= Such Stupid Things =

As Marie and I were driving out of Mount Diablo State Park yesterday we came close - really close - to hitting a squirrel that darted into the road. It was a little jarring, but not half as jarring as what happened a mile later when a different squirrel darted into the road and done got run over by a bicycle. We were about 20 yards back and had a perfect view of the whole gruesome episode:

The squirrel runs into the road, the poor woman swerves her bike to get out of the way, but to no avail. She screamed and almost wiped out. The little guy fared much worse, and was thrown three feet in the air, landing on its back, four stiff legs pointed upwards.

I won't pretend to understand how squirrel culture copes with issues of mortality, but I doubt that this was an honorable way to die.

Posted by Jeff at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marie and I rented and watched Transformers last night, which neither of us had yet seen, (a gross oversight, obviously). Naturally, I had some comments and criticisms, but what I'm really wondering is: what does Michael Bay think of himself after finishing off a movie like Transformers?

Does he go to sleep at night thinking, "well, I just shat out another hundred million dollars?" Or is his satisfaction with his art completely genuine? "That shot where the camera pans 270 degrees around Bernie Mac as he makes a funny face and says a curse word... that one was for the ages."

Posted by Jeff at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As usual, I'm probably behind the curve with this one, but if you haven't watched Human Tetris, you really should.

And now you have.

Posted by Jeff at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's no secret that I enjoy cooking, and deep down I like to think that I'm pretty good at it. So why am I completely incapable of baking a proper cake? I try and I try, but every time the product comes out of the oven dense a brick, and crumbles to nothingness as I try to ice it, (tonight being no exception). What am I doing wrong? Am I folding in my egg whites improperly? Am I messing up this ridiculous dry-wet-dry-wet-dry mixing protocol? Are all of my kitchen's measuring devices horribly miscalibrated? Or do I just... suck?

The thing is, I don't even like cake that much. Generally speaking, they're too sweet and over-iced and are just keeping butter, flour and sugar from their One True Destiny. But, I set a goal for myself a while back: my grandmother used to make this three-layered chocolate cake that would make your head explode with deliciousness, and if I could make a cake that was just one tenth as good, I think I could hang up my apron and call my career as a pâtissier a success. But after tonight's disaster, I'm starting to think that I just don't have the skills. I guess my friends will have to settle for Hostess cupcakes on their birthdays.

Posted by Jeff at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, so, don't tell anyone... but I joined Facebook.

Posted by Jeff at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's great that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, but couldn't they have found a less-paunchy picture of him for the website? Whatever happened to Lumberjack Al? I loved that guy!

Posted by Jeff at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't want to seem ungrateful, but Wes Anderson had better bring it with this new movie, the Darjeeling Limited. I'm a fan, of course, of his work, but the Life Aquatic kind of fell flat for me. Granted, his movies are very stylized, but at what point does does he stop making movies in the style of Wes Anderson and just start making the same movie over and over again? The Life Aquatic was incredibly pretty, but the look, the pace, the dialogue and even a few of the characters seemed too perfectly recycled from the Royal Tenenbaums. My fear is that Anderson's gotten too comfortable in his little niche, and will spend the rest of his days making visually perfect movies that have all the trappings of some deeper message that isn't really there.

So at present... expectations are low. But I guess that's exactly the perfect attitude with which to see a movie. Trains, India and Bill Murray are a few of my favorite things, so yanever know.

Posted by Jeff at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Should I stay up until 2am to find out who wins the Chemistry Nobel?

We're all pulling for you, Gabor.

Posted by Jeff at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At lunch today the crazy LaRo/uche kids were singing hymns about impeaching Cheney. Amazingly, it wasn't the worst a cappella performance I've ever seen on Sproul Plaza.

Posted by Jeff at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)