I had pretty much forgotten about OJ Simpson having been found guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping recently.  But today the sentence came down...up to 33 years in prison.  The Juice is 61, so he may very well spend the rest of his life in prison.

Geez, it was something like 14 1/2 years ago that I sat in my first appartment with my wife of one month watching OJ creep down a Los Angeles freeway in that legendary white Bronco.  Back then I thought he might as well just drive straight to the prison.  Who of us back then can honestly say they thought the man was innocent at that point.  Of course then it was murder...and somehow he beat the rap.  Could it be that he was innocent all along, the jury seemed to think so.  But in this case the evidence was overwhelming.  Recordings of the crime and the planning of the crime pretty much sealed the deal.  The only thing missing was OJ uploading the stuff to YouTube.

Within the last week or so I've been running into a lot of old friends from high school over at Facebook.  Many of these people weren't really my close friends, but I knew many of them from grade school all the way up through graduation.  As I encounter these people I've been struck by the fact that many of them are not married.  Now we're all pushing 40.  I was just a bit surprised, and I suppose a little smug feeling since I'm the guy that never had a date in high school but have been happily married for 14 years.  But I guess it's just made me remember how it's a darn good thing to have someone who loves you around all the time.  It's good to be married.

I've noticed lately that many movies are not showing the film's title at the beginning.  Instead it pops up at the end.  "The Dark Knight" was like this. 

Often I'll get about 15 minutes into a movie an think..."They didn't show the title, did they?"  Many times I'm mistaken, but lately it seems like I end up being correct.  I'm not sure I understand what the point of not showing the title till the end is.  It's like putting the title on the back cover of the book and not the front.  Weird.

Today I took the afternoon off so I could go and see "The Dark Knight" on opening day.  Long ago in a galaxy far far away...I used to go to most major movies on their opening day.  In the summer of 1989, that was pretty much how my friends and I spent most Fridays.  We lined up early for Tim Burton's "Batman" that summer.  What a great memory.

I was anxiously awaiting this latest Batman film.  "Batman Begins" turned out to be a great film, but I admit, I didn't get to see it in theaters.  I had to wait for the DVD, honestly I didn't feel that compelled to make sure I saw it in theaters.  But there's something about the Batman / Joker pairing that draws me in more.  Heath Ledger's Joker actually sums this situation up well in the new movie when he tells the caped crusader, "you complete me."  There is no other hero / villain relationship quite like the one between Batman and the Joker.  I just had to see it on opening day.

The movie is brilliant!  Ledger will most certainly be nominated for an Oscar and may even be the first posthumous winner in over 30 years.  One thing that was a great surprise is that even the moments that I've seen over and over again in the trailers are different in the finished movie.  Many of Ledger's lines that are so recognizeable from the ads, "Here's my card," "Kill the Batman," actually appear in the film in slighty different versions. 

I'm ready to see it again!  Best movie of 2008 so far.