KJToo

Laura will be heading to Florida this Sunday with her sister, father, niece and nephew. This will leave me home alone without adult supervision. Hilarity may well ensue.

In an attempt to be somewhat responsible, I have made myself a schedule for the upcoming week:

I should probably eat, too. And feed the cats. I’ll pencil those in somewhere, I guess.

On the way home from Brasa Saturday night Laura said, “You know who would have made a good Anakin Skywalker? Nick Stahl.”

Nick Stahl portrays young Ben Hawkins on Carnivàle. He also played John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Both roles, I realized right then, have facets that are similar to the pre-Vader Anakin.

First, both Hawkins and Connor are unhappy with their current situation. In fact, they’re often downright pissed about it. Hawkins has powers he doesn’t understand or want, and he’s walking a path he’d rather avoid. Connor just wants to be left alone. Anakin, likewise, broods over the fact that the Jedi code prevents him from being with Amidala, and feels that his true potential is being stifled by Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Second, Ben and John are both pivotal figures in a battle of epic proportions. The big difference between these two guys and Anakin Skywalker seems to be that Ben and John don’t want to be as important as they are, while Anakin embraces his power.

And they’re all being manipulated in some way or another. Ben Hawkins’ strings are being pulled and plucked by the mysterious being known as Management (and, by extension, Samson). John Connor’s puppeteers were his mother and his future self (by way of the T-101 Terminator). Anakin Skywalker is being similarly “guided” by Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine.

Nick Stahl does a damn fine job portraying this type of character, and he brings real depth and personality to the roles (especially Ben Hawkins). He can be angry and frustrated and confused without drifting into whiny. Yeah, he would have made a good Anakin Skywalker.

If wishes were T-16 Skyhoppers…

I’ve upgraded from WordPress 1.2.2 to 1.5. There really shouldn’t be any visible differences on the site, but if anything seems out of the ordinary, please let me know.

Also, a couple of sites have been trying to spam my blog, so I’ve installed a spam-prevention plugin and activated some of WordPress’ anti-spam features. Comments are being automatically (and, in some cases, manually) moderated. If your comment doesn’t appear, e-mail me and I’ll look into it.

“Clean that crap off the bookshelf, I’m moving in.”

“Hey! Hey! Either you do something about those damn cats or I will. Keep them away from me, understand?”

“Watch it, pal. I can put the hurt on you in ways that would make the Marquis de Sade wet his pants.”

He was an angry, angry fish, and he deserved a better life.

R.I.P. Sushi
April 2003 - 13 February 2005

I meant to take a Before picture of my teeth Friday morning, then an After picture post-filling replacement. Alas, I neglected to do the former, so the latter seems unimportant.

When I was but a lad, I had an unfortunate encounter with a wheelbarrow that knocked out a sizeable portion of my two front teeth. This left me with an inverted V between those teeth. Great for squirting water and looking like Buford Eustace Hillbilly. My mother, of course, found this unacceptable (good call, Mom) and made an appointment with Dr. Lawton to have the situation rectified. Thanks to the wonders of modern dentistry, fillings of the appropriate color were applied and my smile was repaired. There are probably one or two Before pictures available from that time, I’m sure.

Over time, the fillings discolored and decayed. They were touched up once years ago, but time had not been kind even if modern dentistry had. Until Friday, the fillings were noticeably discolored and degrading yet again. So, Friday morning the Good Doctor drilled out the old fillings and once more restored my front teeth to their former glory.

My mouth certainly looks better than it did (though my teeth are arranged in such a manner as to preclude me from seeking a career as a toothpaste spokesperson), but one of the fillings chipped a bit at some point during the weekend. It’s not really noticeable unless your eye is about eight inches from my mouth, but my tongue… well, that’s another story. To my tongue, the tooth in question feels like the surface of the asteroid in Armageddon (”Okay, so the scariest environment imaginable. Thanks. That’s all you gotta say, scariest environment imaginable.“).

So, I guess I need to make another appointment with the Good Doctor to have further repairs made.

In other news, The Venture Brothers is probably the funniest cartoon on television these days. You should watch it.