Random Acts of Kindness

A couple of days ago, I found a Driving License on the ground, the paper part, not the pink card bit, and so a couple of days ago, I popped it in the post, with a little letter saying where I found it, and that I hoped the lady didn’t have to buy a new one.

It gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside to know I did something nice for a stranger, even if I never heard from them again. It didn’t give me too warm a feeling though, or I might have been like in a sauna or something, or….like…on fire.

Either way, I sent it and forgot about it.

So yesterday, I got a really odd phone call, from someone about a license, and where I’m working we need export licenses, so i thought she was talking about that, and it was only after she said “Driving” that it finally clicked together (People who know me will tell you sometimes it takes me a little longer to catch up to everyone else’s level, I just don’t get things straight away!).

From just my address and name on the top of the letter, she had managed to track me down to where I worked just to say thank you!! I doubt my flatmates could work out what my work number is, and I’ve TOLD them where I work, and I LIVE with them!!

It was just nice to hear that she got it fine, and she saying she’d leave me a gift or something as a thank you, and I’d sent it in the nick of time as she was going to order a new paper bit today. It was nice to hear that, but I didn’t really want any gift.

I just got to wondering, how many other people would send it back? I’d like to think everyone, but I have a sneaking suspicion that some people wouldn’t.

I might try and do a good deed a day, but opportunities like that don’t happen every day. We’ll just have to see…..

Watchmen

Ok, so its while after I saw the Watchmen trailer, but  after about 3 weeks later I’m still so excited about it!!!

We went to see The Dark Knight, and I actually gasped when I realised what the trailer was, and had my classic “excited sensation” when I see a trailer or some promo material for a film i get excited about – I got a tingling feeling run from my forehead to the bottom of my spine. This is a very good sign.

However, no-one else seems excited about this movie! Watchmen is one of the most exciting and dark graphic novels/comics I’ve ever read, and I have high hopes! Everyone I went to see Dark Knight with just shrugged, and James said he thought the CG looked unimpressive.

Now firstly, the actor who plays Dr. Manhattan is the same guy who played the lead singer in Almost Famous – looks completely different, and is an awesome actor so I think he’s going to be really good.

Secondly, the music for the trailer is awesome – Smashing Pumpkin’s The Beginning is the End isthe Beginning (a remix of The End is the Beginning is the End). Originally written for Batman & Robin, and written about Batman, just looking at the lyrics is so creepy and dark. I can’t believe it orginally had a really fast beat to the song!

And Thirdly, Rorschach. If you’ve read Watchmen, you’ll understand. A film with him in it has got to be exciting!

So, to hopefully get you interested in this dark, dark, film, here are Billy Corgan’s lyrics below:

Send a heartbeat to
The void that cries through you
Relive the pictures that have come to pass
For now we stand alone
The world is lost and blown
And we are flesh and blood disintegrate
With no more to hate

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you’re so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in it’s pain

Delivered from the blast
The last of a line of lasts
The pale princess of a palace cracked
And now the kingdom comes
Crashing down undone
And I am a master of a nothing place
Of recoil and grace

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you’re so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in it’s pain

Time has stopped before us
The sky cannot ignore us
No one can separate us
For we are all that is left
The echo bounces off me
The shadow lost beside me
There’s no more need to pretend
Cause now I can begin again

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you’re so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in it’s pain
Strange
Strange
Strange

Another day….

Well, this week has not gone exactly as planned….

Firstly there was Saturday, and our wonderful friend spilled red wine twice in one party, and covered the the lounge wall, the kitchen wall and the carpet in the lounge with the stuff. I tried to get some Bicarb of Soda straight on it, but unfortunately, as it was spilled during a house party, it just got trod into the carpet. After about 3 cleaning sessions with some carpet cleaner, its starting to disappear, but I think there is always going to be a bit of a mark. Oh well.

As for the walls, I’ve had to paint over them. Surprisingly, for how much I had to paint, 2 small tester pots was all it took to cover up the stains with two coats. Ok, so they say on the side of the pot that they shouldn’t be used for touching up paintwork, but it worked fine for me!

Most of this week so far at work has involved this rather long spreadsheet. Now, don’t get me wrong, its work, I need the money, so I’ll put up and shut up, but I hate spreadsheets. Especially the way everyone in my office seems to make them tiny and uses enough colours to make me think I’m on some type of hallucenogen! It hurts my eyes after refering to it for 6 hours. But thats now sorted, and so now I get to do my other list of tasks

Wonderfully, the power went out not long after I left the house yesterday, and so when I got to work, I got a call from my housemate telling me that the pwoer was out. Luckily, we got it sorted, but it was a bit of a palava – we weren’t sure who to ring, and then we had an engineer out, who said our connection to the main grid had blown, and so had to knock out the power to the whole street for about 2 hours. Luckily, I was at work for all this, but two of my housemates weren’t, and aparently they got hassled by a guy down the street for not telling him the power was going out. If this man ever reads this, I hope he is pleased about being a whiney pathetic excuse for a human being.

Apart from that, not much going on. Need to tidy and clean the house, but that always seems like an on-going job. I just hope Friday is nice and relaxing so I’m not tired for the gig. We’ll see soon enough…..

Update

Right, it was about May since my last post, so here’s the whirlwind update:

• I quit my old job, as I wasn’t enjoying it, it was stressing me out too much and eating away most of my time. I was unemployed for a month, and now I am temping. I needed the money.
• I have got hooked onto a new tv show – Burn Notice. The US doesn’t make episodes fast enough for me, and I’ve already caught up watching it into the current (second) season.
• I had fun in London with my girlfriend at the start of July for a week’s holiday. We went to see Avenue Q – it is awesome, go see it now. We then pottered around back at her parent’s house, and had fun.
• Laura’s birthday has been and gone, but her birthday party is this weekend. Its a pyjama party, across two rooms for different movie styles (one cute and cuddly, one horror/action/b-movie). There will be alcohol, and photos aplenty.
• We have a gig on Friday the 22nd August at the Actress and Biship in Birmingham. Come see us, we’ll rock your socks off…..or something to that effect……..
• Douglas Furs have some really cool photos done by Katie’s firend Gordon. He is awesome too, bow down to his über-camera skills.
• James has modified some photos for us and put them up as kind of profile pics on Myspace. They’re very good.
• I now have a moustache and beard. Laura has yet to complain about it. My Dad said I was fury, my Mum said I looked like my Grandad with a beard, which I think is the best compliment so far. Amongst others, the comments so far have been:
  -”What is that on your face?”
  -”So when are you planning on growing this beard?”
  -”HA!”
  -”He looks a bit like Huey from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals doesn’t he?”
  -”Its not as bad as I thought it would be when you told me.”
  -”Give him a berret, a string of onions, and a stripey shirt and you’d swear we were in France”
  -”Cool Mexican-beardy thing you’ve got there.”
  Either way, I like it.
• Introversion Software make ace games – Darwinia and Uplink are great fun, especially at just over £12 for both off Steam. I still haven’t completed Uplink yet though. Not enough time.. my brother tells me Defcon is good as well. Do you want to play Global Thermo Nuclear War?
• The trailer for Watchmen (and I don’t care what anyone else says) is awesome. I nearly creamed my jeans the first time I saw it, and when we went to see The Dark Knight, I actually gasped. Speaking of which…
• The Dark Knight is brilliant. I was worried (as were a lot of my friends) that people would only say it was good because of heath ledger’s death, but it was GREAT!!! Wall-E was good too.

And I should probably get back to work now…..