I was in Walt Disney World for a while, trying to take a vacation from my boring life. It was fun, and I appreciated the time spent with my wife away from Moscow, Idaho. I got home and the seasons changed. It’s no longer as cold as I left it, and I’m appreciating the world around me a little more.
As for serious matters though, I’m having a hard time. I need a new job, or any job, and nothing seems to be going my way at all. There are no legit jobs on craigslist right now, my neighbors are too loud, and I am not sure what to do. I’ve been trying so hard to get a job, and yet my college education has failed me completely. I can’t even land a job at McDonalds, and that saddens me to such a great tone.
Movie reviews, book reviews, and music reviews are forth coming. But first, I need to put up half of my belongings on ebay to try and pay some bills. I’m so broke, it’s hilarious. Other than that, I’ll be posting in the near future, so stay tuned…if anyone is out there still.
Recently I’ve been looking into music, because television has bored me to death. I can’t stand the programming that television has, and the only reason I have cable television right now is because of my wee website. If I didn’t review wwe crap all the time, I highly doubt I would have cable television at all.
Recently I read into the fact that Ozzy Osbourne’s original recordings were re-recorded with all new rhythm sections. The songs are usually terrible, if you’re a musician and long time fan you’ll notice right away that there is something wrong. Most notably, you can hear the re-recordings on “Blizzard of Ozz” and all the “best of” albums from the Ozz Man. They sound completely terrible.
You’ve heard “Crazy Train”, and I looked out on youtube and found that the original is available, so I wanted to post it:
On the original the bass guitar and guitar parts are at appropriate levels, but when you listen to the re-recordings the bass treble is through the roof and the guitar sounds like someone else is playing it!
So what, right? You don’t care, why should you. I don’t know, I’m just making lame blog conversations with myself which no one reads.
Now, Ozzy has done a lot of terrible things in regards to music, and dare I say reality television. But I can’t fault him too much, because he did something so cool for a 9 year old guitar player and fan. There’s this kid who at 7 years old met Ozzy and impressed him with how good he was on guitar. So the kid showed up on the “Ellen” talk show and met his hero, after playing a very interesting version of “Crazy Train”. So the kid gets in good with Ozzy and Ozzy lets him play live at BlizzCON! No joke, here you go, Crazy Train featuring the coolest 9 year old that you’ll see today.
So all is forgiven, right? Randy Rhoads is still not with us, Ozzy is still alive, and I’m still daydreaming of times when my websites mattered. All is right with the world, eh?
I went to see Sherlock Holmes with my family for Christmas, and it wasn’t half bad. While I think that Guy Ritchie’s film making is somewhat stale at times, Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. can act and made for an entertaining film. I don’t like Rachel McAdams. I saw her on late night with Jimmy Kimmel, and I didn’t like her at all. I would’ve preferred Scarlett….nevermind. The film came across like a broader, more in depth “Prestige” which is something I love. I really like Sherlock Holmes in literature, and this latest film is interesting, but not exactly going to be my favorite of the year.
So what was my favorite film of the year? What did I remember most about going to the movies weekly until I got fired from my lackluster job?
None.
2009 wasn’t a good year for movies.
I don’t recall the year in cinema, because it wasn’t that great. In fact, I feel that I’ve wasted my money this year. Don’t believe me? Here are the films that I personally went to this year while in theaters!
The Unborn, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Donkey Punch, Taken, The Uninvited, Coraline, Push, Fanboys, Friday the 13th, The International, Fired Up, Watchmen, The Last House on the Left, Miss March, Duplicity, I Love you, Man, Knowing, 12 Rounds, Adventureland, Fast & Furious, Bart Got a Room, Observe and Report, Crank: High Voltage, State of Play, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Next Day Air, Star Trek, Management, Drag Me To Hell, UP, The Hangover, Land of the Lost, The Proposal, Year One, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, I Love You, Beth Cooper, 500 Days of Summer, Orphan, The Ugly Truth, The Collector, Funny People, Julie & Julia, The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard, Extract, Jennifer’s Body, Whip It, Saw VI, and Sherlock Holmes.
My 2009 year as a consumer of nationally released films, is a terrible year. My favorites? Wow, I don’t really know if I can even say I had favorites out of all of these. They all just seemed to make me mad. I liked Whip It a lot, the women were sexy. Saw VI was cool. Crank 2 was probably the most fun I had this year at the movies. The rest? I don’t know, they all seem forgettable.
I don’t look forward to a lot of films of 2010. I kind of want to see the new Kevin Smith film, Cop Out, but other than that? I’m not really looking forward to a productive year in film. Nor does anyone care.
On the Job Hunt
I’ve applied to nearly 100 jobs here in Moscow, Idaho. I’ve applied for fast food, walmart, and even part time work, but no one has called me back. I did receive an interesting call from Movie Gallery, but I didn’t get a job interview out of it. I’ve tried really hard to find work, and have even entertained offers from people seeking help with web development, but nothing has really stuck out. I’ve noticed that life is harder than I thought, even with a degree. I went to college and still owe a lot of money, and it never makes me feel better when people tell me I’m not alone in this life.
I’m having a hard time with this.
My mom wants me to join the military. My wife isn’t up for it. If all else fails, I might be able to join the Navy. However, that would end my blogging career for sure. I wouldn’t have a lot of time on my hands.
Friends and Family
I still have no friends here. I have tried to say hello to people, and talked to a few people at churches that I’ve visited, but the fact is, I don’t have any friends. It’s sad to me that everyone I’ve known are gone. I guess that’s what happens, right? Oh well.
My family here is nice. My in-laws are rad. My brother in-law is a jerk, and no one seems to know how to tell him no, or tell him to F-Off. His wife is a saint, that’s for sure.
I guess that brings us up to date. This blog is really depressing to me. Not because of life, but because I remember what I once had with my old site. I had a site with 1800+ posts, traffic, friends, comments, and so much more. Rebuilding that is an impossible task, and I don’t know if I’ll ever regain that popularity or income. It was a nice ride, until I got fired.
I do reflect on my former employer Snowboard Connection, from time to time.
Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but sometimes you’re a cyclops amidst the blind. I was the cyclops for so long, and instead of them talking to me or asking me to take a pay cut, they cut me. They cut me deep too. I don’t harbor ill will or anything. I still hate snowboarding, and hope one day that skateboarding brings me an income. But as for my past? It’s done and done. If someone asks me about them, hey, all good things. In fact, I miss them. I miss my time when I first got there. Working with people that genuinely enjoyed their job. It soured fast when a new owner came in and tried to be cool. That guy, we all thought was an idiot, but you know what? Who’s the one fired? Not him. He’s over there enjoying his position.
Moscow, Idaho sucks. I don’t like this city yet. I can’t find a job, I have no friends, and well…it’s a hard city to love. I guess that’s all for this update.
Life is good. It’s just a little boring right now. I’ll get more movie reviews up, whenever I decided to get around to watching film. I’ve been watching The Office a lot, maybe I miss tech a little more than I’m willing to admit.
When I was a kid I didn’t really have a lot of fun at Christmas time. I grew up in a poor neighborhood for a long time, and that really made for terrible memories of Christmas. While kids were getting major presents, I was getting some hot chocolate and watching my television. The thing is, my television wasn’t color at all. It was black and white, or as I remember it green and shades of other types of green and/or yellow. I also had no remote control, so whatever I could flip through with a hard turn of a knob, would get me to another station. So my christmas memories are of watching terrible stop motion and puppet specials alongside whatever video I would get to rent from the Chinese guy at the video store down the street.
You see, the video stores in the “hood” were all owned by Asian Immigrants. I used to call my guy “china guy” but he was really from another country. He wouldn’t call me anything but my video store card member number, which was oddly enough only four digits. So between renting vhs tapes, usually horror related ones, and my stupid television I remember a lot of crap on christmas. One of the things that really made things difficult was the fact that my parents worked two jobs each, and my mom went to night school to learn English and more. So I spent a lot of time by myself in a room inside the back of someone’s house. The house was in the hood, and well…it seemed odd that we rented part of their garage to live in.
The Christmas’s got better though. My parents divorced, my mom met a “white guy” and we had a lot of better Christmas’s to get through. The most memorable that I can think of were involved with being a teenager and one Christmas in the suburbs.The first big Christmas that I remember was the one where I finally got not only a boombox/stereo player but a skatedeck. My parents didn’t have a lot of money, but they hooked me up with a cd player/tape deck in which I spent many hours listening to bad music and good music. The skateboard deck and the musical endeavor given to me that christmas have stuck with me all through my years.
Now the Suburbs were something else. We moved from the hood of Los Angeles, to a nice suburb in Santa Clarita. I had my own room, all the cable channels, and whatever I wanted. I also had a bad knee, and a lot of fun. My parents were fighting, I could sense a divorce was coming sooner than later, but we managed to stay together through a few harder times that year. So the reason I remember this christmas is not because I got a lot of gifts, it was because my mom was working hard to get home before 8pm. That’s right, my mom was working from 7 am to 8 pm and then driving home faster than fast 40 miles away.
Let me break it down a little more. My sister and I were going to a private christian school 40 miles away from our new home in Santa Clarita, California. My mom was working at the Postal Service and she my stepfather was working on his own with his private construction company as a big time guy in the industry. Now that meant that I would have to wake up at 5:30 am to get dropped off at school/church at 6 am for prayer, then get driven to school 5 minutes away for the day. After school I had to go work and then my mom would pick me and my sister up at around 7 pm and we would commute all the way back to the suburbs.
On this particular event, Christmas Eve, my mom and I (and my sister) went all the way from Los Angeles to the burbs to the mall and started to shop for my stepfather, which we had not done at all throughout the month. It was terrible. But the thrill of shopping super last minute was worth it.
Now I’m an adult.
I’m way past just being 18, and I’m married. The last couple of Christmas’s as a married man I’ve blown hundreds of dollars on gifts. We spoil each other I guess. However, since losing my job, moving to Moscow, Idaho and not being able to get back on my feet again, my Christmas this year has been filled with me sitting around doing nothing. My wife has been working a lot, because her Starbucks is located next to/inside a mall. So I’ve been just twiddling my thumbs and hoping for the best.
The tree is small, it’s lit, and I’m just wishing for a new life, or a new career. I have nothing right now. But that’s ok, because I’m enjoying the time to think. It’s hard on me, it’s hard to think about the past, I miss my family so much. My sister and my mother are so far away and aren’t visiting me this christmas. My dad is no where to be found, and this just seems like a crappy year to be me. It started off so well though.
I started this year making serious money. I then got 2 raises that brought that serious money to major money. We paid off all our credit cards and we finally made it to where we had financial semi-freedom until I was laid off.
But now I’m rambling, I’m sorry.
There’s a couple of things that I’d like to share with all 2 of you readers, and that’s in the form of music. Here are a couple of cool things to get you through my rambling and back into the christmas holiday cheering of sorts:
The first two things I present are a pair of music videos.
Mxpx - Gimme Christmas Music Video
The boys in Mxpx have been making me love punk rock since I first heard them on a compilation record called “Seltzer”. They’ve been around a long time and they’re the band I’ve seen most in my short life. Here they are playing a Christmas song called “gimme christmas”:
The second one is my favorite Christmas song done by the Christian rockers: Jars of Clay:
The third thing I wanted to share will be uploaded in a couple of days and put up right in time for the Christmas holiday. I’m going to put up a full one-shot comic book of one of my favorite hero’s in comic book history. I hope you’re ready for The Punisher Christmas 1 Shot from 2007, it’s going to be good!
As for me, and this “adult” christmas. I’m not sweating it. For once I am just enjoying my life and enjoying the goodness of the season. Thank you if you’re still out there reading my junk. I’m trying to get it all back to the way it was, but most likely it will never be the same. I know that from the finances, which have all dried up. I’m also doing another blog “http://thecasketsalesman.blogspot.com” where I lament more than in this site. I have been watching some terrible movies, so I’ll review those sooner than later, but I also have a site for that…well two of them, if anyone is interested.
I’m going to go back to listening to Pandora, via my netflix/roku box. It’s actually doing better than the regular internet version. If you have spare change please buy something from our amazon links, and if not, just enjoy this piece of crap site I call a blog.
I was blessed in a lot of ways up to this point. Even now, I’m reaping a lot of what I sewed a while ago. I’m not making a lot of money, in fact, I’m still unemployed. I’m trying to make it through, and I’m waking up. Seriously, I’m waking up to see that I need to write more on this site.
So here is a quick update before I start to seriously consider writing a marathon of posts to bring my site to a former glory.
I’ve moved to Moscow, Idaho and I don’t have any job prospects right now.
I am finally getting back into watching movies. I have a few sites set up for that, the links are below:
Enjoy those sites for constant reviews and quick hits and misses. This site will have a mixed media feel to it and I’ll not review hardcore like I used to. To be honest with you, no one cared about those reviews and most people abandoned me on the switch.
I went from 150,000 hits a month and more, to about 10 hits a day if I’m lucky. I guess the loyalty I once had from readers is gone. In fact, no one cares anymore, and the less I see in regards to traffic the more complacent I am in regards to making friends.
Oh yeah, “friends”, I have none. I used to have friends, but the further I move away from Los Angeles the less friends I have. Right now I have no one at all. Sure, my wife has family here but it’s not really “MINE”, if you know what that means. I spend a lot of time alone, and in my office, doing nothing. I tried skateboarding this city, but it’s not that skate friendly. There is no core skate shop here either, and the skatepark is flooded with razor scooters.
I feel fat.
I’ve been looking for a church to attend and so far it’s a fruitless endeavor. There’s still a lot of time though…so I think.
I have yet to hear from ANY job. I see “now hiring” signs all over, but after submitting applications to even the most lamest of jobs, I have yet to hear ANY call backs. I hate the feeling of being useless. I have a degree dangit! I am an educated man and I can’t land a simple fast food gig? I suck at life.
That’s it for the moment. I’m on aim a lot….thecorporatehero, that’s about it. Movie reviews are coming sooner than later, and this time it’s no holds barred…well it always was.
I want to be somebody else sometimes. Sure my life is not in shambles, but my career is none existent. The count is 128 resume’s and applications sent. It’s been a full 4 weeks of me trying to get a new job. I have yet to receive one call back. That’s right, I have yet to receive even a solitary call back! I have experience in a lot of different realms and I have no call backs.
I owe money for my college career and now I can’t even land a part time gig at a stupid Walmart. I am stretched spiritually, and I’m not sure who to turn to. I have no friends, I have no guidance, and all I have left s my skateboard and my computer. I live in a small city, no jobs, no future, nothing for me.
I was young when I heard that a husband must sacrifice for his wife…well more so that a husband must love his wife like Jesus loves the church. Well, if Jesus died for the church than does a man die for his wife? I guess in a way I’m dying a painful death, not a physical one, but one of the spirit. My spirits are down, I am a weak man now because I can’t get a job in any field. I guess I’m lucky for the time being, my wife makes more than me, she didn’t go to college and she makes more than I garnered in my whole computer/tech career with the exception of one job.
I’m trying to make the best of things, but it’s not that simple. You can’t just wipe away the stress, and with no one to talk to, it becomes a lonely life. I want to love and I want to leave, and I want a job…any job at this point. I have been kicking myself to fill out an application for fast food, but I can’t turn it in. I just can’t yet…I feel like I’m above it.
Maybe I’m not above it. Maybe I should shut up and take it. I’m nearly physically sick at the fact that my skills, my knowledge and my college career is going to waste, it’s a complete and utter waste. I have no one to turn to.
I don’t even have a passion for this site, nor my old site. I have nothing, I’m just sailing these seas alone…waiting for a call…watching the world smile like lunatics, because I’m not smiling, that’s for sure.
Where Am I?
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Video Store Blues.