Wha . . . ?

It's Tuesday.

It's the day of my Tues-daily ritual, sitting in Caribou Coffee for an hour and a half before my Marketing class. Here I am serene and contemplative. Maybe it's the soothing Beatles music they're playing today. Maybe it's my foo-foo drink I'm sipping; an Orange Zest Cooler (think frappuccino for those uneducated. . .). Maybe it's the incredibly racist graffiti I read carved into the wall of the mens room.

Now that I think about it, it's not for that reason. 

So, I enter the Caribou establishment with "tasty refreshment" on my mind and "get to the toilet!" in my bladder. I attempt to open the door to the mens room only to find it locked. Practically pinching myself to contain the near flash flood of man pee about to spew forth from my nethers, I kill the few minutes by actually ordering my beverage. By the time the occupant of the mens room exits I already have my drink in hand. My teeth are now floating in a sea of orange zestiness and my bladder is the size of a small child. 

I enter the room and proceed to doff my backpack, jacket and hoodie. The moment has arrived. Salvation is here! As I begin my "activities", I naturally glance anywhere except there. As I visually record the artwork on the wall, the well crafted porcelain of the toilet, the finely made plywood cabinets, I notice a phrase carved not delicately into the wooden trim of the room.

"All Hail Danny Glover, Prince of the Underworld."

I nearly began wetting the floor with my own special cleaner. Someone had then, post-carving, added the phrase "Black Panther" to the sentence. Now it read:

"All Hail Danny Glover, Black Panther, Prince of the Underworld."

I finished my business and found a seat to enjoy the rest of my orangey treat. Now all I can think about is how this graffiti will now color the way I see Lethal Weapon 3 from now on. . .

Addicted to Warcraft

I know what you're thinking. . . "Warcraft?". Yep, Ive been playing Warcraft in my spare time. The good news is, I have finished it all up. 

What is Warcraft? If you don't know, I'm not telling you. 

Ok.

It's a strategy game made just for people like me who are truly geeks at heart. You can play as Orcs, Humans, Night Elves, BLood Elves, and even the Undead known as the Scourge.

Fun, huh?

I am addicted to it. Think of it as a cross between "Sim City" and "Lord of the Rings".  I should be ashamed of myself. A grown man spending his spare time on the computer playing video games. I must tell you, that is not ALL I do. Why, just today I:

*Did the dishes

*Socialized with a friend of mine (yes, in person. Not online. . .)

*Went to Starbucks, twice.

*Took out the garbage

*Cleaned my basement

On the list of things I could have done are:

*Worked on my storyboarding project

*Worked on either of the papers I have due in a week and a half

*Actually led a productive day

All I have to say to defend myself is this: It is a holiday weekend and I needed a break. I will say that I have finished my game in its entirety and a m planning on working all this next week on all of my projects.

I hope Starcraft II comes out soon. . .

Ten 'Till Midnight

Judd Apatow. 

The name is synonymous  with vulgar, sexist and raunchy humor. The producer of such films as "The 40 Year Old Virgin", "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" as well as the upcoming films "The Pineapple Express" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". These films were funny, but I thought that they were just vulgar, "idiot" humor that appealed to the lowest common comedic denominator. Suffice it to say that I wasn't a fan before, but the planets re-aligned or I drank some kind of mystery potion and now I am. Here's why. 

My wife was interested in this television show that aired for a single season back in 2000 called "Freaks and Geeks". She added the show to our Blockbuster Online cue and told me we'd be getting it soon. She mentioned the Apatow connection to me and I was immediately skeptical. Now, don;t get me wrong, I am a male in my early thirties. I grew up with Kevin Smith films that I would watch over and over to the point where I had "Mallrats" memorized. THere was something about the Apatow films that seemed to push me away as opposed to drawing me in. I figured I'd give my wife the benefit of the doubt and trust her judgement. Besides, she would be more likely to put the kibosh on the viewing based on content before I would.

When the DVDs arrived in the mail and we sat down to watch them, I was immediately drawn into the lives of these teenagers and felt their struggles through high school. Their stories were strikingly similar to my own and the main character and his friends were like a carbon copy of my group of friends in school.  Watching these characters stumble their way around dating, friends, classes and even fighting endeared them to me. I was sad to see the series end.

After that series, we looked up the actors on IMDB to see what some of them were doing now, eight years later. Some of them ended up on another Apatow show (again, only lasting one season) called "Undeclared" about a bunch of college students finding their way through the college experience. This show was definitely more laugh out loud funny than "Freaks" was but not as endearing. 

The point of all of this is that after seeing how Apatow deals with the juxtaposition of real life humor and situations (albeit a bit over dramatized and spruced up for tv's sake) and the real heart for relational unity has made me a fan. I don't necessarily love all of the graphic sex jokes, but I am willing to look past some of that to see the redemptive qualities of his stories.

Thanks, Judd