"What just happened?
She just happened,
She just happened to cross my mind,
Without warning she crossed my mind
What just happened to me?"
--The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "She Just Happened" from Pay Attention

The Greatest Story Ever Told
I saw Wolfgang Petersen's Troy on Freitag. It was interesting to note that in almost every instance where the movie deviated from Homer's The Iliad, it did so in a manner with modern Judeo-Christian morality: Achilles, though a monster, also has a sensitive side; Agamemnon gets his comeuppance directly; the Trojans are on the side of the angels, leaving very little moral ambiguity. But, those are relatively nitpicky items. It is a fabulous movie and I strongly recommend all who read this go see it. Being an epic poem, the Homeric verses are difficult to access and enjoy, but the story of the Trojan War is an amazing tale of all that is good and bad about Man, and this film presents it in an entertaining and faithful (enough) manner. Brad Pitt is good as Achilles, but Eric Bana as Hector, Sean Bean as Odysseus, and Brian Cox as Agamemnon are absolutely outstanding; Orlando Bloom is perfectly cast as the original little bitch, Paris.

No Guts, and Thus No Glory
Yesterday was a fun day at the ballpark. I met and hung out with Zach Nie!'s East Lansing friends, a perfectly welcoming group. The only part of the day I did not enjoy was our dinner at Fishbone, a New Orleans-styled eatery in league with the Greektown Casino. The food was delicious and the atmosphere friendly, but we as a group were quite rude. Our waitress was overwhelmed with customers, and in coming to Fishbone we had expressed a common desire to sit down and take our time, yet once seated we were short-tempered and impatient. A couple of the girls were obnoxiously and unnecessarily catty, even going so far as to complain to the manager, but I am equally at fault since I did not raise any verbal objections to their inappropriate behavior. Blast my timidity. (Some would call it appropriate decorum within a group of people I have just met, but nuts to that; rude behavior is rude behavior and I should have had the fortitude to object to it at the time.) I have been invited to join this group, in an expanded form, for a camping trip over Memorial Day weekend. I am undecided about going, and must confess this incident is weighing heavily on my decision.