You know, style is one thing - I'm happy to listen to and learn from advice from my sister and my friends, even as I take into account that they're not me, and I almost always at least consider how well what I'm wearing goes with each other - but as far as men's formal wear goes, it drives me nuts. What kind of idiot would come up with a system where the pockets on a jacket are sewn shut when you buy them? And women can complain about heels and makeup and clothes designed to look at rather than to wear or walk around in, but at least they can indulge their creative side or try to stand out on a formal occasion. The closest men get to variety is the designs on the tie. (A tie of specific dimensions, and writing or any specific images are inappropriate for formal occasions...)

Yesterday my parents and I went shopping. They got a little for themselves, and because I've got a job interview planned for tomorrow, I got a navy blue blazer, a nice shirt and a couple ties. At least half of my really nice clothes have been hand-me-downs from my dad, so if nothing else this was a pleasant change.

The job is far from my first choice, but beggars can't be choosers. Whatever the job involves doing - and I'm pretty hazy on even that, I know it sounds bad but I lost the ad - it's three miles from home and the boss is my sister's friend's father. I'm much more interested in a couple jobs I saw advertised today. One of which as a sort of customer service representative - fluency in French required.

I've almost given up on looking in the Rochester area. After I had run the category of jobs in my areas of "expertise" on the Web sites I was using, looking for basic entry-level stuff is all that's left, and it's a lot easier to do that in person I've found. Restaurants, employment agencies, retail stores - they all prefer if not require walk-ins.

This afternoon I drove down to Rutland and went to see "Fantastic Four" with Jo. I had fun. I didn't have really high expectations, having read that there were some bad reviews, but it was fun. (Not "having read some bad reviews" - I saw negative headlines of reviews and heard that other people were pessimistic, but I didn't read the reviews myself.) A good superhero action movie. And come to think of it, it can't have been helped by last month's superhero movie, "Batman Begins." I didn't get around to seeing that, but I really wish I had, and everything I heard and saw made me think that it would have been a tough act to follow.

If I had to choose between the four, I'd definitely go with Reed Richards' power. I mean, forget bench-pressing a bus, and even flying couldn't hold a candle to being able to shave without ever cutting yourself like Reed does - he just pulls his face and stretches it so there's no jawline to shave over. Cool!