If I ever get an iPod, these are the albums from my collection that definitely need to be on it. They’re not necessarily my favorites, but they’re the ones that say “iPod” loud and clear.

Granted, I could also fit the rest of the albums I own on the 40GB iPod, but that’s irrelevant.

I finally finished watching Casablanca a few minutes ago.

Most of the movie was slow yet slightly difficult to follow. It suffered from too much unnecessary set-up; the movie might have been better off without the news-reel-style opening (which seems like it was popular at the time). Also, and more importantly, I found myself disliking characters (both Rick and Ilsa) whom I was pretty sure I was supposed to like. I started to wonder why it was considered a classic. It seemed over-hyped, much like Citizen Kane.

The ending of the movie, however, redeemed its status. It got to the point at which Rick delivers one of his famous lines to Ilsa, “If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it,” and suddenly I realized that I didn’t know the rest of the story. I knew that Rick would say that, but I had no idea what would actually happen. I didn’t know whether Ilsa would get on the plane. I didn’t know what would happen to Rick, or to Victor, or to Captain Renault. Suddenly, the movie became exciting, and I ended up really enjoying it as a result.

Ash and I tried to go to the beach yesterday, but we failed. It was way too crowded, and we didn’t have enough time before her babysitting gig, so we had to turn around and leave Balboa before we even found parking. It sucked. But then last night we went back, and we parked at the end of the Peninsula, and we walked out onto the beach and watched the waves for a while. I really do prefer the beach at night. Mostly because of the parking.

Claire is frustrated and exhausted by her full-time job at the Magic Kingdom. This afternoon, she randomly informed me, “Disney ate my brain!”

Of course, I replied, “It’s prob’ly still hungry then.”

I was emailing back and forth with a friend this morning. The delay was getting annoying, so I typed: “Why don’t you get your ass online [on AIM] so we can talk like normal people?!”

Then I realized how stupid that sounded, so I backspaced and continued emailing.

It really bothers me when a restroom has toilets that automatically flush, but you still have to “push” the faucet to wash your hands. I don’t know why it’s such a big deal to me, but I feel like the two technologies need to go together. If the toilet flushes itself, the faucet should open itself.

I think the reason it bothers me so much is that you don’t just have to push the faucet once; you have to push it several times while washing your hands. Really, I just want to stick my hands under it and have it pour water. They did it for the goddamn toilets, and I’m sure that was equally (if not more) difficult to install.

Naturally, I’d also like automatic hand dryers and automatic soap dispensers, but I’m not partial. Hand dryers may work better, but they also take longer, so I’m fine with paper towels.

Also, I know they exist, but someone is apparently doing a horrible job marketing automatic soap dispensers. I rarely see them.

Why would anyone want to have “Dinner with Shamu”? Like really, if I wanted whale snot on my food, I’d eat sushi.

From Michelle‘s journal:

“I’m reading 2 books right now… One tells me how to be a good person… and the other one tells me how to get what I want… :-\ Decisions decisions…”

Outlook Express thinks that the plural of weirdo is weirdoes, and it tried to correct me when I typed weirdos in an email this morning. But alas, Outlook Express was wrong, and I was right. According to Webster, the plural of weirdo is indeed weirdos. Oh, and I made up a rhyme to remind myself that I’m right: There’s no e before s, stupid Outlook Express.

At precisely 10:50am, I received this vague, cryptic, single-line email from a co-worker named Rachel:

For those in the front office…..11:30 🙂

What an eerie message. Is 11:30 the end of the world? Or is she pointing out that the front office is in a different time zone from the rest of the company, and it was 11:30 in the front office at 10:50 elsewhere? Is she staging a coup, and we must march together at 11:30? I’m thoroughly intrigued… and a little worried.