Today I got up rather early to go through the whole city to take another look at my potential new car. Turned on the radio: "Traffic jam in the direction INTO the city." Went there, stood out in the cold (what is it with the temperature? It's July, for Christ's sake!) then decided to buy it.

And there it is: The Yay For The Day! New car! Yippee! Here it is, my precioussss:



Anyhow, went back. "Traffic jam in the direction OUT OF the city" now. Phoned the bank and was told I need to pay interest when I want to withdraw my money from the bank. Why? "It's in the small print". Oh, yeah. Great. Charge me for withdrawing MY OWN MONEY. Apparently that's the law (or so they said) if it's not on a checking account. Right. Of course they didn't TELL me that when I asked whether I could withdraw my money at all times. They just said "yes", which is correct: I CAN withdraw my money at all times, I just need to PAY for it. Bah humbug.

Also, my hand smells like the perfume of the lady I am buying the car from. Yuck! How can you douse yourself in perfume like that? Poor little car, being exposed to that.

And I want to say that I don't understand people who drive a Smart car. WTF? It's like driving one of those little bumper cars on the fair. Since it's so small, every little bump in the street makes it bob up and down so I was afraid I'd get seasick. And if that wasn't enough, it's motor isn't the best, so when you stand at a light and want to start driving, usually people start honking behind you because you can't get moving really fast. Then it waits until it's in really high gear (WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW) until it shifts with a jerk(WWWWWWWWWclunkhophophopWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW). If you're going from 0 to 100 that means being thrown around like somebody riding a Bronco in a rodeo. Whoa!

I mean, don't get me wrong, they're pretty big inside, lots of space for you and your passenger and they're ideal for parking. Plus, the ashtray's really big (not that I was smoking but I've always hated those itty bitty ashtrays you can only hit under great difficulty while scattering ash all over the place). But other than that? Try it if you ever get the option but for heaven's sake don't consider buying one! Terrible. Terrible.

Which reminds me that I went to see Spiderman II and it wasn't too good. I mean it was OK but not really great - but I've heard a lot of dissenting opinion so you might want to check for yourselves. Let me give you a list:

Good Things

• Comic drawings telling the backstory at the beginning of the credits (might be only a plus if you're a Comic Book Geek like me)
  
• Tobey Maguire just fits the role perfectly
  
• Ditto Alfred Molina. A great actor and a great villain.
  
• Choice of villain and execution of Dr. Octopus. Go go robotic arms!
  
• Bruce Campbell as "Obnoxious Usher". Bruce is Da Man!
  
• Spot Stan Lee! (I like to do this in any Marvel film)
  
• JJJ also is a perfect casting decision and the scenes in the Daily Bugle are great.

Overall great comic-book-ey look and feel, some scenes were executed very well (the "Raindrops are falling on my head" sequence was a thing of sheer beauty).

Bad Things

• First of all, lack of decent story. Just drawn out and pointless at times. Some loose ends, but that might be resolved with Spiderman III, who knows.
  
• Wrong casting decision: MJ. I am sorry, but Kirsten Dunst just clashes with the picture of MJ I have in my head.
  
• At times crappy, overwrought dialogue. Come on, whose grandma gives a speech about Being A Hero Inside? I heard some gagging noises and sometimes laughter around me, so there were some other people of that opinion.
  
• Ties in with crappy, overwrought scenes that overdid the comic book thing. (the "People passing Spiderman over their head" scene comes to mind, every scene that stars little kids and/or the American Flag)

If Sam Raimi had just toned down the pathos at times and turned up the wisecracking I think I might have enjoyed it more. As is, it teetered on the brink of Do I like it?/Don't I like it? So I'd not really recommend it.