As lame as it sounds, my wife is reading it now. Based on what little of it I've read (out of morbid curiosity), the whole book sounds like some sexually frustrated teenage girl's ignorant fantasy. It's so pathetic that it makes me wonder if E.L. James is actually a 50-year old virgin. Christian Grey (the character who lends his name to the title) sounds so much like a rip-off of Patrick Bateman that I'm wondering if there's a point in the book where he whips out a blunt object during sex with the protagonist and tries to kill her...except that this very thought just makes me want to go watch "American Psycho" instead.

I can't even make it through a chapter to satisfy my curiosity.

It's like those Mack Bolan books that come out every month...except those are better composed and written.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K1RcKJVbHA

No matter how you feel about Gilbert Gottfried, just watch that. That about sums up trying to read that book.

I found out today that:

There is a former Olympic athlete living in my neighborhood

One of my parent's friends was going to compete in the Olympics (Rowing), but his country (Bulgaria) ended up not participating that year

A family friend of ours/ former computer guy's father won a gold medal in Handball one year (I think it was the 1976 Olympic games) for the Soviet Union

what have i missed? been gone a while

In Soviet Russia, Handball plays you.

I wish this happened to one of us in a sane part of the country.

PS: I'm sorry it has propaganda attached.

http://static2.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/...4eacbd3592.gif
http://static1.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/...df7dece1a4.gif

Now you're thinking with portals!!

I just had the longest, craziest weekend of my life in Washington, D.C. with friends from grad school, and I'm still hung over from last night. Easily tops the craziest nights I ever had when I was an undergraduate. We got back to my friend's place at 5 AM this morning after visiting almost every bar in the Connecticut Ave/DuPont Circle area.

I think this morning was the first time I ever uttered, "I'm getting too old for this shit." Although apparently last night, when somebody pointed out that daylight was breaking, I told them, "Daylight come, but I don't wanna go home." I don't remember this at all, but if I actually quoted Jason DeRulo with a straight face, then I must have been REALLY fucked up...

In other news, enjoy this trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2582029593/

You don't like Jason Derulo?

That trailer looks interesting. Kathryn Bigelow's a pretty good director.

Bit of reasonably well-known history for you; E.L. James is a fanfiction writer and Fifty Shades of Grey was originally written as a Twilight fanfic called Master of the Universe. She changed the names around so she could get it published and that's about all. Christian Grey is the sparkly vampire Edward Cullen + money + badly written fetish, and the writer is a fan of a book where sneaking into someone's bedroom and watching them sleep is depicted as romantic.

So it's not just pathetic, it's second-hand pathetic.