Dammit Jason Isaacs, stop being in movies where your character dies in the first scene he's in!

The rest of High Times: Pot Luck had better be damn good.

I don't know why but I spent a lot of the weekend watching an odd combination of movies. Friday and Saturday, it was Mulan II, Tripping the Rift disk 1 and Reefer Madness (Alan Cumming!). Reefer Madness was awesome. The songs are still stuck in my head. Mulan II was "meh." Tripping the Rift kicked ass but I liked the original Six (I think her name was actually "Sex" then) better. With the glowing eyes. Do you all know what I'm talking about? In about 1998, we could share files with other computers in the dorm network and I found this animation starring Chode, the gold robot (can't remember his name), Sex and Darth Bobo. Then recently, I saw they'd made a TV series on the Sci Fi channel based on it. With the addition of the lizard nephew and the four-legged pilot. Anyway. I like it.

Then on Sunday, I returned those (I just got a new membership at Hollywood video because Blockbuster is absolute crap) and got The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra and Pot Luck. I watched the first 15 minutes or so of Pot Luck, until Jason Isaacs died and I turned it off. Then I watched The Ten Commandments. I started watching Cleopatra but I got tired and went to bed. In amongst that, I spent $50 at Michael's. I intended to get knitting needles, since I managed to misplace every pair I already own the last time I moved (I think they're at my mum's house). I actually got to the register and chatted with the customer ahead of me for a while before I realized I'd forgotten to get the needles. I got beads, yarn, candles, a candle stand and a hurricane...er...glass...thing so I can burn a candle without Snape burning herself on it. Probably other stuff too that I'm forgetting. That doesn't sound like $50-worth of stuff. Oh! I also got a circular metal tin so I can put Christmas fudge and stuff in it to take to work. Last year, I made peppermint bark for the guards. I think I'll go back next Sunday (with the Sunday coupon! I don't get a newspaper so I didn't have one yesterday) and get another tin.

( click for more about knitting )

I have applied to join the craftygeeks community

Being both crafty and a geek...

I want to get better at knitting and maybe learn crochet too. Preferably for free.

So in case any of you mods are looking ;) I'd say I'm an intermediate knitter. I mostly make scarves because I can do that without thinking, while watching TV or something but I've also made a bag and a hat. A very big, floppy hat because I had the wrong weight of yarn and I thought I accounted for that enough in my modified pattern but apparently not. I also enjoy things that involve paint. And glue. And occasionally x-acto knives. And baking, if that counts. I've been thinking I'd like to learn pottery too, so I can make cool bowls and stuff. I did a little in art class in high school but there were only 2 wheels and the teacher kept bugging us to work on our portfolios so I didn't get a lot of practice.

a gripe I ought to post in bad_service

Except I won't bother. But the cashier/manager at Hollywood Video pissed me off:

1. I came to the counter to open an account and pay for the videos I wanted to rent. There were no other customers at the counter and no "form line here" sign so I just came up to the counter in front of one of the registers. There were FOUR employees standing behind the counter, chatting with each other. I waited a moment to catch their eyes; when I finally got one's attention, I said "hi." He gave me a "hello" nod and went back to chatting with his co-workers. I waited a moment more then said "can I pay for these?" The manager guy moseyed over to a register - not the one I was standing near - and said "oh, I thought you were just standing there." He didn't sound like he was joking. It makes me wonder how often customers just stand there for a while before throwing down their videos in disgust and leaving.

2. I said "I need to open an account" so he gave me the form to fill out. After I'd filled it out - in the less-than-a-minute it took me to write my name and address, he'd already gone back to his conversation and I had to call him back - he took the form and said "is this your correct address?" It took me a great deal of willpower not to say "no, just for fun I put the wrong address."

3. Typing my info, he misspelled my name but caught it, which is good because they'd run out of membership cards, therefore I had no proof that I had an account and I wouldn't have been able to use the account next time if it'd had the wrong name. So making a mistake and then catching it is fine but he thought it was SO funny and I ought to be greatful that he'd avoided screwing up my account.

4. Having finished with the account setup, he said there was a special offer that day where you can get one movie for $1 off with a free bucket of popcorn (the kind that's sealed and you cook it at home). I said I didn't want the popcorn. He had the usual problem store clerks seem to have when I want to decline part of a special offer. Look, it's BETTER for the store if I just get the $1 off and don't take the popcorn, right? Eat it yourself, throw it away, shove it up you ass, I don't care, I just don't want it. So I asked him to give the popcorn to the next person. That was OK and he rang up the videos. He asked me what flavor of popcorn I wanted. One point for him: he realized that was stupid before I had a chance to speak and he said "oh, I guess it doesn't matter," and grabbed a random bucket of popcorn from the stack. I paid for the movies and he put them IN THE BUCKET and held it out for me beyond the anti-theft sensors. I walked around and took the movies out of the bucket. He said "Uh-uh!" and shook the bucket at me like I was stupid and had forgotten my popcorn. I said "no, I don't want-" and then he figured it out and took his damn bucket of popcorn back.

In conclusion: I HATE STUPID PEOPLE!

all those years of martial arts training finally paid off

... in a very mundane way. I was walking on the sidewalk down a pretty steep hill (in high-ish heeled boots) and I tripped and fell but I didn't hurt myself except for a little scrape on my hand: I just rolled without even thinking about it. Woo! I actually came half way into a sort of crouching defensive stance before the conscious brain took over again.



Er, I suppose it takes a few more years of training to be able to avoid tripping over sticking-up bits of sidewalk in the first place.