Just Because You Can Report it, Doesn’t Mean You Should…

So, I’ve blogged a few times about the speed at which technology moves and how we, as humans, have become far less patient over time because we’ve got used to things moving so fast.

Nowadays, we don’t have to wait for much. In the ‘olden days’ people used to find out their news via word of mouth or, more likely, via the newspaper. Readers used to pour over their newspaper each morning to find out what was going on in the world. Then TV news became popular and people started watching that to find out what was going on. It was a little quicker and the news was freshly reported.

Nowadays, though we still have newspapers and TV news, we also have the internet. You can find what seems to be an infinite number of places to read news online. You can choose the category of news you want to read. It’s a virtual way of thumbing through a newspaper and pulling out only the sections you enjoy reading.

It’s quite useful, really. We no longer have to wait for breaking news to pop on TV with the verdict in a sensational trial or to find out there’s been a mass shooting or natural disaster. All you have to do is click on MSN.com or Yahoo.com or igoogle.com and the headlines can be right there, tempting you to click on the link and read the latest.

It’s a nice feature. It satiates our need for instant gratification. News is posted only seconds after it happens.

Yet, as with so many things in life, here’s a downside. It means that for every useful, worthy piece of news, there’s a lot of junk that goes with it.

For example, let’s just take something current: The Casey Anthony trial. What’s relevant in that news should be the verdict of a trial that’s been going on a while. A little girl died. Her mother was accused. A trial occurred. The jury deliberated. The verdict was reached.

This is the basics of what should be reported. Instead, the internet is saturated with everything from Jay Leno’s bad jokes about the trial to comments from jurors to editorials about why the jurors are idiots, why Casey should get murdered and why her parents are evil.

Today, I was on MSN’s main page. I got there because I sent an email from my Hotmail account and when I log out, this is the default page. I was assaulted by headlines. Yesterday, there was a story focuses on one of the alternate jurors who defended the verdict. Today, there was a story with an actual juror who defended the verdict. Except, they were the exact same article, the lead was different, the headline was different.

Why did I click on it, you ask? Because I couldn’t help it. I was curious. As a human being, it’s interesting to a) form an opinion and then b) have the tools to find out if you’re the only one to have this opinion. In addition, it’s interesting to see what other opinions/news is out there because it’s in my nature to be curious and get all the facts.

Except, the news stories that are popping up aren’t really facts as much as filler. The legal case is hot news so the internet resources are capitalizing on that. Even Entertainment Weekly has a lot of stories on the Casey Anthony case even though, technically, it’s an entertainment magazine and doesn’t really need to focus on current affairs.

What I’m saying is that I think we tend to abuse the instant nature of technology. I confess, I’m an enabler because I do click on a lot of the links because I’m being lured in by the promise of something interesting when, nine times out of ten, there’s nothing new, just more recycled information.

What I think about Casey Anthony doesn’t matter here or anywhere. I’m just using it as an example because it’s new and it’s current.

It’s not just oversaturation of the media with news stories that’s a problem. It’s the fact that some things just aren’t news worthy but they end up getting an article/blog anyway because there’s a precedent to ‘keep up with the joneses” as far as the internet goes.

This means, in short, that there’s a lot of absolute, ridiculous crap that masquerades as news. This is the stuff I don’t click on. For example, today, I saw a headline “Worst Celebrity Sunburns.”

Um, no offense to the poor burned celebrities but, who cares? I’m sure the intention was to show ‘celebrities are just like us’. We get sunburned, they get sunburned. WOW!

Except, again, who cares? Do we really need that? It’s just like an article the other day that I saw on several magazine sites about an actress cutting four-inches off her hair.

Again, who cares? I’m sure it was a big change for the actress but do we really need to know that? Do we really need headlines all over the internet telling how Natalie Portman has finally told the world the name of her baby. I’m happy for Natalie and her boyfriend. I’m more happy for the baby that it has a name because that makes life easier for everyone. Sure, it’s a bit of news, I suppose but does it really rate as many links online as…real news?

Then there’s Charlie Sheen. I find him just ridiculous, honestly. I never thought he was much of an actor and while I find his whole drug-addled meltdown slightly fascinating from a psychological point of view, I think that if the media didn’t report every idiotic thing he said and did, he might stop doing them and get some help for his drug problem.

Generally speaking, most celebrities thrive in the spotlight. They like attention. They do silly things for attention. Sometimes, because of the blur between reality and slanted media coverage, we tend to forget they’re human beings. Take Lindsay Lohan. Everything that girl does is covered by the media whether genuine news or paparazzi-fueled rubbish. I think she’s made some terrible choices. She’s got terrible parents. Frankly, she sort of makes me want to take a shower because, well, she has that effect.

Yet, she has a problem. She’s clearly an alcoholic. Her attempts at rehab have all been spotlighted in the constant presence of the internet news/paparazzi sites. How can she ever attempt to get real help for her problem when she can’t do it in private? She likes the attention, I’m sure that’s part of the reason she’s always doing silly things. Yet she doesn’t seem to have anyone sensible around her to tell her to drop out the public eye, get some real help and work on reconstructing her life.

I’m soapboxing, I know. I apologize. My real point is this: Just because it could be news doesn’t mean it should be. I think every site online that reports news should be forced to run their stories through a filter consisting of the following questions:

1) Is it really news?
2) If it is really news, what is the who, why, what, when, where and how of it?
3) If those five W’s and the H aren’t there, it’s not news. It might be a feature article.
4) If they are there, have they been the same for a story of the same topic in recent days/hours/minutes?
5) If it’s a feature article, is it something that people NEED to know? Will it benefit their life at all to see, for example, Jennifer Anniston with a sunburn?

I’m sure there are more questions but that’ll do for a start. Of course, I can help contribute to the cleaning up of internet news junk by not bothering to read it.

Which is why I refuse to read about sunburns, haircuts, jilted celebrities and who said what about Casey Anthony.

You have to start somewhere, right?

Thanks for letting me rant.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Kerplunk....Green Day, Work and the luck of Diablo Cody

It's rainy, gloomy and thunderstormy out there today. The morning waited to begin this gloom until after I was out of bed a fact for which I am actually quite grateful. It's much harder to get up when you hear the pelt of the rain against the window and the crack of the storm outside. When you're already up and deciding what to wear, it's not so bad. In fact, it's quite helpful.

I'm going to try not to let the gloom affect my mood. I'm not feeling gloomy today. I'm no more enamoured with my job than I was yesterday but somewhere between my attempt to attack my job with enthusiasm and gusto and today, I realized that sitting there whining about having nothing to do is actually not a very Monkeypants thing to do. I'm generally a self-starter. I don't need someone to give me projects. I'm usually quite good at making up my own. I think I've been tripping over the fact that even after nine months, I'm still the new Captain Monkeypants on the block and I've been afraid to overstep my bounderies.

I recognize this place. It's the time in my job where I stop worrying about getting in trouble for doing the wrong thing and I start making decisions on my own and standing by my decision. It's also the time where I start figuring out how to tell my boss what to do. I'm a bit of a bully sometimes but it works quite well. I'm not mean; I just know what I want. And, at the moment, what I want is to be respected and needed in my position, not to sit here any longer realizing that if I didn't show up for work, the only people who'd notice were my office-mates who'd notice it was nice and quiet.

So, armed with this attitude, I'm feeling better about things. The 'busy work' needs to get done and if I sit here waiting for my coworker to help, I'll be waiting forever. Someone has to do it and that someone is me. Don't you feel like there should be some triumphant anthem swelling behind my bravado?

I'm fed up of blogging about work anyway. I think it's time to talk about something else. I'm not sure what that will be there. Let's see...I could blog about Green Day. I happened to listen to an online webcast of KROQ's "Breakfast with Green Day." I confess, it made me sad. If I hadn't moved to Ohio, I would have found a way to be at that breakfast. I got to do it with Linkin Park a couple of times. Green Day would have been way better. Not to say that Linkin Park aren't good but they're my number two band. Green Day are number one.

One of the interesting things I discovered was that Green Day named one of their new songs on their 21st Century Breakdown album, "East Jesus Nowhere." It turns out that the band had another name for the song but they saw Diablo Cody, writer of the movie Juno wearing a Green Day Kerplunk t-shirt and renamed their song after a quote from Juno. I happen to think that is pretty cool. Lucky Diablo Cody. I have no idea if she really is a fan of Green Day or she's one of those people who liked the design: A punky looking girl holding a gun. I know Diablo likes New Kids on the Block and lots of bad reality TV because she writes a column for Entertainment Weekly every once in a while. Again, lucky Diablo Cody. I'd love to write for EW. At the very least, I'd like to have Lisa Schwartzbaum's job since she irritates me every week with her bizarrely overworded reviews that often forget to mention the movie itself much at all.

Either way, whether Diablo is a fan of Green Day or she liked the shirt, I think it's pretty cool that Green Day are still in touch with the world enough to do that. There are a lot of big bands and solo singers who see themselves as seperate from their audience, like because they're rock stars/pop stars/country stars, they're better than the people who pay to see them in concert. I don't get that from Green Day or Linkin Park. That's one of the reasons I enjoy their music so much: Because the people behind it are real people.

One of these days I'd love Green Day to name a song after something I wrote. That would be pretty fantastic. In the meantime, I'll just continue to listen to them and get inspired to write. That's one thing I love about music in general; one song can create a novel in my head. There's a lot to be said about that.

Happy Wednesday.

Watching the Watchmen

I lived in the Midwest for quite a number of years before I moved to L.A. Yet somehow, in the eight year period of time that I lived in California, I managed to forget that just because you have a nice day in March doesn't mean that Spring is here. Yesterday, it was 75 degrees. It wasn't terribly sunny but the air had that balmy feel that made you want to stand outside and let the breeze wash over you. I stood on my balcony last night and had a glass of wine and it was as warm in the dark as it had been in the day.

This morning, it's freezing. My temperature gauge on my car read 39 degrees. That's a big difference. Instead of strolling from my car and enjoying the warmth, I scuttled, trying to stop my nose from getting cold. My nose gets really cold and I hate it. Just one of those odd quirks I have.

Yet in a way, it's quite nice to have variety. There's something quite nice about unpredicability. It's always there to surprise and sometimes you need that. Same goes for variety. It'd be nice if it were Spring but I'm still not quite ready to relinquish winter. I've missed it too much.

I tend to be a creature of habit. I have my comfort zones and I rarely like to stroll out of them. Yet, occasionally, I will try something new just to see if I like it. For example, this weekend, while I was flying on my oh-so-relaxing trip, I read a borrowed copy of the graphic novel, Watchmen. It's not the first graphic novel I've read. I wouldn't be much of a Neil Gaiman fan if I hadn't read his Sandman graphic novels which are amazing. I've read a few others too just because I'm fascinated by how great writing can be combined with great art. I knew Watchmen was highly regarded yet I wasn't sure what to expect. I figured it'd be a quick read but as soon as I encountered the first text-heavy excerpt from the fictional Behind the Hood novel, I realized it was going to take a while. I did still manage to read it on the plane but, by the time I was done, my head was spinning. It wasn't like anything I've really read before.

Watchmen is not a superhero novel. It is, in fact, an anti-hero novel. The main characters are a second generation of a group of masked avengers who originally banded together to stop crime in a way that the police could not. This generation is not so naive. Except for two of the Watchmen who now work for the government, the rest have been forced to retire or go into hiding because of an amendment added by Nixon that outlawed masked heroes. Now these former superheroes are a group of bitter, nihilistic wanderers who can't quite let go of the past but are trying to find their place in a world that supposedly doesn't need them

My favourite character is the tragic Rorschach, a man who now believes the mask he wears is he real face. His mask is an Rorschach inkblot, seemingly alive as it changes shape constantly with the movement of his face muscles. He is the last true avenger, refusing to go into hiding and executing vigilante justice because he feels the world is a morally blank canvas and if he rids the earth of the scum, it might at least have a chance. He's called a sociopath yet he seems to feel so much that it's turned him inside out. He's violent and cruel but his moral compass will never let him betray the belief that the world is black and white and you are either against evil or against good. He's a fascinating man, the only one of the Watchmen who doesn't give up on trying to save the world one villain at a time.

I saw the movie last night in Imax. I wasn't sure what to expect. The graphic novel is so long and intense that I couldn't imagine how it'd be adapted. However, I must say, I was impressed and amazed at how well it was done. There were shots that were real-life exact replicas of panels from the novel. The nihilistic tone was there, the characters flesh and blood rather than inked figures on a page. I don't think it's a movie for anyone who doesn't like a dark and twisty story and definitely not for someone who is uncomfortable with violence because it is spectacularly violent, gory and slightly twisted. They left out a couple of the story lines which I think was to their credit. Yet they kept everything tight, respectful of the original material and added just a touch of humour with some of the music choices.

I read this weeks Entertainment Weekly review of the movie. I don't know why I do that, honestly. Rarely do I agree with the reviewers who seem to have put themselves on a pedestal and have lost complete touch with what makes a movie good. They have their own ideas but they seem to forget that movies are supposed to entertain and inspire thinking rather than to have thesaurus-heavy meanings. The Watchmen review was written by Owen Gleiberman who said at the end of the review:

[Director Zach Snyder] doesn't move the camera or let the scenes breathe. He crams the film with bits and pieces, trapping his actors like bugs wriggling in the frame...

...On the page, Watchmen was a paranoid, mind-tripping pastiche of everything from The Incredible Hulk to Naked Lunch. But when characters who are knowing throwbacks are literally brought to life on screen, they can seem more like half-hearted ripoffs. A no-future nihilism bled from the very grain of Moore and Gibbons' pop vision of the 20th century. But that's a real problem for the movie, since the Cold War nuclear fears of the '80s never did come to pass. Watchmen isn't boring, but as a fragmented sci-fi doomsday noir, it remains as detached from the viewer as it is from the zeitgeist.

Here's the thing: If Mr. Gleiberman really did read Watchmen, he should have felt the exact same way about the graphic novel. The novel doesn't let you breathe, it's so crammed with action, emotion, metaphor and horror that you feel like you need to put it down just to be able take a full gulp of air. And the entire time I was reading, I felt detached from it and I think that was the point. I loved it, I devoured it but I never felt like I was part of the story. Rather, I felt as though I were being warned. So what if the Cold War fear of the '80's never came to pass? It still could. It's not like nuclear weapons have become tame little puppies that just need a little love. They can still kill us in a second. It's not Russia anymore, it's the Middle East.

No, I think what Mr. Gleiberman fails to recognize is that Watchmen in movie or graphic novel format is not about the Cold War, it's about human nature. It is doomsday noir but that doomsday is a darkness that has spread through human nature until the American Dream realized has become the American Nightmare. It's a long-distance warning, something that doesn't seem possible because it's so other, so fictional that it doesn't seem plausible. Yet, like with every good work of fiction, if you peer closely, you'll see that the fibers that hold the story together are familiar, something that we see every day even if we don't want to.

If you're into fiction that is so dark that it sometimes makes your skin crawl, I highly recommend reading Watchmen. It will make you uncomfortable but, at the same time, it will make you think. Just because it has pictures doesn't make it one of the best contributions to literature that I've read in a while. Now I just need to buy my own copy.

Happy Wednesday.

A Snowy Monday Morning

Once more, it's a Monday. In the true spirit of a Monday morning, I was going to be grumpy. I had every intention of being grumpy because, honestly, it really doesn't take much effort and, on some days at least, I'm rather good at being grumpy.

Except, there are a few reasons for me not to be grumpy. For example, my clock radio woke me up with Green Day's "American Idiot." This may not sound like much but my regular radio station plays very little Green Day, favourite the more generic and boring Midwest rock like Hinder and Seether and a lot of other '-er' bands.

(Side note: How come we seethe but we do not hinde? I mean, we hinder something but we don't seether in silent fury, we seeth. Anyone else find that the English Language is somewhat inconsistant?)

Anyway, so hearing Green Day was a nice start to my day. Granted, it didn't mean that I didn't hit the snooze button after the song was done but it was still a pleasant surprise.

Then, I went down to defrost my car only to discover that it was snowing! Now, apparently, I'm considered odd because I like snow. But I adore it. I've mentioned that before but I'll mention it again. I got to drive to work and enjoy the snow, wet enough to melt as it hit the ground but also falling in big, fluffy snowflakes. I'm like a five-year-old when it snows. I like to tilt my head back, and let the snow land on my nose and eyelashes. These are a few of my favourite things.

Yes, there was a silent snicker at the end of the last line.

So, at the moment, the snow is gently cascading down. It's not supposed to settle which is good because I haven't been a good Midwesterner yet and bought winter shoes. This might be a problem. I wear skate shoes like Vans and Airwalk. These are not good on snow. I own boots but while looking cool, the 3 inch heel does not go well with ice. At the moment, I'm wearing boots with heels. i think a trip to J.C. Penney or some other store that sells practical shoes is in my near future.

I also found out a coworker had a baby yesterday. He was very premature but he's doing well as is the mother. This is very good news.

So, it's hard to be grumpy today though I have a couple of reasons. I was driving through Indiana en route from my parents and got a speeding ticket. I was not a happy Monkeypants. I was going 58 in a 45 mph zone. The thing is as I accelerated to 58, I passed the 55 mph zone so I think it's questionable. Also, I know police have a job to do and, technically, I was speeding but I was going 13 mph over the limit and it was literally JUST as I was moving between posted signs. I haven't had a ticket in over ten years. I can't help but think, wow, seriously, Mr. Policeman, don't you have anything better to do?

When I was in L.A., I spent six weeks with a friend in a civilian's police academy. We got to hear from the L.A. Sheriff's department on various subjects, tour a jail and go on a ride-along. We got to learn a lot about why police have to be the way they are. It did make me see the other side of the story, so to speak. I got to watch what the police have to deal with and how much paperwork it entails. It changed my perception of them because I realized that a lot of their attitude is a self-preservation technique. At least in L.A.

In Indiana, I'm not so sure. The policeman was polite but he wasn't nice. He lectured me on not having local plates. I told him it was a rental because I had recently been rear-ended. I admit, I was hoping for a little sympathy. Instead, I got a ticket which is going to cost me $130. Yay, me.

I know, I know, that's what I get for speeding but honestly speaking, for the most part, I tend to be a very tame driver. I don't speed more than 10 miles per hour normally. Yesterday, i was on autopilot. I accelerated too early. And now I have to pay. Never mind that the holidays are approaching and never mind that the economy blows at the moment. I still have to pay because I made a mistake.

And, to put the icing on the cake, when I got home, I checked my email and found a rejection. I had forgotten about that submission so the rejection was a nice smack on the head to tell me, hey, look, loser, we don't want your story. In not so many words, naturally. It means that, once again, I must plod onwards, ever forward and hope that someday people actually want to read my stories and novels and, when they do, they don't say, 'not for us' or 'not right for us at this time' but they say "we'd love to publish your work" or "I'd love to represent you." That's my dream and it never hurts to dream, right?

So, these are the reason I was going to be grumpy. Except, it's not happening because there are enough reasons not to be grumpy today as well. Yes, it's a Monday, yes, the weekend is still five days away but it doesn't mean I have to be in a bad mood. After all, it's snowing, my coworker and baby are healthy and I also got a phone call from one of my oldest childhood friends from England last night which was absolutely awesome. It's amazing how much people change but stay the same, isn't it?

Thus, I'm going to attempt to be positive. I'll try to take pleasure in the little things. Like the fact that office coffee doesn't taste quite so vile today. Like the fact that Robert Downey, Jr. was on the cover on Entertainment Weekly. And the fact that it's supposed to snow through Wednesday, scattered showers that will land quickly, melt quickly but make the world beautiful while it falls. Sometimes it's the little things that are the best.

Happy Monday, everyone.

Trying to See Positive on a Monday Morning

And...it's Monday again. As much as I'd like to start off by being a beam of radiant sunshine on a cloudy day, that is so not likely to happen. For a start, it's Monday and to quote the Boomtown Rats, "I Don't Like Mondays". I should add the word "much" to that though- I'm not adverse to Mondays. They just tend not to be my favourite day of the week.

I did say in Monday that the day may bring the promise and hope for the new week. I'm really hoping that's true. I had intended to start the week in a nice and chipper mood. Really, I did.

The only problem is that my weekend did not go according to plan and though I like to delude myself that I enjoy a bit of spontenaity, when it really comes down to it, Captain Monkeypants is a bit of a planner. I like to know what I'm going to do with my time. It helps me figure out how much time I can spend doing things like writing, watching television and whatever other procrastination methods I can employ before I actually HAVE to do something.

My weekend was going to be fairly quiet. My original plan was to go to Target on Saturday to buy a new coffemaker and blender with a gift card that two of my favourite people in the world had given me as a housewarming gift for my new place. I suppose I shouldn't say that didn't go as planned because I now am in position of a rather nice Mr. Coffee coffeemaker and a nice, basic blender. The only bad thing was that, on the way to Target, I got rear-ended. And I don't mean in the "That's what SHE said" way...I mean in the my-car-has-its-bumper-hanging-off-and-I-can't-open-my-trunk way.

The worst part is that it wasn't one of those accidents for which you get a chance to brace yourself. There are times when, if you slam your brakes on suddenly, you almost expect the car behind you to slam into you, you expect an impact. Not this time. I was sitting in traffic, much like I did for seven years in L.A. without an accident, waiting for traffic to move. And then BAM!

No one was hurt, which, obviously, is the most important thing. I have a few bruises and stiffness. The lady who hit me kept saying it was her fault and that she wasn't paying attention. What do you say to that? It was an accident and accidents happen.

I can't even be angry at her. Honestly speaking, who hasn't had moments when driving in which we lose focus, in which we run on autopilot? They happen to us all. And it sucks because it's just one of those things in life that they call bumps in the road (or, in my case, smashes in the road). She was insured, I was insured. It'll be a hassle to get the estimates and figure out where to get my car fixed. I'll also have to have a rental while it's in the shop. In a year, I'll probably look back and be glad it wasn't worse than it was. For now though, my poor car...I've only had her for two years and she was my first brand new car. I'm really, really hoping she can be fixed. The damage is pretty bad but she still runs and so I'm hoping a few days in the body shop will fix her up.

On the plus side, in the shock that inevitably follows a big, body-shaking smash like that, I wasn't sure what to do. I was shaken to the core and feeling rather out-of-it and so...I went to Target. And now I have a coffeemaker and blender. I even remembered to buy coffee filters.

I didn't get to follow through with the rest of my weekend plans. I wasn't feeling great and I was rather sore so I had to skip the Halloween Party on my agenda. It was a Seven Deadly Sins party. I was going to be the Grapes of Wrath. Instead, i got to enjoy my new sofa and watch absolutely horrendous crap like "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

(*Side Note: Really, Stephen Spielburg and George Lucas? What, you don't have enough freaking aliens in the rest of your movies?- and yes, George, I am looking at you and your crappy Star Wars prequels and you, Stephen, with "A.I", the movie that never ends. Seriously, Indiana Jones is an architect. He's supposed to run through temples and ruins and swing from ropes and, yes, maybe he did do that in this one but, really, ALIENS????????? The franchise is dead. Why couldn't you just leave it alone and try for another Oscar with a movie that makes us feel guilty about...something? Though I do feel guilty for watching this piece of crap. Ok, side note over).

I also watched "Heroes". I've been meaning to catch up on that all season. It usually takes me a couple of episodes to get into it. Not this season; so far, I'm really close to breaking up with "Heroes". It's awful and I miss the "Heroes" of Season 1. I may blog about that later but I think Entertainment Weekly does a good job in summing up why it's no longer good TV in this week's issue. (Summary: STOP FLASHING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE. AND LOSE SOME OF THE DAMN HEROES!)

So, the weekend wasn't what I planned. Who knows, maybe it was life's way of saying slow down. It was definitely the first time since I moved that I've had chance to sit down and do absolutely nothing. And it was nice, even if my body did feel like it had been hit with a hammer a few times.

(Another side note: Speaking of hammers, an anonoymous reader left a comment on Friday stating tips on using a hammer correctly and that holding it six inches from my face is not a good idea. That was very helpful but I should probably point out that I was exaggerating a little and that I don't really hit a nail that close to my face. I was just making a point about the fact that I'm not great with tools. But thank you, all the same. I will definitely try backing up when I hammer nails in future. Side note over).

Anyway, the long and the short of it is...things could be worse. The driver who hit me was handed accident reports for my car as well as two other cars in front of her. When all is said and done, I suppose I am the lucky one. I got out of it mostly unscathed. My car can be fixed and I got to do nothing this weekend. I got to slow down and be spontenously lazy. That doesn't happen very often.

So, when all is said and done, maybe this is a good start to a Monday morning. Maybe I am more chipper than expected. And maybe, just maybe, the week is starting with promise and hope. I mean, the insurance company promised they'd help me get my car fixed and I'm hoping they do so...maybe life does turn out the way you plan it, just not in the way you expect. I suppose it makes it more interesting though, doesn't it?