The Friday Chronicles

I'm always grateful when Friday comes along. Not only is the most annoying ghost-hunting show EVER on, but it's the day I don't have to come up with a blogging topic. I can just rattle off what's happened to me in the week behind me. It's that proverbial Friday that people with a job have. You don't work quite as hard at work as you do Monday through Thursday, you know that you have a two-day break coming up, and you know that no one expects much out of you on that particular day (okay, so no one expects much out of me on any given day, but Friday is always guaranteed to be exceptionally mundane).

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So let's talk about the Oakland riot that transpired last night. I know I said I'd steer clear of controversial topics until February but I can't just sidestep this giant pile of poo.

For those who aren't aware, here's one of the cell phone videos taken by BART passengers:



Now obviously, you can't hear what's being said between the kid who was shot and the cops, but it's clear there's a struggle. As you can imagine, there's a huge feeding frenzy out here, and they're trying to make it a racial thing. I can't say if it was or wasn't, only the cop who shot him can, and since he immediately resigned from the police force and has moved twice, well, I'll leave it up to you...and the 12 people I'm sure will hand down his judgment. What's stuck in my craw is this:



What good does it do to create mayhem and cause destruction? What did the business owners in the Fruitvale district have to do with that cop and Oscar Grant? Do they really think they're making a point - much less one that should be respected - by setting innocent people's cars on fire and breakout windows of businesses? Furthermore, assaulting people with news crews? They even booed their own mayor, who was trying to sympathize with them while calming them down.

I couldn't do anything except shake my head while I was watching the news last night. I understand that they're upset and angry. But what good can come of rioting?

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I'm trying to get back into the swing of working out. Until we're out of here, I'm using the "spa" (what a laughable term; there's an elliptical, a treadmill, a recumbent bike, and a multi-use weight machine...nothing spa-like in the least) allllllmost daily. Okay, I went twice last week and I went today. I really killed it today though. I'm still sore. I probably overdid it. But hey, if I don't sweat, I'm not working, right?

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I got my daughter to voluntarily eat a prune today. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

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We watched "The Dark Knight" this past week. I gotta say, I wasn't that impressed. The action was mediocre, Batman was way too vulnerable, the Batmobile died, and they kept referring to him as "...the batman..." Not just "Batman," but "the batman," as if to anonymize him. Christian Bale is, by far, the lousiest Batman to ever hit the silver screen and that gravelly voice he uses when he dons the Batman suit is just comical. What's funnier is that he even uses that voice when he's talking to Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who knows he's simply Bruce Wayne. What? The Batsuit causes a whiskey voice? I guess I'll stick with what I'm sure of: the originals are always the best. Michael Keaton is unsurpassable.

I will allow this: Heath Ledger's take on the Joker was interesting. Not nearly as campy or polished as Jack's portrayal, and the makeup was incredibly weird, but I suppose we can chalk it up to artistic license? But he did make the character his own and he was completely unrecognizable as Heath Ledger when he was in character.

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So that's about all I have for this week. I'm sorry, again, for my severe lack of blogging. I've had a lot going on and possibly a lot more to come, but when we get everything figured out, I'll have a whole lot of blog fodder for you all. Have a nice weekend!