The Default State Is Broken

Because it's a bit scattered about, I'm reposting my "Great Old Movies" essay for a broader* audience, and because I don't talk enough about movies. Inspired by a comment from a friend, my brain has been rifling through the databases in my consciousness and I keep thinking about those really excellent old black-and-white movies that made me fall in love with movies when I was a kid. Roger Ebert famously quotes his longtime-collaborator/frenimy Gene Siskel about the rule of thumb for judging whether a movie is good: "Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?" And since I love documentaries, it's hard for a movie to live up to my standards, but there are some amazing works out there. So here's some of my favourite old movies, in no particular order, so you can take a whack at them and see if you like them. 1) Bad Day at Black Rock . Spencer Tracy as a one-armed man in a small Nevada town. Probably the best m...

The experience of having someone google me, and then googling myself, has amused me all out of proportion to the experience. For instance, my first google hit is my twitter feed, but my personal domain (where I assume someone might actually be reading this) doesn't appear in the first FIVE pages of searches. So anyone looking for information about me gets data that is either at least five years old, or my twitter feed (which isn't exactly an in-depth view of my life right now). So what am I doing with my life right now? 1) Eating right and working out. A moderate change in my diet, coupled with a workout goal (a half-marathon at the end of June) has meant that I'm losing a moderate amount of weight and feeling better about my body. I'm not at my goal yet, but I'm moving in the right direction, and I feel good about working out instead of feeling it was a chore. 2) Working on my house. Yardwork right now, but I'm making a list of all of the improvements I w...

Portland turns out to be a really great town for going out and having a good time. Bar-hopping is not something I usually do, so I found a native guide, bribed him with trinkets and glass beads, and off we went to find pleasant vistas and tasty inbibants. Both, in fact, were had. Places I'm interested in going back to: Lotus, the Turtle, and whatever that dive bar we finished up at was. Places I'll skip: Low Brow, Life of Riley, and the skeezy strip club on 3rd and Burnside. I stuck mostly to gin and tonics, since that is rather my go-to drink, and also because in my suit and hat I looked like an Ad Agency Man from 1960, it was genre-appropriate. I could've gone for a Tom Collins, but I'm not really a fan, so g&t for me. Next time, though, I am going for the Doctor Who look. My new shoes are really pretty, but they're brand new, and that meant they gave me some pretty serious blisters. Four of them, the size of dimes, on my heels. Instead, I'll wear my canv...