bleah

the bad thing about three-day weekends is everyone seems to be sleeping in ... or out of the house doing something. too many people in blogland only seem to be online from their workplace, so three-day weekends there means empty and lonely over here.

*sigh*

guess I'll go do some chores and shit for an hour or two and hope someone wakes up to keep me company.

a very Hughes influence ...

For most folks of my generation (I was born in 1969), many of the movies that marked our teen years were made by one man -- John Hughes. He was the king of teen romantic-comedies, and comedies in general. Hughes was the mastermind behind the so-called “Brat Pack.”

His name not ringing any bells? Howzabout some of his movies:

• “Mr. Mom” — Michael Keaton was much funnier as the goofball guy than Batman.

• The “Vacation” series — Still some of the funniest movies EVER. Chevy Chase was brilliant … yes, THAT Chevy Chase … and Beverly D’Angelo was D’Bomb. Heh.

• “Sixteen Candles” — She gave her panties to a geek!

• “Weird Science” — Memorable mostly for an insanely hot Kelly LeBrock. There’s no way I could count the number of times she filled my fantasies. Oh, and a young Bill Paxton as Chet.

From my heart and from my hand
Why don't people understand
My intentions ... Oooh, weird ...
Weird science!!

• “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” — Gotta be one of my all-time faves. The parade scene was brilliant.

• “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” – Steve Martin and John Candy. Need I say more?

• “Uncle Buck” — Another one of my all-time favorite flicks. Picturing John Candy making giant pancakes still cracks me up.

• The remake of “Miracle on 34th Street” — the original is one of my favorite movies ever (I have a lot of those, don’t I? LOL), but the remake did a good job with it. Plus I love Elizabeth Perkins (totally under-rated dream babe!).

• “Home Alone” — Hard to top the physical comedy of Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern trying to get “that kid.”

and, of course …

• “The Breakfast Club” — the protoypical high-school stereotypes all forced to spend a Saturday detention together in the library. There was the jock, the geek, the badboy, the popular chick and the weird chick. Together, they all learn they aren't so very different from each other ... aww. LOL

This post was mostly inspired by the death of a key character in the movie — Paul Gleason, who played hard-ass Principal Richard Vernor. He died of a rare form of asbestos-related cancer at the age of 67.

“Don't mess with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns.”

Farewell, Principal Vernor. You will be missed.

Poker? I didn't even touch her ...

Some people have lists of things they want to do before they die. Some are grandiose, and probably unrealistic. Others are simple and relatively easy to accomplish. They may want to skydive. Or visit Tibet. Maybe hike the Grand Canyon. Or have a three-way. Whatever.

Some of these people actually have a physical list. They keep it somewhere and check off each of the things on the list as they are accomplished.

I have a list, kind of; it changes from time to time. It's not written down anywhere, although, as you can probably tell by the gist of this post, it soon will be ... or, at least the current, flexible quasi-list.

• I want to play poker professionally. Yep, no real job other than cards. Obviously, I want to be good at it, or it won't last long. Morever though, I really want to play in the main event's World Series of Poker and make the final table. I've been watching reruns of previous World Series of Poker on ESPN Classic this last week; I suppose that's fueled the fire of this dream a bit more. Also, a guy from here I used to play poker with on a regular basis was a top qualifier in an online tournament, which resulted in him being flown from his current home, in Hawaii, to the Bahamas for a $1-million-to-the-winner poker tournament. He won that, which not only made him rich, but the company that hosted the tournament is buying his spot in the World Series of Poker ($10,000 buy-in). I wish him luck, and hope to see him on TV, even if he doesn't win it, but I wish even more I was in it instead of him. LOL

• I want to write the next great American novel. Actually, I'd settle for just getting off my lazy ass to write A novel. Maybe a high fantasy book; I've had a basic plot and character development for a while ... I just need to fine-tune things and get to writing. Or maybe even a tawdry semi-porn romance novel.

• I'd love to be a feature columnist, syndicated in hundreds of newspapers.

• I'd like to lose a lot more weight and get much more fit and healthy. Work in progress.

• I want to smoke again. OK ... this is probably never going to happen, but maybe if I get healthy and fit enough? LOL

• I would like to get married someday. I'm one of the few of my friends who have never been married and/or divorced. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to join the club sometime ... either club, though to join the latter, I need to join the former first.

• I'd like to try my hand (mouth?) at stand-up comedy ... just to see if I'm really as funny as I think I am.

• I want to hit a huge lottery jackpot. Actually, I'll settle for a somewhat small lottery jackpot (even JUST $2 million or so). I want to be able to not have to work, even if it's just for a few years.

• I want to hit a hole-in-one. Just once. Well, more than once, but I'll settle for the one time. ;)

Not too bad of a list, I think. Some are very doable. Some are far-fetched. But that's how any dream list of accomplishments should be, I think.

Oh ... and this doesn't list ALL of the things on my list ... though it's a good portion of them. Because some dreams shouldn't be voice, or written, lest they never come true ...

Random Guam Fact Of The Day:
• In October, a team of Japanese and U.S. researchers got an unmanned probe got within several feet of -- with videotape to prove it -- a violent underwater eruption in the Pacific Ocean ... just about 60 miles north of Guam.