The Glass is Half Full

Finally, a post about movies! But I'll get to that later. I have to say that the pace of life has stepped up a notch or two lately. I started a new job, and got two days in before the Christmas break. This job is so sweet. It will be difficult to highlight the positives without discussing the negatives of previous jobs, but I'll give it a go.

First of all, I have an office. Not just any ordinary office, but an office big enough to swing a cat in. Mittens didn't like that, but in the pursuit of accuracy, my cat will contribute. She hasn't come out from under the bed since Thursday evening. She's mad. Seriously though, at my last job I had an office where I'd knock my knees every time I tried to swivel my chair. I had to slink sideways just to get around the desk. This office also has windows, and after working in a bunker for six years, windows are an extravagance. An extravagance with blinds even, that I can open and close as I please. Mr. Sun came out on Thursday, so I opened the blinds. I let out an expression of glee à la Stimpy as I began to enjoy what was left of daylight on the shortest day of the year.

Second, the company pipes music into the toilets. Ahhh, a true oasis. A bit of a weird thing happened yesterday. I was in the bog when I thought I heard a woman's voice. I looked around, it was definitely a men's room but maybe this company was so forward-thinking that it was actually European in some way. My brain zipped back through the archive until it arrived at March, 1987: Mont Saint Michel, France. Yes, in fact there exists unisex toilets so I hadn't walked into the Ladies' by accident. The woman's voice actually belonged to a young boy, who hasn't learned two of life's important lessons yet.

That brings me to my third point. The company actually lets employees bring their munchkins to the office, though I suspect this is not a normal occurrence as the kid was probably on Christmas break from school. Now the two lessons that the kid might have learned had he had gone to school that day: #1 - Don't strike up conversations with strangers in toilets. #2 - Do be careful what you ask strangers. You might think its okay to ask any question, but that really only works with your mummy and daddy. I went to ask one of my co-workers where I could find the copier, and suddenly the kid asked, "What's wrong with your leg?" My co-worker raised her eyebrows, in a kinda "don't look at me, he's not my kid" way. When he regained consciousness, I explained that I had been born with a limp and that it had always been that way. Actually, I took the question in stride on account of the fact that it was kid, and I was used to being asked.

Perk #4 - I actually get a parking space!! Yes. I'd always dreamt of having a parking space. An adaptation of the Kinsella maxim benefitted me: If you buy it, it will come. So I eventually bought Baby, and the parking space followed. I doesn't matter that the spot is two blocks from the office and that Baby will be exposed to the elements. I.Got.A.Parking.Space.

The fifth point is that I have totally changed my outlook. I did something that I hadn't done for about 2 and a half years. I was happy to go to work. A definite spring in my step developed, something I'd missed for a while at my last full-time job. And the new job starts at 09:00, a normal time. My last FT started at 08:00, I don't know why they came up with that choice. I can only posit that 08:00 was chosen because its just a little abnormal. One hour really makes a difference, especially for someone like me who would take 4 hours to get ready in the morning, if I could.

The sixth and final point is that my new co-workers actually have fun. Engineers are known for being master pranksters, and I might actually fit in here, but yesterday there was a mini-golf tourney organized in the office. Between 16:00 and 17:00 it was not safe to come out of offices because golf balls were flying everywhere.

The very sad thing about this job is that the guy I am temping for can come back at any time. I have a competing offer from another firm, but I'd rather stay at this one.

So ecstatic was I about landing a new job, albeit temp, I decided to press my luck even further. After my first day at work, I rushed home and grabbed my textbooks for my evening class. I drove out to campus and not only did I get free parking, the class was only an hour long. Double score! I now had plenty of time to try my next move. I popped by Ayako's workplace, and she was there. She is so cool. I asked her for her number, but she said she didn't remember. She pretended to dial and told me the numbers as they came to mind. She grabbed my hand as I tried to write down the number. She made me memorize it, which I guess is her way of saying "If you can remember my phone number, then you are really interested in me." As I tried to recite the number back to her, she started saying random numbers to throw me off. I like that sense of humour. I just called her to make sure I had the number right and to wish her merii kurisumasu.

I had also rented a movie that night and at the shop where Ayako works, I grabbed some sushi, a ficelle and some egg nog. Okay, the egg nog was an impulse buy but it was bottled by a dairy that is run by an old schoolmate's family. I thought I'd throw a few bucks her way, and now that I have Baby, I can visit the dairy myself. It's the last one left in the city. The sushi was a smoked salmon affair, with cream cheese packed inside. Technically, smoked salmon is cooked but I thought there was great potential for a bacteria festival in my tum-tum. Had I known there was cream cheese in the sushi, I probably would not have bought it. The ficelle was really nice, I might have to buy more.

Okay, now for the movie. There's so much more I was going to write about, but it is Christmas Eve and I'm knackered. A few months ago, I decided to enter the realm of Takashi Miike film. I do not regret doing so, but many others may find the level of violence in his films disturbing. For those who think Quentin Tarantino is a film-making genius, keep in mind that he pretty much ripped off, or found inspiration for Pulp Fiction from the work of Miike. First I rented Ôdishon, and then I rented Ichi the Killer. Both films I liked, so the next time I was at the video shop I noticed a film called Ichi Zero. I checked this film out on the net and found that it tells a lot of the back story behind Ichi. The other night, I went to the shop to get Classe tous risques, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lino Ventura. I guess the last time I asked for this film, the guy lied to me because I found out the second time that the shop doesn't even have this film. Then I asked for my back up, Touchez pas au grisbi. That one was out. Another shot in the dark on Ripoux 3 came up empty. So then I asked for Ichi Zero, and I have to say that I was a little upset when I got home. Somewhere, somehow the internet research failed to mention, or I forgot that this film was entirely a cartoon -- a cartoon of sex and violence.

I have to say that limits are good in some cases, like cartoon sex. Cartoons and sex should not go together. I know, there's a very successful market for cartoon porn, and I realize that everybody has their kinks, but I just don't get cartoon sex. How does an animator go from drawing Tom and Jerry, and progress to sex? That's a big leap for me, and one that my brain just won't accept. I expected the violence because well, its Ichi but the sex and the violent sex to boot? No way. On top of all that, Ichi Zero doesn't really tell a lot of the back story. More accurately, it tells some back story and parallels some of the live action film Ichi the Killer. The movie is only about an hour long, and Takashi Miike had absolutely nothing to do with it. I wouldn't recommend wasting time or money on Ichi Zero. I will say though, that the music in the film was pretty good for a cartoon.

I can also say that I reached a balance against this piece of crap film today. I was over at Orange Peel's flat and happened to catch the very beginning of Un homme et une femme starring Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant on a sports channel no less. This film features the always lovely tune A Man and Woman by Francis Lai. This is one of the best instrumentals ever featured in film. The film progressed slowly, and I turned it off after the first fifteen minutes. Afterall, it was the dubbed version. I've never seen the film all the way through, only seeing the last half hour a few years ago when I had cable television. As I've said before, music in film is important to me and this film is a prime example. I'd watch this film just for the music, and the Mustang of course.