Wednesday, February 06, 2008

What's Up Wednesday - February 6, 2008

A short segment this week, as my evening has been full of other chores and tasks and I have very little time to hammer this out.

The Book: Picked up The Commitments, which is a short read that I'm trying to stretch out into short spurts of reading because I'm liking it so much. I've seen the movie, but the book's a different enough experience that I'm not reminded of the film too often, and I like how Roddy Doyle "writes the music", as it were. Really creative, and just a fun romp about the rise and fall of The Hardest Working Band In Show Business.

The DVD: Out of all the movies I saw last week, the most important one was Tod Browning's Freaks. I was expecting a tasteless, exploitative movie, and I actually got one with a little bit of heart and creativity. Plus, you know, a tight-knit band of sideshow performers. The story's a little melodramatic: a trapeeze artist tries to seduce a rich midget away from his fiancée so that she and her strongman boyfriend can collect on the money. Yeah, it's weird, but it's really good.

The Video Game: Our friend Lisa brought over her copy of Cooking Mama (danger! YouTube link!) for the Wii and The Peach just LOVES it. I've played it, and it's cute: you get to make scrambled eggs, or pan-fried lobster, or creme brulée, by moving the Wiimote around to stir, chop, crack eggs, broil, fry, and what have you. I like playing it, but I like watching The Peach play more. She's just nuts about it.

The Real-Life: I've been going to a few schools doing testing on some kids for my research project at work, and I have to tell you: as boring as it is doing the same assessment over and over again, four or five times a day, I really like kids. I mean, I knew that I liked kids, but the best part of my workday is cracking jokes with them or playing games. Sometimes they're laughing at me, sometimes I'm trying my best not to laugh at them, but however you look at it: I'm a sucker for an earnest, good-natured kid. Not enough to kick-start my fatherly yearnings, mind you, but enough to kick-start my uncle-y ones.

4 comments:

Foofa said...

Gooba gaba gooba gaba one of us one of us.

Nezbitt said...

At last! Someone else who knows that it's possible to love kids and still not want one of your own!

Anonymous said...

You know, out of all of the people I know I think you fit "crazy uncle" mode the best. =)

Even if I never have kids, I am going to start introducing *other* children to you as "this is your crazy Uncle Devin". ;)

The Doc said...

Excellent reference, Natalie! I'm giving you two geek points. That's right. I'm bringing them back, maybe.

Nezbitt, oh I definitely want kids of my own. Just for in the future. For now I'm okay being Uncle Devin.

Justice, I can see it now. The two of us walking through the mall, and you stop to talk to a random five-year-old. "This is your crazy uncle Devin!" And then an angry woman hits you about the head and neck with her purse. "STAY AWAY FROM MY SON!"