Deranged Ramblings

Though the infrequency of my blogging might suggest otherwise, I lead a quite full life full of interesting events that would, in theory, make great anecdotal posts. Unfortunately, most of these stories (such as the one from last weekend where I ended up with an ice pack on my groin – don't ask) are not exactly fit for the public at large, because they reveal aspects of my personal life I would prefer to keep hidden from those who still somehow have a good opinion of me or are just flat out too embarrassing. Accordingly, there are a number of things that I do and enjoy every day that I never talk about my blog. It's time to come clean and confess everything. I'm sorry if this disappoints anybody, and I'll understand if, after hearing my big secret, you'll never want to talk to me again. I am a nerd. A comic-book loving, D&D playing, fantasy-books reading nerd. Yes, I play Dungeons and Dragons. I am more recently known to my fellow D&Ders as Murphy McWatt, ...

I am, as has been brought to my attention on several occasions, something of a “movie snob.” This means I regularly turn up my nose at mainstream Hollywood flicks in favor of more obscure, antiquated, or pretentious artistic films like “The Lion in Winter,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Henry V,” etc. etc. However, I have tried to reassure my critics on this point that, despite the prevailing opinion to the contrary, I do on occasion enjoy a good big-budget movie along with the rest of the masses. This weekend, in fact, I went to the movie theater in the mall (the temple wherein America worships high-priced and flashy banality) to watch “X-Men 3: The Last Stand,” a major summer motion picture, albeit the heyday of its popularity was SO three weeks ago. And I rather enjoyed it, just as I enjoyed its two predecessors. If you can lower your artistic expectations and have a healthy ability to suspend your disbelief about the science of the whole thing, the story of the X-Men is really great. It...

I was extraordinarily fortunate that, by a strange twist of fate, I was able to do Hamlet again this past semester. This was followed by being fortunate enough to continue on to be in our spring Shakespeare show: Greatest Hits. Thanks to Sam, our resident cross-dresser and MVA ("Most Valuable Actor"), I now have pictures to prove all this. HAMLET, WINTER 2006 SHAKESPEARE'S GREATEST HITS, SPRING 2006

It's been a frustrating week for me. I've tried to blog on several occasions, but nothing was coming out except for angry political rants and inflammatory statements of partisanship. Part of it, frankly, comes with my dissatisfaction with my job. But really, this has not been a good week in the news; I'm continually depressed by the state of the world. Yeah, we got Zarqawi. That's good. But somehow I couldn't bring myself to smile too much about it. Not with the death toll in Iraq growing exponentially, the absolutely ridiculous debates going on in the Senate, recent national security cuts at the hands of “strong-on-security” Republicans, not to mention the latest in the fiasco that is the lamentably weak inquiry into Bush's blatant breaking of established law. Anyway, I'll spare you all the political opinions (talk to me if you really care to hear them) and just say that the only thing that made the week bearable was the Daily Show. Jon Stewart is my hero. ...

A few weeks ago, something quite important happened in my life, and yet I neglected to mention it on my blog. I was waiting for the right moment, you see, to reveal all about it, but that moment never really arrived. There's no time like the present, I say! Actually, usually I say “eh, maybe tomorrow...” but right now I say there's no time like the present. In the most general sense, the important event was finally becoming completely and 100% financially independent, which is pretty neat while at the same time being absolutely terrifying. For one thing, it stands as irrefutable proof that I am an adult now, a fact I usually prefer to comfortably ignore. For another, I'm not sure I wish to place the responsibility of handling all my finances on to somebody so remarkably unsuited for the job. I'm still a bit hazy on how this whole “rent” thing works, so just forget about me understanding investments or loans or interest rates. Still, it was a step that had to be made,...