The Birthday Post

I gotta admit, I really wanted to do another review here before I did this post. I've been watching movies--Steve Martin's "The Jerk," the quintessential "funny hats" movie, according to Roger Ebert (Not a good thing). I've been playing games--Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. It's a point-and-click based game for the DS that takes place in an alternate universe where currency appears to have given up on that silly bill system and been replaced by a puzzle-based economy. (Actually, the idea of a society where wealth and prominence is predicated directly on a subset of intellectual skills is kind of interesting, in a survival-of-the-Sudokuist kind of way.) And books--HaveMercy, which is a steampunk fantasy novel about dragons, Dragon Keeper, which is a gothic fantasy novel about dragons, and White Teeth, a slice-of-life story about Londoner families and immigrants from WWII into the turn of century. (Which of these things is not like the other?) But instead, we're doing the birthday post.

Last year's Birthday post was spent on reviewing how last year's New Year Resolutions went. Can't quite do that this year, since I spent the 2010 New Year Resolutions on a list of things I'm thankful for, as I apparently mixed up New Years with Thanksgiving. Take out the turkey, and they're the same, really. Generally, they cater to different overindulgences, but the similarities are there. Anyway, let's check in on the 2009 resolutions:
1. Find an agent for the novel. Status: no progress.
2. Stringent exercising. Status: sporadic.
3. Romantic conquests. Status: Reading more Mauve Binchy novels. Depressing.
4. Watch More TV. Status: exponential successes.

Well, to continue the tradition of mix-matching holidays, let's make some new resolutions for the birthday. Add these to the permanent list:
5. Let it go. Those that know me can attest that I have a tendency to overanalyze. Of course, they probably wouldn't say that unless prompted, which makes me question their motives. Anyway, it's fairly common for me, especially in situations that I'm not sure of, to apologize to someone afterwards. Then apologize for thinking the apology was necessary. And then apologizing for overapologizing. And so forth. And that's the best case scenario. More often, I don't get to the apologizing stage, and just stew endlessly. So I'm going to stop making a big deal about some things that don't require that much attention, and see where it gets me.

6. Chase after it. My first response when dealing with the unexpected is to wipe my hands of the matter. It's instinctual--the unplanned for is the unwelcomed, because how could I welcome it if I didn't know it was coming? Well, I think it's time to foster a spirit of... general welcomeness. Like the shaking of the hands ceremony we used to do at my church before the whole "Sars" thing.

7. Watch the Scott Pilgrim movie. OMG, I just read book six and it was soooo good and I went back and read them over again and it's amazing how O'Malley has evolved, not just in terms of the story, but in terms of art and artistry and the movie looks like it's going to be really awesome, I've got my doubts about Michael Cera, because he's usually pretty typecast and Scott kind of breaks from the norm but it's directed by Edgar Wright, who did Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead and they were cool, and I think his action/comedy sensibilities will really serve him well here and it's out August 13th, and everyone should go see it, ok?

Yeah, those seems like some good additions.

ASIDE: I'm typing this post from a university public computer. The individual who had this computer before me left her resume open, and apparently, her first name is Sunday. That is an awesome first name. It also has her email address, last name, phone number and personal address, and was probably not a wise document to leave open on a public computer. It leaves her open to all sorts of weird people. Like me, for example, since I just sent her an email suggesting a few improvements she could make. Don't look at me like that. I'm an English grad student. I HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES. These include correcting people's grammar, providing nonsequitor literary references to show how educated I am, and proofreading resumes I find on computers. It's all in the grad student handbook. At the very least, someone should tell her she needs to say "2008 to present" rather than "2008 to preset." And now I'm realizing I should have led with the Sunday story, because it's far more interesting than the main event. Ah well.

Later Days.