Friday: The Good

I went to see Cloverfield today and enjoyed it a lot. The premise is ( spoiler-free, but cut for safety )

Aside from the shaky-cam issues, I greatly enjoyed the movie. They waited a good while before showing more than a corner-of-the-eye glimpse of the monster, which nicely heightened the tension. And there are at least 3 scenes that I can think of which made me clench the armrests or flinch back from the screen. I probably would've had more, but there was a pack of jackasses sitting behind me (they came in after I sat down) that kept up a running commentary throughout the entire movie. It's a might difficult to be properly scared when the asshole behind you is commenting that "[he'd] never have done something that stupid. [He'd] have left (character) behind as dead and run for it!"

So. If you like horror or monster movies and can handle some potential shaky-cam-induced vertigo, then I heartily recommend Cloverfield.

Friday: The Bad

After the movie, I had dinner at a local Wendy's. After I put down my food and went to go get napkins and a straw, this guy politely asked me if I could give him 40 cents so he could get a sandwich. I try to be a good person and I could afford it, so I gave the guy $5 and sat down to eat.

Now, the dining area was pretty empty, just me, the guy I'd given money to, this big guy sitting at a table in the middle of the floor and the workers going around cleaning up. Big Guy almost immediately starts "jokingly" needling the guy I'd given money to (let's just call him MG for short, shall we?) about what he was going to get to eat. I wasn't really paying attention because I didn't really care what he got; once I passed that money over, it was his to do with as he wished.

Well, MG stared at the menu board for a few minutes then walked out to who knows where. Big Guy then called over to me, tattling that MG hadn't bought any food with "my" money and then kinda snottily/condescendingly said "I bet he's just going to buy a bottle of wine with it anyway." To which I promptly replied, in a calm voice, "Well, I've been in positions like that before and if a bottle of wine will make his life better for a little, then more power to him."

Big Guy tried to get me to agree with his "righteous anger" towards "cheats", but I tuned him out as not worth my time, which pissed him off as best as I could tell from the glancing attention I paid to him. Apparently my lack of indignation and failure to rise to his bait REALLY pissed off Big Guy, because as soon as one of the Wendy's employees came within range (he couldn't be bothered to get up and go to the counter for this, you see), he proceeded to loudly vent onto her about having panhandlers in the store and that he was gonna call corporate about this and they would need to put metal detectors at the doors because the neighborhood was getting bad and blahblahthepoorsuck-cakes.

After he indignated his way out and the woman he'd vented at came by, I briefly commiserated with her about his assholishness.

Now, as an adjunct to that story, allow me to explain my take on people begging for money: I've been in that situation and almost let my pride kick me out on the street for not asking for help. I know what it's like to have $20 that you have to turn into a month's worth of food and running out before then. I know what it's like to have to do things that you abhor, that kill parts of you, to survive.

Now that I've clawed my way out of that hell and can afford to help other people still there, I'm going to. And so what if they buy booze or cigarettes or drugs with it? I would hope that they wouldn't, but if that's what they need to survive the grinding misery, then I'm okay with that.

And that attitude pisses off a lot of people who've never, ever had to face that kind of hopelessness. They see poverty and desperation as character flaws: moral weaknesses well-deserved by the unworthy whom God punishes. But those people (to be deliberately crude about it) can suck my shitty asshole. I doing what I can, no matter how minor, to improve someone's life and I don't give a flying fuck what Righteous Indignates think about it.

Friday: The Stupid (It Burns!!!!)

After dinner at Wendy's, I tried to call their 800 number to let TPTB know that I felt their employees had handled an asshole customer very well. I say "tried" because apparently my phone service had been temporarily disconnected for past-due payments. I was angrily curious about that, since I was sure that I'd made a payment around Christmas.

I came home and dug my latest bill from my stack of papers and looked at it. Now, keep in mind that I pretty much all of my bills online or over the phone, with the exception of my rent. As such, I pay the vast majority of them with my second paycheck of the month (the first goes almost entirely towards rent). Unfortunately, it turns out that the last phone payment I'd made was right before I flew to Houston for Thanksgiving.

Oops.

It was no big deal, though: I looked up the closest AT&T store off their website and immediately drove over and paid off the full bill. But I'm still a little ticked at myself for being stupid like that. Ah, well. 'Tis life.

Randomosity Presents: The Random Gnome

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