I had a good night last night. After work, I picked up Rebecca and we went to dinner at Islands in Hastings Ranch. We had a good dinner and had a great conversation, mainly about addictions and addictive personalities, and also about social pressures, anxieties and whatnot (or "what have you" as Walter Sobchak would say). Aftterwards, we went to go see "Matchstick Men" at the Paseo, which we both really enjoyed. Interestingly enough, the girl who played Nick Cage's daughter in the movie is Alison Lohman, who, according to IMDB, is 24 years old. This is interesting because she was playing a 14 year old girl in the movie, and I actually would have never guessed she is as old as she is.
I saw this article today about how Arnold Schwarzenegger is converting one of his Hummers to run on hydrogen. While that is odd enough, the article points out something which I was unaware of: Arnold was the first person to ever own a commercial Hummer, which means he's responsible for all of those behemoths you see cruising the streets, and he's also no doubt a large reason that the roads have become infested with SUVs over the last decade or so. Its really disappointing to think that, though, because I'd like to believe that Americans are not so easily influenced by a muscle-bound action star (and this was well before he entered into the political arena), but I'm probably just deluding myself that this isn't the case even though its no doubt true, considering how star-struck we all seem to be. I know Madonna popularized the trend of wearing your underwear on the outside of your clothes in the 80s, and Gwen Stefani popularized the bare midriff look and all that, but there's a difference between passing fads in the fashion industry and a rather monumental shift in the automotive industry. Maybe I'm giving Arnold too much credit though. I sure hope I am.