Let's not turn this into an audiophile debate (see previous diary). I use these things on the train with mp3s. Audio quality isn't terribly important and anything that would block out enough noise to make audio quality important would block out possibly important audio information.

Somebody mentioned Starship Troopers as being a film and movie combo where it is useful to think of the two being separate entities which happen to have the same name. That led me to comment that LoTR is perhaps best viewed that way, too. Uncoupling the two, in retrospect, can be problematic. On the one hand, I am pretty sure a large number of the fans tolerate the obvious faults of the film because of their admiration of the books. On the other, a lot of people dislike the films because of their obvious faults in comparison to the books. I simply can't be arsed to ever watch a series of three better-than-average-but-not-particularly-awesome four-hour films ever again. I've been coerced into watching them before and the flaws (chief among them: being utterly boring) stand out far more the second time you watch. I would rather watch six two-hour films or eight 1.5-hour films on the IMDB list of the top 250 films that I have not seen (maybe a couple that I have seen could fit in that mix, depends on what I feel like (I'm always up for The Maltese Falcon or Casablanca)).

I'm not sure why two Humphrey Bogart films popped up in that list. The rumors are true, however: I would probably be willing to watch either of those films at any time that I am willing to watch a film.

Continuing on botanical themes! Yesterday, I was informed of the etymology of FUCHSIA. Today, we will discuss BEARGRASS. We will not discuss the etymology because that would be stupid. Beargrass blooms every 5-7 years! They have it in Montana, among other places. It is a member of the lily family, but can be mistaken for grass when it is not in bloom. I know this because it is on my Montana calendar. It has pretty flowers. BEARGRASS! Attn: wikipedia just informed me that it has rhizomes that survive fires, so it is very important! It is one of the first things the pops up after a fire. Cool beans.

I have my final today. I'm taking the afternoon off. To calm my nerves, I will use that time for training and then a review. Picking up heavy things puts me in a VICTORY mindset. We all want VICTORY. AMERICA!!! Studying too much on the day of the test really won't help much unless you're woefully underprepared. It's better to just be calm and composed rather than trying to cram a bunch of crap in your head. I'm pretty awesome, so I know everything there is to know. I just need to lay it out there.

Glenn Pendlay is giving away teh secret knowledges: Glenn's Advice for Lifters Over 40. There's stuff in there applicable to just about everybody, too, though. It's very common-sensical. For diet, he says real food (basically meat and lots of produce), fish oil if you don't eat enough grass-fed beef and fish, vitamin D if you don't get enough sun, a multivitamin if diet isn't ideal, magnesium for sleep. Lots of sleep.

Typing out my resume. For, uh, fun. Yeah. Fun. I'll submit it for, uh, fun or something on Monday, I think. Give me a couple days to think about what I want to say.

I want to give a shout out to sitting down.