It was another busy Saturday.  This past months, I've been nothing
but pre-occupied on the weekends.  Sometimes I'd like to go back
to the old routine of just lounging around on my weekends, doing mostly
nothing, but eating, watching, and sleeping.

So I had yet another party to attend.  This time it's my friend's
son's birthday party.  It was nice and relaxing actually, but
prior to that, I went to an all you can buffet with my family and
friends.  Ofcourse, on Friday I had that other party that I went
to and such.  Yup, I'd like a weekend off from my weekend off.

I bought one of those classic TV games for the b-day boy.  Pretty
cool toy actually, 5 games in one controller that hooks directly to the
TV. I got the one that has dig-dug and rally-x in it, and I actually
wouldn't mind owning one myself.  There were actually different
variations to the toy, but I chose that particular one.  It's a
good thing too, because he received another gift that contained TWO of
those toys.  I was afraid that I was going to be that duplicate
gift.  Thank God that wasn't the case.

We went back to my girl's house where we lounged for whatever's left of
the night.  She ended up falling asleep, I ended up watching
Transformers the movie, and the five parter of Season 3 : "The five
faces of darkness."  Yes, I've been hit lately with the nostalgia
bug, and what better way to start than the Transformers.  So I've
gone through the "classic" first two seasons, and quite honestly, I
have to say that they only mildly slightly live up to my memories of
when I was young.  The magic is still there, but there are so many
flaws, continuity errors, and animation boo-boos, that I was tempted to
just stop watching all together.  But I've always been fascinated
with the mythology of the Transformers, and that magic still
remains.  Transformers the Movie still holds a very special place
in my heart. What's cool is that I never did get a chance to watch
Seasons 3 - 4.  So far, I have to say that the quality of the
animation has gone so down hill compared the past two seasons. 
But I must "roll on" 'till the end!

Me and my cousin today went to my friend's little shin-dig forty miles
from home.  It's mostly friends from work just hanging around,
drinking some alcohol, and playing some video games. He got me to bring
my Samba de Amigo game for entertainment and that was fun seeing people
looking funny with maracas trying to beat me at my game.  That's
right Samba de Amigo champ right here!
I tried to get them to also do some Karaoke (which I brought), but alas
no one was brave enough to consider it (besides me and my cousin) .

We then went to the mall to hopefully check out Hot Topic, but they
didn't have it there for some reason.  I still need to one of
these days buy myself some cargo shorts, and that mall didn't really
have anything that I wanted.  So we went back to my friend's
get-together, and several more people were there.  I have to
mention that I really am not much of a party atmosphere kinda guy, so
me and my cousin mostly really kept to ourselves, with the occasional
talking and whassups. After a couple of hours, we took off. 

We
bought some clam chowder and buttermilk biscuits w/ apple butter sauce
(hhmm hhmm good), went over to my girl's house, watched Monk, Best Week
Ever, A to Z, played with my pet dog again, and then went home to
sleep.  That's pretty much how the day went, minus the small
details that I'm too lazy to add in.

If there's a lesson for today, it's that there are many things that are
in the west coast that aren't in the east coast, and vice versa.

p.s. It was really nice just hanging out with my co-workers without
having the responsibilities of telling them what to do for work and
such.

What seems to be the case nowadays, ever since the internet gave huge
voice to all form of fans out there, is that movie fans are
triumphantly spreading the word about their favorite indie films, and
how good they are over hollywood. Truth be told many a times I agree
with their logic and hold indie films in a different pedestal than the
tired cliche Studio produced blockbusters. 

But I think I've started turning a new leaf on my opinion on Indies vs
Studio. I've grown more and more annoyed at the blatant pretentiousness
that independent films are growing into.  Just being different
isn't enough anymore for an indie film to be good.  Another thing
that I also find annoying are the fans that claim how great some of
these films are, and that everybody should support that movie. 
Sometimes I wonder whether their love for a movie is bolstered by the
fact that it's "their discovery" or that it's "their baby" that they
are trying to show the rest of the world.  Methinks it skews their
logic in what really is a good or bad movie. 

Hollywood on the other hand have tried their hands at going away from
their cliche formula of movies.  In some cases they are
successful, but in many cases they are not. But hardly anyone defends
Hollywood anymore, and those who do always seem to be praising some
crappy movie that really is just bad.

Well recently, I've watched a couple of independent films (bubba ho-tep,
napoleon dynamite), as well as some Hollywood stuff (anchorman, 13
going on 30). But can
you guess which ones I really enjoyed very much?  Surprisingly so,
even to me, I enjoyed "Anchorman" and "13 going on 30" more than "Bubbo
ho-tep" and "Napoleon Dynamite."  Yup, the two Hollywood movies
would get my vote for once over the indies.  All four movies are
definitely in the "worth checking out" department, but I have to give
some more props to Hollywood for still being able to provide me some
fun. 

So in the short run...

"Anchorman" gets incredibly funny when all the randomness start happening.

"13 going on 30" is just a very cute movie that puts a smile to my
face.  I'm also a sucker at time travel kinds of movies.

"Bubbo ho-tep" brings back the magic of the King that is Elvis Presley.

"Napoleon Dynamite" is just a wonderful bizarre film that makes you go "huh?!" and "what?!" alot.  But it is funny.

and now, some random links...

the FBI's guide to concealable weapons for 2003 (pdf)

Bootleg footage of Batman in costume for "Batman Begins" (wmv)

Booze + Body Art = Not the best idea (blog entry)

For Street Fighter III fans, remember to parry parry parry (wmv)

Doing a "Lynndie" (article + pics)

Thunder Cats cartoon bloopers! (swf)

If condoms had sponsors (pics)

Taking your rock-paper-scissors seriously (wmv)

The official "pick over squares" appreciation page (article + pic)

The best NBA fights (wmv)

Lebron James gets his own comic books (article + pics)

You know how people can imagine animals talking?  You see it in TV
and movies all the time. They talk, just like humans would.  I've
never minded that fact until years ago when I was channel surfing and
saw an episode of that cartoon "Dexter's Laboratory."  In that
story, Dexter got a dog to talk.  Sure, that's not anything
particularly new, but the thing about it is that the dog didn't all of
a sudden become a pure conversationalist.  The dog started saying
things like "the thing! the thing!" or "look here! look here!" ....and
it got me thinking....that's just like what a dog WOULD be saying if it
could talk.  I realized that an animal really couldn't hold a
conversation with me if it could talk the english language.  Why
would they right? So now, everytime I see a commercial, a tv show, or a
movie that has talking animals, I kinda have a habit to roll my eyes a
bit when they start talking like a human person. 

I would excuse Garfield though, because if I didn't he would ship me in a box to timbaktu.

I had a couple of dreams lately, so with the help of hyperdictionary
I thought I'd look up a few things.  Below are the key things /
events I've experienced in my dreams. Feel free to come up with your
own interpretations....

Chased - Dreaming that you are being chased means that you are avoiding a
situation that you do not think is conquerable. It is often a metaphor
for some form of insecurity. In particular, to dream that you are
chased by an animal, represents your own unexpressed and unacknowledged
anger which is being projected onto that animal. Alternatively, you may
be running away from a primal urge or fear.

Movie - Dreaming that you are playing a role in the movie, foretells that
something from your unconscious is about to emerge or be revealed. It
may also represent memories of images or scenes from your past.
Alternatively, the dream may be pointing you toward a new role that you
might be undertaking. Your unconscious is psychologically preparing you
for this new role.

Movie Theater - Dreaming that you are in a movie theater, indicates that you are
attempting to protect yourself from your emotions and/or actions.
Viewing them on a movie screen projects them onto another person and
thus makes those feelings/actions distant . You may be protecting
yourself from experiencing them.

Shark - Seeing a shark in your dream, represents a person whom you see as
greedy and unscrupulous. This person goes after what what he or she
wants with no regards to the well-being and sensitivity of others. The
shark may also be an aspect of your own personality which exhibit these
qualities. Alternatively, you may be going through a difficult,
painful, or unpleasant emotional period. The shark symbolizes feelings
of anger, hostility, and fierceness. You may be an emotional threat to
yourself or to others.

At work today there was an incident among my employees that might
escalate in the future.  One of them is goofing off at work, and
the other guy confronted him by telling him not to goof off. The
goof-ball got defensive about it and stated that it shouldn't matter,
even though it's against what he was trained to do.  The stern one
warned him not to goof off, or he will have to go to management. 
The goof-ball even tried black mailing the stern guy by saying he was
going to tell on him about anything he screws up on. The goof-ball then
simply said that if he is around him he won't goof off, and then
proceeded to leave.  The stern one didn't like the attitude from
that statement, which indicates that the guy will just goof-off on his
own anyways. Management was then informed, and the drama will continue
in another day....

I wasn't witnessed to the goof-ball's actions, so I can't state my
opinion on how far off the rocker he was.  I will say this though,
one person's mistakes or goofing-off DOES affect other's people hard
work.  By "affect" I mean in a negative way like being blamed for
things we don't do (new rules). I've seen it happen several times the
past years I've worked there.  It's happened to me, it's happened
to my co-worker friends, and frankly we're just tired of it.  So
I'm all for backing up with the "stern one" when my opinion is official
asked.

Plus, the guy tried to black mail him. What a load of crap that is!

So I went to yet another wedding.  This time it's the third one,
as I went to two others earlier this year.  The first one
was one of my best friends back in high school, the second one was my
friend's sister's wedding, and this third time is my girlfriend's
friend from college. 

The wedding was located in a nice cute resort by the hillside, and the
reception was located at the same place.  There were almost 300
people that attended and me, my girlfriend, and her sister knew almost
nobody there except for the couple, and a few of the relatives (kinda like the other two weddings too). 
The wedding was late, but it was also relatively short, so it was all
good.

At the reception, we ended up assigned to the very last table (but with
a good spot), and practically had it for ourselves besides two others
(five empty seats). Just like the wedding itself, it was out in open
air, but with the candles on the table and the moody lighting, it was
actually very beautiful. By the time they were playing the game for the
table center piece, it was just me, my girl, and her sister in that one
table.  So obviously, we won the center piece.  The funny
thing is that in ALL three weddings, we won those other center pieces
too.

One humorous highlight of the night was that somebody accidently put
part of the grass and table on fire.  They were lighting up the
pot for the coffee and they ended up getting the table cloth and grass
right next to it on fire.  Not much harm done though.

I suppose there is one other humorous event that happened.  At the
garter toss, I was the one that caught it.  Not really that funny,
except that in an earlier wedding that I attended (the first one), I
too caught the garter. It was silly,
because the garter was in the air for a couple of seconds and NOBODY
was reaching for it.  I didn't want it to fall with noone
attempting to get it, so I stepped forward and caught it prior to it
hitting the ground.

So that's three center pieces, and two garters so far this year. 
I still have my brother's wedding to attend to in two months. Let's see
how it goes there.

"The Reason" by Hoobastank

i'm not a perfect person. there's many things i wish i didnt do

but i continue learning. i never meant to do those things to you.

and so i have to say before i go, that i just want you to know

i've found a reason for me, to change who i used to be

a reason to start over new, and the reason is you

i'm sorry that i hurt you, its something i must live with everyday

and all the pain i put you through, i wish that i could take it all away

and be the one who catches all your tears, thats why i need you to hear

i've found a reason for me, to change who i used to be

a reason to start over new, and the reason is you

i'm not a perfect person, i never meant to do those things to you

and so i have to say before i go that i just want you to know

i've found a reason for me, to change who i used to be

a reason to start over new, and the reason is you

i've found a reason to show a side of me you didnt know

a reason for all that i do, and the reason is you

okay, I admit it, I'm a huge fan of this song.  I'm actually
going to buy the whole album one of these days just for it. The lyrics itself is
good power ballad stuff, but it's the way it's sang is what's killer.

Another song that I've been obsessed with lately also is Robbie
Williams' "Angels."  It's a song that I loved several years ago,
but now Jessica Simpson brought it back by covering it for her latest
single (damnit girl, sing
your own songs!).  Once again, just like "The Reason" it's got
good lyrics for a ballad, but it's the way Robbie Williams sings it that
makes it great.

"Angels" by Robbie Williams

I sit and wait, Does an angel contemplate my fate

And do they know, The places where we go, When we're grey and old

'Cos I've been told, That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed, Thoughts running through my head

And I feel that love is dead, I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she offers me protection, A lot of love and affection

Whether I'm right or wrong

And down the waterfall, Wherever it will take me

I know that life won't break me, When I come to call
she won't forsake me, I'm loving angels instead

When I'm feeling weak, And my pain walks down a one way street

I look above, And I know I will always be blessed with love

And as the feeling grows, She breathes flesh to my bones

And when love is dead, I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she offers me protection, A lot of love and affection

Whether I'm right or wrong

And down the waterfall, Wherever it will take me

I know that life won't break me, When I come to call

she won't forsake me, I'm loving angels instead

Lately I've been having a really bad habit of getting the muchies
throughout the day.  It's got to the point where I'll eat several
times a day.  When I wake up, before I go to work, at work, and
right after work.  The "right after work" part is what I'll be
regretting one of these days, since it means I'm eating at 3AM before I
go to sleep. Part of me thinks that I'm just getting hungry more
because my diet is out of whack, and the other part of me thinks I'm
getting a case of depression.

Usually I'm more than able to hold off my hunger when I get the
munchies. In fact people would tell me that I should eat more often because
there are times when I eat only once a day.  Sure that's a bad
eating habit to do, but I've done that since I was young and it never
bothered me before.  I get to save money too, which is the primary reason to my eating habit.

But you know how they say that the more depressed you are, the more you
eat? I think that's what's really causing me to eat so much.  It
isn't that life is such a huge mess for me right now, it's just that
there are all these little changes that are happening that's probably
getting to me emotionally and mentally.  There are many things
that I wish would happen and many things that I wish wouldn't
happen.  It all involves work, my financial future, and the state
of letting all those little things I've been procrastinating on finally
pile up on me. Those thoughts just rotate around my head every single
time, it's getting to the point where I'm.....depressed about it. 
That's when the munchies hit.

My philosophy on happiness has always been that "if you are happy, then
good, because there are many sad people out there."  Right now
though I'm feeling the opposite of that and I feel that "I am happy,
but I wish I was happier," which is not the philosophy I want to go by,
but that's what my body feels right now.