The O.C. to the B

So today at work, in another stunning display of generosity, a coworker bought lunch for me and the five guys I work with. It was the second time this has happened, and both times we were simply told to go wherever we wanted to eat. Last time it was Chipotle, makers of the best burritos pretty much ever, and this time it was Old Country Buffet. Now, I'm not a huge fan of buffet food, because most buffets offer a stunning quantity of stunningly average food. And true to form, this one was no exception. But it was an excellent and most welcome respite from the daily grind, which actually isn't really that bad in and of itself, but work nonetheless. We had a great time, though it was capped by possibly too much ice cream with too many toppings.

This evening I took my video camera back to the place I bought it, which was not a Best Buy or online retailer. It was a place called National Camera where the camera itself was more expensive than many other outlets such as the ones I just mentioned. I got it there, though, because I knew I could take it in if I had any problems and my chances of finding answers and solutions were much greater than a Best Buy or online retailer. So anywho, my camera was having a bit of an issue and the guy who spoke with me tonight ("Chris," one of the managers) was very helpful. Unbelievably helpful, in fact, to someone who has grown tired of the casual detachment that passes for service at other places such as, well, you get the point. In fact, this Chris dude just chatted with me about video compression formats, computer software, camera mechanics, and other things just for the heck of it while he cleaned my camera free of charge. Most excellent.

We watched a movie called "Shark Tale" tonight, which I continually compared to its counterpart, "Finding Nemo." Such a comparison is unfortunate, since the two films are vastly different and share only the medium in which their stories were told, but inevitable, since they are both ultimately about talking fish. Dreamworks seems more like a one-trick pony with every film they produce, its trick being weak and superficial parodies of pop culture strung along with fairly thin storylines. This holds true for the "Shrek" films (though I have not seen the third) and certainly for "Shark Tale." Pixar movies are rich multi-layered stories that rarely dip into the vast but shallow bucket of pop culture parody, and are all the more timeless and endearing for it. I suppose it also doesn't help matters, as far as Dreamworks is concerned, that I watched "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo" last week. But that's how things go, I guess. The moral of the story? I really want to go see "Ratatoullie." I also want to see "Transformers" again, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of this entire post.