Imperial Grunts - My piss poor little review

Imperial Grunts

Okay, so after reading it (and taking my time, mostly cause I'm a lazy reader) I can safely say I highly recommend this book.

Basically it's Robert Kaplan running around with Army Special Forces and Marines in various countries around the world. Mongolia, Colombia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Djibouti, The Philippines. Actually, the chapter on the Philippines will make you wish you had joined the service. Lots of cool shit talked about in this book. Getting to know some of the guys in uniform is a treat. These are some real straight talking no bullshit kinda guys. Real men that would make Maddox proud. The locales are also very well detailed. I got this strong urge to go live in Mongolia with a Filipino wife. So yeah, I guess he romanticizes things a tad.

Some of the details of what these guys are doing 'round the world is interesting and in some ways almost tedious. Basically they go around creating positive relationships with little backasswards cultures. Go to country X, get to know the folks who run the joint, help create workable special forces units that can be trusted to do their jobs properly and to help the central government project itself into uncontrolled territories, be nice to the locals by doing work on infrastructure and helping with medical needs, and, in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, kill some terrorist fucks. Basically, this is Kaplan's description of what he refers to as our American Empire. An empire based on democracy and trade rather than force and conquest. Hey, hell of an empire. He pretty much approves of it. He has his criticisms of the way things are run, his views on how to solve certain aspects of the dominion (which is all addressed in one chapter pretty much leaving the rest to describe his adventures) on so on and so forth.

Kaplan constantly talks about America's 19th century expansion and the military's abilities at fighting unconventional wars. He goes on about how the top brass are stuck in a World War II mindset with the viwe towards mass infantry when he believes smaller forces are required to fight our present unconvetional wars. He cites American western expansion and the various indian wars in his arguments.

It's a really good read. It really grabbed my attention, or at least it did once I would get around to picking it up. There's some real funny shit when he gets to talking with the soldiers and Marines. There's tons of interesting observations and locales. Absolutely worth reading.

Little superstar

Found this one on the Portnoy board. They're right, this video is the very reason the internets was created.

Edit: Now here's the same thing.

But with DEATH METAL!!!!!!!!!!



Edit the second: Sweet fucking Jesus, this comment says it all.

"If you can't enjoy the simple pleasures of a breakdancing Sri Lankan midget and his opium fried uncle, the terrorists have already won." - Angstone

Never has a truer statement in times like these ever been said.

Go here for the comments

Edit the third: Oh too many comments to read, but someone on the Portnoy board found this one.

'In case people haven't noticed, I'd like to point out that there's actually two midgets in this video, and one of them has a mullet.

This elevates the video from mere "best thing on the internet" to "best thing in the entire fucking universe."'

Oh man, this video made my millenium.

Fly Boys

God what a stupid movie.

Bad acting, crappy plot, Hollywood leftist PC nonsense...horrid! Good to get out thopugh.

I don't know who the actors were. I don't care. They sucked. There were some nice moments between the American pilot and the French peasant girl but otherwise it was all shit.

The crappy plot...Mmmmmm, putting it gently, it was shit. What was this movie about again? Love story? Revenge story? Who cares. There was some German ace that they never bothered to develop as a proper antagonist. He was just kinda there. The resident American ace hated him, that's all we knew. Then the American ace dies and that leaves our newbie pilot to pick up the torch and seek revenge. But who cares!

And now the Hollywood leftist political correctness. Naturally there is a token black guy. I don't care about that though, that's not the problem. Actually, this black guy was probably the best actor out of the whole lot of them. But the character himself was annoying. He lived in France cause France treated him better then America. Mmmmmmmmmkay! I know French intellectuals back before then criticized America for letting blacks have too many rights and mingle with whites more then in Europe, but we'll let that go for the time being. That's all just Hollywood leftist romantacizing of European culture, big deal. What was really stupid? The fact that the creative team had no idea when slavery ended in America. Okay, there's one scene where one of the white characters wants to apologize to the black guy because he slighted him for racist reasons. Okay, this scene was actually alright in of itself. They talk a little, find out about each other a little, the white guy is asked about his dad's business cause he's super rich. The white guy asks the black guy what his dad did and he replies, "My daddy was a slave." Awkward, humorous silence.

Now wait a fucking second! The War Between the States lasted from 1861 to 1865. The movie took place in World War I France in 1917. Between 1865 and 1917 is 52 years. The only way that guy's dad could have been a slave (a real slave, not just born under slavery) if he was about 72 years old give or take a couple of years. It's reasonable to say that the character's dad could be born under slavery, after all the character was about 20 if not a little older. But a real workin-the-fields-under-the-sun-whips-crackin-across-the-back slave? Doubtful. Whatever humor they were going for in that scene pretty much fell flat. Stupid, stupid writers.

All in all, the movie amounted to a giant waste of time. I didn't care for any of the characters, for the story, for...well, pretty much everything. The action was confusing at time, you didn't know who was doing what as the FX team did a half-assed job. I mean, it LOOKED good. But sometimes planes, which were marked in order to identify certain characters, would do one thing, go in one direction, and it would turn out to be another character entirely. Things just got confusing.

I will give this movie one thing, it didn't make my ass sore like what happened while watching The Black Dahlia. Still, pretty lame.

So good news...I think

So George's coworker at Super 8, the one who fills in for him when he's off, officially turned in her two weeks notice Tuesday. I dropped off my application Wednesday morning. Already he's telling me they're thinking about hiring me. Wow, that was fast! I think it's basically rumoured at this point because he heard it second hand from another coworker. Still, this is very sudden. I wasn't expecting to hear back for another few days and even then I was, am (I dunno), expecting an interview first. Unless they just don't want to bother with having to find someone to work two nights, or find someone who can do rotating shifts, then I guess I'm in. Cool, I think. Maybe I'll make more money there then I was at Best Western too. Hell, it is only two nights a week. Also I won't qualify for any pay raises.

The only other thing that worries me is the fact that the hotel is under new ownership. What I've heard about them has been relatively mixed. Bad, then good, then really bad. Now I understand everyone may be jumping ship. Oh dammit! Well, working two nights a week doesn't mean much insofar as dealing with the bosses. However, I made this assumption at the last part-time job and I got fucked big time. Cover my ass, pray for the best I guess. If they're really bad I don't imagine I'll last long there. I don't feel the urge to put up with bullshit just for the sake of a low paying job. Well, we'll see what happens.

I think that, unless I'm not contacted, I'll give them a call Monday and see what's up. I don't think I'd be starting for another week or so anyway, plenty of time to get a few things sorted. Get my lawn mowed cause it really needs it.

Also, it seems if everyone jumps ship, George might be offered front desk manager. Excellent! Well, he doesn't want it but I think it would be good. More responsibility, more pay.....it looks really good on a resume. He can do it for a while and then give it up later if he really doesn't like it. Plus he could work normal hours. Though I wonder if he would have to give up working here at the Hampton? I mean management would mean a certain amount of loyalty as well which means working at competing hotels is a conflict of interest. I could be over-inflating the position though. I would rather he stayed here part-time.

Well, interesting times ahead once again!

So I listened to the new Maiden album

Ya know what?

It's alright.

Definitaly better then Dance of Death. I'll tell you why,

I approached this album with cautious optimism. DoD I really really
wanted to like. Desperately wanted to like. I pretty much glossed
over the shit parts and the fact that few of the songs gelled
properly. Not so this one. It might have to do with lowered
expectations but no matter.

So as I said, it's alright.

As of right now about half the album is some damn good shit. Tracks
1, 7-10 are the stand out tracks. Different World is just a lovely
rocker. Breeg, obviously, I've heard a lot of already via KNAC.com.
For the Greater Good of God. Okay, this is my favorite track so far.
I just love the way Bruce sings the chorus. FOOOOOOR THHHHEEEE
GREATER GOOOD ofGOD! Even if it is repeated, I just like it. Lord of
Light I dig. I lkike the soft bits and the way Bruce sings them. For
some reason though it makes me wanna put on Pain of Salvation. The
Legacy is a great ender.

So what about the other tracks?

They don't grab me. I haven't listened to it enough yet, maybe they
will eventually, but right now they don't do anything for me. I sat
there and listened to them again this afternoon and I just started
picking my nose the whole time. Not necessarily a bad thing mind you,
I was really needed to dig some shit outta there. I was just a bit
distracted. I mean These Colors Don't Run is pretty good I guess.
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns gets people hard but me? Meh.

So what's bad? Bruce's voice. Again. It's the same shit on every
track really. LAAAALLAAAAALLAAAAALLAAAAAAAA
AAAAaaaAAAAAAaaaAAAAAARAAAAAaaAAAAAaaAAAAAaaAAAAAA. Nuance,
goddammit, lets hear some fucking nuance! Vocally Lord of Light is
the best in that regard. I love Kevin Shirley, I really do. His
production on Brave New World was immaculate. Bruce's voice sounded
wonderful. I should mention all the shit he has done with Dream
Theater. Why in the holy hell does he insist on using rehearsal
vocals these last two albums? Why? They sound bad. Veddy veddy bad.
Okay, not as bad as on Dance of Death, but still. On the DVD they
said rehearsal vocals were used on 80% of the album. Apparently,
cause I only really pay attention to the vocals the other 20%.

Also, I think for Maiden's last album, they should do something slow
and introspective. They sound great on the slow and introspective
parts of this album. Screw rocking out with their old, stubby,
withered cocks out, I wanted to hear more of those slow bits. Slow
good. I like slow. It was evocative of The X-Factor in that way.
Start off slow, then rock it. However, in the X-Factor the rocking
bits were better and the slow bits were kinda tedious. Complete
opposite here. The slow bits really capture your attention. The
rocking bits? Well they all just sound kinda samey.

Anyway, so far I'd say this album is a 6/10. 7/10. Ranking in terms
of post reunion albums? Overall, better then Dance of Death, not as
good as Branve New World. Those good tracks are really fucking good
though. I think I'm content with those.

I wish I had a CD burner. I would take those five tracks and then
combine them with the four good tracks from Dance of Death and have a
fantastic Maiden album.

Mulholland Drive

Can someone please fucking explain this movie to me?

Oh man

That last one made my knees go all wobbly.

If I need a BM tomorrow night after all this I'll be really surprised.

More fun with Hot Pockets

Background!

First, Matt's blog.

Next, my old MySpace blog entry

Okay, so what have I learned?

I've learned that so far the philly steak and cheese sub is the best one. I've also had the meatball sub and the ham and cheese sub. Meatball is good and the ham and cheese is okay.

Most importantly is I've learned the importance of rotation. Rotate the damn sandwhich! Since that first experiment I've had exactly zero problems with cold spots. I microwave for two minute and thirty seconds and rotate exactly halfway through all while making sure the sandwhich is centered properly in the cooking sleeve and in the microwave. I've considered that maybe the philly cheese steak is harder to cook and more prone to cold spots but I won't know until I buy some more. I can tell you one thing for sure, those things are goddamn salty! No problems with over-saltiness with two of the other flavors.

Also, these subs are better microwaved. I decided to do one in the oven for the crispy bread and it wasn't as good. Surprisingly! Of course it was also my first go with the ham and cheese. Again, more experimentation is needed.

Overall, I'm actually quite pleased with these Hot Pockets subs. Sure, I don't need 'em and the money would be better used on something healthier like cigarettes or unprotected anal sex with George Michael in a p[ublic restroom but I actually kinda like 'em, overpriced as they are.

Plus they really help evacuate my bowels.

That's the ticket

Yep, nothing like a Hot Pocket to get your bowels moving again.

Stopping them, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.

The Easter Bunny

Watching a palm tree nearly burn down

Man, it was the coolest thing. So Sunday night I spent most of th night reading but I would walk out periodically for a smoke. Anyway, so I'm standing behind my truck when something catches my attention and I look up to see a palm frond come in contact with the powerline and create a kick ass looking arc of 'lectricity. It was neato.

Anyway, after I went back in and read a little more I went over to the sliding glass door to my backyard to get a better view and saw the coolest shit. The wind had started picking up and was knocking the palm fronds back into the power line so much that the frond had started getting cooked and small flaming bits were coming off. So watching it burn and get zapped with electricity was awesome. It would build up a pretty good charge too. Enough so that when the charge released it pretty much lit up the top of the palm tree. Cool shit, I must have watched for half and hour.

And then it started to rain.

And then I sat back down to read.

I had the strangest dream

So the other night I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that I was driving around and then realized I needed to replace Juan over the Best Western cause he was working the evening shift and wanted to take off early. So I get there and he leaves and I putz around for a few minutes before I realize, wait a second, I'm not even supposed to be there! I got fired and if I get seen there they'll call the cops and I'll be in deep shit. So I take off rather quickly before the guy who was scheduled to do the audit shows up, jump in my truck and haul off. Though for some strange reason this entire time I'm without my glasses. So I'm driving around, taking all these weird side streets that I don't know, squinting like mad cause it's pitch black and I can't see. Yet for some strange reason, I'm driving just fine regardless. Anyway, I start heading over towards the Hampton Inn when I realize it's my night off and then I head on home.

Okay, it was a brief dream. Still, it was a trip.

More Keneally

A little dance routine thing

Male restroom etiquette

Oh Christ I hurt.

Star Trek

Sweet, I just caught an episode of the new re-release of Star Trek. This new release is supposed to be a hi-def series. We don't get a hi-def feed here at the hotel, so I can't comment on that end but I can comment on the other new shit, that being the new CGI effects added into the show.

Now according to Aint It Cool News, Balance of Terror should have been the first episode to air but I see no indication on KRGV's website that they aired it. Instead, I saw the episode titled Miri. My thoughts? Well, the CGI stuff looked great. They kept it simple and didn't go apeshit like Lucas did with Star Wars. The effects scenes were simply recreated faithfully. If a scene had the Enterprise orbiting a planet, they simply recreated the original footage. I think they did add a few things such as more detail of the planet's surface but otherwise it's no different than what was presented before.

The episode itself? Ya know, I never saw enough of the original series. I've seen a few here and there, the important episodes, but nothing much beyond those. I became a trekkie starting with the movies and The Next Generation. Miri was an interesting episode. The Enterprise finds an Earth-like planet with no adults and populated with only a few children. It seems that, in their quest for immortality, a new disease is created that kills people quickly upon entering puberty. Of course the adults died off very fast after that. So an away team beams down and they get infected. It turns into a race against time to find the cure while dealing with a bunch of kids who, lacking adult guidance, treat everything as if it were a game and steal the team's communicators. In short, it was okay. The oldest girl of the group, on the verge of womanhood, starts falling for Captain Kirk. Damn, Kirk really does score all the alien wiminz. Well, okay, he refrained in this case but you know he wanted the jailbait.

Mostly, I'm just excited to see Star Trek back on TV. It might be on at too late an hour but that's okay. Other markets probably get it at better times. Star Trek is a series that, right now, no one could give two shits about cause it got overplayed. It became just another cash machine for Paramount and so they raped it silly until they had no more use for it. Getting the original series back on, and with TNG and DS9 on Spike, I'm hoping this creates renewed support for one of the greatest series ever created. Simply put, remind people why Star Trek is that damn good so they can demand new Trek. Get some producers and writers who know what they're doing, unlike Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and get to churning out new stories. Avoid the cookie cutter shit that was Voyager and Enterprise and make a series worth watching.

Now I can't wait to see what they show next week.

Nice boring night

Nothing happened at all today. Well, I needed to do my lawn which is getting freakin ridiculous again but I woke up later then I wanted to. Well, Sunday or Monday.

Did catch an episode of the new Fantastic Four cartoon. It...sucks. Done anime style by a French animation house. A French animation house. A FRENCH ANIMATION HOUSE! What I've seen of French animation is it usually sucks and this show was no exception. The character designs sucked. The writing sucked. It sucked. Sucked, sucked, sucked. I can't explain why Ben Grimm had a giant number four logo sprayed painted on his chest. What is he like a fucking pirate or something? But instead of a sail boat it's a giant number four? I also can't explain why there's a giant floating four above the FF's headquarters. Now apparently this show takes after the movie that was released last year. Okay, I never saw the movie. I did hear it sucked though. Should I be surprised? Nice thong action going on with the Invisible Woman though.

After that was a repeat of the Teen Titans DVD release, Trouble In Tokyo. Cool, I always liked that show. Done anime style but done anime style by Warner Bros. animation house. Warners animation is nine times out of ten excellent animation. With a few exceptions in the first season the animation in Teen Titans was most excellent. They occasionally played up the anime influeces a bit too much but they eventually struck a balance that worked. The movie itself was pretty cool. I kinda stopped watching for a while to listen to some Nile but I came in for the last third. Really solid release. Story was done well, animation was done well, and the ending was done well. Especially the ending. The series finale of Titans sorta...sucked. It left too many things unresolved. Not to say they were ever resolved in this movie but it was a better close then what they did close with which was some shitty, open ended leave-it-to-the-viewers-to-figure-it-out-cause-we-got-nothing type endings.

And then I listened to some more Nile.

And now I work. Work being used in the loosest possible meaning.

And now I will read a while before turning on the TV cause I just found out that the new Star Trek special editions are gonna start airing here weekly at about 3 AM. 3 AM! Jeez. Well, can't wait. I'm a huge trekkie but I haven't watched enough of the original series so this'll be awesome.

But first...A SMOKE!

I ate way too fucking much

One of the perks of working in a hotel is sometimes a business will offer an incentive. In this case Papa Johns. For every ten deliveries they make to our hotel, not counting front desk orders, we get a free pizza. It's hard to take advantage of this, however I sometimes do as long as I'm sneaky enough.

And so I took advantage.

And now I'm fucking full.

I half expect a waiter to come by offering me a "wafer thing mint."

In two minutes I will get up, do my audit and then sit down to read for an hour. Sometime after that I will go to the store for groceries, go home, then curl up in my bed and fucking die.

I need to go on a diet.

The Black Dahlia

Man, I just...don't know what to make of this.

It had it's good points. I liked the noirish feel. The soft focus De Palma would use to give the film an old timey feel, things like that. The occasional graphic violence was also good.

Everything else? Well, I didn't really give two shits about what was happening. The movie had no focus. It lacked direction. It started out with a boxing story. Then it goes into rookie detective paired with the experienced top gun with the hot girly. Then a bunch of shit happens that makes you wonder when they're finally gonna get to the matter of the Black Dahlia case that the movie is supposed to be about. Then they get to the Black Dahlia and Josh Hartnett's character has no interest in following that case. And Josh Hartnett is the fucking star of the movie! If his character doesn't give two shits why should we?

What ends up happening is his character loses focus and so does the director. Characters come and go. Aaron Eckhart plays Hartnett's partner, starts off as an awesome guy, then next thing you know he's gone crazy. Hilary Swank comes into the story and then leaves just as suddenly. And when she comes back she's practically a different character! And so on and so forth. Should I mention the glaring plot holes?

I tried to tell myself the movie was okay after the end. But the more I sit on it, the more I hate it. This movie sucks. I should have stayed home. I could have stayed home and read my book. I should have. I really should have.

Now here's the killer. It's kinda spoilery but here's the killer deal. here's the thing that I wish I knew before the movie started to get some clarification. There's a disclaimer at the very end that says the events portrayed on screen were completely fictitious. Oh yes, there was a Black Dahlia Murder. That much is true. But that's it. The rest was complete horseshit. Sold as a true crime story that wasn't even remotely true. Fucking bullshit! If I had known that I would have never seen the damn movie. Ya know why? Brian De Palma hasn't made a good movie in like...actually I've never seen a Brian De Palma movie that really kicked my ass. There was the one with Nick Cage done in real time. There was the one about a mission to Mars that involved that picture of the face in the martian sand. That was really it. Even then those movies were only so so. And Scarface? Fucking...sucks!

This is the last time I will ever see anything done by Brian De Palma.

God, I'm gonna have to run over to the ghetto theater now to wash this taste out from my mouth. See something good. I could see Cars or Monster House again. Maybe Click. Been a while since I saw an Adam Sandler movie. Miami Vice? Fuck it, why not? Seeing two of the most arrogant and self-important leading men in Hollywood preening around on screen would be a thousand times more satisfying than watching the complete shitfest I just subjected myself to.

Flyboys on the 22nd. Here's hoping that one works out.

Drinking with coworkers

And the funny thing is I was just reading a study done by the Reason Foundation about how social drinking increases men's wages by 10%.

Funky popsicle melt

Ya know what's really fucked up about this?

What's really fucked up is all that shit actually sounds better with the George Michael voice.

One armed bassist

Now for the interesting trailers

So with Hoollywoodland I saw some cool trailers.

Flyboys looks fucking awesome! Dean Devlin film. No Emmerich? Too bad. I like this guy's shit. He makes entertaining stuff. A World War I movie about biplane fighter pilots? I'm game.

The Last King of Scotland. A movie about a Scottish guy in Uganda during the rise of Idi Amin and his murderous regime. Cool.

Children of Men. A dystopian sci-fi tale about the world's women becoming infertile, the decline of the human race and the fall of all civilizations. If done right this movie could be huge. I'm gonna be realistic and say it might be so so with a lot of missed opportunities to be great but the concept is intriguing.

Another one which, I believe is called Catch A Fire and looks to be set in South Africa and involves terrorism. According to NPR it seems to be about Nelson Mandela but if it seems to glorify terrorism in the way the trailer makes it seem I might end up skipping out on this one. Still, I'll be watching out for the reviews to play it safe.

God how I've missed going to the movies.

Hollywoodland

So I saw Hollywoodland Tuesday afternoon at the big sixteen screen first run theater. It cost $5.50 for the ticket. Christ, I remember when that was the price of a Friday night showing. Please God say the minimum wage never goes up. I couldn't afford the inflation!

So what about the film? I liked it. It's about a true crime story about George Reeves' suicide. It's not about George Reeves exactly, it's really about Louis Simo, a private investigator played by Adrian Brody dredging shit up so he can make more money. After Reeves commits suicide, his mother wants to have the case reopened cause she doesn't believe her son would ever kill himself. Instead she is referred to a private investigator, Brody as Simo, who basically creates a media spectacle in order to make money off the woman and make a name for himself. What happens is, over time, he starts uncovering things that start making some people nervous. Initially, he pegs the ex-fiancee as the murderer but no go there. However, the behaviour of certain movie studio execs forces him to sniff in their direction. George, you see, was sleeping with the wife of the owner of MGM.

It was a public affair, mind you, but when Reeves dumps her for another woman this, Simo thinks, causes the MGM big shit to take revenge for his wife's emotional betrayel. While all this is happening, Simo's son starts exhibiting troubling behaviour in reaction to Reeves' suicide and another case Simo was working on concurrently with the Reeves' case goes south.

All in all, I liked the movie. Ben Affleck hasn't been this good since Good Will Hunting or whatever he last did with Matt Damon. Defintaly one of his best works. Adrian Brody is also good. There is a reason he won that best acting Oscar.

I had some small problems. The George Reeves scenes had to be severely compressed cause everything that involves him happens over a period of something like six of seven years. Towards the end of this period everything gets really rushed in what goes on and where he is. His time in New York is shown long enough to show his first encounter with his fiancee and then it's back to LA even though his time in New York was implied as being a long term thing. Basically that's it, but there was the matter of the subplot involving the other case Simo was working on. It would have been nice to see that fleshed out a bit more as the ending to that weighs heavily in the climax.

Yeah, absolutely worth seeing.

Next up, The Black Dahlia!

Lady in the Water

So I saw Lady in the Water at the ghetto theater this past Monday. It cost $1.50 for the ticket. I like paying such low prices, especially now that the turnover rate from first release to bargain seating is so much faster now. Superman Returns is gonna be there soon, I think I may have to see it again.

Anyway, Lady in the Water. This movie got a lot of shit for reasons unexplainable. Personally, I think it's cause Shyamalan is just that good. His movies are always quality shit (though to be honest I never saw The Village which also took shit from critics). In short it's a fairy tale. It's a nice fairy tale too. Dude finds a hot chick in his pool. Turns out this hot chick is waiting to be sent back to her people, a race of sea-dwelling...dwellers. She's got a problem cause she can't stay out on land long enough to be picked up by some giant eagle cause she's being hunted by a very very ugly dog-like creature. Paul Giamatti's role is to help her be taken back to her people so she can take an important role among them.

Now there were minor quibbles with the film that I had but nothing majaor. It's not better then the Sixth Sense or Unbreakable but that's it. Also Shyamalan seems to be giving himself bigger roles in his films. Mostly I enjoyed the characters that roamed around this apartment complex. The Vietnamese girl and her mother, the guy only exercising one half of his body, the stoner rock band...all that. Kinda reminds me of the some of the idiots I encounter the hotel from time to time. I like the way Shyamalan just lets the characters interact at a slower pace and letting the camera linger. Things like that. It kinda makes the movie drag a little but it's not a problem for me. It's always pleasant to watch.

Secret Wars Re-enactment Society

I have the Secret Wars serie is TPB format. I read it a lot when I was a kid. Just some freakin awesome moments throughout the entire series.

And while searching for that video I find this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ooZYjF0mI

Sweeeeeet!

Dear Lord...

H0t n3+ 53xx0rz!!11!11!!

Way to freak me out guys

So I check the status of my Rightstuf order. They say to contact customer support. Oookkaaayyy.....and so I do. And they tell me my debit card is declining. And this makes me not happy. And then I check back on my account page at Rightstuf and it's processing. I do like that site, but they do occasionally irk me now and again.

Time to make sure my bank account hasn't been hacked.

Things are looking up...I think

So it looks like I might be getting a new part-time job soon. Maybe.

Seems my bud George, who shall remain anonymous, who fills in for me while I'm gone, has heard that the chick who fills in for him at his regular job at Super 8 might be taking off to work at a hotel on the Island. If so he might be able to hook me up with a job filling in for him while he fills in for me. Sweet! More money! I like that idea.

Not that this hasn't had me thinking. I have enjoyed the time off I've gotten since getting canned from Best Western. Not that I've done much but I have been able to do small things like go to the movies and lay around all afternoon while watching repeats of Star Trek's The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine on Spike. Great, but utterly wasted time. It is nice being able to, for two days anyway, have semi-regular daytime hours with the rest of society. I actually got to sleep at night! You get used to sleeping with the sun in your eyes after a while but 16 straight months of it gets tedious. However, I have also been able to take care of things around the house like...doing the lawn. Christ, that shit gets ridiculous. It can't be done so well in the mornings and by the time I wake up it's far too late in the evening. Having a couple of days off to take care of it has been helpful. Working seven days a week again will make that a bit more difficult.

Also there is the matter of pay. I'm not expecting matching pay with what I make at Hampton. I'm not even really expecting to make what I made at Best Western. But anything less then $6.00 dollars an hour I don't think is really worth it. Best Western brought in an extra $400 bucks a month so I think somewhere in the range of $350 bucks a month from another part-time wouldn't be too much to ask. Anything else would be a waste of time and I'd be happier with my days off. True, more money is more money, but I need to measure that against the need for time off.

Also, I might not want to stay there past the end of the year. Like I said, I alredy did the seven days a week thing for 16 months and while it was nice it did get tedious. I'll just see what happens. Hell, I only thought I would be at Best Western for no more then three or four.

Of course I have to get the job first. Most hotel employers here just hire whoever their other employees recommend. Pretty much everyone who works here at the Hampton started that way, barring me and my front desk manager as we were hired before the place opened. I got hired at the Best Western cause I knew the then general manager, and so on and so forth. So in that regard I do seem to have an inside track. However I would still need to interview, something I've never been particularly good at. I would hope my record at Hampton would be able to speak for me. "Hello, I'm Robert, if you want to know more about me call my boss." Well I wish it were that easy.

Overall I'm nervous about the potential of getting sucked into the monotony of a seven day a week work schedule, but excited about the prospect of making more money. I've gone though all the pros and cons in my head and all I can do right now is throw my name out there and wait and see.

New shops

http://www.dvdpacific.com
http://www.cdpacific.com

They seem good, rank well on Shopzilla. Only 2,500 reviews though. Too good to be true? Well hell, I'm already registered so I guess it's a bit late to ask that.

They sell some stuff really cheap. The Mars Daybreak complete series is cheaper than what I'm getting at Rightstuf. Shipping costs aren't bad either, $0.99 cents plus $0.59 cents for everything after.

I'll give 'em a spin and see how it works out.

Commencement

Okay, so I saw this on one of the Wired blogs.

Freshest sushi

*Shudder*

Funny shit

Ripped off from Andrew Sullivan via Samizdata.net. Man that's some funny shit.

So speaking of that incoming order

Fullmetal Alchemist volume 12 - Truth Behind Truths
Fullmetal Alchemist volume 13 - Brotherhood
Case Closed (Detective Conan) Season 1 Volume 4 - Wrong Answers Resolved

I love Rightstuf. I can get shit so cheap there. I'm getting those volumes for $16.19 a piece. Being an anime collector can be an expensive hobby so I do my best to get the best deals. I joined their Got Anime club last year so I can get 10% off a lot of stuff. It costs $12 bucks but in that first years alone I probably saved at least ten times that much but I'm probably estimating way down. I take advantage of their sales and preorders and get even more off. I pre-ordered those discs when they had a Funimation sale going and got damn near half off. They tend to knock off about $8 bucks with regular preorders so with my membership I end up paying about $20 bucks for a disc. I try to preorder a lot in a single order so I can then take advantage of the free shipping ($49 dollars or more unfortunately).

They also have all sorts of other specials going on but have restrictions on those. No problem cause they're insanely cheap. Saw all six volumes of Azumanga Daioh on sale for six bucks a pop once. Hell, they have all 18 volumes of Cardcaptor Sakura on sale for $80 freakin dollars! That's beyond awesome. Sure, it's not a series I'm gonna be buying any time soon but there are all sorts of closeted pedophiles out there just dying for it I'm sure.

Of course they have their problems. Returns can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes though honestly I've only done it once (and then turned around and committed a bit of fraud against Sam Goody but that's another story). Also they sometimes get shit in early and fuck up your plans on getting the new Iron Maiden CD but I can't complain about that really.

Anywho, enough shilling for now. I'm not getting paid for this and I have actual work to do eventually.

Goings on

My house almost looks livable. Almost. I did the back yard the other day and it looks pretty good. Then the Church sent over some people to hack away at all the low hanging branches out front and some of the shit scraping across the roof. Things look halfway decent now. The front lawn is growing some but it's not long enough to cut yet. It's still at that point where it could be shortened but it would be a complete waste of time cause it's not long enough to see where you've been. I'll give it a couple of weeks before I cut it again unless it decides to rain soon in which case I'll have a week before it starts to look like a South American jungle.

In other news, the new Iron Maiden album album was released Tuesday. Do I have it? No. Why not? Cause I want to order it from The End but I can't be sure which version they have. Also they're selling it for like $16.50. A bit high up there. Also I have three DVDs ready to ship from Rightstuf so that about covers my BS budget for this check. I guess I'll wait. I figure I'll order it from Amazon and then get the new Queensryche and Mars Volta along with it. I think that'll work much better.

In the mean time I think I'll go have a smoke and then run the audit. Or run the audit and have a smoke. Whichever. Then get back to reading my book. Awesome read, I'll blog about it later when I'm finished.

Jonas Hellborg

Mike Keneally

I, Drum Running, Am Clapboard Bound

Some melodic death metal drumming

I had almost forgotten this one

Jedis are so awesome

Poor guy

This was bound to happen

The King is a sexual predator. We all knew this.

I never understood the point of this ad

Mmmmmm, pancakes!

Matt already posted this at his blog, but fuck it I liked it a lot.

Crank

So after getting my drink on in the morning after work, I woke up in the evening and got ready for some awesome badassness.

Crank...was...PRETTY GOOD!

Just pretty good?

I'd rank it about a 7.5 to an 8 out of 10.

Great fun though.

So it's about a hitman (Chev Chelios, played by Jason Statham) who gets in trouble with some gangsters. They inject him with a poison that slows down his heart and the only thing he can do to counteract the affects is to keep kicking ass and get the adrenaline rush. So, with his time limited, he decides to do what any good hitman would do in his situation.

Kick some ass!

But first he has to figure out a way to keep his adrenaline up. Getting into fights, raiding convenience stores for Red Bull, raiding hospitals, you name it. Also, he decides he's gonna confess to his girl about what he really does. Hard to do when she doesn't answer the phone, but that's secondary to laying the smack down.

It's a fun movie. Short, fast, sweet. Lotta running around, being hardcore, fucking shit up and public displays of affection. Erm, yeah, you'll, uh...have to see that bit for yourself. There's really not a lot to say about it beyond that. Lotsa violence. Great violence. Great use of music too. It's starts off with Quiet Riot's Bang Your Head (Metal Health). Yeah, that song pretty much sums it all up. Oh, can't forget the titties.

To sum it up, violence, metal, titties.

Great fun. Recommended

7.5/10

The advantages of hotel work

So last week I found a bottle of chardonnay in housekeeping on one of the housekeeping carts. Great! I stick it in the fridge in the employee lounge to chill and then I forget about it. A week later, Friday morning to be specific, I remember it. It's still there! I figure it's been a week and no one has taken it so that means it's up for grabs. So I grab it on the way out and take it home.

Mind you, I didn't expect half a bottle to get anything remotely resembling drunk. Maybe it's cause it's been almost a year since I've had any alcohol at all. But wwwwoooooooowweeeeeeeee!!!!!!! That was the perfect level of inebriation. The level where you're happy and smiling and food tastes like 50 times better. I still woke up with a slight hangover but whatever.

I think I need to drink more often. My liver is still like new!

Speaking of drinking I hear Beerfest is damn funny. The trailers looked hysterical. I need to see it soon. But I have lots of shit I wanna see.

Damn, why do we need money again?

Oh, right, for alcohol.

So I have a new boss

Naturally, this has me worried.

So, my GM comes down with bells palsy which is that thing that paralyzes likes half your face. Okay, I didn't know that and barely found out last week even though it apparently happened two months ago. So he gets an MRI or something and they find a...well, I understand it's a cyst on his brain? Something like that. So anyway he apparently decided back then to hire a new sales manager. And I didn'r hear about this until like three freakin days before she started. Naturally, I felt uneasy. Last sales manager at my part time job at Best Western turned into a venomous backstabbing cunt and fired me for no apparant good reason (even though she cited about 50 different contradictory ones).

So I finally met Marie Wednesday morning.

So far so good. She seems alright. She came in, looked incredibly professional. Well taken care of for a woman her age. She's just barely starting and wants to learn the ins and outs of the hotel. That's expected. She even wants to learn the audit. Dammit! I hate teaching people the audit. I'm a terrible instructor. Oh well, it'll probably just be one or two nights of basically showing her what I do and doing a buncha things I don't normally do just to make her think I'm busier than I actually am. "Blogging? No ma'am, I don't do none of that. Just me and my little book here."

It's just as well, good or bad, I will continue to do my thing, cover my ass, and hope to God she is not a bitch of the devil like my last sales manager. I suppose I should start wearing various religious symbols to be safe. "O, a pious Christian soldier am I!" *Thumps Bible adorned with pictures of Pope Benedict*

I hate these little upheavals.