5/5: What I Accomplished Today

1. The more I think about it, I think I may have been wrong about the second set of essay prompts not being in the e-mail we got at the beginning of the term. I'll check that on Monday and, if I was wrong (and the more I think about it, the more I sort of think I was; in the context it came up today, I was led to believe it was probably was), then I'll have to send the appropriate apologetic e-mails.

When I was a kid, I thought adults were never wrong; I never saw adults lose a whole afternoon trying to clean up some mess they'd made. As I got older, though, I realized two things: 1) Adults still have to clean up messes, but they're figurative rather than the literal messes most kids make; 2) Adults make at least as many mistakes, probably more, than kids; they just know how to fix them.

I hate being wrong, and I really hate having to send "Hello, I was a loser" e-mails, especially when I've been the loser in front of the whole department, but it's what needs to happen.

2. Got my Human Mage to level 25. Pulled her statistics, did the mail check, switched to the next character, the level 20 Night Elf Druid. Didn't level, but got this one started.

3. Got two of my Pogo badges and made progress on the others.

4. Read my alumni magazine, Utne Reader, and Bottom Line. A little in Paul, but not much; he's slow going.

5. I realized I forgot to talk about television last night. Last night, we watched ER. Luka, Hope, and Morris threw Abby a surprise wedding. If she'd had a brain in her head, she'd have packed up her son and moved, never to be seen again. A wedding for which you made none of the arrangements! The arrogance and paternalism of it all! ("Don't you bother your pretty little head about it; this other woman has done everything. No, you don't know the flower girl, but that's not really going to bother you, is it?") But no, eventually she decides it's very sweet and agrees to it. The woman had an insulting wedding thrown for her by three jerks. Why are we still watching this show?

And I don't like Ray, particularly, but of the four people who keep throwing themselves at Neela, he's the least gross, so if he's dead, then it may be check-out time for us.

We also watched My Name is Earl. I've mentioned this show several times, but I haven't talked about it because I haven't been sure what to say. I think I realized last night what I, at least, like about this one: I think this is the only show on television that's talking about class in an intelligent, well-thought-out, yet funny way. You probably know the premise: asshole realizes he's been an asshole his whole life and attempts to make restitution to those he's harmed. Over the course of the show's two seasons, this one-time thug and loser has developed quite a cadre of friends he'd have just beat up before: circus freaks, a gay guy he went to school with--it's an ever-growing ensemble cast, which is just fun, and of course he "learns a valuable lesson" every week, but the show avoids the whole Afterschool Special syrupy feel by refusing to pander to expectation. In the episode where Joy is assigned Marlee Matlin as her defense lawyer for a pretty stupid crime that she absolutely did commit, we start to have a little "Ah, isn't this sweet; Joy is learning sensitivity toward the deaf" as she decides that perhaps this woman who can't hear could still be her attorney. In a moment of trust, Matlin speaks--and Joy laughs at the sound of her voice, in perhaps the most un-PC move of the season (and that's a bit of a statement).

Last week, Earl realized one of the people his previous M.O. had hurt was he himself: he had no education, and he had no prospect for a job with opportunity that would allow him to live a responsible, adult life, without which he can never have a home instead of a hotel room. This realization has started a new storyline; last week, Earl (and it looks like maybe Randy, although I don't believe it was ever explicitly stated) got his GED, and this week they both got steady jobs as dockworkers in an appliance store. He is called into the front of the store and notices the differences in working conditions for the dockworkers and the salesmen and wonders about his prospects of becoming a salesmen. His new friends on the loading dock discourage him: Look, you may have your GED, but those guys went to junior college! The dockers, even his own brother Randy, are really vicious and cruel to him; how dare this upstart aspire! Who does he think he is? This was yet another time this show reminded me of situations many of my students probably face every day.

One of my favorite aspects of the show is the arc of Randy's character. When the show started, my initial reaction was that just was just a brute--a borderline retarded (there was an article in the Utne I read today trying to reclaim the word, and I support that; it has meaning and need not be pejorative), purely-physical thug with no redeeming social value. Yes, the list is Earl's, but Randy seems to be learning at least as much (although he doesn't always have the necessary background to file the new information in a useful way). He's become such a sweet, gentle, just...nice man, and he continues to grow and develop. He started as a rather frightening, intimidating figure, a man's strength in a body with a boy's brain, and a cruel boy's brain at that. But with the developments Earl is making, there seems to be hope that both he and Randy will someday be men. I'm not sure what the show will do at that point, but it's a really fascinating premise.

Did I mention that, at least once a week, something happens that's so funny I nearly wet myself?

Tonight, we watched one of our NetFlix movies, Shoes of the Fisherman. It's an old movie that my Co-Vivant likes and I've never seen; we tried to TiVo it once, but it wasn't letterboxed, and it had commercials, and the station hadn't scheduled the right time block so we didn't even get the whole thing. (Needless to say, whenever TiVo has suggested anything else from that channel since then, we've rejected it. Any channel that can't keep track of how long its programming is doesn't need for us to watch it.) Interesting movie; not a great movie, but certainly interesting. I'd put in the category of shows with brilliant first acts and lousy second acts, like How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The payoff was lame; although I liked the idea of the Catholic Church pledging its entire wealth to feed the hungry in China, my sense is that one-quarter of the church's wealth could feed the entire world, let alone China. Since he's committed its entire wealth, what happens to the other 3/4? It made me cry at several points, and my Co-Vivant looked at me rather puzzled and said, "Why are you crying?"

"Sincerity that pure makes me cry, apparently."

While we were watching this, the film kept cutting back and forth between various world leaders, and I said to my Co-Vivant, "I've just realized there's a code in film to help us identify despots. Tyrants always stand up and watch television on looming, oversized screens; people who are bound by the law sit down, like people, and watch regular-sized televisions."

"Oh, that's good! Do you remember Seven Days in May? The President watches a really small screen, and Burt Lancaster [the general who was attempting to stage a coup] watches a really big screen while standing!" (There was apparently one May 15 or 20 years ago when A&E played this movie half a dozen times a week, and A&E was one of the very few cable stations she had at the time, so she knows Seven Days in May better than a normal person would.)

6. BigFishGames had a shoot-em-up today, so I didn't play that. I did buy and play Chocolatier, which is fun.

7. I don't appear to have done anything useful around the house today. I don't appear to have done much at all useful today.

8. My Co-Vivant wants it noted that not only did she go to Costco and buy another Chinese Chicken Salad kit for me, but she also bought more lettuce to go with it because this is clearly what I am in the mood for right now.