Things That Are Good

Personalization:

EVERYONE who is cute wants jeans, etc, that have the first letter of their name on them or something like that. Same with girls wanting Victoria's Secret undies that are specially designed for their university. Yes, it's just a marketing ploy. But it is a damn enjoyable one.



Businesses that go the nearly effortless extra mile:

Case in point...it was my dog's birthday this past week, and the vet sent this ecard.
It's not an actual picture of my dog, but it is his breed. This is the stuff that makes me happy with my pets' health care. That and lack of illness of course.



Movies based on video games:

At first this always seems dumb to me, and I am consistently embarrassed to admit my love for all things Resident Evil. BUT, I have decided that it makes perfect sense that movies based on video/computer games would be qualitatively better. For one, everyone comes into a movie with no knowledge of the back story. Some movie makers go buck wild with complexity and seem to forget this key detail. Or else they overcompensate and feed what should be subtle clues to the viewers repeatedly. Video game plots offer the perfect middle road because they're constructed to be learn-as-you-go yet complicated enough to keep the video gamers interest and possibly cause them to lose repeatedly.

Also, using the video game sequence of events for the movie storyline ensures that every scene has meaning and rids it of the senseless death that is frustrating in so many other movies. Don't you just hate it when some asinine character goes charting around enemy territory, stumbles upon a locked door and then unleashes hordes of zombies...all without accomplishing anything? Infuriating. And it happens oh so often. In video game movies, however, there are inevitably insurmountable challenges that arise, but there is always a point. She wanders into an empty hallway/lab room/office and has to fight a zombie, but she finds a gun/has a flashback/key piece of information there which is instrumental to her escape.


Little Boys:

In the car with Till and Te and Calhoun (MY rubber car lion) and "sick bear" (MY teddy bear that smells like chocolate)...

Me: "Te, be careful! Calhoun will break if you stretch him too far."
Till [holding my teddy bear]: "Phoebe, Calhoun doesn't just belong to you, he belongs to me and Te too. And this sick bear doesn't belong to you, he belongs to all of us."

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