Sunday, March 29, 2009

It's not as if the sun won't shine when the clouds above wash the blues away...

I hate waiting for medicine to kick in. Especially, the stuff that is supposed to make you sleepy. The worst part is that it doesn't usually kick in until you have already fallen asleep. So, because you are sleeping, your body metabolizes it at a slower rate, thus causing one to wake up groggy as hell. So, while I wait for this shit to do it's magic, I figured I could recap for you, another mundane week in my life.

Yippy Skippy with Banana Creme!

You know what sucks? Going to the Dentist. I don't even care what it is for, it still sucks. There is something incredibly uneasy about someone putting their hands in your mouth. I don't care if it is just the assistant or the dentist, I just get a little nervous when they move those instrument towards my mouth. I'd rather be stabbed in the hand with a fork. Even more so, it has to take a brave person (like my rock star friend, Mandy) to go to work every day and deal with people's mouths. If I did it, I would feel like a mother fucking lion tamer every time I went to work. I'd be waiting for that fucker to snap at me every time. Anyway, the real worst part about dental visits is that eventually you'll get the bill, even if you have insurance. Hell, if you need to get any real work done, the insurance coverage dries up quicker than a vagina in a retirement home.

Yeah, I said that.

Speaking of awesome things that aren't appropriate for the ears of children, I finally went out and saw “I Love You, Man”. The movie is by no means the funniest one I have ever seen, but it is well played. They nail the concept of a grown man trying to make friends. I related. It is hard to be out of school on your own and trying to make friends. It is awkward and unnatural. Paul Rudd brings that to life on screen. Also, there are some genuine truths about friendships that are brought to the screen as well. Add a little RUSH music on top of that, and you have a little movie treat worth nibbling on.

I am currently attempting to import some of my music CDs to iTunes and the iPod Touch. This took an interesting turn when my CD drive decided to be loud as shit. Seriously, what the hell? As long as it works, I suppose I will deal with it.


Went to a Gambler's hockey game tonight with my little bro and Stann. It was a good time. There was a record attendance at the Resch Center for a Sunday game. The best part was the fight less than a minute into the game. Also, there were dollar hot dogs and soda. I also had a pretzel with cheese. Mmmm. Delicious shit. The Gamblers also won. Which is great because they sucked more than Hoover last year. It was quite pathetic actually. This year is a major turn around.

I wonder if I should import my Wesley Willis album. “Rock and Roll McDonalds” is a classic.

Working overtime seems to get easier every week. Doing 5 hours a week isn't the worst considering that is just an extra hour or two a day. Every extra cent counts when I plan on losing every dime in Vegas. Those bright lights are going to take me for everything I am worth.

Hmm. A different CD seems to be making a difference with my CD drive. That is a relief. God damn, you Green Day and your Bullet in a Bible live CD wanting to blow up my laptop!

I preached all week at work about how great those Cadbury Mini Eggs were. You know the ones. They have the milk chocolate center surrounded by a candy shell. They are simply delicious and understated as an Easter time treat. They should be a year round treat. Well, I tried to find them at Target and Walgreens since they aren't really all that unpopular. They should have had the damn candies. Instead I had to sell my soul to Sam Walton to get a taste of chocolate ambrosia.

Okay, this medicine is starting to kick in a little bit. I should wrap things up before I go all “David at the Dentist”. No need for my hallucinations to become written word. So, here are some quick hits:

Ipod Touch applications are quite amusing.

I might be on a softball team up here in the Bay. Awesome. Now I can use my damn glove. Time to buy new game wear. It is a good thing I have the Mike Cameron shades already.

Some people at work looked at my ID badge picture, which is from September of 07 and said they thought I lost weight. I disagree. I generally just look pudgier in photographs.

When the hell will we be rid of snow all together?

Personal Day on Thursday! Time to trick Steve into seeing “12 Rounds” with me.

Just kidding, I couldn't do that to him. Instead we will watch “The Happening” on Blu Ray.

Speaking of Blu Ray, I was pleased to find my “Firefly” season set in my mailbox on Friday. Woot!

“Dollhouse” was very good on Friday. Give that show a chance.

There was some sort of craze over the DVD release of “Twilight”. Hmm. Nope. Never gonna see it. Now I understand how Sara B felt about “Spiderman”.

Holy shit, I just found some old school pictures from my very first digital camera. These are like 9 yrs old....

Hmm. I also found a document from the year 2000 that contains a trip log of our Valders High School music trip to the good state of Florida. Perhaps I will have to pull that thing out for a blog. Plenty of wonderful moments if I recall....

The story of the swim coach guy in Greenfield, the one with the brand new sex charges, makes me suspicious of all the so called “normal” people I have come across over the years.

Alright, night time.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

A Neon Tiger

Yes, I did not do a little dance. Kind of like a victory dance, if you will. Nobody saw it, which is great. I am quite certain I looked rather ridiculous. It is okay though since it was for a damn good reason.

I just got a great deal at half.com on the blu-ray version of “Firefly: The Complete Series”. Oh, hold on a second. Many of you just asked yourself, “What the fuck is that?” I could humor you with a 5,000 word essay on the failed science fiction series, but I will stick to a brief summation. “Firefly” was a show Fox decided to cancel without even giving it a chance. Read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)

After the show was axed, it picked up a cult following. I was among the many who didn't watch on Friday nights because it was, well, Friday. Rarely do people watch TV on Fridays. However, they do like to watch shit on DVD. That is where I first watched Firefly. Two episodes in, I was hooked.

Firefly was funny. It was insightful. There was drama, suspense, a great plot, and most importantly, character development. It should be noted that the dialogue was snappy as hell. As it should be since the show was created by Joss Whedon, the mastermind behind the best written dialogue in TV history. Basically, Firefly was about a rag tag group of smugglers for hire..... in space. It was in the future, when humanity is colonizing space. Essentially it had the feel of a western with a sash of Star Wars. Sounds crazy, but it worked. It was unlike anything ever aired on TV. “Was” being the keyword.

What was filmed and released on home video is some of the finest television episodes one can own. Now, I have it. For over half off. On Blu Ray. It will look amazing.

In case you were wondering, you can catch Firefly on Hulu.com.

Enough about that. None of you care anyway.

My AWBF, Mandy, came into Green Bay today. (AWBF stands for At Work Best Friend). Granted, she no longer works at Humana, nobody really has filled her shoes. They probably won't. Today I helped her with the introductory pages of her Psychology research paper. It needed to be in APA format and I had written a handful of papers in that format, so we utilized my limited experience. It also helps that there is a piece of paper in a purple frame that says I have a degree in the subject matter. Ha. That's funny. It has been nearly 4 years since I applied my damn studies towards anything.

Seeing Mandy was fun. It was just like old times at the office. Even better was that Mandy took a trip to Vegas last year, so she supplied me with some great intel. Good gosh was the information helpful. There is a casino that rounds people up off the street using dwarf street performers! And apparently they dress like a biker gang. I am not sure why, but this intrigues the shit out of me. In addition to that, I learned that one can get a large drink served up in a plastic receptacle shaped like a full sized guitar. Yeah, Jason, Amy, and Nate will find this to be helpful. That would be the ultimate drink for a true rock star.

I worked 13 hours of overtime the past two weeks. That money adds up and will definitely give me a little cash wad to blow in Vegas. Normally OT is an iffy experience, but since I am motivated to earn extra money, it is tolerable. It really does help to have purpose in one's job. In the extra hours I work, I am usually deciphering medical records. Sounds boring, right? Well, it isn't as bad as it could be.

Medical records often contain interesting bits. The often tell a story of who the person is. Okay, so maybe I just create a story in my head. One will come up with some interesting ideas when they read about someone having herpes of the eye. Yep, you heard that. And yes, I did immediately “go there” when I read that piece of information. However, I did not read anything about the doctor suggesting a good pair of goggles.

Random thoughts:

I watched “Dollhouse” last night. The show keeps getting better. You should check it out.

There isn't a better complimentary appetizer out there than the rolls with cinnamon butter at Texas Roadhouse.

I better not have to wake up to any more new snow on the ground. For god's sake, it is SPRING. Let's keep it that way.

The Badger game on Friday night was intense. As was Siena vs. Ohio State. Overtime NCAA tournament games are some of the best sporting events one can watch.

Okay, time to stay up too late playing The Show on ps3

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Your note has been published. All alone smoking his last cigarette....

Sweet Holy fucking shit! 57 Degrees tomorrow! I can't believe that for one second. Wow! Straight up wow. I do not know what to say. I hope the forecast is correct for a change. It will be about 76 degrees in Vegas tomorrow. Not that I am checking in on the City of Sin or anything.

Did anybody else catch Tracy Morgan on Saturday Night Live this past weekend? The show was nothing remarkable except for Brian Fellow's Safari Planet as well as Astronaut Jones. Those are throwbacks to a time when SNL was funny nearly every week.

On Saturday I finally got around to seeing “Watchmen”. I had been reading the graphic novel so I could fully appreciate the movie. Well, I decided to not finish the novel before I saw the movie. The word was that the movie was fairly in sync with the book, so I figured I would like a surprise. Now, it must first be noted that I really liked what I read in the graphic novel. I am not one who regularly reads any kind of comic book, but after reading “Watchmen” I can see why some people are big fans of that particular type of media.

In case you never heard of it, let me give you a quick synopsis. “Watchmen” is based on a 1985 graphic novel by Alan Moore which takes place in an alternate universe in 1985. Richard Nixon just one his fifth term as President and we are amidst the cold war with Russia. The Russians are at war with Afghanistan and the leaders of the free world are watching it very closely. The threat of Nuclear war looms overhead as a set of retired masked avengers sits in waiting. Well, one of such characters, The Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan – you know him as Denny from Grey's Anatomy) is thrown from his high rise apartment by an unknown assailant. Add to that an assassination attempt on genius superhero Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) and the public humiliation of Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a glowing blue meta-human who has the ability to manipulate matter. This series of events has the masked paranoid sociopathic Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) on the trail for some answers. There is in fact a conspiracy at foot and it could lead to cataclysmic results.

So, my thoughts on the movie? Well, it was by no means as fantastic as “The Dark Knight”. However, it was still quite good. Reading the novel probably enhanced the experience for me, but that shouldn't mean that a random movie goer would not find themselves engaged in the movie. From the opening of the movie, where we were given exposition in the form of moving photographs, you could tell that “Watchmen” was going to be a living and breathing comic adaptation.

Zack Snyder, the director, really nailed it. He got the tone right. The characters seemed spot on with what I had been reading the past several weeks. Hell, he even did a great job sequencing together all of the various plots and flashbacks. This last detail is something I have heard a few people touch on. Apparently there were plenty of people who couldn't follow when in the time-line the events on screen actually took place. Quite frankly, I am a little baffled as to how they weren't able to piece things together. It was quite evident when they were doing a flashback. The average season 5 episode of “Lost” was more confusing in terms of time-lines. All you need to know is that there is a storyline in the present (1985 for the characters) and then there are flashbacks filling in details. Once you can grasp that simple concept, the movie should be no problem to follow.

In fact, it is the flashbacks that are some of the most satisfying scenes. Much like season one of “Lost”, the flashbacks in “Watchmen” are the keys to our characters' motivations and actions. They are masterfully woven into a tapestry of suspense, action, and doom. Snyder did a much better job with this one than he did with “300”. I thought that movie was a cluster fuck of insanity. “Watchmen” was organized insanity.

Yeah, I did say it was insanity. But that was a compliment. The story wasn't ever meant to be psychologically fulfilling. It was a grim look at how writer Alan Moore viewed the Cold War society. This story is by no means intended to be a fun adventure romp like “X-men” or “Spider-man”. It takes a realistic approach to the superhero story. What really would happen if someone got dressed up in a costume and fought crime? Well, these people aren't going to sleep well when they are done. Or hell, they never slept well, so to speak, in the first place. There are two ways of looking at it. Either these characters became broken due to their crime fighting or the reason they ever became vigilantes was because they were already broken. Regardless of the reason, when we finally catch up with this team, they are not the most noble group of heroes. Hell, its even arguable that they are heroes at all.

“Watchmen” is rated R. That is for good reason. The content dictates that much. It needed to be this way if it were ever to be an accurate depiction of the graphic novel. Some people were apparently not understanding that it was an R rated film. They were rounding up the kids or taking their spouse on to the local cinema to catch a popcorn flick. A popcorn flick isn't what they got. What they watched was gritty, intense, and dark. Did I mention very sexy at times? Yeah, that one caught people by surprise. There are reports that people left the theater, with or without children in tow, once the steamy sexy scene between two characters occurs. This is probably their own fault since they should know what they are paying to see. Also, Warner Bro. Probably could have made it a little more clear with their marketing that the movie wasn't for PG 13 crowd.

As I mentioned earlier, the movie is very dark. Some might even say twisted. There is some graphic violence. Blood is plentiful in many scenes. That should not deter you. It is there for a purpose, unlike any movie from the 80s. All the death and despair leads to a feeling of dread when you see this movie. I would have felt a little down because of this dread if we as a society weren't already feeling it. These are trying times. One wrong move in the economy and there could be an all out panic. Things could get real fucking ugly. When people's livelihood is on the line, they will do just about anything. If you see this film it'll get you thinking about who you want out their fighting for your well being.

I'll give this one an 8 out of 10. Or 4 and a half stars if you do it that way. Things weren't perfect, but there was a bit of something missing that “The Dark Knight” had. Granted it was a ensemble cast of characters, nobody came out and gave me chills. There are a couple great performances though. Jackie Earle Haley is just terrific at times as Rorschach. Not only did his unmasked persona reflect the book, but he delivers the lines how one imagines them while reading the book. There is a scene at the end of the movie that nearly did give me the chills, but the fact that his character is kind of a bastard kind of ruins the magnificent moment. Patrick Wilson, who plays the Night Owl, needs to be given some props as well. He brings forth the decency we all are looking for in these characters. In the mess of it all, he really does an admirable job portraying one of the true good guys. Go out and see this one while you can still appreciate it with the full theater experience.

Oops, I rambled a bit, didn't I? Well, who cares? You'll get over it. Time for some random thoughts:

Like my friend Tina, I think I am slowly becoming hooked on Monster Energy drink. The blue stuff, with less sugar.

Guess who is working a shit ton of overtime this week? Papa needs to support his gambling habit (in Vegas, not at the local casino). The fun part is that I am reading medical records. Yeah, it sure isn't the easiest thing in the world. Have you ever tried to read a doctor's chicken scratch? His is difficult as hell.

Hmm. Random texts at 1:00 am are not cool. One would assume there is a better time to reach me. And as a call if its really that important.

I am hooked on MLB: The Show 09. I could play for days on end if work would let me stay home.

The rumors are true. I did buy an iPod Touch. It is so beautiful. I can't wait to get acquainted with it. I am selling the iPod video for $50 or so if you need one. Comes with an armband I never used.

The second episode of “Castle” airs Monday night. The first was ok. Let's hope they make it get better.

Looks like next week of “Dollhouse” is going to be the episode that makes or breaks that series. It looks fucking awesome from what the preview showed.

Anybody else a fan of the whipped cream candy eggs? Also, do any of you feel the need to mail me some of the Cadburry chocolate eggs with the hard candy coating.

March Madness has arrived. I suppose I should get interested in order to participate in low level gambling.