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-- चार हजार एक सौ और सोलह --

I'm still getting the hang of posting entries over on the Squarespace version of this blog, which I am more and more confident I will be switching to permanently soon. I suppose there's a few of you who read this exclusively as fellow LiveJournal members, with my posts on your friends list, the way so many of us used to, and I'm probably running a rather high risk of losing you as readers. I'm just so disillusioned with LiveJournal now that it's a price I'm willing to pay. I never believed I had any particularly large number of readers anyway.

Both this blog and cinema_holic will be semi-consolidated on the new site, by the way. They will be separate blog pages, with links at the top of the page; basically they will be separate blogs but on the same website. I guess the same could be said of these two blogs here on LiveJournal as well, except on the new site they will be much more easily toggled back and forth. Anyone clicking through to the links I post to social media will have far easier access to my personal blog posts. Considering a lot of people I work with read my movie reviews, I'll have to be more cognizant of that than usual, perhaps. Or perhaps not: I already learned several years ago that I needed to be more careful than I thought, even here on LiveJournal, without click-throughs via links posted on Facebook.

Lori R was taking a new hire around the office for introductions yesterday, and when she introduced me, she was surprisingly excessive in her description of my reviews: "He's a movie buff, and he writes the best reviews in the world!" Jesus, Lori. Take it down a notch! That kind of hyperbole sets people up for disappoitment. Not that I would ever think of my reviews as disappointing -- I have a long history of bizarrely thinking the review I'm writing is not that great, while I'm writing it, and without fail, when I read it again later, I think it's fine. I do write good reviews. I don't know about "the best in the world," though.

The setup of the Squarespace website is something I expect to evolve over time; it's a fairly simple setup currently, which is to be expected for its beginning. But I want to incorporate things like my personalized greeting cards, images of which are all hosted on Flickr; and maybe even start posting fiction in a different section. That story I started early last month has been deglected for weeks now. I should really get back to it. Maybe this weekend. Shobhit is working double shifts both days so I should have a lot of time to myself.

Anyway, I'm also getting the hang of having to do a few extra html commands in the formatting of these entries, a lot of which LiveJournal does automatically, even in the code editor that I've continued using even though LiveJournal offered auto-formatted posts ages ago. I like the greater control over formatting -- for instance, if I want a link to open in a new window, it's just easier for me to type that html code into the text rather than trying to figure out what setting to click on some other page or window. The thing is, in the code editor option for the blog page on Squarespace, I have to add code for things as simple as starting a new line or starting a new paragraph. I never had to do that on LiveJournal, not even in the basic code editor.

This is why I'm glad I'm posting on both sites for the time being, basically as a test run on the new site. I got this idea from work, where IT does mirroring for a time whenever they implement some new program, to identify and work out bugs.

-- चार हजार एक सौ और सोलह --

Ivan was sure happy yesterday -- so much so that he sent me a ton of giddy Facebook Messnger IMs about it, near the end of my work day: the boss he hated so much, who was the biggest reason he gave notice where he works and was switched to "on call," apparently quit without notice. So now they are asking him for a bunch of shifts for him to do in her wake, which is making him feel better about stress he had apparently been feeling about finding a new job -- which I didn't realize was stressing him out so much; he's pretty good about hiding it around me, unless it comes up in conversation and he openly states feeling stress. It doesn't even seem that logical to me -- he often talks about how easy it's always been to get work as a nurse, as that's one industry where work is always in demand. In the course of our relatively lengthy exchange, he revealed something I found a bit fascinating: when I said he is apparently skilled at hiding stress, he replied, I am NOT skilled at hiding my stress at work actually. He had even previously stated, I could not even conceal my contempt for [my boss]. I've always been bad at hiding my emotions and feelings towards people, and it often gets me in trouble.

Oh, really? Ooh hey, let's make this about me! That there is an indicator of his fondness for me if there ever was one: apparently if he disliked me at all, or even had any problem with me, he would be incapable of hiding it. Interesting. I always found him to be largely mysterious the first time he lived with me, but this time around he's very different in a lot of ways, not least of which is his clear appreciation of me as a friend. This is very different from my last roommate, Tommy. As a point of comparison, I really never did get any real sense of Tommy's sincerity, about anything. Except maybe that he suffered from social anxiety. I was always fond of Tommy and enjoyed his company, and even deliberately made that clear to him, but I could never tell whether he was intimidated by me in any way, or perhaps at best he was indifferent to me. I'll really never know because I made truly valiant efforts at staying in touch with him until I realized that, regardless of whatever issues he had that I tried deferring to, I was wasting my efforts. And I'm not much interested in wasting my time, or particularly my energy. Literally the only times I got him to agree to meeting up with me after he moved out was when I said I had a present for him or offered to pay for dinner (which I only did once, figuring he was still recovering from the financial pressures of several months unemployment). So: instead of actually saying anything to him about it because of the clear chance that it would hurt his feelings or make him feel bad about himself -- something I never wanted to do -- I just gave up and stopped trying. For all I know, that was what he wanted all along.

Ivan, on the other hand, in spite of his weird penchant for lying about small, meaningless things ("I never lie about important things," he once said to me -- all I can do is take his word for it, I guess), still demonstrates his comparative integrity through action. He follows up and doesn't ignore me, and we socialize and make plans regularly, rarely having plans canceled. I have a feeling he'll be the one lasting, genuine friendship to come out of the seven different roommates I've had over the past seven years.

That said, as I told Shobhit recently, once Ivan moves back out -- still expected to happen sometime in late 2018 -- after that: no more roommates! Hopefully ever. One great guy out of seven isn't exactly the best track record (most were fine, to be fair; on the other hand Ivan was literally the single one out of all them who was truly dependable when it came to rent payments), and I will be thrilled not to have to deal with all associated bullshit anymore -- from the tediousness of placing ads and showing the room, to the risks of what other bullshit the stranger might otherwise bring into my home. I want no more of it.

Speaking of integrity of friendship, though, I have to bring up Laney, because I came to a realization about her just yesterday. I would not go so far as to call her my "best friend," which is a loaded term and she's still not my closest friend, although she's getting close. But what I would say about her is that she's the best at being a friend. We've been good friends now for some thirteen years I'd say, and she is now the single friend I have ever had that long who consistently accepted me as I was, good or bad, from the beginning and without faltering on that point. She does challenge me when appropriate, but she has also demonstrated a depth of understanding that none of my other friends either want to have or are capable of having (on the latter point, my theory is that our both being gay -- in spite of our respective genders -- is what makes the difference, particularly in capacity for empathy). I have never once felt judged by her, and I think it's probably that more than anything that is the reason she is a genuinely beloved individual, by a great many people, far more than just me. I am grateful to have all the close people I have in my life, but these are the specific reasons I'm glad she's in it.

She will be turning 60 later this year, though. Maybe it's just that she's had the most time perfecting her friendship strategy! In any event, we could all -- not least of us, me -- learn from her.

-- चार हजार एक सौ और सोलह --

I went to a movie last night with Sara from work, the first time I had done so in a while: based on a quick look at my Social Review archives, although we've done things like have lunch during my Birth Week, it looks like we haven't gone to a movie together since we saw The Red Turtle in February. Last night, we saw Maudie, which I had been thinking looked like it could be all right but was not at all making it a priority to see, until Sara asked if I was interested. I said yes more as an excuse to go to a movie with her than because of particular interest in the movie. But then, guess what? The movie was great! I almost surprised myself when I gave it an A- with my review; I had been thinking through most of the movie that it would get a B+, but in the end I was very impressed, and even more so as I thought about it more afterward. We were both very impressed.

And it was at what used to be Sundance Cinemas -- up on 45th and 9th (a block west of Roosevelt), in the U District. Except it's no longer Sundance Cinemas, which was purchased by AMC Theatres. And actually, I guess, it's a bit more complicated than that, and it's taken me a while to get the history straight: here's a Variety story from late 2015 about Sundance being purchased by Carmike Cinemas for $36 million. I never heard that news at the time, likely because Sundance Cinemas -- which I first discovered in West Hollywood, a couple of years before they opened one in Seattle -- continued operating under that name. But then, as of last December -- as seen in this Hollywood Reporter article -- AMC Theatres acquired Carmike Cinemas for $1.1 billion, thereby making them the largest U.S. movie theatre chain.

Now, to get back to a micro level, the history of this specific multiplex in the U District (the only theatre in that neighborhood with more than three screens; it has 10) -- when I first moved to Seattle, long before SIFF began operating local theatres and when Landmark Theatres was the chain operating all the theatre houses that reliably offered independent and foreign films -- it was a Landmark Theatre, and it was called The Metro. It was one of the many theatres Barbara and I used to go to constantly. It went through their first conversion, from Landmark's The Metro to a Sundance Cinemas, in 2012.

Shobhit moved from New York to West Hollywood in September 2011, so late that year was likely when I first discovered the Sundance Cinemas in West Hollywood -- a concept I immediately fell in love with: a full bar, including hot meals, making it effectively a dinner movie house; and more importantly, because of the alcohol, no admittance for anyone under 21. No fucking children! It immediately became one of my favorite theatres to go to, and after initially being saddened by the closure of the Metro, I was elated to find out it was being opened as a Sundance Cinemas for Seattle. When that remodel was done, far more comfortable seats had been installed, and so had a full bar, and offerings of things like sandwiches and pizzas. It remains my favorite theatre to go to if I have to go outside of the Capitol Hill or downtown areas to see a movie. It's rate that that happens now, thanks to SIFF's three different theatres between Capitol Hill and Lower Queen Anne, but I still always like going there.

Anyway, I guess Sundance only got their run under that name for about four and a half years. Why they continued as Sundance Cinemas under Carmike but not under AMC, I'm not sure -- but it was just a couple of weeks ago when I was Googling Sundance movie times and could only find AMC showings that I got confused.

I felt kind of bad for their employees last night, clearly having to deal with a lot through this transition. I overheard one of the cashiers say to another customer that they had re-opened as AMC about a month ago. The thing is, I am a member of AMC's loyalty program, and was also a member of a separate one run by Sundance Cinemas. I asked if there had been any carry-over, and the basic gist I got was that in some ways yes, in some ways no. The young lady I spoke to actually did pretty well, all things considered. I got the distinct feeling I could have taken advantage if I were a less honest person: she literally asked me how many tickets I had under the old loyalty program, as though I could just say, "Two!" and she'd just offer me to free tickets. I don’t know if that would have happened because I didn't try, but I think it may have. But I had some number of points is all -- and had fairly recently used a free ticket the last time I came, so I'm sure I was not yet anywhere near another free ticket -- and that's what I told her. I had no idea how many points I had. Apparently, the fact that I was already an AMC Stubs member before this transition complicated things. She asked for my phone number and it brought nothing up; I guess I need to log in to that account online and add it to make things easier, but when I gave her an email address it worked. The curious thing about that, though, was that at the AMC Theatre at Pacific Place downtown, all I have to do is show the QR code on the e-card I have on my phone and they just scan it, but evidently they didn't have such scanners at the "AMC Dine-In Seattle 10," which is what the Theatre Formerly Known as Sundance Cinemas Formerly Known As The Metro is now officially called.

Having this long and detailed a memory of the history of one theatre house in this town is making me feel a little old. That said, the pitfalls of increasingly monpolizing corporate mergers notwithstanding, this is ultimately more beneficial than not to me as a customer, partly because of what this theatre is still holding over from Sundance's practices, which other AMC theatres do not do -- $6 tickets with presentation of an Orca Card on Mondays, for instance. Yay super-cheap tickets! With tax it came to $6.75, and that's still by 25% the cheapest movie theatre option I get anywhere in Seattle -- even when compared to the $9 tickets I pay at SIFF cinemas, which are themselves discounted $5 for SIFF members. I do hope they keep that deal around indefinitely; it's one thing that has many times convinced Shobhit to come see a movie with me on a Monday night.

I can get discounted tickets for all movie theatres in town now, I just realized. I only can at the AMC Dine-In 10 on Mondays, but it still counts. My SIFF membership discounts all tickets by $5 at all their theatres. And Costco sells discounted tickets to both AMC and Regal Cinemas -- 2-packs or 4-packs that work out to around 32% off per ticket. Shobhit was the one who advocated getting those tickets nearly every time we shop at Costco, because since I go to both those theatres regularly, then why wouldn't we do that? If saving some money is an option then we might as well. I just keep those paper vouchers in my wallet for whenever I wind up at those theatres.

-- चार हजार एक सौ और सोलह --

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-- चार हजार एक सौ पन्द्रह --

I had a pretty eventful weekend. I watched a lot of movies -- five of them, to be precise; although I only went to the theatre to see two of them. Ivan won't get any Social Review points for this weekend, but he watched a movie with me at home on both Saturday and Sunday.

Friday evening was the one day of the weekend that was not at all about a movie. Shobhit and I wound up having dinner with Danielle, who drove up from Renton. She just wanted to hang out and I was happy to oblige. She often talks about how we should spend more time together with her kids around -- I'm not sure her kids really care one way or the other -- but we keep winding up hanging out when the kids are with Patrick. This still kind of makes sense, since it's a lot easier for her to travel without the kids with her. I guess this was technically her weekend with them but she and Patrick split the weekend for some reason, so they were with him on Friday.

Shobhit and I had already been thinking of going out for dinner that night -- at a nearby bar on Capitol Hill called Grim's, because Shobhit had a Groupon for that place he bought a few weeks ago: 57% off a grilled cheese meal for two. This is mostly just a bar so the menu is quite limited, but it works for us: the only entrees are a choice of three different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches.

But here's the problem: we walked in, and it was completely dead -- not a single other patron. Granted, it was only about 6:30, after we had made ourselves drinks at home before leaving (scratch that: I had made us all drinks), but it still seemed like maybe a bit of a red flag. And then the bartender informed us their refrigerator was busted and would not be repaired for at least a couple of weeks, and as a result their kitchen was closed. Well, shit.

So, we walked outside and began to brainstorm ideas for where to eat instead. Finally we settled on a pizza place on Pike that Shobhit has long wanted to try: Via Tribulani. I spent way more there than I ever would have at Grim's -- and not just because I also had a cocktail there (which I accidentally elbowed off the table shortly after I got it; the server brought me another at no extra cost, thereby ensuring herself a pretty massive tip of nearly 30%). We all agreed it was totally worth it. We split two of their thin-crust pizzas between the three of us, which was the perfect amount. These pizzas were barley larger than a large dinner plate and they cost $17 and $18. Fairly pricey, but money well spent. I would definitely recommend this place, even though their sign hanging outside actually says "Vera Pizza," which is confusing. It does have Via Tribulani stenciled onto the window though.

We sat in the open air section next to the open wall exposed to the outside, and there was a scrappy little makeshift band playing with an accordion across the street. It was all very pleasant. Here's a bit of irony, though: I thought I recalled having eaten at this place before with Gabriel, and I was right -- I was last there on my Birth Week day with him in 2012, on May 6. In my entry that day, I wrote, I know Shobhit had looked at the menu once and didn't want to pay their prices. And so it goes with Shobhit: he balks and balks at prices until, for whatever reason, nothing more than his mood changes, and then he'll pay the very prices he once complained about. And when he's making less money than ever before while living in Seattle. He even agreed with our assessment that the pizza was excellent and worth the price.

My $10 cocktail was maybe not quite as worth it -- or at least it wasn't until I got it replaced for free after I knocked it off my table. A guy sitting at the table next to us, after I apologized, said, "You're not going to Zamboni that up?"

After dinner was over, Shobhit suggested we all go down to Madison Beach to take advantage of the nice weather for what amount of daylight we had left. We went home first so he could change into his swimsuit briefs, even though I told him the water was definitely going to be too cold. Actually we did see a few people swimming while we were down there. Shobhit took off his shorts (which he was wearing over the swimsuit) but not his shirt as we lay on the unfolded blanket tote, and after about ten minutes declared it too chilly now that the whole park was in shadow as the sun was setting, and put his shorts back on.

We were there for maybe an hour. Ivan, who seems to be doing this a great deal more than usual now that he's not working every day, had asked if maybe we could watch something that night. I said maybe, if we got back early enough. I would have watched something with him even as of 10:00, which was shortly after Danielle went home, but he'd evidently fallen asleep. He actually woke up right after I went to bed and, as he told me the next day, was awake until 2 a.m.

But, he woke up relatively early on Saturday morning too -- when Shobhit had a morning shift to work. I was reading my book when he got up, and I said, "We can watch something today if you want." I said I would watch either of the two Netflix DVDs he had at the moment; he chose 20th Century Women -- to my surprise, he even brought it out for me to put in right around 9 a.m., before he even got dressed. He sat and watched in his bathrobe. I even commented when the movie ended -- and that movie is excellent; if you haven't seen it you really should -- that he must have been into it, because not only did he never look at his phone during the movie like he usually does, constantly, but he didn't even have his phone with him! I saw that as a minor miracle.

-- चार हजार एक सौ पन्द्रह --

Shobhit got off work at 1 p.m, and I decided to walk down there on Westlake Avenue and surprise him, and walk home with him. He was predictably delighted: clearly small gestures go a long way with him. He was a lot more pleasant that day than he had been for about the first hour after I got home on Friday, when he was pissed because the UPS driver once again refused to deliver his package -- with medicine in it -- because "name not on directory," which is indeed bullshit: he clearly never checked for both his first and last name; it is on the directory. Shobhit was so mad that he started asking Danielle if he had cause to sue (uh, doubtful), and I have to say -- Shobhit was once again acting like an overgrown baby, and Danielle was impressively skilled at talking to him in the midst of this without setting him off. She would just say, "I know it's frustrating." The thing is, it's clearly because she's well practiced at talking to children -- and I am not. My point would always be: is it really reasonable to expect me to handle my spouse with kid gloves? I get so tired of the way getting angry flips a switch inside his brain, causing him to toss all rational thinking aside. It's insane. He was so pissy that he literally got mad about me using the two new Moscow Mule copper mugs and putting his drink in the old one -- he'd wanted to use one of the new ones. "Do you really want me to dirty another cup to swap them out?" I asked. I couldn't just switch with him because his was the only one with a single shot of vodka in it -- and that was my logic when I was mixing them: that mug was slightly smaller than the other two, so in my mind it stood to reason to put that drink in the smaller mug. But, he wanted one of the new ones! When I said that, he paused, and actually said: "I compromise about everything." Oh, for fuck's sake! First of all, No you fucking don't. Secondly, I just said, "I'll switch them if you want," and he said he wanted me to. So I poured his drink into a third cup so I could pour mine into the old copper cup and re-pour his drink into one of the new copper cups, the latest in a long line of genuinely pointless things I do for him just to get him to shut the fuck up. We have such a healthy relationship! (Believe it or not, actually, most of the time we do. Just not when he's literally acting like a fucking four-year-old.)

After multiple phone calls, though, UPS ultimately paid another courier service to deliver his package later in the evening, and that made him feel better. That seemed to extend for the most part through the rest of the weekend. We had a genuinely pleasant walk home from his work on Saturday, and we then spent the afternoon watching my Netflix copy of the 1983 Matthew Broderick movie WarGames -- which, as it happens, holds up shockingly well, the obviously dated technology notwithstanding. It's a very gripping thriller, and I'd say it's still worth watching, even now. I don't remember at all why I'd added it to my Netflix queue -- I watch streaming stuff so much more often now, that when I get movies from the DVD queue, they were typically first added several years ago.

-- चार हजार एक सौ पन्द्रह --

-- चार हजार एक सौ पन्द्रह --

And then Shobhit joined Laney and me for a movie downtown that night, to see the truly wonderful The Big Sick. See that movie! It's easily one of the very best I have seen all year so far -- solid A. A truly original vison that is both touching and often very funny. No complaints.

Shobhit had initially resisted joining Laney and me for this movie, even though I was certain he would enjoy it -- in spite of the South Asian characters being Muslim, and his relative indifference to comedian, star and co-writer Kumail Nanjiani, of whom I have long been a big fan. I found a way to sway him, though: saving money! I follow Kumail Nanjiani on Twitter, and on Thursday he tweeted out a link to get free tickets over the weekend using a particular promo code, saying they were giving out 1000 tickets. I had no idea how legitimate this would be or if there would be some sort of catch, but given who the link was tweeted out from, I decided to try it.

There was no catch at all! Or, I suppose there almost was one: at first I followed the link and clicked 2 tickets, and then when I entered the promo code, it only discounted the amount for one ticket. So I started over and bought a single ticket, and to my delight, it worked -- and I didn't even get charged an online service fee. I literally had to pay nothing, and after signing in with Facebook, the ticket was mailed to my Gmail account.

At first I was going to email Laney the link and urge her to get her ticket quickly, telling her which seat number to get so she'd be next to mine. But then I realized I had no idea how busy she was at work and how long it might take her to get to it, so I tried another tack: figuring the system would not let me get multiple tickets signed in with the same account, I started over and took the other auto-sign-in option, signing in with Amazon -- which uses my Comcast account. This worked like a charm, and a ticket was emailed to my Comcast account.

So that took care of Laney and me -- after we had already made plans with the intention of actually paying for these tickets. So how about Shobhit, then? This time I signed up for a new account on the ticketing service (called Atom, which I had never heard of before but whatever, it worked), using my Hotmail account. Again, total smooth sailing -- and a third ticket was emailed to me there. I got seats in F11, F12 and F13. And after I emailed them both with the good news, Shobhit did not at all resist going to see the movie.

And guess what? He even commented on how much he could relate to Kumail Nanjiani's character, what with his struggle between Western and South Asian cultures, and parents with hardened expectations for finding their children mates through arranged marriages. When it comes to Muslims and Hindus in India, this is the thing: they easily think of themselves as radically different -- and indeed, there are major differences in the tenets of their respective religions. But when you compare them to Western culture and Western (or specifically American) values, they become far more alike than they are different -- particularly when it comes to culture rather than specific religion: familial pressures and expectations, particularly around romance and marriage, are very relatable to each other.

I did mention in my review how great it was to see an American mainstream film with several Muslim characters who were presented positively -- albeit still with acknowledgement of how they tend to be perceived by particularly white Americans: like the scene where people in a restaurant feel discomfort over an argument happening between Kumail and his brother, prompting him to say, "Sorry. We hate terrorists!" (This was funnier in context. And maybe the biggest laugh in the whole movie is Kumail's response when his white girlfriend's father -- played by Ray Romano -- asks for "his take" on 9/11. I won't ruin it, but it was fucking funny.)

I don't think Shobhit would ever even think to make the same observation: that it's great to see a movie like this with Muslim American representation that is actually multidimensional, and even presents one generation of them as just as American as any of us. (This also makes sense given the basic story is very autobiographical on Nanjiani's part.) He would likely continue to point out, though, that there is relevance to the context of Kumail's parents clearly being what we would think of as "moderate," reasonable Muslims -- that they are only seen that way from an insular, American perspective, and a majority of Mulsims around the rest of the world would not see them as moderates, but rather as not just liberal, but as radicals. There actually is data that bears out this idea.

My issue, just as an aside, is when people single out Islam as somehow separate, historically, from the countless atrocities perpetrated in the name of Christianity. People like to talk about how much more violent people are in the name of Islam today than they are in the name of Christianity, but my response to that is this: plenty of Western current government policies either ride on the coattails of past horrors, or still contribute in many indirect ways to the oppression and even deaths of countless people, and these policies still have their roots in Christian ideology. So the idea of Islam deserving more scrutiny and criticism than Christianity never sits well with me. As far as I am concerned, they are both scourges of the Earth -- as is essentially all of organized religion.

But I digress! Anyway, The Big Sick is a great movie. You should definitely see it. Even Shobhit really liked it!

-- चार हजार एक सौ पन्द्रह --

Sunday, yesterday, was less eventful -- although I did go to another movie yesterday evening: the all-right The Little Hours. I went to see that while Shobhit was at the second of his two work shifts he did yesterday.

All three of us -- as in, including Ivan -- watched Okja streaming on Netflix in the afternoon, in between Shobhit's work shifts. Ivan had suggested several times that we watch that one, but I kept reminding him it only made sense to wait for Shobhit to see that one, as I knew he would enjoy it (especially after how much he injoyed recently watching The Host, which was by the same director), and he was the only one of the three of us who had not already seen it. I went to an advanced screening a couple of weeks ago and Ivan already watched it streaming, but said he wouldn't mind seeing it again.

This time, though, he was once again glued to his phone for I would estimate about 90% of the time the movie was on. I think maybe, in all his extra free time since he's now only on-call for his work, he just likes having the company. Shobhit joked at one point that it's too bad we don't have a remote to turn his phone off, but I didn't find it as annoying since I knew he'd already watched it. (Although for all I know, he also barely paid attention when he watched by himself the first time around. As a guy with Asperger's he's easily distractable -- he just got one of those fidget spinners in the mail the other day and he seems very much to like having it to fiddle with. That said, I'm starting to think perhaps he's already got a bit too much time on his hands: yesterday he said, "Matthew I want to show you my weird Internet purchases!" He proceeded to show me these shoe inserts that increase his height by two inches, making him seem 6'1"; and also a box of an an electronic stimulation abdominal belt, a product I immediately assumed to be bullshit that purports to help give you defined abs just by emitting electric pulses. (I'm not positive what I linked to was the exact product he has -- I kind of doubt he actually spent that much -- but if it's not, then it was something just like it.) He even put the thing on and used it for several minutes after I started Okja, and was groaning and laughing as he calibrated it because at first he put it on full blast and it was painful.

He told me there are actually studies showing the device works for people, and that it has lots of good reviews on Amazon. Whatever, whatever. I would say, consider something like this counter-point on livestrong.com:

The biggest drawback to using one of the belts as opposed to doing abdominal exercises is that you don't get the other benefits of performing an exercise. When you perform various abdominal movements you are working different muscles and burning more calories because you use more than just your ab muscles. You also get the added benefit of working on your balance and coordination when you perform exercises as opposed to letting the abdominal belt do all of the work.

Another drawback to using the belt is that it doesn't activate all of your abdominal muscles. The abs run from the bottom of your ribs all the way to the top of your hip bone, while the belt only covers the middle of your belly. Performing full ab exercises, such as sit-ups, will activate the entire ab muscle, from top to bottom.

Now, to Ivan's credit, he does regularly work out at gyms, so he's not relying solely on this. But he'll never convince me this was a sensible purchase that will ever do for him what he's clearly hoping it will do. Of this much, I am certain: he won't have an actual six-pack until he's got a trainer and is working out far more often than he even does now. And who the fuck wants to do that anyway? He should just accept and learn to live with how beautiful he is already -- which is plenty. That's what I did! In any case, I reiterate: he's got too much time on his hands.

-- चार हजार एक सौ पन्द्रह --

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friendship / at the movies

movies and movies and stuff