Fullness

So, the wasp sting is dissipating. My lower arm still has a little bit of swelling, but the sting site is much less red, the skin in the area is pliable now, and the itching has decreased greatly.

I've listened to the first disc of my Wes King tribute CD, Life is Precious. Some of the songs I'm not that familiar with (even though I'm pretty sure I have all of Wes King's CDs. okay, a personal copy of each CD he has released; I haven't confiscated his personal CD collection), but these interpretations seem okay as songs go. I will say that overall, while I appreciate what these artists have done both song-wise and for the project (donating their time so all income from the project can be used to cover Wes's medical bills in combatting cancer), I still prefer Mr. King's original versions of the songs.

Friday night, I went to dinner with some friends, James and Richel and their precious daughter Chloe. Hadn't seen them in a while, and it was good to catch up with them.

Saturday, I went to Target to get a gift for a wedding shower I was going to that night. I looked at the men's clothes because I do like to shop even if I can't necessarily afford to buy anything. Wow, Target has up-scaled the men's section quite a bit. Unfortunately, they now are less likely to carry anything that will fit me than before, but that's more my problem than theirs. I guess t-shirts and all are okay, and they had some great colors. I did wind up buying some Superman lounge shorts (like lounge pants, but shorts), but there's a whole lot more I could have gotten were I to become unfettered.

After Target, Clay, Stephanie, and I went to the Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park. I was suitably impressed with the talent on display (as well as wondering why I couldn't do just as well on a couple of them). I did buy a picture entitle "Self Portrait": a cartoony beagley-looking dog is looking in a full-length mirror and painting a picture of a German Shepherd. I got such a kick out of it.

The shower was nice, though I was extremely tired (I woke up at 4:30 am and did/could not go back to sleep.

Went to church this morning, or BIble study anyway (I woke up at 10:15). Then to Jason's Deli for lunch. Clay and I went to see Inside Man, which we both thought was quite good.

All in all, a full weekend.

Books

I've read the first two books of the Ted Dekker trilogy, The Circle. The three books are titled Black, Red, and White. I'm sad I don't have as much time to devote to reading White as I would like. (movies and comics take up too much time, and then there's work. and sleep.) I know it's silly to do so, but I also started Thr3e, which is apparently filming right now.

I really enjoyed Black. In it, we meet Thomas Hunter, a man who finds he has the ability to walk between two worlds, each of which seems more real than the other whenever he's in it. A very fascinating tale.

I was not expecting Red to be as good. I was wrong. It's just as captivating, just as intense, and just as high-speed as the first. It is a different type of book from the first. The style seems to be different. It's not something I was conscious of while reading this book, but in retrospect it's clear that the book is different in its tone and emphasis. It's still about Thomas, but as the story unfolds, it envelopes so much more.

And the 60 pages or so of the third book, White, that I've read so far, I can tell that this a completely different book from its two predecessors. It still focuses on Thomas Hunter, but so far, it's just so much more.

Sorry I can't give more information about the books, but I really want people to read these books. They're very thought-provoking, and I know some of my pre-conceptions about certain religious things have been called into question. If I explain more of the story, I feel that too many elements of surprise would be given away, and these things are too important to the story for them to be spoiled.

Ask Not for Whom the Wasp Stings -- It Stings for Me!

Last Sunday, as I was walking to my car to go to church, I got stung by a wasp. For some people, that's about as serious as a mosquito bite; for others, it's a matter of life and death within minutes if no measures are taken. Me, I'm somewhere in the middle, probably leaning toward the needing-to-take-measures side without necessarily being a matter of life and death. I've always reacted to wasp and bee stings pretty violently, and it seems to be getting worse over time. Now, I take two Benadryl asap and don't worry about it too much.

Well, this time, I've felt sick more than I have with previous stings. It's right in my bad shoulder (the right one), and it's swollen up pretty well. I can feel the joint locking up whenever I try to move my arm. And of course, I have two rings of firm red skin. About an inch around the sting site is a darker red, and the skin has no give whatsoever. Until yesterday, the outer ring was not quite as dark, and the skin was taut but still slightly pliable.

Since yesterday, the fluid underneath the skin spread down my arm and turned the skin red. Just a few minutes ago (about 11:10pm Wed), I looked in the mirror, and the swelling has gone below my elbow. I'm 99% sure this is just built-up fluid moving through the body since I haven't had my arm elevated (maybe better down my arm than into my chest?). The sting site does feel better; the skin is slightly more pliable, so I'm pretty sure I'm on the mend.

At least I've gotten quite a bit of sleep through the ordeal!

Blockbuster Goes with Humanity like Oil and Water

A recent Blockbuster commercial (seen for the first time tonight) talks
about we're only human, so we go to the movie rental house that
understands we're only human.

Blockbuster has done everything in its power to rip money out of our
hands, to control everything we do relative to movies outside of the
theatre, and they have the nerve to claim to be related to humanity.
Don't buy into it, please! They are exhibiting all the signs of a giant
about to expire, and they're not sure how the rug got ripped out from
under them.

I'm baaaaaaa-aaaaaacccckkkk

Got back from Vegas last night. Managed to get an earlier flight than 4:35. If I had been 30 minutes earlier, I could have left at 11:20 rather than 2:40. But, c'est la vie. An interesting revelation while there that I'll post more about later when I have more time.

Thanks for any prayers offered!

Oh, and I started and finished Red, the second in the The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker. More on that, too.

Random Bits

Academy Awards

John Stewart was okay; wouldn't have been upset if Brokeback Mountain won, but I'm glad Crash beat it. [Editor's note: author has seen only three of the movies nominated in any category: Corpse Bride, King Kong, and Chroni-what-cles of Narnia.] On the other hand, I'm glad Ang Lee won Best Director.

Upcoming Movies

The Libertine looks kind of interesting. It has Johnny Depp, after all. But I'm not sure about the whole story.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown looks very funny, much like its predecessor. It took me a while to warm up (no pun intended) to the first one, but eventually I did. Maybe that's why the second one is melting.

V for Vendetta looks just subversive enough to be kind of cool. I can't figure out how to write my full thoughts on movies like this. Suffice it to say that I kind of agree, but then I don't. Regardless, the movie should be fun.

• Night Watch [Russian film; dark — what's not to like?]
  
• Inside Man [Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, and the bank that separates them]
  

Movies that might be cute, but not really worthwhile

I think their trailers speak for themselves as to their inherent badness.

• She's the Man*
  
• Basic Instinct 2 [actually haven't seen a trailer, but why do we need this?]
  
• Aquamarine* [okay, it started this past weekend, but it still looks bad]
  
• The Shaggy Dog*
  
• Failure to Launch*
  

*I'll probably see them anyway once out on DVD; isn't that lame? But I'm certainly not going to spend $6.50+ to go see any of them.

Music

Love the CDs I've listened to so far, especially The Afters album. Wow!

Vegas

As in Las Vegas. I leave Thursday morning (3/9) for work to go do training for our software. Finally, I'll get to see The Blue Man Group (or at least I'm hoping to).

I'm sure there's more, but I've forgotten anything else I wanted to write. And besides, my inkwell is running dry, it seems.

Let There be Music

Okay, this is probably the last music purchase I'll make for quite a while, like several months. With the ever-popular(?) Anticipated Enjoyment Rating Grid, I present:

#	Artist	Title	Anticipated Enjoyment
1	The Afters	I Wish We All Could Win	7
2	Ronnie Freeman	Ronnie Freeman	9
3	Relient K	MmHmm	8
4	The Rocket Summer	"Hello, good friend..."	7
5	Seventh Day Slumber	Once Upon a Shattered Life	7
6	Falling Up	Crashings	7
7	Audio Adrenaline	Until My Heart Caves In	8

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I bought this Audio Adrenaline CD a while ago. Bummer. Too bad I don't have a list of my CDs like I do for my DVDs. [Editor's note: My DVD collection is catching up with my CD collection quite well. Which is sad considering I've been collecting CDs since 1983 and DVDs only since 1998.] I need some good software for CD tracking. Any suggestions? And books, too. Everything I've looked at for either of these is so... so... so complicated. Or doesn't track what I want. Or something. I use DVD Profiler, which is pretty decent for DVDs, but they have no intention of developing a CD app.

One day, I'll post my actual enjoyment rankings for my CDs. I'll probably do that on my Google-based web site (100Mb, free web-page creator, though I can see the limitations that I wouldn't want to build a big site with this, but for now, ’tis a good compromise and a way to post large files easily).