Blood on Halloween

I gave blood today for the third time in my life. A local radio station was promoting its Tenth Annual Hemogoblin Halloween blood drive (clever that), and I stopped in after work since it was pretty much right down the road from my place.

The first time I gave blood was not a pleasant experience. It was when I was working in Dallas, and every year they brought the big bus to our parking lot and many people took the chance for a decent afternoon break from work. After the extensive screening process, I settled into the chair and they inserted the needle. I didn't really know what to expect, but I realized my reaction was less than optimal when I started getting light-headed. I had never been squeamish around my own blood, having seen it often enough as a teenager with almost daily nosebleeds. I told the nurse I was a little dizzy, and she said I was almost done. Once they pulled the needle out, either they didn't tell me to stop squeezing the ball to make the blood flow or I was too out of it to hear them. Either way, I ended up with a huge bruise on my forearm that took about a month to clear up, turning from dark purple to greenish yellow before fading away. Later that afternoon, I tried taking the stairs a little too quickly, having already forgotten the warnings, and nearly passed out standing upright.

It was a couple of years before I gave blood again, shortly before I was laid off. It might have even been October. I felt like I should give it another try, seeing as how my dad had been giving at least a couple of times a year for most of his life. I have O-negative blood, which I'm told is always in high demand because anybody can receive it, and I figured I just had a rotten first experience. This time, we tried the other arm, and happily I had no bruise or dizziness. Same thing today, and it only took me five minutes to fill the pint bag. I think I should start going back more often, now that I'm signed up in Austin. The biggest reason I hadn't done it since I'd moved down here was the agency I used in Dallas is nowhere to be found. But it's a good cause, and I got a free T-shirt and some cookies. What more could I ask for?

Hat trick

I saw three movies today, back to back to back. I haven't done that in a while.

First, I had The Hot Spot from Netflix, starring Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, and Jennifer Connelly. It's based on a book called Hell Hath No Fury, was directed by Dennis Hopper, and this is an overlooked gem. Don Johnson plays edgy, brooding, and violent, and pulls it off with gusto. Virginia Madsen hams it up with an over-the-top accent, but she just oozes sex appeal from the first time she appears. I have to admit, I find Jennifer Connelly's eyebrows strangely fascinating, and she was in her Career Opportunities phase (read: age) when this came out, so the movie's got that going for it. This one's got a nice twist ending that you almost never see, but it seems so obvious you can't imagine it any other way (unless you like Hollywood horseshit).

Next up, I went and saw Doom in the theater. I was a little worried this one wouldn't live up to the source material, but I enjoyed the hell out of this flick (so to speak). It's no Aliens, but it's miles better than any other video game movie I've ever seen. I'm looking at you, Resident Evil. The look and feel of the sets is perfectly matched (although I did wonder why they only rarely turned on the lights when they entered a pitch black room), and all the monsters look just like they did in the game, with the effects upgraded for the big screen of course. Plus, there's a twist in the last half hour that is at once completely true to the game (the movie's actually based on Doom 3), and still unexpected. I was quite pleased with the execution of this adaptation.

Lastly, I had another movie through Netflix called Finder's Fee. My dad recommended this one, and he was right. This is a surprisingly good movie you've almost certainly never heard of. The standouts are James Earl Jones, Ryan Reynolds, and Matthew Lillard, but the whole thing holds together great under Jeff Probst's (!) direction. This has been my day of twist endings, because this movie has one too, but this one feels a little more tacked on (or at least unexplained) than The Hot Spot's. It all takes place in one apartment, but it never feels claustrophobic, and they never used the same shot that I noticed. The acting is the main attraction here, especially if you're into small group dynamics and surprise.

That about sum's up my day, other than rejoicing in my new phone that actually works and is fun to use. I can even watch clips from the Daily Show on it. How cool is that?

Looking back

I've been in a nostalgic mood lately, which reached its logical conclusion tonight, when I went rifling through some old writings, drawings, and other papers I've collected over the years. When I was in middle school, one of my teachers had us write a letter to our future selves, to be delivered by him ten years later. I had just moved to Texas when my mother received mine, and I remember the confusion when she asked me about that strange piece of mail over the phone. She recognized my writing on the envelope, but why would I mail it to my old address? I don't think I remembered what it was at the time, but I had her send it on to me, and it was something of a shock to open it and get that little window into my young mind. By 23, I had written, I expected to have a car (check), a college degree (check), a house (nope), and be a pilot (wrong again-I gave that up senior year of high school, when I decided to focus on writing).

As I've gotten older, I've become a lot more reflective, especially in the last two or three years. Not so much long term, but in that I try to always examine my own reactions and motivations. If I get angry at something, I stop and think about why. If I say something and regret it, I try to remember what I was thinking at the time. It's occurred to me that this kind of behavior could be paralyzing if taken too far, but hopefully I'll never reach that point.

Maybe I'm overcompensating, but I took a course on hang gliding last Saturday at a local school through UT's informal classes. When I was in New Zealand, I did both sky diving and white water rafting. Eventually I'll get to bungie jumping, and not far north of Austin there's a zip line operation through the Texas treetops I plan to try out soon. I can't claim to be eXtreme, but I do enjoy trying new things, even (maybe especially) if they're dangerous.

Latest entertainments

I went and saw Tim Burton's Corpse Bride last week, pretty interesting flick. It's apparently loosely based on a Russian folk tale, but I would have to agree with some of the reviews that characterized it as "thin". Nobody but Burton would have ever made this movie, but I wonder how it might have turned out in the hands of, say, Pixar. The craftsmanship in the models was very impressive, but the acting didn't seem to be big enough, at least for the main characters, to match the performances the animators managed to achieve. The Nightmare Before Christmas was better all around.

Last night, I picked up a DVD of the Black Keys performing live in Sydney, Australia. I had to find something they put out, and I picked the DVD because 1) it was cheap, maybe less than one of their albums, 2) it may have been seeing them on stage that got me so excited about their music, and 3) I tend not to listen to blues on the radio or even CD, and I'm not sure why.

Fun at the dentist's office

I had my root canal yesterday morning. It wasn't bad. It only took about fifteen or twenty minutes after the numbing was complete and they really got to work. It wasn't painful, but I wouldn't want to do it again, either. There was something very disconcerting about how I could tell what they were doing by the movements and sounds without feeling anything. I took three ibuprofen after I got to work, and had a fat lip for a couple of hours, but it went away. I'll be going back many times before all the work is done, unfortunately, but at least this potentially painful problem has been dealt with.

Live strong

Saw Sheryl Crow play a free concert at Auditorium Shores tonight for the Lance Armstrong celebration. It was good, but not really as exciting as her set at ACL Fest last year. There were lots of kids onstage and dancing around.

It sounds like Lance has decided not to go for an eighth win. He says his new struggle will be to cure cancer. Good luck, man.