Things seem to happen when I get off work. I don't know why. But last Saturday as I was winding down my shift, a storm blowing in, and although it started with mere drizzle and snow it was already beginning to freeze as I stalked to my car. Much to my chagrin, I had to break out the ice scraper and chip my way inside. I sat, shivering, thinking dark thoughts about winter weather while I waited for the engine to warm up. Sunday was uneventful. Church and pretty much everything else was an obvious no-go, but I was able to keep my geeky brain focused inside the house with the computer, etcetera, and pretty much ignored the world outside. Monday, however, things changed. We lost power at six o'clock in the evening and didn't get it back until mid-day Wednesday. A pretty small block of time, actually. (Just a day and some change.) But hey, I saw some p-r-e-t-t-y things. And it's all thanks to losing power, because that's what it takes for me to lift my head and look around these days. A few things that stand out:

1) Iced-over trees are gorgeous in daytime and at night. When there's light, it's the effect of seeing a whole wood's worth of iced trees standing silently, solemnly. And it's so incredibly quiet... At night, the appeal is not in a mass of trees but instead in the picturesque beauty of a single tree, backlit by a streetlight - especially the way the iced edges glow, letting you to see every curving icicle hanging from each twig.

2) How all the white forms a canvas that allows otherwise-overlooked flashes of color to stand out boldly. I spent a half hour or so in the freezing drizzle on Sunday trying to capture everything I'm talking about here, but this bullet I was actually able to preserve to my satisfaction. (See pics below.)

3) Candles. Wow, life must have been much more artistic back in the days of wax and wick. I mean seriously, it's like living in the middle of a 'mood lighting' demo. They may be hard on the eyes when you're reading and they can't cook a pizza too well (although they will toast some chunks of bread), but I'm converted. Nick likes candles now.

4) There is, nothing, nothing, like the sun breaking through the clouds over a reflective winter landscape. I was on the way home from the post office when I saw this out my passenger window; I dove into a little church parking lot, pulled out my cell phone, and ran along the side of the road to get a good view. Too bad I didn't have a better camera, but it was amazing. I couldn't believe how the shafts of sunlight broke through the clouds and made the white hillsides glow orange. Didn't seem real.



Here's a link to a Photobucket album with the full-sized pics.  The password is, surprisingly, 'vortex'.

There was this guy leaning against the backing of the register station at work, playing lazily with the open blades of one of those micro-sized fans.  It was 5:35 PM, and on November 16th that means a moody autumn night.  A time for introspection and consideration, right?  The day had been pretty long; ten o'clock that morning seemed like a lifetime away.  The store was all but empty by then, but as he was staring off into space a customer slips up to the register and drops some things on a counter.  Not a whole lot; some pens, a flash drive - then, on second thought, a tin of Life Savers candy pieces.  Duty is called upon; the employee stirs himself.

"Did you find everything all right?"

"Yep.  How are you doing tonight?"

Through mentally grit teeth - "Eh, pretty good.  You have a Staples rewards card?"

"Ah, I sure don't."  A look of regret.

"K.  That makes your total $21.08.  You want your receipt in the bag?"

"That's fine."  She swipes the card; he clears the account and checks the signature.  The receipt rolls out and he tosses it in the bag.  He pulls it up and offers it to her over the counter with a look that indicates that half his mind is still occupied with a spinning fan.  Then she smiles, naturally, and wishes him a happy thanksgiving.

He pauses, turns his head slightly, and appraises the once-faceless customer anew.  "Thanks."  Bitter smile.  "Guess it sort of snuck up on me."

She rewards this little flash of humanity with a quick laugh.  "Yeah, Thanksgiving, then Christmas after that."  She takes the bag.  "Then a whole new beginning and a new year."

His eyes narrow, and he nods.  A smile cracks one corner of his lips.  "Sure thing."

"G'night."

"Take care."

She turns and breezes out the sliding doors.  The alarm goes off because he forgot to deactivate the strip in her flash drive; she starts to come back but he shakes his head and waves her on.  At last she's gone from sight, into the growing darkness.  The checker watches her go, laughing softly to himself.  "Yeah.  That's right."  His back straightens, he checks the time, and settles in.

Sometimes the little interchanges you witness throughout life - even at work -  play out like a novel.  This one was so beautiful I had to share it.

In other news, I didn't have to trudge to my car by my lonesome tonight!    Thanks for dropping in, ladies.

Gattaca.

I was first introduced to this movie at Worldview Academy, and the way it was presented made it seem like a deeply philosophical drama about genetic modification and the price of attaining human 'perfection'. But in the end that was all just background setup to show the struggle of a single person to overcome genetic discrimination. Basically the idea is that in the future, science has made it possible for all humans to be immune to diseases, alcoholism, anger, envy, etcetera – creating a perfect race. The result is that the small percentage of the population born the natural way, with all the inherit defects of mankind, are essentially untouchables with no access to most levels of society. Everything is strictly monitored with biological scans to make sure that these “In-Valid” humans are not allowed where the “Valid” ones are privileged to.

Only thing is, one particular In-Valid named Vincent really wants to go to space through the Gattaca program, which just so happens to be the most strictly biologically monitored program in the world. So he buys the identity of a strapped-for-cash Valid and starts the arduous process of the space training program.

That's the gist of it, and the rest of the movie is not so much philosophical treatise as a suspense/thriller.  A murder occurs at Gattaca and the police are investigating, making Vincent's guise a very tenuous thing as he struggles to stay inconspicuous in the face of heightened inspection and security.  On the whole the movie was pretty good.  I felt like they could have done more with the concept and the ending was horrifically BAD, but the neo-50s visual vibe was a nice change of pace and the characters were well defined and had a good deal of depth to them.  All in all this would be worth a rent or a pull from the library, IMO. 

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

So THIS is the movie everyone's been telling me about for so long.  I was expecting it to be weird, but not quite this weird.  I mean...  *Sigh*  You can't even really describe this movie.  You have to see it.  But I'll try - it's a series of British comedy shorts set in the medieval ages loosely based on the King Arthur mythos.  The subject matter alternates between darkly humorous and outright stupid, with a lot of fake blood.  I laughed quite a bit, but I also said 'eh?' a few times as well.  Here are the best clips, courtesy of YouTube.

Burn the Witch
Three Questions
French Taunting
Guarding the Room

If you're in the mood for a twisted laugh, then this one should suffice nicely.