Xmas on a budget

Two blogposts in one week?  Insane! 

But I figured, since it’s the Christmas season – and I have a Christmas-related blogpost – I might as well post it while it’s timely. 

Anyway, I just wanted to ask those of us who give gifts:  how many people do you give gifts to during the Christmas Holiday season? 

I ask because I’m at a point in my life where I can no longer use “I’m broke” as an excuse for not buying friends / family members gifts anymore.  But if I end up buying gifts for everyone on my list….I think I *will* go (broke)! 

I can see where I *could* shorten the list, but I don’t think I should; a lot of the friends I’m getting gifts for have boyfriends or girlfriends…and usually they’re inseparable.  If I give a gift to one, I kinda have to gift a gift to the other, don’t I? 

Here’s my list so far:  Is this too many?   

• Mom
• Grandma
• Brother
• Cousin
• Aunt
• Friend 1
• Friend 2
• Friend 3
• Boss
• White Elephant gift
• Office Xmas party gift 

Everyone's a critic

Now that I’ve fully transitioned to my “new" (old) department, I thought I would try this old thing out again….seeing as I now have a little more free time to update this……at least for now!

While I was away, a new guy started working here (as my replacement) and since I’ve been back, we’ve been chatting & getting to know one another; he seems like a pretty cool dude with similar tastes & preferences for things like Lord of the Rings and Batman….! 

…or he did until I mentioned The Dark Knight to him. 

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Even though he’s a big fan of the Batman comics (and loved Batman Begins), he thought that The Dark Knight was terrible – not so much as a regular action movie, just as a Batman movie.   

Needless to say, I thought he was nuts.  But then he handed me a 4-page essay, outlining his reasons for disliking the movie (and citing specific examples throughout the movie).  Having a written essay handy for just such an occasion worried me for a bit, but I’ve also been known to write a few choice blog posts about movies I thought were less than great too, now haven’t I? 

So I read it – and while I readily dismiss the majority of his arguments (ex. Movie inconsistencies, plot holes, etc.) as movie goofs -- he had many issues with Batman’s new costume, his “Bat-cyle” and the scene where Harvey Dent & Batman set a trap to catch the Joker – I have to admit that his character issues are pretty strong. 

For example - the backstory for Harvey Dent / Two-Face differs from comic to movie adaptation.  Harvey is a lot more bi-polar in the comics, being secretly abusive to his wife and family while generating a clean-cut image for Gotham’s media.  In the movie, he’s “Gotham’s White Knight” through and through.  And while this may have served the movie’s theme better, my co-worker’s problem with this is that it’s not true to the comic.   So, praising this as “the best Batman movie ever made” is a false claim. 

The same issue comes up with Heath Ledger’s depiction of the Joker.  

While Heath Ledger's Joker was indeed a great villain for the movie, my co-worker felt that he just wasn’t the same Joker that he grew up with in the DC comics.  Not only is the physique wrong (the Joker is always depicted as being a lot thinner and more feminine than Ledger’s character was), but he also got the very essence of the Joker wrong.  According to my co-worker, the Joker isn’t a psychopath who orchestrates grand schemes in order to prove a point to people like Batman, he’s just a random doer of evil, changing plans on a whim for no reason other than “he feels like it”.   (This one I’m a little iffy on, but I’ll take his word for it for now)

But while he may be right that this movie may not have been as ‘true to the comics’ as Batman Begins was, it was a pretty damn good movie.  And maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with Batman like he did (I went with Marvel over DC), but I personally think these discrepancies from the comics made the characters *better*. 

And now that I’ve said that, I almost feel dirty after my last rant about how untrue to comics X-men: First Class was.  

"Just Roll w/it."

I would have to say that it’s been a crazy couple of months for me.  In addition to getting into that car accident and everything else, there have been a lot of really big changes for me going on at work. 

First of all, somebody in my old department got fired let go a couple of weeks ago, leaving them an employee down.  And since they’re a pretty vital department to our company (they work very closely with our database system), the bigwigs at the company made asked to step-in and help them out for a few weeks since I still have a pretty good working knowledge of said system and it would take a while for them to hire a replacement. 

A few days later, after I had a chance to re-acquaint myself with the job, they called me into their office and asked me if I’d like to return to my old department….that I only left a year ago to advance my career. 

Apparently, aside from my old boss, I was the only person in the company who knew the system so well.  And with my old boss being so indispensable (enough so that she can’t even go on vacation), they realized how vulnerable this potentially left the company should she decide to retire / leave.  As an incentive to return, they promised me an increase in pay as well as some managerial duties with a promise to promote me once my old boss retires (she’s sixty-one right now and will probably retire at sixty-five).  

Ultimately, though, they said the decision was mine; I could either move back to my old job and return to the boring old system-work that I used to do, or stay where I currently am and leave the company to fill that position from the outside. 

Initially, I was pretty hesitant.  It felt like a step back in my career (such as it is).  Plus, I didn’t particularly see myself being there for that much longer considering how overworked I’ve been lately (barely enough time to blog).  Plus, as much as I complained about how stressful my current job is, I have to admit it’s never boring: I now deal with multiple aspects of the company (billing, service issues, contracts, etc.) and have acquired quite a few job skills in the short time I've been doing it.   

Plus, commiserating with your co-workers is half of what makes the job fun. 

After talking it over with my mom and a few others, I decided that it’s better to not look this ‘gift horse’ in the mouth (especially in this economy).  So I’m taking the “senior position” that management created for me (along with a hefty pay increase – or so they promised; otherwise I'm staying where I am) and waiting for the job market to heal.  

Hopefully this means I’ll have more time to blog again.  I’m not sure how much more work will be required of me (more money = more responsibility), but hopefully I’ll have a little more free time on my hands. 

**NOTE** For those of you who know where I work, please don’t say anything on this blog.  They have this “tracker” thing that catches anything that mentions the company online and I’d rather not have this post show up in the company E-Newsletter, okay?  I’M TRUSTING YOU HERE. 

"First World Problems"

So I finally found myself having a few minutes of free “internet time” to give you a quick update on my doings. 

Things have been kind of rough the past couple weeks and I’m a little wary of posting this because of my policy on “whiny” blog posts.  But I figured that I should let people know in case they wonder why I’m not my usually chipper self: 

First off, my orthodontist told me I have to start wearing rubber bands over my braces.  This means I can’t really open my mouth too wide (yawning is kind of difficult now) and my teeth are more tender than usual due to the extra pressure from the bands.  Plus, I look like that much more like an awkward teenager.  I’m not really sure how long I’ll have to keep them on (*at least* five weeks, maybe longer, according to the orthodontist) but I hear that it’s best to just keep them on all the time (except while eating / brushing) to keep from having to wear them too long.  

@#$%^& Hate this

Right after I heard the “great news” about my teeth, my car got “sandwiched” on the freeway after a guy a couple cars in front of me stopped a little too suddenly for the guy behind me.  It didn’t look like a big crash but after taking my car to a mechanic, I found out that it sustained about $1400.00 in repairs.  Fortunately, we all had insurance no one was hurt.  And I’m now driving a rental for the next couple of days while the mechanics repair the damages to my car.  I’m driving a (gas-guzzling) Ford Escape right now and I feel pretty big on the road.  Good news, though – the mechanic called this morning saying I can pick up my car today! 

Not Actual Accident, but you get the idea

After I got home that day, my roommate told me our apartment lost it’s internet service.  I’m not 100% sure how that happened, but my roommate told me it had something to do with the online business he’s starting & how he tried to re-direct the phone number he created for it to his cell-phone.  Apparently, he also re-routed our landline (which we use to run our DSL), cutting off our access to the world wide web.  So now I can only go online at work.  Supposedly this’ll be fixed by Friday (9/23/11), but I’m not holding my breath….!  

A few days later, I got a big scare at work.  I’d rather not mention what happened, but it’s caused a lot of us to wonder about the security of our jobs. 

So yeah…..a lot happening in the past two weeks.  I figure I’ll let the older stuff go unsaid for now…..! 

Unrealized Dream #243

Did you know that Twitter doesn’t allow you to create a username with the word “Twitter” in it?  

I realized this when I had a brilliant idea to create a joke Twitter account named “The Twitter.”  The plan was just to follow everyone I could find with this account, and tweet as if the self-named account had somehow achieved self-awareness and was gathering information similar to how newborn children do. 

This was how I planned to achieve greatness…..even Godliness. 

This was going to be my Profile Picture

But unfortunately Twitter had foreseen this and prevented my tomfoolery from commencing. And my dream of greatness was never realized.  

I’m sure someone else already thought of this before me, probably around the time Twitter was becoming popular. 

But on the small chance that no one has, I’m writing this post to TM my idea. 

Sleep Self-Hypnosis

Last night I made the mistake of falling asleep with the TV on and now I’m worried it may have screwed with my head. 

I had a DVD playing (Season 2 of Arrested Development) and it has one of those “looping scenes” in their main menu where they play clips from the show over and over unless you do something about it.  

Anyway, I remember dreaming about specific lines from the show…and people saying them over and over again (Imagine a world where you try and speak to someone and they only repeat the same sentence over and over again; it’s hauntingly terrifying). 

When I woke up, I realized this was due to the fact that I had the TV on so loud that I could hear those lines in my sleep….and that they were influencing my dreams. 

Now I’m a little worried about how *else* those looped scenes might have affected my sub consciousness.  

This is your brain on TV media

If I start acting funny, get me professional help, okay? 

Originality is dead?

So Camp Hollywood – the annual swing dance camp I journey to every year for 3 non-stop days/nights of dancing – has come and gone….and there’s not much to say other than MAN, WHAT A GREAT TIME I HAD! 

Pretty sure I lost a couple pounds due to all the sweating (I sweated through 12 T-shirts) and a lot of people have said my form has improved since last weekend.  

Other than that, not much to say – but here’s a performance from the Showcase competition that I think you should all watch: 

Hard to believe they only placed 4^th in the contest (I guess it didn’t have as much actual ‘dancing’ as the other showcase performances did); but anyway…..! 

I hung out with my friend (and fellow ECLS major), Susan, the other day to catch up on what’s been going on in our lives.  I told her about Camp Hollywood & my trip to New York last month and she told me she was traveling to Italy soon for a friend’s wedding.  (Rich friends, amIrite?)  And while we initially planned to see a movie as our scheduled “friend activity” (aka ‘excuse to hang out’), we couldn’t decide on what to watch. 

(See, Susan was also a film major and has a huge pet peeve about movies being original – everything in the theatres was either a remake, a sequel, or based on some book / graphic novel franchise and she wasn’t about to pay good money to see those) 

So we ended up going to Barnes & Nobles and browsed their “summer & back to school reading” sections to see how many we’ve read /what we *really* thought of them.  It’s actually a pretty fun way for English Majors to pass the time! 

But getting back to Susan’s pet peeve:  I’ve heard this gripe before from a lot of other film buffs and I got to wondering when this started.  I mean, aren’t all stories derived from previous ones that came out before them?  And those that aren’t based on stories are based on real life experiences instead, so they’re not truly original either.  So were there ever any original ideas? 

If not, where did the idea of “there were original ideas before” come from? 

Maybe *that’s* the only true original idea……..! 

Or not.   

Sorry - it’s late and I’m rambling, trying to get ‘inspired’ to write a blog post. 

What does it mean?

I had the strangest dream last night.  

I dreamed that I was out in the ocean by some harbor and casually swam into the open mouth of a Blue whale that came up to the surface. 

The inside of the whale mouth was furnished with nice couches and tables, etc. but flooded waist-deep with water.  Also - the inside of the whale’s mouth was transparent (like glass) so I had a really nice view of the ocean from the whale’s perspective.  

My first thought upon seeing this - “what’s the rent on a whale like this, and can I afford it?” 

Then I noticed this girl floating / sleeping / drifting next to me.  She was a girl I knew from college.  On the far side of the whale, I saw a guy I went to high school with doing the same thing (floating). 

The whale then dived down back into the ocean and only then did I start panicking:  

 “How the hell am I going to get out of here??” 

I grudgingly woke up the girl floating next to me and explained to her my problem and she casually explained to me that the whale goes back to the surface for air every few hours or so and that I could probably leave then. 

Now calmer (but still a little freaked out), I swam over to the “window” of the whale and admired the view of the ocean. 

And then I woke up. 

ANY PSYCHO-ANALYSTS WANNA TELL ME WHAT MY DREAM MEANS?  

(Don’t say “I have a whale fetish” cuz it’s not true)

Vacation Rationing

So by now you all know that I got a promotion at work and have this new job with all these cool & crazy responsibilities; I’m totally an essential part of my department and contribute to the growth of the company, blah, blah, blah…..!

And while that’s really great – something I felt was really missing in my last position – it means that I can’t afford to take as many vacations as I used to.

……which really sucks, because I feel the need to take more of them now since this job is kind of stressful.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because I might not be able to fly home for Christmas this year. My vacation time was cut down significantly by my recent trip to New York and I’m not sure I’ll be able to accrue the needed days-off for a Christmas vacation this year.

It gets even trickier this year because half of my current department consists of L.A. transplants - people originally from the South, the East Coast, Scotland,…..and now Hawaii.

My old department consisted of people whose families lived in Los Angeles and could afford to work during the Christmas holidays. Christmas vacation was never really an issue back then.

But now….I’ve heard it can get kind of vicious around the holidays when it comes to asking for time off – begging, bargaining, lots and lots of toadying to the boss, etc. etc.

I don’t even want to think about what I’ll have to go through to get time-off approved for Evan & Mahea’s wedding in Hawaii next year.

Ah well, working up the nerve to ask today – wish me luck! 

X-Men: First **CRAP**

So by now you’ve probably all seen X-Men: First Class  (and loved it) or decided that it’s not really worth seeing. I’m counting on this being “a given” so I can rant about this movie without any guilt about spoiling for anybody, but in case there are some of you who are waiting for it to come out on DVD…….!

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I just don’t get how this movie gets an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. If the major demographic of this movie franchise is “comic book nerds” like me, then how the hell did everyone else love it?
First of all, there are many, MANY, *MANY* discrepancies between the comics and this movie….as well as between the past 4 other movies! They include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Moira McTaggart is an American CIA agent? (She’s supposed to be Irish, and was played by Olivia Williams in X3, and at least she sounds like she’s from the same continent!)
• Alex Summers – aka “Havoc” - is (approximately) the same age as Professor X? (Alex is supposed to be Cyclop’s *younger* brother. If this movie takes place before the X-men were formed / born, why is Havoc here???)
• Mystique & Professor X grew up together as ‘brother & sister’? - (They’re mortal enemies in the comics, and are pretty much complete strangers in the first 3 X-men movies. What, they just forgot about each other after being “brother/sister” for all those years?)

Secondly – the movie made some poor choices regarding what mutants / characters to portray in this movie. The biggest offender would be Angel Salvadore - the stripper with fairy wings who can spit fire. Were there not any other choices available? Since we’re throwing continuity out the window, did no one think of cannonball? Polaris? Sunfire? Marrow? (Not Pixie, though – she’s practically the same character)

Also, did it not occur to anyone else that the devil guy (Azazel) is just a red (& evil) carbon-copy of Nightcrawler?

And I just do not agree that Kevin Bacon was the best choice to play Sebastian Shaw….or that Sebastian was the original creator /owner of Magneto’s helmet. It didn’t look that great on Ian Mckellen and it looks plain idiotic on Kevin Bacon.

 

vs.

who wore it better?

 And finally – the whole Mystique & Professor X vs Magneto fiasco; that whole plot arc / storyline just seemed to fizzle out halfway through the movie, only to suddenly snap into place so Mystique lines up with Magneto for the first X-men movie. Did anyone else notice that she comes to this decision for almost no reason while her supposed brother lies dying right next to her???? 



“Hey Mystique, I know you secretly want to join Magneto’s team, but you’re just too scared to tell me, but you can go with him. Don’t worry, I’m okay with it. I’ll just lie here now that I'm paralyzed. I’ll be fine. It’s not like we formed this really strong bond growing up together or anything.”

 ........I know, I know; I sound like a huge nerd, don't I? 

 

BUT I DON'T CARE.  THERE ARE DISCREPANCIES TO MY BELOVED GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES & I WANT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. 

NYC Trip - The Oddities

All right, just bear with me; this will be my last "pic post" entry about my New York vacation.  

I'm not sure I should even bother writing this post, but I really want to take some time to tell you about one of the funnier things I experienced in New York during my visit to Wall Street - made famous by the New York Stock Exchange and that Oliver Stone movie starring Michael Douglas.  

NYSE - wooo! 

It's a very popular area for tourists - filled with a bunch of old statues.  The one in particular I want to bring to your attention is a statue of a Golen Bull - probably built to symbolize the "Bull Market?"  

 It's a pretty popular statue, it seems.  A *lot* of people were gathering around the statue, trying to get their picture taken next to it......specifically the back of it.  

.....where the bull's balls are.  

EVERYBODY WANTED TO GET THEIR PICTURE TAKEN TOUCHING THE BULL STATUE'S BALLS!  

Pretty strange (and hilarious), right? 

PROOF of this really strange & creepy phenomenom

So that's it, folks!  Enough of my trip to NYC.  I hope to have something else to post about real soon!

NYC Trip - The Food

So here's the thing about my trip to New York City - I didn't go see the Empire State Building. 


...or the Empire State Building. 
.........or the Chrysler Building.


I did go see the Statue of Liberty, but it was from a ferry going to & from Staten Island.  Here's a picture showing the closest I got to it:

Objects in picture were actually closer than they appear

The reason I didn't see those things was that I only had a limited amount of time to see "everything" in New York and everyone I met there told me that the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty weren't really worth the time it takes to see them.  (Seeing the Statue of Liberty can take a whole day!)  So I decided to skip them in lieu of seeing everything else.


Like Times Square......



It's like being in the Future. 

 And Union Square.........

And Washington Square...........



They filmed a scene from Ghostbusters 2 here! 


Even Madison Square..........! 

(Sorry, no pictures of Madison Square....!) 

Hey, there are a lot of "Squares" in New York City.....!


Anyway, I heard that what I really needed to do while I was in New York was try the food......so try the food I did!


One of the first places I went to was a place called Dumpling Man in the East Village area of New York.  Like almost every restaurant in New York, it's a small, hole-in-the-wall place to eat that's locally owned....and it was one of the best places I ate at in New York.


Here's a picture of me in front of the (now-famous because I've blogged about it) Restaurant.

And here's a sample of what they have to offer - it was only $5.00!

So good....! 

Another place that I remember with great food was a Cuban place called Cafe Habana.  It was like a fancier version of really great Mexican food - I highly recommend coming here to eat if you ever get the chance to visit New York. 

Good thing New York is such a "pedestrian" city that encourages walking.  I think I would've gotten really fat if I wasn't forced to walk to get everywhere.....!  


There was also some really great coffee in New York.  Take a look at this cup of coffee from the Blue Bottle in Brooklyn, NY! 

This is like....coffee art right here

Tastes good, too.

Although now that I'm back in Los Angeles, everyone's been asking me if I saw the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, so maybe I should've?  Ah well, maybe next time.....!  

MORE PICTURES OF NEW YORK SIGHTS:  

9/11 Memorial Site

Grand Central Terminal

New York Public Library - they filmed "Ghostbusters" here! 

The World Trade Center Site - Construction in progress since 2002. 

@ the Astor Cube

NYC Trip - The sights

Hey everyone, remember when I said I would try and do a better job of posting more?

Well, I obviously failed - but that's okay, because I finally have something to blog about now that I went on my trip to New York City! 

Back in March, I decided that I needed a vacation and asked my friend, Lucas, who lives in Brooklyn, NY, if I could come up to visit him (and crash at his place).  Once he got back to me (and said 'yes') I immediately began searching for deals on when was a good time to visit.  Mid June (10th to the 19th) seemed the cheapest, and a good a date as any, so that's when I asked for my time off.

Now the first thing I want to say about New York is that it's a classy town.  That was the first impression I had once I got off the plane.  Where else can you see a SKYLINE Bar in an Airport terminal?

And the rest of NYC turned out to be just as glamorous....as you can see from some of the pictures I've posted below.

Not the first couple of days, though.....turns out I got there right as the "June gloom" was ending.  

My first day of sightseeing - rained out. 

But as the week went on, the rain cleared up & I got to see what I think I liked best about New York -- the parks.

They're really beautiful and a lot different from some of the ones in Los Angeles.  For one thing, they're a lot *bigger*.   Take a look for yourself! 

So many trees....

 .and oddly enough, pianos!

 The park was so big that we didn't get a chance to see everything (like "Shakespeare in the Park")

But we did get a chance to see some of the musicians that perform there every so often, though!
 
I gotta admit - for a city that's about a tenth the size of Los Angeles, I'm pretty damn envious that NYC has the kind of parks that it does.  I really enjoyed walking through them.  Something about the way they're designed just makes them an excellent place to hang around; all the trees made for great shade and I felt more like I was in some kind of Nature Reserve.

Anyway, yeah.....I really liked the parks in NYC.  

OTHER PICTURES OF PARKS I VISITED:

Me venturing into Battery Park

This was....well, not a park, but it's by the Hudson River area next to New Jersey

The Korean American War Memorial in Battery Park