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This place really empties out quicky on Fridays. Yet I am still here. I’m here not because I have massive amounts of work to get done before I leave for the weekend, but because I just don’t want to go. The regular work week here contains 37.5 hours instead of the usual 40, which I guess is just another justification for lower salaries. In any case, today has just been an empty day.

Mat has an interesting point here: Thanks to bloggers, Star Wars Episode II will have more reviews written about it than any movie that has come before it. If we’re talking about only reviews written by Bloggers, then the point is definitely valid. While Episode II certainly has had a great acceleration of reviews (so many in so short a time), does it really match the amount of reviews that have been made of movies that have been around for decades? Although Star Wars defined the term blockbuster, a movie such as All About Eve has been around for 50 years and it’s probably safe to say it’s been seen and reviewed more than a movie that came out yesterday.

Here I am, following the crowd again. What follows below are two truths and one lie. See if you can identify.

1. My first real kiss was with Athena.
2. I have my wisdom teeth stored in a box.
3. I started cracking my knuckles when I was ten.

Well it should be pretty easy for people who know me, but there you go.

Just like millions of other people, I saw Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones last night (or early this morning). And now I’m at work but a little sleepy. Anyway, the movie was great. Sure, there were little annoyances like Natalie Portman’s (lack of) acting skills and the general flat dialogue throughout, but on the whole, it was most satisfying.

Somebody, before seeing the movie, had posted a list of things Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jedi Master Mace Windu, might say in the movie, true to the actor’s characters in other films. One of the funniest parts for me was one scene where Windu shows up and gives a typical Jackson line. I smiled.

Now I’m looking forward to Episode III… and I hate waiting. Maybe if we’re lucky George Lucas will decide to finish the saga with the concluding trilogy.

This is positively fascinating. According to geneology research and mathematics, the common ancestor of the entire world alive today lived not as long ago as one would think. Also, all people with European ancestors living today are probably decendants of royalty.

The article continues, saying that in one thousand years from now, people alive today will be ancestors either of no one or of the entire human race. “You can ask whether everyone in the Western world is descended from Charlemagne, and the answer is yes, we’re all descended from Charlemagne. But can you prove it? That’s the game of genealogy.”

I’m not saying that I’m believing everything the article says, but it is very interesting, and I’d like to read into it further. My geneology has been traced only as far back as the seventeenth century through my father and his Russian ancestors on his mother’s side.

As a break from my usual posting nonsense, here is some different nonsense.

Visitors here often have strange ways of discovering this website. Through the most advanced technology available today, we are now able to look inside their minds in order to discover exactly what they were hoping to find as they clicked on a link pointing here. This is what we discovered:

Though technically redundant, there might be one or two Haikus of Nature Scenes buried in my archives (which are on the right-hand side of the page). If you’re looking for laser tag places in Lawrenceville, NJ you should go to Laser Park. Many a good day was spent there. Well, just two. I might know a thing or two about Jamie Sale going on vacation but I’m certainly not going to tell you. By far, visitors searching for Simpson porn have outnumbered all other readers. Sometimes they’re searching for Lisa Simpson Porn which is just downright scary. And for the last time, that was not a picture of me participating in Thong Thursday at [insert the name of random bar here].

It may have been when I was in college, or possibly not too much time after I graduated. My father had been taking care of my kitty, Ace, since my brother and I were no longer at home and my mother moved to California. You see, my father isn’t exactly fond of cats, or any pet for that matter. Well, Frodo, the other cat, had died a few years prior due to kitty cancer. It was all very sad.

One day, my father emailed me to tell me that Ace, depressed after Frodo’s untimely death years hence, had run away. He told my brother and I that he looked for him every night for several days, and just as myseriously he returned about a week later. Okay, I thought. Cats generally know how to find their way home.

A few weeks later, Ace ran away again. While looking for him, my dad heard a weak meow coming from the sewers. He determined that the cat was stuck underground.

My father’s pretty resourceful, and his training and experience as an environmental engineer led him to the conclusion that if he went several hundred yards away, to the point where the sewer opens up, he would be able to call Ace, and possibly the cat would move towards the familiar voice.

Well, that was the plan, but suffice it to say it didn’t work despite numerous attempts. Ace was never to be seen or heard again.

Well, that was the story. A few months ago I was eating dinner with my father, his girlfriend and her two kids. Somehow we got on the subject of pets—probably due to the hatred between my father and his girlfriend’s dog—and she (the girlfriend, not the dog) referred to the fact that my father, no friend of pets, put Ace to sleep and misled my brother and me. She must have been under the impression that by now, he would have fessed up to it, but up until that point, it was still my belief that the story my father told was true. I guess it doesn’t surprise me thinking about the reality of it years later.

Dealing with the Quarterlife Crisis

You don’t need to freak out if you have no idea what you want to do with your life.

Forget about how much money a job will pay you, forget about societal prestige, and forget about what your parents and friends think about your job.

Maybe you believe you’re the only college twentysomething who feels so confused. You’re not.

Well, I’ll just say that writing this entry is part of my lunch break. There, said. Moving on… Things I Learned This Weekend^TM:

1. Musical shows that are performed by high school dance departments rather than theater departments usually have pretty good dancing numbers; however, the singing and acting is often not too hot. Also, canned music with the actors singing over the Broadway cast album just plain sucks.

2. High school aged kids are worlds away from middle school aged kids. High schoolers are friendly, helpful, and respectful, especially when they are treated as adults. That’s all they want really—for the world to recognize that they are capable and to give them a little credit. There’s a lot we can learn from this—too much to go into at the moment.

3. Cast parties sure have changed since I had them in my parent’s house during high school. These days there seems to be much more “dancing.” I say “dancing” when what I mean is “pulsating grinding.”

4. There’s a reason playing video games is popular with some people. It is the same reason that said activities are decidedly unpopular with others. When you see the sun coming up in the glare on the television screen as you’re trying to destroy some monster, you know it’s time to go to sleep… that is, as soon as you’ve completed the level.

Lately there have been occasions when I have started to feel like a whole person again. Then again, there are still instances when I still imagine myself as completely worthless to society. It’s a world of extremes. My problem here, at this moment, is I either overreact to situations and allow other people’s actions to control my feelings or mood, or I don’t react at all.

There are some good things going for me. I have a steady job, one much more stable and secure than anything I’ve ever done since graduating college. I’m friends with my coworkers. I’m friends with my friends, for the most part. I’m in good health as far as I can tell, and soon I will be able to see doctors and dentists without having to worry about money. My debts are being paid. I feel attractive, and I even get the impression that people like me once in a while. But there are still the doubts:

1. How long do I really want to stay an Administrative Assistant? Any high school drop-out could do this job.* I need something that’s a bit more challenging.

2. Do I go back to school to get a new degree? Full time or part time? What do I really want to study? I am interested in so many different things. Is there something both practical and fulfilling that I would love to do with my life as far as my career goes?

3. There’s probably more, but I should be working and not thinking about this at the moment. Sorry for the rambling…

* Well, maybe not any high school drop-out. Maybe a drop-out who knows a little bit, but not terribly much, about computers and who does not do any drugs (which tend to get in the way of being hired).