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.

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!

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.

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 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?

Perfect timing, I guess.

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…

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.

8:30 tonight I’ll be glued to my TV.  Bring ‘em on.

Hallelujah.  The old Leonard Cohen classic.

This song is supposedly from 1984, but I didn’t really become aware of it until fairly recently.  Sad to say, I think the first time I really took notice of Hallelujah was when it appeared in one of the Shrek movies. I didn’t think that it was new.  I knew that it wasn’t.  But I didn’t know whose song it was.  I certainly had no idea that it was a Canadian icon’s.

Since then, I’ve heard it at different times, most notably during Bon Jovi’s encore performance last summer.  It was amazing. And then again during the opening ceremonies.

Say what you will about k.d. Lang, but when all the guys at work were commenting about those opening ceremonies and each one of us made mention about Hallelujah… that was the performance that stood out!  So much so, that I noticed iTunes selling the Vancouver Olympics version of the song… and of course had to have it as part of my collection.

Doesn’t matter how my day is going… when I put that on and close my eyes…  it’s instantly calming.

Hallelujah!