I ain't all just chuckles and smiles, I got my sober side you know

2003-08-28 - 6:54 p.m.

My main accomplishment for today was shopping. First I went to a brand new Wal-Mart in my area to pick up my very own DVD copy of "The Two Towers." I didn't really know where to go to find it the cheapest, but Christina got hers from Wal-Mart and I figured she knows about these things, so that's where I went, too. Only, of course, she got it for Orlando while I'd much prefer Viggo. I also bought myself a stopwatch there so now when I run outside I'll at least know how long I'm running.

From there I went to a nearby mall to try to find one of those little booths where you can get your picture taken so I could get some headshots for applications. Well, I wandered around for a while and finally found one. I stepped inside and pulled the curtain. I had my pocket full of quarters figuring I could use them in the machine. Unfortunately, the machine only took one- and five-dollar bills. Besides the quarters, all I had with me were a few twenties from the last time I hit the ATM. So I went to the food court and bought myself a small soda using a twenty. With my soda I received a ten, a five, three ones, and some change. I took my money back to the machine. I stepped inside and pulled the curtain. The machine said it took fives, but it didn't. It kept spitting mine back out. I needed five dollars for the picture and I only had three ones. So of course I decided to go do some more shopping. But I didn't need anything and I certainly wasn't hungry. What else would I be willing to spend my money on? I'll give you one guess, ha ha. I located the mall's only bookstore and bought myself The Great Hunt, which is the sequel to the book I just finished. With my book I got a ten, two ones, and some change. I took my money back to the machine. I stepped inside and pulled the curtain. This time it worked. I had a good laugh at myself trying to get a picture that looked halfway decent but I finally got one. The printer for the machine is on the outside, though, so you have to get out and wait for it to print. That's when I discovered that the monitor that I had been amusing myself with inside was outside the booth, too, so that my goofy face was proudly displayed for everyone passing by to see.

Before I left for Japan I was reading Shogun by James Clavell. The copy I have, though, is really beat up and I didn't think it could survive the trip, so instead of taking it with me, I took another book, Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, with me. I finished Eye of the World yesterday and started reading Shogun some more. Shogun has always been Azuma's favorite book. I always assumed that was because it's about Japan and samurai and committing seppuku and that sort of thing. But now I don't think that's true. This book could be about the My Little Ponies rescuing Spike and Ducky from the evil sasquatch and it still would be good. His writing style is just so interesting. He switches points of view from one character to another and back again without even missing a beat in a way that keeps you on your toes and makes you understand what motivates each and every character and actually care about the bad guy in a way that makes you not even very sure which character really is the bad guy. Perhaps nobody is. Or they all are. And he's able to stop everything and have several pages of flashbacks to explain the history behind an event and then resume the story in a way that makes you almost not even realize there was a pause. It's just really cool. In fact, I think I'm going to go read some more now.