Friday Nights As An Accountant

I pretty much had the best Friday night I've had in a long time. Now, compared to yours, it may not be anything special, but remember, I'm an accountant. My scale of excitement is probably much lower than yours.

The mood was set by the fact that some smoke has cleared and blue sky was finally visible, at least to the West and to the looking-straight-up direction. It was also a good night because I went to see one highly anticipated movie, for me at least, Dan in Real Life. Steve Carell sort of started out his career being a goof. Well, that's an understatement. He was as dumb as a brick in Anchorman, so much so they even named his character "Brick." He was not quite as dumb in Bruce Almighty, but equally annoying. In fact, I didn't care too much for Mr. Carell at that point. Sure, he was great on The Daily Show, before he started his film career, but the future didn't look bright.

That was, of course, until The Office. This was his chance to shine. And he has. It's given him the chance at some more meaty roles: Little Miss Sunshine and yes, even The 40-Year Old Virgin. The former even generated some Oscar buzz. Well deserved.

Am I surprised that Dan In Real Life may be his best performance to date? No, in fact, my expectations were set pretty high. And Steve met them. What a fantastic movie. Juliette Binoche, an unlikely casting choice, shined, and Dane Cook wasn't even annoying! I don't really need to get into the plot details; you can look elsewhere for that. Let me just say, Dan is one of the better films I've seen this year. And that's saying something, at least to me, and it's this: I see a lot of crappy movies.

Go see it.

Alright, if that wasn't enough excitement for the night, Friday also marked the new release of the Mac's newest version of its wonderful operating system (OS): 10.5 (Leopard). Of course it doesn't match the hoopla of it's consumer electronics, but if your a big Mac fan, you will be pretty pumped about Leopard.

All of the Apple Stores were closed for two hours yesterday to prep for the 6pm release of Leopard. I went after my movie, at about 9:30. The place was packed, as usual, but there were plenty of "geniuses" available and I was just told to get in line and they'd get me a copy. Well, one minute later, I had a copy in my hand while the "genius" rang me up via a portable point of sale device. My receipt was emailed to me. And I got a free OS X tshirt to boot! (No matter how hip Apple is, it's still nerdy to wear a computer shirt. Got it?)

I got home and installed my new OS. So simple. Click the language you prefer, accept the license agreement, and that's pretty much it. Less than an hour later I was up and running. I don't remember a Windows install EVER going that smoothly.

I could go on and on about how many of the 300 new features I think are completely awesome, but either you are a Windows user and depressed, or you are an Apple user and have put Leopard on your Christmas list so you can see for yourself.

See, now does a Friday get much better than that?