I watched Fargo tonight. Good acting and directing. The Coen Brothers are moving up my list of favorite directors (see: No Country for Old Men). It’s a relatively short list so far, but they’re on it along with Guillermo Del Toro, Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Peter Jackson.

George Lucas doesn’t make the list. George Lucas will never make the list.

Another difficulty in crafting a list is considering how realistic the items are. In the movie, the main characters do much traveling, race car driving, and sky diving. Not all of these actions would be reasonable or even possible for most of the people in the world. For instance, a Guatemalan villager may not care to travel to the other side of the world or participate in an extreme sport whether or not it was financially reasonable.

In my case, I have decided to focus on including items that would be achievable given my current life circumstances. I am also trying to include items that are not dependent on material successes, but a result of time, effort, and interaction with other people.

The List:
• woo a beautiful woman
• teach people - pass on skills and knowledge
• invest in people - bring richness to life in the form of love and liberty
• become conversationally fluent in another language - and use it!
• experience health and fitness
• create something delicious

I like the poster. This has me interested.

Yes, I just watched Highlander. Honestly, I was expecting more from the soundtrack. Seriously, couldn’t Queen have come up with some better songs? Then again, did any good music come out of 1986?

Although the movie is more about the action. The absurdity of it was more interesting than anything. The dialogue gave me the most to enjoy. Lines like the cop saying, “Don’t move; don’t even breathe!” or later in the movie when the bad guy jumps in the car and yells, “MOM!” had me laughing plenty.

So November is almost over. I’m running out of goals for the year. The major one is still going. I’m angling to get at least one lunch date during December. I think it’s fairly likely and I only hope I don’t botch things up with my incredible knack for unsmoothness. Eh.

Who’s looking forward to Christmas? I’m trying to be less materialistic than other years, but I didn’t even make it through Black Friday without shopping. The good news is I’m just about done.

It was fun having the parents out here for Thanksgiving. Showed them around a lot, visited with some old family friends, lived out the annual family rivalry (Colorado v. Nebraska) wherein the Huskers were shamed (good riddance to Callahan), much food was consumed, and many excellent conversations had.

Work is going well. Other than the sexual harassment. I can’t say I enjoy being on the receiving end of jokes and I must say it’s a completely awkward situation being joked about. I tell myself that “I’m a man, I can handle some jokes” which is true, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Now I understand why harassment is considered such a problem — because it disrupts the workplace and creates a negative working environment. Even if I want to say something about it, it’s not quite that easy because speaking up creates real consequences for the people involved and there’s always the possibility of retribution or attempted retribution if anyone gets in trouble.

On reflection, I’m a bit pissed about the whole situation. I hadn’t thought it over much yet.

I’m doing the Netflix thing. And the satellite TV thing. It’s probably a good thing I got my last paycheck today from the previous employer — ten days late, but who’s counting. (I am and I was pissed.)

So far I’ve watched a couple movies. “Before Sunset” “Before Sunrise” is 100% worth watching. It’s an excellent romantic film. The plot is simple (an American meets a French girl on the train and they hang out for the night), but portrayed excellently. It’s one of the better jobs I’ve seen of actors conveying emotion through body language.

Tonight I watched “Beautiful Girls.” Somehow I think Rosie O’Donnell was supposed to be one of these “Beautiful Girls.” If they’d scrubbed her role out of the movie, it would’ve been good. It’s not one of those movies you watch and feel satisfied and more alive after watching. You see it, get done watching, and think: “Yeah, that’s kinda how it goes.” People live, screw up, and get some sort of lesson out of it. This movie was just an example, and probably not the best one, but it was alright.

Going to bed by 10pm is kind of a drag. It makes me feel old. Then again, watching a movie wherein the main characters discuss love/marriage, and the perceived difficulty of finding love when approaching 30… well, it’s not exactly something I’ve ever wanted to be able to relate to other people about. And this will be what I’m thinking about while I try to fall asleep.

Or maybe just impossible spaceships and planets and aliens. I will hide in science fiction for at least a few minutes.

I also went and saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday. I’d say they had to rush it at least as much as the fourth book to fit everything in, but they did the best they could considering movies can’t be six hours long. I recently preordered book #7 and am awaiting its arrival on Saturday. If UPS dares to deliver the book later than when I leave for work… DOOM!

Unfortunately, most of the games I’ve been playing end with my king dead. Needless to say, the valiance of my men and women in battle means nothing when the king makes tactical errors.

I got out of the house today. Today marks my furthest excursion from home since New Year’s Day. I met the assistant pastor for coffee (frappuccino!). We tend to talk about movies, and the high points of today’s conversation revolved around 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr. Strangelove.

I played chess and had dinner with El Martin and his roommate tonight. Thai food rocks (peanuts, mmm). We’ve talked a bit about splitting an apartment at some point in the near future. The place I’m living is alright, but I’m looking for something at least slightly less bacheloresque. I just hope I can afford it. I need a pay raise.

As far as work goes, it’s been fine. I’m getting used to the job, but still have much to learn. I can learn a lot about interacting with people by doing this job; however, I have no intention of staying long term. At least not in the position I’m in. It’s one of those jobs where you’re paid decently, but expected to suffer in other ways.

I watched “Love Actually” tonight. I love that movie. I first saw it on TBS a while ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. The actual version is a bit more risque, but still a good movie. It’s one of those movies that gives hope to those of us who tend to feel undeserving of it. The movie has great actors in it and the lines and plot shape up decently, too.

My night went downhill after that point, however, but I will not go into the details here.

I wish I had my camera with me. The parking lot holds more cars than I’ve ever seen in it before. People crowd every inch of the store. Children cruise around gabbing and wondering what activity they can partake in next. Middle-aged men pretend they’re at Borders for a reason other than Harry Potter, but they look skiddish and as if they’re hiding a terrible secret. Yes, oh yes–even middle-aged men like Harry Potter. And such a dark secret fits well in the world of Harry Potter where secrets are common place.

What dark secrets does a man such as me hide? For one, I’m not middle-aged, so it�s nothing so ghastly as to be unimaginable (such as being a fan of Harry Potter). No, my greatest secret on a Potteresque level is this: I�ve only read ten chapters of the first book, and I didn’t like the third movie.

As I said, I was there for music. I bought 200′�s release by The Postal Service “Give Up” and a new release from The Early November “The Acoustic EP.” The Postal Service album is an alternative/electronic release by Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie fame) and Jimmy Tamborello. The Early November album, as the title implies, is an acoustic release of seven tracks which ends up sounding quite a bit like Dashboard Confessional but with a different vocalist.