WTF Snow

So just before I started writing this I looked outside and it was snowing. 20 minutes later and it is now sunny outside. What is this? Can't the weather make up its mind? What happened to the good old days when it was just drizzly and 50 degrees all winter?

Anyways, I now have no job. My last day was Friday and I am now among the unemployed. Though it may seem cool at first not having anything to do, I am already bored. I would like to take a trip somewhere, but I am now faced with the prospect that I have no money to make said trip and that I should instead save what I have in case it is awhile before I can find another job. Not that its gonna be as easy as it might have been when the economy was good, but I figure its best not to think about stuff that you can't control. Hopefully I will be able to get a job that uses the degree that I went to college for. I'm not even against getting an entry level job that paid the same as what I made a Circuit City. I figure then I would at least be able to work my way up.

Speaking of my old job, now that the company no longer exists I feel that I am now able to more freely talk about some of my experiences when I worked their. Especially under liquidation. I might go into more in my next post, but for now I will leave you with this advice. Never expect that you will save anything going to a "going out of business" sale. Everything will be more expensive compared to when the store was in business, no one will give a shit about you, and you can't return anything even if it was broken when you bought it. Don't like it, don't bother arguing, you are shopping at a place where many of the employees relish finally being able to be assholes without repurcusions (SP?).

Anyways, I kinda have a writers block now, but now that I have time I will be able to write more. I'll think of more stuff to write tomorrow and maybe give a Watchmen book review. I would be nice to review something.

Short things from this weekend.

-While in Seattle for my brothers birthday, we came across a sign advertising the "Seattle Mystery Bookstore", of course written in a spooky font. While you think a sign advertising a mystery bookstore in spooky letters would contain books about Sasquatch, ghosts, and other mysterious things, it instead contained nothing but mystery novels like you would find at an airport newstand. Misleading advertising? I think so.

-I found some crack, or at least it looked like crack on the floor of a bathroom in Pike Place Market. I hope the person that lost it gets it back.

-The underground tour is nothing more then a tourist trap. The pictures always made it seemed like you would go deeeeep underground with nothing more then a flash light to guide your way. Instead, you go through crawlspaces that look like they are renovated every six months. Also, you are lead into a gift shop at the end that sells crude bumper stickers. In my experiences, if a place sells crude bumper stickers, it probably fits more into the tourist trap catagory then the museum catagory.

This story makes me sad...

The Final Goodbye: Shea Rests in Pieces

I don't know why, but I will get a little depressed when I hear about famous old landmarks getting torn down. Especially when they are replaced by a parking lot and a stadium named after a bank.

Last weekend..

This weekend, I went to Seattle to partake in the many films of the Science Fiction and Fantasy short film festival at the Cinerama downtown. All of the films were very well made and entertaining. They are more then I could ever do and many of them would make could feature length films. However, for about 75% of them the classification of "Science Fiction" is suspect. A short about an anthropomorphic hose does not fit into my vision of the future. To the festival's credit, it was advertised as a sci-fi/fantasy festival, so maybe they were trying to fit more into the fantasy side of things. It wasn't a total loss however, as one film about time travel asked a question that I have always asked. Is it gay if yourself from the future gave you a handjob, or is it masturbation. I choose the masturbation. Notes from the Acrid Plain with Burton Hoary, Vol. 7 was probably the best film. I suggest everyone look for it on youtube.


In closing. I had a good time and Devon is lame for not coming to see it. For my friend Jon's interpretation of the events, go here.

Links I came across tonight.

Because i'm so totally web 2.0/social networking, i'm gonna try seeing how easy linking works. Consider this a test for the future.

1. RESPOND TO SOULJA BOY!!!!

First of all, I just want to say that I am very proud of the fine young man that Lil Bow Wow has become. Absolutely nothing is cooler then tatting yourself up with shit no one can even see unless they are right next to you. I for one am very much looking forward to where this feud with Soulja Boy.com is going. Hopefully Soulja Boy can answer back by buying a bigger lambo.

2. This

Letting myself revel in nerdom(sp?) for a minute here, I think this article is amazing and I wish that EVE Online was a lot easier to play. It's too bad that the interface boils down to reading spreadsheats all day, because absolutly destroying an entire in game organization and stealing everything from them sounds amazing. Forget spending 8 hours grinding leggings in WoW, I for one would rather spend that time conning someone out of the life (as in game life) savings.

It's cool because its rare.

During Christmas break, I took a trip to the great state of Oregon. By great state, I mean the 200 square mile area known as the Portland area and its surrounding area. Because I know that most of the 5 people that read this thing have never actually been to the city, I have created a sort of short guide based on what I saw during the 3 days that I was there. Now keep in mind that I have been there many different times before. However, a lot of these times were based on the fact that I had driven down with my parents and therefore didn't have a lot of room to explore on myself. I plan to correct this soon and will write a blog based on those experiences.

I started my trip by taking the MAX train into the city, starting in Hillsboro. For those that don't know what a MAX train is, it is a mass transit train that is about 40 miles long and goes from one end of the city and surrounding areas to the other. It is very handy for when wants to travel the fifteen miles into the city, but doesn't want to deal with driving downtown and struggling with things such as parking. The train is fairly clean, and a round trip day pass is usually around a dollar. The train itself was fairly clean and quiet. Didn't see much on the trip into the city, but being as I did pass by a couple of apartments, I did see a naked dude getting undressed in front of his living room window.

After about half an hour, I finally arrived in Downtown Portland. From there, it was about a 5 block walk down to my destination for the day, Powell Books. For those that don't know, Powell Books is a huge 3-4 floor book store. To give you an idea how big it is, each floor is about the same size as a standard size Barnes and Noble that you would find in any gentrified shopping area of any major city. As an English major and nerd like me, just this short description should show why I would be so inthraled by the place. Want to find books on how to jerk off, why there is an entire section of shelf based on that. Love Sci-Fi? Why that section, plus every type of roleplaying game and graphic novel take up an entire floor. Maybe I just like extremely rare things, but my favorite room was the Pearl room on the top floor. This room is the rare book room and if you have ever wondered how interested you could find something based on the fact that it is in a glass case, well come here ot find your answer. From a first edition Lewis and Clark expedition report, to a text book on the orient from 1495, you never knew that you could be so hypnotized by really old books. While I could have spent much longer browsing, I only had an hour, as I honestly didn't have much time.

After that leaving the bookstore, I spent awhile walking around the surrounding area, though I definatly didn't have any money or time, it was fun to just browse. For those that don't know, Portland has one of the highest densities of bars in the United States. Browse any beer aisle and many of the choices that you see will have a brewery or ale house in the city. In a lot of ways, the city reminds me more of Bellingham than Seattle. It has more of a smaller feel and ther e are a lot more artist galleries and places to eat and gather then Seattle, of which you could probably go broke just looking into the window of a sandwich place. One area that I will have to hit up when I go down there next time is this huge parking lot I found that had tons of food trucks. While many places will have one or two taco trucks, this place had anything from tacos, to thai food, to authentic chinese food. I forget what the place is called, but one place that you should try to find is this authentic chinese buffet I went to a few years back. How autentic was it. Three words; Fried Chicken Feet.

After about three hours of walking around, I had to leave. While I didn't even get close to seeing everything that I wanted to. I got enough of an idea to what I want to go to next time i'm in the area, which is hopefully soon.

Last night...

I heard a scary sound outside my window. It sounded like a baby was being attacked by a dog, while someone was having sex at the same time. When I looked outside there was no sign of anything happening. It was not a dream cause I was awake when it happened. Thoughts anyone?