Whoever comes up with the best headline for this post gets a prize...I can't think of anything

Okay, to briefly continue with my last post...I have new batteries for the remote, and I've decided to put in on frame-by-frame for the time being. Best to deal with this shit slowly.

To change the subject: I saw Superman Returns Wednesday night. Great flick. Two hours and forty minutes of great flick, but a great flick nonetheless. It's hard for me to think of much to say about the movie without major spoilers, so I'll hit you guys with some minor observations:

1) One thing I really loved about it is that the filmmakers didn't try to reinvent the wheel. They didn't try to reboot the story or reimagine it like Smallville. It was meant to be a quasi-sequel to Superman 1 & 2 (pretending that 3 & 4 never existed) and it works that way, assuming that you disregard the huge technological differces between the late seventies and today. It was a wise choice to put Bryan Singer at the helm. He has a real knack for pointing out obvious flaws (at least to the hardcore geeks) and urging us not to take it too seriously. Like in X-Men, where they knew that hardcore fans of the comics would be upset about the costumes, he put in the line, "What did you expect? Yellow Spandex?" There's a simlar line about Superman's new costume in this flick.

2) I also loved how they avoided a little overseas controversy by yadda-yaddaing the "American Way" from the standard motto. Perry White (in the same scene as the costume comment) says, "Does he still stand for truth, justice, all that stuff." Wise choice, in my opinion. In today's political climate, the American way isn't what it used to be.

3) One thing I thought about the next day was that I only noticed an on-screen body count of 5, and one of them was from natural causes...that is, unless you count the opening scene featuring the destruction of Krypton, which could put it in the millions. That has to be the largest margin up for debate in cinematic history.

4) I have high hopes and great fears for the inevitable sequel. The filmmakers set up for a lot of possible storylines that, if not handled carefully, could ruin EVERYTHING in a lot of people's opinions, including mine.

Yesterday, I had nothing to do, so my boss put me to work ripping out carpet in this one room in preparation for the eventual moving of the art department. Even with a heavy-duty particle mask, the twenty-year-old dust the carpet kicked up gave me a migraine from hell. I was supposed to go see a friend last night, but I couldn't move from the couch. I fell asleep around nine, and woke up to Chuck begging for food early this morning. Since I've been in this apartment, I have not needed my alarm clock once because of that damned cat. But he's cool the rest of the day, so I'll let it slide.

I broke down today and went back to my old laundromat. Turns out it wasn't so bad. I'm saving money compared to the other places I've tried, and by showing up as soon as they opened this morning, I avoided the rush of crazy people that I remember from my earlier experiences there. One weird little social interaction I had was with this one guy. He was always standing in my line of sight of the dryers I was using, so whenever I looked over to see if I needed to start them up again, he mistook it for eye contact.

DISCLAIMER: I am all for people being gay. Please don't take what follows as any type of homophobic message.

It was obvious to me that this man was gay. It wasn't a gut feeling, or any form of gaydar, it was just obvious. Tank top, soccer shorts, all that jazz. Every time I looked over at the dryers, he'd look at me and crack a smile. While I was playing Pac-Man, I'd get this eerie feeling I was being watched. I'd glance over and that dude would look away.

When I noticed from across the room that my clothes were done, I went to go retrieve them. He saw that I was heading his way and as I made my way past him, he nervously said hello. I returned the hello and went to get my clothes. Then there was this moment when he figured it all out and got a really embarrassed look on his face and he went back to folding his laundry.

I felt kinda bad for the guy, really. I imagine he might have once heard that laundromats were a great place to meet guys, and I went and dashed his hopes. As I was folding my clothes a few tables down, I think he saw the clothes I was folding and it became clear that I was straight. Sorry, dude.