up, figuring there was a tiny chance it might be salvageable (and if it wasn’t, I carried an ounce of plastic home to dispose of- no biggie). Anyway, now my wife and daughter have a dented and unlabeled copy of Deal or No Deal to add to their library. Sure, the game is probably crappy licensed shovelware, but it was *free* crappy licensed shovelware we weren’t expecting.

Also, I got an email Thursday from the folks at WNRN, the excellent listener-supported radio station from Charlottesville (by way of a Richmond repeater for me) that I’m a member of informing me that I won one of this week’s member list prizes – tickets to the moe. and The Wood Brothers show at Pocahontas Live next month at the state park near my house, which was a nice surprise.

Otherwise – got plenty of potential things to do this weekend, should I decide to partake. Got an invite from a friend to hit a craft beer festival in town on Saturday, and then there’s the VA Comicon on Sunday. I may do one or both of these, or I might just take the weekend off, other than the usual stuff. I’m not sure yet.

Being “not sure” is kind of a nice feeling, at least in this case – it feels like possibility.

1. “Old Folk Roam” – Jonah Knight
2. “Straight to Rock City” – Rock Sugar
3. “Head Over Feet” – Alanis Morrissette
4. “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin'” – Journey
5. “I Found Space” – Miracles of Modern Science
6. “Planet Claire” – B-52s
7. “Beth (live)” – KISS
8. “Panama” – Van Halen
9. “Pavlov’s Bell (live)” – Aimee Mann
10. “Windosill” – Arcade Fire

Just gonna leave this here, because it’s awesome (there may be something spoilery, if you squint enough):

It’s the feelgood show of the season.

I really don’t have loads to talk about, but life continues to happen around me, and occasionally, I even get to take part in some of it.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been rehearsing with the second incarnation of the guitar ensemble I occasionally play with – slightly different, more diverse group this time – in addition to the usual six-string guitars, there are a couple of ukuleles (neither of which I’m playing, but one of them is a banjolele, which is awesome, and I totally want one), a Dobro, a 12-string, and an electric bass. This time, I’ve gone electric to play leads and melodies – I’ve tried a few different instruments in rehearsal, and I think the Telecaster has won out. Another nice instrumental piece, based on the traditional hymn tune “All Creatures of the Earth and Sky”. Should be fun.

I had a great time this weekend playing games with friends; something I don’t get a chance to do nearly as much these days. Thanks to Shannon and Michelle for hosting things, and giving me a chance to play some of the games I’ve accumulated over the last couple of months that haven’t seen much use yet. Ugg-Tect is a great party game if you’ve got enough people (plus, you get to whack each other in the head with inflatable clubs!), though Unexploded Cow appeared to be the hit of the evening.

I managed to carve out a bit of time this weekend to actually watch a movie for the first time in weeks – that movie? Death at a Funeral, which I quite enjoyed. Farcical, with a lot of dry British wit.

Given all this activity, I’m hoping it stays kind of quiet the rest of this week – I’m starting to feel the fatigue. Still, I may hit the VA Comicon this weekend, because, hey, it’s there.

That’s all I got, other than this – the new trailer for Thor: Dark World, which looks really good:

started this playlist on the mp3 player, which didn’t last all that long because the battery crapped out (must’ve gotten turned on while being jostled around in my bag*), so I shifted to Pandora part way through. See if you can guess where:

1. “Your Brain Turns Me On” – Mikey Mason
2. “Heat of the Night” – Bryan Adams
3. “11:11” – Rodrigo Y Gabriela
4. “Sugar Daddy” – Richie Sambora
5. “Sweet Dreams” – The Grates
6. “Two Princes” – The Spin Doctors
7. “Someday” – The Strokes
8. “3rd Planet”- Modest Mouse
9. “Should I Stay or Should I Go” – The Clash

In any case, those are the tunes. Music lets you escape, which, given the state of the country this week isn’t such a bad thing. I’ve mostly been uplugged from the news apart from twitter and traffic reports. My commuting hours this week have been blissfully filled with the dulcet tones of James Marsters narrating the adventures of Harry Dresden.

Plans have some potential this weekend. I’m greatly looking forward to spending a few hours with good friends playing games and sharing some laughs. I hope you’ve got something equally rejuvenating lined up; I’m pretty sure we all need that sort of thing.

Hope you’ve got something similar lined up – we all need that.

__________________________

*- …That’s what She said! ba-dum tssh! (I’m sorry)

So, as most of you know, I’m really a Marvel comics guy. DC never quite clicked with me the way that the house that Jack, Steve, and Stan built did. That said, there’s a lot to like in the following:

In the latest trailer for Man of Steel, the filmmakers seem to have really hit on something – it feels like Superman to me, in the same way that the original Donner film (the first one, and most of the second, anyway) does. It’s got the heart and earnestness necessary to the property (there’s a reason Superman’s called “The Big Blue Boy Scout” – there’s no point in running from it), but unlike previous incarnations, this project (the trailer at least) seems to hit on the power and kineticism that’s never been shown in a Superman film before – this is a guy with the power of a god on Earth – none of the other films ever really “got that up on screen -sure, he lifted heavy things, bounced bullets off his eyeballs, threw cling-film not-an-S symbols at bad guys, and turned back time, but he’s never been the unstoppable force of nature the character’s become in the last three quarters of a century.

This film seems to get that. And for that, I’m pretty much sold.