"Roadhouse" Revisited

A quick followup from my last post. Came home from work the other evening to find my father-in-law watching "Roadhouse." This is, I hear, the crown jewel in Patrick Swayze's acting crown. I myself prefer "Red Dawn," but I digress.

I chose to keep an open mind and watch a little bit while eating supper. I wanted to be a good host. Grabbing the remote and saying, "I can't believe you're watching this trash" would mean I was a bad host.

As I settled in and allowed myself to become transported into the world of cinematic excellence, I really sat back and listened to the dialogue. Now, when I saw this movie I was about 20--dialogue is not why I went to see this movie. Mostly the girls in it, I think. Dialogue...oh, yes. Fortunately there's very little of it. The one quote that stood out and inspired this follow-on post happened after the big fight in the bar (doesn't narrow it down much, does it?) when Dalton gets cut on his side and has to go to the hospital. Talking with the doctor, she offers him pain killer which he, bravely, refuses.

"Pain don't hurt."

Brought tears to my eyes. Also brought my supper up.

That, my friends, is the line that got this movie added to the AMC channel archives. No doubt about it. This movie belongs on Spike TV, not AMC. Am I wrong?

American Movie Classic? Really?

Trying to escape all of the political furor yesterday, I came home from a busy day to an empty house; the wife and family down helping a sister move in to a rental in Monterrey, CA. I fixed myself some dinner and sat down for a night of guy TV. Flipping through the channels I approach the usually fruitful AMC channel. But this night, to my great chagrin, was "Road House" with Patrick Swayze. "Road House?" Are you kidding me? Is this a classic movie? That's probably an insult to the word and it certainly cheapens the word that's used for such movies as "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Casablanca," "Patton," and "The Sting."

Gift Wrapped Office

Returned to work on Tuesday from a weekend of camping. I walked up to the door of my office which, strangely was closed and the door handle covered in aluminum foil. I opened the door, flipped on the light, and was immediately bathed in reflected light from all over the room. As my eyes slowly came back into focus I saw this...

Someone came in and wrapped everything in aluminum foil. Each and every book. Things in my desk. Coffee cups. Pens and paper in the drawers. Pictures on the wall. The carpet on the floor.

I couldn't help but laugh. To the crew that pulled this off, a salute to you! Very impressive.

Now I know what the inside of a Jiffy Pop popcorn pan looks like.

Back From Michigan

Been another long pause since the last post. Just the standard "hustle and bustle" of life. Just got back from a huge, flyaway mobility exercise to a training base in Michigan. Somehow something this large managed to "sneak up on me," meaning I was so busy and didn't give it two thoughts right up to the point when I realized I was leaving for a week the next day. So a week ago today I hopped on a plane, flew four hours away and landed in "Japan" to begin the war. Our base was attacked by missiles, fanatic enemy special forces, aircraft, chemicals, high explosives--it really was a lot of fun! Well, maybe not the parts where we were in chemical suits for hours on end, but all of the excitement and watching good people do great things to get the mission done makes it all worth it.

I ended up in charge of the whole wing for a brief period of time when the command center was "bombed." That was pretty exciting. I joked with my group that I was going to take this opportunity to "shake things up a bit" in the wing. New Sheriff in town, if you will. I joked that we were going to set up a "fun run" in chemical suits and a picnic for the wing. Lightened the mood a bit and everyone had a nice chuckle (as much as you can with a mask on).

All-in-all, it was a good week. Long hours, lots of MREs, bad coffee, rain, sweat, stinky feet, bad food at the chowhall...what more can you ask for?

A Night of Smooth Jazz

My apologies. I must join many of my friends and, too, pass along my apologies for not posting more often. I've been bitten by the Facebook bug and, much to my wife's chagrin, can't stay away from it. I'm drawn to it like the inevitable head turn as you pass an accident on the side of the road. Like a moth to a flame. You get the picture.

Had a great evening with my good friend Jay on Thursday night. Met up at the Kirk casa, said "Hi" to Caryn and Harper, and hit the road for dinner and the Joshua Redman trio Jazz show. I've never attended a Jazz concert, though I've heard it plenty on the radio (I also find myself drawn more and more to public radio/classical music stations the older I get).

The concert was quite the experience and I had a great time. I had the lamb curry over rice. A plate of warm Hummus and pita bread started things off. All very classy and, mixed with the great company I had, proved a winning combination for a great evening.

As we were walking out that night, I remarked to Jay that "Between this concert and the Brittany Spears concert ongoing at the Tacoma Dome, I think we made the right choice."

Lost About "Lost"

My wife and I love the show "Lost" on ABC. We started watching it from the beginning and were almost immediately hooked. It's new and different. A character-driven story that doesn't seem to rely on the "sure fire" formula for today's TV success. It seems shows today are either tough cop shows, some version of a CSI, a reality show, or about lawyers. "Lost" stands out in stark contrast.

This season has been a bit slow, though. Granted, the storyline creates a challenge (timetravel is tough to do right), and it's tough to live up to last season. I'm having a hard time getting in the groove. Last Wednesday's episode linked most of the group together again. Hopefully they'll settle into their rhythm and get things going again. Otherwise, I'll have to tune into "CSI: Fresno" or something.

The Jell-O Challenge

Back from the latest 10-day trip East. We flew most of the time with another crew from another squadron and were, for the most part, put through the wringer. One of the crew members passed along a funny story from his deployed days last year I'd like to pass along to you.

When you're deployed for 4 months and you begin to settle into a rhythm, the human brain (at least the guy brain) begins to look for new things to occupy it. This is where some people get in trouble. Some folks channel this desire for stimulation in creative ways. This fella and his friends were at the chow hall one day and got to discussing crazy diets and nutrition. Someone was eating jell-o and took a look at the nutrition content. Now, this was the sugar free jell-o, the snackpacks of 10 calories each.
"Hey, I wonder if you could survive on these for a day?"
This innocent question spawned more creative debate. "How many of them would one need to eat for 2000 calories (average required for your standard man)?" "Would you need to mix it up with multiple flavors?" "What would a diet like that do to you?"

Unfortunately, the last question there was not asked, or at least not thought all the way through. This gentlemen, sufficiently challenged by his peers, set out on the "Jell-O Challenge" the next day. Each snackpack of Jell-O contains 10 calories--200 for a 2000 calorie diet. He only did it for one day and passed along some thoughts on this diet you should consider if my description of it has interested you in the slightest:

- 200 snackpacks in a day weighs in at just over 40 pounds of Jell-O. He was able to eat about 70 snackpacks. That's over 14 pounds. Respectable.
- At some point, the body says, "Oh great, more Jell-O. I'm still working on the last batch, so let's just let this batch right on through." Zero digestion. I believe he said you could almost put it in a bowl and right back in the refrigerator, though I don't know why you would want to.
- You'll want to stay away from the green Jell-O. See above observation for why.
- It's a strange feeling to be full yet not mentally satisfied with what you've eaten. It's like eating Chinese food and then being hungry again in an hour, but taken to a whole new level.

Ironically, after eating 14 pounds of Jell-O in one day, he still lost 3 pounds. "That gives you an idea about how my day went."