“When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad…"

The entire quote: "When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you're only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you're sure to find some of them."
The Movie: Zero Effect, 1998 (Jake Kasdan, screenwriter and director)
Who says it: Bill Pullman as Daryl Zero, the world’s greatest detective
The context: Zero is describing his investigative techniques as we see him search a client’s office.
How to use it: As a life philosophy, it works for me.

I just looked at my Blogger profile and was surprised to see that I hadn't listed this movie among my favorites, because it's right up there. It's just wrong that more people haven't seen it; it's a modern retelling of the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia," and Bill Pullman has never been better. Plus, my friend Hugh has a small but pivotal role in it.

Maybe this will be the week that my car gets fixed, and my stuff arrives from California. I feel weirdly complacent about it, though... it's a bright sunny day, I'm getting my work done, and the world is a friendly place today. If I spend another week fighting with the air mattress, I'm still better off than most of the world.

Anna and Tarren are back from Africa, just for a few days before they're off again, this time to Washington. Anna called me last night and said, "Let's have dinner, what's your week like?" I said, "Let me check," and pulled up my calendar on Outlook.

"Gee," I said. "Monday I have... nothing. And Tuesday, I have... nothing. Let's check Wednesday... yep, nothing. And it looks like Thursday is clear too." "So Tuesday, then," Anna said.

Don't get me wrong: this was part of the point of moving to Maine, because I'm bad about overcommitting and overpromising and rushing around doing, rather than being. It's been great having so much open time, and it helps that I haven't had a television. I'm even wondering whether I want to hook mine up, once it finally arrives from California.