grindmonkeh

Ha!

Going to watch 30 Days of Night tomorrow with Bran. I've been looking forward to this one for a while. XM's Cinemagic is playing a great sit-down with David Slade and Steve Nile. Since I listen to Cinemagic a lot at work I've heard it about three times and counting.

I watched Planet Terror last night, and Deathproof last weekend. I've mixed opinions on both, but these are the epitome of movies that tell you to take your opinions and shove them up your ass. Grindhouse is a double dose of over-indulgence for the film-makers and the viewers. That being said, they were terrible!!! Here's an interesting list of connections Tarentino and Rodriguez made in reference to both b-schlock and movies of their own in this collective homage to the genre. Two thumbsmiddle-fingers up...way up.

meme ganked from notclownjoker

( I haven't done one of these in a while, so... )

books read thus far this year...
The Hunter's Blades Trilogy - Book I: The Thousand Orcs - R.A. Salvatore
The Hunter's Blades Trilogy - Book II: The Lone Drow - R.A. Salvatore
The Hunter's Blades Trilogy - Book III: The Two Swords - R.A. Salvatore
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Hannibal Rising - Thomas Harris
Path of Destruction: A Novel of the Old Republic - Drew Karpyshyn
The Sellswords - Book II: Promise of the Witch-King
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
The Sellswords - Book III: Road of the Patriarch - R.A. Salvatore
The Children of Húrin - J.R.R. Tolkien
Storm Front (The Dresden Files Book I) - Jim Butcher
Fool Moon (The Dresden Files Book II) - Jim Butcher
Grave Peril (The Dresden Files Book III) - Jim Butcher
Blaze - Richard Bachman
White Night (The Dresden Files Book VII - whoops...wrong book) - Jim Butcher
Summer Knight (The Dresden Files Book IV) - Jim Butcher

It's like Christmas Day for my mp3 player...new Dax Riggs, Orange Goblin, Ministry, and High On Fire albums somehow flew under the radar and crashlanded on my pc. Jinkies.

In other news, more modifications on the Hardly-Ableson. Stock rear shocks filed under U for Useless...12" (lowered) Road King shocks applied for a smoother ride and sleeker look. Stock ignition replaced with Dynatek Dyna 2000. My slide diaphragm had a tear in it where the previous owner had carelessly replaced the carburetor top with a chrome one to make it purty. The power loss was only noticeable at mid to wide open throttle where the vacuum loss took away a LOT of acceleration and top end. Since I rode an 883 last year I didn't know what to expect out of a 1200, but that small tear was making it perform only slightly better than the smaller bike. Now it has a scary amount of pull...and more speed than I care to touch unless I'm ever chased by something unearthly. I'm gaining more confidence on doing my own wrenching...my cousin has volunteered his bike lift and his experience anytime I need it.

I strangely inherited (from the old lady across the street that I never met) an amassed collection of vintage pulp-fiction from the early 1900's and a lot of obscure 78 RPM records from the same era. I'm going to have a fire-sale on ebay when I can get around to it. I've been busy as hell since I took the day shift. No complaints really...I just haven't gotten around to a lot of things I'd like to get around to.

I've got two extra tickets to see Poison and Ratt in Indianapolis on Tuesday that I'm willing to let go for about $60.00...Face value of the tickets are about $45.00 a piece (with ticketbastard's "convenience" charge). I'll e-mail the tickets...they're print-at-home. The concert is in two days and my two friends that were going with us are now getting divorced, so I've got short notice to find someone who would like to go. You can e-mail me, reply to this post, or buy them on ebay here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140149349708



Section: H
Row: F
Seats 13 and 14

Raise your goddamn kids!

This has gotta be the same awesomely awesome animator that did the Gorillaz videos.   YEA-Yuh.

It's going to be hard getting any work done around the house this summer...


I put about 200 miles on it over the weekend.

We rode in Bran's dad's memorial poker-run.

My camera batteries went dead after I took about half a dozen shots. There were a lot of nice bikes and nice people.

We saw Spider-Man 3 on Sunday. We liked it, but there was an amazing amount of douchebaggery going on with both Harry and Peter.

And how bad does this look...



It's like someone made the poster with the Jedi Knight game engine (from 1997) and a screencapture. I hope the finished series doesn't look that clunky, nonstylized, and generic.

Watching RAMBO decapitate someone with his fucking RAMBO-KNIFE has made my night.

We took the train to Chicago on the 21st of last month to see the Cardinals lose and to traverse the city in search of novelty. I delayed posting because I forgot my camera, had to pick up a disposable in the city, and then had to wait several days for the (inferior) digital prints on disc upon returning. Anyhow...we had a lot of fun despite St. Louis getting whomped by former Cardinal Jason Marquis. Our seats in Wrigley were a bit of a letdown...the worst at a ballgame I've ever had...with pillars and party boxes obscuring the sky and parts of the infield.  I made the mistake of going to the Goose Island brewpub on gameday too.  Who goes to Goose Island and drinks bud light?  1000 baseball fans, that's who.  The place was packed and insanely loud.  I was happy to get the fuck out of there and find someplace else that served Goose Island...like Pizzeria Uno.

Chicago...
I took this from an area left of our section that had a (very slightly) better view of the field.


Moose.


The John Hancock Center.


We went to the John Hancock Center (above) to dine at the Cheesecake Factory (awesome!) and see the city from the observatory.  Here's a shot of the Navy Pier from the observatory.


The Sears Tower



The ride home on the train was eventful to say the least. Our car was directly behind the cafe car and had three cars trailing it, so almost everyone on the train had to walk through our car to get to the booze on the cafe car...it was easy to ascertain who was getting schnockered by the number of trips they took to the cafe car and the number of cans of beer they carried back to their seats. One said schnockeree made his way by us into the cafe car for the umpteenth time, and as he was walking back into our car he tripped on his shadow and fell face-first into the armrest of the nearest seat. BLOOD EVERYWHERE. I diverted my eyes and wished my nauseous alter-ego from the scene of the carnage as the guy was bleeding out and the conductors arranged for paramedics to meet the train at an intersection of the next town. We stopped and the paramedics boarded. After about twenty minutes or so they couldn't get him to stop bleeding and he obviously needed stitches so they hauled him off in the ambulance to the Veterinary Clinic or Hospital of Nowheresville, Illinois. The train rolled on and tranquility once again blanketed the passengers until about ten minutes passed and we found ourselves audience members of the Jerry Springer Show, as once again alcohol possessed a passenger. This time it provoked a confrontation between the indulging middle-aged lady and a sober family sitting across the aisle who apparently looked at her a little too *something* for her tolerance. She was dropping F-bombs and pointing her finger, and the family guy retrieved the conductors who then took her into the cafe car. She had the opportunity to drop the f-bomb on them (I can read lips when explicit language is involved) and stuck her finger in their faces before being pushed off into the arms of two awaiting police officers at the next stop. Apparently she had acted the same way on the ride *to* Chicago, and thus she didn't make it home on the return trip and instead found herself stuck in the company of officers of the law about 3 hours north of her destination. And the train rolled on.

I sold several of the more rare albums (obscure thrash stuff) in my collection and bought an ESP EX351D diamond-plated explorer from a guy on Ebay. I *finally* got it yesterday after trying to get a tracking number from the seller for two weeks after which he was suppoed to have shipped it via UPS. I paid the guy on the 18th of April and UPS shows that he didn't ship it until the 30th...which makes sense that I got it on the 3rd. The fucker has left me hanging on e-mails, and when he has responded he has blatantly lied and/or been vague about when and how he shipped it. So I've received the guitar (which is in perfect condition) and I'm contemplating on how to leave feedback. He already left me a positive, so I'm not worried about retaliatory feedback. I'm trying to decide how hard I should drop it.

We have to wait until the 21st for our new Harley Sportster XL1200R to be delivered to our doorstep. Well...not *new* new, but new to us and only 700 miles on a 2005 new. Excited isn't the word.  We've been looking at new ones, but dealers in this area mark up a new bike by about $1500 over MSRP right out of the crate...which makes the $9500 Nightster that I've been wanting $11,000 + $400 (passenger seat and small backrest) x 6.25% (taxes on a new bike) = approx. $12,112.00...which is not only a bit above our budget, but a troubling investment.  The 883 that's been in my care has been running poorly and I've only put a few miles on it thus far this year. Hopefully it will run better after I change the plugs in a couple of days.

Lastly and not leastly...after a collective 10 years of working nights out of the last 13, I'm getting a daytime position. I really like the job part of working nights, but I sleep so much better at night and my daytime sleeping is getting worse. My boss and I have talked about carpooling the 40 mile route that we'll share to work, so I'll almost cut my fuel usage in half as well. Overall it's a better gig.

p.s.
RIP Josh Hancock (April 11, 1978 - April 29, 2007)

I read Breakfast of Champions (upon the referral of my now current boss) within the first couple of weeks that I was hired as a student at my current job way back in the fall of '96, and then every other book of Vonnegut's I could find thereafter.  He was a brilliant man whose disregard of literary rules and traditions quickly made him one of my favorite writers.

"This is a very bad book you're writing," I said to myself.

"I know," I said.

"You're afraid you'll kill yourself the way your mother did," I said.

"I know," I said.

Rest In Peace, Kurt.