Random Thoughts on a Friday afternoon...

Just some things on my mind while I spend another week training my supervisor...

• "Can you believe Obama's first act as President is to release all the terrorists! I knew it. And did you see how he totally messed up that oath. Sign of things to come. I'm moving to Canada." Shut up, idiots. If you're going to keep talking about how you're moving to Canada, you must really love America right? Enough to have made such a big deal out of a flag pin, right? Don't worry - there are backwoods parts of the great white North where you can get away with fucking your sister.
• Wall-E should have been nominated for Best Picture. I understand that it's an "animated feature" but there are very few movies starring actual people that can have that much emotion.
• Speaking of the Oscars - I was glad to see Robert Downey Jr. nominated for Tropic Thunder. That was a good performance. "Never go full retard." Same for Mickey Rourke. The Wrestler was an above average movie completely carried by a tremendous performance. I would have enjoyed it no matter what, due to my childhood and teenage obsession with the WWF, but ANYONE can enjoy the movie now. Rourke is just THAT good. See it if you haven't.
• The new Franz Ferdinand, cleverly titled Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is ok. If you like the first two - you'll probably enjoy this one. Lucid Dreams is a real standout track.
• I should listen to Viva La Vida more. Not the song that was overplayed on the radio; the whole album. It's hard to underrate one of the biggest bands in the world but it's a really good record. I wrote them off after the giant abomination that was X&Y... maybe that was a mistake.
• I wonder what it is about my personality that makes a large percentage of people feel the need to talk down to me on a regular basis. This applies not only to people I work with, but also to people who are very close to me. At work - it's obvious. I don't have a PhD. I guess that's my bad for not getting my super impressive SUNY PhD degree publishing a paper or two in a journal with an Impact Facor of 3 - like a lot of PhDs that I work with, but hey, that was clearly my mistake. Elsewhere - I can only blame my joke first personality. Is it worth changing? I'd say no. It's probably not a bad thing.
• Yesterday I read a story by one of my favorite sports columnists about his dog dying. Of course I cried. I always do when something bad happens to the dog. Why do I continue to read these stories and buy these books?
• I am saving over $1000 in 2009 just by doing two things: watching UFC PPVs on the internet the next morning instead of ordering them (savings: $45 a month) and no longer buying Jack his expensive meal bones (savings: $25 every three weeks). I have taken other steps to reduce my spending (some obvious - bring lunch to work) but just plugging these two little holes will yield tremendous savings. I think this is something everyone can do if they really thought about it.
• I really wish I could take a vacation. It's a shame that I can't until 2010.
• The older I get, the less I like confrontation. I have a friend who really needs to be set straight, lately. 100% of everyone who knows him agrees, but no one has the guts to tell him about it. I, unfortunately, am not even an option, because my propsensity in the past to call people out when they deserve it would render my opinion almost not valid. Either way, it's an embarrassing situation that I hope goes away in some shape or form.
• I never wanted to live in NYC but in some ways - it would be awesome. I get a weekly email from Ticketmaster listing all the shows "in my area". Just about every week I see something that catches my eye. The Killers, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, and on and on and on. ALL in NYC. So much for my local Ticketmaster bulletin. Maybe I should just start listening to Nickelback and Hinder and pray they play the NY State Fair. On second thought, no thank you.
• Despite three Dr. opinions and an ultrasound I'm still not 100% happy with the lumps in my chest. I know they aren't cancer but I wish they weren't there.

Sometimes I wonder how many of the decisions I've made are incorrect. The most obvious one would, of course, be leaving my PhD program at UNC to come back to Cornell. If I had to say, this would be my biggest regret, as of now. But when I really think about it, I would still be broke - I'd have never met a lot of very important people in my life and I wouldn't have my little Jackiepants. I guess in a situation like this it will take years, perhaps even decades, to figure out if I made the right choice or not. I just hope I'm still around by then.