Killing Cats

Sorry folks, no particular organizing thread presents itself to bundle this week's installment. You'll have to sort out these updates yourselves. Or visit a more artfully drafted blog. Your call!

1. Always be dull, muted, cautious and reserved (#1). I thought it was pretty funny early last week when a coworker came in one morning and announced that he had just realized he went to school with Kathleen Turner. I never actually got the details, but I was amused since he is an extremely bright, details-oriented guy, and I thought it was funny that he had "just realized" something like that. Flash forward two days, and in the course of poking around my high school's website (which I had just discovered), I realized I went to high school with -- and shared a homeroom with -- one of the current stars of Saturday Night Live. Huh. Of course, I now find it perfectly routine and not at all laughable that a person could fail to realize such a thing.

2. Always be dull, muted, cautious and reserved (#2). The most important moral/ ethical message I (sort of) absorbed in college was probably from the book that got Brian Evenson fired from BYU. My recollection of his short story "Killing Cats," is that the point of the story, and of at least one other in Altman's Tongue, was that small concessions to proponents of an ethically gray course of action can quickly have you doing violence to innocent critters. I never actually expected to have to pause and ask myself if the van I had agreed to drive was, in fact, on a cat-killing errand (and whether I had known it). It's fascinating and troubling to watch the life stories of people I've known a long time play out in conflicting and confrontational ways.

3. Three Cheers for my Daughter (#1). She's on a trip with her mom tonight. In the past, when I've been on the road, I've told her good night and whatnot over the phone, and she has listened attentively but not responded verbally. Well, tonight she said "Hi, Daddy" and "Bye Daddy" over the phone, and as you can imagine I found this to be remarkably cool.

4. Three Cheers for my Daughter (#2). The weather has been great and in addition to enjoying the swingset we put in the shade in the back yard, she and I have gotten in the pool about three times now. Mom joined us twice and took pictures the third time. She digs it. She splashes me and mom and throws balls around. She has a little boat she'll ride in if I stay close. Cool kid. Lots of fun. Doesn't really like it when me or mom "be a fish" (swim, especially underwater).

5. Bring on the Future. Either above or below this entry there is a photo of SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X Prize. All I want to say about this is that I really enjoy living at a time when we've got photos of privately built and manned spaceships flying around. I grew up reading boatloads of classic science fiction (by which I'm intending to refer to Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein and Clarke, and the anthologies they edited). I also enjoy knowing that there are companies out there dedicated to making and selling practical household robots. (Yes, for those of you wondering but too polite to ask, I do feel sort of lousy about the fact that while people are building spaceships and robots I am sitting around having nothing to do with such projects. Whoops.) (Yes, I already looked. iRobot is only hiring patent lawyers. But I'll be noodling on this.)

6. Bring on the Past. In part because I've been a little slow at work since closing a big deal a couple weeks ago, and in part because I've been working on a licensure application that requires vast amounts of detail from my past, and in part by happenstance, I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about, recreating, and talking to people from my past. Today, in fact, I was talking to someone I had not spoken to for about 12 years and had to put him on hold to talk to someone I had not spoken to in maybe ten years, except for a brief visit maybe five years ago. On the whole, this is all very rewarding and enriching. One guy turned out to be living very near us and working just a few blocks from me. I'll confess that I occassionally "google" people to see if any clues are floating around out there as to their current whereabouts and goings on. Some people have simply vanished. Others, deliberately or not, leave no Internet bread crumbs other than entries in 10K charity races or golf tournaments or such. Some I attempt to contact. As to others, I keep to myself.

SpaceShipOne 

Ok, so I'm slightly more than a *totally* passive fan. 

What else are you going to do at 12:01 on a Thursday morning? 

I haven't gone by the name Obi-Wan, since before you were born...

This past Wednesday night I helped get my daughter to bed at about 10:15, then kissed my wife on the head and zipped off to see the premiere of Revenge of the Sith. The AMC I went to had sold out about eight or nine screens for the 12:01 a.m. showing. When I arrived, the crowds had already been admitted, so the place was bustling but there was no real waiting in line to be done (I had bought my ticket online earlier in the day, and stopped by the AMC on my way home from work to pick up the actual ticket). Many people were saving large blocks of seats, but I found a guy who, it turned out, I think, had actually saved an extra seat on the aisle specifically so that someone could help him save his several seats when the time came for him to have to go out and give tickets to let his friends into the theater. These four or five guys were up from University of Arizona just to see the show, which they beleived was all sold out in Tucson. They were very big fans of the movies and knew lots of plot elements that were not well-covered in the movies but had been treated elsewhere, especially the Clone Wars animated series. I picked their brains a bit on some points of confusion I still had left over from Episodes I and II. They were very mildly amused that I was old enough to have seen Episode IV in the theater with my Dad in 1977.

I enjoyed the movie as much as I had hoped to. Thought it was great fun. Better acting and dialogue than I'd braced myself for. Some spots were a little soft. The audience actually laughed a bit when Palpatine shifted into super-bad-guy mode and started snarling and growling at Anakin... it just seemed so overdone. But I felt it was terrific overall. Would like to go see it again. I think it stands nicely with IV, V and VI. We just won't speak of Episode I. I feel genuinely happy that, in my opinion and hopefully public consensus, the movies are ending on a strong, winning note.

Part of me is sad they are over, because they've been a small part of the backdrop of my life for a really long time. It feels just a little bit odd to know that they are all finished. I'm not all that wrapped up in the movies, don't study the plots, read the books, collect figurines, etc. But I've been a fan. I'll probably feel the same way to some extent when the Simpsons end, or Letterman retires, etc.

Part of me is glad I made it to see the movies completed. That sounds stupid, and it's not a big deal, and I won't dwell on it. That is actually really behind me now. I really, really hated working in the Sears Tower after September 11. Some tiny little node of my personality just couldn't get over it. I'd note previews for movies I wanted to see, and would wonder if I'd make it until they came out. Having changed jobs and moved, I don't think like that anymore. I don't know why I was like that. Anyhow, part of my reaction to watching Episode III was feeling another dimension of closure to that whole chapter.

By the way, when I got out of the theater, there was an absolutely gigantic, yellow, almost full moon just above the western horizon. Did anyone else see this? It was a tremendous sight, and very spectacular after just seeing a movie with so many shots of planets, space, etc.

This morning I golfed with an 88-year old man who helped build the wings for Lockheed P-38 airplanes in World War II. He was also one of the first people to sell TV's in Arizona, around 1947. None of the brands he sold then still exist.

Bless the Furry Monsters and the Children

The big family outing this weekend was the grand opening of the new Sesame Street exhibit at the Arizona Science Center. It is a fantastic exhibit for kids and my daughter was bouncing off the walls for a solid two hours before we tricked her to the exit by way of the gift shop. She now owns an Elmo backpack. Not sure what she'll put in it. Doesn't really matter.

Getting to the ribbon-cutting ceremony on time meant ducking out of work at about 5:00 to meet the family. That's between five and seven hours earlier than I was able to leave work any other day this past week, so it felt pretty glorious. Daylight. Wow.

Saturday and Sunday were very laid-back and low key. Played with the young'un. Finished re-reading Hitchikers' Guide. I had forgotten how the first book ends, ah, nowhere, and with next-to-nothing accomplished. I haven't been able to duck out to see the movie yet. Maybe we'll get a sitter and make it a date night soon.

Stumbled across a web site worth noting... www.fishbath.com. Now, those guys have a sense of humor...

He's shorter in person than you expect. 

There is No Emu or Ostrich Ranch within 30 Minutes South of Phoenix on the I-10

We spent a portion of Saturday learning this. I could have sworn I saw one when I drove to Tucson in February.

Never Mind Women, Mars Needs Better Burgers

All I really want to report about the Sedona weekend trip is that the Red Planet Diner let us down, and I was happy to discover Interlandi's. I really enjoyed the Red Planet Diner last time. I was actually planning to throw a photo of it up here and rave about it. But my chili burger was terrible this time, so, never mind.

Sedona 

Sedona