Friday

First, anyone interested can find today's Friday Matinee Video (the fifth) over here. I moved it because I'm having trouble making my photo badges work properly. I imagined it might be Flickr's new video feature interfering with the widget, but I was wrong. This movie is about catching a scooter taxi ride with a baby. Second, I'd like to honor the guys from our building's lounge. I've mentioned they're shooting pool lately. For ten months, that little red table in the corner was mostly used as a snack buffet during tenant parties. But lately, whenever I go to the lounge in the afternoons, the guys are playing pool with the parking attendants, the maintenance guys, whoever happens to be around. The convenience store women watch. They laugh when I walk in like they've been caught. They all disperse immediately, leaving the balls where they've come to rest. That's not all. Last week I walked in to find them tossing around an empty white Malibu Rum bottle, practicing Tom Cruise Cocktail moves. They laughed and tried to disperse, but I got them to show me a few tricks: tossing the bottle over a shoulder, catching it on the back of a hand. I don't know the lounge guys' names, embarrassingly. They have nametags, but I ignore them because they're fake. In lieu of memorizing people's western nicknames I've learned nothing. I think of them as the "guy with glasses" and the "guy without glasses". The guy without glasses frequently shows me new card tricks. He's still learning. He turns around when he's doing the sleights, so I can't see. I bring this up because today was the guy without glasses' last day. He's going back to school after being here the whole time I have. I'll miss those tricks. [Cavin]