| What Kind of Rock Are You? You Are Classic Rock |
 You like music that's basic, honest, and real. The best songs don't have a lot to them. You consider yourself to be pretty normal. You work for a living and put your pants on one leg at a time. |
What I've been listening to lately...
1) Mugglecast - episode 181
2) Colbie Caillat - breakthrough
3) Imogen Heap - ellipse
4) Paramore - brand new eyes
5) Ingrid Michaelson - everybody
6) Meg & Dia - our home is gone
I Can't Stay Random
If you were limited to 140 characters in real life… (video)
This Week in Unnecessary Censorship (video)
The Orangutan & The Hound (video)
At Merlotte's: A True Blood Sitcom - NSFW language (video)
check THIS drummer out. Wow. (video)
Insane Twilight Reaction Video (video)
Terrible Decisions with Ben Schwartz (video)
realistic love song - NSFW language (video)
10 Dirty Little Restaurant Secrets (link)
100 Worst rated movies of these past 10 years (link)
it made my day (link)
Awkward Yearbook Signatures (link)
Recently I had an excuse to go visit Irvine, CA, specifically around the UCI area. I've on occasion traveled to the Irvine Spectrum or the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater from time to time, but it's been a long time since I've actually visited the surrounding UCI area. My wife used to attend that school many years ago, when I started dating her. She stayed there in the dorms and apartments, so I would practically be in that area just about every day. Walking around the University Center recently, I realized that I missed this city. It's simply a nice place to live, as it has a nice balanced combination of suburban and urban areas. Admittedly the city I live in now kind of have the same description, but there's just something about Irvine that makes it "better." Sure it's an expensive city to live in, but still...
I'm sure nostalgia played a big role in how I was feeling, and my opinion about the city is cleared biased. I was after all there so often that it got to the point where I knew the area really well, making it feel like another city to call home. That's it then, Irvine is a home that I used to live in, and visiting it recently was like visiting the past. It was a weird feeling, because it felt comforting to be some place familiar, but at the same time things have changed enough that it reminded me that this isn't exactly how I remembered it. In a way this feeling is no different than visiting the college I went to, an old job, my high school, my old homes, etc... It's a peak to the past that was. An appreciation of what I've experienced. Memories that still lives on with me in those places. A reminder about how much time has passed, especially when the present and future can always feel so unsure.
I feel like we all should take some occasional opportunities to re-visit places that we used to frequently be at. If anything else, it's a reminder of who you were back then, that helped make you the person you are now.
Bleah. Looks like the battery for my car finally gave out. Kinda stranded... I'll get back to this blog in a bit.. Edit
Okay, to be honest I've got myself to blame for this, as "buy new car battery" has been on my "to buy list" for a couple of months now. I knew my car battery was going to die sometime in the near future, but I went ahead and took the risk of procrastinating on something necessary such as this anyway. A little over 95,000 miles is how long this battery lasted until it gave up on me, so I suppose that's at least some achievement. I was about 30 miles away from home when this happened, so there was a bit of bad luck to this. Although just an hour before it happened, I was over 40 miles away from home, so where I was is an improvement. I was with my friends at the time too, so that's also a plus.
I did call my wife to come over to where I was (isn't she great?), since she has membership to AAA. I didn't want to jump the battery myself, so I opted for a professional to do it. When my battery was finally jumped and ready to go, the first thing that I had in mind was hoping it lasts on the drive home. 30 miles is a relatively long distance, and my car has manual shifting, so I was thinking that this better not be the time I screw up with the clutch and stall. I started getting concerned when my head lights started turning off then back on just about every minute. It's like my battery wanted to die again, but it's forcing itself to stay alive. There were about two occasions where my car jerked a little bit, because I believe the battery tried to die again, which caused my car to "almost" turn off while I was in motion. It was enough of a jerk to my car or whatever to get my check engine light to turn on though, and my ABS light turned on then off for two occasions as well.
About a half an hour later, I did manage to get home safe. I was lucky enough to constantly be in motion, via the freeway, always hitting the green light, and did one rolling stop on a stop sign (sorry). The only time I had to actually brake to a stop was when I got home. So luckily I did not put myself in a position where my car was on idle too long, which probably helped decrease any chance of it idling to the point of turning off.
When I wake up in the morning, I'm gonna have to finally buy a new car battery.
Let this be a lesson to everybody else. Don't procrastinate too much when you know that your car battery is almost dead.
This Is Your Random Life
Facebook offices vs Twitter offices (pix)
History Channel's Misleadingly Titled Comedies (pix)
riverdance dog (video)
Tim Burton's "Superman Lives" : Nicolas Cage Costume Test (video)
The PUMA index (video)
peace day dove (video)
birthday news prank (video)
Cat Doesn't Understand Computers (video)
Fan Takes Loss Hard (video)
Texting While Walking PSA (video)
high school sex reality show (video)
TOP 10 STUPIDEST AWARDS SHOW MOMENTS (link)
some random thoughts....
- If you are somebody who follows me through Facebook, Twitter, or this blog, shouldn't you know more about what I've been doing lately? So, when you see me in person and go "so, what's going on with you?" Shouldn't I just say "don't you already know?"
- Whenever I call a Chinese restaurant to order some food to go, and the person answers in Mandarin or Cantonese, I feel like they hate it when the have to communicate in English with me. Unless your menu says "order by phone only if you can speak the native tongue," then please don't hate and just accommodate.
- What movie started the trend to have something extra after the credits? Seriously, I'd really like to know who to blame, because it's become such an annoying trend. Thank goodness some websites (like http://moviestinger.com) are providing information you can find to know beforehand if you should stick to the very end of the credits.
- Haven't eaten at "Little Ceasar's pizza" in a long time. I remember really loving their style of pizza and ate it at least every other week years ago. What happened? I actually thought that it went out of business.
- I think my OCD might be getting a little worse. The other day, a piece of sliced meat that's covered with sauce fell off my plate. I quickly moved to catch it, but since it was slimy from the sauce, I immediately let go since I didn't want to get the sauce all over my hand, and it fell down on the floor. Yeah. I know....
- Shouldn't I just post these random thoughts as status updates on my Twitter or Facebook? Well, maybe I'll just re-post some of these thoughts over there, sometime in the near future...
| What's Your Defense Mechanism? Your Defense Mechanism is Humor |
 It's not that you don't take your problems seriously. You do. You just don't let them control you. You are able to make the best of things, even when things look very, very bleak. |
What I've been listening to lately...
1) Sherdog Radio : Beatdown - ufc 103 recap
2) A Fine Frenzy - bomb in a birdcage
3) Arctic Monkeys - humbug
4) Big D and the Kids Table - fluent in stroll
5) The Audition - champion
6) Bite The Ivory - piano tribute to metallica
Team work and showing respect to other people's operation at a work place I believe are really important to live up to in a job. Everybody is like a faceless cog in a machine as it is, so the least that we all should strive for is an efficient and conscientious community among the employees. I help you, you help me. I respect your work when you are just doing your job, you respect my work when I'm just doing my job. Simple concept right? Well as the years progress, I think it's become a little bit of a pet peeve of mine when somebody shows a total disregard to this ideology and in turn affects my operation. This happened to me recently, and it showed the angrier side of myself at work that I hardly ever shown.
Without going into details that I shouldn't legally divulge here, this guy from another department; let's call him "douchebag," was interfering with my operation at work. I've been at this company how many years now, and some of these people act like they can just ignore my operation and interfere with it? Clearly I was annoyed. I gave him several minutes to realize what he was doing, made my presence known, and hoped he would get the hint to knock it off. Nope, douchebag continued being in my way. I proceeded to tell him to pretty much "knock it off," explaining to him what I do, how he is getting in my way, and how he should consider just doing what he is doing somewhere else (as he clearly has viable alternatives). Douchebag moves away saying "unbelievable" in a disgusted irritated tone over and over again. After a few more of him saying "unbelievable," I yelled at him to stop where he was, because damnit, I'm not going to be disrespected like this.
I approached him demanding whether he was "giving me attitude." "Why are you yelling at me?!" was his response. I told him that I'm only yelling at him because he is giving me attitude. "Why are you yelling at me?!" was all he could say. "See, you aren't even able to give me an answer," is what I responded back. This upsets him some more, and he goes on and tells me how I should do my job, and how he does not have to do anything different. "So you think you know my job better?" is my obvious response. Another question he can't answer.
Douchebag starts walking closer to me in an intimidating manner. You know what? I stood my ground, as if I was ready for a fight in a cage. Then he goes and gets in my face, his body pressed against mine (can I legally physically defend myself at that point?). I still stood my ground and did not flinch. In fact I was already mentally prepared to defend myself if he gets more physical, since his attempt at intimidation was not working on me. He goes on and repeatedly asks me "What are you going to do about?!" Well I wasn't going to get trapped saying anything that would be considered threatening to him, so I simply said "I could always just talk to your boss." Douchebag says to go ahead then, acting like he didn't care. I say "alright" and asked for a contact number to call. He says that his number is "69," and it took me a second to realize what he said to me. I laughed out loud, smiled, and told him that's pretty funny, hoping it'll lighten up the mood. He responded with a "do I look like I'm laughing?!" still looking angry. So much for some levity. I knew what department he was working for anyways, and I knew how to get a hold of his boss. With a confident wry smile on my face, I just walked away.
A little over a half an hour later, I was talking to one of his managers and explained to her what happened. She told me to write a statement and that she will talk to douchebag about it. What I thought was kinda humorous was that one of the main points she was going to make sure to bring up to him was him saying "69," which is language that he isn't suppose to say at work. I told her that I wasn't offended at all and am open to casual conversations at work, but it apparently does not matter to her. To think that I was actually defending douchebag at that point. Besides, isn't him trying to intimidate me with possibly some physical harm, more of an issue to talk to him about?
Well this incident happened over 14 hours ago as I'm writing this, and I haven't heard what the conclusion to this negative encounter is. I did learn that I really don't back down from a confrontation after all. When I stood my ground at that face off, looked him straight in the eye, and didn't stutter my words, I felt like I was ready for one of those MMA fights that I enjoy watching. I was running on adrenaline at that point I suppose, but one of these days...
A Random Dustland Fairytale
Dr.Horrible interrupts the Emmys (video)
Couple robbed for fried chicken (video)
Life changed after the Baby (video)
"SPECIAL EDITION" NEW YORK POST (video)
The final option: Hitler's diabolical backup plan! (pic)
4 Awkward Moments in Facebook "Likes" (link)
POV: Your First Kiss (video)
Local Woman Reveals Secret to School Board (video)
Dog Thinks It's a Rabbi (video)
Robbers Get Pwned (video)
POV: Guy Buys Condoms (video)
Religion (video)
Movies I've seen recently...
Jennifer's Body (2009) B
Going into a movie written by Diablo Cody, it's to be expected that "Jennifer's Body" is going to have dialouge that's very stylized, with many pop culture references and made up slang words. While some might argue against this, I actually thought that the dialouge here is the greatest strength the movie has, with many quotable lines and witty remarks. The movie itself, as directed by Karyn Kusama, is a hybrid teen horror comedy about a popular pretty high school girl who gets possessed by a demon, and her mousy best friend who gets to the bottom of this unusual situation. Teenage relationships, plus some scary situations, and a sense of humor that's both dark and very light at times, this movie is simply a lot of fun. The film is a mix of conventional situations to the genre, like people who do stupid things because it seems like they've never seen a scary movie before, plus actual unconventional ideas to how several of the plot plays out, which kept me guessing at times (it was uniquely humorous as to why Jennifer got possessed by a demon). While Amanda Seyfried as Anita "Needy" Lesnicky is really the main protagonist to the story, most people will probably pay more attention to Megan Fox as Jennifer Check who is in super seductive mode in this movie. Both actresses are really good here, and their odd friendship is the driving force and heart to this movie. While still a flawed film, I thought "Jennifer's Body" turned out much better than I originally expected, and it was very entertaining to watch.
The Informant! (2009) A-
Director Steven Soderbergh once again releases a thought provoking, intriguing, and entertaining film with "The Informant!" A movie based on a true story, this film proves that sometimes fact is definitely stranger than fiction. Filled with plot twists over plot twists, and details in the story that almost requires a flow chart to really understand what's going on, this movie should keep you glued to the screen, making sure you don't miss anything. Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre starts off as just another wealthy company man who now wants to do the right thing, by telling the FBI that his company has been a part of a global price fixing scheme. Scott Bakula and Joel McHale are his FBI contacts who eventually notices that Whitacre seems unbelievably inept at keeping his involvement in this a secret. It turns out that the plot about the price fixing isn't the main story to follow, it's Mark Whitacre, who is definitely more than meets the eye. This character is quite an enigma and Matt Damon's performance as him is absolutely superb; complete with voice over narration on his nonsensical thoughts. "The Informant!" is an incredibly fascinating movie to see, with Matt Damon carrying the whole movie quite successfully.
9 (2009) C+
It's very very easy to say that the CGI animation quality in "9" is really great, because it really is. There's a dark beauty to it's "stitch-punk" art direction, based in a post-apocalyptic world, with terrifying machine monsters (that might be too scary for kids), and inventive little gadgets made entirely of craft work materials. Story teller / Director Shane Acker thrusts us directly into the middle of a bleak situation, when the living rag doll named 9; as voiced by Elijah Wood, wakes up confused about the world and who he is. Soon he meets others who are like him; from voice actors John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Connelly, and learns what his purpose in life is. The movie is really imaginative, with an epic scope to it, but it's actually rather flawed. The story would have benefited from more exposition scenes as it feels like all the events happen in a span of a few hours, when it really should be longer than that. It also doesn't help that while the other characters seem to have decent character developments, the main character himself is rather bland and uninteresting. The way the movie ends, also felt forced and disappointing. I enjoyed "9" more or less, but I couldn't help but feel like it could have been much better.
The Final Destination (2009) C-
Known primarily for having death itself as the killer and very inventive Rube Goldberg type death scenes, the Final Destination series isn't necessarily what's typically considered quality films, but they are really fun to watch. Unfortunately "The Final Destination" however is rather disappointing over all. It's hard to care about the characters in this story, which I suppose only makes us look forward to the death scenes more. Even that however is disappointing, as it seems like the movie didn't try hard to be remotely creative about the death scenes at all. At least this movie is shown in 3D and that adds a little more entertainment value to the experience right? Nope, the 3D wasn't that spectacular really, and it felt like it missed a great opportunity to take advantage of it. "The Final Destination" simply felt thrown together with not much effort in trying to make this a good film, that I wished they didn't even bother. Stick with the previous films, because this was just some mild entertainment.
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