Cracked LCD...

Here are several of the things that I thought on Wednesday (2/13/13) but could not text because I killed my phone:

You can really tell a lot about someone whose favorite Wes Anderson movie is Bottle Rocket.  It's like code for I'm an even bigger hipster movie buff than you are (you have to be somewhat of a hipster if you are are talking with strangers about Wes Anderson...  I mean, he's one of the go-to I like cool artsy directors).  What they want more than anything is for you to not know about it, so they can say, "It was his first film."  That is code for either "I knew about him before he was cool" or "my knowledge of movies is so expansive that I know all about little art house gems you don't." If you know of it and prefer another film they will say something along the lines of "It was his and the Wilson brothers' first collaboration before the commercial success of Rushmore."  That's code for, "I see, you prefer his more viewer friendly sell-out movies- if you can call them that."

To you I say, most of Wes Anderson's movies are friendly to the movie going public.  He uses great music, familiar actors and quirky humor.  His movies are not like Bergman's sparse films fraught with symbolism and cryptic dialogue.  Bottle Rocket is just simply not his best movie.  It's pretty impressive that an odd kid from Texas could get James Caan to be in his movie and you can definitely see the beginnings of Wes Anderson's consistent style.  BUT if you care to hear my honest opinion, it's not a good movie.  It's all over the place in the way a movie that has been written too fast is, meaning it makes more sense to those in it than those watching it.  That being said, It's not hard to follow.  I just wanted to stop following it after about 20 minutes.  I happen to prefer Rushmore.  The acting and script are far better and the concept is more unique.  It takes the teen's crush on a teacher and makes it an odd love triangle with the teen's middle-aged best friend.

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I'm standing in the grass smoking my cigarette, trying to kill the next 30 minutes.  I watch people passing by.  Here comes an Anna Kendrick look alike with a less scrunched face.  There goes unattractive Andrew Garfield who seems to be in all of my classes.  He isn't ugly but he is no Andrew Garfield.  He's gawkier and his features are less sharp which gives him a dopey look.  That reminds me that there is another guy in my class that looks as close to a baby as a 20+ year old can.  He has that round forehead, plump cheeks, those protruding wet lips that can barely stay closed.  He even gets those flashes of recognition and surprise that widen his eyes, the same expression that babies do.  His limbs are pudgy but cinch tightly around his wrists and ankles which is something I have seen exclusively in babies.  Finally, I saw a lookalike that took the cake.  He looked like a hybrid of Chevy Chase and my dad.  I saw him from behind, walking away and thought it was my dad for a moment.  When he turned he was much taller and thinner (plus my dad would never be hovering around Sacramento).  Then I saw his face which I can't really  describe to you because while Chevy Chase is a familiar face I don't have, nor want, to show a picture of my dad.  All I can say is it was spot on and that I apologize for this portion of my rant.

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I bought a cool very old Bunsen burner on etsy.  Why?  I don't know.  I don't know if it even works.  I don't even have anything to set it up to.  You see, my mom was a chemistry teacher (also Anatomy/Physiology, Biology and Physics) and she had all this dated equipment for her lab.  Among the really old Bunsen burners was an enormous one named Frankenstein and a smaller version called Son of Frankenstein and sometimes Monster.  I was trying to find a picture that looked similar to Frankenstein but with little luck.  I found one very similar to Monster/Son and bought it because I was nostalgic.  I am truly a nerd.  Old Bunsen burners remind me of my mom and our experiments.

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I was elated at the idea of Bodies Revealed when I first heard of it.  It reminded me of the German horror flick Anatomy where the elite medical school society is secretly murdering people to use their bodies in such an exhibit.  I wouldn't say that I wasn't impressed by Bodies Revealed.  The expertise and care it took to make those posed corpses and displays of slices of the liver is really something amazing.  But the whole thing was just fucking creepy and not in the way you think.  All the bodies were of tiny adult Asian men and women exclusively.  I find that a bit disconcerting.  I know people of all races donate their bodies to science and whatnot so I expected to see a variety of human forms that had been donated from many parts of the world.  The fact that all the bodies are exclusively Asian seems very suspicious; like a few sightseeing tour buses went missing all over the major landmarks.  It seems underhanded and wrong somehow.  I dunno...

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I broke my phone very inexplicably.  I was at breakfast and checked my phone before my food arrived for email.  I put it back in the pocket of my loose fitting hoodie.  I left the restaurant, came home and immediately checked my phone only to see cracked LCD.  The screen is cracked pretty badly and is completely non-functioning.  When I slide the keyboard out (yeah, I use a keyboard like a Luddite) the screen turns on but only shows a thin white stripe down the center that flickers.  The phone part still actually works but the busted screen makes it impossible to use, impossible to even answer the ringing phone.  This proved very inconvenient for me this week because I had surgery on Friday which means lots of procedure related phone calls.

Broken phone = my pathetic reliance on technology

5 years ago, I didn't have a cell phone.

3 years ago I got my first smart phone.

I have become a bit of a textaholic and I am constantly using the internet on the damn thing.  One day of being out of the house and not having it made me feel clueless as to what to do with myself.  I read when I could but when you are standing around waiting I find it hard to concentrate and/or balance one of the fat books I am carrying on me.  Then there's the time issue.  I have no watch.  I had no idea what time it was and wandered around wide-eyed and confused.  Sadly, I missed the most unnecessary feature of smart phones which is the plethora of information.  I have random questions that pop in my head all day and I can get on my phone and answer them and even more.  I can go from owls to Madame Bovary to amazon.com to possible home decor.  

Can this stuff wait until I get home?  Of course.

Can I just get a watch?  Yes!

Do I need to text Jeff that I'm tired?  No.  I can tell him later or- better yet- wait for something to actually happen that's worth sharing.

I love smart phones.  I will continue to use mine once it is fixed and I don't look disparagingly on anyone that uses them.  I guess it just makes me sad and a little disappointed in myself that I felt like I was being truly deprived of the life I have grown accustomed to because I did not have a smart phone on me for basically a day.

Ugh.

 

 

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