Ash

Well my Saturday is screwed. I've been drafted into title work because I have some experience with the special hell that is putting down tile. After gods only know how many hours to do my mom's bathroom I'll be on the bad side of dead.

Not enough with grandpa being hell again or my relative down the road needing a ride because he's too damn cheap to get a cab. Oh no I get yet another day that I have to give to the family. Sure the chances are good I just would have screwed up my Saturday on my own since I seem to have so much trouble with being social and fun again. But still I'd like to be able to blame myself for not having a rewarding social life instead of having to blame my family.

Then again there is also food involved. Food that I didn't cook myself. Not that my cooking is bad it's just not as much fun when you know exactly what you are having instead of the randomness of what someone else might be cooking.

It's very rare these days for me to leave a movie happy and feeling like I've got my money's worth, but wow Zombieland just blew my butt away.

Really sort of hard to talk about the film without giving too much away and lots of the fun is the unexpected. But it was one of those rare production teams that really seemed to understand the art that is a zombie movie. You need characters that people will care about so there is that nice tension to the whole film of oh crap they might get killed. You need some really kick ass make up people that can make some cool as hell zombies. And you need really great zombie kills. Holy crap does this movie totally deliver on some really great zombie kills.

Heck as an added bonus they threw in some one liners that were so great you'd think you jumped on the time machine back to the 80's when stars got to say cool things instead of dumb shit they say in movies now. Oh and can't spoil it but you will be saying no damn way when you see who is in this film if you don't read any spoilers before you go.

Normally I'm not much of a you must see this movie sort of person, but this one you just have to see. If you've ever liked any zombie movies this one has all you could have ever asked for and then some. Even some nice nods to other zombie films for people like me who just can't say no to a zombie movie.

Out of a crappy movie year it's just so amazing to find a film that ranks up there as one of the best films I've ever seen in any year.

I decided to get one of those portable party platter things. Oh man that's got to be one of the best $5 things I ever got because it takes the trouble out of taking snack foods to a party. Got two different types of boneless hot wings, mozzarella bites, and dipping sauce all in one easy to carry container. All of got snacked on really hard so I think it all went over well.

For a family party it all went pretty well. The stew came out well and my brother Brian got to scare some people with his gorilla costume he got.

The only bad part with having it late in the day like they did is that it seemed to really take up my Saturday. Now I'm not really feeling like doing much today because I dread Monday. I don't mind when there is something to do at work but when it gets down to clean, clean, and then clean the stuff you just cleaned I hate going to work. Nothing worse than long week of nothing but cleaning when we've already got our wait week out of the way and could just be sent home to draw.

I don't know maybe it's just too much boredom to life right now since nothing exciting is really happening at home, at work, in game, in movies, in toys, or anything else right now. I guess I just need to find something to get excited about in the near future because all the stuff to be excited about seems to be some time next year. Of course given what a horrible year it's been thanks to the economy tanking maybe I shouldn't expect much out of the rest of this year.

I know I've been on this topic like crazy this summer, but it's a slow week and I'm pissed off again.

I rented X-Men Origins Wolverine from Netflix and somehow I still feel ripped off. My gods have all the artist packed up and left Hollywood because it's a damn shame anyone would crap shit like that out and then put their name on it. You'd think after the horror that was the steaming pile of X-Men 3 they could get a smegging clue, but no they shoved out another turd of a movie.

Casting, yea they figured that out pretty good but everything else is just a Sci Fi movie of the week.

I know there was a writers strike but my gods a small child could tell you a better story than whatever fucktard got paid to write Wolverine. In a world overflowing with mutant powers and magic the best thing you can come with to get rid of a characters memory is to shoot them in the head. What the fucking hell do they even know that memory is stored in different parts of the brain so how are you going to get lucky and only hit the parts you need and not the part where he remembers how to wipe his own butt. And that whole Weapon 11 bit, who pulled that crap out of their ass? So now Deadpool has all these powers that he never had before and somehow the world's now most powerful mutant never shows up anywhere but this movie?

CGI what a damn joke. I'd expect crap like that on Sci Fi but to call that effects for a big summer action film is a really bad joke.

Gods damn it I can only hope that people with some skill at making summer action films are doing the work for next summer because too much shit was just phoned in this summers. They spent millions and millions on horrible ass films and yet the $70 million Inglourious Basterds and the $30 million District 9 far outshined anything the $150 million Wolverine, $200 Transformers, or $175 million GI Joe could do. A damn shame that if you want to be entertained these day you have to find the rebels who work outside of the formulaic Hollywood system that has become super bland as they try to be all things to all viewers and fails to have any artistic balls to them.

I must be getting old because I just can't take stupid people like I used to.

Like the people who throw around the terms Nazi and Hitler. I could sort of take the ignorance at first but my gods the idiots just go smegging overboard with it so now anyone who does anything you don't like or doesn't do what you wanted them to do is either a Nazi or Hitler. It's gotten so bad even Megan Fox from Transformers called director Micheal Bay a Hitler. Yes he's the world's biggest asshole and he's out to slaughter film making by making films for the stupidest people that wander into a movie theater but the man is no Hitler. People really need some gods damn sense slapped into them if they can't remember the horrors of Nazi Germany.

I'm also getting tired of people who have freedom of speech screaming that they are being oppressed. You aren't being oppressed you stupid ignorant sack of shit. You lost a fucking election and now your party isn't in power. But no one is turning the hoses on you, turning the dogs loose on you, or shooting you when you freely assemble and use your First Amendment rights. I swear we need to ship these stupid fuckers off to North Korea for a while to find out just what the hell oppression really is.

Same goes for the terms socialist and fascist. I swear at least 90% of the people throwing the term around really don't understand what in the terms mean if they think it fits any of our elected officials. America is the land of moderates with just a sprinkling of liberalism or conservatism to give the two party system a bit of flavor.

America is still the greatest nation going today even if it's filled to overflowing with some of the stupidest people to have ever walked the face of the Earth. It's really too bad we can't ship off the dumbest of the dumb so we could enjoy what we have with a little peace, quite, and civility.

Hey I'm doing the cut because everyone in the world is doing their Dragon Con posts and if people weren't interested this saves them so room on their friends page. If you are that bored to read my rambling then read on ( Read more... )

Got the crap in the car and the cats taken care of so it's only a few last things and I'm out of here. I will not be able to post for several days because it's going to be several days without a computer or any form of communication device.

But all this is a good thing for me. It's rather odd but out of all the strange and wonderful places I've been in this big wonderful world of ours Dragon Con is the only place where I feel like I totally belong. It's not that people don't like me other places and other places aren't interesting but there is just something about Dragon where I feel I can totally just be me no matter what I might want me to be. Ha ha, sort of odd that I'll wear masks at Dragon and yet all the day to day masks or the masks I have to wear around others can come off at Dragon.

Provided I survive the trip everything should go well. Still a little unsure on getting it all into a car and three people, but heck I can worry on Tuesday all my trouble are gone until then.

I finished off the costumes over the weekend. Now it's just the paranoia until Con time. I'm not one of those center of attention people but I do like when my hard work on a costume pays off with a hey nice costume commit. Yes I know it's Dragon Con with some insane costumes but still you like at least some commits for being a creative little bastard on a very tight budget. Thing is I never know what will work. Luffie D Monkey got almost no commits even though it was a popular show on Cartoon Network late at night. On the other hand my Hiro costume from Heroes got far more attention than I could have dreamed. I hope my gamble on GI Joe and Cobra costumes will pay off so it was not work for nothing.

Got all my stuff packed and I think the tool box full of food might be one of my better ideas. It's nothing that has to be refrigerated, but it seem like with a way to keep things from getting squished it just works better than the back pack idea. I could carry the Spam singles in the backpack but bread would have been a problem so it seems like problem solved and not taking up too much space.

I guess I'm just that weird mix of pre-con excitement and nervousness. But then that's life isn't it since you never really know what will go better than expected and what just doesn't go according to plan. Not that I really have much in the way of plans since I just sort of let things happen as they will happen.

Gods though those last 20 hours of work will just drag ass over the next two days. It's been forever since I missed a scheduled work day for anything so it's nice to get a vacation day after the other bungholes have been laying out left and right all year.

I guess maybe it's my own darn fault for taking a year off but I find it the weekend before and me still elbow deep in costuming work.

Perhaps if I was one of those people who could just plop down the big money for a nice pre-made costumes it wouldn't be work work work before a con, but no I have to make something that is slightly different by corrupting actual things into costumes. Not prize winning costumes mind you because it's Dragon Con and lets face it there are people with tons more talent than me when it comes to costuming, but I do like to be a least a step above the people who didn't put any actual work into their costume.

I haven't gotten Spider bad yet with it, but I'm still managing to pull off three GI Joe and Cobra themed costumes this year. I guess the Cobra blue shirt costume doesn't really count since I've had it done for years but like Storm Troopers once you've become one of the blue shirts you just sort of have to do the costume each year. The other two costumes are new though and the first place I will have them out.

Fingers crossed they are good enough for at least a little bit of attention. If nothing else it's an excellent way to run into other GI Joe and Cobra fans without having to wear the same costume every night. Of course even when I've got the last bit sewed or painted there is still the tough question of which costume for which night.

Grandpa was pretty bad Friday so I decided to catch a movie to clear my mind.

Inglourious Basterds really managed to bring back a lot of the old Quentin Tarantino. None of this playing by the Hollywood rules Tarantino just goes with what he thinks will be different and that will tell the story in a way that captures your attention better than if it tried to be like every other film. It's also back to the topic of revenge which he handles so well as a director. I can see how his alternate history might throw some people off but I've been an alternate history fan for years so it was my sort of thing. If you hate Nazis then there is just something satisfying about seeing Nazis get what's coming to them instead of getting to take a cowards way out.

Saturday was the chance to get out and catch up with some of my kinky peeps. I kind of hate being the only member so it was nice to have a few other old days people there as well. Not that I don't like new people, new people are fine but I like to be able to just blend in and being point out as the old guy makes it hard to blend in. Also really nice to see friends that I haven't seen in forever. Ah heck I even managed to stumble into a bit of play. Nah, I'm kidding about a little play she hits nice and hard.

I needed to get stuff done today but sadly I spent far too much of the day getting a character up to level 74 because you are just so limited in World of Warcraft when you don't have easy access to one of the cities.

I seem to have fallen into one of those no energy phases.

My weekend just didn't seem like I had a weekend at all even though I did get a few things done. I got in District 9 so I wouldn't be the only geek who had not seen it. Got the grass mowed. Starting getting some things I'd need for the trip. Worked on customizing some geek stuff. It's like I got stuff done and yet oddly it didn't feel like I had accomplished much and time was just slipping threw my fingers.

My mood was bad with work. Not that work was really any different Monday than any other day but my attitude was just bad. Perhaps because I was feeling rather sick.

Today was taking the car for it's inspection which it managed to pass. Still the whole inspection thing just really pisses me off because it's really nothing more than yet another tax forced upon people who drive. The bad part is it's a tax you have to drive somewhere to pay but with the law the way it is now no inspection no plate renewal. Which also just another tax to hurt the little person.

Now that I have to drive three times as far to work because of road construction I'm just a big ball of pissed off at the world. But a big ball of pissed off that feels to damn drained and tired to do a damn thing about it.

Some how I survived a crappy week at work. It was doing the same thing to the same sort of part all week long and that kind of stuff drives me crazy. Yea yea, I know I mostly make bolts, but at least there are different lengths and such to break things up a bit. Insanely hot enough to make you sick the first part of the week but at least the second half was cooler.

Took my granddad to the winery for his birthday. He's the type who just doesn't go out to do different things so it's up to someone like me to find him things he has done like sample wine at a winery. Ended up getting him a bottle of their Spring blend and bottle of the blackberry because it helps your stomach or something. I always drink wine to get hammered so I don't know about the positive aspects. That had him happy for a while but it didn't take long for him to go back to his fussing and cussing again. Damn he's the hardest person I know to make happy. At 83 you'd think you'd want to enjoy whatever time you have left instead of fussing and carrying on all the time.

I think I've got the Dragon Con stuff worked out now. I'm not a planning type of person so the worst thing in the world is to ask me to plan anything, but things seem to be on track. Which is good because I took my break but there is a part of me that really wants to jump back into the madness since there the new GI Joe movie out this year and it will make it so much easier to find more Joe and Cobra peeps now.

Speaking of which most of my free time lately has been caught up with all the news and pictures out of the GI Joe convention. I'm going to be so damn broke next year. They seem to be taking a page from anime with the near future setting so they showed off a motorcycle that turns into armor for a figure like the Robotech stuff. A Duke figure that looks like it should be out of Predator, and even a Cobra trooper that has wings around it like one of the Gundams. Oh it's so great to be a fan right now but also kind of bad because money and space are getting hard to come by. Damn even a brand new HISS tank design next year with work treads.

Still need to mow the grass and still need to gather crap in World of Warcraft so I can build Jeeves without it costing me an arm and a leg in gold. If I want to blow some gold I've got alts to blow it on.

Somehow I find myself stuck in one of those situations I find myself stuck in far too often.

It's just looking like I'm not going to be able to handle the money aspect of Dragon Con this year. Part of it is a change in plans I didn't know about in advanced. The other part is all those months of short time at work have left me without any damn money after attempting to catch things up after so long a period of being short on cash. I've some how managed to catch bills up but I'm still hemorrhaging cash from all the unexpected shit like the dentist and my car blowing up at last. I've still got one more birthday, a car inspection, and the tag to pay out this month as well.

I really hate to bail at such a late date, but I've got that weird honor thing that just will not let me mooch off my friends. As nice as it would be to get away to Dragon Con there is a part of me that just doesn't know if it can deal with the bill backing up again and all the stress of places calling because I've got bills that are behind. I've already got the stress of things could slow down again at work making the struggle even harder.

I just really don't know what to do for sure, but I also don't have the luxury of a lot of time to figure out what I should do.

Saturday I got to see GI Joe. I guess my luck is fairly good there because it was more Mummy and lot less Van Helsing. Not to say that Rise of Cobra is a very good film but it did manage to capture the popcorn action movie roller coaster feel that other films missed the mark on this year. Also just something fun about the level of destruction and the dynamic flow of the action. The fun of good guys that capture the bad guys instead of the over used lets be all gritty by killing off all the bad guys. Some hot women don't hurt the mix either.

Had to run some old stuff in World of Warcraft just to get the plans to make the robots that I'll need to make the new robot that I want to make. Haven't even thought about all I will have to do just to make Jeeves, but I'm just a damn fool who wants to do the odd parts of the game.

I was going to just give my nephew some money to go to the movies with for his birthday since I don't know which theater him and his girlfriend like going to. But when I was looking for some stuff for possible costume ideas some shirts just caught my eye. One was a nice black long sleeve shirt with some wings on the back if you look closely enough which I thought would fit my nephew's goth side. The other shirt was a white short sleeve one that fits his surfer side. Yes my whole damn family is a mixed up crazy lot of buggers. But on the bright side I think he liked both shirts even if his girlfriend has to be the one to make him wear the button up one.

Starting to catch up on True Blood season one which should only take forever with Netflix since HBO only puts two episodes per disk on their releases.

Found out I need to make some changes to my Dragon Con plans. Which is odd considering I consist of mostly no plans at all but I still depend greatly on others for some things so I have to make sure what little I have in the way of plans match up with those plans. Which is a bit hard because well I tend to drift in and out of other people's lives.

Ouch and it is due to be super hot today so that will make it a hell day at work and I still don't have the yard mowed. Not sure when I'll be able to work in some mowing.

Seems like I stay on the topic of bad luck but that's mostly the luck I've been having. Even when I seem to get a break and luck starts to go my way it's only setting me up to fall right on my face yet again.

The car was a pain in the ass. I was tired of spongy breaks and having to slide to a stop so I went ahead and got a master cylinder for the breaks. It seemed I was in luck as the cheap part was in stock. I take the old master cylinder off and yet again luck seems to have picked up because the old rusted nuts came off easier than expected. Then bad luck hit as no breaks at all. It wasn't until Friday afternoon when my brother Bret could help me that I had breaks again. But at least it's both front and back breaks now instead of just back breaks.

Work has been like that as well. I think I get a break only to set up more trouble. I've jumped back and forth so much between being in the shit house and being the golden child so much I just don't know what work thinks of me or what I think of work. Just glad the damn thing ended.

I was excited about a patch for World of Warcraft but damn I hardly have time to play and when I do play it seems like work with having to drag out characters I was going to put into semi-retirement until I had time to mess with them.

Missed the cheap showings of GI Joe today by just a matter of minutes.

People think there is something wrong with me just because I'm striving towards a life of quite contentment. I think it's something with our culture that just says loud and happy 24/7 with no time for the enjoyment of quite and letting the world sit still for a little bit. I guess on the bright side given some of the things people have said about me in the past few weeks perhaps I'm a better Buddhist than I thought.

I was feeling rather bad about missing Big Mamma's this weekend because it was another chance at being social lost. Then I got into an internet argument with a Transformers fan who claimed Revenge of the Fallen deserved to be a popular film. That's when it hit me that I don't have much social contact because I'm not the general public.

I mean just look at the general public. They stuff their little faces at McDonalds day after day after day, don't exercise and then get all up set when they are obese and riddled with heath problems that come from eating bad all the time and not exercising. Or look how the general public just ate up Kelly Pickler's I'm pants on head retarded thing. The girl acts dumb as a brick and the general public falls all over itself to buy her songs. The general public thinks neon colored rubber shoes or pajama bottoms are good attire to wear to Wal-Mart. Look at how we get things like Sarah Palin being a vice presidential choice not for her politics but because she can appeal to dumb people who feel somehow threatened by smart people. Or how it's 2009 and people still get judged on the color of their skin.

No I'm afraid I'm just not general public material which is why my social circles consist of people who are also not general public material. For some reason I can only enjoy the company of people who think for the themselves rather than to be general public sheep slavishly following the trend of the day.

So in a world rapidly becoming like the world in Idiocracy perhaps Revenge of the Fallen does deserve to be popular since it hits all the lowest common denominators of what make the general public such a pack of total morons. Perhaps I'm just an elitist asshole but perhaps the world needs more elitist assholes to slam a spark of intelligence and taste back into a world rapidly heading toward new levels of stupid, tasteless, and tacky.

Seems like my streak of bad luck just doesn't want to end.

Another rotten ass night at work but I think I over did thing and with the insane humidity well that just wasn't very good. So exhausted and drained when I got home I couldn't even stand in the shower I had to just sit in the shower, but good thing I've seen how the Japanese clean up so I managed to get clean even if it was a standing clean. Even before bed I could already tell I was sick.

Then that pointy eared devil Chewy wakes me up at about 7:00 in the morning. Oh lucky lucky me I'm still sick. But now I'm sick and I'm awake too early. But at least I get to finish off episode 3 of Torchwood Children of Earth so I can wait on disk two. I'm starting to think with my bad idea to be cheap with only one disk at the time maybe I should just pony up for the two disk plan and save some headaches about most of the stuff I'm catching up on being more than one disk.

Maybe I could have just gone back to bed to be sick but shit it's grandparent day. So even though food was a horrible idea I still managed to keep some food down and walk all over the grocery store because I'm a smeg head who loves his grandparents.

At least I'm not sick now, but damn the exhaustion is brutal. Between exhaustion, money blues, and not having total confidence in the car I think I might be in for this weekend even though I want to bust out of the shell a bit to be at least somewhat social. I may not be the most social creature on the planet but at least I do make some attempts and that should count for at least something.

Maybe I just need some rest and recovery while I wait for the cycles to turn toward something more positive.

Damn things just don't seem like they want to swing my way lately.

Friday I found one of my tires was flat because the front tires had dry rotted. Not only did that mean that I would have to replace tires shooting some plans all to hell but with without tires in good shape I'd have to pass up a sale on GI Joe toys at Toys R Us. I know some fans are a bit upset that the figures aren't 80's enough but I like the new look.

Being broke and without tires I just stayed home all weekend screwing around with World of Warcraft. Yea I feel like a damn winner.

Monday I woke up sick but still had to face the tire place. As luck would have it they didn't have my size in stock. Still sick but I really need groceries if I was going to work this week. Even though I still felt bad I went into work and damn if those son of bitches didn't screw me into all the hard work.

Same shit with Tuesday on I felt a bit better so it was only get worn totally smegging down with crappy work and having to fight insane humidity.

So today instead of getting to set down and watch Torchwood Children of Earth that came from Netflix I had to go back to the tire place and wait for my spot in line. I don't really mind the waiting I just really didn't want to go to town today I just wanted a bit of rest that I seem unlikely to get this week.

Guess I'll have to skip Big Mamma's since I'm just so broke and so exhausted. If I can just make it to Friday and get the grandparents gone I think I'm just going to collapse for a few days because I've been as stressed out and worn out as I can go for now.

I'll admit at first I was a little worried about the GI Joe movie but this and some other clips have me excited as hell about the movie. Looks like the combination of fun and action that the other action films haven't managed to find this summer.