The San Diego Reader

The San Diego Reader is a big fucking waste of time. I don't even know why I pick it up anymore. If they're not filling it with the diary/blog bullshit of this retarded chick, they're dedicating a full article to big fat guys in swimming trunks. Christ. The last good thing I read in the Reader was the article about Neil Heddings, (of whom there is very little information about online, sadly), which was one of the best articles I've ever read, really, aside from the twenty pages about his skateboarding career that I didn't give a shit about.

Blade Trinity Trailer

I guess this trailer is before Spider-Man 2.

I have one thing to say regarding to this trailer:

RYAN FUCKING REYNOLDS!!!!!!!! w00t!

AND PARKER POSEY!!! OMG!!!

I could cry. That was three things, sorry.

Woohoo

My head hurts, and I think I'm going to bed. Just want to give a big "Woohoo" to having completed the editing/rewriting process on my latest short fiction. Thanks to Zemo/Tyler being my editor. It'll probably go up on a new dedicated fiction section of this site tomorrow night if I get around to doing it. Now is time for bed, and mucho happy dreams.

SAVED!: CAP Media Analysis Report

Man, I couldn't wait for the guy at CAPAlert to tear apart Saved! I knew he'd have a field day with it. He does, but not as much as I'd hope. What pisses me off, and I'm almost tempted to email him about it, is that he gets so many things wrong. He attributes quotes to wrong people, he doesn't link characters in different scenes together, all in all I guess his note-taking and memory skills are completely wiped out by his religious zeal. Kind of sad, how can people take you seriously if you can't even remember the movie? Whatever, I guess when you're a bigot, specifics don't matter as much as just getting your fucked up point of view across.

Also, although I haven't read any other CAP reviews regarding the subject matter, I think we finally got a decent admition to the CAP author being a complete and total homophobe... Course, you'd have to be if the Bible said so, right? Bigots are bad enough, but judgemental ignorant bigots are the worst.

The DIS Discussion Forums - Britney's Pregnant

Getting a boatload of hits from this site. Guess some television show said that Britney Spears may be pregnant and so these people on this forum did a Google for something really obscure like "Britney's pregnant" you, of course, get an semi-old EB post.

Also, if you search for "shit biscuit" guess whoes site you get? So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised I'm #1 for something like "Hahaha Blue." Even better is the fact that I'm #1 any time you type in those classic Peter Gabriel lyrics from Say Anything, "Love I get so lost sometimes." Google <3 The Electric Biscuit.

I like, totally, want to go back to sleep.

Everything Hurts

I'm holding a dog for Emily, (who is just the bestest most wonderful tech EVER, just so she reads that), and she keeps cringing every time she has to do something to the dog. She says to me, "Gosh, everything looks like it hurts."

"Everything does hurt. He's old. Just think about how you feel now in comparison to how you did at sixteen. Doesn't everything hurt more now? Just imagine how you'll feel at eighty," I respond.

"Yeah... thanks for making me think about that."

New Fiction

I wrote the longest, and probably best, story I've ever written last night. I wish I could post it here right now, but I found an editor and we're about 1/4th of the way through revising it. It's good stuff. About four full single-spaced pages, will probably expand to more. I dig it. It's disturbing, everyone says. All the better! Just wanted to mention it since I'm so proud of it.

The Minus Man, by Lew McCreary

Here's the best example I have of a movie that was based on a book that wasn't ruined by reading the book. I'll be mentioning both the movie and book here, so think of this as a review of both. I saw the movie a year or two ago and loved it. In the movie, Owen Wilson plays a serial killer named Vann Siegert who travels aimlessly and posions people. They seemingly fall asleep only to never wake up ever again. He's a nice guy, looks just like everyone else is. He disarms everyone he meets with his smile.

The movie probably helped me read the book. Although the two almost seemingly have nothing in common in some cases, Owen Wilson so completely owns the character of Vann Siegert that it's hard to imagine anyone else but him as you're reading. The movie seems to borrow the essential idea of the novel, and makes it's own movie out of it. Certain scenes are taken almost directly from the book, and entire concepts are created for it alone. There are many, innumeral differences and I can't even begin to count them all, but they don't matter.

I can ramble on and on but there's no reason. I suggest you see the movie and then read the book. The movie in the present of the book, and the book is about the past and the present. There are several differences in the book that I think they left out of the movie to make the movie more "myserious" and that's almost a fault, but it all works.

The Official Countdown Site to Hermione's 18th Birthday

This is just sick. Pathetic, and sick. Extra pathetic.

Here's a Tip for Celebrities

If you're any sort of famous at any point in your life, please don't (or do) video tape yourself having sex. Eventually it will be leaked by someone and soon you'll have tons of horny people masturbating over your most intimate moments.

The Jenna Lewis Wedding Night tape is like super hot, but I feel like such a dirty voyeur because they are obviously two people who are ridiculously in love with eachother, or were at the time, and had just gotten married. Like, he's an absolute dick and couldn't understand why, and she doesn't mind too much but you can see the look of frustration in her eyes at certain points. It's kind of cool. Cut out all the sex and you have an interesting look at a couple's sexual mentalities and how they react to eachother.

The Severina sex video is insane. That's all I can say about that.

RIP Sierra

More depressing news for the industry, Vivendi Universal Games has cut 350 staff and shut down Seattle-based Sierra. The venerable games company created some of the most popular action and adventure games in the 80's. The Sierra brand will live on in name only and projects tied to the Sierra pipeline, Half-Life 2, Ground Control II and Tribes: Vengeance are already being developed by other teams within Vivendi. Also affected by the restructuring, the Hoyle brand of card and board games have been canceled.

So that pretty much means there will never be another Leisure Suit Larry game, huh? Well, I guess that sucks.

Blah blah blah, bitch bitch bitch, blah blah.

Someone Give This Man an Award

Colin Farrell's first full frontal movie scene has been cut by worried film bosses - after test audiences were transfixed by the size of his manhood.

The hunk disrobed for scenes in upcoming drama A Home at the End of the World, but after seeing the stunned reaction of viewers at a recent screening, chiefs decided to chop the naughty images. A source tells British newspaper the Sun, "All you could hear were gasps when Colin appeared in his full frontal pose. The women were over-excited and the men looked really uncomfortable. It was such a sight it made it difficult to concentrate on the plot, so the decision was made to get rid of it."

Even director Michael Mayer admits, "It was distracting."

JobPredictor

Brad Root, Your ideal job is a Emperor of all the world.
Brad, Your ideal job is a Church Minister.

Hmm.

This First Mutant Walks Among Us?

Somewhere in Berlin, Germany, is a baby Superman, born with bulging arm and leg muscles.

Not yet 5, he can hold 3-kilogram (6.6-pound) weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat.

DNA testing showed why: the boy has a very rare genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth.

The discovery, reported today in New England Journal of Medicine, represents the first documented human case of such a mutation.

Good Ol' Syphilis

So, for those of you who remember my blood donation, Red Cross sent me a letter in the mail along with a bunch of test results. They regretfully informed me that they couldn't use my blood because they tested my blood and I came back positive for syphilis. So, they tested my blood again, and it came back negative for syphilis. They say it's highly unlikely that I have syphilis, because usually inconsistant results are the byproduct of errors in the testing process. Oh well!

I Love Death - Flash Video

This is really good. Sad, but really good.

(amiantos) kids are fucking retarded
(amiantos) if i was half the prick that the majority of freshmen highschoolers i encounter online are, i am so sorry to everyone in the world
(amiantos) talk about know it all little son of bitches prickheads from hell
(amiantos) it's like "I'm like so totally fifteen, I'm so old and fucking wise, I own you"
(iakona) haha
(iakona) dude, to be 15 again
(amiantos) and I'm like "you are so stupid. I'll admit I was half as retarded as you when I was fifteen but, chrsit, just listen to me: YOU'RE WRONG, ALL WRONG"
(amiantos) but then they go "but you're only 19, how can you have any idea?"
(amiantos) they just don't understand
(amiantos) i admit at nineteen I prob have no right to bitch about the horrors of the universe but I certainly know to preach that you know everything at 15 is super retarded
(amiantos) the whole "I hate my parents cos they dont let me go out at night" thing is so stupid looking back on it
(iakona) yeah i never hated my parents.. just got pissed the fuck off sometimes
(amiantos) if you could injecting knowing into kid's heads, just so they'd understand, the world would be a better place. if every 15 year old was as "wise and mature" as they say they are, there would be no problems in the world
(amiantos) teenage pregnancy == GONE, teenage drug use == GONE
(amiantos) just inject a little intelligence into every teenager
(amiantos) i wouldn't have dropped out of highschool had I known what I know now
(iakona) the world wouldnt be right without punk ass kids
(amiantos) had someone properly warned me, and I may be one of the people who gets to blame his mistakes on others, i probably wouldnt have fucked up as bad as i did
(amiantos) but no, i surrounded myself with other punk ass kids who encouraged me to be a fuckin moron
(amiantos) now, here i am. nuff said.
(amiantos) kill them. kill them all.
(iakona) haha dude, that was the past
(iakona) who gives a fuck... cant do anything about it now
(iakona) live and learn
(amiantos) yes but i grew up reading science fiction so i always foster this false belief that time travel will be possible and I'll wait until the day I die for the day in which I can go back and fix all my fuck ups
(amiantos) so I can't let go of the past because I will always hope that one day I can change it

Somewhere Deep Inside

He eyes himeself unknowningly in the mirror. He sees some version of himself, the same one that everyone else sees, but he feels like he's looking at someone else. Sure, he's in the body he's looking at, but he feels like he's peering outward through a mask, the true version of himself is buried somewhere deep inside. He's been trapped in this mask for so long that he can't remember who he really is. He's disolved into what everyone thinks he is. He's forgotten what he really is. He looks up and down, checking himself out of the corner of his eyes. Still, nothing changes. He wills himself out of existence, and for the first time, it works.

My Prize

I would love you like no other before me. I'd kneel at your feet and pray to you. I would worship you like the goddess you are. I'd climb to the top of the highest mountain and sing your praises to the vast oceans before me, listening or not, they'd hear me, I wouldn't let them shut their ears. I would slaughter thousands of people just to find you.

I'd tear the flesh off your face with my teeth. Crush your windpipe with my heel. I'd cut your muscle into cubes and feast on them after I cooked them in a small skillet. Your eyeballs would float loosely at the bottom of my martini glass while I laughed with unknowning, unaware, and uncaring guests. Totally unaware of your disappearance, they'd chat freely about how they thought I should get rid of you. "She's just a nuisance, " they'd say. I'd cry a little bit to keep a good show, but inside, I'd be laughing. Then, I'd swallow your eye.

I'm only a bit drunk. My prize is a bottle of Bacardi! Goodness gracious me, what have I done? Jesus loves you.

Good Luck on the Other Side

I’ve got something special planned for the both of us tonight. The idea came to me suddenly yesterday due to an expected occurrence and it stayed with me, rattling around in my brain until I decided to follow through with it. I’m not sure whether or not it’s the most mature thing for me to do at this point, but I don’t think I’m too concerned.

She arrives and I open the door for her. I kiss her gently and act like nothing is the matter, and I suppose nothing will be the matter soon. I lead her over to the couch, and I’ve already set up two glasses of coffee and some decorated cookies just to make the scene as typical as possible. Underneath the glass of coffee is a letter I’ve written.

I say to her, “Hon, I figured since today is our two year anniversary, I’d do something special for you, so I wrote you this letter and I’d like you to read it.”

She picks up her cup of coffee and takes a sip as she grabs the letter out from underneath it. She starts to read it. It says,

My Love,

I never thought we’d make it this far, but we have. I’ve had a wonderful two years and I hope you have, too. I look forward to many more happy years after this, as well. I never thought I could love someone as much as you, much less open myself up to someone. Before I met you, I started to feel like I’d never find anyone who’d possibly understand me or know me in any way. I thought that I was actually disappearing; the person I really was seemed to be vanishing underneath what people thought I was, but you pulled me out of that. Your love has given me strength beyond what I thought was physically and emotionally possible for me to possess.

The strength you have given me is exactly what has given me the power to do this today. I never thought that I would catch you cheating on me, but you did, much less with my best friend, of all people. I was going to ask him to be the best man at what I had hoped would be our wedding. I was going to propose to you today, but I guess that’s a little late.

You’re probably already feeling the effects of the poison I slipped into your coffee. This would have gone really badly had you not stupidly sipped the coffee before you read the letter, but since we did this dance last anniversary I knew you’d go for the coffee before you read the letter.

With all of my love, good luck on the other side.

She finishes reading it and looks at me, and I smile back at her. She tried to open her mouth, but the poison has already taken her voice. Her eyes become glassy, almost on the verge of tears, but the poison stops that before they even have a chance to release. I stand up and pull the letter out from her clenched fingers, and run my fingers through her hair. Her head rolls forward and her body almost slumps forward, but I catch my fingers in her collar and push her back so she’s leaning on the back of the couch. A gasp escapes her throat, but it’s just her lungs venting, nothing that has any meaning behind it. No last words for her, not that I think she deserves any. No chance to explain herself.

I'm not sure what's happening. Woke up about twenty minutes ago to the sound of people screaming and moaning. The power was off, so my alarm clock didn't go off at the correct time. The power seems to be going out intermittenly, my alarm clock didn't go off at the right time. I'm trying to type this up as fast as possible before the power cuts out again. I looked out my window and the house across from me is on fire, along with a car in the street, it looks like someone might be inside of it, and there's people circling around it like a dying beast, not trying to help or anything. I think I'm just going to stay in here for a while. I hear sirens, but they seem to be getting further away rather than getting closer.

Little Bits of Me

Kind of scary but it's amazing how little bits of me are scattered across the internet. If you know what to search for on Google, you can find things I've written elsewhere on pages for many years ago. Kind of frightening in a way.

I want to laugh. I want to laugh. I want to laugh.

Hay guys!

SAUSAGE PARTY!

'Donnie Darko' to be re-released

I didn't even know about this. I feel pathetic. Supah Sweet!

Oh, Jesus.

Can she try any harder for attention? Course, look, I'm giving it to her. Fucking Madonna.

Gmail Invites

I have six Gmail invites and apparently nothing to do with them. Who wants to be on Gmail? You can leave me your address (user AT domain DOT com, to spam block it) in the comments and I'll get back to you, I guess.

My Pretty Sweet Weekend

Originally I wasn't going to go up to LA this weekend. I had planned on it, but I could never get Greg to call me back so I was going to call it all off. Also, I had that Doxie I was fostering so I figured it'd be a good idea to just forget all about going to LA and dragging Greg to see Saved!, but when I found out that Greg did indeed get all my calls and kept his time free to hang with me, I figured I'd go.

I tried to drop the Doxie off at work, but they were severely full up and had no room for her, so I had to take her to LA with me. By the time I left from work, it was 4:30pm and I was stuck in traffic with the Doxie sleeping in my lap until 7:00pm. I had dinner with my parents, and then picked Greg up and we caught Saved! at 9:30pm.

When we got out of the movie, I noticed some sort of cute chicks and suggested to Greg that we try to pick up on them. He disagreed with me, saying something like, "But for all we know they're probably fifteen." I replied, "And...?" But Greg's utter fear of trying to pick up on chicks won me over and we drove away.

There really isn't anything to do in the Whittier area much after 10pm at night. We drove to Uptown, but no one was up there. I called up Jay, and he suggested we go play pool, so we picked him up and did that. I'd never played pool before, but I was owning ass for the first five minutes. Then, I started to suck really badly. That happened the first time I ever bowled. Strikes after strikes, then utter failure. Guess my beginners luck is very shortlived.

We got out of the pool hall at about one in the morning. We drove down to a 24 resturant in the area called Norms and hung out there drinking coffee and being obnoxious, (I left a pretty good sized tip to make up for it), for about an hour or so.

When we left, we decided to drive Turnbull Canyon. I decided I should introduce them to the "Witch's House" which is really just this old lot on the very top of a hill that had burned down a long time ago and never got rebuilt. I couldn't get either Jay or Greg to go much further than past the road blockade. They were too scared, but I admit I was a little iffy about it too, since it was a very cloudy night, it was sprinkling a bit, and there was no natural light to speak of. It was severely creepy. Natural silence, after growing up used to city noise, is a very scary thing.

Jay and I dropped Greg off at about three in the morning. I came back to Jay's house and he beat my ass in Halo for a while, then I tried to go to sleep. Only not to be able to. I played GTA: Vice City for about two hours until I passed out at 6:00am.

When I woke up at 2:00pm, I decided that I needed to buy this magazine with Jena Malone in it that I had seen the previous night but not boughten. We drove to Puente Hills, to the Barnes & Noble there, so I could buy the magazine (Bust) and the last issue of Adbusters that deals with America's military horrors or something along those lines. I also got a pretty cheap book that is an author's guide to revising fiction, since my main problem with writing fiction is that I don't know how to revise it worth shit.

On the way to the bookstore, Jay mentioned that he had always wanted to go to this Buddhist Temple that was nearby, so once I bought my magazines and my book, that's where we went.

It was pretty sweet. There are pictures below this post (scroll way down) and it was definitely a new experience for us. Being in the main shrine was an... interesting experience. It's like we were both two awed by the sheer religion of it all that we couldn't say anything. Something about places like that are just very... silencing. We were both a little disappointed that it was so modern, but I guess we can't expect ancient temples with ancient stone steps and no electric lighting in... Southern California. I mentioned that we should take a trip to China or something so we can actually visit shrines that I have existed for hundreds of years. Those would probably be doubly silencing.

I was on a picture taking kick, so we drove to a nearby massive cemetery/memorial park called Rose Hills. There was not a single tombstone worth taking pictures of that we could think of. We originally went to go and see the Buddhist shrine that was there, but it was closed. I only shot one picture... that of the sign. Disappointing really, but it was kind of cool.

I dropped Jay off and went to my parent's house. They gave me my Father's Day gifts, The Minus Man (Novel) and Dude, Where's My Country? (Novel). Then I drove home.

I dropped the Doxie off at work, finally deciding that I would not be able to keep her regardless of any assumed level of stupidity on my part.

I came home and my special edition DVD of Mystic River was waiting for me.

A very good two days off if I say so myself.

Pictures are below.

I love this. A sculpture at the Buddhist temple, carved right out of a whole tree trunk.

Lousy picture with the main shrine all blown-out in the background.

The main shrine. A little crooked, but who cares.

Another cool marble sculpture.

Lion head!

The Rose Hills sign on top of the hill, visible for miles, or something. This is it up close. Only thing worth taking a picture of at the cemetery really.

Dreams of Jena Malone

Sometimes I think about how cool it would be to meet Jena Malone. Like, running into her on the street or something. It'd be hard not to gush, but I think I could act cool. We could go and have coffee, talk about current events, hang out, the usual shit I never get to do with anyone, but with her, it'd be different.

I think I'll just go kill myself due to sheer patheticness.

Fostering Doxie

Here's a really bad picture of a Doxie that I'm fostering for tonight. They're gonna try to get me to keep her but I don't think so. I'd like a dog, but I can't afford one and I'm certainly sure that I don't want a dachshund.

An Excerpt from Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

"Well, aren't you at all tempted to do with your life what your father's done with his?"

Young Castle smiled wanly, avoiding a direct answer. "He's a funny person, Father is," he said. "I think you'll like him."

"I expect to. There aren't many people who've been as unselfish as he has."

"One time," said Castle, "when I was about fifteen, there was a mutiny near here on a Greek ship bound from Hong Kong to Havana with a load of wicker furniture. The mutineers got control of the ship, didn't know how to run her, and smashed her up on the rocks near "Papa" Morzano's castle. Everbody drowned but the rats. The rats and the wicker furniture came ashore."

That seemed to be the end of the story, but I couldn't be sure. "So?"

"So some people got free furniture, and some people got bubonic plague. At Father's hospital, we had forteen hundred deaths inside of ten days. Have you ever seen anyone die of bubonic plague?"

"That unhappiness has not been mine."

"The lymph glands in the groin and armpits swell to the size of grapefruit."

"I can well believe it."

"After death, the body turns black--coals to Newcastle in the case of San Lorenzo. When the plague was having everything its own way, the House of Hope and Mercy in the Jungle looked like Auschwitz or Buchenwald. We had stacks of dead so deep and wide that a bulldozer actually stalled trying to shove them toward a common grave. Father worked without sleep for days, worked not only without sleep but without saving many lives either."

(Snipped an interuption scene).

"Where was I?"

"The bubonic plague. The bulldozer was stalled by corpses."

"Oh, yes. Anyway, one sleepless night I stayed up with Father while he worked. It was all we could do to find a live patient to treat. In bed after bed after bed we found dead people.

"And Father started giggling," Castle continued.

"He couldn't stop. He walked out into the night with his flashlight. He was still giggling. He was making the flashlight beam dance over all the dead people stacked outside. He put his hand on my head, and do you know what that marvelous man said to me?" asked Castle.

"Nope."

"'Son,' my father said to me, 'someday this will all be yours.'"

Unlucky Pennies

I bent down and reached under the sink to grab my jacket. When I picked it up, a bunch of change flew out of it. I ignored the clatter of pennies on the ground, and went to go smoke my cigarette. When I came back in, I looked at the pennies. There were five, and all of them were face down. Five unlucky pennies. I decided to ignore them, knowing that picking them up would be a bad thing. I came back in later, and had a funny feeling. I moved the fan that was being stored under the sink, and found a single one that was face up. I picked it up and put it back in my pocket. I guess that sometimes you have to look for luck, and not expect it to come to you.

Sowing the Seeds of Idiocy (Fiction)

Sometimes I wish, deep down in the pit of my stomach where I place all the things I deny to myself and everyone else, that she wasn't moving away, and wasn't getting married. Sure, I don't know if we'd work out together as a couple, but when we are together, I feel like I'm unstoppable. It's that fake sort of soaring feeling, like, hey, check me out, I'm alive. But what does that even mean?

The truth is, her smile breaks my heart. I make her laugh and a little piece of me dies away knowing that I will, at some point, never see her again. She will be gone, and I will live on having never had a chance to hold her, touch her, kiss her, even. I didn't feel like this until I mentioned that it was a possibility. I thought we'd just be good friends, but it's true, guys can't be friends with girls without letting the thought of sex and involvement get in the way. But no, I stupidily admitted it to myself. "Nah," I said. "I don't think of her like that."

It's funny how that's all it takes sometimes. Sowing the seeds of idiocy takes little work, an even shorter time to cultivate, and then an eternity to weed out of your mental garden. I guess I'll enjoy the next month as best I can, trying to get my mind off of her and onto other things, like... well... something else.

Christ.

Multiple Brads from Hell! Again.

I did it again, because I thought I could do it better. Find the four Charlies! (My duck)

And, here's another full sized 1600 x 1200 version. Maybe I'll do a daytime one if I can try not to look so stupid.

Multiple Brads from Hell!

Just did this. I felt inspired.

Here's a full non-curved 1600 x 1200 version. My camera takes shitty quality pictures at this point in time. *tear*

OMG RIAA IS LIKE RETARDED OR SUMTHIN

Well, hmm, duh, I guess.

Audioblogger Post 5099464

Saved! Review

Since work was so slow today, due to only having seven patients on the board, (usually we have close to twenty-five), work suggested that some of us employees go out and partake in a free movie while on the clock. The only two people that could manage to go were me and Emily, who I like a lot and work with often so I guess you could say that we are friends, so that was cool. Our choices, due to time, were between Shrek 2 and a movie called Saved! that neither of us had really heard of. The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are just bordering on a "Fresh" rating so, I figured, for free, we'd give it a go.

The synopsis of Saved! is...

Brian Dannelly's debut feature SAVED! deftly blends indie-film edginess with a mainstream allure. Set in a Christian high school, the teen comedy follows a group of students who are all at different places in their lives. When Mary (Jena Malone) sacrifices her virginity in an attempt to heterosexualize her gay boyfriend, she is stunned to discover that she's become pregnant. With the help of wheelchair-bound Roland (Macaulay Culkin) and the school's only Jewish student, Cassandra (Eva Amurri), Mary must try to hide her pregnancy. But when her rival, the ultra-uptight Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), finds out, all hell breaks loose. The film culminates on prom night, when a series of revelations put things in their proper perspective.

This is a great movie. It's in limited release, it seems, so it's strange that it was playing at the rinky-dink theater we saw it at, but I am very glad it was. This is a loaded, and hilarious movie. The first fifteen or so minutes made me laugh out loud harder and more often then any other movie ever has. It's play on devout Christianity is so finely tuned that I don't think it would offend strict believers while it makes people who are indifferent to bitter laugh heavily.

I don't know how I can put into words how I feel about this movie. I always just ramble and I don't think that's appropriate here since I want to make sure that after you read this, you want to go see this movie.

I saw it mostly because Jena Malone is in it, I've loved her ever since I saw Life as a House and Donnie Darko. She's excellent in this, better than any other movie I've seen her in, and is more than capable of carrying the weight of the lead role. She's beautiful while still looking like an average teenager, her complextion is even lousy and that even adds more to the believability that she is just a normal, if devout Christian, girl. Her comedic timing is nearlys spot on and there is never a point where I started seeing Jena Malone and not the character she was performing.

Mandy Moore is the same way, perfectly adept at portraying the almost nearly insane-with-religion Hilary Faye who is constantly trying to get the one or two non-religious types to be "Saved by the love of Jesus!" The brute of her wrath is inflicted upon Cassandra, played perfectly by Eva Amurri. Our first real introduction to her and her attitude is when she arrives at school and peels into the handicapped parking space, pouring out her ashtray of cigarette butts onto the pavement. Hilary Faye makes a great show of Cassandra's bumper sticker that states, "Jesus Loves You. But Everyone Else Thinks You're An Asshole," which I love and must get one of immediately.

Macaulay Culkin is excellent and hilarious in his role as the crippled teenager who becomes involved with Cassandra. His change from being "just another cripple" at the mercey of Hilary Faye and into the rebelious boyfriend of Cassandra is done beautifully and is one hundred percent believable. Other minor characters are Mary's mother, played by Mary-Louise Parker, who is great in her role, pining for Pastor Skip, played by Martin Donovan, who is also excellent in his role and protrayal of his conflicting involvement with Mary's mother. He borders on nearly crazy at one point, being so consumed with religious judgement, but toward the end he warms up nicely.

This movie is great because it balances the sarcastic glance at the probable pitfalls at devout Christianity, and the real look at the potential joy that religion can bring to people. As one who is indifferent and mildly negative about Christianity, this movie struck all the right chords. I was laughing my ass off at the obviously comical jabs at the devout believers, but also being touched by the love that can be generated by it. This movie tries, above all things, to show that you should be able to accept people regardless of your personal interpretation of the Scriptures and to realize, as Mary says at the end of the film, "Why would God make us so different if he wanted us to be the same?"

You really should see the movie. I hope it gets a wide release because I would be willing to see it over again just to have other people see it. I might even drag Greg to go see if it we can find it playing around the LA area. This is just a great, great movie, and I can't stop thinking about it. If you have to sell your first born child to Satan to see it, go and see it!

Da Da Da

Went to Target this morning, bought myself a 200 CD carrying case, since I quickly outgrew the 80 or so case I've been currently carrying. Aready got about 20 CDRs in the new case. Too much music. Safer to carry a bunch of CDRs in my car than actual CDs, though, so it's all good. I almost bought the Mystic River special edition, but I realized I could probably get it cheaper at Amazon, so that's what I did. Not much cheaper, just about two or three dollars, but still, cheaper none the less. Nothing much else to say.

The Rasterbator!

This is the coolest thing ever! I'm tempted to buy a printer just so I could paper my wall with one of the murals I made. This is a nifty tool that will rasterize any image you give it and create a printable PDF of several pages that you can assemble into a poster. You need to check out the gallery to see what it can really do. I created a mural out of this crop of Brad-Li-Oh that Dano drew. You can download the PDF that Rasterbator made of it (12 pages) right over here. Supremely bad ass, I declare.

A Long, Long Night

Or so it seems. Spent a few hours trying to promote people from the Ubernet Training Facility. Involves a lot of going through people's shares and making sure they're tagging their rips properly, enforcing their downloads with AQScript LM-2, and etc, etc. Kind of exhaustive. I think I went through about ten people's shares. Gave the OK to move onto SuperNode 1 to about five people I think. Productive night, in my humble opinion.

Also started a list of Uberites who need Gmail accounts since I gave all three of my invites to fellow Uberites, I figure we can spread the love around. Seems like Shacknews commenters have a similar system set up, but with actual registration and a PHP database involved. Talk about overcomplicating the situation.

Oh well! Work sucked. What's new?

A New Sexy Losers Strip!

Oh, oh, that's good.

Waste of Time

That was a big waste of time. It was a two hour seminar type deal about Quixtar, formerly known as Amway... Good grief. I did get two nice new frisbees and some toilet paper out of the deal. (Meaning the two CDs and information packet they gave me). It was a semi-entertaining two hours, I guess.

I'd give it a shot if it wasn't for the whole "not actually making money" catch. So it goes.

So, I'm Outside This Hotel, See...

So I Says...

So I says to her, "I'd rather spend that sort of money on something like... a life time supply of ping pong balls. I mean, you lose ping pong balls all the time, and if you just had a massive supply of them, you'd never run out. Hell, if I had that kind of money, I'd probably rig up a vaccum system that could shoot a ping pong ball into any room in the house on a press, since you never know when you might need another ball."

She says, "You're so random."

She walks by me later, and I'm lubing up a thermometer to temp a dog. I say, "Lube."

She says, "You're so random, Brad."

Even later, she walks by me again, and I'm putting on some gloves to go into isolation. I say, "Glove."

She says, "You're so random."

I say, "You just have to put it all together... ping pong balls, lube, gloves, what am I getting at?"

She grins.

500th Post

Here's a list of all my music. Oh, and, eesh.

New! Live Desktop Cam!

Replaced the Jukebox with a live desktop cam. I'm allowing you to currently see the full size of my desktop when you click on it. It'll probably blackout when I'm playing games, and I tested it to see if you can see any video I'm watching, but you can't. Course, if I'm looking at porn images, you can see that. And if I do anything crazy like make a big list of all my passwords in a text file, you'd be able to see that too. Not sure if I like this idea or not. Most of the time it'll probably be showing a blank desktop, since I'll be at work.

Fictious Reason #3104492 To Hate Me At Work

So, about a month ago, Bill told Sandey, the woman in charge of scheduling, that he'd need Wednesday, June 9th off. He asked me if I'd work that day for him. I told him yes, and I told Sandy that I would. She said she'd probably just have me work a partial shift on that day to cover the bulk of Bill's shift and she'd let me know. About three weeks passed and I had not heard from her about it.

When the new schedule was put up on Friday, I noticed that Bill had gotten the day off, but I had not been scheduled the hours to cover his shift. I wrote Sandey a note saying, "Hey, I know we discussed having me work Bill's shift on Wednesday, but you never told me what hours you wanted me to work, if you wanted me to work. Please get back to me. - Brad"

She never got back to me. I assumed that, since we have some new hires working, and that Wednesday, I think, are generally not that crazy, that she didn't want me to work. Also, the hospital is under a lot of pressure from the company that owns them to cut down on excessive unneeded overtime, so that was even more reason for me not to unneededly work Bill's shift.

So, I had a day off to enjoy. Or, so I thought. Rich called me at about five o'clock. He said, "Hey Brad, would you like to save the day?" I said, "Well, that depends." He continued, "Could you come in to work? Two assistants called in sick, and Bill's not scheduled for today, so there'd be a lot of happy people here if you'd come in." I replied, "Well, sure, I guess I can come in, just to help out." So, I did. I didn't even link the whole Bill thing with Rich calling me, even though I wasn't on call. I've made it clear before that on some of my days off, I'm not really doing anything and can be called in if someone is needed and there is no one on call.

About ten minutes away from work, I call the hospital from my car, because I wanted to ask Rich if he wanted me to clock in or fill it out as an On Call form. After being on hold for about eight minutes, Sarah picks up since Rich had just went home, and I ask her. She responds, "Well, since you were supposed to work Bill's shift today, I assume you should just clock in, but if we wants to change it, he can later." This pissed me off immediately, since her tone of voice was very condecending in the way that people talk to slabs of tenderized meat.

I get there, and I talk to Laurel, and tell her that I'm here not on call but because I want to help out and didn't want to strand her with a shit load of work. I explain to her this "situation" and Sarah overhears and cuts in and says something to the extent of, "Well you shouldn't have assumed this and that and you didn't follow it up properly and Sandey is going to have Rich talk to you," in the same tone of voice as before, but even worse, in the way that people talk to insects that they have smashed under their foot and smeared into the concrete.

I come in to work, on my day off, with no personal or true obligation to come in at all, just to help out, and I am treated with nothing but utter animosity. What's this you say? Oh, so it was my fuck up?

So, while Sandey had the time to enter in the fact that Bill had the day off, she couldn't have possibly scheduled my extra hours in there as well? She didn't find the time in the entire month leading up to today to actually leave me a note in my box trying to confirm that I would be working for Bill? No, I guess not, this is obviously my fault.

This is the last fucking thing I need. I already have all the supervisors trying to hold me back for no fucking reason. I already have a group of seemingly anonymous employees trying to get me fired for fictious reasons. I've already got the hospital Administrator thinking that I am a do-nothing. This is just great, another fictious reason to think Brad is some sort of slacker goon who doesn't do shit and doesn't care about anything. Just fucking great.

(On Sunday, I got to work feeling like total crap, so I worked for about two hours until the shittiness was making me not want to work, and so I didn't want to stay at work if I was just going to drag ass and not do anything. We didn't have a supervisor, but Jane, one of the techs, was acting supervisor. I went and talked to her and she gave me the OK to leave. Monday, I come in, and Rich asks to see me in the trailers. He says, "A bunch of people told me that they heard you saying that you didn't want to be at work yesterday and that you just up and left." I told him that, yes, I felt like crap and I didn't wanna hang around at work not working, so I talked to Jane and then left. He was relieved saying, "Oh, well as long as you talked to Jane. Had you just left without telling anyone, I would have had to fire you, and I didn't want to do that.")

It pisses me off, since if any of these "authority" figures actually talked to the people I work with out on the floor, they'd know I work my bloody ass off. I've got such little reason to at this point that I find it amazing. If they'd talk to Laurel, Bill, Emily, Laura, Kathy, Cynthia, Ryan, or just about anyone else, maybe even the head doctor, they'd all say I'm always running my ass off for people. It's ridiculous that a minority of people who don't even work with me get to decide my fate based on the combined total of five minutes a day they actually observe me working.

Whatever, it's just fucked up. If it wasn't for the health insurance, I'd already have quit. At this rate, it looks like the pile of fictious reasons to fire me are going to pile up so high they wont even bother trying to figure out if they're true or not. I'm going to have to talk to Rich on Friday, since I don't think he knows the extent to which I feel like I'm getting shit on. I feel like people are actively trying to drive me right out of the hospital.

I keep saying it wouldn't be so bad if all these complaints were actually with the work I do. Nope, never had a single complaint about any treatments I've done with animals, never anything about how I help out with people, never anything like that... it's all some stupid fictious bullshit personal thing someone launches against me. Wonderful.

/rant

Recent ColorQuiz Results

Your Existing Situation
Authoritative or in a position of authority, but liable to feel that further progress is rendered problematical by existing difficulties. Perseveres despite opposition.

Your Stress Sources
Wants to overcome a feeling of emptiness and to bridge the gap which he feels separates himself from others. Anxious to experience life in all its aspects, to explore all its possibilities, and to live it to the fullest. He therefore resents any restriction or limitation being imposed on him and insists on being free and unhampered.

Your Restrained Characteristics
Exacting in his emotional demands and very particular in his choice of partner. The desire for emotional independence prevents any depth of involvement.

Your Desired Objective
Wishes to find his stimulation in a voluptuous atmosphere of sensuous luxury.

Your Actual Problem
Seeks to avoid criticism and to prevent restriction of his freedom to act, and to decide for himself by the exercise of great personal charm in his dealings with others.

Your Actual Problem #2
Has a fear that he might be prevented from achieving the things he wants. This leads him to employ great personal charm in his dealings with others, hoping that this will make it easier for him to reach his objectives.

Conversation with Bill

"She really makes me wish I was 19."

"Yeah, I wish I was 19 too."

"I thought that was what you are!"

"Well, I am, but you know."

"You should enjoy it while you can."

"I'm trying."

Audioblogger Post 4403533

Audioblogger Post 509303

Jesus Cockroach

Well so much for my track record of never experiencing the horror of a cockroach in my bedroom. Worse yet, I was sitting here on the computer and I feel this tickle on my side, usually I figure they're imaginary so I brush it away, then I look and I see something large and brown run back around my pants. I flip, realizing its a cockroach at least an inch long, if not longer, and knock it off of me. Not sure what to do, I hunt it down and imagine smashing it with my loose shoe, but I don't wanna rub it into the carpet. After chasing it for a while and unnsuccessfully attempt to kill it once, I get pissed off and corner it and smash it with the side of my shoe, not smushing it but disabling it. He is now behind my computer desk, slowly dying in terrible, terrible pain. I hope his family misses him. Bastard.

Audioblogger Post 304292

Halo PC for Only $9.99

Damn fine game for only $10 at Circuit City. Gotta buy it in store though. Picked myself up a copy today because I just couldn't pass it up for so damn cheap. Go and buy it, then download Halo CE!

Venus in Trasnit

So, the majority of us fools in the states don't get to see Venus trasnit against the Sun. I'm sad. Californians get the shaft, again!