Saturday

My parents spent the day at my father’s junior high school reunion. I’m not sure how many years it’s been since they’ve all seen one another, but this was apparently a pretty big deal, and they managed to track everyone down. There was even a writer from The New Yorker there, and it will be interesting to see if a write-up actually makes it in the magazine.

I spent the day mostly dog-sitting. I did sneak out this afternoon to go see Cave of Forgotten Dreams, which is probably the first 3-D documentary I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure the movie is quite as deep and philosophical as its director and narrator Werner Herzog seems to think, though it is at times spectacular, and the cave paintings themselves are beautiful. The 3-D really does make you feel like you’re there, and one of the few times when I’ve thought a movie would be worse without the technology.

Later this evening, after dinner, I watched Drag Me to Hell, quite a different movie altogether. The movie is basically just “Every Trick Sam Raimi’s Been Thinking of Since Army of Darkness,” and I kept expecting Bruce Campbell to pop up at any moment. There was definitely an unashamedly ridiculous, old-school, Evil Deady feel to the movie.

And that, plus some reading and some Doctor Who — not the newest episode, but the first few parts of Planet of Evil, more old-school stuff — that was my Saturday.

Happy days

Today was pretty much just a Thursday, you know? I had a fortune cookie this evening that read, “Some pursue happiness; you create it.”

Well, I try.

Thursday various

A weighty Wednesday

This afternoon at work, we had one of our semi-regular “brown bag lunches,” where they invite a speaker in to talk about any number of topics, and give us a free lunch for attending. Today’s talk was on “An Expert’s Perspective on What Does and Does Not Work in Weight Loss,” given by Dr. Sasha Stiles of NYU’s Langone Medical Center. It was reasonably interesting and informative; if nothing new, her advice and perspective were at least sound. Usually the company gives us lunch before the talk, but today it was reversed. I don’t know if that was to fit with the speaker’s schedule, to discourage people who RSVP for the lunch but don’t stay, or just to ensure we were all in the mood to eat less after hearing about weight loss for an hour.

Meanwhile, taking a page from Neil Gaiman, I’m trying for a little weight loss of my own, working out a little in the evenings to an audio book. In my case, I went with Frank Herbert’s Dune, which I’ve been meaning for ages to re-read. (I’ve seen the movies, and the endless parodies and tributes, but I haven’t read the book since high school.) It’s much too soon to say if the workouts are having the desired effect, but I’m really enjoying the book. I’d almost forgotten how good it is.

Of course, I can’t mention Dune without also mentioning this caption I made last Saturday night. I am inordinately proud of the silliness of the pun.