You're Doing It Wrong

Dad’s workshop

A few weeks ago I went to the post office to mail some packages. The lady gave me this long spiel about the flat rate boxes and the priority rate boxes and how much this and that cost. At that point, since my stuff was already packed in boxes, it seemed pointless to unpack my stuff, throw my boxes away and then repack in their boxes just to save a two dollars and twenty-five cents.

I had some packages to mail today so I brought my stuff without boxes.

When I got to the window I said, “I’d like to try one of these boxes you’ve been trying to sell me on.”

Their reply? What box?

So I said, that flat rate box.

Then they held up a box so small I wonder what the point would be. There is nothing you would mail in that box that you couldn’t mail for a buck or so in a squishy envelope. We go around in a circle, they insisting, you have to tell us what box you want.

They finally tell me that I can mail my stuff in any packaging I want and I said: I didn’t package my stuff because you’re always telling me how great your boxes are.

These are the most anal retentive assholes in the universe. There is no way to win. I told them they were like the IRS and I would have to pay a trained professional to tell my how to fulfill my obligations. They finally handed me big old Priority Mail box and I got my stuff out.

Later today, I read about how much money the post office is losing and my cold heart felt nothing. (Sorry Kenman.)

When the news season of Flight of the Conchords was announced I started bugging Bob about getting HBO again. We haven’t had HBO since The Sopranos ended.

Bob called on the day the new season started which was the same day as the Obama concert and the person asked Bob if that’s why he was adding HBO. He told them no, his wife wanted to watch Flight of the Conchords. Then the guy agreed that HBO had many fine programming choices. Bob and I cracked up over that line.

Since we have a premium channel again, I did a quick scroll through the movies to see if there was anything I wanted to see and I added a few, mostly movies that are in my netflix queue.

And I added Ghost

Yes, the 1990 movie with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. I haven’t seen it since 1990 and I think the first time I saw it was at a screening so I knew nothing about it except it was a new movie coming out.

I can’t remember for sure but I suspect I loved it when I saw it. I vaguely remember it being something of a phenomenon and making oodles of money. There were various analysis articles like in Time Magazine about women watching this movie and love and death and so forth.

This time I found it entertaining and thought it held up pretty well for being dopey romantic ghost movie. When I checked the Wikipedia entry I just about dropped my teeth when I saw that it had earned a best picture nomination. Yikes. It wasn’t that good.

But the leads were cute together. I love Demi’s adorable short haircut. And Whoopie was really good. The special effects were laugh-out-loud horrible and of course I was wondering how Molly could afford that fancy apartment after her banker boyfriend was killed and didn’t he have a family that wanted to swoop in and claim his assets?

The two decade old styles were more noticeable in some places than others. I loved the office for the bankers with the light blue carpet. Demi’s outfit in the final scenes is awful enough to earn special recognition. It was like a jumpsuit made out of black t-shirt material and the front top half was completely cut out in a goofy shape and she wore a grey t-shirt with no bra.

I have no concluding statement.

Shadow searching for something stinky to roll in.

It must be at least three months since I’ve complained about the Oregon State Bar.

I’ve been doing this work for something like 17 years now and I don’t think I’ve ever had a pleasant exchange with the OSB. It can’t be that terrible a place to work yet everyone you talk to is like an embittered DMV employee.

I’m sure they have to deal with lots of assholes. But I’m not an asshole. I’m always friendly and polite.

I always look for information on their mostly worthless website first. It’s filled with information that’s difficult to find. It’s as if the public library were a giant pit filled with books and papers and the librarians acted all surly and overworked and pointed at the hole and insisted all the information was there.

I think I’m done with them for this round. I hope.

A new Wuthering Heights is on Masterpiece Theater. I saw an ad for it somewhere and thought, I haven’t seen WH in a long time. I’m going to watch that.

Apparently I’ve never watched WH nor have I read the book because this story is intensely weird and completely unfamiliar to me.

I watched the first half hour on Monday night and then ran to the bookshelf and found the paperback and have embarked on a full fledged Brontë obsession complete with wikipedia-ing the Yorkshire Moors and then flickring the same thing. Now I’m thinking a library trip is in order so I can grab a Brontë sister bio.

Shouldn’t I have gone through this about thirty years ago?

I thought maybe I had WH confused with Jane Eyre. Are there other old gothy romantic classics that I’m forgetting? I tried to formulate that into a query for search engine but didn’t get too far. Netflix didn’t help either but it gave me ideas for a ton of other movies to watch. I just put the most recent version of Masterpiece Theater’s Jane Eyre into the queue.

I don’t have much to say and forgot to upload more workshop pictures.

Instead you should follow Peter and Elise on their honeymoon. Best Travel Writing Ever. Sample 1 Sample 2.

I think those are chronologically reversed but you can figure it out.

Choice quote:

We turned the wrong way up our street at first and discovered that it terminates in an absolutely breathtaking overview of the entire city, with the Eiffel directly in the center. We were at a loss for words.

(That is, until I remarked that the roving light from the top of the tower is not unlike the eye of Sauron. Because we are huge, married nerds.)

Howdy: I have posted the 08 holiday newsletter at

https://www.pamrentz.com/pampage/xmas/v18/p1.html.

Enjoy! Please drop me a note or leave a comment. After you’ve read it.

Also, I’ll probably do a spam-mail on it this weekend so you may hear about it more than once.

Yep, it’s all about me, me, me.

Also, I’m shutting down the computer and keeping it off until Saturday morning and taking a much needed computer vacation. I know, one day. Hardly worth the trouble. Yet, I think it’s good for me.

Here’s Bob’s write-up on Michael Pollan.

As it turns out we’re going to another lecture tonight. Dr. Terence Love. Bob got these tickets at school so the content will be a big surprise for me. Here’s a quick quote:

Holistic Design: A Philosophical Framework

Holistic design of products, services, systems, and organizations depends on the objective material opportunities but even more on our inner subjective, emotional life. We are both the creative designers and aesthetic participants in those designs.

I don’t even understand what that means. Usually when I have low expectations I end up enjoying the lecture. We shall see.

It’s nice to get out and do stuff but all this getting home late coupled with an intensive work project all week has me feeling a bit fried.

The newsletter is 10 minutes away from being finished. I just need to proofread and check some links and I can cross that off my list. I want to make tomorrow a computer free day because I really need it. So unless I’m feeling spunky when I get home tonight: Saturday the dang newsletter will be finished.

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Equal Opportunity for Humiliation

In the past several years I’ve talked to a number of women my age who participate in adult women soccer leagues. It’s come up twice in the past month. They all insist it’s super fun and since I’m such a soccer fan I should try it.

When I protest that I’m not athletic they say no one is, it doesn’t matter. When I suggest my overachiever will kick in and I will want to train. They say, no you won’t, no one does. It’s a good workout. It’s fun.

I have never enjoyed playing team sports. I’m not good at kicking, hitting, aiming or catching. I prefer to beat people by being smart, mean and better organized, not by knocking them out of the way.

I never liked P.E. I remember starting sixth grade middle school a few years after that Title IX Equal Education whatever passed and we had to do P.E. with boys. Thanks a lot Patsy Mink. I dreaded that hour. Let’s take someone timid and uncoordinated and make them play with boys. It seems like we did sports with just girls, too, which I also didn’t like. I’ve lost a lot of brain cells since then. It’s hard to remember.

I did like gymnastics. And I have this memory of spending week after week in the gym during the Saturday Night Fever era and doing The Hustle (my new favorite wikipedia entry. I hurt my chin when I fell on the floor laughing). Could that be possible?

Back to team sports. It’s hard for me to get past those memories and think that all this time later I could try playing soccer and I’d have fun doing it. I have to admit I’m curious in a “doing something outside my comfort zone” way and I could use the exercise but I don’t need to add any more activities to my roster at the moment.