Jimbo's Journal

So last night we nixed our plans for going out and decided to stay in and watch The Professional, starring Jean Reno as a hitman who takes in a little girl after her family is murdered by a gang of dealers headed by Gary Oldman. I haven’t seen much of Reno except for bits of his French action-comedies, notably Wasabi, but I think we’ll be keeping an eye out for more of his movies; Apparently Rodin would be a nice place to start. I guess it’s no surprise that Oldman makes for a great pill-popping psychopath. His scenes are effectively entertaining and creepy. The Professional was directed by Luc Besson who has done loads of other movies, including The Fifth Element, which also featured a variety of tight camera angles, vivid colors, stylish shoot out scenes, as well as Oldman himself.

Mind you, I fell asleep during the last half of the movie but I’ll resume watching it later this afternoon and I’m sure I’ll be pleased with how it turns out.

Yeah, I know it's passé to write a review for a movie that you've yet to see in its entirety, but I'm quite confident that it'll sustain an optimum level of quality and that at the conclusion Leon and the little girl will live while Oldman will get his just desserts. Of course I haven’t ‘experienced’ the ending, but I’m sure it’ll be stylishly violent and end on a slightly humorous note.

I had a bottle of Unibroue Maudite and of all the Unibroue’s I’ve tried thus far I’d have to say this is my favorite followed closely by Trois Pistoles. I’ve heard exceptional things about Maudite and my first sip was like nothing I’ve had before—great smooth taste and with no bitterness or acidic bite. Excellent.

The weather last night was wonderful, albeit a little chilly. My new heavy jacket is quite cozy. Hopefully it’ll be sufficient for the winter ahead.

For the second time in the past couple of years, we got to see John Williams conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra tonight. Like the last time, this was a program entirely of movie music, but for the first time they brought in a movie screen and played clips during some of the performances. The first half was narrated by Michael York and was a tribute to the films of David Lean, including: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, and Lawrence of Arabia.

The second half was entirely devoted to the music of the Harry Potter series, which Nancy and I both love. They wrapped up with a compilation of clips done to the main theme. Of course, no one was going to let John Williams go without an encore, so he ended up coming back to conduct the theme from E.T. and a piece from Indiana Jones ("Marion's Theme", I think - I didn't know it by name, but it's very recognizable).

To cap it off, when the audience wouldn't let him go, Williams came back and conducted the Imperial March, which was amazing. Finally, when we were just about exhausted from clapping, he did a 4th encore, the Sunday Night NFL theme, which is actually pretty cool in full (always interesting to hear the full scores of TV themes). Finally, we let the orchestra go home, but it was an amazing show.

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Our flight home from Philly went fairly smooth. Clear skies, no delays, and no sitting on the tarmac for half an hour waiting for take off. I’d say it was our easiest flight out of PHL yet. Our plane was an EMB which was very small; there were only three seats per row and I’d estimate that we’d have reach capacity at around forty passengers. Anyway, we got into Chicago about ten minutes ahead of schedule managed to take public transit home in decent time. I’m just glad to be back in Chicago on a crisp November night.

Life is meaningless and full of pain.

Suddenly it seems a thousand years ago when the G-Men were 5-0 and dominating. What the hell happened? Clearly I can't leave the country during football season. My teams just seem to fall apart without me.

Tuesday after work I took the Blue Line to Wicker Park and had lunch at a little restaurant called Santullo's. I had their Chicken Vesuvio sandwich—not bad at all, especially considering I'm not terribly fond of baguettes. The place has a sort of a hipster ambiance with flyers posted all over the wall by the front entrance. It’s a little pricey but I'd consider visiting again to try out one of their salads.

Afterward I popped back on the Blue Line and rode up to O'Hare where I met Rani for our flight to Philly. Right after checking in our bags we were informed that our flight had been delayed an hour and a half. Great. We had already arrived at the airport super early for our initial departure time, and now we were going to have to wait almost three hours before we could even board. There were a lot of rain showers that night and the plane that would be taking us to Philly was delayed in Houston and when it finally got to Chicago it had to circle around O'Hare for a bit while waiting for clearance to land. Of course I got really impatient and annoyed but nonetheless I held myself together. If there’s one thing I don’t like about traveling its delays. I guess that’s just something you have to accept.

We finally got out of Chicago at around 8:30pm and arrived in Philly at 11pm (we lost an hour), after which Rani's friend Ryan graciously picked us up at the airport and took us home. I guess this whole ordeal could've been worse; the flight might've been cancelled. People on our flight who were coming from the west coast had terrible stories in which they'd spent all day having their flights delayed and then missing their connections and having to wait for the next flight out. What a nightmare.

We got up early on Wednesday and did a bit of shopping, taking advantage of the holiday sales while not having to deal with the crowds. I scored a new winter coat since my brown suede is starting to fall apart. It had this awful tear in the shoulder that just kept coming apart every time we sowed it up. I’m almost ready for this winter—all I need to a good pair of boots for trudging through the snow in the morning.

For Wednesday we had initially made plans to visit the Philadelphia Art Museum but due to constraints we instead drove out to the King of Prussia Mall so I could have a look-see at what is apparently the biggest mall in the county, though I think the Mall of America in Minnesota still has it beat. Yes, it’s quite large, albeit it's split into several different parts so it’s not all one structure. We basically just meandered around for a bit before getting bored and leaving. The highlight of our visit was stumbling upon a Teavana where I got a nice cup of Chai.

Later that evening we went to a nearby church where Rani's friend Adriane was directing a bell choir. It was a short performance—about four minutes—and afterward we ducked out and went up the street to Mike's Bar and Grill, where we had our second wedding reception last month. It's your typical sports bar so it doesn't offer much in the way of ambience, and the beer menu was pretty dull except for the Victory HopDevil. They also had a local favorite, Yards Pale Ale, on tap, which actually wasn't that bad—hoppy, smooth, but nonetheless forgettable. Adriane’s boy kept us entertained by showing us his notebook of hand-drawn monsters and explaining each one to us.

Thanksgiving Day was quite an event. We drove to Beth and Eddie's place and had dinner with the family. I got my hands greasy whilst ripping the legs out of the turkey. This is my second Thanksgiving with Rani's family and I feel much more comfortable with them now, even if they drown me out by sheer volume during conversation. Boy are they loud! The brother-in-laws are all stand up guys with interesting professions, and my sister-in-laws are cool even if they remind me a little too much of Rani. It's like having three Rani's around, which is a little overwhelming at time. It was a nice afternoon but boy did we eat a lot of food. After getting back to Rani's mum's we took a nice long walk around Hatboro to work off some of the calories.

Arg.

Feeling much better this morning, and off in a few minutes to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family.

(I am once again relying on TIVO to record the Giants - Broncos contest tonight, so no commentary about it here, please. I probably won't watch it until tomorrow).

I have a lot to be thankful for. My readers, my friends, and most of all Parris.

I hope all you reading this are similarly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Around noon yesterday I decided I just didn't want to do diet stuff this week at all. I'm still going to try to make wise choices, but it allowed me to eat half a turkey sandwich and a chicken caesar salad for dinner without any sense of guilt.

My goals for today... clean up the apartment some more, cook pies, prep veggies, and brine turkey.

People ask if I am cooking for Thanksgiving and while I answer yes, at no point in time does it even begin to feel like cooking. Roasting a turkey is braindead simple, making the gravy, mashed potatoes and stuffing as basic cooking techniques. Sometimes I actually make my own cranberry sauce but really, it is a trivial item. All in all, a turkey dinner is a simple straightforward meal. I worked harder putting together the venison meal I made for Leslie and Jamie last year.

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I am about halfway through watching the football games that were TIVO'd for me while I was overseas.

I came back from my trip sick to my stomach, as I reported last post. These games are only making me sicker.

Life is meaningless and has no joy but the Raiders.

I got home a little past midnight on Sunday night, after a long and gruelling trip from Casablanca. Three flights, changes in NYC/ JFK and Minneapolis/St. Paul, close to twenty-four hours in transit since the wake-up call came through in my Casablance hotel. I was pretty much a zombie by the time I stumbled off the last flight into Parris's loving arms, and a rotting zombie at that. After being oh-so-careful in Morocco -- not drinking the water, brushing the teeth with bottle water, avoiding uncooked food, etc -- I made the grievous error of eating at the McDonald's in the Minneapolis airport during our layover there, and came down with an nice all-American case of food poisoning. By the time I boarded my last flight my stomach felt as if I'd swallowed a lead bowling ball. It was the first time I'd eaten at a Mickey D's in a decade, and I hope that it's the last.

Anyway, the last day and a half I've spent mostly in bed or in the john, but I'm feeling a little better now. This is the first time I've felt strong enough to boot up my computer... where, of course, I found five hundred emails waiting.

The trip was great, and I hope to write more about it later, when I'm feeling stronger.

I have to say, though, I am not sure how many of these overseas trips are left in me. It's great when I get there, but air travel has just become SO exhausting and SO uncomfortable, especially when oceans are involved, that the mere thought of any more just now is daunting.
Where are the rocket planes that I was promised in the SF of my youth?

The most consistent search the brings people to my blog is "Cannellini Beans and Spinach". Is there someway to capitalize upon that? Can I hold recipes for ransom? "I have this wonderful dish and here are some great pictures but I won't release the recipe until I get $5."

The other most consistent search is 'chaos creates opportunity' which I do see has potential for actual capitalization - Chaos Creates Opportunity. There, capitalized. Okay, bad joke.

Seriously, I do think I can expand upon the concept, give historical examples and present day examples. Further define what 'chaos' actually means, talk about how crisis is just a type of chaos and give examples like that town in Kansas that was destroyed by a tornado. They turned a disaster into an opportunity. People who have gotten laid off and started their own business are turned crisis into opportunity.

I don't know, is it too positive for the likes of me?

The third most consistent search beyond stuff on Gracian is on pessimism.

Breakfast
Banana (105)
Slimfast (180)

Lunch
2 Apples (120)

Dinner
? oz of chicken (???)
1 large salad with yogurt dressing (200)

Evening snack
150 grams of vanilla ice cream (300)

I ate a lot of chicken, I was just using it before it went bad. I lost a steak I was planning on eating due to time, I wasn't going to let the chicken go the same route. I wasn't too upset about the beef. It was an awful cut of meat... no matter how I cooked it, it was tough.

The ice cream was more a comfort food thing. Wasn't much left in the container and it seemed like a good thing to eat at the time.

My scale keeps getting stuck and I no longer really trust it on a pound by pound basis, so I think a new digital scale is in order in the future, though it may just feed obsessiveness.

All this does make me feel like I am whistling past the graveyard, though. I'm fighting my nihilistic tendency and trying to focus on positive outcomes. Losing weight serves a greater purpose of better health and a better self image.

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Dry Lightning - Bruce Springsteen

I threw my robe on in the morning
Watched the ring on the stove turn to red
Stared hypnotized into a cup of coffee
Pulled on my boots and made the bed
Screen door hangin' off its hinges
Kept bangin' me awake all night
As I look out the window
The only thing in sight

Is dry lightning on the horizon line
Just dry lightning and you on my mind

I chased the heat of her blood
Like it was the holy grail
Descend beautiful spirit
Into the evening pale
Her appaloosa's
Kickin' in the corral smelling rain
There's a low thunder rolling
'Cross the mesquite plain
But there's just dry lightning on the horizon line
It's just dry lightning and you on my mind

I'd drive down to Alvarado street
Where she danced to make ends meet
I'd spend the night over my gin
As she'd talk to her men

Well the piss yellow sun
Comes bringin' up the day
She said "ain't nobody gonna give nobody
What they really need anyway"

Well you get so sick of the fightin'
You lose your fear of the end
But you can't lose your memory
And the sweet smell of your skin
And it's just dry lightning on the horizon line

Maybe it is just me but there are certain conversational elements that people you barely know do that set me on edge. I've had a chance to experience all of these things recently and I often wonder if people know they are doing it or not.

The first thing is when I'm asked about my educational background in a conversational tone. "Did you go to college?" When I answer yes, and they ask me what I majored in and I tell them. This is normal. When they respond in amazement as if I had said "Astroengineering and Applied mathematical field mechanics" when all I said was "Political Science and Philosophy" I am left wondering if they even know what PoliSci and Philosophy is and just how many people graduate with those degrees every year and end up never using them. It immediately seems patronizing. Of course, I am forced to reflect on similar events in my life. When I meet someone who studied medieval history or French literature, I have a similar reaction of awe, based either on envy or genuine appreciation of knowing something that is beyond my grasp.

The second thing is being praised for intelligence by someone who just met me. I think this is just being polite but honestly the person just met me, how can she/he truly know my intelligence. I don't know if I'm intelligent or not. I'm think I'm slightly above average but there are a lot of dumb smart people out there. So when people I just met praise me on my intelligence it feels like a used car salesman praising me on my ability to judge a class vehicle.

When these things occur back to back, it makes me feel really bad. I feel like I'm being mocked.

Again this probably does tie into my general pessimism. Never trust praise, only trust criticism. I was playing Team Fortress 2 yesterday and was going along just great, until some guy started harping on my play ability. Instead of leaving the game and joining another, I stayed and took the abuse because it seemed like a valid evaluation. (It wasn't, he was an ass.)

I came away from our Iron Chef contest thinking less about food than about how much I enjoy the company of the people who were there. drmagoo and B. have an utterly charming house and one of the most adorable, sweetest tempered, socially adept toddlers I have ever seen. In many ways, the event felt more like a gathering of family than a mere party. I was worried about how my kids would fit int, but there really wasn't much issue at all except when Henwen bumped into Little E. and both boys dog-piled lifepart3. Other than that, I wasn't real worried about the boys' behavior at the actual event. There were some moments on the drive down, but there always are in a long car drive.

I really appreciated the aplomb with which J. handled the fact that SuperD was puking behind him all the way through Chicago. SuperD sometimes has issues with car sickness, but it hasn't come to actual upchucking in a few years, so I wasn't really prepared for it.

Overall, I have to say that my favorite dish was gr8t2live's clam chowder, and I was also impressed with the originality of luminousx's grilled cheese with gelatinized tomato soup. And I'm really glad that we had the honor of transporting the winner of the event.