Jim's swingin' bachelor pad....

I have just recently added to my house the final accessory which makes my house qualify as a "bachelor pad"...You see, I now have something gasoline powered sitting in my kitchen.

While it is not a 1978 straight block V-12 engine (which also gives you extra points on your man license exam), it is a 1980 Honda moped I am trying to get up and running, with aspirations of possibly turning it into an art car. Possibly the result of too many episodes of American Chopper and Monster Garage.

Other qualifications for the bachelor pad include:

1. Having a refrigerator that has a science experiment in it. Otherwise, it is simply a place to keep sodas and beer cold.

2. Having rooms devoted to various and sundry hobbies, such as a large toy or comic book collection.

3. Having a television that costs more than what you paid for all of your other furniture...Combined.

4. Having a DVD rack that has absolutely no "chick flicks" in it.

5. Your pets eat better than you do, because your pantry consists of Pop Tarts, Cat Food, and Canned Ravioli.

The weirdness that is C-Span...

I was flipping channels today and I ran across the video game report card. Here is the Press Release...

The National Institute on Media and the Family has issued its eight annual MediaWise Video Game Report Card. The report gives a mixed notice on the video and PC gaming industry, with praise for the rating system and for retailers that have a ratings enforcement system but criticised the industry for easy access for M rating games for teenagers as well as not using the AO (Adults Only) rating for Rockstar's recent hardcore stealth action game Manhunt. The report also lists games for children and teens to avoid, including Manhunt, Max Payne 2, Postal 2 and the T rated Def Jam Vendetta, as well as recommended games such as Sim City 4, Rise of Nations and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

Now the odd part about this is they had a PSA to encourage parents to monitor what their kids played...But before this they showed examples....C-Span is showing a tape of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas where there is cussing and drive by shootings and the like. Then after that they showed this adult video game where you see real women topless...Now they didn't bleep out the language or pixelate over the nudity on any of this.

....And people are freaking out about Desperate Housewives... I love this country!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

A mumbler's comments on public speaking...

Went to A RDA Lecture this week regarding the architectural history of Berlin. This was the second of a series of 4 lectures, and while I expected the first lecture to be painfully boring, I was surprised because the speaker actually knew how to talk and while the information he presented could have been boring if placed into the wrong hands, I found it interesting, because of this persons ability to speak to an audience.

No such luck with the second lecture.

This lady could not keep me awake to save either of our lives, and she used so many 10 dollar words (Geomancy, Didactic, Symbiotic, etc, and all in one sentence too!) combined with the fact that she was reading her lecture from what probably was chapter seven of her book in a monotone English accent, and you can see why it was a total snooze-fest.

Ahhhhhh! Why can't the English teach their children how to speak!

Ok, I feel better now.

KPHS- Interior Auditorium

KPHS - Auditorium Entrance

The Good, the bad, and the Ugly...

The Good:

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow...Great movie! Seen it twice! I want toys!

Three Seasons of Due South on DVD...This was a really quirky show that I liked about a Canadian Mountie that came to Chicago to find his father's killer, and teams up with a hard boiled American police officer. It's dramatic, funny, cool and has a really good soundtrack. Great stuff, really looking forward to watching all 42 hours of it.

The magic of TiVo. My new toy. I'll never miss ER and Smallville again.


The Bad:

Pesky Sinus infection and minor stomach problems...Go away!

The Ugly:

Apparently, one of the clients I work for finds the design for the school I am working on ugly...His taste runs towards the 1700's and our school is decidedly more modern than that, so I am ok with him not liking it. Everyone else likes it. I will post a pic soon for y'all to judge.

What Star Wars Character Are You?

http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/personality/

I am Chewbacca...Loyal to a fault, a little bit hairy.

I have 5 bosses....The Emperor, R2D2 & C3PO, Obi Wan Kenobi and a Jawa.

What to do after falling off the face of the earth...

Well, after working 12+ hour days seven days a week for the last month, we finally got my project at work finished. However, we are going to take more time with it to redesign and make it the smaller school (thanks, school board.)

Anyhow, between the family coming to town, and working like a dog, I seem to have fallen off the face of the earth where my friends are concerned...It's a pretty odd experience, catching up with people that you used to talk to a lot, but it is very nice also in the way that you find out people actually care about you.

I had an Uncle who was one of my heroes growing up...He introduced me to comic books and drawing at an early age. He was quite the literary and artistic talent, but also a major recluse and introvert, to the point where he never left the town he lived in, didn't ever learn to drive a car and was generally uncomfortable with change. I was thinking today, that if he had some better friends, he wouldn't have died alone in a VA hospital.

Things like that make me realize I need to get out more, and will definitely take the time to reconnect with my friends, or I will lose them.

The Only Thing Constant is Change...

As usual work has been taking over my life again of late...I did actually take a weekend off from work a few weeks ago and went up to PA for a family reunion...Now, I hadn't seen these folk in 15 years and some I had never met, and it was nice to find out these people are pretty cool.

We had one of my co-workers quit this week, which will mean more work for the rest of us, and my neighbor is moving away, so I will have new neighbors on the 15th... My work project is expected to morph into a smaller school next week. I have also noticed people have been treating me as older lately, eg. not getting carded in bars, people calling you sir, etc. I don't even have the respectable haircut thing going or anything which is why I find that weird.

Lots of changes...But that's what keeps life interesting, I suppose.

work work work work...

I have been working a lot this week. My boss had a family emergency this week and so I was doing a large chunk of his job for him, plus doing my own. I realized I had actually worked over 80 hours last week as a result.

All of this is unpaid overtime...It supposedly factors into our bonus at the end of the year and we are allowed comp time, but I don't think they would let me take the supposed 8 weeks of comp time I have accumulated.

As for the bonuses, If you figure overtime at time and a half, then I am getting maybe 1/3 of that as a bonus...It's not bad to get at one time, but still, sometimes I feel that I am being taken advantage of because of my work ethic. True, I do have more freedom and responsibility because of it, but that means more work...A double edged sword, you can say.

The Celebrity Intelligence Index...
 
I was talking to a friend of mine last night before a screening of The Bourne Supremacy (good movie!)  and we were talking about reality television and how stupid most of the people are on it eg. Jessica Simpson and Anna Nicole Smith, which led into a conversation about smart vs. dumb celebrities.
 
It seems to me that actors are either real dumb or real smart with nothing in between. Occasionally you will see an actor or actress who seems like a regular person of normal intelligence, but not so often.
 
As a result I figured we could use a scale for intelligence...Anna Nicole being the lowest and Stephen Hawking being the highest. Jennifer Connely, Morgan Freeman and Mel GIbson are in the middle high end, Jessica Simpson is one above Anna, and Keannu Reeves, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, and  Gillian Anderson are in the middle to low side end.

Personally, I figure I am somewhere between Quentin Tarantino and Morgan Freeman.

 

The "Family" is in town...
 
The last few weeks have been exhausting...My older, shorter brothers have been in town and one with their wife and two small chillun's, one 4 and one a newly mobile 9 months.
 
Now being the rebel and a loner that I am, while I enjoy seeing everybody, I am always amazed how LOUD it is when the Italian-Irish (McWop, as I refer to it) mix that is everyone is together, and then combine that with my brother's friends coming over and bringing their little extensions of their own DNA and well, it gets a little frazzled. I am going to a family reunion for my mom's side in August, so I guess this was practice for it.
 
Add to the mix a work deadline that required me to work 32 hours of unpaid overtime, and I am starting to need a real serious nap!
 
Still, It was fun. The All-Star game was here this week, so we went and sat outside during the home run derby watching people run to get home run balls that went over the back wall at Minute Maid Park. 
 
My brother's son learned a valuable lesson when the old people say "Don't mess with the Psychotic Cat" But he got to play with my toys, so I rate as the cool uncle.
 
My niece (who some people stupidly made me her godfather) finally stopped crying when I would pick her up. And I found out that babies are really fun to mess with psychologically. Kind of like smart dogs, actually.
 
...So when am I going to start my own family? Not for a while I think.

On Socializing with the Bosses...

Every once in a while our office goes for an "official" office happy hour. The reason for this is twofold:

1. It gives the employees a chance to relax and unwind and relax after a stressful day.

2. It lets us employees find out what the upper level people really think about us.

Seriously, we have a young (a few years older than myself) "associate", who whenever you get a beer in him, his tongue really loosens up, and you can ask him anything...For instance I am known by the higher ups as "the Union Rep" and "Superman", because I am always making sure all of the people I work with and who work for me are doing ok.

Its quite the valuable resource this happy hour thing...Much power happens here huuurrM? (Imagine Yoda saying that last part)

The other thing I found out is that not wearing a white dress shirt and keeping your hair longish translates into "being a non conformist who doesn't completely embrace the company line" during a performance review.

...Personally, I think all the old bald white guys are just jealous...

FREEDOM!

USA...USA...USA!


I love this country...It's the only place in the world where:

... People can be shocked by Bill Cosby telling it like it is

...Kobe can be flown from Colorado to LA to play in the NBA Playoffs, and Robert Downey Jr. can be let out of jail for an acting job.

...A documentary about the evils of the Bush administration can be the number one film of the week, while his standing in the polls is as high as ever.

...Where you can have Bill Riley and Al Franken fight over the use of a phrase.

...A former President can write a book admitting his affairs with white trash women in the oval office.

...Our current President who pronounces the word "tyranny", "tie-ran-ee"

...A cable network called music television does not play music.

I know it seems like I am bitter and cranky about these things, but I actually think it shows that this country is a tolerant albeit sometime misguided place. Freedom of Speech, and Religion, and sometimes the freedom to act like an idiot and be forgiven. I have a lot of foreign friends due to my days in grad school, and I always am surprised how much I have in common with them in the belief in the American Ideal, which for me was derived from too many Superman and Captain America comic books, but for them it is a true dream to come over here and through personal trial and effort, be successful.

I believe this dream is what makes America great, to have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of education, gender, creed or geek hobby you may have.

The inscription on the Statue Of Liberty Reads:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed,
to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

— Emma Lazarus, 1883, written to help raise funds for construction of the pedestal.

Maybe Americans shouldn't get their freedoms automatically and have to work for it like immigrants.


By the way....Spider-Man 2 was awesome!

SMASHCAR!

So, I built a sandcastle a couple of weekends ago....

Ever wonder what happens when you get a whole buncha architects and unleash them on a large quantity of sand on a beach? The result is the annual Sandcastle competition.


This was our first year and of course we didn't win, but we had fun. It's always funny to go out on a beach and see a whole bunch of pale workaholic people try to actually construct things instead of just draw them. Combine that with a material that isn't all that structually sound and copius amounts of alcohol and having to get up real damn early and hilarity ensues.

here is the link for the winner folks...

http://www.aiasandcastle.com

Memorial Day...

Today is the day we are supposed to honor and remember the men and women of the U.S.A. who have fought to keep our freedoms intact. I have nothing but the utmost respect for those people.

However, I do worry about our freedoms...In a post 9/11 world we are slowly finding our freedoms eroding.

We have the patriot act.

There is talk of re-instituting the draft. I think this is completely wrong because I think one of the reasons our armed forces are so great is because everybody who is there has chosen to be there.

Censorship is more prevalent than ever. Look at Michael Moore's movie, The Nightline reading of the war dead was censored in a few major markets, The FCC coming down on people like Howard Stern (who I don't find funny, but I think he should be allowed to say what he thinks) Tim Robbins' univiting to the baseball hall of fame, because they were worried he would say something political.

It seems to me that Freedom of Speech is less free than ever. I agree with Voltaire, I may not like what you say, but by god, I think you should have the right to be allowed to say it. That's one of the things that makes this country great.

I realize that we have to be cautious and vigilant, however that does not mean we have to be restrictive.

This is from FDR's speech to congress on Jan 16, 1941

"The nation takes great satisfaction and much strength from
the things which have been done to make its people conscious
of their individual stake in the preservation of democratic
life in America. Those things have toughened the fiber of
our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their
devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.
Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking
about the social and economic problems which are the root
cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme
factor in the world. For there is nothing mysterious about
the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.

The basic things expected by our people of their political
and economic systems are simple. They are :
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
Jobs for those who can work.
Security for those who need it.
The ending of special privilege for the few.
The preservation of civil liberties for all.
The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a
wider and constantly rising standard of living.
These are the simple, the basic things that must never be
lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of
our modern world. The inner and abiding straight of our
economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree
to which they fulfill these expectations. "

On self improvement...

I have never been one to gain weight or have to watch what I eat. Until Now....Ahhhhh!

At 32 years of age the body metabolism is finally starting to slow just a bit, and Not to mention going from biking 3 times a week to once or twice a month and eating TV dinners and take out (not to mention that I only eat mostly meat and potatoes and a little bit of what are lovingly referred to as the "Hamburger Vegetables") drinking a little beer and a lot of margaritas, and being one crappy ass cook, who can only make things with large quantities of starches and proteins and it gets the always skinny kid....

...Yes Virginia, Slim Jim has gained a few pounds.

I'm starting to notice a little bit of a gut...Not a large one mind you, but just enough to make me start to do something about it...Let the sit-ups commence (ugh, grunt, ouch!)

D'oh!