So after some early morning fun in Tyson's Corner, I went to work to do some maintenance. A couple hours later, I returned home to change clothes, etc.

As I left my house I heard a loud noise and saw that a car was crawling through the intersection at about two miles an hour. The driver of the vehicle behind had finally lost his patience and hit the horn hard. By the time I made it to the local convenience store, the car still wasn't moving and had its hazard lights on.

I snagged a drink and walked back outside. Seeing the car still there, I walked over and asked if they needed any help. A small elderly African American woman, who only spoke Spanish, emerged. I had (only the previous week) helped a Hispanic couple call a mechanic so I was prepared this time, flipping out my cell phone even as the woman came around the front of the car.

First she asked me where she was. I replied, "you're at 11th and S street" and she didn't understand. Finally, she pulled out a business card with a mechanic's name on it. I typed in the phone number and handed it to her. After a minute, it became evident that the mechanic didn't speak Spanish, so she was unable to tell him where she was. She pushed the phone back to me and said "tell him where we are". So I did.

The mechanic said, "you're at 11th and S? Man, she's going the wrong way. I'm up at V St, near Vermont! She lives practically next door to me...I can't believe she got lost." I said I could tell her where to go and hung up. I turned to the woman (did I mention that her face was blue? a little odd...but she was very old and quite small, so it didn't look that out of place) and tried to explain. Her response?

She just gave me the keys to her car.

Baffled, I said the mechanic was just up the street. She smiled and said "you can drive" and so I did. (Riding as a passenger with her seemed crazy). The car was sweltering inside, I couldn't get the seat to move back and the right hand mirror was frozen in place. Terrified I'd wreck her already poorly operating vehicle, I tried not to make any sudden movements. Of course, on top of everything else, it was an automatic, so as soon as I put it in "drive" it began to move. Grr. Next the car announced out loud in a tinny voice that the parking break was on. Thanks, Kitt! A few blocks later, we were at her mechanic. Problem solved. Total Cost? I was an hour late getting back to work, but I felt much better about myself as I began to walk down eleventh street.

The sun came out, and soon made everything warm. A good way to begin one's afternoon.

werkz advice: skip it.

I just finished Fellini's "La Dolce vita". Don't bother seeing it. It reminded me, in many ways, of Casshern. Why? Well, put simply, the film is beautiful. Every scene is shot perfectly, from the framing to the use of shadow, to the odd costumes and picture-perfect sets. But, like Casshern, the overall plot and characters are shallow and one-dimensional. Unlike Casshern, there is no action so one's interest peaks early and declines from thereon.

The main character, described on the netflix cover as someone who is dating a depressed girl only to "fall into the abyss" of dating a movie star, never changes. In fact, most of the movie is spent with him acting like a playboy. Needless to say, this gets dull after a while. Scenes and various smaller characters are introduced, seemingly at random, until one is left feeling that the movie, like life itself, doesn't make much sense.

By the time the movie was over, after almost three hours, I sighed with relief. All that fuss, just to invent the term paparazzi?

werkz advice: pick up a copy. this week.

Michael Crichton's latest, "State of Fear" is quite possibly the most timely release of a novel ever. It depicts a giant tsunami and other epic environmental disasters all timed perfectly to coincide with a book release...I mean, a news conference.

So it's topical and timely....what else? Well, it's a gripping science thriller, about, that's right, global warming. Suspend your disbelief long enough to realize that Crichton is not going to explain how global warming works, but rather, how it doesn't. As I read I thought of several counter arguments (Aral Sea, anyone?) but his overall thrust was worthwhile, namely, that scientific evidence was being misused for political purposes on both sides.

Go pick it up. It's not the most well written Crichton novel, but this week more than ever it seems appropriate.

I'm back. I'll commence firing at lunchtime.

Speaking of Hume, did anyone else see a parallel in how last year there was a huge earthquake at this time and this year there was a huge tsunami?

I've dealt with plenty of physical pain. But overall, nothing I've ever experienced can compare to what many people must be feeling this week. I'm grateful I don't have to. No one should have to go through a disaster like the ones this year or last.

This is why I get annoyed when people make flippant remarks about "bad areas" of DC or how they feel scared to walk down a well lit city avenue at nine o'clock. Perhaps they have valid concerns. But in the grand scheme of things, most people in America (myself above all) have it better than 99% of the other people in the world. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to make life better. That would be counterproductive. It does mean, however, that we should exercise some humility when expressing how tough we have it when our credit card bills pile up. Or when garbage collection is delayed a day, or if traffic makes us ten minutes late to work.

Yes, yes, I know, I'm a hypocrite. I like to complain as much as the next person. But in the dusty recesses of my mind, there's a tiny recording which repeats at a low volume that my lucky streak is just that: random chance. And we all know how random chance works out.

During the holiday interregnum, a few notes.

I've now noticed that almost all of my family, and even most of my friends, have some sort of portable music player. Not having one, I don't feel bad. It leaves a future gift slot open.

As far as personal booty, I managed to accumulate a large number of items which will go unmentioned, just like last year. I will point out that I received a very cool globe I wrote about earlier.

Every night that I've been able to, I've tried to polish off a book in front of a fire. The last one I've finished will be reviewed shortly, and was a marvelous work, despite almost running to 900 pages. In addition, the novel is set in the 18th century, leading to all sorts of Fun with Capitalization and Spelling of a Technologickal Nature. That and a Series of Infernal Devices. It reminds me that today, just as in the past, most people view machines as a sort of dark magic, to be negotiated by those Who Know Best. How illogickal!

I'll try to throw up some reviews of the games/books/music I've sampled during the break. But I'm promising nothing until I arrive back in the district.

One minor addendum: reading a book about how to engineer a tsunami in the pacific is fun. Opening the small town rag to read that such an event has actually occurred a few hours post book completion is scary. It's a good thing causality is a sham.