It's Valentine's Day so Make Sure you Love Someone or At Least Buy Them Something!

Ah, the good ole Valentine's Day is upon us again and you know what that means, it's time for my annual rant on how pointless Valentine's Day is.  I still don't get it and luckily I have a great wife who thinks mostly the same way I do.  We don't buy each other gifts, in fact this year I even got her to agree to a no cards rule.  I just simply explained that after I opened the card, I would hold onto it until Saturday then throw it in the garbage.  We're not in high school anymore, we don't have a shoe box full of love notes and cards we're saving to look at with our friends.  So no gifts, no cards just do what we normally do, which by the way is hang out and enjoy each other's company.

I just don't see the whole point of buying gifts, going out to a special dinner and cards.  I can do all those things any day of the year so why MUST I do it on February 14th?  Maybe it's because we have a kid now and getting a sitter is a pain in the ass during the week or maybe it's because we've been married for over 7 years and have spent so many romantic nights that doing it when we're "supposed" to feels awkward.  We go out to dinner all the time, have nights out by ourselves, I don't know, it's just crazy to me because we have this crazy date on the calendar I'm supposed to love my wife more today.

Hey guys, how about you love your wife/girlfriend/friend/family (whatever) EVERY day and not just go overboard on Valentine's Day?  Maybe it's me but I'm sick of this commerical made-up holiday.  I say it every year and I'm going to continue to say it.  I guess it's good for the economy and shit but it's sickening the amount of people that look at this day like it's a magical day and they should be loved more than usual.  Get over it.  Do what I do, boycott it.  Spend the night in with that special someone, cook a nice meal and enjoy a peaceful night of romance (by the way, you can do that every other night of the year as well).

Clapping After a Movie

One of my biggest pet peeves happened again yesterday.  The dreaded clapping at the end of a movie!  I don't fully understand what the clappers get out of the practice.  Do they understand that no one that made the movie is in attendance?  Do they think that I or my other fellow movie patrons actually care that they liked the movie enough to warrant an applause?  I've seen this so many times, it's pretty hard to count, actually I'm willing to bet that at about 90% of my movie theater experiences there has been clapping after the movie.  Well, maybe not, I've seen some real bombs at the movies but I'd say that 75-80% of the movies I see, some idiot or most likely idiots clap after the final scene.

I just don't get it.  Who are they clapping for?  The actors, director and producers aren't there.  The theater ushers waiting to clean up the eight dollar popcorn you barely finished don't give two shits about what you thought about the movie.  Believe me, I could care less!  It's not like if I was on the fence if the movie was good or not, I'm going to be swayed by your clapping.

Maybe it's me but it's time to stop clapping at the end of a movie.  Let's save the clapping for live events (sports, Broadway, etc.) and just file out of the theater and get on with our lives.

Perhaps I should start a new trend...Every time I hear clapping at the end of a movie I'm going to BOO loudly.  Even if I enjoyed the movie.  That way I could really piss off these people.  I'm sure that will spark some debate and best of all....FIGHTS!