My room is a mess. This is a fact because I look at it and think, in terms of navigation, “Let’s see, I can step over the box of Anaheim Comic Con swag, but I better be careful or my TV tray will get knocked over… wait, is that last year’s copy of Wizard under there?” So, its getting to the point that I might not be able to live in my room.
I started with consolidating the various items of acquired mess into a large box of acquired mess. This actually helped in tidying the room, but I noticed that the shutters on my window were dirty. Filthy, in fact. It took me nearly two hours to clean off all the dirt that had accrued over the past three years.
It was a relief when Patrick called to see if I wanted to grab some lunch/dinner at a nearby Italian place called Carolina‘s. I had made plans to watch some more episodes of Buffy with Aaron and Amy, so I figured I would combine the two outings. I picked up Aaron and headed to the Italian place. I ordered Chicken Pesto Penne Pasta, since anything pesto is my standard choice for any new Italian place. It was delicious!
I highly recommend the restaurant. Its near Disneyland on Chapman between Harbor and… another street. Sorry, I can’t remember the name. :-[
After lunch/dinner, I headed to Amy’s and we started up Season Three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! This season is my favorite, because of the Big Bad, the alternate reality episode, and Faith, among other excellent reasons. We watched three episodes: Anne, Dead Man’s Party, and Faith, Hope, & Trick.
I can’t wait till the next eps!
Topics of Conversation @ Carolina’s & Amy’s place: Godzilla vs. King Kong or King Kong vs. Godzilla, Lambic, cat licking, what kind of Henchin Hero would you be?, not being a spoiler-ific audience, etc.
-Nate
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
In My Brain & Off the Net
Only one thing was planned today, and it turned out pretty good. I hope it can be repeated with even more fun.
It was a date.
Yes, I know, that’s the kind of stuff that would normally be splashed everywhere on a blog. Especially my blabber-mouth journal. But hey, sorry, folks, them’s the breaks. Some stuff will remain in my brain and off the net.
I will say that the girl in question was funny, cute, and definitely doing me a favor going out with me. No matter what the future holds in store, she’s an amazing lady and hope springs eternal blah blah blah.
Great night!
Topics of Conversation: Cliffhangers, bowling, delays that are needed, the “Hey! Look at that tree!” distraction, embarrassment, the points don’t matter, culinary critiques in one sound, crappy teaching methods, being candid, home life in the hizzay, etc.
-Nate
It was a date.
Yes, I know, that’s the kind of stuff that would normally be splashed everywhere on a blog. Especially my blabber-mouth journal. But hey, sorry, folks, them’s the breaks. Some stuff will remain in my brain and off the net.
I will say that the girl in question was funny, cute, and definitely doing me a favor going out with me. No matter what the future holds in store, she’s an amazing lady and hope springs eternal blah blah blah.
Great night!
Topics of Conversation: Cliffhangers, bowling, delays that are needed, the “Hey! Look at that tree!” distraction, embarrassment, the points don’t matter, culinary critiques in one sound, crappy teaching methods, being candid, home life in the hizzay, etc.
-Nate
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Obadiah Stane
April 28, 2010:
Comic Run achieved! The fates were not against my getting my comic fix, and I went to the shop. Lainey, Mark, and Nancy were there today. The trio was hard at work.
Justin met up with me at the shop. As we talked and perused the shop, we came up with a ridiculous meme. (Though there is a very good chance that it exists already somewhere). Its called the “Obadiah Stane” meme, and is simple in concept and execution, and ridiculous in hindsight. For those of you who have watched the first Iron Man movie, you might recall Stane (played by Jeffery Bridges) berating a scientist for not being able to duplicate Tony Stark’s Arch Reactor. The words he used were as follows (and hopefully correct):
“Tony Stark built it in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
So for the meme to work, you need only insert someone’s name and what they did. For example:
“Nathan wrote this blog in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
OR
“Todd McFarlane created Spawn in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
OR
“Tiger Woods learned how to play golf in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
The combinations are nearly endless with increasing hilarity. I know, I know, is this how I always spend my Wednesdays? No, but this is one of the better ones. Also, for the hardcore among you, and if you are on the receiving end of this recockulous meme, you can respond by saying “I’m not (Insert Name Here).” Happy meme-ing!
I went to work at Norwalk. This night we had a Planning Commission Meeting to tape. It was a quick one, but we got to talk a little more to some of the other people at work at Norwalk. Its odd that we’ve crossed paths so many times, but rarely end up having an opportunity to talk. But I
guess that’s how it can be at work.
Topics of Conversation @ Comics Unlimited & Norwalk: Supernatural intervention, kitty surprise, celestial knee, favorite cuss words, smudges, White Stripes lounge act, go with the flow, our strange sense of humor, etc.
-Nate
Comic Run achieved! The fates were not against my getting my comic fix, and I went to the shop. Lainey, Mark, and Nancy were there today. The trio was hard at work.
Justin met up with me at the shop. As we talked and perused the shop, we came up with a ridiculous meme. (Though there is a very good chance that it exists already somewhere). Its called the “Obadiah Stane” meme, and is simple in concept and execution, and ridiculous in hindsight. For those of you who have watched the first Iron Man movie, you might recall Stane (played by Jeffery Bridges) berating a scientist for not being able to duplicate Tony Stark’s Arch Reactor. The words he used were as follows (and hopefully correct):
“Tony Stark built it in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
So for the meme to work, you need only insert someone’s name and what they did. For example:
“Nathan wrote this blog in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
OR
“Todd McFarlane created Spawn in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
OR
“Tiger Woods learned how to play golf in a CAVE! With SCRAPS!”
The combinations are nearly endless with increasing hilarity. I know, I know, is this how I always spend my Wednesdays? No, but this is one of the better ones. Also, for the hardcore among you, and if you are on the receiving end of this recockulous meme, you can respond by saying “I’m not (Insert Name Here).” Happy meme-ing!
I went to work at Norwalk. This night we had a Planning Commission Meeting to tape. It was a quick one, but we got to talk a little more to some of the other people at work at Norwalk. Its odd that we’ve crossed paths so many times, but rarely end up having an opportunity to talk. But I
guess that’s how it can be at work.
Topics of Conversation @ Comics Unlimited & Norwalk: Supernatural intervention, kitty surprise, celestial knee, favorite cuss words, smudges, White Stripes lounge act, go with the flow, our strange sense of humor, etc.
-Nate
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Half-Assed Journal Entry #06
I did some research on Miniature Golf courses and vegan food. The results were promising.
I headed to work at Norwalk. It was a slow day, but talking with Karmin was fast.
Topics of Conversation @ Norwalk: The Scientific Experiment, casual awfulness, 4 hours of awkward silence, 3 Strikes, the trials of being on the level, drinking buddies, etc.
-Nate
I headed to work at Norwalk. It was a slow day, but talking with Karmin was fast.
Topics of Conversation @ Norwalk: The Scientific Experiment, casual awfulness, 4 hours of awkward silence, 3 Strikes, the trials of being on the level, drinking buddies, etc.
-Nate
It Was What It Usually Is
April 26, 2010:
It was that time again! The City of Lakewood needed me to record a water meeting for the Central Basin. It was what it usually is. That is all that can be said on that.
After the Water meeting, I had some time before the Norwalk would need my charming self, so I headed to Comics Unlimited to do the run that had been denied me by fate. Mark and Lainey were at the shop, and Mark informed me that he was hurt by my not making an appearance last Wednesday. I assured him that it was me, and not him. I think we’re okay, but I will need to tread carefully from here on out.
I grabbed lunch with Lainey to catch up on the past few days that I had been MIA. Hemlock, her cat, had gotten a fixed a day or two ago, and some of Lainey’s crafts were getting bundled up for a big sale in the upcoming weeks.
After lunch, I headed out with my two comics that I had bought: Green Lantern (#53) and Secret Six (#20). Green Lantern was okay, but the new status quo is a little confusing. I’m not sure if I’m going to like it as much. Only time will tell. Secret Six had a great twist and intense set-up. Gail Simone knows how to tell dark stories. I can’t wait to see what happens.
I headed to Norwalk to cable cast. I also spent the time trying to figure out how to invite more people for the upcoming Free Comic Book Day. The multi-tasking was short-lived, as I needed to organize some of the old tapes.
I went home finished up reading Changes by Jim Butcher. I already had another book that I was reading called The Gone-Away World, but Changes was a book that I knew that I couldn’t wait on finishing. And for anyone that hasn’t read any of Jim Butcher’s books, do yourself an amazing favor and start. Its worth it. Cuz this was the 12th in the series, and I can’t wait for the 13th. Wow.
Topics of Conversation @ Comics Unlimited: Stinky and Smelly, faves, prices going up, generic horror, roller derby training, horrible conversations or horrible topics, trying to get the number of someone you don’t even know, tea parties, etc.
-Nate
It was that time again! The City of Lakewood needed me to record a water meeting for the Central Basin. It was what it usually is. That is all that can be said on that.
After the Water meeting, I had some time before the Norwalk would need my charming self, so I headed to Comics Unlimited to do the run that had been denied me by fate. Mark and Lainey were at the shop, and Mark informed me that he was hurt by my not making an appearance last Wednesday. I assured him that it was me, and not him. I think we’re okay, but I will need to tread carefully from here on out.
I grabbed lunch with Lainey to catch up on the past few days that I had been MIA. Hemlock, her cat, had gotten a fixed a day or two ago, and some of Lainey’s crafts were getting bundled up for a big sale in the upcoming weeks.
After lunch, I headed out with my two comics that I had bought: Green Lantern (#53) and Secret Six (#20). Green Lantern was okay, but the new status quo is a little confusing. I’m not sure if I’m going to like it as much. Only time will tell. Secret Six had a great twist and intense set-up. Gail Simone knows how to tell dark stories. I can’t wait to see what happens.
I headed to Norwalk to cable cast. I also spent the time trying to figure out how to invite more people for the upcoming Free Comic Book Day. The multi-tasking was short-lived, as I needed to organize some of the old tapes.
I went home finished up reading Changes by Jim Butcher. I already had another book that I was reading called The Gone-Away World, but Changes was a book that I knew that I couldn’t wait on finishing. And for anyone that hasn’t read any of Jim Butcher’s books, do yourself an amazing favor and start. Its worth it. Cuz this was the 12th in the series, and I can’t wait for the 13th. Wow.
Topics of Conversation @ Comics Unlimited: Stinky and Smelly, faves, prices going up, generic horror, roller derby training, horrible conversations or horrible topics, trying to get the number of someone you don’t even know, tea parties, etc.
-Nate
A Loser Victorious
April 25, 2010:
Patrick called me up to see if I would like to see The Losers today. And though I had already seen it, I agreed. We decided to grab some lunch before the movie. Before I caught up with him, I made a very important call, got some good news, and had a spring in my step the entire day.
I caught up with Patrick at a pizza joint and I had some decent tortellini. We talked, ate, and then we were on our way to the movie. I already did my review on The Losers a day or two ago, but the good news is that I enjoyed the movie the second time around. It was just as fun this time as before.
After the movie, Patrick headed home, and I headed to the Barnes & Noble in Bella Terra. I was in search of any signs of a new Steven Brust books, but there were none to be had. I called up Vic, and made plans to meet up with him at CSULB. We talked and caught up at a coffee shop and, later, a Borders. It was cool to catch up with him after what felt like a week, but was in actuality only a four or so days. Oh well, life feels busy.
Topics of Conversation: Wonderful monster, dust bath, mini golf, a decent plan, the horrible price of a haircut, two weddings, Matt Smith’s little crush, the thrill of being alive, friends that are hard to get a hold of, etc.
-Nate
Patrick called me up to see if I would like to see The Losers today. And though I had already seen it, I agreed. We decided to grab some lunch before the movie. Before I caught up with him, I made a very important call, got some good news, and had a spring in my step the entire day.
I caught up with Patrick at a pizza joint and I had some decent tortellini. We talked, ate, and then we were on our way to the movie. I already did my review on The Losers a day or two ago, but the good news is that I enjoyed the movie the second time around. It was just as fun this time as before.
After the movie, Patrick headed home, and I headed to the Barnes & Noble in Bella Terra. I was in search of any signs of a new Steven Brust books, but there were none to be had. I called up Vic, and made plans to meet up with him at CSULB. We talked and caught up at a coffee shop and, later, a Borders. It was cool to catch up with him after what felt like a week, but was in actuality only a four or so days. Oh well, life feels busy.
Topics of Conversation: Wonderful monster, dust bath, mini golf, a decent plan, the horrible price of a haircut, two weddings, Matt Smith’s little crush, the thrill of being alive, friends that are hard to get a hold of, etc.
-Nate
Saturday, April 24, 2010
The Lakers Got Spanked
I met up with Jamal to not only watch the Lakers game, but to tag along for a house party at his sister’s friend’s place later in the night. Before hand, we moseyed around the Block.
It was Lakers vs. Thunder, and the Lakers got spanked.
There’s no other way to put it. Just about everyone of us got disgusted with the game. The Lakers couldn’t seem to pull it together, and the Thunder were running circles around them. I follow the Lakers sporadically, at best, but I know for a fact that they can play better than they did tonight.
The party was at a house fairly close to where I live. And the turnout was myself, Jamal, Jon, Ben, Kevin, and… pretty much every person of Indian, Filipino, and Cambodian descent in Southern California. I was decidedly the minority, but no big deal. Cuz the food was delish.
We mostly hung around and talked. We all as a group walked into the Garage/Dance Floor, and, as a group, walked out. I wasn’t feeling the music. If it ain’t Michael Jackson or Funk, then I don’t see the point in trying to dance. I didn’t feel like drinking, so the beer tasted extra unsavory to me. I just grabbed some water and pretended it was vodka. Suckas!
All in all, a good night was had.
Topics of Conversation @ The House Party: Eye drops, chocolate, sodium something or other, the plastic bottle opening a beer bottle trick, making a plan, “obits”, Blade 3, dance floor no man’s land, the rocking chair, hot curry, etc.
-Nate
It was Lakers vs. Thunder, and the Lakers got spanked.
There’s no other way to put it. Just about everyone of us got disgusted with the game. The Lakers couldn’t seem to pull it together, and the Thunder were running circles around them. I follow the Lakers sporadically, at best, but I know for a fact that they can play better than they did tonight.
The party was at a house fairly close to where I live. And the turnout was myself, Jamal, Jon, Ben, Kevin, and… pretty much every person of Indian, Filipino, and Cambodian descent in Southern California. I was decidedly the minority, but no big deal. Cuz the food was delish.
We mostly hung around and talked. We all as a group walked into the Garage/Dance Floor, and, as a group, walked out. I wasn’t feeling the music. If it ain’t Michael Jackson or Funk, then I don’t see the point in trying to dance. I didn’t feel like drinking, so the beer tasted extra unsavory to me. I just grabbed some water and pretended it was vodka. Suckas!
All in all, a good night was had.
Topics of Conversation @ The House Party: Eye drops, chocolate, sodium something or other, the plastic bottle opening a beer bottle trick, making a plan, “obits”, Blade 3, dance floor no man’s land, the rocking chair, hot curry, etc.
-Nate
Friday, April 23, 2010
The Second Movie I Saw Was Ridiculously Bad
I caught up with Aaron and Justin and we watched The Losers. Justin had seen it earlier, but he said it was worth a second viewing.
The Losers is actually a really good movie. Very fun and action packed with some great performances, with the notable stand-out being Chris Evans. I was surprised with how fun the movie was. I had read the comic, and it was intense, to say the least. Only one character ever cracked jokes, and everyone else was intense and prone to glaring.
The director must have decided to ditch that and go for the laugh and nifty slow-mo. To good results actually. I liked all these characters a lot, and more quickly at that.
A good movie, if you want some popcorn action with some cool visuals. I’d recommend it.
On a side note, you might notice that The Losers is part one of an unofficial action team movie trilogy hitting 2010. The second will be The A-Team, followed by The Expendables. I was looking forward to each of these movies, and so far, am off to a great start. Though the one I’m really looking forward to is The Expendables. I mean, that’s more my 80’s childhood than even The A-Team, with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and a Governor Arnold appearance. In the same scene for crying out loud!
After The Losers, we ate at John’s Amazing Fantastic Incredible Astounding WTF Spectacular Ridiculous Mind-Blowing Pizza. It was all right. (The name is wrong for my own amusement).
So what is this anti-vegan movie that I mentioned? Why its none other than one of the worst movies in existence!
I watched Troll 2 with Aaron, Justin, and Amy at Justin’s place. This movie… lives up to its reputation. I mean its BAD. Really BAD. Some of the worst dialogue, weakest plot points, and awful characters that I have ever had the dubious honor to experience. Right off the bat, you are quick to realize that there are no Trolls in Troll 2. Not a one. There are goblins, yes. The movie should have been called Goblins. But no, they wanted to be the sequel to a movie I never heard of, and not even an actual sequel, since, from what I’ve heard, the stories of Troll and Troll 2 have nothing to do with each other.
Wow. And that’s, like, in the first ten minutes.
The family that is the centerpiece to this ridiculous movie are confusing, to say the least. The Dad doesn’t listen to any of his kids, and doesn’t have any motivation to do the things he does. The Mom is creepy. I mean, the actress just stares without blinking most of the time. There is no warmth to be found in her presence. The Daughter is a crazy, hypocrite bitch. No joke. She hits people with little reason, and then changes her mind constantly. And then she dances for no reason at all. The Son, Josh (I think), is just not a bright kid. I mean, he’s the main character, but he does things that can only be viewed as DEEPLY STUPID.
They go to a town called Nilbog (think about that for a second, and you’ll figure out the “shocking” secret of this sleepy town). And every single resident of Nilbog could not BE more creepy and obviously not actors than they are in every scene. But the most confounding and annoying character is the Grandpa.
You see, Grandpa is a ghost.
Yes, he’s a ghost determined to help his family escape from Nilbog. Not in any truly helpful ways, mind you. Like, oh, I don’t know, TELLING the family to get the hell out. No, he leaves the explaining of monsters and goblins in the capable hands of 10-year-old Josh. You know, because adults ALWAYS listen to kids when they talk about goblins. And its not like he can only speak to Josh, because he accidentally, yes ACCIDENTALLY talks to the Daughter. He didn’t intend to, but he could all along. ARGH.
Josh saves the day because he eats a bologna sandwich. No joke.
This movie is ridiculous. If you watch it with that focus in mind, then you will not be disappointed in the least. So neither was I.
Topics of Conversation @ Justin’s place: Nilbog milk, getting your dollar’s worth of complaining, F**k that Ghost Grandpa!, corn fetish, Chris Evans, the crazy faced witch, Oh! NILBOG! argh…, the too many positive adjective pizza, etc.
-Nate
The Losers is actually a really good movie. Very fun and action packed with some great performances, with the notable stand-out being Chris Evans. I was surprised with how fun the movie was. I had read the comic, and it was intense, to say the least. Only one character ever cracked jokes, and everyone else was intense and prone to glaring.
The director must have decided to ditch that and go for the laugh and nifty slow-mo. To good results actually. I liked all these characters a lot, and more quickly at that.
A good movie, if you want some popcorn action with some cool visuals. I’d recommend it.
On a side note, you might notice that The Losers is part one of an unofficial action team movie trilogy hitting 2010. The second will be The A-Team, followed by The Expendables. I was looking forward to each of these movies, and so far, am off to a great start. Though the one I’m really looking forward to is The Expendables. I mean, that’s more my 80’s childhood than even The A-Team, with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and a Governor Arnold appearance. In the same scene for crying out loud!
After The Losers, we ate at John’s Amazing Fantastic Incredible Astounding WTF Spectacular Ridiculous Mind-Blowing Pizza. It was all right. (The name is wrong for my own amusement).
So what is this anti-vegan movie that I mentioned? Why its none other than one of the worst movies in existence!
I watched Troll 2 with Aaron, Justin, and Amy at Justin’s place. This movie… lives up to its reputation. I mean its BAD. Really BAD. Some of the worst dialogue, weakest plot points, and awful characters that I have ever had the dubious honor to experience. Right off the bat, you are quick to realize that there are no Trolls in Troll 2. Not a one. There are goblins, yes. The movie should have been called Goblins. But no, they wanted to be the sequel to a movie I never heard of, and not even an actual sequel, since, from what I’ve heard, the stories of Troll and Troll 2 have nothing to do with each other.
Wow. And that’s, like, in the first ten minutes.
The family that is the centerpiece to this ridiculous movie are confusing, to say the least. The Dad doesn’t listen to any of his kids, and doesn’t have any motivation to do the things he does. The Mom is creepy. I mean, the actress just stares without blinking most of the time. There is no warmth to be found in her presence. The Daughter is a crazy, hypocrite bitch. No joke. She hits people with little reason, and then changes her mind constantly. And then she dances for no reason at all. The Son, Josh (I think), is just not a bright kid. I mean, he’s the main character, but he does things that can only be viewed as DEEPLY STUPID.
They go to a town called Nilbog (think about that for a second, and you’ll figure out the “shocking” secret of this sleepy town). And every single resident of Nilbog could not BE more creepy and obviously not actors than they are in every scene. But the most confounding and annoying character is the Grandpa.
You see, Grandpa is a ghost.
Yes, he’s a ghost determined to help his family escape from Nilbog. Not in any truly helpful ways, mind you. Like, oh, I don’t know, TELLING the family to get the hell out. No, he leaves the explaining of monsters and goblins in the capable hands of 10-year-old Josh. You know, because adults ALWAYS listen to kids when they talk about goblins. And its not like he can only speak to Josh, because he accidentally, yes ACCIDENTALLY talks to the Daughter. He didn’t intend to, but he could all along. ARGH.
Josh saves the day because he eats a bologna sandwich. No joke.
This movie is ridiculous. If you watch it with that focus in mind, then you will not be disappointed in the least. So neither was I.
Topics of Conversation @ Justin’s place: Nilbog milk, getting your dollar’s worth of complaining, F**k that Ghost Grandpa!, corn fetish, Chris Evans, the crazy faced witch, Oh! NILBOG! argh…, the too many positive adjective pizza, etc.
-Nate
Work and Buffy
April 22, 2010:
I picked up a shift at Norwalk, which was mostly cable casting the different programs: Two religious, one educational, and one insane. The usual Thursday lineup.
After work I headed to Amy’s place to watch the last three episodes of Buffy Season Two with her and Aaron. We started off with the admittedly filler episode Go Fish. Its not bad in anyway, its just not what the next episodes achieve. Which is epic melodrama.
Becoming (Parts 1 & 2) is the two-parter that truly and officially launched Buffy into my favorite shows of all time. Its got action, twists, suspense, romance, comedy, and great moment after great moment. It ends in one of the most amazing ways possible, and glues you to your seat with ruthless efficiency.
Just work and Buffy, really. That’s all that happened today.
Topics of Conversation @ Amy’s place: Pizza, water color vampire Nate, Harry Dresden, Level 42 Pokemon, funny characters are the best character, the shifting of maturity, etc.
-Nate
I picked up a shift at Norwalk, which was mostly cable casting the different programs: Two religious, one educational, and one insane. The usual Thursday lineup.
After work I headed to Amy’s place to watch the last three episodes of Buffy Season Two with her and Aaron. We started off with the admittedly filler episode Go Fish. Its not bad in anyway, its just not what the next episodes achieve. Which is epic melodrama.
Becoming (Parts 1 & 2) is the two-parter that truly and officially launched Buffy into my favorite shows of all time. Its got action, twists, suspense, romance, comedy, and great moment after great moment. It ends in one of the most amazing ways possible, and glues you to your seat with ruthless efficiency.
Just work and Buffy, really. That’s all that happened today.
Topics of Conversation @ Amy’s place: Pizza, water color vampire Nate, Harry Dresden, Level 42 Pokemon, funny characters are the best character, the shifting of maturity, etc.
-Nate
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Over a Hundred Days of my Life
Nothing really happened today. Errands and such. Work. Blah.
So I’m going to hijack this entry for the purposes of talking about this journal/blog. So very meta. So very self-indulgent. Well, there it is, I said it, and I’m going to do it anyway.
I’ve surpassed 100 entries a while back. I didn’t really notice until just recently. By this point, I must at 110 entries. Which is amazing. I’ve never been able to keep up that much an any attempt at a journal before. And I’ve tried at least once a year, with little success. But here it is:
Over a hundred days of my life.
Granted some of them are dumb, quick, or not even finished, but that seems as good a metaphor for me as there’s ever going to be.
At the same time, I’ve had some days here that I really liked. Some stories are in here that actually still make me laugh. Some are telling statements about me (even to myself). And some help to remind me that tomorrow is another day. Another entry. Another attempt at getting a better story.
I’ve needed to write this blog more than you needed to read it. I guess that was the point all along. For vanity and insight, equally.
Well, until the next entry, kids!
Topics of Conversation: Training for high fives, having salt ready on hand, kicking till there’s blood, drink till you drink again, getting things done, big chocolate, etc.
-Nate
So I’m going to hijack this entry for the purposes of talking about this journal/blog. So very meta. So very self-indulgent. Well, there it is, I said it, and I’m going to do it anyway.
I’ve surpassed 100 entries a while back. I didn’t really notice until just recently. By this point, I must at 110 entries. Which is amazing. I’ve never been able to keep up that much an any attempt at a journal before. And I’ve tried at least once a year, with little success. But here it is:
Over a hundred days of my life.
Granted some of them are dumb, quick, or not even finished, but that seems as good a metaphor for me as there’s ever going to be.
At the same time, I’ve had some days here that I really liked. Some stories are in here that actually still make me laugh. Some are telling statements about me (even to myself). And some help to remind me that tomorrow is another day. Another entry. Another attempt at getting a better story.
I’ve needed to write this blog more than you needed to read it. I guess that was the point all along. For vanity and insight, equally.
Well, until the next entry, kids!
Topics of Conversation: Training for high fives, having salt ready on hand, kicking till there’s blood, drink till you drink again, getting things done, big chocolate, etc.
-Nate
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Heh heh heh... "420"
So I should get this out of the way right now, and acknowledge that it’s 4-20. 4:20. Get it? Anyways, I got two completely different stories about the reason as to why that number is so important to a… certain group of people whom enjoy relaxing a certain way.
STORY ONE!!!:
There were a group of stoners who always met up with their dealers at 4:20 in the afternoon without fail.
STORY TWO!!!:
There are 420 known chemicals and components that make up marijuana.
STORY THREE!!!:
The two above stories are completely wrong, and 420 was chosen at random. Which makes a stoner kind of sense.
Anyways, I had a shoot today at PCTA. It was four back-to-back segments of CityWorks, in which we interview what seemed to be every level of City Government. I was on camera, but I didn’t need to do very many movements.
I stopped off at Barnes & Noble to check out the books, since I had some down time. And low and behold I had forgotten that Changes by Jim Butcher had come out! Changes was the newest installment in the Harry Dresden series. The first page grabs you, especially if you’re as big a fan as I am. They even had an autographed copy from April 10th! How’d they pull that off?
After the book store, I headed to Norwalk. It was City Council night, and it was my turn to man the CG titles and names. After the meeting, I hung around with Mike and Karmin and we chatted for a bit before we took off for the night.
Topics of Conversation: Reclaimed water, NOT drinking reclaimed water, weird talks, when something is off, narrowly missing George Lucas, department of heavy petting, gay chicken, make out and grab stuff, “The Generators“ analogy, etc.
-Nate
STORY ONE!!!:
There were a group of stoners who always met up with their dealers at 4:20 in the afternoon without fail.
STORY TWO!!!:
There are 420 known chemicals and components that make up marijuana.
STORY THREE!!!:
The two above stories are completely wrong, and 420 was chosen at random. Which makes a stoner kind of sense.
Anyways, I had a shoot today at PCTA. It was four back-to-back segments of CityWorks, in which we interview what seemed to be every level of City Government. I was on camera, but I didn’t need to do very many movements.
I stopped off at Barnes & Noble to check out the books, since I had some down time. And low and behold I had forgotten that Changes by Jim Butcher had come out! Changes was the newest installment in the Harry Dresden series. The first page grabs you, especially if you’re as big a fan as I am. They even had an autographed copy from April 10th! How’d they pull that off?
After the book store, I headed to Norwalk. It was City Council night, and it was my turn to man the CG titles and names. After the meeting, I hung around with Mike and Karmin and we chatted for a bit before we took off for the night.
Topics of Conversation: Reclaimed water, NOT drinking reclaimed water, weird talks, when something is off, narrowly missing George Lucas, department of heavy petting, gay chicken, make out and grab stuff, “The Generators“ analogy, etc.
-Nate
Monday, April 19, 2010
Kick Assed Journal Entry #00
I was so tired from the last four days that I slept for over ten hours. The nice thing was that my muscles weren’t as sore as I thought they would be. I went to work at Norwalk as well. That is all. It’s a Monday, what did you want?
**********BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!**********
I forgot to talk about seeing Kick Ass last Thursday (4-15-20)! I think that movie DEFINITELY deserves a mention and quickie review.
After the Pre-Show day at the Anaheim Comic Con, I headed down to Buena Park to catch Kick Ass with Justin, Victor, Cap’n Josh, Cole, Brooke, Brian, and others. It was a special 10:00 pm advance screening, and the theater got pretty packed. A special surprise was the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World trailer went up before the movie, which was great to see on the big screen.
I’ve read the entire run of comic books that are out are out for Kick Ass. I knew the ending, and I knew the big dramatic beats, and the big reveals. I figured that I knew what the movie would have, with some cinema twists, of course. So I thought I knew how the movie would go.
I was wrong.
There are three HUGE differences between the comic books and movie. I won’t say what, but they definitely threw me for a loop. And the ending is like nothing you would ever expect, even with a movie as out there as Kick Ass. Story wise, you really get to know the characters fairly well, though of course you get to know Kick Ass much more.
The best, most absorbing performance comes from Hit Girl, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. She has an amazing charisma about her, and her actions scenes are incredible. Somehow, some way, she is able to be both a little daddy’s girl that is sweet and innocent AND be one of the scariest people on the silver screen. She kills like she’s playing tag.
But don’t let it be said that she’s the only one doing a great job. Aaron Johnson as Kick Ass is both dumb and heroic, which I guess was the point all along. If he seems a little too pretty to be having the problems he’s having, he at least ACTS like he ain’t that pretty. And I have to admit, the moment he actually succeeds in helping someone, I actually felt it.
Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy is both scary and campy. He does a little Adam West impersonation that works way more than it should. And out of costume, he plays a really dorky, loving father. But you can tell it’s a father that is on the edge. That he’s just barely holding it together. Except when it concerns any interactions with his daughter, whom he shows absolutely nothing but love, even if that love has a few mental issues.
My only issue with the movie is a personal one. It concerns my feeling towards the fact that Hit Girl is killing people left and right. Now, I don’t hate or condemn the movie. At all. But I left the movie feeling uncomfortable. Just with the pure violent joy of Hit Girl. Yes, the point of the movie was that these costumed heroes would have to be crazy to do what they do. They address that fine. But it didn’t always sit well with me. I can’t exactly explain it. Maybe I’m just not crazy about the idea that a kid can’t just be a kid and has to be a monster instead.
For those of you who loved the movie with no problems, then don’t worry. I didn’t hate it. I’m just torn by the movie. I can’t bring myself to love it. I’m of two minds. Let that mean whatever it means.
-Nate
**********BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!**********
I forgot to talk about seeing Kick Ass last Thursday (4-15-20)! I think that movie DEFINITELY deserves a mention and quickie review.
After the Pre-Show day at the Anaheim Comic Con, I headed down to Buena Park to catch Kick Ass with Justin, Victor, Cap’n Josh, Cole, Brooke, Brian, and others. It was a special 10:00 pm advance screening, and the theater got pretty packed. A special surprise was the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World trailer went up before the movie, which was great to see on the big screen.
I’ve read the entire run of comic books that are out are out for Kick Ass. I knew the ending, and I knew the big dramatic beats, and the big reveals. I figured that I knew what the movie would have, with some cinema twists, of course. So I thought I knew how the movie would go.
I was wrong.
There are three HUGE differences between the comic books and movie. I won’t say what, but they definitely threw me for a loop. And the ending is like nothing you would ever expect, even with a movie as out there as Kick Ass. Story wise, you really get to know the characters fairly well, though of course you get to know Kick Ass much more.
The best, most absorbing performance comes from Hit Girl, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. She has an amazing charisma about her, and her actions scenes are incredible. Somehow, some way, she is able to be both a little daddy’s girl that is sweet and innocent AND be one of the scariest people on the silver screen. She kills like she’s playing tag.
But don’t let it be said that she’s the only one doing a great job. Aaron Johnson as Kick Ass is both dumb and heroic, which I guess was the point all along. If he seems a little too pretty to be having the problems he’s having, he at least ACTS like he ain’t that pretty. And I have to admit, the moment he actually succeeds in helping someone, I actually felt it.
Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy is both scary and campy. He does a little Adam West impersonation that works way more than it should. And out of costume, he plays a really dorky, loving father. But you can tell it’s a father that is on the edge. That he’s just barely holding it together. Except when it concerns any interactions with his daughter, whom he shows absolutely nothing but love, even if that love has a few mental issues.
My only issue with the movie is a personal one. It concerns my feeling towards the fact that Hit Girl is killing people left and right. Now, I don’t hate or condemn the movie. At all. But I left the movie feeling uncomfortable. Just with the pure violent joy of Hit Girl. Yes, the point of the movie was that these costumed heroes would have to be crazy to do what they do. They address that fine. But it didn’t always sit well with me. I can’t exactly explain it. Maybe I’m just not crazy about the idea that a kid can’t just be a kid and has to be a monster instead.
For those of you who loved the movie with no problems, then don’t worry. I didn’t hate it. I’m just torn by the movie. I can’t bring myself to love it. I’m of two minds. Let that mean whatever it means.
-Nate
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Anaheim Comic Con - Day 04: The Great Signature Hunt of 2010
As quickly as the storm came, it passed. Sunday was looking to be a day of gathering all the things that I hadn’t been able to grab for the last three days. In an odd way, it felt like Sunday would be the day for volunteers. Where we turn the Con into our own little wandering playground.
And boy did I wander.
For me, today was about getting my shirt signed. I didn’t really have money to buy anything, but I had my rugged charm to use on people to get them to sign my retina-burning yellow volunteer shirt. But I didn’t just want autographs from the celebrity or creative guests, I also wanted all my fellow volunteers to sign my shirt. And piece by piece, I achieved this goal.
MY AUTOGRAPHS!: Ted Raimi. Doug Tennapel. Adam West. Jewel Staith. Burt Ward. Mindy Sterling. Jason Mewes. Ed Asner. Jake Busey. etc.
I narrowly avoided getting a penis drawn on my back, Christine signed my shirt 3 times, and I got a drawing of Earthworm Jim and Batman. The shirt looks awesome. I’ll have to figure out a way to display it so that both sides can be seen.
After the Con closed up for the last day, the volunteers and I went into the back to do some clean up. And then we got to grab our SWAG Bags. And these were special Volunteer Swag Bags. Their were 10 Hour, 20 Hours, 30 Hours, and finally, 40 Hours bags. Each pertained to the number of hours a volunteer put in for the whole Comic Con. I did 37 hours. Whoo boy. I got the 40 Hour bag and felt like a very tired Fan Boy.
Many thanks to all the people that helped make the Anaheim Comic Con rock. A special thank you to the first 19 on Thursday, as I will remember your names for a long time to come. I can’t wait to volunteer next year!
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: How to say Beardo, drawing penises on shirts, Adam We, the irresistibleness of David Tennant, baby Thors, being Vanilla, the parade of R2’s, Dollhouse spoilers, Ninja: The Game, suran wrap, trying to find a dinosaur poster, etc.
-Nate
And boy did I wander.
For me, today was about getting my shirt signed. I didn’t really have money to buy anything, but I had my rugged charm to use on people to get them to sign my retina-burning yellow volunteer shirt. But I didn’t just want autographs from the celebrity or creative guests, I also wanted all my fellow volunteers to sign my shirt. And piece by piece, I achieved this goal.
MY AUTOGRAPHS!: Ted Raimi. Doug Tennapel. Adam West. Jewel Staith. Burt Ward. Mindy Sterling. Jason Mewes. Ed Asner. Jake Busey. etc.
I narrowly avoided getting a penis drawn on my back, Christine signed my shirt 3 times, and I got a drawing of Earthworm Jim and Batman. The shirt looks awesome. I’ll have to figure out a way to display it so that both sides can be seen.
After the Con closed up for the last day, the volunteers and I went into the back to do some clean up. And then we got to grab our SWAG Bags. And these were special Volunteer Swag Bags. Their were 10 Hour, 20 Hours, 30 Hours, and finally, 40 Hours bags. Each pertained to the number of hours a volunteer put in for the whole Comic Con. I did 37 hours. Whoo boy. I got the 40 Hour bag and felt like a very tired Fan Boy.
Many thanks to all the people that helped make the Anaheim Comic Con rock. A special thank you to the first 19 on Thursday, as I will remember your names for a long time to come. I can’t wait to volunteer next year!
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: How to say Beardo, drawing penises on shirts, Adam We, the irresistibleness of David Tennant, baby Thors, being Vanilla, the parade of R2’s, Dollhouse spoilers, Ninja: The Game, suran wrap, trying to find a dinosaur poster, etc.
-Nate
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Anaheim Comic Con - Day 03: Hurricane Doherty
As was foretold by the Prophets of WizardWorld, Saturday descended into anarchy.
It was mostly due to the actions of one star. Not Adam West. Not William Shatner. Not Verne Troyer. No, gentle reader. None of these stars were able to achieve as much infamy, or generate as much general chaos as the one and only:
SHANNON DOHERTY.
It started out simple. As do all stories of hell unleashed. Doherty’s handler, a fellow named Mike, required the attentions of three volunteers to help escort Doherty, and fellow Charmed star Holly Marie Combs, to their autograph booth. As we waited for them, the number of volunteers needed grew to a total of six. 6 volunteers should have been overkill. I began to wonder if they would really need me. But Mike was resolute, so I remained with the large group.
The plan changed slightly, because Doherty and Combs had brought along their own photographer, and would need to unload the equipment nearby. They pulled their cars around the back, and entered through the loading dock. I ran to retrieve a cart to take the equipment. Emphasis on “ran.” It had been a farther distance than I had thought it would be. Argh.
We set up the autograph booth, and the fans arrived. About a hundred, if my math was right. Because there were so many, we had to separate the main body of the line. This was problematic because we would need to go retrieve small groups of the line to ferry over to the booth. But what really became problematic was the price. Because, in a word...
It was pricey.
Doherty and Combs were charging $40 to have their photographer take a picture of them with the fan. ON TOP of that, it would cost $20 for their autograph. EACH. So you were looking at a total of $80 by the time you were stepping out of the booth. Wow. But the fans agreed, and the line was still long and strong an hour or two later.
Then Shannon Doherty went on a cigarette break.
By the time she came back, the price for a picture with both Combs and Doherty went up to $60. And the price for each autograph? $30 each. EACH. So now you were spending $120 easy.
*CHOKE*
And like magic, the line got cut in half. What had originally been an hour wait, was now 15 minutes. Fans were pretty pissed. Heck, I was pissed. Honestly, if she had stuck with her original price, she would have gotten a hell of a lot more money in the long run. Tsk, tsk.
A little later, I got shifted around to other duties. I even got to hang out with Ted Raimi at his booth for a bit. After the madness of ShaDo, it was nice to talk to a genuinely nice guy like Ted Raimi. Let it be heard from the mountain tops! That guy is an okay guy.
I met up with Justin to catch my lunch and figure out the plan for later that night. My friend Jamal was going to have a Doctor Who night watching the first three episodes of the 5th Series with Matt Smith, the new, 11th, Doctor. Hopefully I would get out of the Con in time to watch it with them.
I began the slow process of collecting signatures for my volunteer shirt. I started with Ted Raimi, then got Doug Tenapel (creator of Earthworm Jim), and continued from there. But I wouldn’t be just segregated to celebrities and the such. I fully planned to collect the other volunteer’s signatures by the end of the 4th day.
After the Con, I hitched a ride with Justin AND Jamal, who decided to come along to show some love. We picked up some dinner and then headed to Jamal’s apartment. Ben joined us before the first episode was finished.
Matt Smith is really, really good.
I mean, wow. This guy has a really incredible grip on who his Doctor is. He’s weirder. He’s more sly. And he is the equal to every actor that’s gone ahead of him. My hat goes off to him. He quite possibly went into being the Doctor amidst more nay-saying and bitterness than Tennant had had to deal with. And he impressed me. Good going, Mr. Smith.
And Stephen Moffat, the new show runner, is going all out. With great writing and new creations to help bolster the already 50-odd years of continuity and rogue’s gallery. Though I think the new opening credits are a bit ridiculous, and the new version of the theme isn‘t quite hitting the right note with me, it cannot be said that the new run will go unnoticed. So my over-all feelings about the new Doctor Who? In two words:
I’m down.
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: Tasers, travel with no excuses, ferries, vicious lawyers, how can electricity be individually allocated, Hawaii fever, The New Doctor Will Skull-F**k You!, the kindness of burritos, Amy Pond, the genius of the green tongue, etc.
-Nate
It was mostly due to the actions of one star. Not Adam West. Not William Shatner. Not Verne Troyer. No, gentle reader. None of these stars were able to achieve as much infamy, or generate as much general chaos as the one and only:
SHANNON DOHERTY.
It started out simple. As do all stories of hell unleashed. Doherty’s handler, a fellow named Mike, required the attentions of three volunteers to help escort Doherty, and fellow Charmed star Holly Marie Combs, to their autograph booth. As we waited for them, the number of volunteers needed grew to a total of six. 6 volunteers should have been overkill. I began to wonder if they would really need me. But Mike was resolute, so I remained with the large group.
The plan changed slightly, because Doherty and Combs had brought along their own photographer, and would need to unload the equipment nearby. They pulled their cars around the back, and entered through the loading dock. I ran to retrieve a cart to take the equipment. Emphasis on “ran.” It had been a farther distance than I had thought it would be. Argh.
We set up the autograph booth, and the fans arrived. About a hundred, if my math was right. Because there were so many, we had to separate the main body of the line. This was problematic because we would need to go retrieve small groups of the line to ferry over to the booth. But what really became problematic was the price. Because, in a word...
It was pricey.
Doherty and Combs were charging $40 to have their photographer take a picture of them with the fan. ON TOP of that, it would cost $20 for their autograph. EACH. So you were looking at a total of $80 by the time you were stepping out of the booth. Wow. But the fans agreed, and the line was still long and strong an hour or two later.
Then Shannon Doherty went on a cigarette break.
By the time she came back, the price for a picture with both Combs and Doherty went up to $60. And the price for each autograph? $30 each. EACH. So now you were spending $120 easy.
*CHOKE*
And like magic, the line got cut in half. What had originally been an hour wait, was now 15 minutes. Fans were pretty pissed. Heck, I was pissed. Honestly, if she had stuck with her original price, she would have gotten a hell of a lot more money in the long run. Tsk, tsk.
A little later, I got shifted around to other duties. I even got to hang out with Ted Raimi at his booth for a bit. After the madness of ShaDo, it was nice to talk to a genuinely nice guy like Ted Raimi. Let it be heard from the mountain tops! That guy is an okay guy.
I met up with Justin to catch my lunch and figure out the plan for later that night. My friend Jamal was going to have a Doctor Who night watching the first three episodes of the 5th Series with Matt Smith, the new, 11th, Doctor. Hopefully I would get out of the Con in time to watch it with them.
I began the slow process of collecting signatures for my volunteer shirt. I started with Ted Raimi, then got Doug Tenapel (creator of Earthworm Jim), and continued from there. But I wouldn’t be just segregated to celebrities and the such. I fully planned to collect the other volunteer’s signatures by the end of the 4th day.
After the Con, I hitched a ride with Justin AND Jamal, who decided to come along to show some love. We picked up some dinner and then headed to Jamal’s apartment. Ben joined us before the first episode was finished.
We watched The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, and Victory of the Daleks. Let me first clarify that David Tennant is going to be my Doctor for all time. Nothing can, or will, change that. That being said…
Matt Smith is really, really good.
I mean, wow. This guy has a really incredible grip on who his Doctor is. He’s weirder. He’s more sly. And he is the equal to every actor that’s gone ahead of him. My hat goes off to him. He quite possibly went into being the Doctor amidst more nay-saying and bitterness than Tennant had had to deal with. And he impressed me. Good going, Mr. Smith.
And Stephen Moffat, the new show runner, is going all out. With great writing and new creations to help bolster the already 50-odd years of continuity and rogue’s gallery. Though I think the new opening credits are a bit ridiculous, and the new version of the theme isn‘t quite hitting the right note with me, it cannot be said that the new run will go unnoticed. So my over-all feelings about the new Doctor Who? In two words:
I’m down.
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: Tasers, travel with no excuses, ferries, vicious lawyers, how can electricity be individually allocated, Hawaii fever, The New Doctor Will Skull-F**k You!, the kindness of burritos, Amy Pond, the genius of the green tongue, etc.
-Nate
Friday, April 16, 2010
Anaheim Comic Con - Day 02: More Swag Bags
I made a deal with my Dad so that he could drop me off at the Con. That way, I didn’t have to pay for parking. He agreed, because he’s cool like that. I entered the Con, which was now alive and kicking. I stared at the DeLorean with loving eyes. And I took a deep breath.
After which…
I should remember what happened the rest of the day. I should. But I don’t. And I was just there. But it was a bunch of urgently getting things done. And at some point I ate a sandwich, before which I helped unload an entire pallet full of desperately-needed bottled water. I recognized Mark Lutz, the guy who played the Groosalugg in Angel. I handed out a friggin’ ton of Swag Bags.
I did meet some more new volunteers. Again, the bonding moment was the SWAG Bag assembly. There’s a magic in those bags, I think.
Brenna
Drey
Allison
Kate
(and others, please don't be annoyed at me)
I also saw Adam West in person. He’s looking older, but he sounds fantastic.
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: Scientific curiosity concerning lesbians, the infinite sadness of the D-list celebrity, Disney memories, Belgium, Verne Troyer being smaller than we had all thought, nicknames of infamy, etc.
-Nate
After which…
I should remember what happened the rest of the day. I should. But I don’t. And I was just there. But it was a bunch of urgently getting things done. And at some point I ate a sandwich, before which I helped unload an entire pallet full of desperately-needed bottled water. I recognized Mark Lutz, the guy who played the Groosalugg in Angel. I handed out a friggin’ ton of Swag Bags.
I did meet some more new volunteers. Again, the bonding moment was the SWAG Bag assembly. There’s a magic in those bags, I think.
Brenna
Drey
Allison
Kate
(and others, please don't be annoyed at me)
I also saw Adam West in person. He’s looking older, but he sounds fantastic.
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: Scientific curiosity concerning lesbians, the infinite sadness of the D-list celebrity, Disney memories, Belgium, Verne Troyer being smaller than we had all thought, nicknames of infamy, etc.
-Nate
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Anaheim Comic Con - Day 01: 19 Names, All In a Row
The first day of four days of volunteering at the Anaheim Comic Con! Boo-Ya!
I drove to the Anaheim Convention Center only to find that there was no volunteer parking, or discounted, or anything that would save me from breaking my projected Comic Con budget of $0.00. I grimaced and paid the ten bucks that I hadn’t wanted to fork over. I guess its just life in the big city. Or at least in AnaCrime.
I slowly made my way to Con, trying to figure out where the Coffee Convention ended and the Comic Con began. Apparently Hall D was the place to be. Which was a longer walk than I had anticipated, but walking long distances was something that I knew that I would need to get accustomed to ASAP. I idly wondered how many miles I would clock in at by Day 04.
I made it to the Con to find it still being in the process of being assembled. My contact was a fellow named Spat, and I was told that I would know who he was by the crowd of people following in his wake. This description came to be true, as I found Spat on his entourage of volunteers near the back of the Hall.
The crew was nearly up to a little over a dozen by the time I arrived, and Spat started off by walking us around the Convention Center. I greeted a few of the volunteers and we chatted a little as we walked. We even picked up a few more volunteers as we ambled along. I forgot all their names very quickly, because I am awful at names, and feel just as guilty about that as I am bad at remembering.
As luck would have it, I stumbled upon an exercise that would alleviate that problem.
One of the duties of the Pre-Show Thursday was the stuffing of the coveted free SWAG Bag. (S.W.A.G. = Stuff We All Get) This consisted of a plastic bag with one copy each of the magazines Wizard, ToyFare, and FunFare. We would follow this up with a little card advertisement of Geek’d, and a starter card pack of Magic: Planeswalker. To do this, we got into an Assembly Line of one person passing out each of the ingredients of the SWAG Bag. So that would be 5 or 6 people on the line, with the rest grabbing bags and filling them up. At first we did this in silence, just getting through it all.
Then I started introducing myself.
This was to each person that I gave a magazine. But the key was that I kept introducing myself to each person over and over. And asking for their name in return. At first it was dumb, but it soon became apparent that it was helping me out. A LOT. I must have said each person’s name 50 times. And I found myself just goofing around with them as we worked.
And now I remember each and every person by their name:
Andre
Katie
Carissa
Darryl
Jon
Michael
Joel
Christine
Roy
Alex
Romiro
Shawn
Rob
Alan
Jimmy
Trini
Wilsa
Joey
Connie
As for spelling of said names, I’m not sure. I didn’t ask them all to spell, because that’s just insane. I’m just happy I could remember their names. It was a personal achievement.
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: TheYellow Ranger, comics to start on, name combinations, hand hugs, being so tired I have to sing, saying someone’s name a ridiculous amount of times, the all-time high of 11 bags, Juliet Landeau being sick, etc.
-Nate
I drove to the Anaheim Convention Center only to find that there was no volunteer parking, or discounted, or anything that would save me from breaking my projected Comic Con budget of $0.00. I grimaced and paid the ten bucks that I hadn’t wanted to fork over. I guess its just life in the big city. Or at least in AnaCrime.
I slowly made my way to Con, trying to figure out where the Coffee Convention ended and the Comic Con began. Apparently Hall D was the place to be. Which was a longer walk than I had anticipated, but walking long distances was something that I knew that I would need to get accustomed to ASAP. I idly wondered how many miles I would clock in at by Day 04.
I made it to the Con to find it still being in the process of being assembled. My contact was a fellow named Spat, and I was told that I would know who he was by the crowd of people following in his wake. This description came to be true, as I found Spat on his entourage of volunteers near the back of the Hall.
The crew was nearly up to a little over a dozen by the time I arrived, and Spat started off by walking us around the Convention Center. I greeted a few of the volunteers and we chatted a little as we walked. We even picked up a few more volunteers as we ambled along. I forgot all their names very quickly, because I am awful at names, and feel just as guilty about that as I am bad at remembering.
As luck would have it, I stumbled upon an exercise that would alleviate that problem.
One of the duties of the Pre-Show Thursday was the stuffing of the coveted free SWAG Bag. (S.W.A.G. = Stuff We All Get) This consisted of a plastic bag with one copy each of the magazines Wizard, ToyFare, and FunFare. We would follow this up with a little card advertisement of Geek’d, and a starter card pack of Magic: Planeswalker. To do this, we got into an Assembly Line of one person passing out each of the ingredients of the SWAG Bag. So that would be 5 or 6 people on the line, with the rest grabbing bags and filling them up. At first we did this in silence, just getting through it all.
Then I started introducing myself.
This was to each person that I gave a magazine. But the key was that I kept introducing myself to each person over and over. And asking for their name in return. At first it was dumb, but it soon became apparent that it was helping me out. A LOT. I must have said each person’s name 50 times. And I found myself just goofing around with them as we worked.
And now I remember each and every person by their name:
Andre
Katie
Carissa
Darryl
Jon
Michael
Joel
Christine
Roy
Alex
Romiro
Shawn
Rob
Alan
Jimmy
Trini
Wilsa
Joey
Connie
As for spelling of said names, I’m not sure. I didn’t ask them all to spell, because that’s just insane. I’m just happy I could remember their names. It was a personal achievement.
Topics of Conversation @ The Con: TheYellow Ranger, comics to start on, name combinations, hand hugs, being so tired I have to sing, saying someone’s name a ridiculous amount of times, the all-time high of 11 bags, Juliet Landeau being sick, etc.
-Nate
Straight From Beezlebub's Armpit
April 14, 2010:
For my next trick, I had to head out to Irvine to shoot some B-roll of a Landfill. Interesting day, with a possibility of aromatic memories to last a lifetime. And who knows, maybe I’d be able to score a slightly-used-to-horrifically-damaged office table.
After I picked up the equipment I would need at Huntington Beach, I hit the road like it owed me money. Sheila, my GPS, lead me straight to the Landfill and I caught up with my contact, John. He was in charge of the place, and would know how to get to the locations I needed to shoot way more than I would be able to manage. We hopped in his truck (he gets his own wheels, a perk of the job) and we drove up to the main staging area.
Okay, so my picture of a Landfill is trash as far as the eye can see, with seagulls trying to eat everything and everyone, and bulldozers suddenly showing up to push it all into a mountain of refuse. And all wrapped up in an odor straight from Beezlebub’s armpit.
Turns out, only the bulldozers were right.
American Landfills, at least the one I was being shown, are pretty organized. Garbage Trucks take the trash from the neighborhoods, towns, or cities to the Landfill. They dump the trash, upon which a bulldozer (or many, in this case) spread it around and pack it down. After all that, those same bulldozers push dirt and compost onto the trash. They do this day in and day out, until there are literally MOUNTAINS of garbage, with each layer actually visible in its progression.
And I was tooling around on said mountain.
I shot everything from bulldozers, to garbage trucks, to the pipes that collected the methane that the mountain of garbage produced. It was all very tidy, and didn’t smell NEARLY as bad as it could have. Of course it was. If it wasn’t Irvine would have them hanged.
After I had got all the shots that I would need, I dropped off the equipment back at Huntington Beach, and headed to Norwalk. Tonight we had a Planning Commission Meeting that we had to tape. We did this with little incident, even though time seemed to stretch forever when they started talking about oh god I don’t even care anymore.
Topics of Conversation @ Norwalk: Comic Con, sleep after coffee, the methane production of Thunderdome, dried fruit, finding Gas Stations, telling people how to not talk without hitting them in the face, etc.
-Nate
For my next trick, I had to head out to Irvine to shoot some B-roll of a Landfill. Interesting day, with a possibility of aromatic memories to last a lifetime. And who knows, maybe I’d be able to score a slightly-used-to-horrifically-damaged office table.
After I picked up the equipment I would need at Huntington Beach, I hit the road like it owed me money. Sheila, my GPS, lead me straight to the Landfill and I caught up with my contact, John. He was in charge of the place, and would know how to get to the locations I needed to shoot way more than I would be able to manage. We hopped in his truck (he gets his own wheels, a perk of the job) and we drove up to the main staging area.
Okay, so my picture of a Landfill is trash as far as the eye can see, with seagulls trying to eat everything and everyone, and bulldozers suddenly showing up to push it all into a mountain of refuse. And all wrapped up in an odor straight from Beezlebub’s armpit.
Turns out, only the bulldozers were right.
American Landfills, at least the one I was being shown, are pretty organized. Garbage Trucks take the trash from the neighborhoods, towns, or cities to the Landfill. They dump the trash, upon which a bulldozer (or many, in this case) spread it around and pack it down. After all that, those same bulldozers push dirt and compost onto the trash. They do this day in and day out, until there are literally MOUNTAINS of garbage, with each layer actually visible in its progression.
And I was tooling around on said mountain.
I shot everything from bulldozers, to garbage trucks, to the pipes that collected the methane that the mountain of garbage produced. It was all very tidy, and didn’t smell NEARLY as bad as it could have. Of course it was. If it wasn’t Irvine would have them hanged.
After I had got all the shots that I would need, I dropped off the equipment back at Huntington Beach, and headed to Norwalk. Tonight we had a Planning Commission Meeting that we had to tape. We did this with little incident, even though time seemed to stretch forever when they started talking about oh god I don’t even care anymore.
Topics of Conversation @ Norwalk: Comic Con, sleep after coffee, the methane production of Thunderdome, dried fruit, finding Gas Stations, telling people how to not talk without hitting them in the face, etc.
-Nate
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Kewt Lil' Anamulls!!!
I had to go to Norwalk in the morning for a special shoot. It was for SEEACA, to start off a few months of the “Adopt-a-Pet” program. This was a program to help get word out for all the animals that were available to be adopted at the SEEACA Animal Shelter. A worthy cause, and a fun shoot to boot.
I went with Bill and Musse to SEEACA, and we set up the cameras, audio, and lights. In the meantime, we got to meet the first few animals that were up to be caught on tape. It was two kittens named Shelly and Magic. As we waited for our host to arrive, and we were already set up, I got to goof around with the kittens. I picked up Shelly and was surprised by how much she started purring. And she was adorable.
It was very hard to put that kitten down.
The host, Michelle, arrived and we got to shooting. Four other cats were introduced, one more of which was a kitten. They were very sweet and calm cats. We also introduced 6 dogs, 3 puppies and 3 mature dogs. All in all, the animals were very loving, and ready to be loved. Come on down and take home some animals, folks!
[SEEACA]
We headed back to the studio, and I digitized the tapes for Karmin to edit later. I stuck around and did some cable casting, plus some pointless planning for the upcoming Anaheim Comic Con. It was pointless, cuz I was trying to plan for something that I wasn’t even sure on how it would pan out. After that, I headed to Amy’s place to watch some more episodes of Buffy.
We watched Passion, Killed By Death, and I Only Have Eyes For You. With these episodes, we were truly nearing the end of Season Two. It seemed really intense to try and stop with Passion, because for those of you in the Know, that is not an episode you can stop with. But the annoying part is that Killed By Death and I Only Have Eyes For You are just filler eps. But filler with great character moments.
The plan would be to try and fit in all the last episodes into one kickass Buffython for some point in the future. I’m confident that we will knock out Season Two before May. And then we shall start in on my personal favorite Season: THREE. Hell yeah.
Topics of Conversation: 1/5 to ¼ lbs, pet alligators, the There Will Be Blood house, bank robbing dogs, Oh Gypsies!, the renegade cat, the possibility of getting Amy to draw me as a vampire, etc.
-Nate
I went with Bill and Musse to SEEACA, and we set up the cameras, audio, and lights. In the meantime, we got to meet the first few animals that were up to be caught on tape. It was two kittens named Shelly and Magic. As we waited for our host to arrive, and we were already set up, I got to goof around with the kittens. I picked up Shelly and was surprised by how much she started purring. And she was adorable.
It was very hard to put that kitten down.
The host, Michelle, arrived and we got to shooting. Four other cats were introduced, one more of which was a kitten. They were very sweet and calm cats. We also introduced 6 dogs, 3 puppies and 3 mature dogs. All in all, the animals were very loving, and ready to be loved. Come on down and take home some animals, folks!
[SEEACA]
We headed back to the studio, and I digitized the tapes for Karmin to edit later. I stuck around and did some cable casting, plus some pointless planning for the upcoming Anaheim Comic Con. It was pointless, cuz I was trying to plan for something that I wasn’t even sure on how it would pan out. After that, I headed to Amy’s place to watch some more episodes of Buffy.
We watched Passion, Killed By Death, and I Only Have Eyes For You. With these episodes, we were truly nearing the end of Season Two. It seemed really intense to try and stop with Passion, because for those of you in the Know, that is not an episode you can stop with. But the annoying part is that Killed By Death and I Only Have Eyes For You are just filler eps. But filler with great character moments.
The plan would be to try and fit in all the last episodes into one kickass Buffython for some point in the future. I’m confident that we will knock out Season Two before May. And then we shall start in on my personal favorite Season: THREE. Hell yeah.
Topics of Conversation: 1/5 to ¼ lbs, pet alligators, the There Will Be Blood house, bank robbing dogs, Oh Gypsies!, the renegade cat, the possibility of getting Amy to draw me as a vampire, etc.
-Nate
Monday, April 12, 2010
Child of The First World
I have found that because the search for music is almost as easy as typing “google.com”, that it doubles the frustration for when that music can’t be found. I have been looking high and low and middle for a song called All The Lights by a band called The Sun. I only have half of an mp3 as proof of its existence. And it has been frustrating.
Of course, I do find that all my problems are the petty, small crap that only a child of the First World would even register as any kind of annoyance. I never worry where my next meal is coming from. I never worry if I can find shelter. I never worry that I’m going to get shot at for just walking the streets… Okay, no I do worry about that sometimes, but you know what I mean.
So since I don’t have those worries, I have the worries of a decidedly small scale of obstacles. Getting my tire fixed. Getting an extra shift of work. Talking to that cool girl. Finishing a book I started. Being late for a movie. Updating my blog.
And trying to find this f**king song that doesn’t seem to exist at f**king all!
Again, small potatoes, but it’s a really good potato.
**RANDOM THOUGHT**
I once heard that the worst thing that ever happened to society as a whole was the creation of the Lotto. At first, I thought that this was unfair. Who’s against hope? And I guess that’s what I thought that the Lotto was. Hope. At least, at first.
But as I mulled it over in my head, it made more and more sense. Lotto isn’t hope. It’s an excuse. An excuse to not try that hard in the things that are guaranteed to work. Hard work, for one. And a decent sense of reality, for another. Why work that hard, when you’re just waiting for the Lotto to sweep your problems away?
What the person was saying about the Lotto was that before it existed, there was no easy way out. And not in the way that your life was screwed no matter what. It was more in the way that the DISTRACTION of the Lotto wasn’t there, so a more grounded sense of reality was instilled into people early on. No other choice existed, so it was just life as they knew it.
Basically, you could achieve anything you wanted because the American Dream was, in its own sense, the lottery of their age. You could strike it rich through hard work, not just through a $2 quick pick you bought with a Snapple Sweet Tea at 7-Eleven.
That being said, I bought a $2 quick pick with my Snapple Sweet Tea at 7-Eleven. Here’s to hoping!
-Nate
Of course, I do find that all my problems are the petty, small crap that only a child of the First World would even register as any kind of annoyance. I never worry where my next meal is coming from. I never worry if I can find shelter. I never worry that I’m going to get shot at for just walking the streets… Okay, no I do worry about that sometimes, but you know what I mean.
So since I don’t have those worries, I have the worries of a decidedly small scale of obstacles. Getting my tire fixed. Getting an extra shift of work. Talking to that cool girl. Finishing a book I started. Being late for a movie. Updating my blog.
And trying to find this f**king song that doesn’t seem to exist at f**king all!
Again, small potatoes, but it’s a really good potato.
**RANDOM THOUGHT**
I once heard that the worst thing that ever happened to society as a whole was the creation of the Lotto. At first, I thought that this was unfair. Who’s against hope? And I guess that’s what I thought that the Lotto was. Hope. At least, at first.
But as I mulled it over in my head, it made more and more sense. Lotto isn’t hope. It’s an excuse. An excuse to not try that hard in the things that are guaranteed to work. Hard work, for one. And a decent sense of reality, for another. Why work that hard, when you’re just waiting for the Lotto to sweep your problems away?
What the person was saying about the Lotto was that before it existed, there was no easy way out. And not in the way that your life was screwed no matter what. It was more in the way that the DISTRACTION of the Lotto wasn’t there, so a more grounded sense of reality was instilled into people early on. No other choice existed, so it was just life as they knew it.
Basically, you could achieve anything you wanted because the American Dream was, in its own sense, the lottery of their age. You could strike it rich through hard work, not just through a $2 quick pick you bought with a Snapple Sweet Tea at 7-Eleven.
That being said, I bought a $2 quick pick with my Snapple Sweet Tea at 7-Eleven. Here’s to hoping!
-Nate
Sunday, April 11, 2010
I Want a Dragon, Dammit!
I was late to the very thing that I didn’t want to be late to. Very annoying. What’s going on with me? I used to be the dude that hated being late. I absolutely HATED keeping anyone waiting. Now I let myself get distracted. Now I let my mind wander. Now I’m spending way too much of this blog on my being late.
I was late for meeting up with Aaron, Amy, and Patrick to watch How To Train Your Dragon (3D). By the time I got there, they had already eaten, and were in line for tickets. That worked out fairly well. After getting tickets, I grabbed a sandwich at Great Steakery. I ate half of it at the food court, and took the other half inside the theater.
How To Train Your Dragon is actually honestly good. It has beautiful animation, with excellent voice acting. And the story isn’t too bad, if a little by the numbers. But they tell that story perfectly. The designs were excellent for not only the dragons, but the humans as well. And the 3D was integrated beautifully. It really pulled you into the flick. I ended up completely loving every flying sequence and everything that had anything to do with the dragons. But I also loved all the quiet moments. They were handled great.
Watch How To Train Your Dragon and love going to movies again.
After the movie, we headed to Amy’s to watch some more episodes of Buffy, where Justin joined us. After two episodes, Patrick had to leave for home, only to have a surprise appearance by Quincy almost as soon as he left! Today had been planned as a mega episode watching block. And we succeeded. We watched four episodes! Surprise, Innocence, Phases, a quick run to 5 Guys Burger And Fries for dinner, and then we ended the block with Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered.
Aaron was feeling really sick, so Amy took him home. Justin, Quincy, and myself headed out to Starbucks to keep hanging out and talking. The rain started to pick up, so we headed to Justin’s. We covered a huge amount of territory, even going so far as to inspire a new goal for myself. I still have to iron out the kinks, but I left for home feeling energized.
This was a great Sunday!
Topics of Conversation @ Long Beach Town Center & Amy’s & Starbucks & Justin’s: Cat-like dragons, Godzilla Park, His Name Is Giles, trying to make consistent content, YouTube phenoms, Dalek vacuum cleaners, skin creases, women as alcohol, truly organic web shooters, cheese sticks, Tim the sickly Doctor Who kid, my Pokemon lineup, getting life in order, hot button topics, the beauty of randomness, etc.
-Nate
Saturday, April 10, 2010
A Bunch of Guys Watching "Date Night"
I picked up my taxes.
I owe money.
I f**king hate the IRS.
Besides that, I headed to Jamal’s to hang out and watch Date Night. That sentence is treading dangerously close to suspect. But never the less, to Tustin I went. I had barely sat down, before Ben appeared at Jamal’s, followed by Justin. Looks like it wasn’t going to just be two single, lonely men watching Date Night. It was going to be a therapy group’s worth of sad boys.
We went to the Tustin Market Place, and ate at the food court, with each of us getting our own food. I got some ramen from Noodle and Dumpling, Jamal and Justin got some Thai food, and Ben got some Baja Fresh. My ramen was okay, but not nearly as good as the legendary Santouka. After eating, we headed to the theater, and met up with Jon. My word! I now know for a fact that there was a group of 5 men, with no women in tow, who watched a date movie together. I was even directly involved with this twisted affair. But perhaps I’m being unfair. Maybe Date Night isn’t a date movie.
Hey, and maybe corporate executives deserve bonuses.
RIGHT. *sarcasm*
After the movie, we all hung out with some coffee (or tea, in my case) and talked for hours afterwards. And this was all that I could have hoped for, or even wanted, in fact. A really great, chill night.
Topics of Conversation @ the Tustin Market Place: Being the creepy guy, the food quandary, Gay Club vs. Gay Bar, The Buddy Girls, Cameron Diaz being mean to Ben, The Death of Bucky Boy, peach tea Lattes, the unnecessary use of hyphens, Mr. Adventure, sins of the past, “that’s not cigarette smoke“, OC Ska guy, etc.
-Nate
I owe money.
I f**king hate the IRS.
Besides that, I headed to Jamal’s to hang out and watch Date Night. That sentence is treading dangerously close to suspect. But never the less, to Tustin I went. I had barely sat down, before Ben appeared at Jamal’s, followed by Justin. Looks like it wasn’t going to just be two single, lonely men watching Date Night. It was going to be a therapy group’s worth of sad boys.
We went to the Tustin Market Place, and ate at the food court, with each of us getting our own food. I got some ramen from Noodle and Dumpling, Jamal and Justin got some Thai food, and Ben got some Baja Fresh. My ramen was okay, but not nearly as good as the legendary Santouka. After eating, we headed to the theater, and met up with Jon. My word! I now know for a fact that there was a group of 5 men, with no women in tow, who watched a date movie together. I was even directly involved with this twisted affair. But perhaps I’m being unfair. Maybe Date Night isn’t a date movie.
Hey, and maybe corporate executives deserve bonuses.
RIGHT. *sarcasm*
All my sarcasm aside, Date Night isn’t a bad movie. It has some pretty decent laughs, and it does have Tina Fey and Steve Carell doing a great job with what they usually do a great job on. They’re improved bits are some of the honestly funniest parts of the movie. And though the flick does have heart, it still just remains a decent popcorn flick, when you get right down to it. Watch this movie, and get precisely your money’s worth.
After the movie, we all hung out with some coffee (or tea, in my case) and talked for hours afterwards. And this was all that I could have hoped for, or even wanted, in fact. A really great, chill night.
Topics of Conversation @ the Tustin Market Place: Being the creepy guy, the food quandary, Gay Club vs. Gay Bar, The Buddy Girls, Cameron Diaz being mean to Ben, The Death of Bucky Boy, peach tea Lattes, the unnecessary use of hyphens, Mr. Adventure, sins of the past, “that’s not cigarette smoke“, OC Ska guy, etc.
-Nate
Friday, April 9, 2010
Retro Rollers vs T.I.T.s
In contrast to my no-worries day yesterday, I had back to back work today. I had to get some b-roll in the morning, which would be of Rainbow Sanitation garbage trucks at work for PCTA. After which I would follow up with helping out on a shoot for Lakewood at the Long Beach Roller Derby.
First, I had to head to Huntington Beach to pick up the equipment I would need. Then I called my contact at Rainbow and met up with them at a neighborhood in Huntington. The b-roll was fairly simple, mostly consisting of full shots of the truck and logo, the hydraulic arm that grabbed the trash cans, the trash cans being dumped into the truck, and just about anything else I could come up with.
After the vital and semi-vital coverage was covered to exhaustion, I spent a few minutes making a stop-motion skit with the garbage cans. This would be marked on the disc as “Frivolous Coverage.” Or “Nathan Is Being Dumb.”
I headed back to Huntington Beach City Hall to drop off the equipment. After all was said and done, I was done earlier than I had originally thought, and had a few hours to kill before I had to head to Lakewood. I wandered over to a nearby Blockbuster and glanced through their discount DVDs for the unlikely chance that I would want to buy any of them.
Turns out the likelihood was better than I had thought.
Because there, in the midst of SciFi Original movies and “Milk” DVDs, was An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder. This was the exact copy that I needed to complete my collection of Kevin Smith Q&A’s. I had the first and second, because they were my favorites, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want this one. And even better, it only cost 3 bucks or so!
On a whim, I called to see if Aaron and Amy would like to grab lunch. They had already eaten by the time I caught up with them, but I met up with them to hang out a little. Aaron had to go to work, but Amy and I played a quick round of Left 4 Dead 2 before I had to head to work as well.
I got to Lakewood, and within a half an hour, we were headed to the Long Beach Roller Derby.
We arrived to find that the “rink” was just a circle in the middle of an indoor stadium. But it was a big stadium, with a little over 2000 seats. It was also the first night for a new league, and the teams playing were the Retro Rollers vs. the T.I.T.‘s (Terminal Island Tootsies). I was working with a guy named Shawn, who was a veteran of city and film shoots, and we were set up and ready to roll in minutes.
Too bad the game didn’t start for almost two hours.
We had arrived way too early, but that left us plenty of time to figure out what we would need to do. And we also got to watch the live band (who were really good) warm up and play a few songs. And the teams were warming up, which was fun to watch. For the athleticism of course… and perhaps for the tight uniforms.
The game finally started, and Shawn had to run around like a crazy man to get decent shots. And the lighting… oh, the lighting. It was really rough to work with. It was pitch dark except for the blinding spotlights. Not a good combo for trying to white balance, or actually be able to see where you’re walking properly.
But the game itself was pretty good. And if I wasn’t on the clock and focused so hard on the shots and trying to see where everything was all at once, then I might have enjoyed it more. But as it was, I was way too busy to really appreciate it.
Oh yeah. T.I.T.s won.
T.I.T.s always win.
Topics of Conversation: The butler did what?, rubber bumpers, bad guy or antagonist?, the cleanest trash, the Hot Dog Juice explanation, fiber optic jungle, Go-Go Roll-Roll, Lip Stick Bail Bonds Penalty Box, haunted ships, etc.
-Nate
First, I had to head to Huntington Beach to pick up the equipment I would need. Then I called my contact at Rainbow and met up with them at a neighborhood in Huntington. The b-roll was fairly simple, mostly consisting of full shots of the truck and logo, the hydraulic arm that grabbed the trash cans, the trash cans being dumped into the truck, and just about anything else I could come up with.
After the vital and semi-vital coverage was covered to exhaustion, I spent a few minutes making a stop-motion skit with the garbage cans. This would be marked on the disc as “Frivolous Coverage.” Or “Nathan Is Being Dumb.”
I headed back to Huntington Beach City Hall to drop off the equipment. After all was said and done, I was done earlier than I had originally thought, and had a few hours to kill before I had to head to Lakewood. I wandered over to a nearby Blockbuster and glanced through their discount DVDs for the unlikely chance that I would want to buy any of them.
Turns out the likelihood was better than I had thought.
Because there, in the midst of SciFi Original movies and “Milk” DVDs, was An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder. This was the exact copy that I needed to complete my collection of Kevin Smith Q&A’s. I had the first and second, because they were my favorites, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want this one. And even better, it only cost 3 bucks or so!
On a whim, I called to see if Aaron and Amy would like to grab lunch. They had already eaten by the time I caught up with them, but I met up with them to hang out a little. Aaron had to go to work, but Amy and I played a quick round of Left 4 Dead 2 before I had to head to work as well.
I got to Lakewood, and within a half an hour, we were headed to the Long Beach Roller Derby.
We arrived to find that the “rink” was just a circle in the middle of an indoor stadium. But it was a big stadium, with a little over 2000 seats. It was also the first night for a new league, and the teams playing were the Retro Rollers vs. the T.I.T.‘s (Terminal Island Tootsies). I was working with a guy named Shawn, who was a veteran of city and film shoots, and we were set up and ready to roll in minutes.
Too bad the game didn’t start for almost two hours.
We had arrived way too early, but that left us plenty of time to figure out what we would need to do. And we also got to watch the live band (who were really good) warm up and play a few songs. And the teams were warming up, which was fun to watch. For the athleticism of course… and perhaps for the tight uniforms.
The game finally started, and Shawn had to run around like a crazy man to get decent shots. And the lighting… oh, the lighting. It was really rough to work with. It was pitch dark except for the blinding spotlights. Not a good combo for trying to white balance, or actually be able to see where you’re walking properly.
But the game itself was pretty good. And if I wasn’t on the clock and focused so hard on the shots and trying to see where everything was all at once, then I might have enjoyed it more. But as it was, I was way too busy to really appreciate it.
Oh yeah. T.I.T.s won.
T.I.T.s always win.
Topics of Conversation: The butler did what?, rubber bumpers, bad guy or antagonist?, the cleanest trash, the Hot Dog Juice explanation, fiber optic jungle, Go-Go Roll-Roll, Lip Stick Bail Bonds Penalty Box, haunted ships, etc.
-Nate
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Instant Symbolism
The speed to which a day gets filled up can be staggering. I had planned to have today be my day off from any responsibility. In doing so, I decided lunch with Aaron and Amy would be sufficient to achieve these non-goals. But before doing that, I had a really hilarious conversation with Sarah (a friend of Lainey’s) that went all over the place.
Topics of Conversation: Dim sum, fake boobs, different heavens, awful internet videos, sexy Jesus, stink lines, the different uses for squash, etc.
I left my house to pick up Aaron from his work, and then from there we headed out to pick up Amy from her house. We went to Pho Hungry, and I ended up really digging the garlic fried rice. Afterwards, Amy had to head to work, but we decided to catch up with each other again for a spot of Buffy.
Which left Aaron and myself a few hours to kill, which we did with glee. First we drove to Aaron’s place so he could pick up some stuff from his house. He just wanted to pop in and out and be on our way, which left me outside for a moment to witness one of the more strange interactions I’ve seen in a while.
Outside of Aaron’s apartment is a small playground with swings and a tiny jungle gym. Three kids were playing, two boys who were probably 9-years-old and a girl who couldn’t have been more than 6-years-old. The first boy was on the swing and just playing, not paying any attention to the other two. The little girl had a little plastic car-shaped cart that she was busily packing her toys into. And the second boy was standing looking at the little girl, and trying not to cry.
Now, I don’t normally have to try not to laugh at clearly upset children. I know, that sounds awful, but stay with me for a second.
“I don’t understand why you’re crying,” said the little girl, methodically packing away her toys.
“I’m not crying,” hyperventilated the boy.
“You are crying,” confirmed the girl, “You’re supposed to be a big kid.”
The boy said nothing.
“Everybody knows big kids don’t cry,” explained the little girl in disgust, “If you keep crying, I’m going to leave.” The girl said this while putting away the last toy. She turned to look at him, only to see that the boy was on the verge of tears. She then made a noise, grabbed her plastic cart, and walked away.
“I don’t want to be your friend if you’re going to be such a baby,” she said over her shoulder.
The boy did just glanced at her, and stood perfectly still, looking devastated.
All along the boy on the swing just swung higher and higher.
The thing that kept going through my head was that I had just witnessed a very poignant moment in those kids’ lives. It was like I could look into the future, and see each and everyone of their relationships with the opposite sex for the next 40 years. Just a continuous loop of this entire exchange with the exact same context, but different words and details. Just change the setting to a dance club, and the little plastic cart into a car and BOOM! Instant symbolism, folks. She’s an impatient upward-mobile girl getting out of a dead end relationship with yet another immature boyfriend. And he’s just trying not to cry, even though he kind already is.
My brain is a strange machine.
Aaron exited his apartment, and we hit the road. While I was driving, we decided to catch a movie, for want of anything else that could kill three hours. We headed to the 4-Star Cinema, and decided on Diary of a Wimpy Kid, due to both actual interest and the time frame.
The movie was actually pretty enjoyable. The editing was incredibly sharp and funny, and all the kids did a great job. Rowley, Freggley, and Rodrick especially stood out. The most surprising part, and this might be because I have not read the books, was the fact that the main character, Greg, is an unrepentant jerk. He really has a huge opinion of himself and actively screws over his friends. It surprised me that the movie went that angle as fully as it did. I would have thought that they would have went for a more watered down approach. Not the case here, so I have to give them respect.
Probably my biggest issue with the movie was the character of the “Photographer girl.” She was a Mary Sue, and very unnecessary. And upon further research, was created only for the movie. I suppose she was supposed to be the voice of reason, but really, the only voice of reason the audience needed was themselves. But still, a well-done movie.
After the movie, Aaron and I headed back to Lakewood to watch Buffy with Amy at her place. We watched Ted and Bad Eggs. These were obviously more along the lines of filler eps, but really the worst of Buffy’s quota-filling episodes, are still better than entire seasons of other shows. You’ll never see me not want to watch the episodes (except for a few Season 6 eps, but till then…).
Topics of Conversation @ Amy’s: Rude service cuz you’re cheating, dragon politics, Pokemon eggs, X-Men Forever, save files, dragon politics again, punching out of boredom, etc.
-Nate
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Conundrums Aside
I was woken up from a dead sleep to find that I could pick up some work at Lakewood. Not fun, being woken from a dead sleep, but I needed to get up anyway, so at least MONEY can shake me awake. And the job wasn’t half bad, either. I was going to help shoot B-roll for the Long Beach Roller Derby. Hell yeah, that’s WAY worth getting woken from a dead sleep!
And if that wasn’t enough, I picked up some more work, for PCTA this time. I wasn’t going to go on a ride-along with a trash collecting agency to pick up some B-roll for a separate piece about Huntington Beach sanitation. I never know what I’m going to shoot.
And if that TOO wasn’t enough, it was my comic run today! This was an extra good Wednesday, and I hit the road eagerly. Along the way to the shop, I had an Oil Tanker truck in front of me that had the words “Have No Fear, American Oil Is Here.” So what if I’m afraid of American Oil? Then what am I supposed to do?
Those conundrums aside, this week was a heavy one for me. I got to the shop in good spirits, as usual, though I had forgotten that Lainey would not be there today. She was off having non-comic shop fun. I picked up Invincible Returns, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (#34), Batman & Robin (#11), The Boys (#41), and Demo Vol. 2 (#03). I didn’t get much of a chance to read them, but so far they seemed really strong.
I met up with Justin at the shop, and we headed over to Corner Bakery for lunch. After which I had to head to work quick-style. Norwalk was nice and chill, and I used to time to catch up on my writing and wonder at how busy this month was going to become. Also, Mike called me up and told me some good news on a poster I was hoping for had come up. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a trio of awesome posters just for my mad collection!
Topics of Conversation @ Corner Bakery: Robot baby, a bad news health inspector, Identity Circle, good mood Nate, quality weeklys, chicken bones, Tyrese Gibson and Koreatown, double standards, Adam Carolla vs. the Philippines, fb blocking people, etc.
-Nate
(And just a personal note, I finally was able to catch up on all my blogs after being nearly 14 behind! Whoa! Never give up, never surrender!)
And if that wasn’t enough, I picked up some more work, for PCTA this time. I wasn’t going to go on a ride-along with a trash collecting agency to pick up some B-roll for a separate piece about Huntington Beach sanitation. I never know what I’m going to shoot.
And if that TOO wasn’t enough, it was my comic run today! This was an extra good Wednesday, and I hit the road eagerly. Along the way to the shop, I had an Oil Tanker truck in front of me that had the words “Have No Fear, American Oil Is Here.” So what if I’m afraid of American Oil? Then what am I supposed to do?
Those conundrums aside, this week was a heavy one for me. I got to the shop in good spirits, as usual, though I had forgotten that Lainey would not be there today. She was off having non-comic shop fun. I picked up Invincible Returns, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (#34), Batman & Robin (#11), The Boys (#41), and Demo Vol. 2 (#03). I didn’t get much of a chance to read them, but so far they seemed really strong.
I met up with Justin at the shop, and we headed over to Corner Bakery for lunch. After which I had to head to work quick-style. Norwalk was nice and chill, and I used to time to catch up on my writing and wonder at how busy this month was going to become. Also, Mike called me up and told me some good news on a poster I was hoping for had come up. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a trio of awesome posters just for my mad collection!
Topics of Conversation @ Corner Bakery: Robot baby, a bad news health inspector, Identity Circle, good mood Nate, quality weeklys, chicken bones, Tyrese Gibson and Koreatown, double standards, Adam Carolla vs. the Philippines, fb blocking people, etc.
-Nate
(And just a personal note, I finally was able to catch up on all my blogs after being nearly 14 behind! Whoa! Never give up, never surrender!)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Posters and Breezes
Woke up. I helped my dad assemble a shelf from Ikea, and then went the extra mile in putting in the screws and installing it on the wall. It looks nice, and it was nice to be handy for a bit, if only for an hour of fooling myself.
I then headed out to work at Norwalk. Today was going to be the first City Council Meeting with the new Mayor. It was also packed to the gills with people and plans that needed to be dealt with. And the controversial revoking of a Planning Commission member. Who knew what was going to be brought up and fought out.
One cool thing that came out of today was my receiving two posters courtesy of Mike Persi! The dude was already firmly entrenched in the “Awesome People” category, and just added some extra credit. The posters were an Iron Man 2 poster with both Iron Man and War Machine, and a Kick Ass poster with Kick Ass, Red Mist, Big Daddy, and Hit Girl. It was a good day for Nate.
The City Council Meeting was just as awkward as we had figured it would be. And it went for over an hour, which was pretty long, but not for the amount of material covered.
After the meeting, Karmin, Mike, and myself lounged around for a bit and shot the breeze in style.
Topics of Conversation @ Norwalk: 4 persons or 4 percent?, the maroon suit, the man with the eye patch, why everyone needs at least 5 pairs of shoes, 18th Century moustaches, a Death Metal cover of “The Rhythm is Going to Get You,” letting people into my brain, how to eat your metaphorical pretzel, etc.
-Nate
I then headed out to work at Norwalk. Today was going to be the first City Council Meeting with the new Mayor. It was also packed to the gills with people and plans that needed to be dealt with. And the controversial revoking of a Planning Commission member. Who knew what was going to be brought up and fought out.
One cool thing that came out of today was my receiving two posters courtesy of Mike Persi! The dude was already firmly entrenched in the “Awesome People” category, and just added some extra credit. The posters were an Iron Man 2 poster with both Iron Man and War Machine, and a Kick Ass poster with Kick Ass, Red Mist, Big Daddy, and Hit Girl. It was a good day for Nate.
The City Council Meeting was just as awkward as we had figured it would be. And it went for over an hour, which was pretty long, but not for the amount of material covered.
After the meeting, Karmin, Mike, and myself lounged around for a bit and shot the breeze in style.
Topics of Conversation @ Norwalk: 4 persons or 4 percent?, the maroon suit, the man with the eye patch, why everyone needs at least 5 pairs of shoes, 18th Century moustaches, a Death Metal cover of “The Rhythm is Going to Get You,” letting people into my brain, how to eat your metaphorical pretzel, etc.
-Nate
Wrong Time in the Right Way
April 5, 2010:
Today I finished a shoot from a week or two back for Lakewood. The project was called “Planet Lakewood,” and its about helping residents live green. At first, I thought that I would be late, but as luck would have it, I got the time wrong in the other direction, and ended up arriving to work 5 minutes early. Nice!
Topics of Conversation @ Lakewood: RollerCon, Garage Band, SFX, my amazing strength, 4G coverage, how short people were way back when, Mexican food, etc.
After the shoot I headed to work at Norwalk, only to find that I was early yet again. Huh. So, on a whim, I headed to a Goodwill that was near my work. I was just casually browsing, when I found their Vinyl Record section. And there were some cool choices. I found a copy of The Cars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tears For Fears, Pet Shop Boys, Chicago (the band AND the musical), and more.
There weren’t many of these that I wanted for myself, but I knew three record enthusiasts. Victor, who liked just about anything 80’s era. Colin, who liked anything eclectic and SEXY. And Cap’n Josh, who probably would only be interested in a few of the records. I tried to get a hold of them, but to no avail. Hopefully, if they’re interested, the records will still be there.
I headed to Norwalk, and did my work stuff. Updating the pages and playing the shows. Hoorah!
-Nate
Today I finished a shoot from a week or two back for Lakewood. The project was called “Planet Lakewood,” and its about helping residents live green. At first, I thought that I would be late, but as luck would have it, I got the time wrong in the other direction, and ended up arriving to work 5 minutes early. Nice!
Topics of Conversation @ Lakewood: RollerCon, Garage Band, SFX, my amazing strength, 4G coverage, how short people were way back when, Mexican food, etc.
After the shoot I headed to work at Norwalk, only to find that I was early yet again. Huh. So, on a whim, I headed to a Goodwill that was near my work. I was just casually browsing, when I found their Vinyl Record section. And there were some cool choices. I found a copy of The Cars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tears For Fears, Pet Shop Boys, Chicago (the band AND the musical), and more.
There weren’t many of these that I wanted for myself, but I knew three record enthusiasts. Victor, who liked just about anything 80’s era. Colin, who liked anything eclectic and SEXY. And Cap’n Josh, who probably would only be interested in a few of the records. I tried to get a hold of them, but to no avail. Hopefully, if they’re interested, the records will still be there.
I headed to Norwalk, and did my work stuff. Updating the pages and playing the shows. Hoorah!
-Nate
Sunday, April 4, 2010
I Bamboozled Myself
Easter earthquakes is quite a biblical way to celebrate these holidays.
But besides this, I also spent the first half of the day to have not only breakfast with my parents, but we also had lunch. It was nice to just have a relaxing Sunday to kick back.
Later in the day, I made plans with Jamal to hang out at his mom’s place. Remember kids, “visiting his mom” is code for doing laundry. Ho ho ho! I kid, a little.
What’s not funny, is the fact that Jamal was able to talk me into seeing Clash of the Titans again. In 3D. What? But… What? Yeah, so we head to The Block to meet up with Jon, Ben, and Kevin. I buy the tickets feeling as though I bamboozled myself. Annoyed though I was, I hope I didn’t color the other guys viewing. Ben and Kevin were going to be a little late, so we took our tickets inside.
As we grabbed out seats, I hustled over to the concession counter to grab some nachos and soda. I came back to find both Kevin and Ben had arrived, so I sat down.
“Oh, that seat’s wet, man,” said Ben.
“What?” I said eloquently.
“That seat you’re in is wet,” repeated Ben.
“Awesome,” I exclaimed, standing up.
It was wet.
Jon and Jamal were looking at Ben incredulously. Apparently Ben was supposed to tell me. You know. BEFORE I sat down. A genius plan in theory that did not work in practice. I quietly cussed to myself and sat on the other side of Jon in a blessedly dry seat. Don’t worry, folks, Ben is a good guy, I just probably couldn’t hear him in the theater…. RIGHT. :-)
Clash of the Titans in 3D was just like my last review of Clash of the Titans, except with a tad more depth of field. No difference, really. Seriously, just watch the movie in 2D. Its just as good. The story will definitely remain the same.
Topics of Conversation @ The Block: Drunk calling, ditching birthday parties, gay club hopping, the madness of having burned 22 tracks of “I Would Walk 500 Miles” by the Proclaimers onto a single CD, nobody calls Nate, never being around for the cool stuff, dare shots, etc.
-Nate
But besides this, I also spent the first half of the day to have not only breakfast with my parents, but we also had lunch. It was nice to just have a relaxing Sunday to kick back.
Later in the day, I made plans with Jamal to hang out at his mom’s place. Remember kids, “visiting his mom” is code for doing laundry. Ho ho ho! I kid, a little.
What’s not funny, is the fact that Jamal was able to talk me into seeing Clash of the Titans again. In 3D. What? But… What? Yeah, so we head to The Block to meet up with Jon, Ben, and Kevin. I buy the tickets feeling as though I bamboozled myself. Annoyed though I was, I hope I didn’t color the other guys viewing. Ben and Kevin were going to be a little late, so we took our tickets inside.
As we grabbed out seats, I hustled over to the concession counter to grab some nachos and soda. I came back to find both Kevin and Ben had arrived, so I sat down.
“Oh, that seat’s wet, man,” said Ben.
“What?” I said eloquently.
“That seat you’re in is wet,” repeated Ben.
“Awesome,” I exclaimed, standing up.
It was wet.
Jon and Jamal were looking at Ben incredulously. Apparently Ben was supposed to tell me. You know. BEFORE I sat down. A genius plan in theory that did not work in practice. I quietly cussed to myself and sat on the other side of Jon in a blessedly dry seat. Don’t worry, folks, Ben is a good guy, I just probably couldn’t hear him in the theater…. RIGHT. :-)
Clash of the Titans in 3D was just like my last review of Clash of the Titans, except with a tad more depth of field. No difference, really. Seriously, just watch the movie in 2D. Its just as good. The story will definitely remain the same.
Topics of Conversation @ The Block: Drunk calling, ditching birthday parties, gay club hopping, the madness of having burned 22 tracks of “I Would Walk 500 Miles” by the Proclaimers onto a single CD, nobody calls Nate, never being around for the cool stuff, dare shots, etc.
-Nate
Just My Wandering Mind
April 3, 2010:
I think my favorite type of conversation is the tangent. Where the talk goes anywhere and everywhere with a special emphasis on the absurd. This is not always achievable with everyone, and takes a certain understanding before being acted upon.
But when it goes right, it can be amazing.
In all honesty, my absolute favorite thing that this continuous blog has brought out has been making a written documentation of all the random conversations that I have had over just the past four months. This doesn't even come close to the hundreds, if not thousands, of conversations that I've had in my lifetime to date. So many hilarious moments and random tangents have gone on.
Its kind of like internet surfing. You start off googling "WWII era tanks" and two hours later end up watching a youtube video of the Ten Tenors singing "Bohemian Rhapsody." Anything goes, and the mind tends to wander. And for me, a fellow that fancies himself as a writer, I really love just imagining ridiculous scenes.
Sometimes my best ideas are the tangents that I go off on with friends, or just my wandering mind.
-Nate
I think my favorite type of conversation is the tangent. Where the talk goes anywhere and everywhere with a special emphasis on the absurd. This is not always achievable with everyone, and takes a certain understanding before being acted upon.
But when it goes right, it can be amazing.
In all honesty, my absolute favorite thing that this continuous blog has brought out has been making a written documentation of all the random conversations that I have had over just the past four months. This doesn't even come close to the hundreds, if not thousands, of conversations that I've had in my lifetime to date. So many hilarious moments and random tangents have gone on.
Its kind of like internet surfing. You start off googling "WWII era tanks" and two hours later end up watching a youtube video of the Ten Tenors singing "Bohemian Rhapsody." Anything goes, and the mind tends to wander. And for me, a fellow that fancies himself as a writer, I really love just imagining ridiculous scenes.
Sometimes my best ideas are the tangents that I go off on with friends, or just my wandering mind.
-Nate
Friday, April 2, 2010
20 Overly-Large Men In a Row
I spent most of the morning going over possible work. This included such exciting tid bits as working at a restaurant, or being a lab rat, or even working for Green Peace. That’s right, Green Peace is hiring. When did that happen? Isn’t that supposed to be a calling, or something?
Later, I went to Justin’s place, and we decided to catch Clash of the Titans. We tried to gather people to check it out with us, but apparently this was the kind of Friday where everybody and their mom was up to something. But we were in luck, cuz Aaron and Amy would be available to catch the flick with us. The catch was that Amy would not be off work till after 8:00 or so. But Aaron was available to hang out till then, so we down to Cerritos to pick up Aaron.
After picking up Aaron, we went to the Long Beach Town Center, and brutally murdered a great deal of time at Barnes & Noble. Our version of killing time at a book store was pretty loud, mostly consisting of skimming through books and loudly conversing on the merits of book size and being unimpressed with most book covers.
Then a happy polka song played over the speaker system, and my mind wandered. I started riffing with Justin about the song, and who would not only play it, but who would be listening to it. Our juvenile minds soon went on a wonderful tangent:
*AHEM*
I present to you…
“20 Overly-Large Men in a Row”
Imagine, if you will, a book store. Now imagine, even more, that that bookstore is a Barnes & Noble chain. There are rows upon rows of books ranging from Idiot’s Guides to How to Draw Manga Aliens to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. It is a store with many employees. But the main employee is a man named Dwayne. Dwayne has been working there for nigh unto 2 years and 3 months, and is getting by. Not trying to solve problems, but not trying to cause problems either.
Just… Getting by.
Today he was to play a collection of CD’s that have been approved by the nearest branch of the corporate offices. And the list is sporadic and safe, just as Mr. Suchandsuch has required. The machine has just replaced a smooth Pop Punk band that nobody will ask the name of, and has started to play a Polka collection from the mid to late ‘70’s.
Barely a minute into the first song, the CD skips.
Dwayne looks up from his copy of Empire magazine. The sound of the skipping CD brought his glance up, but the sight of 20 overly-large men in a row keeps him from finishing his article about the movie Kick Ass. Because the 20 overly-large men in a row are walking in perfect synch, and they are completely occupying a row of non-fiction biographies and a row of half-priced calendars, and are walking right up to the check-out registers.
Dwayne is the only person at the registers.
And they are walking in synch to this song: [POLKA LINK] Open in a seperate window.
The overly-large man in the front of the row is carrying a copy of Stephen King‘s Maximum Overdrive. Dwayne notices that each of the 20 men a copy of that exact book under their arm. Dwayne has now discovered the source of the bizarre special order from last Monday. Upon closer inspection, Dwayne notices that each of the overly-large men look very similar.
DWAYNE- Wow. You guys are all walking in time to the song.
MAX- WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
DWAYNE- Just that this song came on, and all of you showed up at the same time.
MAX- WAIT A MOMENT, DO YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT BECAUSE WE ARE LARGE THAT WE CAN ONLY HAVE POLKA MUSIC AS OUR INTRODUCTORY THEME?
DWAYNE- No, no, I’m sorry. I was just a little surprised after the CD skipped when you guys showed up, that’s all.
MAX- Well, that’s perfectly- WAIT A MOMENT, ARE YOU SAYING THE CD SKIPPED BECAUSE WE ARE SO HEAVY, THAT THE FACT THAT WE WERE WALKING IN TIME TO THE MUSIC MADE IT SKIP?
DWAYNE- Oh, geez! I’m sorry, I would never say-
At this point, every second overly-large man hunches down in time to the tuba beat. When they stand up, every first overly-large man trades off with them and hunches down. They do so in intervals to the rhythm of the tuba.
DWAYNE- What-…? What are doing?
MAX- This is how we exercise.
The 20 overly-large men in a row do this for a few beats of the song, with Dwayne staring in confusion.
DWAYNE- Are you… are you going to buy those books? …Look, this whole up-and-down thing isn’t doing you any favors… I- I just… SIGH.
(Beat)
DWAYNE- Do you have any dignity left at this point?
The 20 overly-large men do not respond, merely continuing their “exercise,” and stare at Dwayne.
The polka song finally ends.
-FIN-
Really, how else can I explain utter, ridiculous tangent drivel? I can’t. So now you get a piece of how my brain works. You’re welcome.
Justin, Aaron, and myself head over to the theater to wait for Amy. She arrives and we get our tickets. But we still have time for dinner and head over to the Food Court. I buy a lackluster lasagna, quietly wishing to myself that buying Italian food automatically meant getting GOOD Italian food. After dinner, we head in and watch Clash of the Titans (in amazing 2D!)
….was I saying something about the story? Oh well.
Now, I’m a Greek Mythology buff. If you make a movie with Greek or Norse Mythology heavily involved, then I will watch your movie. (See Percy Jackson if you doubt this). And the stories of the Greek gods are stories of super-powered jerks. Seriously, they were a petty and contradictory lot. I can see how this would inspire someone to tell a story of flawed and angry super-beings.
That does not excuse the fact that the motivations of the humans are absolutely baffling. The king of Argos picks a fight with friggin’ ZEUS, and then is surprised when they gods decided to kick his city’s ass. There is another character that hates everything and anything to do with the gods, but is quick to completely flip flop at a moment’s notice. One moment, he doesn’t want or like any favors and gifts from the god’s, and then the next moment he forgets to be like that.
Argh.
The monster designs are awesome though. Just don’t watch this movie if you want character motivations to make sense.
Topics of Conversation @ Long Beach Town Center: Macaroni hogies, solo guitar d-bags, an emotionally devastated immortal woman, “I’m Zeus,” celestial hypocrites, Amy bait, etc.
-Nate
Later, I went to Justin’s place, and we decided to catch Clash of the Titans. We tried to gather people to check it out with us, but apparently this was the kind of Friday where everybody and their mom was up to something. But we were in luck, cuz Aaron and Amy would be available to catch the flick with us. The catch was that Amy would not be off work till after 8:00 or so. But Aaron was available to hang out till then, so we down to Cerritos to pick up Aaron.
After picking up Aaron, we went to the Long Beach Town Center, and brutally murdered a great deal of time at Barnes & Noble. Our version of killing time at a book store was pretty loud, mostly consisting of skimming through books and loudly conversing on the merits of book size and being unimpressed with most book covers.
Then a happy polka song played over the speaker system, and my mind wandered. I started riffing with Justin about the song, and who would not only play it, but who would be listening to it. Our juvenile minds soon went on a wonderful tangent:
*AHEM*
I present to you…
“20 Overly-Large Men in a Row”
Imagine, if you will, a book store. Now imagine, even more, that that bookstore is a Barnes & Noble chain. There are rows upon rows of books ranging from Idiot’s Guides to How to Draw Manga Aliens to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. It is a store with many employees. But the main employee is a man named Dwayne. Dwayne has been working there for nigh unto 2 years and 3 months, and is getting by. Not trying to solve problems, but not trying to cause problems either.
Just… Getting by.
Today he was to play a collection of CD’s that have been approved by the nearest branch of the corporate offices. And the list is sporadic and safe, just as Mr. Suchandsuch has required. The machine has just replaced a smooth Pop Punk band that nobody will ask the name of, and has started to play a Polka collection from the mid to late ‘70’s.
Barely a minute into the first song, the CD skips.
Dwayne looks up from his copy of Empire magazine. The sound of the skipping CD brought his glance up, but the sight of 20 overly-large men in a row keeps him from finishing his article about the movie Kick Ass. Because the 20 overly-large men in a row are walking in perfect synch, and they are completely occupying a row of non-fiction biographies and a row of half-priced calendars, and are walking right up to the check-out registers.
Dwayne is the only person at the registers.
And they are walking in synch to this song: [POLKA LINK] Open in a seperate window.
The overly-large man in the front of the row is carrying a copy of Stephen King‘s Maximum Overdrive. Dwayne notices that each of the 20 men a copy of that exact book under their arm. Dwayne has now discovered the source of the bizarre special order from last Monday. Upon closer inspection, Dwayne notices that each of the overly-large men look very similar.
DWAYNE- Wow. You guys are all walking in time to the song.
MAX- WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
DWAYNE- Just that this song came on, and all of you showed up at the same time.
MAX- WAIT A MOMENT, DO YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT BECAUSE WE ARE LARGE THAT WE CAN ONLY HAVE POLKA MUSIC AS OUR INTRODUCTORY THEME?
DWAYNE- No, no, I’m sorry. I was just a little surprised after the CD skipped when you guys showed up, that’s all.
MAX- Well, that’s perfectly- WAIT A MOMENT, ARE YOU SAYING THE CD SKIPPED BECAUSE WE ARE SO HEAVY, THAT THE FACT THAT WE WERE WALKING IN TIME TO THE MUSIC MADE IT SKIP?
DWAYNE- Oh, geez! I’m sorry, I would never say-
At this point, every second overly-large man hunches down in time to the tuba beat. When they stand up, every first overly-large man trades off with them and hunches down. They do so in intervals to the rhythm of the tuba.
DWAYNE- What-…? What are doing?
MAX- This is how we exercise.
The 20 overly-large men in a row do this for a few beats of the song, with Dwayne staring in confusion.
DWAYNE- Are you… are you going to buy those books? …Look, this whole up-and-down thing isn’t doing you any favors… I- I just… SIGH.
(Beat)
DWAYNE- Do you have any dignity left at this point?
The 20 overly-large men do not respond, merely continuing their “exercise,” and stare at Dwayne.
The polka song finally ends.
-FIN-
Really, how else can I explain utter, ridiculous tangent drivel? I can’t. So now you get a piece of how my brain works. You’re welcome.
Justin, Aaron, and myself head over to the theater to wait for Amy. She arrives and we get our tickets. But we still have time for dinner and head over to the Food Court. I buy a lackluster lasagna, quietly wishing to myself that buying Italian food automatically meant getting GOOD Italian food. After dinner, we head in and watch Clash of the Titans (in amazing 2D!)
Clash is an action movie. So in that manner, the action is very good, but the reasons and story behind the action are HOLY SHNIKEYS! DID YOU SEE THAT KRAKEN?! THIS S**T JUST GOT REAL!!!
….was I saying something about the story? Oh well.
Now, I’m a Greek Mythology buff. If you make a movie with Greek or Norse Mythology heavily involved, then I will watch your movie. (See Percy Jackson if you doubt this). And the stories of the Greek gods are stories of super-powered jerks. Seriously, they were a petty and contradictory lot. I can see how this would inspire someone to tell a story of flawed and angry super-beings.
That does not excuse the fact that the motivations of the humans are absolutely baffling. The king of Argos picks a fight with friggin’ ZEUS, and then is surprised when they gods decided to kick his city’s ass. There is another character that hates everything and anything to do with the gods, but is quick to completely flip flop at a moment’s notice. One moment, he doesn’t want or like any favors and gifts from the god’s, and then the next moment he forgets to be like that.
Argh.
The monster designs are awesome though. Just don’t watch this movie if you want character motivations to make sense.
Topics of Conversation @ Long Beach Town Center: Macaroni hogies, solo guitar d-bags, an emotionally devastated immortal woman, “I’m Zeus,” celestial hypocrites, Amy bait, etc.
-Nate
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Error 503
I have been trying valiantly to get my blog back up to speed. I just barely posted the March 19th entry. I’m, by this count, probably 12 behind. Twelve. That’s my favorite number, but not in this context.
I made plans with Lainey to grab some lunch, and headed over to her place. We had been texting to try and come up with a food plan, and by the time I got to her place, the plans were still in limbo. It might have had a lot to do with the fact that she was not hungry.
Argh.
Recent knowledge had come up that, after over two months of thinking that Hemlock was a male cat, we had been wrong. Hemlock was a girl. Oops. I’m no master of cat genitals (yes, I know, quite the shocker), but I thought that vets and such would have a better eye for this thing. Apparently the vet had had to take Hemlock into a separate room to find out. I never want to know what occurred in that room. I just hope Hemlock doesn’t have to talk to an adult about it.
To save time, I will just tell you that lunch was never had. Lainey was confoundedly not hungry even when 2:00 pm rolled around. So we just hung out and caught up with news and such, and also walked around the neighborhood with Hemlock. Some stuff came up that amused me, annoyed me, and angered me.
Topics of Conversation @ Lainey’s: The outside world, tattoo commissions, (she)-hulking out, depression motivation, crazy exes, a troubling turn of events, regarding a dog son or a human son, the equivalent of finding out Santa Claus doesn’t exist, saying something so that I said something, how success breeds sadness, dumb people, etc.
I had to head to work at Norwalk to cablecast. This consisted of four shows: two were HEAVILY religious, one was poorly produced, and one which was simply bizarre. I took my laptop with me to try and keep up with my writing regiment. It kind of worked.
I then went over to watch Buffy with Amy and Aaron. We watched “What’s My Line?” Part 1 and 2. Great episodes, with cool reveals of multiple plot points. I then lent Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 to Amy and headed home.
I was hell bent on updating my blog, only to have blogger.com decide it didn’t want to work right and kept spouting “Error 503” at me. So now I will be yet another day behind on my blog. This is highly annoying. I should write to my Congressmen.
-Nate
I made plans with Lainey to grab some lunch, and headed over to her place. We had been texting to try and come up with a food plan, and by the time I got to her place, the plans were still in limbo. It might have had a lot to do with the fact that she was not hungry.
Argh.
Recent knowledge had come up that, after over two months of thinking that Hemlock was a male cat, we had been wrong. Hemlock was a girl. Oops. I’m no master of cat genitals (yes, I know, quite the shocker), but I thought that vets and such would have a better eye for this thing. Apparently the vet had had to take Hemlock into a separate room to find out. I never want to know what occurred in that room. I just hope Hemlock doesn’t have to talk to an adult about it.
To save time, I will just tell you that lunch was never had. Lainey was confoundedly not hungry even when 2:00 pm rolled around. So we just hung out and caught up with news and such, and also walked around the neighborhood with Hemlock. Some stuff came up that amused me, annoyed me, and angered me.
Topics of Conversation @ Lainey’s: The outside world, tattoo commissions, (she)-hulking out, depression motivation, crazy exes, a troubling turn of events, regarding a dog son or a human son, the equivalent of finding out Santa Claus doesn’t exist, saying something so that I said something, how success breeds sadness, dumb people, etc.
I had to head to work at Norwalk to cablecast. This consisted of four shows: two were HEAVILY religious, one was poorly produced, and one which was simply bizarre. I took my laptop with me to try and keep up with my writing regiment. It kind of worked.
I then went over to watch Buffy with Amy and Aaron. We watched “What’s My Line?” Part 1 and 2. Great episodes, with cool reveals of multiple plot points. I then lent Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 to Amy and headed home.
I was hell bent on updating my blog, only to have blogger.com decide it didn’t want to work right and kept spouting “Error 503” at me. So now I will be yet another day behind on my blog. This is highly annoying. I should write to my Congressmen.
-Nate
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
