I’m currently suffering through what appears to be an ear infection. At least that’s what the doctors tell me, and frankly I’m more than happy to take that diagnosis at face value. While I was clasping my face in pain earlier this week I was checking around on various medical sites for reasons for my discomfort and one of the things that I came up with that seemingly fit my problems (but I know better than to self-diagnose) was Temporomandibular Disorder. This is a condition where the temporomandibular muscles or the temporomandibular joint become inflamed causing swelling in the ear canal and the inability to fully open one’s jaw. In severe case the mouth can actually be locked shut. There isn’t any “cure” for it since it’s a disorder and mostly managing it through pain management until it goes away on it’s own. Lets just say, I don’t like disorders and I would be seriously sad panda if that were the case. But the pain seems to be subsiding now, and I’m nearly finished my antibiotics so I’m going to go with that it was an ear infection and just leave it at that.

I haven’t even had the car long enough to scratch it up myself. I would think that I had earned the right to beat up my own car before some asshole comes along and does it for me.

On a side note, I’ve officially reached adulthood — I’ve filed my first police report. Ugh.

Movies:
Burn After Reading – A comedy written by Joel and Ethan Coen of No Country for Old Men and The Ladykillers fame. A rather entertaining offering from the brothers which definitely draws from several of their past works and well as some of the works of others, like The Departed. I’m hardly a movie reviewer (plus it’s been a week since I’ve seen the movie and I didn’t exactly take notes … It’d have been kind of weird since I wasn’t alone) so I’m not going to try and write too much about it. Overall, if you like thrillers (and this one is definitely thrilling whilst fun) you should give it a viewing.

The Getaway – I recently signed up for Netflix and the first two months or so was watching seasons 1 through 4 of Entourage since I never had the opportunity to watch it when they were on television since I don’t have any desire to pay for HBO. I’ve gone through and added a bunch of movies that are related either to actors I like, or directors I like, or franchises that I like. I’ll probably chronicle what I watch as I go. Part of my motivation for doing this is that I would like to make a hobby/part-time career out of video production and I want to soak up as much great directing/acting/production as I can. I’d like to think of my self as a semi-cinephile in that I’m not an obsessive devotee to the art. I’m planning on getting a Panasonic DVX100 at some point, but that probably won’t be until next year at best.

Anyway, back to the movie, The Getaway (1972) staring Steve McQueen as ‘Doc’ McCoy and Ali McGraw as Carol McCoy, chronicles the adventures of Doc and Carol as they escape a crime boss, who gets Doc out of prison and tasks him with robbing a bank, a backstabbing cohort, and the law. An excellent flick all around. One of the things that I like the movie is that overall there is relatively little dialogue, but you don’t ever feel underwhelmed by it because there is generally always something going on when the characters aren’t directly relating to each other.

Toastmasters:
I was supposed to give a speech this past Wednesday, but I have had a hard time coming to grips with a topic that I really want to speak on.

Aside from that, I’ve mostly just been going to work and slowly putting my stuff away. I’ll be glad to get some kind of order to my apartment.

The new apartment is a bit smaller than my old space, but much nicer. Recently renovated kitchen, recessed lighting on dimmers, etc. A definite step in the right direction I feel. The kitchen pretty much sold it for me.

I’m still in the process of unpacking. A bunch of my stuff is still in boxes. I’m definitely going to wait until the weekend to put any serious though into the unpacking process. I simply don’t have the energy for it after work. Once, I’ve got myself settled in and I’ve got some seating, I no longer have a couch and the only chair I own is my computer chair, I’m going to have a housewarming get together.

All in all an interesting experience and I definitely recommend it. They have some other events going on this month that I’ll check out.

Bicycle 100 Miles: Well the weather has recently just broken. I haven’t yet started riding, but next weekend I plan to make my first bicycling excursion. I’ll update you on my riding progress.
Learn to Sail and to achieve the Helmsman rating: The sailing season at CBI has just started (April 1st) so either next weekend or the weekend after I’m going to head over there and sign up.
Read 50 Books: Unfortunately I haven’t completely read one new book this year so far. I don’t particularly foresee myself achieving this goal by the end of the year.
Deliver 6 Toastmasters Speeches: I’ve only delivered one speech so far this year. I’m trying to come up with a topic for my second.

So today’s question is: Why aren’t you working?

For me there can be any number of reasons why I’m not working. It’s usually I’ve just hit a mental or motivational lull that I just need to take a moment to myself, maybe walk around, maybe browse around the web a bit, and then I feel a lot better and can get back to work. Lately however, I find it hard to work when I’m saddled with an “emotional burden” so to speak. A significant part of my social circle has informed me that they very likely moving to San Francisco at the end of the summer. They asked me if I wanted to join the Mass exodus (I made a funny) and frankly I’m torn. I’m not particularly skilled at making new friends. When they were handing out social skills I jumped out of line and went to the bathroom or something… Their leaving sucks because I’m going to have to try and find suitable replacements and who knows how well that will go. I also happen to really like the metro Boston area though I can’t articulate why I like it here as much as I do.

I wouldn’t really want to move to San Francisco. If I were going to move across country it’d probably be to the Pacific Northwest, most likely Portland, Oregon. If I’m going to make a life changing move it might as well be on my terms. If I were to head to the Northwest I’d be in the same boat as I’ll be in when they leave just slightly worse because I’ll know absolutely no one.
I’ve been running hypothetical scenarios through my mind the last couple of days about the possibility of diving head first off my comfort cliff and seeing what happens and whether I’ll come out all right.

Edit: Now I’m wondering why my trackbacks aren’t working