You're Making Me Look Bad

I'm really hesitant to recommend things to other people. I know that my own view can be a bit narrow and because of this I don't usually like to advise people about movies or restaurants. Just because I like something does not mean it will be universally well-received. Also, I usually roll with things not working perfectly and what I might deem as an acceptable flaw could be a deal-breaker to someone else. I was reminded of this a couple weeks ago when I told a friend of mine about Skype. His sister had recently had a baby and he wanted to see the little one as often as he could, so I suggested he try Skype as a way to see the family without having to get on a plane. Now, I would never classify this particular person as "tech-savvy", but I thought he could handle it. I tried to reassure him that Skype was easy to use and he wouldn't have any problems. Of course, Skype let me down. He couldn't connect at first and then when he did the connection was choppy and bad. So typical. The worst part of this was that my friend is not into technology, because you know that if he was a computer programmer the Skype connection would have worked flawlessly. This kind of stuff never happens when the person you recommend a product to is the kind of person who would understand that sometimes there is just a bad connection or sometimes the Internet just doesn't feel like cooperating. It only fails when the person already thinks that computers are the devil.

This phenomenon of things suddenly deciding to change their behavior at the worst possible time occurs in other areas of life as well, only don't forget it can be the reverse - they'll go from broken to fixed. Objects will continue to not work properly until it comes time for them to not work in front of the key person, at which point they always magically get repaired without any help. Your car is a prime example. It could be making an unhealthy sound every time you drive it around for an entire year, but that noise will invariably stop once you finally have the money to take the car to the shop. Driving it in you're convince you might as well be dragging your engine behind you, but by the time the professionals hook it up to one of those diagnostic machines that vehicle will be humming like a Ferrari. Suddenly the mechanic thinks you're somebody who doesn't know anything about cars (fine, that part is true) and that you're just wasting everybody's time. Then you have to do that half-mumbled explanation, "Oh, well, it's not doing it now" while trying not to look like an idiot. Even your own body can betray you. Ever made an appointment to go to the doctor with some kind of joint pain? The morning of your scheduled visit will be the first pain-free wake-up you've had in months. Making a doctor's appointment might sometimes be the best medicine available.

-I want all the Twilight and True Blood people who think this vampire craze is going to last forever to pay attention to this particular mini-rambling. This week for some reason the premium movie channels have been showing Mel Brooks' take on horror, Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Now, this came out in 1994, which was the last time the vampire craze was going on, following Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview with a Vampire. The fact that we went through a vampire craze 15 years ago and I barely remember it is further proof that is only a matter of time before we as a society will move away from shows and movies like Twilight and forget about vampires for another decade (and I am confident that I will be able to wait the craze out). I just want you all to be ready to laugh at yourselves in 2025. As for the comedy version of vampires - have you ever re-watched a movie a long time after originally seeing it? It can almost be like seeing it for the first time all over again. I saw this movie when it originally came out back in the early 1990s and I remember thinking it was funny; 15 years later I find it just as funny, but for different reasons. At 30 I get a lot more of Mel Brooks' humor than I did at 14, even though silly is funny at any age. Now, I would never pretend that it was as good as Brooks movies like Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles, but I will say this - it is the closest I will ever come to enjoying a vampire movie.