Two Memes in One Week!

This is a long one…

Leather face is in the kitchen. Will you fight to victory, or hide from him?
Well, if it's to MY victory, then yes.

Would you chew gum after someone else already has?
With my salary, I can afford new gum. Luxurious!

Did or do you think your childhood dreams will come true?
N/A. I don't really want to work for Jump Street anymore.

Would you do anything for someone?
A couple people. Because I know they love me enough to not ask for anything unreasonable.

Pretend you're 15 deep in beers. Describe what you would be doing now?
Either getting my stomach pumped or letting my esophegus do the pumping.

When did you last have a home cooked meal?
Last night. I made a birthday dinner for my baby. I'm apparently not too shabby at cooking meat even though I don't get to taste-test it.

Do you own a gun?
My wit is like a gun.

Do you have a porn collection?
A small collection of European art porn.

Have you ever gotten naked at a party?
Only at parties for two.

Name someone you miss
Meep.

Do you like pedicures?
No. I like having tough feet.

Are you health freak?
I'm not too crazy with it but I try not to eat anything that I know will only do harm to my body.

First vacation?
First one I remember is Cancun when I was 4 or 5.

Athletic or lazy?
Somewhere in between. I like being active but I am by no means athletic.

Intelligence or attraction?
They are not mutually exclusive.

Have you ever run away from home?
That's kind of what I did when I went to college. Never looked back. And from 9-14 I kept a packed backpack in my closet just in case.

Have you ever cried when someone died?
Of course.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
yourself? Mostly.
miracles? Mostly not.
love at first sight? Kiiiiiind of.
sex on the first date? Guilty.
kissing on the first date? No kissing. Just straight to penetration.

Are you old enough to vote?
Many times over.

Have you ever liked someone solely because of their appearance?
Yes. But attraction died if they couldn't back it up with their personality.

When was the last time you cried?
Don't remember exactly. I'm kind of an easy crier so that's a good thing.

What's your favorite curse word?
Cunt.

Still have pictures of your ex?
I don't get rid of pictures. I don't believe in revisionist history.

What is the last thing you said aloud?
“OK. Let's do that.”

What's the last sporting event you watched?
The 5th annual Dodecathelon. I watched it from the field and took 3rd place!

What color is your watch?
Cell phone-colored.

What do you think of when you think of Australia?
Marsupials.

What is your favorite number?
11 or 42.

Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
Mary Janes.

How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
29

How did you get one of your scars?
Trying to plow through a door with my walker when I was 2.

Are you currently drinking?
No.

How many years have you taken a language?
4 years of Spanish. 1 year of Latin. 29 years of English.

Who's on speed dial 2?
My dialing fingers are fast enough.

Do you wish on 11:11?
No. But I love it when I see it. Cos I LOOOOVE the number 11!

Good advice if you ever go camping?
Don't get high before a hike.

Are you a bad influence?
People have free will.

Have you ever been called a bitch?
Yep!

What song is on?
“Humming Computers” by The P.C.s

Do you have a song by Ozzy Osbourne in your library?
I have The Ozzman Cometh album.

Do you sing obnoxiously in the car?
I sing endearingly.

Do you ever sing obnoxiously in the shower when no one is home?
See above. I prefer an audience though.

Have you ever stripped?
Daily.

Do you like fire?
OMG DO I!!!

Did you draw pictures for your first crush back in elementary?
My art was for me. If anyone else liked it, that was a bonus.

Have you ever written a poem or story about your life?
I wrote a lot of poems. You have to, to get your Goth Card.

When you open your closet, what is the dominant color?
I think we all know the answer to that.

Baskin Robbins or Coldstone?
I like Dryers. Is that weird?

Fly or road trip?
Whatever it takes to get there. Though I LOVE stopping at roadside diners and driving through podunk downs.

Who can make you blush without even trying?
No one. I am unblushable.

If alcohol were banned, what would your reaction be?
Bath tub brewery.

Do you believe world peace is possible?
Nope.

I'm a genie. Name your wish.
A functional socialist state.

Name one thing about the opposite/same sex that automatically turns you off?
Fake tan.

Name one thing about the opposite/same sex that automatically turns you on?
Wolfman-like harriness.

Do you shampoo first in the shower or soap?
Soap. Then shampoo. Then condition while I shave.

Where did you live the first time you moved out of your parent's house?
Dorm.

Has the death of a celebrity ever made you cry?
Strummer. Elliott Smith.

Who are more complicated – guys or girls?
Girls. Needlessly so.

What's your favorite store?
Amazon.com

What is your favorite thing to do on a Friday night?
Happy hour followed by Karaoke!

Do you like mustard?
Beaver brand sweet and spicy mustard is quite possibly the greatest condiment known to man.

What do you tell yourself when times get hard?
That I am still very very fortunate all things considered.

Do you enjoy giving hugs?
Actually, I kind of feel awkward giving them with the acception of a handful of recipients.

What books, if any, have made you cry?
“Life After God”, “Perv: A Love Story”, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”.

Could you ever forgive a cheater?
I forgave my father.

Have you ever been suspended or expelled from school?
No. I liked school.

Where are you?
The Bat Cave.

Name your favorite animal?
I couldn't possibly choose a favorite, but among my favorites are cats, rats, pigs, and goats.

Are you too forgiving?
It's good to forgive.

Have you ever been in a castle?
Yes!

Did you like your high school guidance counselor?
No. She had no idea how to guide me.

Who was the last person that made you cry?
My grandma died. SHE didn't MAKE me cry, but her passing did.

What is one thing you've learned about life?
You have to make your own justice.

Long Lost Past Time

Hey, everybody! It's a meme!

1. When you're home alone, do you still close the door when you use the restroom?
I only close it if there are guests over.

2. If you have to go grocery shopping, would you rather go alone or with someone?
I tend to prefer to do any kind of shopping alone but grocery shopping goes much faster with 2.

3. It's your friends birthday, do you buy them a gift even though they didn't buy you one for yours?
Depends on how close we are. I don't usually like to go to a birthday party empty handed. But if I see something that someone I know will really like I usually get it for them for their birthday no matter how far off it is. It may seem weird but it saves a lot of last minute panic shopping. I don't really care if people don't get me anything, apart from very specific people.

4. You win the lottery. What do you do?
Retirement fund.

5. Do you like your music loud or at a reasonable level?
Reasonable volume.

6. Are you a beach person or a snowy mountain person?
Beach. I like the snow but I can't really do any of the athletic things that people end to use it for.

7. When do you prefer to take a shower, morning or night?
Morning.

8. Can you watch scary movies alone?
Yep.

9. Soft bed or firm?
Soft AND firm.

10. Would you rather stay home all day, or be out and about?
I like to stay busy, but sometimes it's REEEEAAAALLLY nice to have a lazy pajama day.

11. What's one of your worst memories?
Something I don't care to relive for a meme, thank you.

12. Do you like to keep the peace or be confrontational?
Keep the peace.

13. Are you more likely to be with a large group of people or a few close friends?
Medium group of close to medium close friends.

14. What are your plans for October?
Lots of shows!! Also, the annual Scareoke Halloween party.

15. If money were not a problem, where would you like to live?
Though I REALLY like where I live, a second house near Volunteer Park wouldn't be so bad.

16. What is your ideal profession?
The world's highest paid film reviewer.

17. Are you close to your Mom and Dad?
Not UNclose. But not BFFs.

18. What is one fear that you can't seem to overcome?
Selling myself to people.

19. Are you good at math?
No.

20. What's stashed under your bed?
Years worth of filth.

21. Is there anyone that you regret ever meeting?
Nah. I'm over it.

22. In the opposite sex, where should their piercing(s) be?
No place.

23. Would you rather have roommates or live alone?
I like my roommate.

24. Do you like any of your friends a little more than just a friend?
My roommate.

25. Do you like to drive?
Not really. It's kind of stressful for me. But the 'Stang is pretty fun to drive short distances.

26. Ever juke a friend at JukePix.com?
I'm not even going to bother learning what that is.

27. If you found out that you were going to be a parent, what would you DO?
Have a long discussion with my roommate. And then fire my Gynecologist.

28. Do you give money to homeless people when they ask?
Sometimes.

29. A weekend in Las Vegas or Key West?
Vegas. In THREE WEEKS!!!

30. When you go to the store, do you have a list or just buy random things?
I have a list when I do almost everything.

31. What do you sleep in?
Nothing consistent.

32. You have 3 months left to live, what do you do?
Make a list.

33. You're having a bad day, what's one thing can make your day better?
Hug…BONER hug.

34. What's worse: Tanning bed or sun rays?
Tanning bed. Sun is natural. But for god's sake, WEAR SUN SCREEN!

35. Is there anything you would change about your body if you could?
I'm working on that. Through exercise.

36. You wake up in an unfamiliar place, what is your first reaction?
I imagine it would be “Why don't I know where I am?”

37. Is there anything that you should be doing right now?
Sure is.

38. If there was a way to know when and how you're going to die, would you like to find out?
No. I try not to think about death and if I knew that, it's ALL I would think about.

39. What is your favorite breakfast food?
Egg sandwich.

40. Your phone rings at 4am, who do you expect it to be?
Call about dead person.

World Gone Mad

I just had something really weird happen to me. One of those “city” moments, I suppose. I was walking to work, as always, my body focussed on getting there and my brain focussed on wanting to be back home in bed, when a woman who was passing me stopped directly in my path, thus forcing ME to stop. She was either mid-forties or a well-worn late thirties. She was dressed like a frumpy office underling so I didn't think anything was amiss with her at first. In fact, I thought perhaps I was meant to know her. She looked directly at me and said, in a very angry tone, “Hey!”. At this point, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out if I knew her and was supposed to smile and say hello or if there was some other reason she'd chosen to stop in front of me. She didn't give me much time to mull this over, however, before she SMACKED ME IN THE ARM. It wasn't painful, but it was hard enough for me to understand that it was MEANT to be painful. “RIGHT HERE!” she said through gritted teeth, and then she WALKED OFF. This whole event lasted approximately 3 seconds, so, naturally, I was left quite stunned. I spun around and shouted the first thing that came into my mind to say: “What the FUCK, lady?!”. But she had already moved on and wasn't about to turn around. It was then that I noticed a witness. A man on a smoke break had seen the whole event transpire. I looked at him looking at me. “What the fuck was that about?!” I said to him. “I don't know that lady. I've never seen her before in my life,” I was compelled to explain. “That was scary,” he said. By now she was at the end of the block, ready to cross the street. And I was left with nothing more than to continue my walk to work. Was she off to punch other unsuspecting peda-commuters in the arm? Or was I an isolated incident? Did she THINK she knew me? Mistake me for a wrongdoer? Or was I simply identified as the temporary cause of all her problems? Is she, in fact, a cleverly disguised madwoman? Or was she, up until that moment, perfectly normal? Sadly, I will be left to ponder these questions forever. I may not even recognize her if I were to see her again, unless, of course, she is still wearing that giant red bow…or she punches me again.

Beware of the red bow!

ReelTime featured in New York Times Article

The company I work for was featured in a New York Times article this morning. So hopefully this will boost our subscriptions! That guy in front of the computer? That's my boss!

It's not every day you get to see your boss' picture in a major news publication. Unless you work for the government or are Britney Spears' vag waxer or something.

Solving The Mystery

Recently I've been frequently asked, by passing men (and teenage boys) on the street to authenticate my rack. I've yet to come up with a short response that I am satisfied with so I have been resorting to scowls. Fortunately, I have a pretty effective scowl. What I find strange about this phenomenon is that this never happened before my breast reduction. Perhaps they just assumed that E cups were obviously fake, but my current D cup could go either way…

It's annoying now, but I'm sure I'll miss the cat-calling when my tits tuck into my skirt.

Weekend Recap

Friday
Brugos and I rested and then went to dinner at Tutta Bella for a friend's birthday. It was really good even though the atmosphere was vaguely Spaghetti Factory-ish and our 15-year old waiter was kind of silly. (He made a point to tell us how VERY EXPENSIVE the artichokes on our Antipasti were and he had a really hard time opening a bottle of wine. Come here, sonny. Give that bottle to grandma.)

After dinner we were the yuppiest looking people at El Chupacabra. Their juke box has the Misfits on it. Fuck yes.

Saturday

My dad was supposed to arrive at 11:30am. He was only going to be in town for 24 hours anyway, on his way to California for a business trip. He got as far as Phillie before his flight was CANCELED. The next available flight out was 8:30pm. He would arrive in Seattle at 2:30am. He would not be able to attend the paintball excursion at Fort Lewis for the aforementioned friend's birthday. This made me very sad, but in retrospect, he mightn't have liked paintball. It's brutal. I have one hell of a fuckoff bruise on my arm. It looks pretty awesome. Brugos' neck bled from one hit. I'm not very good at paintball, but I did aid our otherwise underdog team to one victory. I was on the front lines. It was the only time I actually hit anyone. The rest of the time, I got hit. A lot. It also hurt. But running around in the woods in olive green with a paintball gun is FUN. And great exercise. I certainly couldn't do it every day. And it confirmed my suspicions that I would last about 5 minutes in a real war. But I recommend doing it at least once. Even if you think you're a pussy. Because I'M a huge pussy.

We paintballed for 6 hours. Brugos and I went home to shower and rest, with the intention of going out again later. After my shower and some food, I started to feel nauseous. I then threw up. I felt a little better, but not much. I lay on the couch, on Brugos and couldn't move. I assume now that I was dehydrated. But I still couldn't make it out. Just as well because the evening's birthday activity was Big Boy Poker. Brugos left and I stayed in and watched Starship Troopers, having flashbacks from earlier in the day.

Sunday

My dad, finally arrived in Seattle and somewhat rested, came over and we went to Serephina for brunch. I had the most amazing fritatta ever. It contained truffles, so you know it had to be good. People don't fuck around with truffles.

After breakfast, we went to the EMP/Sci-Fi Museum. It's pretty cool to see things like the Power Loader from Aliens and props from Dune, but both “museums” aren't so much histories of music and sci-fi respectively, but histories of Paul Allen's interests. And it really shows. But hey, it's only $15 now to get into both. So you might as well check it out once.

We went to Guaymas for a drink and snack before my dad had to catch a plane to Cali. I hadn't seen my dad in 4 years. We're not estranged. Just busy. But I didn't realize how much I'd missed him. I'd missed him a lot. He's a really good man and a great father. He made some mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable. But parenthood has got to be the most difficult job a person can have. And my dad figured it out pretty well. I can only hope, that should I become a parent, I could do the same.

With my dad off to the airport, Brugos and I had the evening to ourselves. So we went to see Sunshine (see review below) and spent the rest of the night talking about it. It was that good.

Bask in the Glorious Majesty of Sunshine

Don't you hate it when a movie reviewer says they don't want to tell you much about a film for fear of ruining the experience? Me too. But in this case, it's true. And I'll tell you why. You don't want to know anything about a movie in which 8 people fly a bomb into the sun hoping to reignite the dying star and save all of mankind because the characters in the movie don't know anything about it. Sure, the crew is made up of astronauts, a physicist, a psychiatrist, and other brilliant minds who are the last hope of humanity. They are educated and have planned as much as possible, running drills and knowing their theory backward and forward. But since no one has ever done anything like this, successfully or otherwise, there is no way to know what it will really be like. And that unknown, like all unknowns, is utterly terrifying.

In this case it is particularly terrifying because the fate of Earth hangs in the balance. And while Sunshine is, indeed, Science Fiction, the trailers that played before the film, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio telling us about the dire state of the planet due to global warming, are very real. I don't mean to get all super cereal on you guys, but it's true. The film is even more effective because of the storytelling method. Director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) and writer Alex Garland (The Beach) just drop you into the action, without the typical Sci-Fi cheesy voice over or showing you first hand a C.G. depiction of the disaster that living under a dying sun caused on Earth, thus eliminating any opportunity for the viewer to be overwhelmingly reminded that this is Science Fiction. Instead, we see a tired but hopeful crew in the midst of their mission, knowing they are the last hope and trying their damnedest not to crack under the pressure of it all. Unfortunately, despite all their training, they are still humans susceptible to human errors in judgment (especially under pressure). And this is one hell of last job.

Many of these errors stem from the theme that while too much sunshine is bad for you, both physically and psychologically, mankind simply cannot survive with out it.

Story aside, the visuals are absolutely stunning, the future technology not at all silly, despite them being on a space ship, the acting subtle and nuanced and Cillian Murphy's eyes as unearthly as ever.

Go see Sunshine right now. The future depends on it.

A Regret

I regret having gone 28 years without knowing about this:

and also this:

Who knew Bob Fosse was responsible for creating some of the creepiest zombies ever?

My Chat with Zahn

I got to do a phone interview with Steve Zahn about his role in the new Werner Herzog movie, Rescue Dawn for my company's website! It's kind of strange because it's just still pictures, but it was still fun. It's not on our website yet, but we put a preview on YouTube:

Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart? I Dooooo!

As you may or may not be aware, to promote the upcoming Simpson's movie, 7-11 has turned 10 of their stores nation-wide into bonafide Kwik-E-Marts complete with Kwik-E-Mart products like Buzz Cola, Krusty-Os and Homer's favorite sprinkled donuts. Why they didn't create a Duff Beer is beyond me, but the rest of the products are pretty cool. One of these stores is in Seattle, mere blocks from my work! My co-workers and I took a trip there last week to film and take pictures and, of course, buy some Krusty-Os (which are actually just Fruit Loops. But still!!).

Here are my pictures and here is a video we took of my co-worker buying his serial. We added titles to promote our website, of course: