My Bad

I made a mistake. Since I didn't have sound on this computer, I assumed the wrong band. I'll find the correct one. You should check out that website anyway. That bands equally as moronic.

If you have like 10 hours to kill and need a good laugh, check out Megadeth's website.

Best Rawk Band, Ever!

Last night I listened to the corniest, most awesome, ridiculous song in the history of metal, or mankind. Imagine Sepultura, but with ranging vocals from coarse growling to high-pitched wailing, with a women choir, pseudo-harmonizing with the singer in a dueling vocals type thing. Then I found out who they are. I'm pretty sure this is the band; I don't have sound on current computer so I can't listen to it, but the band is called Trivium. The song is called "Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr." I encourage anyone to listen to this song or watch the video. The video can only be awesome. I'm going to watch it tonight. The song sings about witches, from what I could make out of it.

Oh, don't forget to check out their website. It's everything you would like it to be. It's like the Darklord's domain. Let your mouse cursor roll over the links at the top and see how seriously dedicated these guys are to their cause. Jeff, it looks as if they're coming to Chicago in February.

Dumb Movie

I watched "Passion of the Christ" last night. That was a dumb movie. I do not recommend anyone to watch it. Story, if you know it, is the same as you've known all your life. Mel tries so hard for unnecessary character developement. Also, the most obvious, super, very, unnecessary violence. I know he probably was just trying to intensify the scenes and show more compassion for what Jesus did, but, come on. There's no reason for an hour walk up to Calvary getting beat the fuck up the whole time. It was just stupid. I wish I watched something else. Something with value or at least a good story going on instead of, "Hmmm, how can we make this scene really ridiculous? Should we bring out a steamroller and run Jesus over with it next?" It was just like a Three Stooges episode, if they re-enacted the crucifiction, and made it Rated R.

X-mas Eve

So on X-mas eve, after a dumb two hours at work, I drove down to Anaheim to hang out for the weekend. The ride down was great, aside from the fact that my tape deck in the car does not play those tape adapters to play my Minidisc player. I brought my computer speakers, but the noise of the road was just too much for the sound to peak over. So I just listened to "Baby, Don't Be Messing With Those Arabs In My Head" for the eleventh hundred time. The thing I was going to listen to was a minidisc recording of Henry Rollins' "Up For It" DVD that I watched the night before. It's super awesome, but watching it is really dumb. Not Henry, but the camera. It's like they got Oliver Stone to film this. It's just a spoken word gig, but the camera angles come in from all directions. He's just talking about something and the camera pulls in, pans around from the backside of his head to the front, and then zooms in. It's quite ridiculous. Show the intensity of him talking about going to the zoo.

We were deciding where to eat and Charlie kept pitching this place called the Vineyard that they ate at the day before. Since he wouldn't relent on that, we decided to go there. Problem was that it was in California Adventure. Joe was purchasing his ticket and I looked at the rates and noticed that they didn't have separate passes for Disneyland and California. They used to sell differnt ones, but I heard they decided to get rid of that and have the pass be valid for both of them. I didn't see the "Park Hopper" pass. So this is where ignorance would've been bliss. If I previously didn't know about this California/Disneyland thing, I would've asked, but since I did, based on the information I saw and processed, I just went into California without asking. Once inside, Mrs. Pittack told me that the pass we had was only good for either Disneyland or California. Thanks, Charlie. To top that off, the place wasn't even called the Vineyard. Not that it mattered, but I just kept giving Charlie a hard time. So we get seated and we order two bottles of wine. We order food, eat, Joe orders dessert and a bottle of dessert wine. By the time we left that place, and before we even did anything at this park, we're blasted. We make our way over the the water ride which was fun except for the fact that they make the tube/raft thing you're in spin all the time. That was dumb. When the ride stars off, you go up this long incline and you're anticipating this huge, fun drop up a head. Slowly it approaches. Here it comes! You peak over it and slowly get released onto mildly flowing water to start the slow float through the ride.

The California Adventure Park should actually be called "the Beach Boys Fantasy Land." You are just listening over and over to caliope/musak versions of Beach Boy songs. Which was great since Mrs. Pittack hates the Beach Boys! It was hell for her. We walked around the waterfront and went to the rollercoaster. I really wanted to go on the ferris wheel. It was one of those loop-de-loop ones; it looked so fun. The rollercoaster was awesome. It was long, fast, lots of drops and turns, and the g-force crushes your skull in. Right from the start when we took off I yelled, "Fuck yeah, Satan rules. The Dark Lord reigns. Fuck you fat pig. I hate fat people. I'm gay. I fucked your mom." And just regular screaming. It was fun. Oh yeah, you probably realized by now that they sell alcohol at this park, already making it better than Disneyland. Not as crowded as Disneyland either. Then we stopped for some beer. Then went through the Hollywood area and went on a ride in the "Tower of Terror," which is based on a movie called "Tower of Terror." So they have a "Twilight Zone" introduction for it. Makes no sense. So you go in the freight elevator and it goes up, then drops down. Then stops. Then goes up, then drops. Then goes up. Then a long drop. At one point when it shot up and stop, I yelled, "Muh Fayice!" and everyone started laughing. It was a much better response that I ever would've expected.

After this ride we watched a Muppet Movie. Not "the Muppet Movie," but a Muppet Movie in the 3-D theatre. In the lobby, one of the prop boxes said "Indian Bedspreads." We thought that was really funny and couldn't believe they had that there. We got into the theatre and one of the employees was doing his scripted jokes and no one was laughing, except me. I was rolling and saying to us, "Tough crowd." He kept going and still no one in the crowd laughed. It was hilarious. And then I had to just say outloud, "Is this thing on?" The movie started and Waldorf and that other old man were animatronics in the balcony and heckling the movie. Then, in the movie, Fozzie looked up at them and asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

"We entered a contest."

"Yeah. We lost. Hahahahaha"

But like most 3-D movies, they just did a bunch of stuff that would look cool coming at you.

After the movie we walked to the main area and people were standing/sitting along side the curbs like they were waiting for a parade. They were. We got instructed to go to this area. The employee kept yelling at everyone to clear this one area that the parade didn't go through, nor was anyone going through. We got stuck in the middle of this four million mile long parade of lighted floats of Disney characters and this hypnotic, organ/keyboard music, over and over again throughout the parade. My back was sore, I was tired, and that music was driving me insane. Maybe that's why they sell alcohol? They should think about doing that at Disneyland. Unless you're the type of person that likes to be around thousands of idiots, people walking around with no order, just haphazardly bouncing around, stopping in the middle of the walkway, eating fucking food, taking pictures left and right. They walk worst than they drive. And if you know California driving, people have no brains when it comes to driving. Things like shooting out into the road when they could've waited ten seconds till you passed and enter safely. Or slowing down in the middle of the road to turn and not signalling and getting mad at you when you almost hit them and honk at them.

It was funny to see the fat family getting on the rapids ride, all wearing ponchos to not get wet. I was laughing pretty hard with myself at that. Fucking pussies. Can't handle water, don't ride. And it's not as if they were decked out in Armani suits or anything remotely good looking. They were like fucking thrift store clothes at best.

Indie 103.1

Tonight Henry's back on the air. I'm really excited because I've been craving new music. I had to blog about Saturday, but I'll do that later. In-laws left today. Or leave today.

X-mas!

So yesterday was quite the day. We went to Disneyland which was a dumb idea. I had no idea that was their busiest day of the year. I was told this when I was told that the park had sold out. That's a scary thing to know, if you've ever been to Disneyland. So Wes, Charlie's son, wanted to go to the Haunted Mansion. Being X-mas, they did it up like the "Nightmare Before Christmas." It was so dumb. They had all these X-mas carols that were changed to "scary" things. Like "Silent Night" was changed to "Silent Fright." It was way dumb. The ride was no different. I felt really ripped off. Even the end where they have the, "And finally as you enter the hall of mirrors, you may realize that you are not riding alone. For you see, I am riding with you," and there's a ghost next to you. They had this stupid floating gift with a bat on it, or something very stupid.

We should've went to "Pirates of the Caribbean" next, but we opted to go all the way across the park, through fucking tourists with digital cameras, stopping right in the middle of traffic to take a picture. And they all take like five minutes to set it up to take the shot. It's fucking digital. You have like eight million shots available. Also, step off to the fucking side.

We stayed in line at Space Mountain for nearly two hours. My back was killing me. Jeanne had to leave because she couldn't take it, especially since Wes was being whiney and irritating, so she took Wes and went back to the hotel. Then Jeanne called to say she wanted to leave early to go home before work. In all, Joe and I went on four rides. Good thing I didn't pay for my pass. Even if I did, I wanted to leave. I can't handle being around that many people. I wanted to kill everyone.

So after I dropped Jeanne at work, I met up with my brother and sister-in-law and their friends Cathy and Kevin. They were watching "Memoirs of a Geisha." Apparently Kevin's cousin does make-up and did it for that movie. So they give you a copy of the movie and every once in a while, the bottom says, "For Your Consideration." They give these to the people who vote for the Academy Awards. I would like to think that if you're watching a movie to judge, you would watch it in the theater. Great sound, picture, and no distractions like the phone, street noises, or whatever else. I don't think that they'll win for make-up. All they did was make their face white and put on lipstick. Aside from that, Chad, Joe, and I were just making jokes throughout the movie. It was non-stop. This movie is ridiculous. It was awesome watching Chinese people play Japanese people living in Japan and speaking English. It should probably go up for "Best Comedy." Or "Worst Attempt at Trying to Be an Independent Film."

Does Not Compute

I quoted this guy on a limo he was looking for to the airport. He said that there was going to be six passengers plus a couple pieces of luggage each. I quoted him and told him that the limos have the same size trunk space as town cars and that amount of luggage wouldn't fit into the limo, it would have to go into the passenger area, but we don't recommend that for safety, liability, damages the interior, not a clown car. So I recommended our Luxury vans, which holds more passengers a lots of luggage. He said, "No, that's okay. I'll look around. My kids wanted to ride in a limo, but thanks anyway."

Like another limo would have a bigger trunk space? Or better yet, "Yeah, my sons really want to be crammed into a limo packed with passengers and luggage; it's really something he's been dreaming of for a while. I'll go with a company who cares about kids."

Stupid Fact!

I was reading Corey Feldman's profile on Imdb.com and came upon this stupid fact:

"Wears a "Purple Rain" t-shirt throughout the film The Goonies (1985)."

Uh, that movie takes place in one day. And they weren't at home for 95% of the movie. What the fuck? Oh, "Data wore the same trenchcoat throughout the film."

I'm sure this person was just pointing out the fact that he wore a "Purple Rain" shirt in the movie, but who cares? You notice stuff like that in most movies. Was he a known hater of Prince, that Album/song, or movie?

Johnny Damon is a Fucking Whore

How much money does one person need? Apparently, a lot, if you're Johnny Damon. Why the fuck would you switch from the Red Sox to the Yankees? Well, money is the obvious reason, but aside from that, it makes no sense at all. First, take into consideration the whole rivalry between the two and the fact that you were a part of history with that team.

Not only that, when you're on a team like the Yankees who are a corporate whore of a team with a complete A-list of players, it's hard for you to stand out. It's the same reason why I would not want to be drafted to an all-star team. Why would you? They're good already, you wouldn't be adding much to them. If you get drafted to a team that's not doing that well or sucks, you have something to work for. I think that should be the main focus of an athlete, wouldn't you think? I would think being on the Yankees and making it to and winning the World Series wouldn't be that great accomplishment. Anyway, the only people who care about them is part of New York.

Speaking of, that whole thing with "Intelligent design" in court. One of the guys that was explaining the judge's ruling as "science has to be something that can be tested" used the Red Sox/Yankees analogy. He's a die-hard Red Sox fan. After they beat the Yankees the last World Series many Yankees fans would say, "God was tired of the Yankees winning, so he gave the Red Sox a chance." This may be true, but there's no way to test that. Fuck those "Intelligent Design" assholes.

You could use that David Cross argument in court: "...the Scientists with their facts. Everyone knows there was a talking snake in the tree."

Frantic

I watched Roman Polanski's "Frantic." I thought it was an all right movie, I mean it kept me into it the whole time. But then again, it's a thriller. Anyway, I started thinking about it yesterday and realized that the whole movie was totally dumb and unbelievable. Not that I don't know that it's a movie, unbelievable, but the story makes no sense at all. Okay, quick overview of the film. Harrison Ford and his wife are in Paris for some medical convention. They go to the hotel. They find out they have the wrong suitcase so he calls the airlines to tell them this, so they're sending someone to the hotel to pick up the suitcase and see if anyone else reports a wrong suitcase.

Harrison Ford takes a shower and while he's doing so, his wife, in the background, answers the phone, gets all wierd and tries to tell him something. He replies, "I can't hear you in here." She then goes off screen. That's the last you see of her. Harrison Ford freaks out and starts looking for her. He goes through all these obstacles and people and finally finds out what happened and it's this: the other suitcase has a piece of something to detonate atomic bombs. It was smuggled in from the US on the same flight they were on and the person smuggling it had the same suitcase, but they picked-up the wrong one. So the one that was Harrison Ford's wife's one got picked-up by the smuggler and put into the locker for the terrorists to pick up.

When they picked it up, they realized it wasn't in there, saw the name on the suitcase, traced it to her at the hotel and that was them on the phone and she went down to see what the deal was an they kidnapped her. All they wanted was that piece. So, these professional terrorists that so desperately wanted that atomic bomb device and were smart enough to trace the suitcase to their hotel and kidnapped her, didn't think to just say, "Oh, you have our suitcase, could we have it back?"

Why does Harrison Ford like being in films with inept professionals?

The thing that's been bugging me recently is people are calling for rates for renting limos. I quote them like if they're looking for Westwood to LAX, I'll say, "It's a $49 base rate. Total price is $71.95 including tax, tip, and other fees." Okay right? No dice. They get all suspicious and defensive and say, "What are other fees?" I tell them. Some of them get very precise and meticulous about the break down of rates, so much that some have cancelled orders because of it. But the thing that bugs me is why the fuck should it matter what the other fees are? I told you the total, if you agree with it, book it. If not, don't fucking use our services. Every business has different fees they apply; it shouldn't matter to you if you agree with the rate. And our added fees are fuel surcharge and admin. fee. It's not like we're putting on fees for fun and they're very reasonably priced. Fuck you!!!!

Boo-ya!

The following was to be blogged yesterday, but our internet was down:

One of the funny things that happened yesterday was after we spent 2 hours going through the shit at LAX and then the shit on the 405 and the 91, we get to Anaheim and stop by a grocery store so the Pittacks can buy provisions. After we got things, including wine and beer, we start loading in the car and Joe yells, "Shotgun!" He looked at Charlie and smiled and said something like, "Should've yelled it out" or something along those lines. Then, as Joe proceeded to open the door, Mrs. Pittack told Joe he should sit in the back and let her sit up front. He looked at her and she said, "Come sit back here with Wes (Charlie's son)." So she starts to walk over to the front passenger door and Joe says, very defeatedly, "There's no joust."

Oh, man. I was rolling.

There were lots of assholes to deal with on the way down as well. Stupid people in merge lanes, during mph traffic, not letting you merge and facing forward, so I drive straight and they keep looking forward. We're going slow enough that if we hit, it won't do much and I don't care if they hit me. So I honk at the second person in a row that's not letting me merge and she relents. And it's not as if I was driving up forward to try and cut in front of a long line of cars, I was in the right area to merge in. The natural flow of traffic put me in that area and those two cars, trying to be assholes were ruining the flow of traffic.

There were other things too like the huge truck in the carpool lane with no passengers. This Chip on a bike weaved through traffic and pulled along side him and just stared in for a minute. Then the cop pulled back and turned his lights on. So that guy had to pull over five lanes through traffic by a interchange. It was just funny to observe. Also, being in the carpool lane at that point meant that he was intending to go further on the current interstate. Being that he got pulled over where he got pulled over, means that he has to try to get over through three lanes of traffic withing 25 feet or take the other interstate and then turn around.

We ate at this Italian place called Bellagio's. I had scallops with linguine in a white sauce. We also had white wine. I haven't had white wine in a long while. I think it's been over five years. And even back then I only drank it because my friend/neighbor Jeri used to drink it.

Our internet is still down. It sucks. I'm typing this on notepad and listening to Darktown House Band's Boom Chang!.

I got into a terrific argument with a customer earlier today. It was great. I did my bills and stuff and that sucked. I had enough to order some stuff online and was very excited to get back to work to do so. No dice! I wanted to put the order through today, because I wanted to get it before X-mas. I did, however, finally get a coffee maker. Super stoked about this. I don't like having to walk to the store and spend a dollar fifty (plus tip, depending on where I go) for a cup. I like to have a couple of cups sometimes.

Speaking of, Jeanne works at the Beverly Hills Marriott and of course deals with ridiculous customers. I don't want to bore you with the things they do or demand because that would take forever. But the one thing that's ridiculous, while we're on the subject of coffee, is the guests who ask if there's a Starbucks around. There isn't so she says no, but there's a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf next door. They get all bummed out. Then Jeanne says, "Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is owned by Starbucks." Then they'll say, "Oh, all right. Let's go there."

"...'cause I'm down with the capital CPT..."

I don't feel like blogging anymore. Too tired, blog tomorrow.

Top 30 Things You Didn't Know About Chuck Norris

Random Chuck Norris Facts

Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice. <-- This one is my favorite.

I was thinking...

Headley,

What was the name of that dance club you liked to go to out west? We went there for Chris' birthday. At that old Imperial Palace? I don't remember, but I remember that you liked it so much you went back there with your friends.

Pick up the Gun

So Compton, the city with the highest homocide rate is doing a no questions asked gun exchange to help make the streets safer. If you bring a gun, they give you a hundred dollar gift certificate for a hundred dollars to Ralphs, Best Buy, and some other stores. I really could use a gun or two right now.

Speaking of, I know the intentions are good and I think it's awesome that they're doing it, but is it good that the city with the highest homocide rate is having a no questions asked gun exchange? I mean, a bunch of guys with guns in the same place at once? What if some unpleasant words are exchanged? It could be the worst day ever.

But seriously, I wish I had a gun or two.

Who Let Him In?

I just opened a new container of Folgers here at work and I notices on the foil seal that there's this whole campaign from the Arthritis Foundation. It says that Folgers has been commended by the Arthritis Foundation for "easy to open seal and easy to hold and handle." That's awesome. I just found it funny because coffee causes inflammation, which, as far as I know, really makes your joints hurt if you have arthritis. It's like, "Hey, this device to drop this anvil on my head is very ergonomic. I'll take it."

I dropped my car off at the shop this morning and rode back to work. I took Westchester Parkway because it's an easier ride; basically flat ground. As I approached Loyola, I noticed a roadblock up ahead, complete with the cops. I thought, "Oh, fuck. Now I'll have to make a huge detour and take longer getting to work." I noticed that the traffic in the opposite direction was still flowing. Hmmm, what should I do? I cross the street, ride by the two cops talking to each other, and cross back over to the blocked off side. I thought it was funny because I could've just rode my bike past them whistling. And it was no big deal to be blocked off, they were just filming down the street. I just had this big debate in my head because I should take another route, but I didn't want to. I'm going to keep going, they're not going to stop me. Maybe I'll just ride on the sidewalk. I'll just go across the street. I thought they'd like chase me down or draw their guns out and they didn't even care.

I tried to look to see if I could see anyone I recognized, but didn't try too hard. I didn't want to crash in front of the whole crew. I did, however, want to stop by the catering table. There was this huge long table full of food.

Mess With Texas.

Here's an example of how my day is going so far.

This lady sent an email requesting rates for renting a car for the Rose Bowl. I quoted her. Told her the amount and she booked it. So I entered her reservation in our database and emailed the confirmation to her. She called back and said she hadn't received the confirmation email yet, so I verified that I had the right email address and told her I'd resend it anyway. She calls again and tells me that she still had not received it so I was going to try again. Then I noticed that she had sent me an email as well, to say that she had not received the email yet. So I replied to that one and sent the confirmation as an attachment, which she got.

Then she calls again questioning the breakdown of the charges. Saying that the way she's computing it doesn't match up with the way that we charged her. I go through it with her and explain that the charges are added sequentially, so the fuel charge is 10% of the rate and the gratuity is 20% of the total at that point and so on. She makes a big deal so I say I'll manually put the fuel surcharge at the end, so you aren't tipping on the fuel charge. She agrees to that. I'm already upset at this point because she agreed to the total amount that I said. Who fucking cares about the breakdown.

Then, while I'm fixing up her charges to re-email her, she calls back to say that she received the email and it's the same rate. I should also mention that the difference in the price now is like 10 dollars, on a thousand dollar bill. I tell her, "I'm still changing the rate as we speak. That email must be from the first ones that I sent to you. Just disregard those and I'll send the new one."

I have no idea why those emails came that much later than the other ones. But I finally change it and send it. All is well. I'm dealing with another customer who booked a car for New Year's Eve and then he received an email that quoted his rate at a lower rate and wanted us to lower the rate. I tell him that it's the same rate I booked it as, but, if he read the rest of the email, it says that the above rate does not included gratuity, tax, and other fees. While this is all going down, the other lines start ringing. Sean gets those and then tells me that lady cancelled. Because we sent her another email with the same price.

Currently, as I blog this, I'm contemplating messing with this Texas bitch up and telling her she's fucking stupid and if she wasn't fucking impatient in the first place and waited for the email to come, this wouldn't have happened. And if she wasn't fucking that fucking meticulous about the breakdown of the rates, all would be well and she wouldn't be that fucking distraught over the whole situation.

Fuck her!

Paypal/Ebay

Headley,

I keep getting emails at my work email address here, not specifically addressed to me, but it's about my Paypal account. That it's been accessed from a different computer and I should update my information and another email. Do you know what these are?

No Dice!

It's great that the streets of Los Angeles are safe now. As some conservatives were worried about, not executing Stanley "Tookie" Williams would send the wrong message to the youth. On my way to work, I saw no signs of violence anywhere. They were right.

I really wish that people wouldn't call as soon as we open. It's been the trend for the past three days that I get in and the phones just light up. It's all people who called sometime earlier and left a message. Earlier being the last hour. And that's also the latest trend here with people who you tell them you'll call them back or get back to them as soon as you know about something or another and they call back an hour later saying, "I talked to someone a while ago and they were supposed to get back to me and no one's called me back yet."

It's an understandable question, somewhat, to which I reply, "I still don't have an answer, but as soon as I do, I'll call you." The ones I really can't stand and automatically snap back at, which is, "I'm still waiting for a phone call. I called over an hour ago and no one has called me. I think your customer service is very ineffici-"

"Sir, you're not the only one we deal with here. There are a lot of stuff that goes on and you called when you did, what makes you think 30 other people didn't call before you and we're taking care of them in the order we receive? What if we are working on your concern but I can't talk to the driver because he's with a client at the moment and is booked up until later this afternoon? I said someone will call you back when we have an answer; I didn't say I'd call you back within an hour."

And then their clever response is, "Well, someone should've called back to say they're still working on it."

And then it's, "Sir, I told you. You are not the only person we are dealing with. We don't have time to give you minute-to-minute updates on the progress of your request."

Stanley "Tookie" Williams

Haven't shaved for over a month. Beard is growing in. It looks alright now. A lot better than I thought it would, and it's certainly making taking a shower a lot quicker and cheaper, since I don't have to buy razors. I don't know how long I'm going to let it grow, but Jeanne wants me to go six months without shaving it, but we'll see.

So Stanley "Tookie" Williams' clemency was denied. That sucks! One of the main things I don't like about it is, it's not as if granting him clemency would set him free on the streets. He's still in for life. And he's doing good behind bars, so it's not like it'll affect anything.

I'm wondering if this will escalate into a riot? Hmmmm....

If news of this doesn't upset you, just look at Arnold. His smile makes you want to just punch him in the face, doesn't it? I don't even know why I'm surprised. With someone like him as governor, you can't expect too much from him. All you have to do is turn to "the O'reilley Factor" and get his opinion and then you'd know how it'll end up. It's all scripture. There's no gray area for these assholes.

Slow Internet

I just signed the petition for Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who is scheduled to be executed next week.

This is the big deal in Los Angeles at the moment. This dude is the co-founder of the Crips and is on death row for some murders that he still has not accepted responsibility for. But there's all this other stuff about unreliable witnesses. I'm just not for the death penalty for anyone and I believe that people can rehabilitate and that other stuff about human rights and whatever. I don't live my life by the Bible so I'm more compassionate towards mankind, and that, I guess, is my downfall and I will burn in hell for that. If only I could see the light and have a bit more unforgiving attitude towards people.

There was this editorial in last Sunday's paper about this whole debate about his clemency, and this person who is against it, was talking about Stanley's nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize. He was just saying how a nomination isn't that big a deal because any doctor or some other type of person can nominate anyone for it. Then he mentions a few names of very bad men that have been nominated for it to show how even tyrant/murderous leaders can be nominated. The list included: Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and Fidel Castro. I can't believe he equals Fidel Castro to the likes of those three. Does this guy even know about Castro? I mean there are debatable things that he does, but he's not murderous or anything like that; he's a good man, overall. I mean, if Rage Against the Machine is down with him, he can't be a bad guy, right? What would Zack do?

Rage Against the Machine is not down with Taco Bell, though.

On my way back from my break today, I drove by the high school down the road. I stopped at the stop sign and there was a Porsche behind me. I heard a thud and saw something go by. It was a basketball. It flew out from the high school and hit the Porsche. The Porsche pulled to the side and the lady got out, grabbed the ball, and started walking towards there. I turned, so I don't know what happened, but I thought it was funny.

Do not park on Manchester tomorrow or your car will be towed.

Le Swindle

On "Marketplace" a week ago, they were talking about company X-mas parties. How some go all out, some are cheap and have it at the shop, some go out but charge a little. Then there are places like Mattel, whose main office is in El Segundo. They only have a select amount of people invited. Then they charge them $45, but there's a huge perk. They get a special limited edition toy doll. Like a Ken doll or something. I don't know. What a fucking rip-off. I would rather have a non-work environment time to enjoy the company of your co-workers. Get to enjoy them when they're not all corporate and whatnot. I wouldn't care about a fucking doll! To me, that just shows how fucking cheap and manipulative Mattel is. You know? It costs them like $.05 to make it, and they're charging $45 a head. They're tricking them into thinking that they're giving them some huge incentive by being invited to this special evening, when they're actually making them pay for the event.

Dr. Agon

the Beach Boys - "Do You Wanna Dance?"

I forgot my MiniDisc player today. I was kind of pushed for time. Speaking of, I fell asleep really early last night. I dropped Jeanne of at work and got back around 11:30pm, grabbed a beer, put in the Matrix, knocked over the beer, and sat down, and passed out before Neo was even able to meet Morpheus. I woke up at five in the morning to Gleaming the Cube.

It really sucks that I have no winter here in LA except that it gets cold and everybody is dumber than usual. I really look forward to the first big snow and like to go to the Crescent Moon and drink with friends, back in Omaha. While I lived there, it never snowed until January. I used to get mad because working at Ted & Wally's, I was looking forward to it being slow. After a ridiculous summer there, you look forward to the snow in the winter so you can read books and do crossword puzzles. But while I worked there, it never snowed until January, and during the Fall it would be mild weather, so it wasn't too busy, but busy enough that once you help someone and sit down, someone else would enter. It was always like that with rain. When I worked the night shift, I would be happy because it would rain while I worked so people wouldn't come in. But the clouds, no matter how dark they became, would just linger in the sky until we closed. Then it would rain. Or it would be raining all day and once I arrive at work, it stops and it would become sunny.

I'm planning on not telling people about my back anymore. I've been told over and over about what I should do to work on it. Stuff that I already know. I've even been told stuff that I shouldn't do, even though I've been told by chiroprators to do them, and I've even read about them. I think the most irritating part of it is that when they tell me to do something and I say that I do that, they don't even acknowledge that I said that. Or if I tell them I'm doing something that they don't know about, they tell me that I shouldn't do it for one reason or another. I even mention that I have exercises and stretches that I got from a different chiroprators that I've been to, a physical therapist that I didn't go to, but got exercises from, and my accupuncturist, and they still talk to me as if I asked them advice in the first place or that I still don't know what to do.

There Is A God

So Gregg Hoffman, the guy responsible for financing Saw has died of natural causes. At least that's what the paper says. I think that God has arose and is finally taking care of the appalling movie industry. Kind of a drastic measure, you would think. You know, why not just strike him down lightly; kind of like a warning. Until you realize that there was talks of a Saw III.

"There is a God, he loves us all..."

I think God was like, "Two Saws, that's pushing it. I'm going to do something, though I'm not quite sure what yet. WHAT?!! SAW III?!!! That's it!"

Dear God,

I'm not sure if you're aware of this band called SUM 41? If you're listening...

If this were the case, I'd be the first one at church everyday. I'd just walk in everyweek with the latest Rollingstone as my hitlist.

LA Sucks

There is a reason why I believe that there are so many accidents in Los Angeles due to people running red lights. For one, major intersections do not have turn only lights, so the people are forced to go three to four cars after the red, just to make it. If not, they would never be able to turn. Then the ones that have turn only lights only stay green for five seconds. Really! Like if you had a manual car, by the time you shift into first, the lights yellow. On top of all that, none of the lights make any sense. Like most places, if you run a red light, it doesn't matter because you'll get the next red. In LA, if you catch a red light, the next light stays green during the entire duration of your red light. Then yours turns green and you proceed to the next intersection only to get there just in time for it to turn red. And it is not uncommon to go down a five mile stretch of road and catch every single red light. Even ones at small streets that don't even have cars there. The lights just turn red, and by the time you come to a complete stop, the light turns green. It's like someone is fucking with you. So in an essense, you're actually encouraged in LA to run all the red lights possible. If you want to get where you're going to, that is.

Semper Fi

The following was written yesterday while the internet was down here at work. I forgot to post it. It's nothing important:

My gimp back is in effect again. I should've just stayed on my back yesterday. I'm going to to that next Sunday. I'm just going to use this as an excuse to lie down all day and watch movies. Maybe I'll do my Star Wars: Episodes I-XI marathon. I can't help but think about "Life as a House" during the construction of the Death Star scene.

One of the funniest scenes in cinema history, though, is when Yoda is telling Obi-Wan that he needs to find Anakin and Obi-Wan asks, "How will I find him?"

"Search your feelings. Find him, you will."

And the very next scene, he's pretty much beggin Amidala to tell him where Anakin is. And it doesn't stop there. He then can't get that information, can't search his feelings to find him, so he hides aboard her ship. That's not the "Force" that I was to believed existed.

That aside, I watched a pretty good movie this weekend called "Indian Runner."

Headley, I saved an article from yesterday's paper. It's an article about Bill Hicks. I guess you could probably go to the LA Times website, but I saved it just in case.

Scalping

I was at the bank earlier today and there was a guy talking to the security guard about going to a game. From what I gathered, he must've bought his tickets from ebay or something like that, because he was talking about how it doesn't make sense that you can sell things like that online for a ridiculous amount of money and get away with it. "Shouldn't that be illegal? I guess since you're making money off of it, it's considered a business, huh? That's seems unfair that just because it's a business, that makes it legal..."

I started laughing to myself, because A) Selling tickets for whatever amount of money that you want to is legal, so long as it's a certain distance away from the venue. I read an article about this a while back. B) Not many people would know that, but to justify scalping's legality because it's a business...that's stupid. If that were the case, drug dealers would be free to do as they please. Same as child porn rings, slave trade, coyotes, and basically, anything, since everything's done for money. Snatching a lady's purse or robbing a bank, by that rationale, would be legal. The whole world would turn upside down. It would be opposite day.
C) If it weren't for scalping, there's a big chance he wouldn't have the tickets to go to this event that he obviously wanted to go to. D) I'm pretty sure he was talking about the UCLA vs USC game that was today. That being the possible thing, he deserved to pay a shit ton. This game is "the game." The one you could go to the grocery store and just turn to the guy next to you and ask, "You see the game?" And without a doubt, he knows what game you're talking about. People go to it or watch it just to say they went to it. "Did you see the game?" Like a dorky guy who probably doesn't even like football, let alone know about it watches the game because the rest of the dorks in accounts receivable are watching it. These are all just my prejudiced opinion, but it keeps me happy.

Customer's Always Right

Here's an example of "Customer's are always right" gone wrong. This guy made a reservation the other week and ordered a limo. I don't know who took the reservation, but it doesn't matter at this point, since I've dealt with him and knew already that it was his fault for being dumb. Anyway, once that run was done, my driver called and told me that there were six passengers, all with luggage and they had to put luggage in the limo's fuselage with the passengers.

When taking reservations for limos, we always ask how much luggage and how many passengers, since the trunks on these limos are the same as the town cars and we don't allow luggage in the passenger area, as it's unsafe, and it damages the interior.

So he had a pick-up today and I was talking to Sean yesterday and said that I'm going to send the van for this one, and I explained why. A little while later, the guy calls up to confirm the reservation and said, "...You guys messed up the last reservation, because you sent the smaller car. We have six passengers with luggage, so we need the 10 passenger limo."

"Sir, actually, we need to send our van. The limos, no matter what size you get, has the same trunk space. So if we send you a 10 passenger limo, you would still need to put luggage in the passenger area which we do not allow."

"Alright. So how much of a discount are we getting since you're sending the van?"

"There is no discount. The vans are more expensive to send than the limos. They're not shuttle vans; they're luxury Ford vans. The one's that the FBI/CIA use."

"Okay."

He was understanding and all, but some customers are ridiculous in the sense that they don't really think about the car not being able to fit all their luggage in the trunk. The car is longer, but the trunk stays the same. I explain that to some of them, and they're all, "No, we want to have a limo experience."

So they want a clown car limo experience. That's what they want. "Yeah. We had ten of us plus luggage smashed in to this limo. It was awesome."

Painville: Population: Me

OH, MY GAWD!!! So that muscle spasm back that I had earlier this week has subsided tremendously. Although the sciatica is back with a bullet! The pain is unbearable. I went to PetCo with Jeanne earlier today and was in total pain and I was being crabby. She was picking stuff out and I was pacing back and forth doing stretches, bending over, anything to try and ease the ever increasing pain. Then we go to pay and Jeanne gives the lady a hundred. She goes to get change and comes back and counts it out. Then she counts it out again. Then again. Then again. I was in pain, trying to leave and I wanted to just yell, "FUCK!!!! You've already counted it four times!!!! How much fucking verification do you need!!!"

But I didn't, but as we left the store I said that to Jeanne. I'm thinking of going to the store on my break today and grabbing a half pint of whiskey.

I'm really excited at the moment because we're having a turkey dinner tomorrow evening. Another equally good reason would be that I'm off tomorrow. Tonight should be laundry night and tomorrow I just want to stay inside all day long. I'm really scared of watching a movie, because all I see are bad ones. Speaking of bad movies, you know how all over the place, more apparent in LA, there are just loads of advertisements? Billboards, walls plastered with posters, sides of buses, on the windows of buses, sides of buildings, stadium walls, any fucking flat surface including, hub-caps. Yes, that's right...hubcaps. You know those stupid spinning things that blingers put on their Hummers and pimpmobiles? "They're spinning!" They're exactly like that...except they don't spin. They just sit there, while the wheel spins in the background, telling you about some stupid movie. When is this shit going to stop?

Muckluck

I watched The Big Easy last night. Or as I like to refer to as a two-hour advertisement for New Orleans. Seriously, they fit into the movie, almost everything there is to show about New Orleans. It wasn't even around Mardi Gras and there was a scene that they went to this warehouse and there were all these huge masks and stuff for Mardi Gras and the cop says, "Those are for Mardi Gras."

Anyway, I only watched it because Dennis Quaid was on "Fresh Air" the other day and Teri brought up that movie. It was alright, as far as I remember. It was a long movie and I was already tired as it was. I actually went to bed quite early for the first time in a long time. It was much needed.

So the good news, for the moment (since good news for me last as long as long as Headley carrying a box of knives safely through a balloon festival), is that if I get accepted to culinary school, my financial aid at the moment looks as if I only have to pay $260 of my tuition and I can get covered for everything else. I hoping that works, as well as maybe getting some extra money so I don't have to work that much.

School should be fun. At least I'll be interested in what I'm learning for once. I won't have to sit through early, hour-long classes learning about Hammurabi or stupid stuff that will only help me if I end up on a game show, during the "lightning round."

The only thing that sucks is that I'd have to commute to Hollywood for school. I hate having to be dependent on a vehicle. I heard that this city is planning on doing something about that. If I heard correctly, they are making a rail system that goes from downtown to Culver City and maybe to Hollywood. Finally, the city-planners are actually thinking. It makes sense to spend millions of dollars on a rail system to help out our ridiculous traffic situation, rather than expanding the freeways and building new ones.

If we didn't have a car, it would save us $450 a month. Much needed for other things

My back

I had almost the entire day off yesterday, though it was spent in total agony. I already have my sciatica that's been acting up in recent weeks. But on the way to pick up Jeanne yesterday, I sneezed and my back tweaked and just started hurting like fuck. I think it was a muscle spasm. Anyway, it was hard to do anything but lay down. I couldn't barely stand. It was hard to get up, like having a sore back and on top of that, it felt like I was trying to lift a super heavy load with my back.

So I went home and figured I'd lay down and watch a movie. I find out that my DVD player is broken. Sucks. I have three Netflix movies to watch. So I throw in Life as a House. I don't know why I have this movie or why I decided to watch this, but I did. First of all, the title is obviously a metaphor for the main character's struggle with his life and his relationship with his son and family, for that matter. But the whole thing with the title being that can only be compared to a fourth grade essay of "Why my cat is like my bike."

Secondly, seeing this dude playing the Anakin Skywalker role. Was this his audition tape for those movies? Fucking, whiney bitch. "My dad ruined my summer. Ah, I need drugs. You should hide your drugs, I'm just going to take it, because I like drugs. I can't control myself when I'm around them. I'm stupid!"

I had to finish watching the movie, so I wouldn't have a reason to watch it again. But I was stuck on the couch and couldn't move. I remembered that our friend Olivia gave me this Dragon Balm for my sciatica, so Jeanne put that on me and it helped out tons. Exedrin helped a little, but the Dragon Balm rules.

Hopefully it doesn't come back today.