New Job - first week

So far, it hasn't been too bad. I ended my last shift of the first week a couple of hours ago, and I have to say it was both what I was expecting to do and what I wasn't expecting, if that makes any sense at all. Everyone that I will be working with seem to be pretty nice so far, so I think it's going to work out ok. I will tell a short story though.
On my way to work Wednesday, my GPS decided to send me all back roads to the site I was working at for the day. So it sends me on this "road" which is actually not a road but more of a goddamned goat path in the middle of frigging nowhere. Jesus Christ. If I had been driving a car I would have been so incredibly screwed...lol, but since I drive a Jeep it was ok. :) It didn't keep me from repeating "Oh my God, oh my God" over and over though...lol. Going over boulders and 1-2 feet drops in the middle of a "road" is not my idea of a GPS doing it's job. ;)

Anyways, I hope everyone had a good holiday. Sorry for lacking with the blog posts, if you're following my tea blog, I should have a new post or two up tomorrow, but don't quote me on that. And if you're not following my tea blog but like tea, please do so. It would make me happy.

Harry Potter Movie Review - The Deathly Hallows, Part 1

If you haven't seen it yet and don't want it spoiled for you (lol, if you've read the book -and EVERYONE'S READ THE BOOK - nothing should be a surprise to you), don't read this post. :)


Okay, now that's done with, let's get on to it.

The movie starts with Rufous Scimgeour (played by the guy who was Davy Jones in Pirates of the Carribean - SWEET!) giving a general statement to the wizarding press and to workers of the Ministry of Magic about the current state of affairs, not realizing that Voldemort is already planning on making his move very soon, already having gained a few high allies within the Ministry.

From there it cuts to scenes of Hermione, Ron and Harry each preparing to leave their respective places for the summer, with Hermione Obliviating her parents to keep them safe from harm (AKA Death Eaters), Ron contemplating the meaning of life, and Harry watching forlornly out of his bedroom window as the Dursley's make their last on screen appearance (seriously, wish they had gone into more detail here and with the last movie, but that can't be helped.)

Soon everyone shows up at Harry's childhood home, and half of the people who arrive turn into Harry with the help of Polyjuice Potion (this scene was quite funny). They take off into the sky where they are almost immediately attacked by Death Eaters. Some are injured, some disapparate (*cough* Mundungus Fletcher, you dirty bastard *cough*) and one dies.

Things come to a head during the wedding of Bill and Fleur, where they are forewarned that the ministy has been taken and that Death Eaters are coming to ruin the show. From there on out, Harry, Ron and Hermione are on their own, to find and destroy the last Horcruxes and get rid of Voldemort once and for all.

If you have seen the previous movies in the series, (and let's be honest with ourselves, who hasn't?) You, probably much like me, have been sorely disappointed or even angry about how much was cut or left out, or even changed from the book. You'll find very little of any of that here, and I can, with confidence, say that this movie is the best one in the series so far. This movie was about 2 hours and 45 minutes long; could you imagine having the whole book as ONE MOVIE? EPIC! But there was no way they were going to do that. Ah well, I'll just have to wait until next summer to review the second part. I give this movie an A! :)

LOL, Sorry, had to add another. Nightwish, Planet Hell, Live

Jesus, I wish I had seen them live when Tarja was still with them, holy shit.

Nightwish Video - Nemo

Just heard this song randomly on my last.fm neighborhood, and had to share. Goddamn, this is one of the most beautifully epic songs I've ever heard, but then again that is what Nightwish (with either Tarja or Anette) is pretty much known for, just the epic scope of some of their songs.

Anyways, enjoy.

Facebook Email, and why it's a bad idea (lifehacker article)

Lifehacker has published an article about the possible setbacks of relying on facebooks new messenger/email/world domination service, (just released yesterday) and I have to say they raise a number of salient points. They also, of course, have a counterpoint article as to why you should try it, found here. IMO while it would be an interesting system to try, I don't think it would be something I would use religiously.

What are your opinions about it?

Titus Andronicus

Especially in the movie with Anthony Hopkins in the titular role, kicks a lot of ass. Just sayin'.




I remember watching this when it came out on video, and just as bad-ass now as it was then. Awesome movie, and one of the few Shakespearean works I can actually get into.

Another Tony Horton Video

A commenter asked if I had "any other interesting fitness videos", and as a matter of fact I do. 



This man is pretty much a monster.

Maybe a tea review blog...

While stopping at a tea shop yesterday in my travels, I got to thinking, "Damn. I drink a lot of tea. maybe a tea blog would be a good idea." So, I think I'm going to do just that, and try to review a variety of tea goodness whenever I have the chance.

Also, the employees at my local Apple store don't have a clue. Just sayin'.

Tony Horton = Superman or Hulk?

For real. Holy shit.

Betty White FTW

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101109/ap_en_ot/us_betty_white_forest_ranger

Will we next see her running for President?

Book reviews: The Gathering Storm/ Towers of Midnight

Now I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of the Wheel of Time. I found Robert Jordan's writing, while full of detail, to be bloated and overwhelmed with that same detail and almost dull in delivery. Yes, the world he created is epic in scope, but when you go into as much meticulous detail as he did, it can get old. If, like me, you've read past books in the Wheel of Time series, and got confused by what character did what and where with who, well, I know the feeling...trust me.
Since his death, two books have been released: The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight, both co-written by Brandon Sanderson, and I have to say that, while not reading any of Sanderson's past works, he has breathed some much-needed life into this series that has been around for decades.






I found both books (read them this weekend) to be fairly fast-paced, and both tied up loose ends that had been left untied for quite some time (Would Elayne find out what happened to her mother? What happened to Moiraine? Would Egwene finally retake the White Tower and become Amyrlin Seat?) without seeming to be rushed, which would be understandable as there's only one more book in the colossal series. I know that I, for one, look forward to reading the last book, known as A Memory of Light.

You know how there's never enough time in the day...

I am having way too much experience with this. With that said, I decided to check out http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_HTE.htm, a site that purports to help people organize their life in order to better time management skills and, in essence, productivity.
From "Beating Procrastination" to "Effective Goal Scheduling" and "Personal Goal Setting", it looks like there's a variety of tools for any hard-core procrastinator (such as yours truly) to get their life back on track. If you check it out, let me know what you think.

Until next time!

If you're addicted to Facebook, check this out!

http://lifehacker.com/5680715/better-facebook-makes-the-new-facebook-font-readable-adds-tons-of-other-tweaks

Please keep in mind though, that as the lifehacker author states, it will drastically change your layout; however, the layout change is a small price to pay in order to have more control over your facebook, is it not?

If any of my readers decide to install it (as I have) please share if you like it or not. :)

Song stuck in my head

Lol, I told you this was going to be random...haha...
Yeah, so I've had this song in my head since probably about last Thursday. It's 'Killer Queen' by Queen, and for the life of me it's still in there. Not that I mind, because I like Queen and it's a good song, but God forbid if I had some song from Britney Spears stuck in my head...*shudders*

Voting Day (Part 2)

So...I actually DID go out and vote, and voted seriously. Yay me!

I just hope that any changes that come about because of the midterms place our country in a better spot than it is now.

Voting Day

Yay! Election Day, when we vote for people that (hopefully) have the ethics and the determination to get good things done for their constituency during their pre-determined term limits.

Seriously, I was planning on not voting today. I'm really irritated about the DADT bullshit because it simply isn't right. Repeal the damn thing already, please! Anyways, back to the point. I wasn't planning to vote. Now I'm going to. Yay. Seriously thinking about writing someones name in for every open position from the Governor on down, because to be honest I don't care about the state elections. We'll see.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (but mainly Truthiness) - Diary of events 10/30/10 (Part II)

What can I say? In my humble opinion I believe it may have been the greatest thing I've ever witnessed in my lifetime. Those of you who missed out on watching it...well, you missed out, lol. People were insanely respectful of one another, and were just as equally polite. While the US Park Police were there in force, they too were polite and friendly, and as far as I know their day, as far as arrests go, was probably fairly dull.

Being the impatient bastard I can be, it was left up to me to kill the time until the actual rally started. I had returned back to the rally site at around the time they were playing music over the speakers, so I started to mill around again and take more photos.

At around 11, that's when the fun began. They began airing the saga of how the rally came to be, in between interspersed public safety announcements and taped musical performances that had originally aired on the Colbert Report and Daily Show. My one complaint has to be this: they didn't go back far enough, as it has been thought on other sites that the REAL beginnings of the rally are from 2004, with the "Crossfire" series of videos. These two are the main videos that must be seen to be believed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE (his actual appearance on Crossfire)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-october-18-2004/your-show-blows (his first show back from appearing)

Anyways, back to it. The rally took off with about a 30-45 minute set with the Roots and John Legend, then the Mythbusters arrived to get the rally goers to do the wave! It was pretty sweet, lol. Soon after, Jon and Stephen took the stage, Jon coming out first and Stephen showing up in a skit oddly reminiscent of the Chilean Miner Rescue, wearing clothes which I can only describe as "Evel Kneivel"-ish.

The rally passed by far more quickly than I thought it would, so I'm just going to bring up some highlights here, with most of my rally photos to follow in a slideshow:

• Cat Stephens and Ozzy Osbourne in a "Peace Train/ Crazy Train" song battle with evolved into the O'Jays singing "Love Train"
• Jon Oliver wearing a Peter Pan costume (IMO they should have made him fly around the stage, lol)
• Giant Colbert paper-mache materpiece
• The greatest speech Jon Stewart has probably ever given in his life (a close second to the one he made during TDS first night back after 9/11, anyways)

Jon's speech at the end was amazing, that's all there is to it, and to be honest the only thing that would have made the day better would have been if he threw everything out the window and had announced that he was going to run for President in 2012. (He won't, but...a girl can dream.)

In either case, you need to watch this rally if you missed seeing it, and you need to re-watch it if you caught it live, it's that damned good. There is a reason why Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are amazing, and you need only to watch the rally to find out why.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (but mainly Truthiness) - Diary of events 10/30/10

Split everything up by day just to make it easier for me, lol. I wrote five and a half pages of things I witnessed, so...yeah. Anyways...

10/30/10 (AKA The Greatest Day in America's Universe) National Mall Walk

(written Sunday morning.)

We arrived around 7 or so in the morning, and after dropping off a bag in storage (20.00, and when I picked my bag up the guy told me 120 others had done the same...Someone made a killing! Damn!) I made my way over to the Capitol, a beautiful building to see first thing in the morning.

After taking photos of some of the stunning architecture, I realized that I was rather turned around, lol, and made my way down to the National Mall.

It was already busy, with more people showing up in droves all the time. I wandered around a little bit, taking photos of signs (a popular past time, as it turned out) and while I originally did have a good view of the proceedings, I decided to get some sightseeing in as my time after the rally was rather scheduled. So, with that said, I began to walk down the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial. It was a longer trip than I expected; I had no idea that it was that huge; but eventually I made it.

Lincoln Memorial, as seen from the WWII monument

If you've been following the Daily Show for the last couple of weeks, you know that Jon's chosen recipient of any money made during the rally or selling of merch is going back too the national mall, in order to help pay for upkeep of the grounds. This is important, because while the mall is beautiful, other parts of it...not so much.

What...? This rancid pool is THE reflecting pool? I don't believe it.

...okay, never mind.

Half-empty, it still fulfills its intended purpose; however, when taking a closer look you see that one of our greatest monuments has been neglected. Garbage and dead leaves float in the shallows, and green algae lies stagnant on the bottom. It is truly, regrettably, in a sad state of affairs.

Next up, the Lincoln Memorial. It was beautiful, what else is there really to say? People milled around in a respectful silence, staring up at the giant marble statue or reading the Gettysburg Address which is carved into the walls of the memorial. One of the most moving places I've ever been to, for sure.

Anyways, later on today I will post about the actual rally. See you then!