First impressions are often wrong

Okay, so it has been awhile between posts. You can look at this two ways, depending on if you are a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person. You could look at this as me being lazy, or you could look at this as, "Wow, you sure are posting a lot more than you did last year before you had a blog." I prefer that approach.

I'm also going to blame Facebook. I started blogging to communicate with y'all, but almost all of you are on Facebook too, so I don't always think to visit both. So yes, this also means I've been bad about reading other people's blogs too. However, there seems to be a strange linking between me posting irregularly and everyone else doing the same. The whole blogosphere has almost ground to a halt. I guess I am more powerful than I realized...

Enough appetizers, let's get to the main course.

I've had two things happen recently that have driven home the point that first impressions are often wrong. I'm not sure why this is. Is God trying to tell me something here? Am I judging others and closing myself off to them without realizing it? I'm not sure what to make of this quite yet, but I'll fill you in on the two events keep working on the meaning myself. It just seems way to coincidental to be a coincidence, if you know what I mean. ;-)

1. I needed some new razor blades for shaving, so I stopped by the appropriate aisle at Target or Walmart, I don't remember which. I first noticed that they had the same kind of razor I used on sale, which was the (insert commercial here) Gillette Fusion, with 5 precision blades, a trimming blade on the back, and a comfort strip which has some sort of soothing stuff in it that slowly releases. At the sale price, I figured I might as well get a new razor since it came with a new blade too. While looking over those razors, I saw next to it the Gillette Fusion Power Phantom, which is exactly the same razor, but it takes a battery and vibrates to (insert commercial here) provide a new level of comfort and the closest shave you've ever experienced.

Now, I do use one of those cheap Oral B electric toothbrushes, and I really like it. When I first saw the advertisements for the manual razor that vibrates, I thought it was a joke. And standing there in the store, I could not imagine who would buy such a thing. It was obviously just a play off the popularity of the battery-powered toothbrushes that have become so commonplace. And the battery powered razor was not even on sale, although they were only a dollar or so more expensive than the normal razor's regular price. 

You can probably guess where this is going. Yep, I bought the battery powered razor out of sheer curiosity, and so I could mock it later in all of my conversations. I even imagined blogging about it later, telling all of you how silly of a concept it is.

Except, I love it. You can not image my disbelief at actually trying it and not just liking it, but finding out that it is actually the best shave I've ever had. Not that I'm a shaving expert or anything, but I've experienced plenty of years of shaving each morning to know a good experience from a bad one. I used a manual razor for a couple years, then switched to an electric razor for a few years, and then switched back to a manual razor. This is, without a doubt in my mind, the best razor I've ever used. I'm not going to try to explain how a razor that vibrates could be so much better than the exact same razor that doesn't vibrate, but it is. Maybe it just distracts you or something, but there is so much less discomfort with this razor that I am still amazed each time I use it.

Yes, this is going to be a long blog. ;-)

2. Ms. Fiance and I decided to go see a movie the other day, and I was really disappointed to find out that "I am legend" was not out yet (Friday!). Ms. Fiance really wanted to see August Rush, which is a movie about a little boy who is a musical prodigy and thinks he can find his long-lost parents through his music. Sounded like a yawn-fest to me, and I had absolutely no interest in seeing it. But, being the loving fiance that I am, I told her we could watch it since there really wasn't anything else I wanted to see anyway (until Friday!).

Again, I was blown away. That movie has so many emotional highs and those WOW moments, that I totally got caught up in it. I don't know how many times I felt my eyes tear up, not from sadness, but from seeing the boy learn to play music and how powerful it was for him. 

I am not one to cry at movies. I just don't. At best I sometimes get that tingly feeling when something really builds up to an emotional high that clicks with me, like at the end of Shawshank Redemption when he finally escapes, or in Rudy when he gets to play in the game. I had that tingly feeling throughout August Rush, and while I wouldn't say that I actually cried, my eyes were definitely moist at least 3 or 4 times throughout the movie. It was just really good, and a great story. If you haven't seen it yet, go and watch it!

So there you have it, two times recently when my first impression of something was completely off base. I would have silently, or even not so silently, ridiculed both of these things, but they turned out to be really good. Just something for us all to keep in mind I guess.

DotD: Today you get two, big surprise.

Gillette Fusion Power Phantom - $10.99 - The only difference that I could tell between the Phantom and the regular Gillette Fusion Power razor is that the Phantom is black. They were both the same price, so I went with the Phantom. I just bought mine in the store, but I couldn't find it on a quick search of Target or Walmart's website, so that's why there's an Amazon link. 

August Rush - $7 or $8 in theaters - Go see this movie. After one viewing, it instantly moved near the top of my all-time favorite list. Both Ms. Fiance and I thought it was great, and can't stop telling people about it.