March 6, 2010
Finally emerging from my February film cocoon — and none too soon since it’s already a week into March and things (like spring) appear to be happening. February was all movies all the time with little or no other activities including sleeping and/or eating some days. Fun though.
Short blurbs about the 68 films I saw in 28 days posted at http://pdxwatch.wordpress.com/piff-33-2010-blurbs/ with a separate alpha list including scores at
http://pdxwatch.wordpress.com/piff-33-2010-blurbs/alpha
January 18, 2010
Last week, as part of the Northwest Film Center series Reel Music, I saw a cheerful and informative documentary on the ukulele called “Mighty Uke: The Amazing Comeback of a Musical Underdog.” I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but didn’t know much about ukuleles and it sounded interesting. (more…)
January 14, 2010
I keep the Christmas decorations in a series of boxes that are jammed into the top of the office closet. Getting them out and putting them back involves a lot of shifting other things around and trying to make sure everything goes back where it was before — plus dealing with the extra things I’ve suddenly acquired. That’s all pretty normal. (more…)
January 3, 2010
Sometimes I think I was just born to be the devil’s advocate in any situation. I always want to look at the contrary side or take the opposite opinion, even though I’m sometimes smart enough to not say anything out loud.
That natural impulse toward the opposite view sometimes leads me to resist advice and/or suggestions that I might be better off following. So this year I’ll listen a little more to the supposed voices of reason and give them a chance. Which is all just a lead-in to saying that I finally went to Avatar after having everyone I know tell me it’s a must-see and the greatest thing ever and so on. To be fair there were plenty of warnings that it doesn’t have a strong story line. In any event, I finally made it to a 3-D showing yesterday and enjoyed it very much. A different kind of movie on a different kind of world seems just right to start 2010.
The other advice I listened to (getting two off my list with one event) was to go see a film at the Roseway — a refurbished theater in NE Portland. It is indeed very nicely done, although the seats are a little low. I like seating that gives me a better chance of not having someone’s head in the way. Still, I’d go back there to see another film and it worked well with the 3-D.
October 26, 2009
Went to see the Coen brothers’ latest on a gray Sunday afternoon that couldn’t quite decide if it might rain or might have a little sun. That kind of you-don’t-know-what-you’re-going-to-get sums up Larry Gopnick’s life in A Serious Man. (more…)
October 24, 2009
Sometimes procrastination really does work out. You will notice that it didn’t do anything for me along the lines of getting anything written this week, but that’s a slightly different issue.
Sometimes if you’re just dithering about something because you can’t choose between options — or want to keep your options open till the last possible moment — you can get an unexpected bonus. So procrastination in this sense is leaving enough room for the universe to help you out.
I’d been contemplating buying tickets for a particular show this weekend but couldn’t quite decide whether it was worth the time, whether I’d really want to go when the hour rolled around, etc. The final push in not going ahead and getting tickets was that I’d need to make a credit card order online; there was no way to get actual tickets in person in advance. I’m fairly resistant to the just-go-ahead-and-put-it-on-your-card syndrome. So that was enough to convince me that I’d just wait till Saturday and see what happened. That way I could decide to go or not go with no issues either way.
And if it sold out and I didn’t get a ticket, then it just wasn’t meant to be. Not a make-or-break event either way. Then, out of nowhere, I discovered an opportunity to get tickets for free for the very show I’d been contemplating. Wow. Now I have tickets for the same show and I didn’t have to go through the two-step of credit card stuff.
Procrastination actually pays off!
October 22, 2009
Okay, so the one time I perhaps really should procrastinate is the time I decide to act immediately. Somehow I need to get the procrastination impulse to override the one that says “answer this email immediately” or “correct that person who obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Usually it doesn’t really matter in the great scheme of things and the whole email response issue can rapidly get out of hand.
I used to work with a woman who was famous for that instant flame of email to tell you her way, her ideas, her everything was better than yours. Luckily I’ve never been that bad but still. Her reactions just resulted in other people taking her off their email notices so they wouldn’t have to deal with the responses.
Twitter is a lot like that, only faster than email. Generally just let those people go by or unfollow them if they’re just obnoxious. Life is too short. But occasionally I’ve made an impulsive decision to follow someone and then regretted it when my whole tweet stream turned into messages from them.
I really don’t want 40 messages within minutes from the same person, even if they’re interesting. If they’re just RTs of someone else, then the value goes down. So I’m now contemplating unfollowing…but I guess the procrastination thing should kick in here and give it a day or so before I pull the plug. Anybody can have a day with too much caffeine or not enough else to do besides tweet.
October 21, 2009
No, I’m not at all surprised that the headline on this says Tuesday but I’m clearly writing it on Wednesday. That’s part of the point, really. After all I did *think* about it on Tuesday and that should count for something, right? (Note: if you’re answering yes to that question then you have the same problem.)
Once when I was a software manager, I had a consultant who was supposed to add cool new features to one of our apps as well as generally keep things running. He was always cheery and full of enthusiasm and really good ideas. The problem came in with the coding of those ideas into actual programs. Not that he couldn’t code, he just had a really hard time getting around to it.
So every couple of weeks we’d have this meeting and he’d start talking about his latest idea. When I asked about one of the earlier ones, he’d look at me and say “But we talked about it.” And we had indeed talked about it. The talk just never translated into action.
I guess I’m actually one step behind even that. I’m not even talking about it necessarily, just thinking about it. Sometimes thinking does indeed make it so, but not as often as putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
October 20, 2009
Scrolling through my inbox, deciding to read or not read notices from several lists, I stopped on the first few lines of an email that said “purse your passion.” I spend many of my days editing and proofreading documents and knew immediately that the sender had been in a hurry — perhaps rushing to pursue his passion — and spellcheck doesn’t catch real words. Purse instead of pursue.
The accidental phrase reminded me of something Gary Vaynerchuk said last night at Powell’s Books, one of the stops on tour for his new book Crush It! The book is about making money from your passions but one of his points is that you don’t do it from the “purse” side first. You do it because it’s a passion, something you want to pursue. So when people ask him what he thinks the “next big thing” will be, he tells them they’re focusing on the wrong side of the equation. Focus on what you care about.
Not new advice of course, but Gary is so much fun and so obviously passionate about what he does that you feel more enthusiastic and upbeat just listening to him.
Full disclosure, I have not (yet) read the book so making no recommendation on that.
October 20, 2009
Note that this mostly was written on Monday, but somehow I didn’t post it.
Had a conversation over the weekend with friends regarding what we should have majored in during college, if only we’d known. Some people had sensible, practical things like healthcare or how to survive in a recession, but I’m more interested in the create-it-yourself major. Mine would have been great — if only I’d gotten around to it. As far as I know, no one has an actual degree in Procrastination.
I certainly met all the qualifications during college. All those delayed papers, postponed exams, and changes in major that required more shifting would have fit nicely into the course of study. And I would likely have gotten an “A” — much better than I did in that French Literature course. Some day I do intend to read La Chanson de Roland. No expiration date on good intentions.
But, as we know, I never did get around to trying to create such a major. Maybe for my graduate degree?
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