how you know you've seen a movie too many times

Rocky and I were watching TV last weekend when a show began with the camera panning over a jungle.

Rocky: "That's Rush Hour."

Me: "How do you know?"
Rocky: "I know the music."
Me: "What?" (It sounded like generic instrumental music.)
Rocky: "It's Rush Hour 2."

Then the camera passed over the forest and a dense city emerged, and Jacky Chan's name appeared on screen. I gave him a look.

assumptions and expectations

There's a fine line between an assumption and an expectation. I expect the sun to come out tomorrow. I expect my car to turn on in the morning if I put gas in it and kept up with regular maintainence. If I thought I wouldn't like someone before I even meet him, I would be making an assumption. If I read some Internet gossip and believe it to be true with no other basis, that would be an assumption. Assumption, which in this case means "something taken for granted," has a more negative connotation than expectation.

I expected my twenty-five-dollar tent to hold up in case of rain, after making the assumption that it's a reasonable expectation from something designed for shelter. I really thought that was a standard feature. Rocky and I were camping on the beach near Santa Barbara, and it rained hard. We noticed the tent got wet -- it leaked at the zipper seams. After some deliberation and loading everything except the sleeping bag into the car, we drove to Rite Aid (just outside the camp site) and bought some packing tape and trash bags. The patch work did its job and held up until morning.

Today I browsed Amazon for a waterproof tent, and read one reader comment which said that "Almost all tent manufacturers, even for the most expensive brands, suggest that the buyer seal the seams to assure everything is watertight. A knowledgable camper wouldn't even think of purchasing a tent without applying sealant to the seams," in response to a reviewer who complained that his tent leaked. OK, so I'm a beginning camper, and I have not camped with anybody who is experienced. How was I supposed to know? This was the first time I've even heard of seam sealers, and I'm an avid instruction-reader so I'm sure my tent instructions made no mention of it. Anyway, now I know, and it was actually fun in the process, since we could've slept in the car if the trash bags hadn't worked out. And the morning was beautiful.

Our campsite

Walking on the beach

More of the beach

"fitness season"

As you may or may not know, I work for a company that markets infomercial products internationally. The first half of the year, from January through May or so, is we call the "fitness season" -- that is, when people make new year's resolutions to exercise and lose weight (people who go to the gym regularly know about this). It lasts until May or so because as the temperature warms, people start exercising outdoors, or they go on vacation, so the sales of exercise equipment drops.

I mention this now because for some reason reading this phrase today, it felt icky. I felt sad that so many people start exercising each year, fail to keep it up, and then start all over again the next year in the hopes that this year they'll finally lose those 10, 20, 30 pounds. And some people make money off of this cycle and call it "fitness season." I swear, probably a good half to two-thirds of the infomercial products out there are either exercise equipment or something that promises weight loss in some way. Not that I begrudge people making money when the opportunity presents itself, but it all just seems so pointless.