Quick Update

Cable's still down at home, and by all accounts, won't be back on for a few more days. So, I'm coming into the office for a bit to check email, do some stuff for the art show and check some of my regular websites.

The posters for the Personality of Cult art show are now up around Tulsa, but there's a lot more left to do to promote this thing. I guess I got so caught up in the coolness of this little cult classic art show idea that I forgot to calculate a budget for promotions and, you know, raise money. Note to self: Charge an entry fee next time!

Speaking of cult classics, I used up some gift cards and got myself a few DVDs the other night. I had set out to get the 5-disc Blade Runner Deluxe Set and the Futurama movie, but they were sold out of both. So, I wound up getting the 4-disc Blade Runner set, and with the money I saved there, I got The Ghostbusters 1 & 2 set, Enter the Dragon and Dr. Strangelove. That should keep the Cable TV withdrawals to a minimum.

Friday night I went to see Rocky Horror at the Circle Cinema midnight movie. It was a blast! I had never been, and I managed to keep myself from being outed as a "virgin". I found it amazing that with an event with so many rules of conduct, that it could get that crazy. It was organized chaos, and it was awesome! I did, however, have to dig a couple of grains of rice out of my ear canal afterwards, but that was the only after-effect.

Last night was Hosty Duo at Arnie's Bar AND my friend Heather's birthday. It was a really good show, even though the crowd was a little bit rough. A few people had to be held back before a fight could break out. But hey, most of those folks were from out-of-town, and didn't really know that Arnie's is, for the most part, a peaceful kind of joint. Another thing I noticed is that at least half of the crowd was probably not even born yet when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up. I gotta just accept the fact that I'm getting older.

Another thought I had last night was that I think I'm reaching the point where it's getting pretty sad to close down a bar and going home alone. Most of my friends that were there with me all had this air about them that they could have another drink, get a little crazier, because they had someone to drive them home. Meanwhile, I had to do my usual thing where I monitor my buzz, cut myself off and prepare myself to drive home. Oh well, another thing for me to work on.

Holiday

I made it through the ice storm. I made it through the power outage. The only thing that was left was for me to get through the delayed freaking out those two little situations bring. It's a little annoying part of my coping mechanism. I wait to completely break down until there's no longer a reason to break down.

It hasn't been all that bad, but with everything else going on in my life all I've wanted to do is sit in my living room and stare at a lit light bulb. But, it's the holidays, so of course, it busy busy busy.

I got to go home early on Friday afternoon and take a much needed nap. That night, ben.ben. was playing downtown, and I got my name on the guest list. I had never heard them play before. It was really good. It was a themed art show/performance art kinda thing. Frank Zappa would have been proud. I really appreciated the performance, almost as much as I did laughing at the folks who had no idea what was going on. Too bad I got tired and pooped out after the first show. I needed to get some more sleep.

Saturday, I slept in for a bit...one of those mornings that you just wanna stay in bed, until the urge to pee gets too great to ignore. So, I got up and started cleaning up the last of the remains of Ice Storm Slob Fest '07. I started by just taking care of the trash and straightening up a bit. It quickly grew in scope to a rearranging of the living room. It was a long time coming, truth be told.

Saturday night was the tacky holiday sweater party at Andey and Pete's house. I didn't have anything particularly tacky, and the ice storm pretty much zapped out my kitschy thrift store budget (if I ever had one to begin with). So, I just threw on my only patterned sweater. People complimented me on my tacky sweater, which kinda hurt me because I wear it quite often. Oh, well.

Sunday was the drive to Little Rock to the folks' house. Four hours with the radio off and nothing but the thoughts I've needed to sort out. It was cathartic. I got to the house with enough time to rest before dinner and presents. My mom got me a few books I've had on my list for a while, plus the new Eagles CD, which I've wanted to buy really bad, but not bad enough to venture to Wal-Mart to get it.

Monday was my day to veg out. We got a visit from my sister-in-law's sister and her husband. He brought his Wii, and we all played around with it for a little bit. He could've just as well give me a small hit of heroin, because now I want a Wii more than ever! Gotta be smart. Car first, then we'll see about the new game system. Adulthood really sucks sometimes.

Tonight, I made a point to go see my brother and his family before they headed out to a dinner party down the street. They kept trying to get me to go with them, even having me help them carry stuff over to the party and introducing me to a few people. I made every excuse I could to leave, because I wasn't feeling that sociable and felt it better to spend time with my family, even if it's just to chat a bit during the Christmas Story marathon on TBS.

Tomorrow, I make my way back to Tulsa, with a couple holiday visits along the way. it really doesn't feel like I've lived the four day holiday to the fullest and completely recharged my batteries, but no worries. I've got another four-day holiday coming up next weekend.

I have the power

Nine days. Nine fucking days without electricity. I got it back yesterday at 4:12 pm. Cable's still out, but that's why I have DVD's.

Night before last, I cleaned out the fridge. Sweet zombie Jesus, was it nasty. Having to clean it by candlelight wasn't much of a treat, either. At one point, I actually wondered, "When did I have rice in my refrigerator, and why are all of the grains moving?", but that may have been the bleach fumes directing that train of thought.

So now, I have all my laundry caught up, I have power, and everything is almost back to normal... until the next ice storm.

Still powerless

Yet again, I'm at the office for my electricity and internet fix. My power at home is still out, and the earliest and most reliable estimate of getting power back is tomorrow or Tuesday.

Yesterday, I took some friends out to lunch and to see I Am Legend. There's nothing like watching a movie about the end of the world to take you mind off having no lights at home. All in all, it was a really good flick. I hate that special effects have gotten so good that I find myself distracted from the film wondering how the hell they did it.

Another thing that I found fascinating about the film is that they made Will Smith's character a Bob Marley fan. It's explained later on in the movie and it makes perfect sense in the end, but still, it was a strange choice for the character starting out. This subplot also allowed for one of my all-time favorite songs to be played during the end credits. Which song? Go see the damn movie!

I only wish I had gone to see it at the IMAX. Where I saw it, there was a trailer for The Dark Knight, but at the IMAX, there was a six minute preview. I found some camera phone footage online and I got the gist of it, but man, that preview is gonna be cool seeing it first-hand. WHo knows, I could possibly see I Am Legend again real soon.

In the meantime, I'm off to go pay some bills. It would suck to get my electricity back just to have it shut off again. Of course, in my defense, it's kinda hard to find your bills when the lights are out.

Movie Poster Oddities

I spent a few minutes on one of my favorite movie sites, and I've noticed a few weird trends in poster design:

The Black & White Alternating Backgrounds, Title in Color, Brooding Intensity...
The Hint, Hint, Guys! It's a Date Movie, And You Best Buy Her Some Roses Beforehand...The Hero in Deep Thought Stance...
Finally, the Silhouetted Guy on the Horizon with Muted/Duo-toned Background, a.k.a the "Private Ryan"

Powerless

Just in case you were wondering, yes, I was affected by the ice storm here. I have been without power for the past four days (I'm at the office right now). There are trucks in my neighborhood as of five this evening, but I couldn't tell if they were to fix the lines or trim the tree branches back. The best estimate I've heard is that all of Tulsa will be back to full power by about Tuesday.

I'm more fortunate than most, in that I have gas heat and hot water. So far, I've only been able to spend about an hour by candlelight before screaming "FUCK THIS!" and drive down to orders for coffee/listen to the preview CD's/magic marker the Bill O'Reilly books. The past few nights I've spent time with friends who have electricity, then went home to sleep in my own bed.

Here are some of the highlights of the week.

- Monday night, the storm was still going on, and I had the pleasure of driving past a transformer just as it blew. It took about an hour for my hearing and the ability to control the volume of my voice to regulate itself again.

- We all played Star Wars Monopoly for most of Monday night. a few minutes in, we lost power to half of the house...easily fixed by extension cords from the powered side. The game ended as 99.9% of all Monopoly games end, with everyone starting to take drastic measures to build up every property before abandoning it after about an hour. I got home a little after one.

- Tuesday night, Amy got her power back, so we all huddled at her place, had a home cooked meal and watched a double feature of the Blues Brothers and Stranger Than Fiction.

- On the way home, I got pulled over. Strangely enough, for doing 30 in a 35 MPH zone. The irony is that the cop first yelled at me, "Do you not think the rules apply to you?!?" The cop chewed me out for going too fast on slick streets, and I have a sneaking suspicion he never even ran my license when he went back to his car. I had, in my nervousness, gave him my old insurance card (not this year's), and he never asked me about the whole Oklahoma license/Arkansas tags thing, as every cop who's pulled me over in the past three years has immediately done. I think the cop just wanted to vent.

- Last night was Little Miss Sunshine at Amy's place, followed by a long talk about anything and everything. Home by eleven.

- Today, I made the mistake of driving around near Promenade Mall. The mall has power, but the traffic lights are still out. Holiday shoppers, one car at a time, through every intersection within a mile radius. I coped by sitting there and circling the people I hated around me, one by one...which was pretty much everyone.

- Now, I'm at the office, taking advantage of the satellite TV to watch CSI:. Fortunate that this whole mess happened during a writer's strike. I have one episode of one more show left before they run out of new stuff. After that, I'll be heading to the bar for a couple beers and back home to sleep.

Tonight's forecast: 100% chance of freezing you ass off, with continued mostly shitty throughout the night, followed by wildly scattered "fuck, I'm staying in bed" in the morning.

Things you'll probably never see, yet still a remote possibility

A mime riding a pony.

A Segway with a baby seat.

A wet burka contest.

Sir Mix-A-Lot testifying before Congress.

Michael Bay sincerely using the word subtle.

9/11: The Musical!

Diet whisky.

A USB-powered smoke machine.

Clouds on fire.

A TV drama about a hard-drinking insurance adjuster...who doesn't play by the rules.

Barry Bonds Day.

Star Wars: The Definitive Final Cut.

Celine Dion covering Iron Maiden.

Scented motor oil.

A Hummer H3 with a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle bumper sticker parked next to a Pinto with neon effects.

Bill O'Reilly in the middle of a 7-11 anxiously waiting on a microwave burrito.

A DMV clerk shotgunning a Red Bull.

Edible High-def DVDs.

A Stocks and Bonds section on Craigslist.

A Dick Cheney kitten calendar.

Numbers

I'm going in to see how much I pre-qualify for on car loan. So, I've been crunching a few numbers tonight. I haven't checked my credit for a while, but I feel confident that I'm a hell of a lot better off than I was a few years ago. Fingers crossed, I guess.

My needs are gonna be pretty simple. Four doors, standard transmission, somewhere in the area of $7,000 to $9,000, fairly low mileage and fairly good gas mileage. This being the end of the year, it's as good of a buyer's market as it can get. Of course, if I can find a private seller, negotiation would be much more favorable.

In an attempt to offset the change in my budget a car payment will no doubt bring, I'm gonna pull double duty at the bank and ask about a credit card, you know, while they have my credit history up on the screen. Again, fingers crossed.

I have four weeks until the end of the year, and factoring in cost of living, I'll be coming up short of my savings goals for this year. I'll be pushing for some overtime over the next few weeks to try and make up for it. Not that I've been spending wildly for the past year, just developed a taste for the name brands at the supermarket. I didn't count on a year without bagged cereal adding up to so much. Et tu, Tony the Tiger?

I talked to my folks for a bit, and they've been discussing maybe selling me their HHR in lieu of trading it in as they originally planned. I had my doubts about it, though. Too much car for me, for one. Too much money for another. While we were talking, I was checking out a few used car sites. When my mom aksed me about considering getting another Ford Focus, AutoTrader produced one match to my search criteria: a 2005 Ford Focus. I bookmarked it and marked it as a possibility. Hell, at least I know how they handle.

I got tired of thinking about it, but oddly enough, I found myself on MacMall's site, figuring out how much my dream Mac system would cost me. I do this about once or twice a year. The past couple years, I've been fairly brass tacks about my system, but not this time. This time, I went full-tilt, top of the line everything. My basic dream system, everything I know I'll need, will cost me upwards of $27,000. I went further than that, and figured out how much the ultimate dream system, with software and hardware do do the things I've always wanted to learn (3-D imaging, video editing, web hosting) ran the total up to $40,000.

It was then that I realized that I've reached a point where the things I choose to distract myself from what I'm doing, in this case car shopping, with something strangely parallel to it, like shopping for a new computer. Much like Sunday, where I took a break from doing dishes and found myself scrubbing the toilet. Or like Saturday, where I took a nap about two hours after getting out of bed in the morning. I fear that I'll eventually come full circle and take a break from my work by doing more work.

An open letter to the Golden Compass protesters

To whom it may concern:

I've been reading a lot of articles about the controversy surrounding the Golden Compass. People are upset that it is supposedly anti-Christian, that it is a slight against God, etc. I just wanted to remind you of a simple little thing: It's a fucking movie! Calm down.

I'm not writing this as some sort of anti-Christian heretic, secular progressive, or whatever catchphrase of the nanosecond someone like you resorts to under the circumstances. I just want to make the point that the more you try to keep people from seeing the movie, the more they'll want to see it. Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Ironic that science applies to this, don't you think?

Also, I'm not just talking out of my ass here. Need proof? Five words: The Last Temptation of Christ. Tons of protests worldwide, plus a theater in France showing the film getting bombarded with molotov cocktails. The film made a decent profit and even netted Scorcese a Best Director nomination.

One more word: Dogma. Again, decent profit, particularly since you squeezed Disney's balls tight enough that the film had to be sold to and released by a smaller distributor. Plus, any hit the box office gross took was more than made up for on the DVD sales. Plus, Kevin Smith is still alive and working, despite the death threats he received.

Another example: The Da Vinci Code. Bad news, folks, it's getting a sequel!

I find it funny that the one film regarding Jesus that didn't get any protests (Passion of the Christ) turned out to be one of the bloodiest and most violent movies I've ever seen. Don't get me wrong, I understood the film's message of Jesus' suffering, but for crying out loud, ten overweight hemophiliacs combined, each with high blood pressure, Hepatitis C and every vein opened would bleed less than that.

Sure, you could argue that movies like these are just another example of how Hollywood is completely out of control and has absolutely no regard for common decency. I tend to agree with that viewpoint, you blame this on films like the Golden Compass, while for me it's because Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and Hillary Duff have film careers. And its true that Hollywood doesn't care about either of our opinions. They don't have to. Why? Because we're not the target audiences for the films that make us so upset!

But did you see me protesting House of Wax, Employee of the Month, or...whatever Hillary Duff was in last? No, because I've got better things to do with my life than to attempt to keep people from seeing a movie I don't want to have anything to do with in the first place. Which begs the question: Wouldn't this time spent picketing in front of the multiplex be better spent, I don't know, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, or any of the other things Jesus actually talked about?

Besides, are you so afraid that your faith is that fragile that it will be shattered by listening to a song, watching a movie or reading a book? Well, maybe that's not that much of a stretch considering that your faith is essentially based on one book. Just saying...

Anyway, I'll be seeing the Golden Compass, despite your protests...maybe especially because of your protests. And don't bother telling me that I'm going to Hell or won't be allowed into Heaven because I buy a ticket to a movie you don't agree with. Think about it, regardless of whether I seek forgiveness in your opinion for my sins, if I have to spend eternity with irrational people like you, then your Heaven and my Hell are one and the same.

See you at the theater!

Famous Last Words

"What's the worst that could happen?"

"Hey, look at what I can do!"

"Your husband? Here?!?"

"I'm going with the blue wire."

"This rope bridge seems sturdy enough."

"That bet didn't count! We didn't shake on it."

"I'm getting good at this Russian roulette!"

"I'm gonna teach those neo-Nazi meth-heads a lesson!"

"Landmines, shmandmines."

"Buckle up, I'm gonna try something."

"See, these are friendly scorpions."

"I just love cooking toast while in the bath."

"Wow. When did all of these greasy Italian guys get here?"

"Sword swallowing? I'll try anything once."

"You Al Qaeda types are all alike: Total cowards."

"Stay here, I'll try to reason with the gunman."

"What's with the chainsaw?"

Weekend Update

FRIDAY

I finally got caught up on my work....that is to say that I took it as far as I could. The ball in the clients' court for now.

Friday night I went to a party at a friend's house. Had I known it was a dinner party, I wouldn't have eaten beforehand. Oh, well...It was great just hanging out with them and pound a few glasses of wine. I had to leave early to catch the midnight movie at the Circle Cinema. This time, it was Flash Gordon.

Flash Gordon is one of those movies that I remember loving when I was a kid, and I now know that I can enjoy it as an adult, but for the opposite reasons. I found myself just marveling at how unbelievably cheesy the film is. Thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000, I've developed a love for the unbelievably cheesy. This particular viewing also allowed me to witness the greatest joke I've ever heard thrown back at the movie screen. When Flash is on the forest "planet", Timothy Dalton comes out and asks, "Do you know where you are?" From the front of the theater, someone belted out, "YOU'RE IN THE JUNGLE, BABY!" No one could hear a line of dialog from the movie for at least two minutes because we were laughing so hard.

SATURDAY

I slept in until around noon, and stayed in my pajamas until about six. Just a lazy day.

At night, I went to see Larkin down at Arnie's. It wasn't a typical crowd for a Larkin gig, but it was still a lot of fun. Hanging out at Arnie's, I gotta admit, is becoming much more fun since I stopped working the door. However, its a tough habit to break. I found myself a couple of times scanning the crowd, making sure no one was making any trouble.

I started to get really tired around one, but decided to stick around and close the bar down. I started to get my second wind around the time I was leaving, so I went home and stayed up for a while longer and did a bit of writing.

SUNDAY

I only had three things to do today: Laundry, dishes and pay rent. Those things temporarily took a back seat when Mary and Ivy invited me to a late breakfast at Blue Dome. The four cups of coffee I had there gave me the energy I needed to do the three things I had to do today.

Now, I'm just surfing the web and killing time before dinner.