Road trip!

Yesterday I rolled out of bed at 6, showered, made breakfast, fed the cats, hopped in the car, drove to St. Louis, bought some meats and pastries on The Hill, went to The Fox Theatre, watched the magnificent August: Osage County, had dinner at The Shaved Duck, drove back to Memphis, came home, and crashed. I suppose I could go into further detail, but let’s just say it was a pretty good day.

Unnecessary Blues

Lately I’ve been feeling slightly lost and disconnected, distant and locked away. I’m staying busy, generally, but it seems like even when I’m in a crowd of friends I’m uncommunicative and distracted, thinking about something else. It’s difficult to know if I’m having a minor crisis of existence, a touch of the ol’ seasonal affective disorder, or if I’m just lonely. It probably doesn’t help that my job gets me negative feedback from kids every single day, and discouragement from the top-level administration pretty regularly (it’s not specific to me—the culture of motivation is all stick and no carrot here).

Usually when I’m feeling like this it helps to shift focus away from myself, to do something constructive and community-based, or to try to help someone out—it’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when other folks are telling you thanks for being good and sharing what you’ve got (talent, money, or love), but this week especially many of those efforts have been thwarted by circumstance, and I’m feeling discouraged and unnecessary.

A few friends have been really good about reaching out, and keeping the lines of communication open, in spite of the fact that I’m not much fun to be around, for which I’m greatly appreciative.

I’m sure it’ll pass. It always has.

Gratuitous Picture Of Yourself Wednesday: making all the wrinkles you can edition.

Man hints with Fancycwabs

I admit it. There’s a part of me that likes fixing things and opening pickle jars and working magic on automobiles and doing stereotypical male gender role stuff, even though there’s nothing distinctive about the Y chromosome that makes me particularly good at those things. The number of situations where I can calmly use my skill set to help other folks is pretty limited, of course, but yesterday I got the chance when a friend mentioned that her mechanic had grievously overtightened the lug nuts on her car and the combined efforts of the high school football team were having no effect on getting them loosened.

Of course, a high school football team has nothing on Archimedes, who is noted as saying, “Give me a flat tire and a lug wrench long enough, and I’ll get your nuts loosened.” Or something like that. So after a brief and ineffective attempt at loosening the lug nuts with my own lug wrench (wrong size hex) and a socket wrench (right size hex, but at 12” too short to get any torque on the nuts), I made a quick trip to Home Depot and got a three foot long length of 3/4” schedule 40 pipe, which was just large enough to fit around the end of my socket wrench handle and transform my mere caveman tool into the lug-wrench version of Mjöllnir, capable of easily providing 400 lb-feet of torque.

With the new improved wrench, each of the nuts came off with a satisfying sound of a thundercrack (they were on there but good), and I got to post that I’d totally busted a nut on my friends car on Twitter.

So, fellas, if at any time you have trouble getting your nuts off, maybe you should consider using a bigger tool.

Squeamish about needles, or the amazing thing that is blood? Then you should probably skip this video of me getting tapped and having my sap run out.

Shutter Island

Back in 2004 I went to a booksigning with Dennis Lehane and got my copes of Mystic River and Shutter Island signed. Clint Eastwood’s film version of Mystic River was in post-production, Shutter Island had just been published, and during the Q&A period Lehane was asked why he’d chosen to change from modern detective fiction to something with a more historical bent.

“One thing to know,” Lehane suggested, “is that novels are never about the periods in which they are set, but rather about the periods in which they are written.”

He also mentioned that the rights to Shutter Island had been optioned, and it looked as if Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot, Air Force One, Trojan ManTroy) was set to direct.

I read the book in a day, and found it entertaining, but slight—I was probably too absorbed by the plot and the pacing to have given much though to Lehane’s “periods in which they are written” statement, but having watched the movie today, one can see where it’s possibly a metaphor for the war on terrorism, and specifically our penchant for finding bogeymen everywhere we look (more so in 2002-2003, when the book was written).

The film, like the book on which it is based, is entertaining, if flawed. There may not be enough there to put it together, but viewed under the subtext of what the author claimed the book was “about,” there’s another shade of interestingness there, and certain speeches, when viewed through that lens, become slightly more poignant. So give that some thought if and when you check it out.

Aw look! An iPhone Plants vs. Zombies Easter egg!

Thinking of maybe catching a movie this afternoon.

Wake Up Morrissey (via scarygoround)

J-Money’s gonna be upset.

"How would you describe yourself in three words? I have been called abrasive, intimidating, and stiff, but it you want something sexy, it’s thoughtful, versatile, and wicked."

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We’ve got the hots for you: | Cover Feature | Memphis Flyer

So. This happened.