Omedetou

I've taken to shotgunning glasses of orange juice after every meal. At first it was part of a vague concern about not getting enough vitamins; an irrational fear of scurvy or perhaps a doctor examining my intestines and proclaiming that I have eaten too much meat and will die within the hour (!). Now it's just a ritual: all down the hatch in one go, or it doesn't count. Towards what, I'm not sure. I can't be too overly concerned about my health if I walk around in a hoodie in this weather.

Personally, I blame World of Warcraft. The game has such a strong addictive pull that it seems to have sucked all my other vices into itself, collecting them all into a little concentrated ball of Deadly Sins. This makes it extraordinarily hard to escape from, but when I do manage to slingshot out of its orbit it renders my free time surprisingly constructive and sloth-free. I've begun to pay attention to homework and return calls, even go out of my way to practice piano. Play enough of this game and I may well end up at the gym three times a week, vegetarian and a social butterfly. Not exactly what you'd expect from a game genre whose leader recently added a feature to order pizza without quitting the game.

Went to see Constantine in Portland last night. Replace all the occult references and demons with shady business dealings and brass-knuckle thugs and you'd have a pretty serviceable modern detective noir; remove the silly cross-gun and some of the more wooden exposition scenes and you'd have a top-rate comic book movie. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised; Keanu is well suited to the role and the movie doesn't make the common comic book movie mistakes of over-glossing the setting or overplaying its hand on the action scenes (cough bluh Fantastic Four muh). And really, any movie that can make an exorcism its climax using the minimum of special effects possible deserves some credit.

And finally, because I haven't said it properly yet: Congratulations, Matt and Rachelle. While I don't have current mental access to any pithy, ancient blessings that would suit the situation, I do wish you love, happiness, long life and good harvests. Or at least any three out of the four.