The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump

I just sent off the first round of documents to TransPerfect. At best I'm expecting nothing; at worst I'm expecting an email to the effect of "thanks for wasting our time". Anything beyond that is gravy, and if I actually get any work out of this, it's gravy with filet mignon under it.

This past weekend was all "not quite". The weather never quite delivered any thunderstorms, my haircut didn't come out quite the way I wanted, I never quite got to the movies, and the pasta salad I made isn't quite right. (It is, however, edible, and it consists of things I already had in the house, so at least I didn't have to spend a lot of money to make something that wasn't quite right.)

What did happen this weekend is I got a check from the government for $5.12, which is a refund on my student loan. I assume that means they are now considering it officially paid. They don't send letters to that effect these days; if I want one, I have to wait 45 days and then ask for it. I think I still have the letter that says I paid off my Perkins loan in 2001 or so, and I might even be able to find it.

I spent entirely too much time on Saturday watching graphic-novel movies (300 and Watchmen, back to back). I've decided there's a difference between graphic-novel movies and comic book movies, to wit: in graphic-novel movies you can look at a scene and say "Yep, that was a panel in the graphic novel", never having read the graphic novel. Comic book movies are less about the art and more about the story. This may be a function of the two graphic-novel movies in question, though.

Does anybody (meaning libraries, charities, thrift stores, etc.) want VHS tapes these days? I have a moderate pile of them to get rid of.