I need to know

So, if I grow my hair back out, will I look less angry, or less lesbian? Or both? Do all lesbians with short hair look angry, or is it particular to me? Does short hair on straight girls make them look like angry breeders, or passive lesbians? Or angry lesbians? This is a complicated business, and I need answers.

Oh. And...

I can't decide whether or not to cut my hair. Should I grow it out? Now that it's going to look like shit most of the time anyway, and almost universally be kept under a hat? Or should I cut it so it'll be easier to manage? I've been thinking about this a lot, and I'm still torn.

Thoughts?

Lucky Number Slevin

I was in Blockbuster last night, looking (predictably) for a movie to watch, when I came across Night at the Museum. This is a movie in which I've never had much interest. I'm not offended by Ben Stiller's existence - I loves me some Zoolander and all that good shit - but I'm never particularly compelled to see a movie strictly because he's in it. Night at the Museum looked dumb when it came out, and it still looks dumb, sitting on the shelf in the middle of the store. But Damala loves it. He quotes from NATM almost as often as he does, say, The Muse or that cinematic classic A Knight's Tale. He's so consistently entertained (and occasionally entertaining) by that movie, that when I saw it last night, I picked it up and considered it for a moment before retiring it to the shelf and banishing it from my mind. I just couldn't do it. But then I came across Lucky Number Slevin, another of his favorites. People have recommended this to me in the past, but I've never been all that interested. Still, the cast is pretty great (except... Josh Hartnett? Really?) and so I rented it. The beginning was good, but still I stopped about a quarter of the way in and put on something else. I wasn't done with it, I just wasn't into it. I finished it this morning, and so I am now in a position to say that Lucky Number Slevin is an outstanding movie. Truly. It could be that most of you already know this - and I hope so, because that would mean that you've seen it, and you should. I loved it. It was better than Cats. Even with Josh Hartnett.

I'm watching it again tonight. Why not?

And, as if it weren't enough to be an awesome movie, the closing credits roll to a song called "The Kansas City Shuffle" by J. Ralph, which is also pretty great (a disco-y version of a twenties folk-y piece by someone whose name escapes me). And when I plugged it into Pandora I got an endless stream of also very excellent songs. (Strangely, none that were particularly reminiscent of that first though.)

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, watch the movie if you haven't seen it; listen to the song if you haven't heard it; and thanks to Mae-Mae for the tip.

I'll be in NC for a few more days, then I'm moving south.

That's all for now.

The child...

...not the stroller.

Umm...

Okay, now I know it's time to head further south. I'm sitting outside Starbucks, smoking, and there's a guy pushing a stroller around in this weird holding pattern. The stroller contains one toddler-sized child, and it's wearing a snowsuit. That's not good.

You have no idea

Or maybe you do.

Do you guys know how fucking hard it is to force yourself to sit down and work on a piece of writing that you can't even read without wanting to pass out? It's like trying to dead lift a weight ten times heavier than you're physically capable of even moving. Just opening the file is like scooping out your eyeballs and actually inserting a cursor is like willing yourself to spontaneously combust. Speaking from experience, it makes suicide look about as emotionally challenging as ordering coffee.

I'm just saying.

A few things

1. I killed my battery last night. Left the inverter on. It's supposed to have an automatic shut-off when the battery gets low, and it did shut off, but apparently not soon enough. I borrowed the "jump box" (which is apparently what they call the portable battery charger) from Wal-Mart's auto department, but maybe it didn't have enough juice either, because it didn't work. As such, I was able to utilize my AAA membership for the first, but certainly not the last - I'm sure - time. I waited about a half an hour, he jumped me (so to speak), told me my battery should be replaced soon, that my alternator was fine and so was my starter. He also told me that one of my headlights is out. Shit. Anyway, waiting for AAA is a lot more pleasant when you're waiting in the closest thing you have to a house.

2. I've decided to go to Florida. I know, I know... But it's getting cold even here. Below 40 is just too fucking cold for vanning. So I'm gonna drop down to the Everglades or somewhere around there. I'll have to wait out the cold there. If it's as awful as I fear it will be (I have an irrational yet highly convicted distaste for Florida - maybe it's Disney World), I'll have to revisit the issue. For now, though, I think it's the best move.

3. I watched a movie yesterday called Primer. I think I could watch that movie 100 times and still not understand it. Time travel has never seemed so complicated - which is probably good, because actual time travel would probably be extremely complicated. (I think maybe Back to the Future dumbed it down for us a little.) A few months ago I saw TimeCrimes, which was similarly complicated, but far more understandable. Not as good, though. Primer dealt with some relatively interesting subject matter - interpersonal relationships, ontology, moral and ethical responsibility... you get the idea. And these themes come through even without a solid grasp of the plot details. I looked it up online to try and find a simple explanation of the story, but it doesn't exist. There are some people out there who really dig this film and spend a lot of time trying to work it out, and even they have a lot of unanswered questions. I downloaded a couple of timeline charts that people have made. They make corporate organization charts look like a diagram of a square. I'm watching it again with these timelines in tow. If it kills me, I will understand this movie.

4. And in case you give a shit, writing is going slow, but I'm putting my efforts toward organization and focus, so I don't mind so much the lack of output. (That's only partly a lie.)