Movies, and pants.

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Yesterday I went to see The Box with Anthony, which, by the way, was pretty confusing and not at all what I expected. But beforehand, during the inevitable pre-preview commercials, I saw something I've never seen before. A commercial soliciting volunteers for the French Army!

And I was struck by all the differences in the advertising campaigns. Lately, the US Army ads I've seen have been all electric guitars and montages of guys doing things like scaling cliffs alone, or drilling with rifles in the rain.

The French ad, on the other hand, was all about interspersing images of soldier life and personal life -- I guess kind of like the ads for the Reserves at home. The guy would be on a motorcycle with his girlfriend, and then he'd be leading a troop of uniformed soldiers out of a helicopter, and making hand signs. There was always lots of technology in the picture, and no silly feats of strength. The shots never focused on the guns. There were no swords, and there were no electric guitars. I don't remember much about the music, but I remember it was calm -- it might even have had a girl singer!

Interesting ideas.

As for pants, well, those of you who know me might notice I suck at noticing things. All manner of things, really. About a week ago I looked up and realized my pants are now WAY too big. Which I guess would be a good thing, if I didn't fear and loathe shopping like the coming apocalypse or something. I need to buy new pants, but not only lack the desire, but the very will to try. Besides, I'll probably just need new pants again soon. What a quandary.

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