Monday, March 31, 2008

Poop sockin' all the live long day

Ahhh it's been a good day. I'll describe it for you. I got up, showered and played Bioshock. Yep, that's it. I poop socked my way through Bioshock. (Poop socking is a term for marathon gaming sessions i.e. you are so involved in the game you don't want to waste time going to the bathroom and hence, shit in your sock. Not sure if that has ever actually happened, but the term amuses me.) But yeah, I finished Bioshock around 3 a.m. and it was fan-fucking-tastic. I recommend it to anyone with a clue.

It felt good to not have to leave the house. I've worked a shitload of hours the last coupla weeks and I enjoyed vegging. Plus it was all cold and nasty, with a forecast heavy with racetards in the greater Martinsville area. So staying in was probably best for my sanity.

Hey have I mentioned my downstairs neighbors are probably running a meth lab? Well it's true. The chemical stench burns my eyes some days. We are alerting the landlord and if that doesn't do what needs to be done I'm calling the cops. Fuck waking up to that smell, much less the potential for the damn place exploding.

I also re-read The Watchmen, a graphic novel by Alan Moore (who's pretty much redefined comics since the 1980s. You've heard of his works, even if you don't know it. V For Vendetta, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and so on.) Anyway The Watchmen is fantastic. It's being made into a film by the same guy who did 300 and I have high hopes. Gonna go and do a little reading now.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

One step further down the rabbit hole

MMMM. I created a wonderful beverage just now. You start with orange juice, about 1/4 of the ice-filled glass, then add an IBC tangerine/orange soda. The final touch is a smidge of vanilla extract. I served it in a clear plastic cup and drank it from a straw since that seems to make things taste better for some reason. So yum.

Anyway, I had to work again tonight, which blew. I got one day off this week. I'm beat. Waaay too much time watching crap tv.

I watched the first disc of Unforgivable Blackness, the Ken Burns documentary on Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He is an awesome character that just refused to live by anyone's rules but his own. Check it out if you're a boxing fan, or are interested in complete badasses who beat the hell out of his opponents with a smile on his face while having a conversation with people in the stands.

In an endeavor to further push myself into complete nerdiness, I bought a couple of graphic novels. That's right, comic books. Only playing the depths of D&D, LARPing and cosplay are left to lower my rating on the nerd scale. But I got the first book of The Walking Dead, a story about survivors of the zombie apocalypse (always a winner with me). It's very good and I'm looking forward to getting the next couple of books in the series.

I also got the Batman title, Arkham Asylum. It's a tale of the crazy people in Arkham taking over the asylum and insisting Batman join them there. It's a great story and the art is fucking awesome. It really carries the feel of darkness and insanity throughout the book.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Fisted Sister

So today I found out that I am responsible for the current recession this country has fallen into. I'd like to go on record and say "T'm sorry." You see I started a 401K in December and that's when things really started to turn for the worse. I got my first statement today and every single one of my investments lost money. Even the ones that were supposed to be fairly conservative. So, once again, to all of you losing money in the stock market, I'm very sorry I tried to save for retirement and caused everything to fall to shit.

In other news, I was listening to Chicago Public Radio podcast Sound Opinion (which is a solid music podcast) and Bob Mould was on the show. He was promoting his new album, District Line, and it caused me to remember how much I love this guys music. He shreds the guitar, it's hypnotic. It's not like a metal wank solo either, it's just thick and noisy and strums the very chords of my soul. So I went to iTunes and bought it. Haven't listened to much of it, but it's good so far.

Played a little Bioshock on Tuesday evening. By a little I mean like five solid hours. It's excellent, pulls you right into this underwater world of weirdness. I meant to play some more last night, but felt in more of a mindless mood and decided to shoot people in COD4 online and that was fun. I blasted Slayer's Reign In Blood album on the headphones and threw lead at opponents for a while and it felt therapeutic.

Oh I also watched Michael Clayton, which I would describe as a much darker version of Erin Brockovitch, minus the pushup bra and smile. George Clooney is the man tho. Tilda Swinton also probably deserved that Oscar. Good stuff, despite moving fairly slow at the beginning (foot massage).

Monday, March 17, 2008

Aborting mission of my own volition

Went to Gboro today with the full intent of buying a HD TV, but that plan did not come to fruition. Saw an LG 42 inch in the Best Buy sale paper and assumed it was the same one they had on sale last week, but I was mistaken. It only had a 1,600-1 contrast ratio and so I said nay. I debated buying a couple of others there, but I decided to hold off. One seldom gets burned by waiting to buy electronics.

So I rode around Greensboro a bit and shopped. Bought a few Marvel cartoon movies at Circuit City for $4 apiece. Decent deal. I looked around the Barnes & Noble and somehow emerged without buying anything. A good day for uncharacteristic restraint. Had a pastrami sandwich at Jason's Deli, which was not bad. Not great, but not bad.

I then came home and watched tv for a while, watched Truffaut's Day for Night (Meh.), and put together a cops and robbers themed playlist in iTunes. Woohoo. I'm the coolest guy ever.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

unexpected accolades

Received a commendation at work today, which is unprecedented. Usually something goes wrong and I can expect to hear bitching about it regardless of whether it was my fault or not. So for something like the evening news to be completely fucked up and then praised for how I handled the situation is astounding.

Of course, after hearing good news something bad had to come my way. We are having a meeting with corporate people soon, which undoubtedly will lead to a huge pain in the ass. I've never been to a work meeting that had any positive value and I don't expect it to change. So I'll have to drive to work on my day off, get my ass chewed and drive home. That's how this usually works.

Been playing Call of Duty 4 some and it's sweet. I suck at multiplayer online, but it's fun. The campaign is really good too. It's got some exceptional moments and is really well packaged. I did have to turn the difficulty back down to normal, which is odd since I beat COD2 on the higher difficulty. Not sure why that is.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Four yaks and a dog?

Having a decent weekend. My 36o came back in and lo, it is mighty. I had missed it. But more on that later. After a brutal weekend of work... ok it wasn't that bad until Saturday's new cast went to fuck pie. No fault of mine, but shit rolls downhill and I'm standing at the bottom in this metaphor. So that's something to look forward to Wed.

Sunday, Trip and I headed to Greensboro to look at high def televisions because my resistance has been worn down. I think I'm gonna get a 42-inch LG LCD because it has all the pertinent stats and is cheap (relatively speaking). But I may wait until next week to pick it up, just to see the sale paper and allow for a whole weekend to gaze at it's awesome visage in my living room before being forced to return to reality.

Tonight was Cue night (as in BBQ) and then I shopped around Sears for tvs, but nothing impressed me as much as the LG. The Trip and I headed to his pad to watch Unhitched and then we played Rock Band for several hours. When Trip mentions playing Rock Band, my reaction is usually one of disinterest. But tonight he forced it on me, like improper sexual advances in the workplace, and we did have a good time. It's so much fun rocking out to Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills or all those classic rock songs that are familiar without my actually knowing what they are. It is challenging tho and my pinkie gets really tired after a few songs.

After leaving Trip's I came home and watched a few episodes of The Tick cartoon (which I picked up on Sunday). Ohh I love the Tick, it's just genius. I then went on to finish the campaign in Call of Duty 2, finally. Yes, the Nazis were beaten back once again and the world is safe from their tyranny. I should be lauded and lavished with affection for my efforts. On to Call of Duty 4 where I will face down terrorist hordes without fear in my heart.

Monday, March 03, 2008

The work week gets longer all the time

Man it's been a tough week and it's good to finally be able to not be at work. I worked an extra overnight this past week and for some reason it just crushed me. Probably didn't help that we were constantly behind and missing a person on the busiest night and so I had to bust my ass. On top of that I've just felt like shit for the last few weeks anyway.

So now I'm enjoying wandering the interwebs,drinking a nice cup of tea and I'm listening to NPR's All Songs Considered (which Adam will tell you is liberal somehow) and feeling decent. Mellow, even. I'm trying to download the new Nine Inch Nails album (I even paid for it!), but I'm experiencing some trouble. The file I get is corrupted or something. It's a pain.

I picked up the Justice League The New Frontier dvd on a whim (with Trip applying pressure to my spending tendencies). It was decent, although I thought it could have been fleshed out a bit more. Still it was fun. I'm still more of a Marvel Comics fan over DC tho. I also bought The Darjeeling Limited, the new Wes Anderson movie. Haven't watched that yet, but I have no doubt I'll love it. It's Wes Anderson, my favorite director!

My ability to resist buying a high def tv is being tested weekly. I nearly went for a deal at Best Buy last week. I kind of regret not getting it, but I probably should be responsible. It's tough. I may simply give in to my tech nerd desires. We'll see.