Why You Shouldn't Watch Romantic Comedies

The BBC is reporting on a new study that shows fans of romantic comedies have unrealistic expectations when it comes to love. What a surprise—people who watch unrealistic movies have unrealistic expectations.

More than anything, I'm chalking this up as a victory to all the men who don't like these movies. Now when our significant other wants to watch them, we can beg off with the excuse: "But those movies are psychologically unhealthy." Score one for the guys!

Lobster

We ate lobster today. I really like it, but it's so expensive. The store usually sells it for 16.99/lb. This week, they dropped the price to 6.99/lb. That's still more than we would normally spend on meat or fish, but that's a good price for what it is.

Random note: I just heard Plainbellied upstairs with Her Nibs, who is prepping for bed: "[Muffled sound] wipe! That's gross!" I really don't want to know what happened.

Lobster is one of those things I remember from when I was a kid. I don't eat it very often. I think I've only had it twice in the last ten-fifteen years. Most recently I got a grilled lobster tail with my dinner from Outback Steakhouse. It was dried out and not very good. So when we got our lobster today, I steamed them, and it came out really well.

Her Nibs refused to help prep them--let's face it, lobsters look kind of gross. But when we started eating, she liked it. Plainbellied was another story. She's eaten lobster before, but she's never eaten a lobster by herself. So I taught her how to break it apart and what to eat (I don't touch the tomale, which is wicked disgusting). She did really well, but I noticed that she kept giving her meat to Her Nibs. It turns out that she didn't really like it.

I give her props for trying though. That was impressive.

Musical Mayhem

I have a lot of CDs. Really. A lot. As in hundreds.

I made my collection largely in high school and college. In fact I haven't purchased more than a few CDs a year since I got married. I don't have the money to support my habit anymore. But now I have a problem. I got an iPod a few years ago, and now I have a lot of music in iTunes so I can put it on my iPod and take it with me. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to move all of my CDs. I think this is rooted in the fact that I'm inherently lazy. I have music I like on iTunes, so I don't feel the need to import more. I've increased how much I put on over the years, working on the project intermittently. My iTunes now has 13.3 GB of music in it. That's a lot, but I still have a lot of music to put on it.

Today I'm trying to make a dent of some kind. Each album doesn't take that long to import, though the task is still daunting. Having said that, I'm rediscovering some pretty cool music. I had forgotten about the Lemonheads and Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I haven't listened to Cream's entire Disraeli Gears album for a while. The Cranberries have some really cool music, too. Maybe if I remind myself how fun that part is, it won't be as hard to do next time.

Post-election Roundup

It's been so long since I've posted that I think I'll just briefly touch on the election. This should be the last election-related post you'll get from me for a long time.

First, I'm happy Barack Obama won. I don't know how he'll do actually governing, but he has a chance to make a significant positive impact. I would not have confidence in John McCain to do that.

I want Sarah Palin to go away. Some people actually see her as a leader of the Republican party? Well, if she gets the nomination in 2012, I won't vote for her. She's a joke.

John McCain was very gracious in defeat. He was definitely more gracious than his followers. At his concession speech he had to tell them to stop booing when he pledged to work with President Obama. I don't know if he's going to be an opposition figure or what, but I do have confidence that we might just get the old John McCain back.

The transition has gone pretty smoothly, all things considered. We're in two wars and a major recession, and yet the wheels keep turning. I'm concerned only about two things. First, the Bush administration is pushing through a bunch of rule changes, and I hope the effort comes up short or the next administration quickly overturns them. They will gut the environmental protections currently in place, and I don't think we can afford that. My second problem with the transition is the appointment of Hillary Clinton. I don't like her. I don't trust her, and I don't want her to be Secretary of State. Having said that, I hope that I'm wrong and she does a good job. I used to think highly of Condoleeza Rice, and look how that turned out.

But that's it for politics. I'm all out of gas after the election. Now I'm concentrating on work and family. That's enough for me.