I dodged the bullet. I finally got in and bought a replacement headlight bulb. I’ve only been driving my p’diddle (is that even a word?) around for the last month, cringing whenever I saw a police car.

I’d actually attempted to replace it last week, but I could not figure out the damn charts for what size bulb I needed. I have a business degree, not one in scientific obscurity. I might as well have been trying to decypher the Davinci Code.

“Why don’t you go ask someone at the auto parts counter?”

Yup, I could have sucked it up and asked. Then I looked over at the counter and saw that it was a teenage girl working there. Nope! I’d rather hold a flashlight out the window as I drove, than go ask her.

“But maybe she had a father who was a mechanic, or 3 older brothers who taught her all about cars” someone said to me.

You don’t understand. I wasn’t going to ask her because I was afraid she didn’t know the answer… I wasn’t going to ask her because I was afraid she DID know the answer!

So I left.

But yesterday a much older gentleman was working there and I could easily stow my pride and ask him.

If only physically replacing it was that easy.

Yup, I sat through all 3 1/2 hours of the 82nd Academy Awards last night.  It’s not like I had a whole lot of options to choose from.  Sunday nights are slim pickin’s.  And hey, I like movies. 

I think that this is only the 2nd time in my life that I’ve truly “watched” the Oscars.  Normally I just flip back and forth between them and whatever else might be on.  Or I tune in at the end, when the “real” awards are given out… Best actor/actress, director, and finally.. best motion picture.

Or I simply skip them entirely, and read about it the next day online or in the newspaper.

Not this year!  No siree.. this year I sat through from start to finish.  The good, the bad, and well… the blue.  Even when my fellow viewers were getting tired of watching, I held fast… I’d started watching, and dammit, I was going to finish watching!

I am sooooooo glad that it was not a night of “Avatar!” after “Avatar!” after even MORE “Avatar!” like I had expected.  I’m sure that I’m not the only one.  While it IS a good movie, I still think that better movies had been released last year.  Apparently the Academy agreed.  When it came to two of the biggies (motion picture, director), hugely insane budget Avatar was passed over in favour of independent movie The Hurt Locker.  I’ve seen both movies, and I have to say that The Hurt Locker is well deserving.  Frankly, I was a little afraid that the bone-headed move by one of its producers to email the Academy and ask for their votes might have hurt The Hurt Locker’s  chances at bringing home the hardware.  I am satisfied with the end results, though.  I don’t think that I could handle another Cameron “I’m the King of the World!” acceptance speech.

 At the end of the night, The Hurt Locker had 6 of those shiny little statuettes, while Avatar managed only 3.

As far as other highlights, I didn’t see Crazy Heart, so I can’t really comment on Jeff Bridges’ Best Actor nod, other than to say… It’s The Dude.  The Dude deserves what The Dude deserves.  Just don’t pee on The Dude’s rug.  Not cool, man.  Not cool.

I’m having a real hard time wrapping my brain around Sandra Bullock’s Best Actress win, but in all fairness… I didn’t see The Blind Side either.  And this award is given for a single movie performance, not a lifetime achievement award… So I’ll give Sandra the benefit of the doubt.

The rest was filled with the standard fare.  I’ve deliberately ignored the fact that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosted this year’s show.  It’s better this way.

Oh.. and a special mention of Ben Stiller’s presentation of the Best Make-up award, when he came out dressed like a Na’vi alien from Avatar.  I think next year he should host the show… in character!

I had the misfortune of having to go to the mall the other day.  I tend to avoid that place, even at the best of times.  Over the years I’ve seen many of my favourite stores close, and be replaced by clothing outlets targeting a certain demographic that I simply do not belong to.

But this particular night I was on a mission, and apparently that meant having to go to the mall. 

While I was there, I decided that I needed to get something to eat.  I’d been at work all day, and really hadn’t had much throughout the day.  I looked at the options available to me in the food court.  There weren’t many.  I opted for the shortest line.  Three teenage punks crowded around the counter, yapping with their 2 friends on the other side of that counter.  As I suspected, they weren’t actually ordering anything, and stepped aside as I approached.

“We don’t have a cashier right now, but if you tell me what you want, I’ll start your order” one of the young guys said to me.  Umm… ok.. I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I told him what I wanted… chubby chicken burger combo…

Then I stood there with my bank card in my hand, while the young punks started gabbing again.  It didn’t take too long for my food to finish.  I watched one of them package it up and set it on the tray…  But he couldn’t give it to me, because I hadn’t paid for it yet. 

Then other people started to line up behind me.  The couple of guys behind the counter panicked.

“Our cashier isn’t here.  She went for a smoke…”

What?

That was enough for everyone else behind me.  They left.  I stood there and looked at my food… so close, yet so far…  the two guys behind the counter actually left and went back out of view, probably because they couldn’t stand there looking at me, looking at my food. 

That was it.  I’d had enough.  I should have jumped over the counter, grabbed my food, and sat down.  That would have showed them!  Of course, I probably would have just thrown out my back or something trying to get over that counter.  (Yeah, I know that there’s a little swinging door)

So I left.  I’m a pretty patient guy, but there are limits to my patience, and watching my food get cold while some girl is out having a cigarette, and no one else is able to run the cash register…  that’s too much, even for me.

I contemplated calling the next day and asking to speak to someone older than 16, but I couldn’t be bothered at this point.

Well, I guess that this does impact me after all.  Shoppers will no longer accept my Blue Cross card, starting next week.  I’m not really sure if this is just a publicity thing and one of them will blink at the 11th hour or not, but I think that it’s time for me to move my prescriptions to somewhere closer.  I noticed on the drive home last night, that Guardian Drugs has a large sign proclaiming “We Accept All Blue Cross Plans”, so I think that I’ll move to them.  I gave up my Shoppers Optimum card to my ex, so I don’t even have that to lure me into the store now.  The last remaining tie to Shoppers is my post office box, and I’ve been contemplating closing that.  It’s such a pain to change mailing addresses, though.  I still haven’t made up my mind on that one.

This is a pretty big change.  I know quite a few people who regularly go to Shoppers and have Blue Cross.  I guess that you can still go there if you’re willing to pay upfront and go through the reimbursement process… I’ve done that before, and no thanks.

I sat down last night to watch the long-awaited “Baby episode” on NBC’s The Office.  For me, it was the culmination of many years of the “Jim and Pam” storyline.  I can’t imagine the show holding nearly as much interest now that we’ve reached this point.  In all honesty, the proposal episode was probably the highlight.  If not that, then certainly the wedding, although I’m a little torn on that one.  Half the fun of the show has been “Will they, or won’t they?”  Now where do they go from here?   [Interesting bit of trivia, Jenna Fischer's real-life fiance Lee Kirk played the lactation specialist. Got milk?  The scene makes perfect sense now!]

I find it interesting how NBC has embraced social networking.  Not only do they have several of their characters on Twitter, but there is an entire blog set up for the Jim and Pam story, and one just for the Baby, complete with pictures, and fake comments from the “parents”.  It’s almost as if they’re real people…

But they’re not, right?

Curious to see how this is going to affect me.  I’m not sure if my work coverage is Medavie Blue Cross or not (Are there different kinds of Blue Cross?) , but I’ll have to check on this as soon as I’m back in the office.  The ironic thing is that I was just discussing (today) moving my prescriptions from Shoppers to Guardian because there is no Shoppers near where I now live.

Perfect timing, I guess.

Every time I watch this video, I can’t help thinking that at least one of these scenes is eerily familiar. 

I especially like the big walking Mr Unhappy, and wish that I had one of those suits in my closet.  I’d wear it on my night shifts.

What happens when the Dreamer and the Realist collide?

This.

I Got You…

Sat down to watch Law Abiding Citizen.  If you haven’t seen this yet, let me offer some caution…

If you’re at all squeamish about onscreen violence, think long and hard whether this is a movie that you’re really interested in watching.

I don’t require a movie to be violent for me to enjoy it, but I don’t relish violence strictly for violence’s sake.  Take the Saw series for starters.  I have no use for something like that.  That violence disturbs me, and I can’t watch it.  But for most movies that have blood…  I can deal with it, if I have to.  Particularly if I’m expecting it.

I wasn’t really expecting it from this movie.

Gerard Butler plays a man who has some very legitimate reasons to dislike the justice system.  Jamie Foxx plays a prosecutor intent on moving up the ladder as quickly as he can.   They both have very different views of what constitutes “justice”.

And that’s where things get messy.  Some of the violence is pretty straight-forward.  You can see it coming a mile away, and choose to look away or whatever.  But there is also at least one scene that is so sudden that I was stunned.

This is a movie that I had actually considered seeing in the theatre, and I’m just as glad that I didn’t.  This isn’t a bad movie, but it’s not for everyone.