How Do You Live?

So I'm cooking up a Trader Joe's burrito tonight, and it strikes me how rough it must have been in the days before microwave ovens. I mean, seriously?!

Microwave: Cover burrito with paper towel. Defrost at 50% power for 2 minutes. Heat on high 1 minute.

Oven: Pre-heat oven to 350. Remove burritos from package and wrap in foil and place on baking sheet. Cook burritos for 40 minutes.

Yeah I could cook it in the oven. Or I could LIVE MY LIFE.

It Didn't Make Me Shake with Rage

I've spoken about my... hate-hate relationship with the NBC show "Heroes" before. Twice, even. The show is just stupid. It lacks the most basic fundamentals that any narrative arc requires: coherency and continuity.

Lately, the "heroes" (I use the term loosely because you give me a baseball bat and I could probably do a better job hero'ing my way around town than these idiots) have had their powers stripped, returned again, and are all playing some sort of power shifting, stealing, and sharing "Musical Chairs".

Monday's episode, however, wasn't a complete insult to the intelligence of a 3-year-old. I mean, it had plenty of idiotic parts (see below) but the storyline was tighter: one main story, one minor, and one... small stupid one. You can't win them all, I suppose.

Now, I consider this to be a brief oasis in an otherwise cancel-worthy season, but it reminded me of why the show used to have so much potential. The writers managed to keep the exposition to a minimum (a Heroes minimum being only 4 or 5 times an episode will a character literally narrate what he/she is doing) and the main story was actually fairly good.

But then, of course, they're still a bunch of morons. Five minutes with just ONE person's powers and I've got all their problems solved. But not them!

- Hiro can teleport through time and space, as well as stop time outright. So why does he let the bad guy steal his powers and fling him off a roof? Probably because his writers hate him.

- The speedy chick, name forgotten because I don't care, drags her friends from Iowa to NYC at super-speed? How would that not kill them? How is she strong enough to DO that? Lazy, stupid writers again.

- The bad guy, who possesses something like 4 different super-healing abilities, is killed with a bullet to the brain while his powers are being neutralized. Now, I liked that the neutralizing guy had trouble keeping him in check. But the show has already shown us, several times that the healing folks come back to life if they happen to die while being de-powered. Maybe he's just not dead. But why do the people responsible for his death figure it's all good? Especially when one of them had this exact thing already happen to him?

See, I thought it was a solid B- episode (they are usually D+ at best) and now I'm already rethinking it down to a C. But I really did like the Hiro-Momma Hiro story, and even Claire's story. Although, seeing her hold and coo at her 1-month old self (time travel, folks) was unbelievably creepy.

Of course I will watch next week's "2008 finale". I can't look away.

I Told You So (Vol. One)

Obama has been all sorts of elected for a month now. He hasn't had much of a chance to do anything yet (what with not actually being President) but he has started picking the various members of his cabinet.

Do I whole-heartedly endorse every pick? Nah. But is he already proving to be a more capable and thoughtful leader than any we've had these past 8 years? Absolutely. His choices are diplomatic, nuanced, and by and large unarguably excellent. Well, maybe not "unarguably" but the argument is far above the arguments we've had about various Bush administration appointees.

Part of the argument for Obama during the campaign was, while he may be somewhat inexperienced, his thoughtfulness and ability to surround himself with people who both disagree and challenge his views more than make up for that perceived lack of experience.

And lo, it has come to pass.

Let's Go Crazy, Bullet-Point Style

Except, I'm not sure how to make bullet points in HTML. So you get a cheap facsimile.

* I have a big set of new cases at work. They have kept me on the phone listening to depositions for about 70% of my time the last 2 weeks. This is a marked increase from the 0% I had previously had going. I think I might actually like attending depositions better than being on the phone. Jury is still out on that one, though.

* It has now become all kinds of chilly here in the Bay Area. Perhaps Thanksgiving was some kind of marker, or the beginning of December, but last night I slept IN a fleece. With blankets. I wasn't actually cold, but I didn't overheat either, and that's saying something. This morning in the apartment, it was 57 degrees.

* When I sneeze while sitting at my desk, I have a tendency to shoot back in my rolling chair, ala some sort of cartoon character. Few coworkers have caught me doing this, but I am fearing the day when they do. It is perhaps 90% an unconscious reaction.

* No politics on here for ages! Chambliss won in Georgia, to the surprise of approximately nobody. I still find it hysterical that Republicans, the sole party governing our nation for 6 of the last 8 years, now argue the necessity of a more balanced Congress. Also that they seem to routinely fail at 8th grade civics by forgetting we have three branches of government, and the Supreme Court is still 5-4 conservative.

* I get to go home for more than a few days at Christmas, after all. I am stoked. Whirlwind trips are a pain in the ass for so many reasons, and this year it was possible that my 4 days trips would also include (beyond the flights) a 16 hour car ride to Florida. It still includes that, but now stretches 9 days. Hooray!

* Saw Blood Diamond finally. It was a decent movie, but pretty much screwed over any potential girlfriends I may have from here on out. Sorry ladies, but no diamonds for you. And not just because of the movie; I've done the independent research. I don't trust those diamond-shilling bastards. It's all burlap gifts from now on. Because everybody loves burlap!

* It's foggy as all get out. I have "Desire" by U2 stuck in my head. And I'm tired of coming in early to work, even if my "early" is later than the rest of you people's normal start times.