A couple of Friday 5s (this week’s and last week’s). From here and here.
Friday 5: Performance Evaluation
- In what way do you maintain a tidy and efficient workstation?
My desk at the office is not tidy, but I would like to remind people that I’m a writer with attention issues. A huge part of my job is thinking, and it helps to surround myself with some visual stimuli, such as a few novels I’m working through or plan to work through someday, some posters on the wall, a printout of an amusing Awkward Yeti comic, some movie ticket stubs, and scraps of writing ideas I’m saving for later. However, I do tidy it up at the end of every month just to keep things from getting out of hand. My desk at home is a disaster and I’m thinking of setting the whole thing on fire. - In what way do you maintain positive relationships with others?
I try to send friendly text messages every so often, most of which get ignored, but that’s fine. I reach out on social media in positive ways. I know; I could do a lot better for sure. - What effort do you take to be punctual?
When I became a bus rider, I repeated the commitment I made the previous time I became a bus rider: no using the bus as an excuse to be late for anything, and no running for a bus. This mostly keeps me on time for stuff, but when I’m trying to get somewhere I don’t go very often, on a bus line I’m not familiar with, I’m sometimes off the mark. Most of the time, though, I’m pretty good about getting places on time, which is not one of my skills. - What are your strengths and challenges in communicating effectively?
In person, I tend to take too many words to say stuff that doesn’t require them. I also overexplain, probably a vestige leftover from my teaching. - What will be your focus for growth in the coming year?
I really need to get back to the weight-losing trend I established a couple of years ago.
Friday 5: Repeat
- What’s something you are repeatedly asked to prove?
I still get carded when I buy alcohol sometimes, and I was born in the Sixties. I suppose a bus pass is proof that I paid the monthly fee, and so is a Costco card. I read an article on network security that says the average person at work has to know eight different passwords just to do his or her job. I think I have seven, including the entry code for the building door and the combination for the lock that secures my laptop to my desk. - What’s an album you can listen to on endless repeat?
I’m a guy who does this all the time. On my all-time list are Extreme’s Extreme II: Pornograffiti, Yes’s Drama, and Styx’s Paradise Theater. Lately, I’ve had Monster Magnet’s Mindfucker, The Sword’s Used Future, and the Night Flight Orchestra’s Sometimes the World Ain’t Enough. - What’s a story you’ve told several times?
There used to be this heavy metal record store near on Ward Avenue. I only went in there once, but it was glorious, and I hoped to get a real job later in high school and spend all my money there and even hang out on weekends, maybe when I got some wheels. The store didn’t live long and it’s gone, and I apparently have told people this story many times. They keep letting me tell it even when they’ve heard it. - What’s something you always order at a certain restaurant?
I like to mix it up, but despite better intentions, whenever I eat at Likelike Drive-In, I seem always to get the loco moco unless they have the pot roast special (they serve it on noodles, which is amazing). At Koa Cafe, I’ve fallen into a rut, almost always ordering the Denver omelette although I usually go in there telling myself to order something else. Oh, you know what? I pretty much always get the Waikiki Burger at Teddy’s. It’s a teri burger with a hashbrown on the patty. - In what way do you hope this weekend will be exactly like last?
I hope to get some good sleep. This past week was night after night of miserable sleep. Friday night was also pretty bad. Determined to get good sleep tonight and Sunday. I hate that this is one of my issues.
Four women who’ve been friends since college have now been a book club for more than thirty years. Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen play Diane, Vivian, Carol, and Sharon.
Vivian is a builder and owner of hotels, apparently a self-made business success who doesn’t let relationships with men get too serious because they interfere with her independence.
At one of the book club meetings one of the women passes around copies of 50 Shades of Grey, which draws complaints and derision from the group, but “bestsellers” is the club’s theme this year, and so they give it a go. The novel inspires them to make a few changes to their love lives, each in her own way.
I was frustrated with Diane Keaton’s character Diane, because she’s forced to play a character who’s nonassertive around her adult kids, a mode that doesn’t suit the actress well at all. It isn’t until nearly the end of the film where we see Keaton shine as an actress. I wished her story could have begun right there.
The sleep thing continues to be an issue. I can neither explain nor understand it. I get home from work with the clearest, best intentions of getting stuff ready for the next morning (I’m okay there), then doing something to unwind, then putting myself to bed properly, getting a good rest — thanks to my Darth Vader machine — and waking up refreshed and ready for another day.
Until I popped this DVD into my player, I don’t think I’d ever heard of Cannon Films, although I consider myself a casual fan of Troma Entertainment, the super-low-budget-film company that seems to be Cannon’s kindred spirit.
Their figure-it-out-as-we-go approach often meant budgets far lower than expected, story changes in the middle of filming, and bizarre casting decisions. Yet like Troma, Cannon seemed to figure that low budgets meant easier profits, and they could put out a lot of movies in short amounts of time if they didn’t sweat stuff like quality or cohesion. As long as their films had lots of sex, monsters, and explosions, sometimes in the same scene, they knew people would have a good time and come back for the fifth and sixth sequels.
Other well-known hit-or-miss-but-mostly-miss titles the company cranked out are the Happy Hooker and Emmanuelle series, three Death Wish sequels, the American Ninja trilogy, almost every Chuck Norris film including the Missing in Action and Delta Force series, Runaway Train, King Solomon’s Mines, Over the Top, Masters of the Universe, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Barfly, Invasion U.S.A., and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. At the same time, it is a hilarious yet impressive filmography. Is there a movie fan older than thirty who hasn’t seen at least a small handful of these pictures?
In one segment, the directors talk about how the execs at Cannon promised that they would be allowed to make the movies they wanted, with very little interference from leadership. They don’t seem always to have kept the promise, but you can see why such noted filmmakers as Avildsen, Hooper, Zeffirelli, and John Cassavetes would be willing to work with smaller budgets for a company with Cannon’s checkered past. Zeffirelli says his Otello, a Cannon movie, is the best film of his career.
Debbie Ocean has had five years (in prison) to plan a heist involving the Met Gala, a $150 million diamond necklace, seven other women of questionable ethics but unquestioned skill, and maybe the guy responsible for her being locked up all those years ago.
My biggest problem with the movie is that we don’t really get to know much about the other characters, and since they’re also played by interesting actresses, this is a disappointment. Is it possible to have a good heist movie that also develops its characters well? I wanted to know more about Sarah Paulson’s character especially, but Mindy Kaling’s and Awkwafina’s could also have used some development. I feel mildly ripped off.
We should celebrate also that two of Debbie’s eight accomplices are Asian, and there is no affirmative action in effect here: Mindy Kaling and Awkwafina have already proven their talent, so no excuses need to be made by anyone. If anything, perhaps a few apologies should be sent their way for taking so dang long.