Memorial Day is late this year. Which makes the first five months of the year seem just a little bit longer. Because of this back-loaded holiday schedule at work, most of the holidays come within a month and a half at the end (and beginning) of the year. So since January 2, I haven't had a holiday from work. Cry for me Saint of the Blessed Day Off.

It's just wearing on me this year. I keep looking for jobs, and there aren't any out there. And then I realize a new job wouldn't be a break, it would just be different. Man, I'm tired of this. But Memorial Day is the grilling holiday. The sitting around with something cold to drink and think about the past day off. Right? Memory? I'm gonna go with that.

On Friday, Google remembered it was the 30th Anniversary (birthday?) of Pac-Man by making their oft-changing logo into a playable Pac-Man game. I couldn't play it all day. Just a couple of games, then I showed it to the admin. She was delighted. Always good to spread cheer.

Friday night I watched Avatar for the first time. Not in 3D. Not on a huge screen, but my TV isn't such a bad size. With a few cold beers, it wasn't too bad. The bad guys were the military (and corporation...not much distinction between the two). The good guys were blue. And the stakes were high.

One of my favorite off the cuff reviews of Avatar came at a party: "Fucking Ferngully." While Titanic was mostly for the girls, this one was for the guys. And I think that's fine. We don't have to like the same movies, us boys and girls. There's no way in hell I'll watch Sex in the City Redux.

And Avatar's a pretty good animated boys flick. Everything on the planet was painted up really nice. Everything inside closed doors was drab and institutional. I get the point. Dances With Wolves. And then the big Lord of the Rings battle near the end. And the very very end? Star Trek III: Search for Spock.

I hope I'm not ruining it for anyone.

This whole post-Avatar depression people have written about lately, I even have a memory of. After watching the Dark Crystal back in the 80s, my brothers, second cousins and I were very enthralled by the world shown in that movie. We wanted to be in it. We wanted to be the main, elf-like characters. Of course, we didn't have to take any meds or therapy to feel better about living in the real world. So get over it, everyone. We can't live in Neverland. It's not really real.

Dio died last Sunday. I wasn't a big Dio fan, but I love Tenacious D. And the D had the foresight to get the torch passed to them before Dio succumbed to cancer. Remember the Dio, and long live the D.

Bret Michaels is still around, but he keeps having aftershocks of his initial stroke. I know he's more famous for being famous now, but I totally dig the first couple of Poison albums. Even the third one had some good songs on it. They were the light as air enemies of down and dirty Guns N' Roses. And you gotta respect the distinction.

Guns N' Roses isn't really anymore, even though Axl tours occasionally under that name. He's suing his record company because he believes they wanted him to abandon GNR 2.0 in favor of getting back with (most of) the old band. Well Axl, I think pretty much everyone who loved Guns N' Roses and would pay the ticket price to see you again would love to see the old guys playing the old songs again. You can't sue everyone, dude.

I saw an old friend I hadn't seen since the early 90s last week. I think GNR was still semi-relevant the last time we had a few beers together. And I wonder, if I had been sensible in college (like he was), would I have turned out as such a straight and upstanding (although left leaning) citizen like he did?

Would I still be looking for ways to have fun with this lightening blip of a life, or would I be in maintenance mode, hoping to preserve the way of life I began building half a life ago?

There's so much past, it's hard to remember it all.

Matt Worley has beers with his old self from time to time.