pentagnocchi

— छह हज़ार चौदह — Last night was Action Movie Night, and although it would have been Chris G's choice were he present, he was not (and hasn't been in several weeks), which thus bumped it to the next person in line—which happened to be Shobhit. And Shobhit really stuck with his record as arguably the most eclectic history of movie choices out of all of us, this time choosing an HBO original movie from 1998, which for some reason he loves, called The Pentagon Wars. This was Shobhit's seventh time choosing the film, and just for kicks, I'm going to share his full history: January 25, 2023: Mojave (USA, 2015, 93 minutes)
September 6, 2023: Awaara (India [in Hindi], 1951 release in India and 1956 release in USA, 168 minutes)
January 24, 2024: Casablanca (USA, 1942, 102 minutes)
August 7, 2024: School Ties (USA, 1992, 106 minutes)
February 19, 2025: The Fall Guy (USA, 2024, 127 minutes)
September 17, 2025: In a World... (USA, 2013, 93 minutes)
April 15, 2026: The Pentagon Wars (USA, 1998, 104 minutes)
I want to say that each of these films is completely unlike any of the others, except I suppose there are some commonalities between Awaara and Casablanca: both are classic black and white films, though the former is from the fifties and in Hindi whereas the latter is from the forties and in English. The biggest irony I find between Shobhit's choice of both of those movies is that the group all stayed and watched the entirety of Awaara, and largely seemed surprisingly engaged by it; yet, at least one person thought Casablanca was too boring and did not stay to watch that one. Which I think is nuts, but whatever. Those two movies aside, they all have very different vibes, and The Pentagon Wars, which Shobhit said he had already watched at least twice before, may very well be the first made-for-TV movie anyone in the group has ever chosen. (It was HBO, so it still had higher production standards than network TV.) It's based on a true story, and the group last night seemed fairly into it, actually. This would be the third comedy Shobhit has chosen (each of them his most recent three picks), but all of them of very different types. His last choice, In a World..., was probably the most fun, because we played it without telling anyone in the group that he was in it. Tony even asked us last night, "You're not in it, are you?" I informed him that there was only ever one other wide-release film Shobhit had a part in (the 2013 film What Maisie Knew), and it would be a truly terrible choice for "Action Movie Night." Shobhit has a couple of times chosen films that are more romance than action, but this one is just straight up depressing, as it's about a little girl caught in the middle of a bitter divorce. — छह हज़ार चौदह — — छह हज़ार चौदह — Anyway, there were eight people in attendance for Action Movie Night this week: Tony, Jake, Derek, Chris B, Daniel, Greg, Shobhit, and me. Ryan is almost never absent and I found myself wondering if he had a completely unrelated reason for not showing this week or if he's just had enough of the other guy who tends to annoy everyone—who, it's worth noting, was really not annoying at all this week. He did bring a bag of potato chips into the theater with him, and when he sat that down in the seat near me he actually said, "I'm not going to eat in here." This was clearly because Ryan had told him last time that he couldn't anymore because of how much he was crinkling. There was a lot of food options this week, and most of them vegetarian. One person did order a pizza but that had meat on it, but Daniel brought a vegetarian kimchi; Jake brought sub sandwiches and half of them were vegetarian; Shobhit and I brought gnocchi and garlic bread. I mentioned that the gnocchi was a sample private label product from work, and more than one person was kind of amusingly excited by that, like they were getting secret advance access before a product launch. I honestly couldn't remember whether we are selling it yet or not; I just looked up gnocchi in our system while writing this very paragraph, and it appears we are not. So, I guess there was a bit of legitimacy to their little thrill about this. When we all dispersed after the movie, Shobhit noted that we'll be missing the next one—that's during my Birth Week, and that very day both Barbara and her friend Becky arrive. Barbara will be with us for the next five days, and Becky for one. I haven't mentioned this yet, but Becky lives in Spokane and when she caught wind that Barbara would be visiting Seattle, she asked if she could get together with us. This put a slight monkey wrench into my Birth Week plans but I made do, and found a way to make it work. What's more, I told Becky about our "Guest Suite" we can rent at the Braeburn which has always cost $65 a night; she basically jumped at that and I booked it and—this part I really respect—Becky sent me the money over Venmo within minutes. I want to go check out the Ballard Historic District that evening as it was created in 1976, and I figure we can perhaps all find a place to go out for dinner in Ballard that night. Anyway, sometimes I still do Action Movie Night during my Birth Week, sometimes I don't. Last year I didn't because that was my actual birthday and Shobhit and I went down to stay the night in Portland. This year Barbara and Becky will be here, and although I won't be out of town that day, I've got other things I want to do. — छह हज़ार चौदह — [posted 12:35pm]

at least I look great

— छह हज़ार तेरह — My Birth Week is coming up fast. It's the week after next! And I'm pretty satisfied with all the stuff I have planned now. My "1976 landmarks" theme was one of the bigger challenges compared to other years in terms of research, but I'm happy with where I've landed. I did just have to swap out one of my ideas just yesterday, though. I had a source saying the Pike Street Hillclimb was constructed in 1976, but it didn't open until January 1977, I discovered. As far as I'm concerned, that means it doesn't count. But! And I don't remember how I stumbled upon this, but the Starbucks at Pike Place Market, which is the oldest standing Starbucks in the world, opened in 1976. (People, including Starbucks themselves, try to call it "the original Starbucks," but that actually opened in 1971 in a different building in the Market that wound up demolished. They moved it to the current location in 1976 though, and since it remains the oldest standing store, it counts!) What's kind of funny about this is that I have made fun of all the tourists getting photos at that store, and now I'm going to go and be among them. It'll be for a different reason, but no one who happens to see me there is going to know that. Except maybe anyone who goes there with me. Barbara maybe? I suppose Danielle could be a contender; I haven't scheduled either her or Gabriel for any day besides the party on the 2nd of May—but, that will still qualify them as participants in my Birth Week. An amusing irony regarding Gabriel is that, after years of shitting on my "Birth Week" as an idea and declaring it stupid, he's actually the single person in my life with the record run of unbroken participation. He has participated in my Birth Week in one way or another since 2003—this year will be his 24th year in a row. (Granted, some years he was at a party I had and did not participate otherwise but that still counts—and in 2024, I included the trip to Lopez Island in lieu of his Bachelor Party because it fit with my islands theme for my Birth Week that year; it was not technically during the 10 days of my Birth Week but it was earlier the same month, and being in keeping with my Birth Week that made it count. Also: I still saw him during my Birth Week that year because that was when his actual wedding happened, on the second Saturday of my Birth Week that year, May 4. I just counted Lopez Island as his participation in the theme—that location choice being a total coincidence.) Anyway, not even Danielle has an unbroken record anymore: due to family drama she wound up unable to hang out during that same "islands" year, in 2024. If not for that, she'd actually be tied with Gabriel with the same unbroken stretch, back to 2003. The one thing I have worried a little about is the weather. I just checked the Weather app and it currently goes through Friday next week, the first day of my Birth Week—and I was stunned to see a forecast of partly sunny and 80°! Holy shit. Now, a Seattle forecast 10 days out never holds, so we'll see if that changes. But, I'd love it to be dry for the following week. We'll see. My biggest wish is that it not be wet on my actual birthday, when I want to go to Olallie State Park. But also the next day when I go to Freeway Park with Laney; and especially the day after that when my party is happening in Olympia. Any wetness the rest of the time would not be ideal but I could deal with it. I had been thinking of making my 2027 theme all regional picnic spots. I'm considering bumping that another year down the road for another great idea I recently had: Top 10 Link Light Rail Stations. That one would complicate scheduling with the people who live outside of town, but we'll see. I have to think on it. — छह हज़ार तेरह — — छह हज़ार तेरह — Speaking of rain, it was drizzly on my way to work yesterday and quite rainy for my walk home, so I did not bike to work yesterday. I didn't today either; I took my umbrella to walk with yet again. Shobhit had a virtual board meeting to attend between 5 and 7 p.m. so I kind of just entertained myself during that time. I dished myself some leftovers and had dinner at my desk in the bedroom, and I killed a good amount of time just googling the best views of all the cities we'll be visiting in Europe this summer: Amsterdam (I found several options here); Rotterdam; The Hague; and Brussels. Not all of them, but several great options I found are actually free and apparently offer fantastic panoramic cityscape views, including a publicly accessible rooftop terrace at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. I also found an observatory we can apparently go to at the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels, barely 2 miles from our hotel, but that one costs €8 (which is currently the equivalent of $9.44 USD, so still pretty cheap). I have checklists on my phone now for all these cities, which I keep adding to. I've now got 21 items for Amsterdam (we'll be there a combined 13 days, after all); 7 for Rotterdam (this would be a day trip included in the aforementioned 13 days); 6 for The Hague (ditto); and 10 for Brussels (which we're staying in for three nights). I have just one thing booked so far: the "Hemicycle" at the European Parliament, a guided tour in Brussels. In Amsterdam, though, highest priority on my list is the Anne Frank House, which I cannot book until 6 weeks in advance. Once I do that, though, I will start booking other visits and tours, such as the Van Gogh Museum which I really don't want to miss either. Anyway. Shobhit finished his meeting, and then I sat with him as he reviewed all the tax stuff online before he finally submitted our taxes. Then at my suggestion, just because I had been wanting to watch it again (I can't even remember when I last watched it), we watched the 1976 film All the President's Men. I was most astonished, this time around, by how good a movie they made about something that had resulted in the U.S. President resigning less than 2 years before the film was first released. That's nuts. Also there are all the obvious parallels to President Fuckwit, except now we live in a country that just doesn't really give a shit. That line at the end about "maybe the future of the country" kind of hit hard. Because we are now in that future, it it doesn't look great. But hey, at least I do! — छह हज़ार तेरह — [posted 12:32pm]