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So on Wednesday morning as the VRE train was pulling into the station before my destination, a gentlemen who had been riding farther back than I was walked past me to deboard, and as he did he kind of nudged me familiarly. I had no idea who this guy was, but apparently we both must ride the same train every day and we both must sit in approximately the same seats everyday, because he had seen me with the portable DVD player balanced on my lap enough times that the sight of a book in my hands prompted him to josh me, "What, did you run out of movies?"
Of course the little gibbering voices inside my head all cried out in response, "Run out of movies? Are you kidding me?!? I could watch three feature films a day and never even catch up with all the movies I want or need or intend to see! There's too much! Always, always too much!!!"
But what I actually said in reply was, "Ha, ha, nope, just taking a break!"
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Then of course on Thursday and Friday I was back to watching DVDs again, all (arguably) in the interest of SPOOKTOBERFEST. Friday I watched the original Night of the Living Dead, which is incontestably on-theme for the month (and which I will get around to discussing a bit more in-depth next week, I promise), but Thursday I caught up a bit on Smallville's final season. I watched the fourth and fifth episodes, and part of the sixth, all of which were broadcast back in October of 2010. So one was a Homecoming episode, and one had Lois playing fan-service dress-up because she was possessed by an Egyptian goddess (like you do) , and the one broadcast closest to Halloween was called "Harvest" and, from the opening scenes that I saw, seems like a creepy Children of the Corn homage.
Anyway, whether or not Smallville counts as Halloween entertainment is largely beside the point I'm interested in making, which is that I think I have some serious Stockholm Syndrome with regards to the show. At the end of the Egyptian-possession adventure Clark finally tells Lois about his double identity, taking their romance-for-the-ages to the next level. The will-they-won't-they convolutions the show went through for years before giving in to that particular plot point was agonizing, and yet when they finally committed to it I found myself surprisingly, happily gratified by it. I should be so sick of Smallville by now, but clearly I am suffering from more profound emotional disturbances.
Just so we're clear, I'm almost done watching (and probably talking about) Smallville. 16 and a half episodes to go, and I'm resolved to get through them all before the end of the year!
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I feel I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the record-breaking point spread for tomorrow's Broncos-Jaguars matchup, which of course should have factored into my decision-making for the Pick'em Pool. But here's the thing: I never, ever, EVER pick the Jaguars when I'm filling out my weekly sheet. I got burned by them one too many times when I first started playing in the Pick'em Pool, during a time when I was still making at least a half-hearted attempt to play fantasy football as well. It proved extremely difficult on a neurological level to separate out the fact that someone like Maurice Jones-Drew could be a valuable fantasy asset yet still play for a team unlikely to cover the spread. Eventually I washed my hands of both fantasy football and Jacksonville, and never looked back. It's actually served me pretty well.
To a certain extent it reminds me of a piece of advice for blackjack players: figure out if you are the kind of gambler who hits on 16 or stands, and then do that consistently. Every hand, no matter what the dealer or anyone else has, stick to a single strategy when you have 16. It doesn't really affect the outcome and make you any more likely to win or lose in that context, obviously, but it simplifies the game and makes it less stressful, at least. So that's me with the Jags: always bet against them, no matter the odds, the spread, the streak, whatever. We'll see if Peyton manages to light them up by a four touchdown gap or more.
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