Thank God I moved and changed schools a lot as a kid...

I've previously referenced being on both social-networking sites here- I only post the blog on MySpace- because- while part of me would like to increase whatever fluctuating readership is out there for my shit- There are too many people from my distant past on Facebook and for whatever reason- maybe still being hung up on certain moments from the past- like much of high school or the many girls that have given me the Heisman pose (the old stiff-arm or arm's distance- for anyone not familiar with the term) over the years- that I really don't feel like sharing whatever I'm thinking or up to or whatever

Anyhow- I've noticed a recent phase on Facebook- People who are seemingly emptying out their mom's old photo albums into a scanner to post class photos from the earliest years of school- for people my age that would be Bicentennial-era school pictures from Kindergarten to about 2nd grade- Hence the title here- I moved a couple times and changed schools 5 times from K-12th grade (counting the extra few months it took me to finish up high school) at pretty much every denomination from public, parochial (Catholic- at perhaps the worst time 6th- 8th grades) and private (H.S.) and went to 3 different colleges (and enrolled at a 4th)

I have a few friends on each side of this divide- those that are posting and reminiscing about the ancient school photos- like such minutiae as asking if Teacher X was as much of a hardass in 1976-77 as they were in 1979-80- and those caught in the dragnet of dressing like a "Zoom" kid or huge 7-year-old "Star Wars" fan on School Picture Day 1977- and I feel for my friends who've been caught up in that- my only school picture moment so far was from the 1986 H.S. baseball team where I look like I've tried to grow out some sort of starter mullet- and I was the narc that named the rest of the unidentified to my friend that posted it

I will not soon be among those emptying out my mother's photo album anytime soon for the scanner- and I'm sure I'm a mystery man among some people in certain Connecticut, Michigan or New Jersey environs- who's trying to tag class photos from the 1970's- let alone the dopey photos of me wearing some sort of bow tie shorts suit on Easter 1975 or plaid pants at the 1978 Little League parade when everyone else was wearing jeans- just typing these descriptions pains me enough

Academy Awards Recap
Pretty much the worst Academy Awards I can recall in the last 25 years or so of me watching even part of- Actually watched more of what turned out to be Tom Renney's farewell appearance as coach of the New York Rangers (via the NHL package free preview) vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs than the movie show- which I was DVR'ing- They even fucked up the "dead roll" of those who passed in the last year- with the mannish and ubiquitous Queen Latifah singing over it- and the piss-poor idea of showing the deceased as a background image- the one moment I've counted on whichever producer was trying to re-invent the awards-show wheel not fucking up- was fucked up

Other ideas
- How many bad-looking movies has Hugh Hefner been a part of ("House Bunny", "Miss March") in the recent past ?- If he makes a few more- Samuel L. Jackson's record for such would seem to be in some sort of jeopardy

-Saw a bit online where the school newspaper of my collegiate alma mater (Emerson's Berkeley Beacon) was comparing the efforts of a Boston city councillor (Michael Ross) to make the Boston Rental Authority enforce housing code rules on the number of legal residents in city apartment rentals to that of Hitler and "Nazi Germany"- quotes for their analogous usage - Nothing too drastic about that- I'm sure if the MBTA ever starts running their trains under the current ("new" to me as a 15-year-plus alum) campus- they will be breaking out the Mussolini similes?

-As an aside- had 3 different occasions today at work- where people accused me of unnecessarily using "big words"- one of which was followed by someone telling me I didn't seem as educated as I am- which is all relative, I guess- the last because I used two different derivations of "fuck" in the same sentence (as noun and adjective) and was talking about early 1980's pro wrestling- Its not like I told the guy I thought the wrestling shit was real at any point

-Speaking of pro wrestling and the world of film- here's a random thought- Who thought the individual members of the rap group NWA two decades ago and stars of the "Attitude"-era of pro wrestling a decade or so ago would appear in such great family entertainment at the multiplex (Ice Cube's recent crap and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appearing in a new "Witch Mountain" film)

-At grocery store the other night- Have recently eaten canned chili without any of the predictable GI issues- so I bought some more- of the turkey variety- cashier asks me "Are you going to add hamburger to this when you eat it?"