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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-- HERE BE SPOILERS---

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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

Happy B-day, Frankie!

Some of you may not know this, but today is a special day for swing-dancers - lindy hoppers in particular.

Today is Frankie Manning's birthday.

Frankie Manning was considered one of founding fathers of the swing-dance revival scene.  A big time movie star back in the 1930s & '40s (dancing movies like Hellzapoppin' & Jittering Jitterbugs), his real legacy began in 198 when he was contacted by a couple of local dancers in New York City.  Seems these youngsters heard he knew of a little dance called the Lindy hop and they asked if he could teach them how to do it too.

The dance caught on when his two students moved to California, and Frankie Manning began cool cats & kittens the Lindy Hop all over the world.

 So, in honor of his contributions to the swing-revival, lindy hoppers everywhere are dancing a special dance he helped bring back tonight - the shim sham:

AND YOU CAN LEARN IT TOO WITH THE HELP OF YOUTUBE!   

EVERYBODY SHIM-SHAM! 

We were all left behind

So I've apparently been out of the Biblical loop because I had no clue that the Apocalypse Rapture was supposed to happen yesterday (at 6pm!) until last week.

A lot of people sure are talking about it now, though....and making jokes.  And while making fun of extremist Christians sure sounds fun, I can't help but think that those people must be feeling pretty foolish and sad right about now.

I was reading about this all weekend online; all the up-to-date news reports on what people were doing and everyone's opinions, all the little internet jokes -- I gotta admit this "Raptor / Rapture" one *was* pretty funny....!

....and while I can't find the article anymore, I read somewhere that there was a group of people waiting nearby those believers who thought the Rapture was happening waiting to counsel them to help them deal with the eventual disappointment when it didn't happen.  I thought that was kind of nice.

On the flip side, though, a lot of Rapture-related internet scams seem to have popped up because of all this - the most noteworthy I can find being the "After the Rapture Pet Care" - where those of us who were "left behind" will take care of the pets of those of who ascend after the Rapture comes - because as it supposedly common knowledge - pets can't ascend to heaven.

After doing a bit of research, I actually found a lot of forums, movies and other media discussing and dealing with this historical date that people seem to be anticipating.....I actually find myself wanting to see Kirk Cameron's "Left Behind" movie now....! 

I am absolutely *POSITIVE* I will regret watching this. 

But getting back to this whole "Rapture" media frenzy, I just have to ask - if this whole episode was just the act of some extremist religious cult......


....how did this get so much media attention? 


My own theory is that religion is ingrained in us from a very early age so no matter how logically ridiculous it seems, we still believe in it a little no matter how much we try to deny it.  It's very similar to why The Exorcist and Paranormal Activity were such scary movies.  We know that they're just movies and that "the supernatural" doesn't really exist (or does it?) but it scares us anyway because a part of us still believes in it no matter how much we tell ourselves that there's no such thing.

What do you all think?  

Were you even slightly worried that the Rapture might actually happen yesterday?