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So I was killing time waiting for my car to be finished from some maintenance. The vehicle's display had been yelling at me for various reasons for a few weeks now, and I figured I should probably take it to an actual dealership that specializes in the make of car which I drive. As it turns out, the car just needed the tires rotated, the coolant filled, and the display reset. $20, roughly, because warranty covered the rest. How's that for three shades of awesome? Anyway, coming back from that little tangent - the manner in which I was killing time was breakfast. I had a book with me, so it lasted me about an hour, including the walk to and from the dealership. The book, by the way, is called Bookmark Now. I can't remember the name of the editor, but it's a great collection of essays about being immersed in a world of novels and story-writing when some signs point to the idea that people just aren't reading anymore. Admittedly, Rolling Stone does only print one in-depth article per issue, and it's shorter than what their in-depth articles used to be, but people still read it. And novels are still getting sold... even though some of the books that get popular lack anything except the capability to make those that care more about catharsis than character development buy them. Quite useful, considering NaNoWriMo is in 25 days (if you don't count today as part of the total). And back from tangent number two (I'm probably going to go off on another tangent in a little while, just to warn you), the place I went to eat was a franchise of a restaurant chain which I've been frequenting, at least since July. This establishment was the third such franchise, and something very odd struck me - the staffs had almost the exact same age layout. No, really - the person at the front was always younger, early-to-mid twenties, or at least appeared to be in that general age range. The servers, on the other hand, were always mid-thirties, and have almost invariably been women. Some had wedding bands, some didn't, so that didn't seem to mean much as far as whether or not they got the job. As I realized that the staff had the same demographics in the other two locations, I started wondering - has this restaurant chain tried so much to get a certain feel that they've convinced everybody running a franchise to hire certain people for these specific jobs? And if not - this is a really large coincidence. Let's just say for a moment that you've got a bunch of younger people that are just looking for a place to work - they get put up front, because they don't have to continually deal with customers, they just say hello. Then you take the more experienced people and toss them in as servers, because they've had enough time dealing with people just wanting to sit down that they figure, "Okay, now they're ready to handle people that just want to eat." And finally... actually, I have no idea what the finally is. What I want to know is why this particular restaurant chain somehow manages to attract women approaching forty to work jobs as servers, when chances are said women can probably earn more elsewhere, simply because of experience. I'm not quite sure that the employment is totally satisfying - then again, neither is my job, although I LOVE the benefits, and there are more days than not where I do enjoy it - but there must be something that's keeping them there. I haven't the daftest idea what it might be - maybe one woman's divorced, and the husband got the kids, so she has to pay alimony. Maybe another is moonlighting at a jazz club, but it's not enough to pay the bills, so she does this and hopes for a lot of good tips. Maybe another just wants to get out of the house, even though her husband's rich as anything - but there must be something. Of course, when you're ruminating over that sort of thing while eating pancakes and poached eggs (not together, obviously, but they were in the same meal), it doesn't allow for the most philosophical of conclusions. Personally, I think it would be nice if they're all actually best friends in a secret women's society that gets together and makes sure that the world's supply of pancake batter never gets contaminated by a host of things that would out-do any of the dastardly plans that villains in James Bond books and movies concoct. Tags: breakfast, cars, waitresses
Current Mood:  contemplative
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For those of you that read this, come and see the IWF in Golden, CO at the Buffalo Rose! The show starts at 6 PM, doors open by 5:30 if not earlier, and it's going to be quite the event!
*SCHEDULED CARD*
- IWF Championship Match
Brandon Morris vs. Hoodlum
+ Last month, Morris secured the Number One Contendorship for Hoodlum's championship belt. Can he make good on this opportunity, or will Hoodlum continue his winning ways?
- Grudge Match
Anderson Angel vs. The Miracle That Is Tony
+ The Miracle That Is Tony eked out a victory against Angel last month, causing Anderson to challenge him to a rematch. What will Tony pull out of his sleeve? What will Anderson do to take down the man formerly known as Tony Tsunami? You'll just have to see.
Arik Angel vs. Jack Mosidol
+ Arik's valet, The Perfect 10, accidentally cost Arik a match. Will she still accompany him to the ring? And will Jack Mosidol manage to defeat IWF's Franchise?
Rob Ryzin vs. Adrian Grimm
+ Grimm lost the tag team titles in TLC, along with his partner, Shredder Con. Can he bounce back from his defeat, or will the Denver Daredevil pick up the victory.
Rock n' Roll Vampire & Romeo vs. Joshua Michael & Paul Stetich
+ Ronin and Michael have both proven themselves as capable in the ring, while Stetich and Romeo were both eliminated from the battle royal that made Brandon Morris champion. This match is anybody's to win, and everybody's to lose.
Lucha Libre Match
+ The contestants have yet to be announced, but you had better believe that IWF will present the best high-flying competitors in the region.
Johnny Crash vs. Wardog Damion Payne
+ Crash was another loser in the battle royal, while Payne, along with Synjinn Tiger Smith, won the IWF Tag Team Championships. Will Payne continue his hot streak, or will Crash's insatiability for love extend to an insatiability for victory.
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I've been seeing a lot of films lately which focus upon interpersonal relationships. Romances, friendships, marriages, what-have-you. Some, I didn't mean to watch, and wound up watching anyway. Others, I spent money to see, and was not disappointed, but I did walk away with a few impressions that are a bit odd. Firstly, is the fact that, while not directly related to anything whatsoever, I actually have types of women to which I am attracted. I used to have the impression that I had that whole "John Tucker" thing, at least to the point where my type is "female". Thinking about it more closely, I've come to realize that this is SO not the case. More strangely, neither of my girlfriends have been my type. I have dated two girls that were my type, neither of which panned out beyond a first date. The one time I was with somebody that's my type, it was something that really couldn't go anywhere beyond what it was, which I understood when I went in to it, but it's still quite lamentable. I forget which movie made me think about it, but somewhere in there, people talked about the types of people to whom they are attracted. Maybe that's a major part of the whole girlfriend deal - I got in to women who were in to me without thinking about whether I was in it because I wanted to be, or because I knew that some form of reciprocation was possible if I showed interest. When it comes down to it, I think that the thing of which I am most afraid is that I will be alone. I am not speaking of the present, but of the future. At some point, I fear that there will be nobody else in my life. So I suppose I accepted what affection and companionship I could receive, as opposed to the companionship that I wanted. Hopefully I can actually find somebody that is my type that I can have... I just don't know when that might be. Current Music: "Mr. Rock & Roll" by Amy MacDonald
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I was browsing through SkyMall while on a flight, and found an interesting "replica". It's supposed to be a copy of Harry Potter's wand, but whoever made it mixed up Tom Riddle's wand with his. Right on the subtext under, "Harry Potter's Wand", you know what it says? "14 inches long." Anybody who's actually geeky enough to want to buy a replica of a Harry Potter wand would know that mister, "Oh, look, I've survived the Killing Curse twice!" uses an eleven-inch wand. *sigh* Oh, SkyMall, how you make me shake my head.
And having caught some spoilers from random postings, I probably am also going to shake my head and sigh at the film adaptation of the Half-Blood Prince. I would much rather have them actually, oh, I don't know, FOLLOW THE BOOK, as opposed to adding scenes that never happen at all, and eliminating characters just because they think that it flows better with the film. News flash to anybody else that's thinking of adapting a movie from a book - go watch "My Sister's Keeper" sometime. That's a good book adaptation. Sure, it doesn't cover everything, but it doesn't make you wonder, "Wait, what happened to...?"
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER
Speaking of which, NO DOBBY AGAIN? They've pretty much made it so that come the seventh film, if they bother to do Dobby's death at all, it won't really have as much impact, because he hasn't been Harry's friend since book four. Oh, and no house elves. The real Hermione Granger would be furious. "See! Even in the Muggle world, house-elves aren't considered to matter at all!" Well, at least they've got Quidditch back in...
Nah, still probably not going to see it unless one of my parents wants to see it...
SPOILERS END HERE
Oh, and happy birthday to me... a day early, but there you are.
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Having just now learned that all my Rock Band instruments work on Guitar Hero: World Tour (sad, I know, but still...), I have been enjoying the drums. Sort of weird that the kick pedal which could be easily ignored with the Guitar Hero drums is intrinsic to playing the game with the Rock Band drums, but hey, it's still fun.
The song list has some duplicates, but the guest stars are freaking awesome. Hendrix, Sting, Travis Barker, Hayley Williams, and Ozzy all make guest appearances for their own songs, and there's a couple decent guitar battles. The drums are kind of an afterthought, but it's not that bad. The only real let-down of the title is that, although you can make your own songs using the instruments, you can't add vocal tracks just by singing. You need a keyboard for that, apparently, which definitely makes me think that they really could have just done without it.
As for Rock Band 2 - love it! Sure, some of the songs can get repetitive after a while (a few just pop up like a bad habit on those mystery set lists, and are repeated in a few of the local showcases), but there's really no misses here. The only thing that World Tour has on it is the celebrity appearances, the lack of repeats (unless you want to replay a song), and all master tracks. Gameplay is a bit more fun on Rock Band, and the visuals are more fun.
I'd recommend both, but if you only get one, get Rock Band 2. And make sure you've got a 360.
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How many songs: 4471
Sort by song title:
-First Song: A-Hole - Bowling For Soup
-Last Song: 5150 - Van Halen
Sort by time:
-Shortest Song: R.K. Intro - Our Lady Peace - 0:07
-Longest Song: Brian Regan Live - Brian Regan - 56:11
Sort by album:
-First Song: Come Together - The Beatles
-Last Song: Completely Miserable - Lit (Yeah, never bothered to look up the album after it somehow got erased)
Top 10 Most Played Songs:
1. Infected - Bad Religion
2. (F)lannigan's Ball - Dropkick Murphy's
3. As Time Goes By (Live) - Frank Sinatra
4. We Are The Normal - Goo Goo Dolls
5. Way Back In To Love - Hugh Grant and Haley Bennett
6. Wading in the Velvet Sea - Phish
7. Jupiter - 30 Seconds to Mars
8. Take A Chance on Me - ABBA
9. Money, Money, Money - ABBA
10. Metalingus - Alter Bridge
If it included CD play count, Goo Goo Dolls and Jimmy Eat World would be on that list a lot more. And Fall Out Boy. I haven't used iTunes on this computer a lot.
First 5 songs that come up on Shuffle: (I'm going to arrange the list by artist)
1. It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley
2. Yesterday to Tomorrow - Audioslave
3. Poor Boy - Matt Kearney
4. I Won't See You Tonight (Part 1) - Avenged Sevenfold
5. Electric Princess - Jennifer Gentle (And it would seem that I've got like 200 songs on here that I've never heard...)
Search ....
"sex", how many songs come up?: 8 (Would be more if I had downloaded the full Social Distortion album)
"love", how many songs come up?: 222 - A lot of them are because of the album name, e.g. Papa Roach, Goo Goo Dolls, etc.
"you", how many songs come up?: 636 (Again, album)
"death", how many songs come up? 48 (The majority of which are one band. Guess which one?)
"hate", how many songs come up? 44 (Very varied)
"wish" how many songs come up? 7
Now use shuffle: (Comedy and orchestral pieces shall be ignored)
High School
What was high school like?
Speed of Sound - Coldplay
Was I a good student?
Zoot Suit Riot - Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Did I party a lot?
Pillar of Salt - The Thermals (Oh, great, iTunes is making bad puns. "party a Lot"...check out the book of Genesis if you don't know what I'm talking about)
Love
What describes my first love?
Leave the Pieces - The Wreckers (Yup)
Do I have a Boyfriend/Girlfriend?
Ghost of Past Failures - Shadows Fall
Do I like someone?
Number Five With a Bullet - Taking Back Sunday (I like somebody who kills people?)
Life
What was today like?
Particle Man - They Might Be Giants
What are most days like?
It's Gonna Be Me - N*Sync (Embarrassingly, I like this song.)
What's my life like?
Twisted Logic - Coldplay (Two Coldplay songs now...seems like these guys are my secondary anthem)
What is in store for this weekend?
Losing a Whole Year - Third Eye Blind (Wow...longest weekend ever)
What song describes my parents?
Don't Know - Taking Back Sunday
How is my life going?
In My Head - Queens of the Stone Age
Do I act my age?
I've Just Seen A Face - Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe Soundtrack) [Um...is this at all relevant?]
What song will they play at my funeral?
Cecilia - SImon & Garfunkel (They so would. And I'd laugh. Presuming there's an afterlife and I'm going to Heaven, of course)
Wedding?
Loser - 3 Doors Down (SERIOUSLY? Wow, that's mean. And a bit goth. Not a bad song to which you can dance, though.)
How does the world see me?
Fentoozler - blink 182 (What in the world is that?)
Will I have a happy life?
If I Fell - Evan Rachel Wood (It's possible. If I fell in love.)
What do my friends really think of me?
Points of Authority - Linkin Park
Do people secretly lust after me?
Lady Madonna - The Beatles (What is it with all these Beatles songs? More importantly, I don't think Madonna knows I exist.)
How can I make myself happy?
I'm In Over My Head - Lit (I need to overwhelm myself to be happy? Wow, I'm seriously screwed up.)
Whats my family think of me?
Yesterday to Tomorrow - Audioslave
What should I do with my life?
Saturday (Live) - Fall Out Boy (What is it with all the dadaism in this thing?)
What is my signature dancing song?
Always Be - Jimmy Eat World (Strangely, yes. So far, only in the car, but yes.)
What do I think my current theme song is?
Rhythm of the Night - Valeria (Um...never have, never will.)
What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Trouble - Dave Matthews (I feel insulted.)
What is my life theme song?
Wishlist - Pearl Jam
What best describes my life?
Introduce the Metric System in Time - The Hives
What best describes my friends?
Twice in Every Show - Spamalot (Um...)
What best describes the person I like?
Once And For All - Newsies!
How will you die?
I'm Not Sleepin' - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (Stupid iTunes. Ask it how I will die, and it says how I won't.)
What describes my worst enemy?
Yesterday's Letter - 98 Degrees
Do I enjoy life?
Bust A Move - Run DMC
Am I a good person?
Crush - Dave Matthews Band
Do I make others happy?
End of the Day - Beck
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So I figured I might as well write up something. I'm not going to go off and bash either candidate for any length of time, even though both scare the hell out of me. Obama's ideas fail to recognize the simple fact that Washington is corporate controlled. We need a freaking Teddy Roosevelt in the office again before we can begin to hope for what Obama is promising he'll do as president. As for McCain, Johnny-come-around-and-support-the-guy-who-made-him-out-to-be-the-freaking-Manchurian-Candidate (yes, that's a lot of hyphens) has chosen a woman VP candidate that has less experience than Obama, when another governor, i.e. Perry, would have been a better choice because said governor knows all about cleaning up George W. Bush's mess. That, and McCain is obviously a wuss when it comes to standing up to his party, seeing as he originally wanted to choose Joe Lieberman. We don't need a guy who only sees half the equation, and we don't need a guy who sees the entire problem and comes up with the wrong solutions. If people voted the issues (and not just ONE ISSUE, i.e. "Oh, he's pro-choice. Screw that, I'm voting for the other guy because he's against abortion," or "Oh, he's for gay marriage. Good, I'll choose him," or, "Oh, he's a solid Christian, so I should support his presidency because no good Christian politician could possibly fall to bribery.") instead of supporting a party because they want to go with somebody they "know" is going to win, Ralph Nader and Bob Barr would probably be getting more votes, simply because they actually are willing to campaign on the issues instead of solely on charisma. Novel concept, I know.
Either way, bullet-point why I support Ralph Nader:
- He wants to reverse US policy in the Middle East. McCain is talking of staying in Iraq "until the job is done", a statement nebulous in its very nature, and echoing Bush quite heavily. Obama's talking eighteen months until withdrawal. The Democrats were in power for TWO YEARS and didn't do so much as pass a resolution forcing the President in to a withdrawal timetable. What makes anybody think they'll be any different with Obama in office. Nader wants us out in six months to a year, as far as military aid goes, and further elections held before we withdraw. As for the Palestine/Israel solution, he wants to censure the Israelis for their military actions against the Palestinians, including blockading the Gaza Strip, and he wants to reach a two-state solution, or at least establish an independent Palestinian state. (I find it ironic that back in 1948, nobody thought to just give Bavaria or Bohemia to the Jews, forcing all the Germans there to move in to what was left of Germany, as a way to punish the society that supported the Holocaust, instead of punishing people who had done nothing wrong. You have to hate the UN sometimes.) Seems to me that it's diplomacy with a freaking huge stick.
- He's pro-union. The real problem with unions these days is that the few that are still left are desperate to keep a grip on what little power they have, so they abuse it to the fullest extent, protecting union workers that don't do their jobs, being unreasonable in negotiations, and taking money that they don't deserve from companies that entered in to agreements with the unions in good faith. If Taft-Hartley were repealed, giving more liberty to people to form unions (point of irony - the Republicans are running ads in Colorado trying to make the Democrats look like the bad guys in the union issues when the Republicans don't even want unions to exist), unions wouldn't feel so threatened, and they might actually be able to stimulate both the economy and workers' rights. It's one of those Tarkin things - the more tightly you squeeze, the more opposition you have. And if the unions that are left feel more and more pressure, they're going to screw with the system.
- He wants to adopt a system known as the National Initiative. Obama says that he wants people realize the citizenry's ability to change the system in Washington. Nader is proposing and would allow for the way to do it - put simply, if enough private citizens get together and bring forth an issue, it can be put on the national agenda. If enough people petition for a national vote on the issue, then it is brought to the national table. Congress has no right to filibuster it or dismiss it, and if it is constitutional, and it receives a majority vote, it passes. The President has no right to veto it, as, instead of overriding a representative democracy, he would be overriding the entire country, which should not be within the President's sphere of power. It allows for people to elect politicians which they believe have the best character, and vote on the issues in a separate sphere.
- He wants to do a lot of things in regards to corporate actions. For example, he wants to crack down on corporate crimes. If a company's top officials commit crimes that cause the company to fold, they don't get off with millions of dollars - they pay off the pensions of their employees. They also don't get off scott free from serving jail time - he wants to increase the Justice Department's corporate prosecution branch s that we can actually handle corporate criminal cases. If a company has repeatedly broken the law, and remains in business, they get no government contracts whatsoever. He wants to end offshore reincorporation so that companies can not simply brush off paying taxes on their profits. He wants to eliminate conflicts of interest in Wall Street trading. And in an interesting twist, he wants to let the share holders in the company decide who the members of the executive board should be - and it makes sense, seeing as they're the people controlling a company in which the shareholders have a vested interest. He wants to reduce runaway executive salaries. People that screw up their job shouldn't be able to walk away with $106 million after losing the company five times that much while lower-level employees barely scrape out a living. He also wants to eliminate corporate welfare/payouts for industries (for example, oil) with proven profitability and no chance of going in to the red any time soon.
- In a separate issue, he wants to end corporate personhood, requiring all companies operating within the United States to get federal charters to continue existence. Screw up enough times, you lose your charter, and therefore your right to do business in the country. Right now, corporations practically control certain parts of the government. Nader thinks it's time to turn things around.
- He wants to adopt a system similar to the NHS in the UK, with all citizens in the US having their health care bought and paid for (mostly) by their taxes. That's not on the board for either candidate, because, guess what, it's the simplest solution. Why should the government have to deal with hundreds of different insurance plans, like Obama's system would do. Obviously, the status quo, which is what McCain supports, isn't working all that well either. Just one national plan covering medically necessary services - that's Nader's idea. And any doctor in the country would be a viable doctor.
I don't quite agree with his ideas on tort law, if only because they would also be applied to the medical field, and I believe that health care is getting more expensive due to frivolous malpractice suits, but hey, if I voted for McCain or Obama, I would support even fewer of their ideas. Plus, with the National Initiative, I would be able to oppose a few of Nader's motions. He's just the best candidate available, because while Obama's rhetoric sounds nice, Nader's plans would do what Obama says his campaign can do - bring hope back to the American citizenry.
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