Science Gone Bad

Ok, so inadvertently last night, a mad science experiment was performed. One of the bottles of Pepsi-Max leaked a bit in the fridge. Part of said leakage was absorbed by my half of carton of eggs (Well, to be honest, there was only 5 eggs left. So I guess that is a little less than 50%… more like 41.67% to be exact (more honest). Sorry for trying to lie to you.) Anyways. This afternoon I decided to hardboil my remaining 41.67% of a carton of eggs, and discovered that the Pepsi-Max had weakened the shell of the eggs so much that it was almost impossible to pick them out of the carton without breaking them. Determined to have my eggs, the 33.33% left…one broke, I proceeded to boil them anyway. When they were done and I peeled them back, they were all visibly disfigured around the areas that the Pepsi had touched (there was a stain on the inside of the shell.) Taking the advice of an eye-witness, I disposed of the eggs and ended up eggless (that is to say I ate 0% of the eggs).

Will this event stop me from drinking Pepsi-Max? Probably not. It will stop me from spilling any on my eggs in the future. Of this, you can be certain.

What. The. Frig.

I was given this link from a friend of mine. I don’t know if it/was a real show but does it really matter. Amusing with a small side of disturbing. Enjoy!

Rainbow Arch Tv Episode

Becoming

I have finally got around to reading John Eldredge’s, “Wild at Heart”. I kind of missed the whole swirl of activity when it first came out, but it seems it is a fitting time for me to be reading this. I am only 3/4 of the way through it, but it is resonating with something within me. And I believe it is another piece to the fear issues in my life. I will admit that some of what he says doesn’t agree with me… but maybe that’s the point! The path to figuring out what my wounds are started a couple fo years ago, and I feel like I am closer than ever. At the same time, it also feels like the next phase of my life is hiding behind this issue.

There are many more important decisions to be made… which is part of the problem. What do I want to spend my life doing? (In the career venue.) What do I want to do? Does it really matter? Can I even do what I want to do?

I don’t feel like I can answer these questions right now. I don’t know the answer. Yet.

An Open Letter To George

Dear Mr. Lucas,

I would like to begin by thanking you for the phenom that is Star Wars. Your story has brought much joy to my life and has spanned the short three deacades that I have been alive. I, along with countless others, have been happy to pump millions of dollars into your franchise if even to just be a remote part of “galaxy far far away” of which we love so much.

(sigh) After watching the 3rd and last installment of the prequels I have the feeling of reserved satisfaction. It is the same feeling you get when you find yourself craving a Big Mac combo only to have satisfied that craving and finding yourself feeling like you have just ate 3 pounds of wet sand. You aren’t hungry anymore, but are quite that sure what you ate wasn’t what you wanted.

Why do you insist on writing and directing when you are the most brilliant producer ever? Is it a control thing? Because if it is, we can pinpoint that as to why this set of features have been disappointing. Didn’t we learn this from the original trilogy?
I guess I am simply frustrated.

Why the cheesy dialogue? Admittedly, this one was far better than the first 2. However, it didn’t take much to achieve that. It is not as if the offending lines couldn’t be rewritten easily to be a little more intelligent. Actors like Portman, Christensen, and especially McGregor are not terrible actors, but come off as such in these films when they talk. After the outcry from the last two films I thought more attention would be paid to the script. I was disappointed.

The action sequences were awesome. Lightsabre battles, starfighter duels…great. I miss the “real” sets. And “real” actors. Over the top with the CGI, but we have come to expect this with these movies. It was good, but part of the magic of the originals was the “realness” of it all. Costumes, sets, and makeup create a dimension that computer graphics don’t. At least not yet. Don’t get me wrong, they are impressive in their own right… I just miss some of the things that made Star Wars so amazing. Perhaps you should take a line from your own movie… “Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed.” Just a thought.

And lastly the anti-climactic climax. Why (in all 3) do we have these amazing battles (which is what we want to see…huge lightsabre duels, acrobatics, the darke side etc.) that end with a technicality? It’s like we stop the action. Declare that the end is near. And then we end it. Why not have someone lose in the fury? Why have the fury and build it up…and then let the bottom fall out? To top it off it is prefaced with a bad line. A great end scene marred by bad scripting and a poor jump.

Believe it or not I did enjoy your movie. I just expected more. When I uncontrollably cringe everytime the duo of Padme/Skywalker are on screen… (sigh). I wanted to like this movie more than I did. Maybe that’s the problem. It just seems like you decided to abandon the old school fans in search for a new crowd and that hurts.

Still Your Fan,

Caleb

***Anybody feel different than this? I sound harsh… but I did enjoy the movie, but I just wonder if it was not because of the phenom itself and not necessarily this movie. It’s hard to separate the individual movie from the Saga.***

In Honor of Star Wars

Here are a couple links to some great stuff:
–Nathan Sawaya–: This dude is a Lego artist and, to make him even more cool, has built a life-size model of Han Solo in carbonite. Check out his galleries for more of his work.
Grocery Store Wars: A very well done video done in the theme of Star Wars. You can download the poster and the video and join “Cuke Skywalker”, “Yogurt”, and “Tofu-D2″ as they battle the evil “Darth Tater”! Funny stuff and really well done.

The Vision Today

Well I made it through the insanity, and am still going strong. I am hoping for a grand sleep tonight though. And some goofing off tomorrow. Those energy drinks work wonders. However, my adrenaline system will be severely depleated for the next day or so. The things you do for a buck.

Exhibiting Tiredness

Been working for an exhibit company setting up exhibition stalls and booths. It’s pretty good work, and decent money, but the hours are all over the place…I have a feeling I have mentioned this before. Tonight I start at 3am. So I am leaving to go into the city now, and will basically fight every natural instinct I have for about 10hrs today. The great part is that I will feel the effects of this for the rest of the week. I am pretty stoked about that. I’ll let you know how it goes if I live to tell the tale.

I will try and score some pictures with the camera on my phone to post. The last job we did was at an aquatic center, and we had this little asian grandma doing some crazy stretches on the grass outside in her bathing suit. Just the motivation we needed to get the work done INSIDE. Crazy grandmas!

New Jobs, New Skin

Well, I decided not to get myself fired on my last day at the warehouse. I finished well. The warehouse crew actually threw me a nice going away forever party (aka: extended morning tea), gave me a nice card, and 2 gift vouchers. All in all a good deal.

So I was unemployeed for a couple days… which DID take it’s toll on me. And then Sunday morning I started a new job with a company that sets up exhibition booths/walls (for trade shows etc.) The money is a bit better (although I will comment on that more when I actually get paid) and it’s a decent work environment so far. Mostly just carrying and building. Neither of which compare to what we did with Rod’s Forming. The negative is that I am now out of any resemblence of a routine for the next 8 weeks or so. The hours are sporadic (started at 730am on Sunday, and tomorrow I start at 5pm… next week I start a job at 3AM…insane!) but I only have to work half as many to make what I was making before… and the boss seems to have lots for me to do, so hopefully it works out to be good. I also have to drive all over for different jobs, which can be a pain. Parking is stupid, but I get to see some parts of the area I wouldn’t normally. Lot’s of pluses.

I also got unexpectantly called in for some furniture movers. Which, so far makes for a full week. I am working every day this week so far, and the boss for this job lives kinda near here, so he said I could catch a lift with him which will save on gas, and parking and headaches. We’ll see how it goes. After we come back from Canada I want to look for something a little closer to the area, but for now I am trying to take everything I can get.

Just finished watching the last episode of The Ulitmate Fighter show that was on Spike TV. I downloaded all 13 episodes (took forever) but I am glad I did. Wow. The final between Bonnar and Griffin? Amazing fight. Just crazy.

Since I will be bringing the ipod to work more and more I decided it was time to get some sort of protection for it. I grabbed an black iSkin for it this afternoon. I comes with a screen protector and a belt clip, and seems pretty durable. I think it will do the trick.

I thought I would give you another notice that sometime this week I will be taking down the links… adding some different ones… but taking down the blog roll as you know it. I am also tweaking the graphics a little bit. Just so you know.

Alright I am off. I need to head into the city again for work tomorrow, but not until early afternoon. I don’t start until 5pm but I want to make sure I miss the traffic. The hotel we are working at is right on the beach at Manly, so I am going to take my camera and a book and spend some time there. Hopefully I’ll have some more to report in the next couple of days.

How To Get Fired Where I Work

So tomorrow is my last day at the warehouse. It’s been a good 3 months… but it’s also nice to be able to move on. I have a try out with a company that sets up exhibit stalls on Sunday. Almost double the pay, and a good opportunity to make a lump of cash in a short while. So I was discussing with my manager and floor manager at lunch what I would need to do in order to get fired tomorrow. Here’s the short list:

1. Come to work drunk or stoned.
2. Joy ride the forklift or delivery truck. (I don’t have a forky license, but I can legally drive the truck.)
3. Physically attack someone.
4. Climb the storage racks or do some other “unsafe” action.
5. Flip my floor manager’s car over with the forklift.

A limited list of options. I think we all know which one I’d do if I wasn’t all talk.

On a completely unrelated topic, I finally saw Napoleon Dynamite. I hope to add it to my collection. Once I have developed some mad skills.