Planning ahead

Feel better about doing this today as opposed to yesterday. While I still sort of regret not just sticking to the plan, I'm able to take the two days and tack them on to the days immediately following my next week-long trip so that's fine, too. I was hung up on the 10-trip passes I had bought, but I don't think the numbers will work in my favor no matter what. I still save 50 bucks so that's fine.

Saw a film last night called "The Kid: Chamaco" and it really underwhelmed me. It was an interesting take on the old boxing formula -- that part was good. I think I was disappointed for 3 reasons: 1. Michael Madsen has a marquee name in it and he's in only a handful of scenes and none of them are opposite Martin Sheen. It would've been cool to see the two of them duke it out. 2. The American boxer is not a good actor and he's not holding his own against Sheen. The only time he was believable was when he was boxing/training. His inflection when he yelled was off-putting and weird. 3. Motivations were lost. If I were a gringo in Mexico accused of anything and I can prove I didn't do it, then I'd be saying that first-thing. Not just sweating it out in jail.

It was a cool idea (the rise of a good-hearted Mexican tough from streetfighter to amateur boxer with the help of some altruistic gringos) and the Mexican kid was pretty good, and Sheen's Spanish -- while better than mine, for sure -- was intentionally choppy, but then again, he's an American in Mexico and it's obviously not the character's first language. Still, they were lobbing them in high and slow for him. Think of it as "Slumdog Millionaire" in Mexico, revolving around boxing.

Am about 70-75 pgs in to Dying. There are a lot of characters whose points of view you have to read from, and at first it was daunting (esp. b/c some of the characters have ambiguous names, like Darl and Dewey Bell) but it's all gelling better. After this, I reckon I'll read a comic and then I'm very excited to be starting Life by Perec. That will be a mammoth undertaking but I will have time in which to do it. We'll see if I'm glamorizing it now, in hindsight, or if it really was that good, or, if I was just happy I finished the damn thing the first time. It'll be the first time I read a full novel a 2nd time. It's been nearly 10 years since the go-around.

I'm giving some hard thought to something I was told yesterday and the gist of it was that I shouldn't expect any kind of acknowledgment for the extra work I do except for one day a year when it can be packaged in a way that so that it will seem genuine. This is the mindset of the middle-managers of corporate America. There's no time for that sort of thing here: Just work, work, work and be happy you have a job. I'd argue but what's the point? There are people who are just not going to adapt, not going to change and they are the real assholes. This is how it is and enter your cliche here about the way things are. Should the day come where I am responsible for others, they will know their worth on a regular basis.

I might run today. I'd like to get one in. I was sore as all hell from the intense leg workout of Sunday but it's finally dissipated. We'll see how that effects my time. I love my new method -- don't pace yourself; just run as hard as you can the whole time, and when certain parts of Megadeth songs come up, run harder.

Today's a nice today with a looming threat of rain. Nothing terribly interesting happening today on the road. I realize though that the bus depot we call Church Street might need to be circumvented on the ride home if I'm to make the 520.

Thank you for reading.

Playlist:
Pearl Jam -- "Whipping"
Ozzy -- "I don't want to change the world" "11 Silver"
Chris Cornell -- "Time" "Ground Zero"
Lo-Fi Allstars -- "Hold On"