Scatter-brained

Why am I so tired? Maybe it's just one of those days. I blame it on the rain. Again. Anyway, it's too early for bed and I can't focus on much of anything, so I'm just going to dump some random thoughts here:

• Paranormal Activity was a pretty good movie. I basically gave up on scary movies for years because I was more grossed out than scared by any of them, but this one genuinely creeped me out and even made me jump several times. Maybe my love and knowledge of ghost stories made it more real to me, although of course the movie embellished the reports. (General reports of ghost and demon experiences, I mean.) It's refreshing to see a scary movie that successfully exploits my imagination (with suggestions) and not my gag reflex (with gore), though. I thought the days of Alfred Hitchcock-style horror were gone, but this proves that it can still exist and become popular. That reminds me, I wish there was a Hitchcock marathon on tv this year! Some network used to do that on Halloween, I think.

• I'm not exactly a grammar nazi (although I'm a stickler for spelling), but there is a Harrah's billboard on 2-70 that drives me crazy! I pass it on the way home from work. It says "1 in 5 win!" Win refers to 1, though, which means it should be plural--1 wins, 5 (don't) win. It took me just a couple seconds to notice, yet no one caught that during editing, revisions, or printing? I understand that a fresh pair of eyes on a project can help, but seriously, there are only about 8 words on the whole sign. Sometimes as a designer, "creative license" allows you to give up punctuation and things like that (using numerals instead of spelling a small number), but not that kind of grammar. For the record, though, deleting punctuation at the end of a sentence because it's a headline makes me cringe a little, but even the writer at my old job suggested it sometimes.

• I am spending too much money on health insurance and barely using any of it. I'm thankful that I haven't had to use it, but I'm also frustrated that I've been paying for it, anyway. I can't get it through my work yet, since I'm not full time, so the outside insurance takes a significant chunk of a paycheck once a month. It's starting to show. Hopefully, my company will hire me full time next month and it will take care of itself. They've been telling me October/November should be the hiring time (because of next year's budget) since April.

• I love cake, especially icing, and I have a friend that decorates cakes for fun. She has all the equipment and invited me over to see how it was done last weekend; however, she does not like cake. It's pretty cool, but it could be a potentially dangerous hobby for me. On the one hand, I would probably be forced to eat all of my mistakes so that they wouldn't go to waste. On the other hand, I would be putting so much time into them that I might not want to even eat the finished product...okay, that last part is probably crazy talk. I'm still considering taking a class at Michael's or something.

• No sign of that tiny brown beret at any regular store, which means I'll just get the authentic brownie beanie and "make it work." In my quest, though, I did find When Harry Met Sally for just $5 at Target! It's such a cute movie, one of my favorite chick flicks, and I can't believe I didn't own it before now. Joel will be thrilled, too, I'm sure. ;)
  

• I found this list of things you should do in Japan, and the only things I had no real interest in doing and did not attempt to do were sumo (eh) and the love hotel (obviously). I went into a pachinko place (SO LOUD) but couldn't figure it out, and I was going to climb Mt. Fuji until it was supposed to rain and we decided not to do that much additional walking. I can check everything else off the list, though! Awesome.

Okay, time for bed. Good night!