One of those moments

I lead with my mouth. Almost always. One of my professors more politely describes it as "speaking to think," versus those who "think to speak." But I think it's really more of a troublesome here-and-now approach to communication than anything else.

And I can't stop doing it.

Of course, the interesting thing is that I am sometimes *very* surprised by what I say. I had one of those moments just a few minutes ago. If I bothered repeating it and putting it in context, I think the Internet might collapse. (Oh, the power I have!) So let's just say that I had a moment where I said something in parting and immediately asked myself, Did I really just say that?! And then laughed at myself in a way that can only be described as a mix of maniacle and delighted amusement.

All I can say to the charmer upon whose ears my most unexpected and bizarre words fell is: Oh well. Can't really take those back. Wouldn't want to anyway.

In other news, I did a stint with the Criminally Insane today that included the viewing of two movies, one of which was "American Beauty." That flick still has an effect on me.

And then this evening, I went with GameBoy to see "Letters from Iwo Jima," which left me seriously sympathizing with "the enemy." To the point that I actually teared up a little. (Touché to those of you who feign surprise at the idea of me getting a little teary-eyed.) I'm not just dealing with a world of grief these days, I also happen to be one of the ultimate saps of all time when it comes to movies.

This one was particularly wrenching, though. Full of the acts of humanity at war -- heroic and otherwise. And the film was desaturated so that most colors were muted toward grey. Only reds and yellows (and thus things like the Japanese flag and the fiery blasts of artillery) were highlighted. Quite a dramatic effect. If you're going to see a movie that doesn't have any sex in it, make it "Letters from Iwo Jima."

After the flick, I got to satisfy my curiosity about something new out there in the world. I played a few games -- tennis, bowling and golf -- on GameBoy's Wii setup. Wii allows you to use kinetic movements to control your video icons. So in bowling, you hold a controller in your hand and move your arm like you're bowling. You release the ball by releasing your hold on a button.

You also get to be these little characters, some of which have been created by Nintendo, and others which you can create yourself (called a Mii). GameBoy happens to have created a bunch of celebrity look-alikes, so in the games where we competed against each other, I was Uma Thurman, and GameBoy was Chuck Norris. Chuck kept winning.

Interestingly, my bowling scores and performance in Wii parallel my bowling in real life. My Wii golf game is a tad better -- but not much better. I triple-bogeyed a par 5. I started out with a nice drive that hooked to the right and landed in the rough, hit a great second shot, overshot the green on the third, fourth and firth shots, landed in the bunker on the sixth, before finally two-putting into the hole. That's just about where my golf game was when I last hit the links about two years ago.

Anyway, that was interesting -- and my curiosity has been satisfied.

Now it's time to say goodnight. It's been a LONG day for me, and I desperately need my beauty rest.