I'd Buy That For a Dollar

I started the day job-hunting all over the internet. Just like a myriad of my friends, I am in search of a supplementary job. Extra money is the goal, with the hours hopefully being flexible so that I can keep my current occupation. I even dusted off a resume that showcased a skill of mine that I haven't used in 3 odd years. Since my days working for the Maus, at Disney: Server/Waiter.

I came upon an open call for Servers at the Alcatraz Brewing Company at the Block of Orange. I've only eaten at the resteraunt twice before, and each time had been okay. They were accepting applications for the position, Monday thru Friday between 2 pm and 4 pm. I had just barely heard about the job at 3:00 pm. I debated just waiting till Monday to get to it, but I figured that this job would have a lot of applicants.

And I was right.

I got there at 3:54, and there was a table of about seven people filling out applications. I had hoped that all I would have to do is drop off my resume, but of course that wouldn't be the case. They had a four page application, and I had 5 and a half minutes to finish it. As it turned out, since it was raining, the resteraunt was slow enough that it was okay for me to take my time.

The first two pages were your basic info. Name, address, work experience, contacts, etc. The third page was the racial profiling page (cuz that's what it is, people). The fourth page was a survey made of odd questions. I did really good on all the beer and food questions. "What's calamari?" Squid. "What's in pesto sauce?" Basil, olive oil, pine nuts, etc. "What's a prawn?" A type of shellfish. "What are two ingredients in beer?" Hops, malt, (water, duh). Easy.

Then they started asking me about hard liquor, and my confidense wavered.

"What are three 'calls' for tequila?" Oh crap. Um... Jose Cuervo? Okay. Uh, Budweiser? F**k, no, that's beer, Nate! Gold? Does that count? Or is that just a category? Agave? That's the type of cactus they harvest, but is that also a 'call'? Oh, that's just fantastic... Okay, so: 1-Jose Cuervo, 2-bulls**t answer, and 3-....Gold.

"What are three 'calls' for vodka?" Shazbot! Russian, russian, and Russian? Wait, wait... Greygoose! Hell yeah! Two more? Damn! The one time I needed to have a drinking problem! I would have had 15 answers at least... Bacardi! Or is that rum? No, definetly Bacardi. And Beefeater. I don't even know what it is, just that it has that English dude with the spear/halbred. To sum up: 1-Greygoose, 2-Bacardi, and 3-Beefeater(?).

I turned in the application and considered a part-time gig at McDonalds followed by a large helping of suicide. I instead decided on going to Borders and reading any graphic novels I hadn't already read yet. This mostly consisted of Criminal Vol. 2 and 3, written by Ed Brubaker. This book is a fantastic read. Brubaker knows how to flesh out characters and craft a story of blacks and greys, where the "good guys" are wherever you can find them, and the "bad guys" get harder and harder to tell apart. Stories of people trying to get the big score. Of people trying get revenge. Of people trying to turn their broken lives around. All in a world that's out to get them. Like any good read, it made me want to right a good crime story.

I highly recommend Criminal.

I later got a call, almost simultaneously, from Patrick M. and Amy about a movie night at her place. The choice was between RoboCop and The Thing. My vote was for The Thing, since I hadn't seen the entire movie in years. When I got there, we had some pizza delivered and they were watching The Karate Kid II, but the weird thing was that it was playing on the Gospel Music Channel. Huh?

Patrick arrived a little later. We ended up watching RoboCop, mostly because we forgot to have a vote. Oh well. I like RoboCop, especially how great its satire was at the time and still to this day. One of the weirdest motiffs was this bizarre sitcom where a small guy with a mustache would constantly put whip cream on women and shout "I'd buy that for a dollar!" Everybody in the RoboCop universe that it was hilarious.

As I get older, I find it very strange what I notice or react to. When I was a kid, I didn't give a single crap about the weird show. But at 26, it was one of the most noticeable things of the movie. I've periodically watched stuff that I had seen when I was a kid, just to see what I pay attention to now.
And I have to be honest... Kid-Me would not understand what I was laughing about, or why I was commenting on the coolest parts of the movie. He'd think I should just go with it. Kid-Me would think I'm not getting the point. Which was action and awesomeness. Which was the moment of going "Oh, Cool!" Or looking at monsters and not caring about whether or not a story was well-crafted. Or that character motivation made sense from scene to scene. I still love the movies that I've always loved. But now I sort of mock them. Even I have to admit that's kind of sad.

I guess I have gotten older.

-Nate