August 2, 2013: An Atypical Day! News of Note!

People are a constant source of disappointment, and its because they’re either psychotic, opportunistic, or just plain stupid.  Chances are, you’ll have to put up with at least one of the aforementioned on a daily basis and learning to deal with them has become a necessary tool of survival in today’s society.  As time goes on, I grow increasingly weary of playing the game.  Yes, “I’m getting too old for this shit”.  In hindsight, I should have trained for a fall-back career that would have allowed me to work from home and not have to deal with people – something like a novelist, online mystery shopper, or one of those phone psychics.

Today, I took a break from my atypical routine to catch a matinee.  The last time I actually visited a movie theater was two years ago when Akemi and I caught Jiro Dreams of Sushi.  Before that…hard to say.  I think it was the premiere of Martin Gero’s Young People Fucking back in 2007.  The truth is, I don’t see many movies because I’m not interested in the edited versions on television.  I have my own home theater but stopped buying DVD’s when Blu-ray came out.  Also, there’s the indisputable fact that most big screen features are shit. And so, aside from the selections screened for this blog’s Supermovie of the Week Club (after all, I can’t very well have guest reviewer, Cookie Monster, suffering through the likes of The Amazing Spiderman, Chronicle, and Abar: The First Black Superman all by his lonesome), it’s mighty slim pickins.  But today was different because today Akemi wanted to go out and see something.  And so, we did.  We went out and caught Despicable Me 2 (the regular version since Akemi fears 3D will make her nauseous).  Well, I thought the original was “fine” and I don’t know what Cookie Monster will say when it comes time to review this one, but I quite liked it – certainly more than the first one.  I know, I know.  Surprising, huh?

After the movie, we stopped by Vancouver’s premiere chocolate shop (that has expanded their repertoire well beyond their extraordinary chocolates) for a little afternoon snack:

Cream puffs, from left corner clockwise: blueberry-yuzu, praline, banana cream pie, and dark chocolate (85%) and caramel.

The full lineup:

Still on the hunt for a dog-sitter.  Our trip to Tokyo for Akemi’s sister’s wedding fast approaches!

Some news of note:

DON’T sell your pet on craigslist.  Regardless of whether the buyer looks respectable or comes accompanied by a child or sweet-looking girlfriend, they could be a reseller, middle man for animal testing labs, or worse: http://peopleforanimals2011.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/craigslist-and-your-pet/

Well, this is interesting – and more than a little disconcerting: http://washingtonexaminer.com/massive-solar-flare-narrowly-misses-earth-emp-disaster-barely-avoided/article/2533727. Yep, I’ll just stock up on that bottled water and canned foods.

Apparently, guys in bear suits or body armor are PR disasters: article_20529_5-psychotic-marketing-stunts-that-traumatized-their-audience.html

23 insane things you should know about snack foods: http://www.buzzfeed.com/h2/shfke/rachelysanders/23-insane-things-you-should-know-about-snack-foods

Via SFSignal.com: Free SF, Fantasy and Horror Fiction for 8/2/2013

My buddy, author Jeff Carlson, does a guest blog here: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2013/07/guest-post-by-jeff-carlson.html

Bert he wasn’t so quick to do his job the second time around.  ”That other stuff was crap but this?  This is art!”: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10209203/Worker-sent-to-remove-graffiti-finds-image-of-himself-on-the-same-wall-hours-later.html