life

It must be odd to know that somewhere across the seas a man is lobbying his government for a legal sanctioning to bomb your government. I wonder if the Syrian government is watching the live video feed as Obama and now other congressmen have argued for attacking Syria. The have a lot at stake. It'd be like watching your own trial on tv and not having any representation in the actual courtroom. I had a emotionally draining interview with an attorney today. He spent 10 minutes talking about why I was interpreting the word "throttling" incorrectly. I finally told him that we're not going to agree on this point, and he was so very disappointed. Maybe his client had told him "convince him of that, or you're fired." I dunno. Sometimes I think attorneys just pretend to be upset for the sake of their client. Or they pretend to be incompetent or offended. They like to pretend it's personal. They live fake lives. Whatever the case, I'm not going to listen to a third rephrasing of the same poor argument, just because the attorney thinks its a good one. Possibly ruined an attorney's day, but I'm not gonna sweat over it. And I'm getting sick. Had a sore throat earlier, and now my arms are a bit sore to the touch. This is a bad month at work for getting sick also. Trivia team semi-finals tonight. I'm predicting a loss, but we should be in the top 5. (Not due to my contribution. I tend to be outvoted and my suggestions mysteriously overruled when I'm in the restroom. I'd be offended if I cared more. But I'd give you 1 to 20 odds that we lose, and the prize isn't even particularly exciting.) If we don't make top 5 then I'll just come home early and go to sleep. My immune system would appreciate that.

taxes!

I received a formal letter from our friendly neighborhood IRS. They think I owe them $32,000 in back taxes. I have about 3 weeks to respond, and I'm going to try to do it without hiring an accountant. Sadly I have no copy of my tax return from that year, but I think I can send a generalized response without filing a new return. We'll see. It'd be more stressful if it wasn't so patently absurd. I don't even itemize my deductions!

On rewatching Seinfeld

Often I rewatch episodes of Seinfeld.  It's a very rewatchable show.  The only problem with rewatching it is that many times just reading the episode title alone is enough to evoke the entire storyline in your memory.  For example: the episode "The Chinese Restaurant."  Just from the title you remember "Oh, that was the time everyone got stuck in a Chinese restaurant waiting for a table before a movie, and George is trying to call some girl but gets in a conflict with other people using the pay phone, and Elaine gets really hungry so Jerry bets her she won't take food off someone else's table."  I don't recall Kramar playing much of a role in that one.  It's not a bad episode, but it's so distinctly memorable.  No point in rewatching that one.

On the other hand, today I have a great moment when I watched the episode "the Robbery" and discovered that it's the one when Jerry and George argue about who should get a fancy new apartment.  I had naturally thought that this plot line was from the episode "The Apartment."  So if not that, then what really happens in the episode "the Apartment"?  A new adventure awaits!

Never again going to the Starbucks at 14th and L.  Last time my mocha tasted like chocolate milk, this time it tastes like coffee.  There's a dunkin donuts at the corner of the same block, they certainly couldn't do any worse.

The girl next door

The girl next door is watching Walk the Line.  I can hear it through my wall.  I've never met the girl. Once I saw her walk to her door when I was walking from the trash chute to the elevator.  We didn't speak; actually I only saw her walking the other direction.  But at least from that perspective she doesn't look half bad.  Even that being the case, and Walk the Line is quite a good film, I'm still not tempted to go talk to my new neighbor.  She smokes in her apartment and that seems like a major lifestyle choice.  I'm sure her place smells like cigarettes and all her stuff and it probably doesn't bother her at all.  It's worse than a girl who owns a bunch of cats.  I should make a list of Must-Nots in case I start Internet dating.  Girls on there will love that.