30x30 Update #4

Another month, another not a whole lot to report.

I watched two AFI movies (one should have been in the last report, but whatever.) Midnight Cowboy (review is up) and Shane (review should be up at a future date)

I read several books, I'm also including one I hadn't previously, I don't think. I feel like I'm leaving something else off though!

Amateur Night at the Bubblegum Kittykatt - a blogger I've been reading for years self published this book, an account of her ennui filled early/mid 20s about when she worked as a hostess at a strip club. I enjoyed it because I've been following her blog for years, I'm not sure I would recommend it otherwise. There's not a whole lot there to grab you, though she does have a decent enough writing style.

Mennonite in a little black dress - Another memoir (big month for those, apparently!) this time about a reformed/former Mennonite that gets a divorce after 15 years of being married. Her husband leaves her for another man and we later find out that they had a terrible marriage, and she knew that he was bi and had been with other men in the past so this wasn't all together surprising. A bit misleading because at first it sounds like it's totally from left field and unexpected. Worth reading if it's either free or cheap, as you do find out interesting things about Mennonites.

I only did one new thing, that I can think of. Ate at a fabulous place called Whiskey Cake, as a friend was visiting and a group of us decided to go. Had a very good cocktail that I can't remember the name of, and some amazing pork loin with grits, and a gigantic piece of whiskey cake. It was pricey, but worth it!

Oh! Remembered another thing. Addison Taste of Chicago - FINALLY ACTUAL CHICAGO STYLE PIZZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was so, so good y'all. SO good. Not quite the real thing, and the crust could stand some flavoring, but pretty close to authentic and insanely delicious. I'll probably order from this place way too often.

I think that's it?

Sushi, some beer, and ice storm 2013

I know that this is mainly an outlet to share my attempts to become or be or do more/better/best before I'm 30, but it gets really old talking about just that I'm probably going to run out of content sooner rather than later if that's all I talk about! So, from time to time I'll be posting about things of a more personal nature than just books I've read and movies I've watched.

So, that being said last week had a few particularly note worthy events happen! First of all, a little bit of a back-story is required. (Names have been smudged for privacy reasons) I've known Mr. S for over 5 years now. We met through friends of friends, as you do, and since then I've been to countless parties he's hosted, drank countless beers together, and celebrated his marriage to Ms. F.

Unfortunately, (for us here!) The two of them have decided, due to a variety of factors, to move to a state Far Away. This will be a fantastic opportunity for them and they are both thrilled. We will miss them dearly but are equally happy for them. They have been discussing this for a rather long time and all of it has really come to a head this month. The house is on the market, Ms. F is currently safely settled in their new home, and their going away parties were last week.

On Wednesday Mr. S had a combination going away/plate party at a local bar. If you have 200 different beers (at a max of 3 a day) you are awarded a plate and given a party. This was, I believe, his 4th plate and he finished right on time! They ordered a wide variety of beers for us to all sample and we ended up staying until after midnight. It was a very fun farewell with a lot of laughter and tears. The next night we had a smaller, quieter final sushi dinner at our favorite sushi place that has been our go to spot for years for birthday dinners, celebrations, or just random dinners. This finished up much earlier than the previous night and overnight we got hit with a pretty heavy ice storm!

Friday Morning I wake up and the city was covered in a thick sheet of ice. The entire nearly half an hour long walk to work it continued to sleet and when I did finally make it to work I found it nearly deserted. Luckily I had already planned on the following Monday and Tuesday being off! By the time I left (slightly early) there was practically no one on the road and every available surface was covered in nearly an inch of ice. I get home and the electricity was out. Oh joy!

Luckily, I had already planned on being out as a friend was having a party that evening, so thankfully a friend of mine arrived not long after in his trusty 4 wheel drive truck to pick me up. That night we had a small party that surprisingly had more guests than expected considering it was still terrible outside, and we partied hard late into the next morning. Saturday was spent mostly taking it easy until the evening when we went to a nearby friends house for a Christmas bash where good times were had by all.

After we finished there we went for a short (but extremely memorable!) joyride in a nearby field and danced the night away to various Whitney Houston songs and other 90s hits. Sunday I get home and electricity has been restored! Temperatures remain cold so I don't even leave my apartment until I have to on Wednesday (which is technically tomorrow according to this post...), at which point most of the ice had melted. Hoorah!

So there we have it.

December Watch List: An Incomplete List

Grouping these by genre instead of in order of when I watched, for easier reviewing! Here are the standup specials that I watched.

Bo Burnham: What
This is a brand new special that was put out for Netflix just this month. It was an interesting (and expected) mix of singing, playing piano, some skit type stuff and one liners. His stuff isn't stand up so much as it's performance art, but it's very funny regardless. Now that he's older it's interesting to see how his work is evolving, and you can see some typical "No one understands me" angst going on. Which is understandable considering the fact that he's been in the spotlight since before he even graduated high school.

Comedy Central Presents: Donald Glover
This was moderately new, I think from 2012? I had never really seen much of his stand up before so this was totally new for me. It was incredibly hilarious! Riffing on things like race, gender, dating, growing up, politics, etc. He's a very intelligent and perceptive person but isn't afraid to dip into the juvenile humor well from time to time. There was a particular story he told about a teacher farting once that had me laughing for a good minute straight.

Comedy Central Presents: John Mulaney
I had heard most of this special before via Pandora but it was still fun to watch and see the actual physical part of the show. Mulaney is a very dry and sharp comedian that does a lot of storytelling type of stuff and this one has a really funny bit about "What's New, Pussycat?" that is worth listening to. I really like this guy a lot and hope he continues to make stuff!

Comedy Central Presents: Mike Birbiglia
Much like Mulaney I had already heard most of this act before (It was from 2006, I think, well before he became famous) but again, it was nice to see it actually acted out because Birbiglia does some pretty amusing physical comedy stuff that benefits from being able to actually see him. If you like his later stuff, you'd like this. Though I did notice that he's been using some of the same material for awhile now, which I'm not used to after following so much of Louis CK's stuff!

Comedy Central Presents: Marc Maron
Hulu has a lot of Comedy stuff, okay?? This is the second bit of actual stand up type stuff that I've seen from Maron. This was also pretty old, probably 2007? So it was before he divorced his second wife, which was interesting. It reminded a bit of Louis CK's stand up from before he got a divorce, where you could tell they are in an unhappy (or at least not working) marriage and it's not at all surprising that they ended up divorced. I think I liked this better than his newer stuff, because he seemed to be in a more grounded head space.

Getting paid to judge people

I don’t know if I mentioned my intentions to cut down posting to twice a week (likely Tues/Thurs) but that’s the plan from here on out! And now, for something completely different, my experience with jury duty!

Okay, first of all the process itself was relatively smooth and efficient. I was told by my paperwork to arrive by 8:30am and I did (well, a bit earlier!) and I was sitting in the actual courtroom awaiting whether I'd be chosen or not by about 10:15. I'd estimate at LEAST an hour of that was waiting for lame ass jabroni late people to show up (A WHOLE BUNCH) or for people that didn't either mail in their paperwork OR fill it out online ahead of time to do that. LAME. 

I get my assigned court and wait about 15-20, maybe, to go into the courtroom with the other 23 people. Introductions were made and the Defense had Grumpy SMU Big Cheese, Nervous Noob, and the Defendant. It was announced upfront that Nervous Noob was not yet an Actual Lawyer and this was his very first trial experience!!! Prosecution had ADA and Slightly Flustered Firstimer. We did not find out until later that this was her first trial (after verdict had been reached and we were out of the courtroom) but I guessed as much. She was confident and less flustered than Nervous Noob but she still made quite a few "mistakes" that made it pretty clear that she didn't have a lot of experience. 

Prosecutor 

Defense side I'd say about 60% was handled by Nervous Noob. His mentor spent a lot of time loudly whispering in his ear what to say or do, even when it seemed clear that he already did. From my position I could clearly hear Big Boss loudly whispering, despite the fact that I was closer to the Prosecutor. Which is to say he wasn't given a chance to speak first in a lot of cases. On the Prosecution side it was more like 90% Flustered Firstimer. When the ADA did have input he would quietly give her an aside and despite being as close as possible to both of them, I couldn't hear a word. All 4 participated in closing arguments. 

Now, as for the case itself I won't get too specific more out of respect than for any legal reasons. I will say that nearly two years ago a man (I'll call Dennis) was pulled over for speeding and ultimately arrested and subsequently charged with a DWI and that's what we were there for. After a couple of hours of back and forth, the police officer on the stand, a defense expert called up, and watching the entire 45 minute dash cam we were sent to the jury room where we found him guilty.

Random Thoughts
* I exited the area with him RIGHT BEHIND ME and held the door open for him without noticing at first and then was like OH CRAP but he did not say anything to me or appear angry. 

*We had 6 people. 5 women and 1 man. One of the ladies originally jokingly suggested the guy be the foreman (because foreMAN har har har) and he demurred so I said bitch I'll do it. (Did not say bitch)

To start with we all wrote down our verdict and placed them in the middle. 4 guilty, 2 not guilty. 1 of the not guilty people honestly I don't think, um, well. She agreed with our assessment that he should be found guilty but was quoted as saying "he deserves a second chance" which is totally irrelevant. The other person was Not Guilty but leaning towards undecided. The 4 of us (mostly myself and another lady) laid out our justifications based on evidence presented.

Leaning Lady made some counterpoints, we discussed those, sort of batted the ball back and forth on this and that. Very civil and logical. After maybe half an hour Leaning Lady decided that she agreed with the Guilty verdict and Second Chance lady (apparently) realized that oh wait this is a court of law and we were deciding Innocence vs Guilt not la la la this person deserves a "second chance" for whatever bizarro reasons she was thinking. She did some thinking out loud, basically, and determined that there was sufficient evidence to declare him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. We then all verbally confirmed that our verdict was guilty, multiple times. I signed the paperwork stating as such and pressed a button to summon the bailiff. 

* Turns out, in the county of Dallas (and possibly state of Texas) you do not need to prove a BAC of 0.08 or higher in order to arrest/prosecute someone for a DWI. In fact, at the time of the arrest (nearly two years ago) they were moving away from performing breathalyzers in general in favor of doing actual blood tests. Additionally, at the time of arrest you could refuse a blood sample (the defendant did) and the officer could CHOOSE whether to request a warrant for said blood. Now, it is standard that the officer will request a warrant if you refuse a blood draw, but at the time it wasn’t.

So yes. You can be convicted of a DWI even without having BAC evidence. He was, based on the 45 minute arrest video we watched, incredibly intoxicated and he admitted on tape repeatedly that he had been drinking. Out of a possible “drunk scale” (my words!) of 0-18 (based on the field sobriety tests) (I think it’s 18, I could be off on this) he received a 16. It’s either a 6 or an 8 that is considered intoxicated. Dude was super wasted.

*We did discuss that the Defendant admitted to drinking 80 ounces of beer (He was a shorter man of average build, for the record and that's just what he had admitted to!) in no more than 45 minutes. (Based on the time he was pulled over and the time he says left work.) We also had an extensive discussion on whether or not his incredibly slow and yet very slurred speech in addition to his inability to properly perform any of the 3 field sobriety tests could entirely be due to nerves. It was very interesting and a lot more difficult than I expected!

I watched these because I wanted to: November Edition

Short thoughts on some of the movies I've seen so far in November! Another post with more will be coming up next week.

Pontypool - I've seen this before, and I like it just as much  now as I did then. Lots of suspense, an interesting twist on typical "Zombie" type movies. It's not really even that, but that's the best way I can think of to describe it. Infection movie might be more accurate? It's an incredibly small movie cast wise and was almost certainly done on a pretty low budget, but you never really feel that. There are only 4 total people acting in it, with on main additional voice on the phone and some misc people calling in. Set in a very small, rural Canadian town during a snow storm and Trouble Happens outside. Very fun!

Robot and Frank - a pretty adorable buddy... uh... caper? Movie. About an old, retired thief and his helper robot. Surprisingly sweet and touching. In the future we have robot maids/butlers/helpers/companions that are pretty advanced and are programmed to do a wide variety of things. An older, retired thief gets one gifted to him by his frustrated and guilt fueled son in an effort to make sure he's taken care of and also to lighten his own load in taking care of him.

The Last Will & Testament of Rosalind Leigh - This was unexpected and different. Very moody, you should watch it with your full attention (I didn't, and feel like it suffered because of that) I watched it while distracted by a variety of things and missed a lot of the moody, subtle, compelling bits of atmosphere and gloom. The basic story is that a guys mother dies and he goes back to her home to tie up loose ends. I suggest watching this with all the lights off and putting away your phone.

Serenity - This was not my first time seeing this, but they were having a showing at the Alamo Drafthouse and how could I not? It was super fun to easy again on the big screen with a big group of people that really wanted to see this. If you haven't already seen this well you're weird and me explaining it won't convince you otherwise.

Coming Clean: A Memoir

Extraneous books get their own post! Why? Because I said.

 

Coming Clean: A Memoir – By Kimberly Rae Miller

 

This is yet another memoir (I seem to be really into those these days!) and was also written by a blogger I’ve been reading for YEARS. I read a lot of blogs and hardly ever comment on them, but I think I’ve made an exception for hers before. It’s a pretty good blog that’s sort of fitness/healthy eating orientated but it has a lot of personality and slice of life stuff. She’s always seen like a relatable person and one that I would enjoy hanging out with. She fairly recently got engaged so yay to that! Anyhow, moving on.

 

This story is mostly about her childhood and what it was like living with a hoarder father and the toll it took on her growing up and the ways it still impacts her today. It was really shocking when she announced what it was about because this was something she kept very much a secret even from the people close to her. Even as an adult she was still trying to deal with this as there were many times she would have to help her parents clean/organize so they could move again or in one case when her mom got incredibly sick. These were things she mentioned in passing, almost casually, on her blog but in this book we find out about the chaos behind the scenes.

 

If you have any interest in what it’s like living with a hoarder this is definitely worth reading. Well written, eye opening, and compelling. It’s amazing what you get used to and the ways you can adapt to deal with whatever problems you’re facing. I have a lot of respect for her and the way she both chose to handle writing about this and for the incredibly love and patience she seems to still have for her parents, when some people would have just thrown in the towel. I would recommend this book to just about anyone.

 

I really should be watching Bridge on the River Kwai: November Edition Part 2

More November movies for you! I've been watching quite a few.

I just realized I skipped one from October. Oops! I think I listed it but didn't go into it, so here's that.
The Woman Who Wasn't There - incredibly fascinating and gripping documentary about a woman that survived the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Except... she didn't. The subject matter is incredibly interesting, the woman in question bizarre and inexplicable, and the way that the documentary itself is presented is fun to watch.

Now, onward to November!

Prisoners - A pretty intense movie, great acting all the way around, very brutal and dark. The Basics: Two little girls get kidnapped, and this details how each of the families deal with the stress, grief, helplessness and impotence that such a situation creates. Outstanding performances by Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhal. Not really what you'd expect and some interesting roads are taken. Worth watching but keep in mind it is a very dark and brutal movie.

Jarhead - This is one of those movies I've been meaning to watch for a long time. Stumbled across it on Hulu one night and decided to give it a shot. It stars Jake Gyllenhal as a man that decides to join the Marines. He gets thrust into the role of a sniper and then partially through his tour of duty Desert Storm happens. It gives a fascinating look into the lives and minds of member of the military and the special bonds and heartbreaks associated with it. I don't know how authentic it is but it certainly feels real.

Burn - A documentary about Detroit firefighters. This was pretty well done and interesting to boot. People with Crazy Jobs always fascinate me. Firefighters, military, police officers, bodyguards, etc. In addition to learning about what it's like as a firefighter you also learn a fair amount about the city of Detroit itself and the unique problems and issues they have with regards to abandoned buildings, homeless populations, and fires. Totally worth a watch!

Don't Stop Believin: Everyman's Journey - perhaps only interesting if you're a fan of Journey? I found it really interesting as I AM a big fan of Journey and it's neat to be able to see what has happened since Steve Perry left. They had one replacement Other Steve for 9 years but evidently his vocal chords up and gave up. One of the band members, Noah, took to scouring YouTube, of all places, for a singer and stumbled across this guy Arnel from the Philippines. An absolute dead ringer for Steve Perry and it's a very compelling story to watch unfold. Can you even imagine???

Donnie Darko: Not my first watch, felt like seeing this for some reason? It holds up, I think, but I'm not sure how'd I would feel if watching it for the first time now. If I watched it for the first time as a 29 year old I might not like it as much as I did when I was in my early 20s and watching it for the first time.  Another Jake Gyllenhal movie. 3 in one month! Goodness. Not obsessed, I promise.

I might be missing something? Hrmmm.