Wednesday, December 23, 2009

There's been a mix up somewhere deep inside

With visions of sugar plums dancing in my head I'll drag my lame ass to work through the holidays once again. My patience with this sort of thing is flagging. But whatever, who wants to hear me bitch about work. I bore myself with it sometimes. Can't help it tho, it's hard to get over it when you keep getting dicked over. I mean I stayed at the office for 50+ hours last weekend thanks to snow, sleeping on the couch. Now it's Xmas and New Year's and I get to work through both. It's even supposed to freezing rain on Xmas Day so I may have another day sleeping on the couch, which will suck.

Moving on, I watched a ton of movies this weekend. Tyson, the documentary on the former heavyweight champ, which was fantastic. Mike Tyson doing some reflection and introspection punctuated by his fights, foibles and foul mouth. Good viewing. Also watched Barton Fink, which was good. Not my fav. Coen Brothers movie, think The Big Lebowski holds that title (although Raising Arizona is in the running.)

I watched a ton of other stuff too, but I think it's bed time so I can get started on my grueling finish to 2009. I'll be glad to see this year end. Aside from the Steelers and Penguins winning championships it's been a fucking dreadful year.

Stay tuned, I've been working my way through some of the 2009 albums I missed and am prepping my best of list. I know you've all been waiting to see a list of bands you don't know or care about.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

One last day of freedom

Wow, so my vacation is nearly over. How did that happen? I did have a good time. Actually did some socializing. It was nice to be out on a weekend night interacting with friends. I could get used to that, although I'd better not since I won't be doing it again for months, probably.

Spent way too much money, did a bunch of Xmas shopping, watched a ton of movies (I'll get to some of those later), played some games, read a book (less than I wanted, but I still got one more night) and watched some sporting events.

The book was called Hater by David Moody and had an excellent twist that I did not really expect. Recommended for anyone who loves zombie-esque books (more 28 Days Later than Living Dead.) I'm also reading Julia Child's My Life In France and is wonderfully warm and interesting memoir. I'm reading that because I watched Julie and Julia, which was also warm, like so many of Nora Ephron's movies.

I also rewatched Star Trek (beautiful) and Sunshine (still more beautiful.) Both are awesome. Fahrenheit 451 directed by Francois Truffant, which was good. Not great, but captured the book and I liked the ending. Also watched The Host, a Korean movie about a monster. Strange, but interesting.

I just watched World's Greatest Dad, the new movie by Bobcat Goldthwait starring Robin Williams. Very dark humor... very. So good, if you are into twisted tales about suicide.

Sportswise it's been a rough week. The Steelers lost their fourth in a row to Cleveland, which is just sad. I know I'm not allowed to complain, since they won the Super Bowl last season, but it's hard to watch a my team tank like this. Especially since I know they have the talent to be good. On top of that The Evil Penguin has lost four in a row as well and removed all hope of a playoff berth in fantasy football. This last week's loss was particularly straining since I put up a huge number and would have beaten anyone else I played, except the guy I played. Lucky Breaks strike again.

One positive note is that the Pittsburgh Penguins blasted Philadelphia 6-1 last night and are on top of their division and a mere 1 point back from the top of the conference. I'm feeling the hockey love now. Here's hoping they can keep it up.

Anyway I have one more day off and I'm not sure how I'm going to spend it. I'm debating staying in and not doing a damn thing. But I may want to go out, not sure. Gonna play it by ear. I'm hoping Amazon sends me my Inglourious Basterds Blue Ray, but high volume at the post office may slow things down. I also need to wrap some Xmas gifts, which I'm kinda dreading, honestly. But it has to be done. Anyway, one day more of fun, then back to the mind numbing grind.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

The vacation dilemma

Soooo, I bought a PS3 the other day. Basically for the Blue Ray player, but the games potential is cool, as well. Still, I guess my 360 got jealous and decided to fuck up my Modern Warfare 2 disc and now, won't read it. I played for like three hours last night and 2.5 hours in it tells me it can't read my disc. I eject and try to play again. No problem. Play a little longer and move on. Go back tonight and, boom, it won't read it at all and I find it has some stress grooves on the inner circle. Total suckjob.

So now I'm faced with a conundrum. Should I go ahead and trade in my current XBox and get a new one or should I hold off on it. Scared it may fuckup my other games, so I can't really see playing my stuff on it. But it's Xmas and I'm not sure I need to drop the cash I'd have to shell out to get a new one. It's frustrating. Also I'm probably not gonna be able to trade in my MW2 disc and a $60 game becomes a coaster. Bummer.

But at least I'm on vacation... where I have nothing major to do and have to decide between staying in and spending little cash or going out and entertaining myself and dropping major funds. If I don't go out I feel like I have no life whatsoever. If I do I feel guilty for spending too much money. It's no win.