Wednesday Morning: The Week is Half-Over or Half-Left?
- Labor Day can't get here soon enough. I don't really have plans to go anywhere, but that's maybe a good thing. I think I've said it before, but working a Mon-Fri schedule really makes me appreciate the weekends and holidays that much more. I'm looking forward to lots of sitting around and sleeping. Too bad it will only be 1 extra day off, but I'll take it.
- Yesterday I was at Marshall Fields looking for a gift for my dad's birthday. That Jennifer Lopez song with LL Cool J came on, and then I suddenly noticed that I was walking along to the beat. Whether it was a coincidence or not, I don't know. But the more I tried to change my step to unmatch the beat, it seemed like the more in step I became. I could've sworn that the beat was actually following me. People around me were probably thinking that I was trying to do some sort of retarded dance, speeding up and slowing down and pausing in midair. Oh well.
- I caught up on Real World last night. Whenever CT is involved, the situation is always hilarious. Also, poor Ace. I kind of feel for the guy, except I'm sure he won't have any problem recovering from girl issues. The next episode looks promising, there hasn't been enough Adam drama lately. I miss his songs, they make for quality entertainment.
- With them being in 1st place this late in the season, the "Sox factor" is alive and kicking this year. It's good but brings about tough decisions fantasy-wise, especially as I'm still locked in a tight race there too. A conference with Chras on Sunday afternoon convinced me to bench Clemens against the Sox last night. He ended up getting rocked for the worst start of his season. Hopefully, they didn't shatter his confidence too much and it won't affect his following starts, but I don't think it will. After all, it's Roger Clemens. Now I have another decision on hand. Start Mussina against the Sox tomorrow? Hmmmm....
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Movies
Some thoughts on movies I watched over the weekend:
The Medallion - Seriously, one of the most awful movies I have seen in a long time. I don't really know why I decided to watch it, I was never really a big fan of Jackie Chan, and the previews for it looked kind of dumb. But despite going into the theater with low expectations, the movie managed to somehow ____ my expectations. (The ____ represents an antonym for "exceed", which I can't come up with. Try it, I challenge you to find a good antonym for "exceed", I bet you can't either). I knew it wasn't a good sign when that guy from "There's Something About Mary" was one of the main characters (the one who pretended to be a handicapped architect). As the movie dragged on, I stayed hoping that it would get better, but it only got worse. The eventual climax was one of the most awkward on-screen kisses I have ever seen in my life, between Jackie Chan and Claire Forlani. Afterwards, I decided that if I ever meet Jackie Chan in real life, I will give him a kick in the nuts and only then will we be even.
Bowling For Columbine - I originally wanted to see this movie because I thought "Roger and Me" was really good, but after Michael Moore lost my respect with his outburst at the Oscars, my eagerness to watch it significantly waned. But Olivia still wanted to watch it, so we gave it a rental. After all, nothing could be worse than The Medallion experience of the night before.
Anyways, if people haven't heard of Michael Moore, he makes these documentaries by going around with a camera crew and interviewing people, confronting people, and narrating throughout the movie with his own commentary. "Roger and Me" was about the GM layoffs in Flint, Michigan (his hometown), while "Bowling For Columbine" addressed the school shootings at Columbine High School. His style is kind of sarcastic, part "Tom Green", and his movies usually end up being pretty funny in a biting sort of way.
Well, the negative thing about this movie is that it doesn't really have a clear sense of direction or purpose. The main premise was to discuss the reasons for the Columbine tragedy and who was to blame, but it ended up being kind of all over the place. Most of the time it seemed like he was just out to make certain people look bad. So he went after Charlton Heston and the NRA for opposing gun control. He harrassed K-Mart for selling bullets. He criticized the media for hyping up violent crimes and perpetuating a society living in fear. He attacked the US government for getting involved in Bosnia and the Middle East, and targeted Lockheed Martin for its influence as a big defense contractor in the area.
Basically, I got the sense that Michael Moore is one of those guys who is always against the government, large corporations, and powerful organizations. At times it makes him seem cool to a lot of people, because he's on the side of the "little guy". But on the other hand, it does become a tired act when he's just attacking all these establishments for the sake of attacking establishment.
The positive thing about the movie is that it makes you think. Whether or not you agree with his points or his methods is another story, but at least he is bringing a lot of issues to light. So I do recommend this movie to anyone who is interested.
* A side note - I have newfound respect for Hollywood Video. I've always gone to Blockbuster, but now I might have to get a membership at Hollywood after discovering the fact that they give you a dollar credit back if you return the movie within a day. The rental fee is pretty cheap to begin with, and I return movies early most of the time anyways. What an excellent idea, I must say.
Rounders - My latest DVD purchase, $15 at Best Buy. No special features, but that's ok because this movie is definitely a quality classic. I know this because it has recently joined my list of movies that I like to quote a lot, mostly because of John Malkovich (Teddy KGB). It helps that I've been playing more poker lately and we always overuse those quotes when we play. "khanging aghround.... khanging aghround... kid's got allighator blood" "he beaiit me straaiiiight up" "i'll splash the pot whenever the ____ I want"
This movie gets better everytime I watch it, and it also makes me wish I was Johnny Chan. He is my new idol, what a true thug.
Some thoughts on movies I watched over the weekend:
The Medallion - Seriously, one of the most awful movies I have seen in a long time. I don't really know why I decided to watch it, I was never really a big fan of Jackie Chan, and the previews for it looked kind of dumb. But despite going into the theater with low expectations, the movie managed to somehow ____ my expectations. (The ____ represents an antonym for "exceed", which I can't come up with. Try it, I challenge you to find a good antonym for "exceed", I bet you can't either). I knew it wasn't a good sign when that guy from "There's Something About Mary" was one of the main characters (the one who pretended to be a handicapped architect). As the movie dragged on, I stayed hoping that it would get better, but it only got worse. The eventual climax was one of the most awkward on-screen kisses I have ever seen in my life, between Jackie Chan and Claire Forlani. Afterwards, I decided that if I ever meet Jackie Chan in real life, I will give him a kick in the nuts and only then will we be even.
Bowling For Columbine - I originally wanted to see this movie because I thought "Roger and Me" was really good, but after Michael Moore lost my respect with his outburst at the Oscars, my eagerness to watch it significantly waned. But Olivia still wanted to watch it, so we gave it a rental. After all, nothing could be worse than The Medallion experience of the night before.
Anyways, if people haven't heard of Michael Moore, he makes these documentaries by going around with a camera crew and interviewing people, confronting people, and narrating throughout the movie with his own commentary. "Roger and Me" was about the GM layoffs in Flint, Michigan (his hometown), while "Bowling For Columbine" addressed the school shootings at Columbine High School. His style is kind of sarcastic, part "Tom Green", and his movies usually end up being pretty funny in a biting sort of way.
Well, the negative thing about this movie is that it doesn't really have a clear sense of direction or purpose. The main premise was to discuss the reasons for the Columbine tragedy and who was to blame, but it ended up being kind of all over the place. Most of the time it seemed like he was just out to make certain people look bad. So he went after Charlton Heston and the NRA for opposing gun control. He harrassed K-Mart for selling bullets. He criticized the media for hyping up violent crimes and perpetuating a society living in fear. He attacked the US government for getting involved in Bosnia and the Middle East, and targeted Lockheed Martin for its influence as a big defense contractor in the area.
Basically, I got the sense that Michael Moore is one of those guys who is always against the government, large corporations, and powerful organizations. At times it makes him seem cool to a lot of people, because he's on the side of the "little guy". But on the other hand, it does become a tired act when he's just attacking all these establishments for the sake of attacking establishment.
The positive thing about the movie is that it makes you think. Whether or not you agree with his points or his methods is another story, but at least he is bringing a lot of issues to light. So I do recommend this movie to anyone who is interested.
* A side note - I have newfound respect for Hollywood Video. I've always gone to Blockbuster, but now I might have to get a membership at Hollywood after discovering the fact that they give you a dollar credit back if you return the movie within a day. The rental fee is pretty cheap to begin with, and I return movies early most of the time anyways. What an excellent idea, I must say.
Rounders - My latest DVD purchase, $15 at Best Buy. No special features, but that's ok because this movie is definitely a quality classic. I know this because it has recently joined my list of movies that I like to quote a lot, mostly because of John Malkovich (Teddy KGB). It helps that I've been playing more poker lately and we always overuse those quotes when we play. "khanging aghround.... khanging aghround... kid's got allighator blood" "he beaiit me straaiiiight up" "i'll splash the pot whenever the ____ I want"
This movie gets better everytime I watch it, and it also makes me wish I was Johnny Chan. He is my new idol, what a true thug.
Monday, August 25, 2003
Back 2 School
On Saturday, my mom and I drove my sister down to Champaign to help her move into her apartment. The campus looks basically the same, except a bunch of new apartment buildings popped up all over the place. Also, there's some new/different stores on Green Street. Remember when that area used to have a Yen-Ching Buffet and the Co-Ed theater? I already forgot what all of that looked like. Other than driving around and moving stuff for my sis, I didn't have a chance to visit any buildings, like Grainger or the Union, and I didn't check to see if R&R's really turned into a gay bar, as rumored.
I did drive by ISR to see all the students moving in, and it revived memories of me and Anuj packing all our stuff into his little Corolla and caravan-ing down to school with P, Vic, Chras, and Rod that day. I especially remember watching some daring passing maneuvers by P in his van on IL-47, a 2 lane highway. Anyways, I could write more nostalgic stuff about college memories, but this blog has seen too much of that already.
Another thing the trip revived was my doubts about whether or not there is an Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana area. Previously, people had informed me with great confidence that there definitely was, and since they insisted it was true, I just accepted it, even though I had never seen one in 4 years of being at school. Well, when we were down there on Saturday, we ended up having lunch at Hometown Buffet (on Prospect by Outback Steakhouse and across from Meijer). Since the place was so similar to OCB, I started thinking that maybe everyone who told me there was an Old Country Buffet before actually got it mixed up with Hometown Buffet instead.
So this bothered me so much to the point that eventually, I did what any self-respecting nerd would do and just looked it up on the Internet. Google pointed me to Buffet.com or something, where I learned that there were in fact NO locations of Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana region. However, the kicker is that OCB and HTB are run by the same people so it's pretty much the same thing. Thus in a way, everyone was right and everyone was wrong.
The drive to and from school used to be pretty much a weekly thing for me, one that I must have done close to a hundred times, if not more. I kind of miss driving on the relatively open highway for a couple hours at a time. It's really a relaxing experience, other than the million bugs that die on your windshield, and the occasional possum you run over that gives you a chilling look before the thump comes. One thing I have come to enjoy about the trip is analyzing other people's license plates. On the way back Saturday afternoon, my favorite was "JESUS 85". It made me wonder whether or not there were actually 84 other Jesuses (or is it plural "Jesii"? hmmm...), who wanted that license plate, so this guy ended up getting the 85th. Otherwise, why "85"? I was intrigued.
Well, I guess as all the school people start a new year, us working people simply start a new week. Have a happy Monday everyone.
On Saturday, my mom and I drove my sister down to Champaign to help her move into her apartment. The campus looks basically the same, except a bunch of new apartment buildings popped up all over the place. Also, there's some new/different stores on Green Street. Remember when that area used to have a Yen-Ching Buffet and the Co-Ed theater? I already forgot what all of that looked like. Other than driving around and moving stuff for my sis, I didn't have a chance to visit any buildings, like Grainger or the Union, and I didn't check to see if R&R's really turned into a gay bar, as rumored.
I did drive by ISR to see all the students moving in, and it revived memories of me and Anuj packing all our stuff into his little Corolla and caravan-ing down to school with P, Vic, Chras, and Rod that day. I especially remember watching some daring passing maneuvers by P in his van on IL-47, a 2 lane highway. Anyways, I could write more nostalgic stuff about college memories, but this blog has seen too much of that already.
Another thing the trip revived was my doubts about whether or not there is an Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana area. Previously, people had informed me with great confidence that there definitely was, and since they insisted it was true, I just accepted it, even though I had never seen one in 4 years of being at school. Well, when we were down there on Saturday, we ended up having lunch at Hometown Buffet (on Prospect by Outback Steakhouse and across from Meijer). Since the place was so similar to OCB, I started thinking that maybe everyone who told me there was an Old Country Buffet before actually got it mixed up with Hometown Buffet instead.
So this bothered me so much to the point that eventually, I did what any self-respecting nerd would do and just looked it up on the Internet. Google pointed me to Buffet.com or something, where I learned that there were in fact NO locations of Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana region. However, the kicker is that OCB and HTB are run by the same people so it's pretty much the same thing. Thus in a way, everyone was right and everyone was wrong.
The drive to and from school used to be pretty much a weekly thing for me, one that I must have done close to a hundred times, if not more. I kind of miss driving on the relatively open highway for a couple hours at a time. It's really a relaxing experience, other than the million bugs that die on your windshield, and the occasional possum you run over that gives you a chilling look before the thump comes. One thing I have come to enjoy about the trip is analyzing other people's license plates. On the way back Saturday afternoon, my favorite was "JESUS 85". It made me wonder whether or not there were actually 84 other Jesuses (or is it plural "Jesii"? hmmm...), who wanted that license plate, so this guy ended up getting the 85th. Otherwise, why "85"? I was intrigued.
Well, I guess as all the school people start a new year, us working people simply start a new week. Have a happy Monday everyone.
Friday, August 22, 2003
The Other Side
Back in junior year of college, one of the more promising job presentations/interviews I went to was for Molex, a large maker of connectors that was located in Lisle (or was it Downers Grove? Somewhere close to Darien I remember). The position I interviewed for was basically kind of a technical sales/support consultant, which would require me to learn everything about the connector products, and be able to deal with customers about choosing the right connectors, answering their questions, that kind of thing.
Well, obviously I didn't end up getting hired there, otherwise I probably wouldn't be here working for Northrop Grumman right now. The interesting thing is, Molex is (among others) one of the major sources for connectors that we buy in building stuff here. And as it turns out, my job position here requires me to deal with those kinds of technical sales/support consultants at companies like Molex. But after some frustrating experiences, I must say that I have begun to really hate those guys. They either don't know jack, or give you half-assed answers to important questions, and usually are not very helpful at all.
How weird is it to think that had things worked out differently a couple years ago, I might have found myself on that other side as one of "those guys" I hate. I wonder if that was the case, would I be annoyed with "those systems engineers" from customers like Northrop Grumman, that keep calling up or emailing stupid questions for me to answer. I also wonder whether or not any of these people I deal with were the same biatches that got hired over me back in those days. Hmmmm.....
Back in junior year of college, one of the more promising job presentations/interviews I went to was for Molex, a large maker of connectors that was located in Lisle (or was it Downers Grove? Somewhere close to Darien I remember). The position I interviewed for was basically kind of a technical sales/support consultant, which would require me to learn everything about the connector products, and be able to deal with customers about choosing the right connectors, answering their questions, that kind of thing.
Well, obviously I didn't end up getting hired there, otherwise I probably wouldn't be here working for Northrop Grumman right now. The interesting thing is, Molex is (among others) one of the major sources for connectors that we buy in building stuff here. And as it turns out, my job position here requires me to deal with those kinds of technical sales/support consultants at companies like Molex. But after some frustrating experiences, I must say that I have begun to really hate those guys. They either don't know jack, or give you half-assed answers to important questions, and usually are not very helpful at all.
How weird is it to think that had things worked out differently a couple years ago, I might have found myself on that other side as one of "those guys" I hate. I wonder if that was the case, would I be annoyed with "those systems engineers" from customers like Northrop Grumman, that keep calling up or emailing stupid questions for me to answer. I also wonder whether or not any of these people I deal with were the same biatches that got hired over me back in those days. Hmmmm.....
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Update on yesterday's meeting: it blew. At the end, it was like finishing my last final of the semester, I was tired as hell but could finally breath a huge sigh of relief that it was over. The stuff I presented went fine, so it's nice to know that my work over the past few months wasn't worthless. But I was really getting annoyed by people arguing about little stuff, or stupid questions being asked. It's always those 2 or 3 people in the meeting that make it last 5 hours, when it could probably be done in less than half that time.
We always joke about the motto of Darien being "A nice place to live". Well, on the way to the Dunes on Saturday, me and Olivia saw another cheesy motto printed on the water tower for Worth - "The Friendly Village". I don't know why small towns feel the need to invent a little catchphrase to describe themselves, but it's funny.
*****
Joke of the moment:
A mushroom walks into a bar. The bartender goes "Sorry, we don't serve your kind here." The mushroom replies "Why not? I'm a fun-gi!"
(credit my sister for that one... an oldie but goodie)
We always joke about the motto of Darien being "A nice place to live". Well, on the way to the Dunes on Saturday, me and Olivia saw another cheesy motto printed on the water tower for Worth - "The Friendly Village". I don't know why small towns feel the need to invent a little catchphrase to describe themselves, but it's funny.
*****
Joke of the moment:
A mushroom walks into a bar. The bartender goes "Sorry, we don't serve your kind here." The mushroom replies "Why not? I'm a fun-gi!"
(credit my sister for that one... an oldie but goodie)
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