Plunging forth into newfound debt

Well I bought a car. Yup. A 2002 Toyota Corolla that I got a decent deal on. It was relatively painless. Mom got me up early and we looked at a couple of dealerships around Winston-Salem before heading to Carmax. There I was well treated and not hard sold. It went fairly quickly and I drove it home.

Now I just gotta pay for it... blah.

Financially drowning

I'm debating buying a car tomorrow. I looked for a while on the internet and found a couple of things that are suitable. Trip and I rode around Martinsville for a while and looked at all the goddamn Nelson dealerships (I really hate that guy.) I looked at Martinsville Toyota (which seems to be one of the few non-Nelson places left running) and I liked the look of the Yaris, but I don't wanna drop $17K. I don't think I can really afford that.

Honestly, throwing myself back into debt makes my stomach hurt. Looking at car prices reinforces how little money I really make and I hate it. I don't need to be wealthy, I just want to not have to worry. But whatever.

What's funny is I saw loads of commercials this month about super special deals in Roanoke. So I looked those up, particularly at Haley Toyota. Hmmm, Funny how I could buy a brand new Yaris in Martinsville for less than I could buy one with 15K miles on it at Haley. Hate that shit. Guess he has to pay for advertising somehow.

I found a couple of things at CarMax (no haggling is more my speed) that look decent. I dunno, I know fuck all about cars really. I just want fuel efficiency and dependability. I'm leaning toward the Lancer, just because it's three grand cheaper, power locks/windows and automatic. We'll see what I think about it tomorrow.

I'm tied to a clock

Tired, tired, tired. I should be heading to bed, but I listened to This American Life on my way home and wanted to talk about it. It was a show called "Special Ed" about mentally disabled people and various stories about them.

The one that stuck out to me was about this mentally handicapped child who became obsessed with black holes at the age of three. He drew them all the time and talked about them eating the whole world. It was strangle. I mean, sure, lots of times I'm wishing a black hole would swallow the world, but I'm a jaded fuck, not a three-year old.

He also had some other problems like trying to kill the cat and destroying everything that meant something to someone in the house, himself included. The Marquis de Sade would have loved this kid. Fortunately he was finally diagnosed as bipolar and medicated so he's not a hellion, much to the relief of his mother. He now spends his time drawing rainbows, hearts and bunnies. While I'm certain that medication is the best thing for both the child, his mother and society at large, part of me does enjoy the idea of an inherently evil child. Ahh well.

Vote Independent! Vote Evil!

As an Evilpenguin I find that sometimes it is best to find a candidate that represents my evil needs. Sure the Republicans usually have that covered, but what if it's just not enough? Why not go Lovecraftian on their asses? Cthulhu's platform of devouring and madness is something I can get behind.

Maintaining Steeltown's safety

Troy Polamalu signed a huge deal and will definitely be a Steeler through 2011! Yay! That's with a year still left on his current contract. I gotta tell you that Polamalu is everything I want in a player. He's spectacular on the field (in a position that is normally only gets its name called when the player screws up), he's a team guy willing to do whatever it takes for the whole squad to succeed and finally he's never gonna be in the papers for having screwed up (drinking and driving, fighting or, the worst, dog fighting.

Go 43!

This is what I came to do

I've been fighting off a low grade depression the last few weeks with some success, but it's still there in the back of my mind. I've been trying to distract myself with some things, but a lot of little things keep coming up. For one, I can't log on to my fantasy football site. I know that seems like a dumb thing to be depressed by, but it's just one little thing that gnaws at the back of my mind. It has sapped all my fantasy football interest at the moment, since there is nothing I can do about it until EA contacts me again and fixes it.

One of the less minimal things is that my Jeep is still not running at 100%. It will do ok for a day and then I'll notice a familar, albeit brief flutter in the engine. I wouldn't worry about it so much, except I'm certain that when I drive it to the beach it'll break down completely. That's how these things work. I've been debating buying a new car, but I'd like to have a substantial down payment to start things off. I dunno.

I read the new Harry Potter book at work Saturday night. I enjoyed it, although some of the reasoning behind why things happened seemed very deus ex machina to me. Still it was good. I won't get into the details yet. Give some of you people a chance to finish it without finding out the whole plot ahead of time.

Further thoughts on All Pro Football 2K8: I really, really miss the dynasty mode. I liked constructing my team from the ground up, but it seems like there is nothing to do after that. Also I was playing last night, got to halftime and the whole thing locked up on me. Annoying.

All right, I suppose I'm done. I'm just looking forward to going to the beach in a couple of weeks. I need a real break from everything.

Automotive issues

Driving home tonight my Jeep showed signs of an imminent problem. It would lose power for a split second and then go back to running normally. I guess I'm gonna have to take it in tomorrow and find out what's wrong. I just got it tuned up and now this. I was really hoping for it to last for another couple of months so I can buy a new(to me) car and move on, but if this repair is gonna cost a ton then I have to debate just buying a new car now... which would suck as I was hoping to have a decent down payment so I could keep my payments down without paying tons of interest...

I picked up All Pro Football 2K8 this week and have been playing it some. It's not as phenomenal as I had hoped, but it's solid. As I break myself away from being used to EA's control scheme it gets better. I really do like drafting my team, although they could use a little more variety in the pros. Still it's fun overall and I can't say I regret not getting NCAA 08 as of yet. I'll be able to rent it or something if the urge truly strikes.

Anyway here's hoping I can make it to work tomorrow... we'll see.

Behold the grandeur!

With fantasy football season mere weeks away I have once again commissioned Trip to bring forth a mighty logo that will set fear into the hearts of mine opponents. He has done well with this demand and so now you all can try to comprehend the glory that is The Evil Penguin!

Ooooohhhhhh on the Edge of...

Couple of things I wanna talk about. I'll start with Harry Potter. The final book is coming out next week and I've got a few predictions for things that will happen and want them on the record. Basically so I can say "I told you so" if I'm right and let them drift into obscurity if I'm not. Here goes:

1. Harry will not die. Don't think J.K. Rowling is gonna want to let him go like that. He may be a horcrux, but that doesn't mean he has to die. It is a magical world after all.
   
2. Snape will die. He will die protecting Harry and prove Dumbledore right. It just doesn't make sense to have a major character like Dumbledore give second chances to someone not deserving of them.
   
3. Harry and Ginny will end up together. As will Ron and Hermione. Also Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom will end up romantically linked.
4. The person who stole the last horcrux, (R.A.B) is Sirius' brother Regulus. That may be obvious, but I thought I'd get it down in case it's only obvious to me.

That'll wrap that up. I'm expecting a happy ending overall. I'm hoping for one, actually.

I'd like to welcome Nick to the ranks of XBox 360 owners. He's probably only gonna be playing football games on it, but he'll still enjoy it I'm sure. I'm hoping to play him at something, but may have trouble finding a time when we're both awake and available to play.

I started playing TMNT last night, which is an awful game. It's just not very well designed. That said, I'm enjoying it. It's been a long time since I played a game with these platform elements and I find I'm enjoying them more than I remembered doing... well aside from playing Super Mario Bros. 3 with Trip and Corb a few years back.

I finished reading A. Lee Martinez's A Nameless Witch (foot massage) and it's pretty good. He write these pulpy books with a dry wit and humor. My favorite so far has been Gil's All-Fright Diner, which combines goofy vampires and werewolves with Lovecraftian themes for pure chewing satisfaction.

Drafts, demos and cleaning up my queue

Today I have done relatively little. But while doing that little I've gotten a lot done. Sounds odd huh? Well let me rephrase, I've done a lot of stuff that is a waste of time. I played some video games (and may be playing more soon enough), I read some more of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (which I'm re-reading to reacquaint myself before the Deathly Hallows drops on July 21st), I made up a bunch of Harry Potter trivia questions for my mom (library thingie and, yes, I am a huge nerd), listened to a bunch of podcasts, followed the opening of E3, especially the Microsoft press conference (woo Halo 3 footage), chatted with Adam about fantasy football, researched some fantasy football websites (still searching for some really good ones, taking suggestions), watched some video podcasts and ate way too much.

Pretty busy to have done fuck all, huh.

Let's see, yesterday Nick determined the draft order for the Techmo Lucky Breaks Fantasy Football League and I am fairly pleased with my third overall pick. Not sure who I'm gonna take in the three spot, leaning toward Larry Johnson, Frank Gore and maybe Brian Westbrook. Ehh, the jury is still out with so much time before the draft.

I downloaded the NCAA 08 demo on XBox Live and it's ok. I'm not as sold on it as I thought I would be. Maybe I just need to get used to the interface, I'm often offput by how they change them every year. I'm still debating between buying that or 2K's All Pro Football, which sounds pretty cool. Have to check the ratings and maybe try a demo for that if it's available before I settle into one of em, but I'm leaning toward All Pro at the moment.

Back on the horse

I managed to talk to both Adam and Mike this week and naturally the discussion turned to football. Because of that I broke down and bought my first fantasy football magazine of the season (ESPN's version, which is not as good as last year, but decent overall). I'd been trying to hold off on my football mania, as last season I started following it before the NFL Draft and stayed with it through the Super Bowl. I gotta tell you those last few weeks of the regular season I kinda was over it.

That sounds like heresy, but if you want to win you gotta pay attention to the details. After nine months of it you can get wore down. But now, with a substantial break, my fervor has been rekindled! It started with that magazine and now I'm watching Sportscenter and NFL Live, looking for podcasts and thinking about draft positions. I'm an addict.

The sporting podcast world is a mixed bag to say the least. I've found a couple of good ones, but also a lot of crap. Just because you like football and have a microphone doesn't mean you should record your thoughts. So far my favorite is the Mysportsradio podcasts. Their "One for the Thumb" Steelers show is mighty. They have other teams represented, so you other guys might want to partake.

Saw Ratatouille with Trip last night and it was awesome. Pixar does not miss. Ok, well Cars wasn't my fav., but considering it was NASCAR related it was pretty good. There is no reason not to see Ratatouille, it's got great voice acting, amazing animation and a charming plot. It's Filet Mignon with upward mobility. I'm not too surprised, the writer/director Brad Byrd did The Incredibles and that is my all time fav. Pixar movie.

Wolf moon

I've kept busy this weekend. Sunday I went to Greensboro with Trip and Jill and we had a nice dinner at PF Chang's and saw Evan Almighty. The movie was pretty good, about what I expected really. I'd rate it a +1 chainmail viewing.

Yesterday I hung with Danny and Trip and we goofed off for a while. Played some Forza 2, which kinda made me want to pick the game up, but I'm not sure if I wanna drop $60 on it. Especially with so many games I really, really want on the not too distant horizon. Also tried Rainbow Six Vegas, which Danny is addicted to, did not really care for that.

After Danny bailed Trip and I watched the abortion that is Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I knew it wasn't going to be great, just judging from the first FF movie, but I hope that maybe the inclusion of my all-time favorite comic book hero would make it better. Was not to be. Sooooo many things wrong with that movie. Jessica Alba=hot ass, horrible actress. She's just not good. All in all, this movie gave me a torn colon.

nice warm glass of shut the fuck up

Grumble, complain, bitch, piss and moan. There I've summed up my usual Saturday morning post into six words. I don't have much to add to that really. I'm tired and looking forward to having three days off after tonight's work. It can't happen soon enough.

Please remove this cutlery from my knees

Nothing much remarkable going on in these parts, just the usual heartbreak, malaise and antipathy... ohhh I almost forgot misanthropy. Stick with what you know, I always say.

Hmmmm, highlights... I think I don't have to work any overtime this week, but I may be wrong. The new guy should be trained, but who knows. Of course, for the fourth I'll be getting a couple of extra hours because of Donny's vacation, but no big. When you add in holiday pay it makes for a nice check.

Been playing Virtua Tennis 3 for the past coupla days and it's pretty good, if you like tennis. I'm glad it's a rental tho, as paying retail for it would have been a bit much. Still it's a fun game and I may buy it when it gets under $20.

Watched Ghost Rider last night, the less said the better (Shaq-fu, I still need a replacement for this rating. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has em.). Well that's a little harsh, I had exceedingly low expectations so it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Still, I'm not a big Nick Cage fan and the writers didn't do him any favors. It was pleasant looking at Eva Mendes tho, rowwwrrrr.

I also watched Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, which was exactly as I expected. It's got a totally convoluted plot, really nice animation and schloads of fan service. Decent, if you are a fan of the game. Sadly I must admit I never beat it, basically because I watched Gabe go through it twice. I got about halfway in and decided I didn't need to see Shinra and Sephiroth go down a third time. Anyway I give the movie a +1 chainmail because of the animation and nostagia factors.

ETNTWDY

Soooo last night I took the night off work and joined Kevin for an evening of Wilco. We drove to Charlotte and enjoyed some quality music. Kevin is a big Wilco fan, to say the least. So naturally I have to berate him for enjoying them, even tho I like them too. It's the law of the west.

Somehow while we're waiting for the doors to open and watching some of the members of the band wander around and talk to fans I go on a tirade about Kevin talking to them about eating his ass or him eating there ass. Basically just going on an ass eating tear to amuse myself. It kinda colored the whole evening, which was amusing.

After the show Kevin got a picture and autograph from the lead singer Jeff Tweedy, which he was excited about. He mentioned that if he was rich he'd follow them around and see all their shows. I suggested he get a VW bus and eat Tweedy's ass in every town in North America. He mentioned that he license plate would be ETNTWDY and it got zanier from there. It occurs to me that the ass eating topic doesn't translate here into the humor we had going at the time, but it still amuses me.

Anyway we had a kickass time and it was good to spend the day with Kev, since our hanging out time is getting more and more rare.

Fuck with me and I'll saw off your legs

I'm in a foul mood. Working nights can just make you feel lonely and alienated sometimes and last night was one of those times. Just lots of little bullshit that doesn't matter stacking itself on the important bullshit that does matter to make me pissed off and angsty.

It didn't help that there was fuckall on tv last night. I watched Hitch, which isn't bad, but isn't great. Other than that it was utter crap. I mean Van Helsing was on TNT all night. That movie is so shitty that Hugh Jackman is still picking corn out of his hair.

Anyway I'm off to bed and hope tomorrow is less sucky.

I owe you for the thing at the place with the guy

Been keeping kinda quiet. Between working overtime and the heat I'm drained when I get home, so I don't write much. Also work is fairly dull, so who wants to hear about that?

Tonight Trip and I went to see Ocean's 13, which I enjoyed immensely (Filet Mignon). I love caper movies, especially with a laundry list of stars. Those movies just have this aura of cool that is undeniable. I'd say 13 is better than 12, actually. The first still may be the best, just because I initially wasn't sure what to expect. Ohh and for the record, don't see the Sinatra version of Ocean's 11, because it's total garbage.

I don't really have a lot of other stuff going on. The new Dinosaur Jr. is excellent, if you're into that kinda music. I'm still playing tons of Catan and I'm trying out NHL 2k7 and it's ok. I prefer NHL 07 (which seems like the exact same thing if you aren't in the know) just for the controls. I'm gonna be getting a soccer game in the mail soon and we'll see how it goes. Can I lead some nation to World Cup glory?

You've lost control of the bottom line

So it's been a nice coupla days off. Stayed lowkey. Watched Pan's Labyrinth with Trip on Monday. It was good, but didn't captivate me quite as much as I expected. Still it had a nice grim fairy tale vibe and some cool costuming. I'd say foot massage all told.

After that we played a little NHL 2k7 and I had to dispense a swift beating. We then watched the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen, which I love. I don't know why watching a bunch of people squabble and then a British guy yelling at them is so entertaining, but it damn sure is. Tuesday we grabbed some Mexican food and then did some minor shopping.

I've been playing tons of games until the wee small hours, but nothing important to report there, except that Madden 06 is pretty terrible. Soooooo many little things they fucked up. I'm telling you, 07 isn't a gem, but it's lots better than 06. Of course, since EA has some competition this year, 08 will be even better, but the Steelers will suck ass. That is the way things work out for me.

Unjustifiable existence

Last night's work went fairly quickly, which was nice. I then came home, had a few beers and played Catan for a while. I actually won a second game and should have won another, but I got schiested.

Now it's super late (or early) and I'm listening/watching Type O Negative videos on Youtube. The lead singer, Peter Steele, has this baritone voice that is simply striking. I'm betting that guy is swimming in goth chick poontang. (This is a pre-emptive apology to my female readers for that potentially offensive statement. It was written with humorous intent.) I need to listen to their new album, but I need to listen to a lot of new music that I've been ignoring for podcasts. But yeah, if you dig gothy metal music this is right in your wheelhouse.

Speaking of podcasts, I listened to a couple of good ones yesterday that weren't video game related. The first was a This American Life episode about how the American Psychological Association reclassified homosexuality from a disease to normal behavior and the battle that went into it. I find stories about people fighting for their rights to be very interesting.

The second was an episode of The Ungodly Hour, an industrial music show. I like this show a lot, but it runs three hours (despite the word hour in the title) and it's hard to sit down and listen to anything for three solid hours, ya know. I listened to around two hours of it before callign it quits and I love me some hard industrial music.

Dispensing wisdom to the uninitiated

Work was a motherfucker once again. I was busy all damn night. Where does it all end?

Having some trouble thinking of something else to write now. I had an idea on the way home, but it eludes me. Ahh fuck it, I'm tired.