If You Build It, They Will Come.

....crap

2009-01-19T16:37:00.001-05:00

ok, nevermind on the 48/5 thing. they just moved the dates to the next weekend. i have to work that whole weekend, so i guess i'm out.

48/5

2009-01-16T17:22:00.002-05:00

This is a... friend-wide casting call to anyone who may be interested/anyone without Superbowl plans.

The East Lansing Film Festival's next 48 hour film competition is from January 30 to February 1. I am able to participate this time! And you should too!

Never been in a 48 hour film competition before? Well, let me explain how it goes.

Friday night, January 30 at 6pm, we all gather in a home location. The people running the competition then come into the room, clothed in robes and hoods, carrying some sort of altar. We all chant some latin stuff, then they lock the doors. (ok, none of that) They give us a location, a prop, a theme and a line of dialogue that all have to be in the five minute movie that we then have 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit. The films must be turned in, completed and on miniDV no later than Sunday at 6pm.

The films are then judged based on implementation of the requirements, and prizes are awarded.

Last time, we made the film "Acceptance" and we won 3rd place. That was using the same Hi-8 camcorder that we shot Twelve Page Paper with. Now, I have some actual equipment, and hopefully we can do better. I'm sure we can get 1st this time.

The top three films in each competition play at the East Lansing Film Festival in March. Acceptance will be playing there, and so might this one.

So if you wanted to be in the last one and couldn't make it, if you WERE in the last one and want to do it again, if you were in Twelve Page Paper and want to make another film, if you weren't in Twelve Page Paper, and wanted to be, if you are interested in speedily making a film and getting not a lot of sleep, then let me know. If you can help out during the day, or during the night, if you can do only one day, any help will... well, help. I promise it will be fun. If you're coming in from out of town, I think we might be able to put you up for the weekend. Call me.

-jp

Merry Christmas....

2008-12-17T13:41:00.004-05:00

....Whatever.

Typically I don't like Christmas. Not because I have any religious reason not to, or because I'm against happiness, or I'm one of those dark emo people who are so dark and darky that they don't like things that aren't dark and Christmas and puppies are too happy and not dark, and Halloween and lizards are darker and better.

I don't like Christmas because I work in retail, and when the snow falls it seems so does the collective IQ and compassion of the people.

I think it's interesting that we have Thanksgiving, a day in which we are greatful for the joys we live with, the family we have. A day that, by title, we give thanks for the things we have, and we follow it up the very next day with Black Friday where we go out and greedily buy all the shit we don't have.

The Christmas season is supposed to be about giving, and caring, and compassion and all those other things we watch Scrooge learn about every year. Then we go out after watching it, and throw elbows and knock down old ladies to get the next "Tickle Me Elmo" for our kids, who aren't even going to play with it, passing by the Salvation Army Santas and trying not to make eye contact so they think we didn't see them with their bell you can hear from a mile away.

A temp worker this year was literally trampled to death at a Wal-Mart in Long Island. And while the EMT's were trying to give him CPR, people kept pushing into them to get past and into the store so they could save $30 on crap they don't need.

Merry Christmas.

Look, I know this isn't everybody, and I know Christmas is good, and fun when you can see your family, but work retail during this season, and you'll find that a lot of members of society are just scum. And this is the first year in a lot of years that I don't have to work on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas, giving me not even a day to see my family.

The stores are just as much to blame for this chaos as well. At my job, last year, there was talk of us being open on Thanksgiving, just so we could sell more. I know stores are in business to make money, and sales are what drive that. But isn't your sales teams morale a factor as well? How well do you think the employees at that Wal-Mart felt selling crap at $40 off to a slobbering mob of greedy consumers knowing their coworker was just killed by them? They closed the store, and people WOULDN'T LEAVE! People were upset because they had waited in line SO LONG to get in, and it was an outrage that they were going to have to leave.

That's right, Christmas is also the time where customers are more and more outraged. Like every policy put in place is a personal attack on them. Or everytime a store runs out of stock on something, it's a crime that they can't magically create more.

"What do you mean you don't have any more Tickle Me Elmo's? This is an OUTRAGE!"

"I want to see your manager, because you are so unwilling to help me get seven free phones because I don't like this one I bought three years ago and dropped in a toilet. This is OUTRAGEOUS!!"

"I can't believe how I waited in line for two hours to get my sales at WalMart and you're kicking us out because we murdered someone on the way in, and this is now an active crime scene! I want my sales! WHAT AN OUTRAGE!!"

I guess I should clarify. Christmas Day is awesome. I love Christmas Day. I hate the Christmas season. When I go to the mall and see them setting up the Santa Photo Booth, somewhere around... what is it now, mid September... I start getting weary, because I know what is coming.

It's going to be a winter of customers screaming at me and each other the most hateful stuff all in the name of charity and goodwill towards men. A season of greed and missed messages of love and compassion all in the name of getting the best presents for your nieces and nephews at the cheapest personal cost, no matter the cost to others or others families. And it will be about three months of people with the same quizzical look on their face asking me over and over how I could possibly not like Christmas.

Gueek Bkead Fay

2008-12-17T13:40:00.000-05:00

People keep sending me emails, asking what that means. I have no idea. I cannot help you.

I need out.

2008-09-30T10:34:00.002-04:00

I need to find a new job.

On another note....

This is my first post since coming back from California. We had a great time in Los Angeles and in Big Bear Lake. There are a lot of pictures. I'm sure we'll have then up somewhere soon. A few highlights: we had a private pirate ship tour of the lake. We saw Eric Bana and some guy who is in a lot of movies as a B character, and we still can't place a single movie he's been in. We hiked to the top of Castle Rock. We rode the Mummy Ride at Universal three times. Erin fought a giant cat.

I didn't get the city job I applied for. It would've been nice, but it wasn't meant to be. So now I have to try again to find something new. I really don't want to do another christmas in retail. It's hell. I actually don't like christmas. I loved christmas when I was a kid. Retail has stolen christmas from me.

I bought a new camera. A DVX-100B, the upgraded model of the camera I used in film school. It cost a little bit, but it's totally worth it. You'll see...

I'm writing again too. I have a new screenplay in the works. A feature film. I don't know yet if it's something I want to try to produce, or just a screenplay to try to sell. It'll take shape though. Dale at Biggby is the only person who knows what it's about, and he's sworn to secrecy.

All in all things are going well here. We just hung up some new pictures. Blah blah blah.

Seriously though. I have got to stop working at this job and find something better. I've been working here for almost three years. It's time to move on.

Hope everyone is well.

-j

Visual FX film.

2008-08-16T16:18:00.002-04:00

Hey folks. I know I just wrote, but I forgot this, and I figured it needs it's own spot.

I've written a screenplay for a short visual effects piece. I've storyboarded the whole film, which shouldn't be more than 5 or 6 minutes in length, and I'm kind of jazzed about it.

Also, I plan on shooting it in Kalamazoo wednesday through friday.

I don't have a name for it or anything, but it's basically a superhero fight scene, inspired by the TV show "Heroes." There's not a lot of story to it, but there is a lot of fighting and superhero-ey power stuff. It's really designed to be a reel builder, just to showcase some stuff I've learned in the last year.

I'll be honest, I know how I'm going to to most of the visual effects. Some of it I'm still making up. It's going to be a lot of fun though, and so if you read this and are going to be in the Kalamazoo area this coming wed-fri, and you want to be a part of this, either acting or on crew, or both, call me.

Times have changed.

2008-08-16T15:49:00.002-04:00

I'm writing another entry! It's mid august, and this marks the first time this year I've written two posts in one month. This also marks the fifth time I've posted this year.

I remember a time when I'd write on this thing almost everyday. Sometimes twice a day. Now, I forget this thing exists for months at a time. So... what happened?

Maybe I ran out of things to say. Maybe things have stopped happening to me. Maybe I've run out of political figures to bitch about (or realized that you can argue until you're blue in the face, but if the other side is too self absorbed and righteous to listen, you might as well be arguing with a wall... in fact, you see this technique demonstrated on Fox News all the time).

Or maybe, I've just moved on. Maybe I've been too busy. Maybe this just isn't a priority anymore. Maybe it's not for me. Maybe it should be.

I remember writing my first post about not being able to fall asleep, staring out the window at the radio towers from my apartment.

I loved that apartment. It was my first apartment. I had cable and a balcony. Most importantly I was alone. Not that I loved that, but at times it was nice to have no roommates. Especially because of the roommates I had had previously. Everything seemed simpler then. I had crappy looking couches, but I didn't really care. I had christmas lights thumbtacked to the ceiling, but I didn't really care. I'd stay up until 4am watching movies on my first DVD player (which still works), I'd sit up on the balcony and watch the neighbors. I wrote a screenplay, I worked at Babbages in the mall. I went to WMU, I had college experiences....

I'm not going to say I was happier. I wasn't. I was actually quite miserable for a while there. I got a little dispicable at times. I hated girls and romance and love and desperately wanted them all. I wasn't anywhere near this happy.

But things were easier.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to come off as unsatisfied with my life currently in any way. It's just me remembering. Longing for the days when I had summer vacation and no responsibilities. And occasionally I would in those days where things didn't move so fast, find time to sit down and type some words down about what I did today, or what I thought about this or that, or some song lyrics I liked. I would do this because I had time to breathe. But now I have responsibilities to a job I loathe, and a career I am trying to start, and a wife I love, and a future to plan.

Now I feel guilty taking time to write on this blog, because it's time that I could spend doing things deemed "more important."

But I think I need to realize that this is important. Not that it's important for me to throw my thoughts out into cyberspace for the world to ignore. It's important for me to take some time to myself, for myself, and realize that in all the whirlwind of things I feel responsible to do, I need to feel responsible to myself as well. I feel like I've been ignoring my own well being lately, because I cram into every spare second I have, time to either overload my head or shut it off entirely.

This can be the device for me to put this stuff away. To organize my thoughts. It always was before, and then I walked away from it for a while. So I promise that I'm going to do better.

And I'd like to thank anyone still reading for coming with me on this therapy session that I dropped on myself. I'm sure as I continue to use this blog, I won't always be this boring.

jp

A new (old) direction.

2008-08-07T17:09:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I skipped all of May and June and July of 2008. Not beause they weren't filled with memorable things, just because I haven't really felt the urge to sit down and blog.

Which leads me to the idea that I haven't really felt the ability to sit and write anything worthwhile lately.

So I think what I'mk going to start doing is sitting down and dusting off this old blog and trying to use it every now and then just to get back the feeling of my thoughts coming out of my fingers again.

So.... we have a little catching up to do.

I got married in June. The wedding was beautiful. The most perfect day imaginable. Not even imaginable, actually. It stormed the day before, and the day after, but the day of was the most gorgeous day Michigan has ever seen. The wedding was at the Riverhouse in Marine City. We got married on the dock. Laura Winther took some amazing pictures. Check out her site to see them. My uncle took pictures too and his turned out equally amazing.

We went to Toronto the next day for basically an extended weekend. (the real honeymoon is september 2-11, in Los Angeles, and Big Bear Lake, CA) Toronto was a lot of fun. We saw Second City, and Casa Loma, and the Royal Ontario Museum, filled with scary looking chinese monster lizard dog soldiers. Yeah. Seriously.

What else... recently my brother Jordan has moved to Boston. He and his girlfriend really like it. We played in St. Martins this year along with Brent and Jason, and finished a respectable, but not competitive +1. I think we all decided that perhaps next years tournament shouldn't be the first time we play again since this tournament.

I'm looking for a new job. In the last few months, Michigan has become the best (finacially speaking) state in the country to shoot a film in, bringing lots of opportunity this way. Doors are opening. I'm going to go out on a limb, and break a cardinal blog rule, and say I really hate my current job. But that's not news.

Speaking of, I gotta get back. See ya.

RE? pt 2

2008-04-25T11:01:00.000-04:00

Seriously....

Remember entertainment?

2008-02-15T12:29:00.004-05:00

Whatever happened to movies? To the american movie industry? We used to be kings of entertainment. Now it's kind of embarrassing. The only intellegent film seems to be independent film, and no one even gets a chance to see it.

This is the same argument I've made for years, but I'd like to expand on it for a bit. Because it's not just movies, it's entertainment. It's music, it's TV. One thing is a hit, and then producers who don't understand art but understand business make a hundred photocopies of it. It's all about money.

Now understand, I'm not stupid. It's always been a business. It's the entertainment INDUSTRY. But the industry has gone from a gourmet restaurant to a fast food chain. We're making McEntertainment. The most cost efficient garbage, mass produced, cookie cutter, greasy, sloppy, poorly thought out and most rapidly thrown together one dollar double cheeseburger movies imaginable, with a side of horrible, sell your dignity reality television, and a diet pop star copy of a copy of a copy.

Back in the day, they made the Superman Movies. Four of them. Two of them good. The first in 1978, the last in 1987. Then a couple years later, they made Batman. Four of them. One of them good. The first in 1989, the last in 1997.

Nobody looked at Superman and said "Kids love comic book movies!!! Let's make THOUSANDS!!! IT CAN'T LOSE!!!!"

Then in 2000, they made X-Men.

Since then, they've made X-Men 2, X-Men 3, Spiderman, Spiderman 2, Spiderman 3, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight... and they made The Incredible Hulk, Catwoman, Daredevil, Elektra, Punisher, Ghost Rider, Fantastic 4, Fantastic 4 2, 300, Sin City, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, TMNT, Constantine, Hellboy, Hellboy 2, Blade 2, Blade Trinity, 30 Days of Night, From Hell, A History of Violence, Josie and the Pussycats...

They made a few TV Show movies back in the day. The Fugitive in 1993, Mission: Impossible in 1996. The Naked Gun in 1988.

Then in 2000, they made Charlie's Angels.

Since then, they've made SWAT, M:I3, Charlie's Angels 2, Starsky and Hutch, The Dukes of Hazzard, Miami Vice, Bewitched, The Honeymooners, Get Smart is coming out, as is... get this... Dallas.

This all doesn't seem to be working that well. Then George Lucas comes out with the new Star Wars trilogy starting in 1999. And producers get the idea maybe the old movies that hit big need to be dusted off. So we get Die Hard 4. So we get Indiana Jones 4. Prom Night, Freddy vs. Jason, King Kong, Jurassic Park 4, The Hills Have Eyes.

You can trace most popular things back to the popular thing that it copied that hit big.

Dance War = Dancing With The Stars = So You Think You Can Dance = American Idol.

Rhianna = Aaliyah = Ashanti = Christina Aguilera = Britney Spears

10 Items or Less = The Office (US) = The Office (UK)

The problem is that once something truly original and new comes out, the market will get so flooded with copycats trying to ride it's coat-tails for a quick buck that we'll get sick of that too.

Cloverfield, JJ Abrams new movie, is basically a Godzilla movie and the Blair Witch Project put together. That I don't have a problem with. It's an old story told a different way. No one is ever going to write a story no one has ever heard before. The basic elements are all the same. It's how you mix them. Abrams came up with the pizza burger in the fast food entertainment industry. We've all had enough pizza, we've all had too many burgers, but putting them together is a fresh idea.

EDIT: I'm not joking, I finished this post, and went to apple.com, and found this.

So when entertainment execs complain that piracy is what is driving their revenues down, I have a really hard time believing it. My theory is that people aren't going to pay rising ticket prices and $20 for a bag of popcorn to see the same movie they have at home on DVD three times over.

Any thoughts?

2007 Director's Reel

2008-01-09T10:41:00.000-05:00

Now I've missed two.

2007-12-12T17:13:00.000-05:00

Hey, it's december!

Not much new in the last two months...

Oh yeah, I'm getting married.

Erin and I are engaged. We've set the date for June 14, 2008. Not a whole lot of time to plan everything, but time enough. We'll be getting married in Marine City, Michigan. Hopefully the weather is good. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I proposed on Thanksgiving in Lexington at our rock. It was really sweet. Probably a little expected, but I think I did well concealing it.

So I guess congrats to us! Hopefully we'll see you at the wedding.

-jgp

I missed another month

2007-09-13T23:38:00.001-04:00

Well a lot has happened recently. So much so that I haven't been able to update anyone about it. Here it is quickly.

I live in Okemos MI now with Erin.

My computer died again. It's still recovering.

I got transferred with my job, and my new store is about 50 times more stressful than the old one.

Our new neighbors just had a baby.

The house is coming together really nicely.

Erin likes her job.

We got a Wii.

Huh. That's all I got for now. I'll try to elaborate on all this stuff when I get a chance.

cya
j

Stolen from Allison Mack's site.

2007-07-31T22:32:00.001-04:00

“If you want to take your mission in life to the next level, if you’re stuck and you don’t know how to rise, don’t look outside yourself. Look inside. Don’t let your fears keep you mired in the crowd. Abolish your fears and raise your commitment level to the point of no return, and I guarantee you that the Champion Within will burst forth to propel you toward victory.”
- Bruce Jenner

Moving along.

2007-07-26T21:22:00.000-04:00

I'm moving to Lansing! Next month. I looked around at places to live today. It was an event. I don't know Lansing too much, and I'm a little nervous to move to a place I don't know, but I've done it before I guess, and this time it's at least in the same time zone. And this time at least I have someone coming with me.

This has been a LONG time coming. I'm so f-ing excited, it's ridiculous.

j

Time to clean house

2007-07-17T11:13:00.000-04:00

Hello world.

So here's the news. Erin had an interview in Lansing on Friday and in Kalamazoo for a position in Niles or maybe Kalamazoo on Monday. We're supposed to hear from the Lansing job (which she said went really good) sometime this week, so everyone please cross your fingers.

I'm really ready for a change. I'm ready for an opportunity to expand some horizons, to end some endeavors long overdue, and to stop having a long distance relationship and see the woman I love every day.

I'm ready to start the rest of my life.

The thing is regardless if these places call her back, this stuff is over. If they say no, I'm going to move down there. I can't handle this anymore, and while it's a good job, my job is the only thing keeping me here. Granted, I have a lot of really good friends up here, and I have no real friends in Richmond, but I know some of Erin's friends, and it's not like I'll never see people up here again. And granted, there really isn't any prospects for a indie film maker in Richmond, but no one said we're staying very long. She can continue to look for jobs up here, and then we can move back. I'm just so tired of being apart.

I feel that we are on the right path, and that things are going the way they should. I feel like someone bigger than both of us is driving this boat and its going to dock where it's supposed to dock.

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

-j

June of 2007.

2007-07-04T22:32:00.000-04:00

I missed all of June.

So what's happened....

Ryan and Jen got married. They had a rockin' cool wedding and a superfly reception. It was really cool. I got to see a lot of people I've gone far too long without seeing.

Erin had a interview for a job in Grand Rapids. She's looking to go for a second interview towards the end of July. Keep your fingers crossed.

My writers block is officially over. I seem to have started or at least conceptualized (is that right?) five short films and three feature films and a music video. Not too much written down in screenplay format, but a lot in my red notebook. The next step is getting it out of that red notebook and to a theater near you.

I have all my stuff backed up on a 500GB external hard drive. It took forever to do. But my computer has been acting a little wishy washy lately and I don't want to risk losing it all. That hard drive was a really good buy. Now I need to find a way to transfer data through something faster than USB 1.0.

Other than that, I've really not had much to say about June of 2007.

Happy Independence Day!

-j

2007-05-25T10:24:00.000-04:00

You know how when someone takes advantage of someone else and seemingly gets away with it, you really hope it comes back on them?

Is that wrong?

My Soapbox

2007-04-25T11:05:00.001-04:00

What follows will be another post about politics, race, religion, and other controversy. Leave a comment if you wish and discuss. You've been warned.

I just got an email warning me that Barack Obama has a muslim upbringing, and that muslims want to destroy this country from within. I'm not going to say who it was from, but I will say that I was surprised to get it from them.

My opinion is that ignorance is not bliss. It's deadly.

Rob mentioned once that his class of kids thought Iraq attacked us on 9/11. That would justify the Iraq war, if it were true.

This email made the assumption that muslims are the terrorists, and not that the terrorists are muslims. Last week's attack at Virgina Tech was done by a highly unstable student of South Korean descent. It does not mean all South Korean college students are going to kill us. The Oklahoma City bombing was done by a highly unstable white guy from Michigan. It does not mean all white guys from Michigan are terrorists.

Yeah, terrorists. The word has somehow become synonomus with al Qaeda, or radical muslims. But a terrorist is someone who engages in the act of terrorism, the organized threatening of violence or act of violence against civilians in order to get your way or make a political statement. Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist. The Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996 was a terrorist attack done by Eric Robert Rudolph. Rudolph was part of a group called "The Army of God," a right wing CHRISTIAN extremist group, which partakes in the organized bombing of abortion clinics the nation over. These are also terrorist acts, done by terrorists. Christian terrorists.

Yet we don't see christians and "keep our eyes on them." We don't send out mass emails saying they may commit acts of terrorism if elected president. Why do we do this for muslims?

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was working at Croyden Avenue Schools. I was in class standing next to a kid named Habib, a friend of mine, a really funny guy, and a muslim from Afghanistan, when we heard what had happened. He was just as horrified as I was.

But we came up with the Patriot Act. And we jailed muslims all over the country on warrantless causes, denied them access to lawyers, and investgated. We suspended our rights as Americans, and took away our own freedoms, all out of fear. Which is very interesting...

We paint this picture of al Qaeda, as these thoughtless barbarians who live in caves. But we don't give them enough credit. They're smart enough to pilot planes very accurately. They're smart enough to launch a very organized attack and hijack four planes all simultaneously. They are smart enough to time the second hit on the World Trade Center with enough time after the first so that all the news media would broadcast their attack live to the whole world. And they are smart enough to know that you don't destroy America by knocking down a few buildings, just as you don't kill someone from the wound from a poison dart. The dart causes the noticable damage and pain, the hit is swift and painful, but not at all fatal. Then you slowly die from within.

America is the beacon of freedom, Liberty Enlightening The World, give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the freedom from religious persecution, all of which we gave up out of fear after seeing the World Trade Center fall. All those things America was built on, those principles that made us who we were, are all dead or dying slowly.

If al Qaeda wanted to destroy us from the inside, they are succeeding.

They are smart enough to know that to knock down all the dominos, you only need to knock down the first one.

We cannot continue to let this terrorist attack justify the transformation of this country from what is was to what it is becoming. I hate to draw this parallel, but there was another terrorist attack on February 27, 1933 in Berlin when the Reichstag Building, the equivalent of the Capitol Building in the USA, burned. Afterwards a new law was put into place, "justified" by the attack, called the Reichstag Fire Decree. It suspended human rights, just like the Patriot Act. It was also used to single out an entire race. Today it's the Muslims, back then it was the Jews.

They say if you don't learn from history you are doomed to repeat it. So please, let's stop this before we get really carried away.

It wasn't the Muslims who attacked us on Sept. 11, just like it wasn't the Christians who attacked Centennial Olympic Park. The goal of any religion on earth is peace and love. You'll always have the occasional asshole who is a homicidal maniac, and reads it wrong. Don't blame them all for it. Because I'm a white guy from Michigan, and I don't want my freedoms taken away because of Timothy McVeigh.

-j

Lost: Season 3

2007-04-11T13:57:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've sat back and listened, and now I think it's time I dropped my two cents. I'm getting tired of people bitching about Lost.

"Oh the show isn't doing as good as it used to, it might be getting cancelled."

"This season is so slow, we haven't learned anything."

"Nikki and Paulo are stupid characters."

Okay, shut up.

If you've not been watching Lost this season, and are waiting for the DVD's or maybe you've Tivoed it, or something, and you don't want to know what's going on, consider this your official

************SPOILER ALERT************

First of all, Lost has already been renewed for Season 4, so it's not getting cancelled. Secondly, yes the ratings are down, but I would say it has a lot to do with the show moving from 8pm to 10pm more than anything. It's still the best in its timeslot.

Moving on to people's gripes about the season.

I check out this site occasionally called the Delta Park Project. It's a podcast hosted by two people named Jason and Anna, and every week (give or take) they do a segment called Delta Park Gets Lost, where they talk about what happened this week on Lost. At first I enjoyed it because they would say interesting things and make points about the show, now it seems all they do is make fun of it, and point out "theories" that are obviously wrong, or not too well thought out.

Do I sound like an obsessed fanboy yet? I'm just getting started.

To all the people who think we haven't learned anything this season, remember where we left off. At the end of season two, Jack, Sawyer, and Kate were all taken by Henry Gale and his band of hillbilly Others. Desmond turned the key inside the Swan hatch, everything got bright, the sky turned purple, and a door fell from the sky. That's where we were. We've come a long way.

-The Others are in fact NOT hillbillies. They live in a happy little community with houses and a pool table and plumbing and electricity, and until the sky turned purple, they had contact with the outside world.

-Henry Gale's real name is Benjamin Linus, and he is a high ranking member of the Others.

-Juliet Burke is another Other, with some kind of history with Ben. She's also a fertility doctor from Florida, who was recruited to the island by Ethan and a man possibly posing as a doctor named Richard Alpert, from a company called Mittelos Bioscience.

-Most of the Others are recruited. Some, like Ben, were born on the island.

-The Others may not be Dharma Scientists as previously thought, they may in fact be enemies to the Dharma Inititive, even though they use all the Dharma facilities. This is shown by another Other named Mikhail claiming there was a "purge" when the Dharma people tried to wipe out the Others, whom they called "The Hostiles."

-Alex Rousseau believes Ben is her father, and that her mother died a long time ago.

-Jack's tattoos mean "He walks with us, but he is not one of us."

-Cindy and the children are alive and well.

-There is someone from the Others camp named Jacob, who came up with some kind of list, presumably of the "good" and "bad" people on the island. Locke appears to be on this list of good people.

-Locke was paralyzed because his father threw him out of an eighth story window.

-Eko is dead, killed by the smoke monster, who apparently can change shape, or make people see people from their past.

-Sun knows Charlie and Sawyer were the ones who kidnapped her, not the Others. Jin doesn't know this.

-Sun's baby may be Jae's, the man who was teaching her english, and not Jin's.

-Desmond's sailboat that Sayid used to infiltrate the Other's camp was taken from him by the Others.

-The Others have a submarine. Or HAD a submarine until Locke possibly blew it up. When he was captured, he was soaking wet, so speculation is that he may have sunk it and blew up the end of the dock so the Other's think they lost the sub.

-Locke's dad is on the island... maybe.

-Locke's dad used two aliases: Anthony Cooper and Adam Seward. Those two names together are an anagram of "Sawyer the Con Man, a poor dad." Giveing more to speculation that Locke's dad is the original Sawyer who conned James "Sawyer" Ford's parents.

-The hatch imploded, Desmond, Locke, and Eko survived. Desmond somehow possibly relived his life up until he came to the island, possibly was unconscious and shown the past, and told it couldn't be changed, and that fate always stays on track. He still tries to change the future, after constantly getting visions of Charlies death.

-Locke can communicate with "the island" better now than Ben can. This is pointed out by Locke who makes the point that Ben is in a wheelchair, and Locke is not.

-We've now seen The Swan, The Pearl, The Hydra, The Flame, The Arrow and the Staff. All six hatches from the blast door map.

-Nikki and Paulo were two survivors of Flight 815. They came and went. Paulo knew about the Pearl hatch long before anyone else, as well as the plan to kidnap Jack to help Ben. He told no one, and subsequently was buried alive next to Nikki.

-Ethan was a surgeon. Ben needed a spinal surgeon to remove a tumor on his back, and Jack did the surgery, in exchange for returning home. He never got to leave.

-The barracks where the Others live is surrounded by some sonic fence thing. The smoke monster cannot get through it.

-Supposedly the Others don't know what the smoke monster is either. At least Juliet doesn't.

-Alex has a boyfriend named Karl, who Kate and Sawyer rescued. Carl then was set free.

-Rousseau knows Alex is alive, and has seen her. Alex may suspect her mother is still alive based on what Sayid told her.

-Miss Klugh is dead, because she told Mikhail to kill her (in Russian) once they were captured by Locke, Kate, and Sayid. When Mikhail was killed by the sonic fence after Locke threw him into it, he smiled and said "Thank you."

**********SPOILER'S END**************

So seriously, a lot has happened. People are just whining because all the answers aren't just given to them on a plate. The mystery is what makes the show, once they answer something, they HAVE to ask something else, or else the show would be over. So just relax and don't try to pull everything out of it immediately, just let it run it's course. And please stop complaining. It's still as good as it ever was, if not better.

-j

2007-04-04T18:52:00.000-04:00

...come on you target for faraway laughter. come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr and shine...

Panic yaking.

2007-03-20T19:00:00.000-04:00

Pancheros has declared war on me. And my friends, I regret to inform you, they have dealt the decisive blow.

Allow me to explain.

Yesterday for lunch, I decided to go to Pancheros for a tasty steak burrito. I ate it, it was indeed delicious, and I then went about my day, all too unaware of the sneak attack that I had incurred.

The day progressed on, I finished my work day, went home, nothing out of the ordinary. Then it came time for dinner. I thought of what I might have to eat. Perhaps I could make spaghetti, order pizza, maybe make a nice sandwich. It wasn't until then the realization hit me that I truly wasn't hungry, and the entire concept of food made me feel downright terrible.

Something was indeed amiss.

Was it a stomach flu? Food poisoning? I couldn't be sure. All I could be sure of is that slight discomfort I felt in my stomach had evolved into pain and nausea.

I sat on the couch and watched TV, hoping it would just pass. The less I moved, the better I felt until finally I thought it was safe for me to go upstairs and go to bed. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Pancheros had lulled me into a false sense of security, and as I stood up, shifting my axis, and thus all the contents of my stomach, a horrible truth washed over me. One that we've all felt at one time or another. One we all know too well.

I had to puke. Now.

Now let me tell you a little known fact about me. One that is little known for a very good reason. I am a panic yaker.

A panic yaker is a person who doesn't just throw up from their stomach. They throw up from their toes. Panic yakers do not vomit quietly and subtly, instead they puke like thunder and anger, the way God must puke. The room shakes, dogs in the neighborhood start barking in the night, frightened at the sound.

But the most interesting part of the panic yaker, is what can only be described as the "anti-orgasm." The moment after the event where suddenly he can catch his breath again, and does so while moaning, quite loudly, in agony.

That was my night last night. Today I have the worst headache imaginable, and I'm sore all over from all the physical exertion. My stomach feels better now, I just ate a bowl of soup, which is the first thing I ate (that stayed with me) since a bowl of cereal yesterday morning.

For those of you out there who feel I haven't posted in too long, I apologize that this is the way I came back. I'm sure I'll write something more pleasant next month.

-j

No more minor Parcells.

2007-02-01T01:18:00.000-05:00

Happy 21st birthday Jordan. I guess it was your birthday where you are about seven hours ago. And you've been legally allowed to drink in Italy since you got there, so I guess it's not that spectacular.

My twenty-first birthday was at a TGI Fridays. Your first legal drink was probably Italian wine whilst in Italy. That's much cooler.

Anyway, happy birthday. I'll buy you a crummy American drink when you get back home in May.

-jgp

I'm taking a(nother) page from Kevin Smith.

2007-01-31T21:46:00.000-05:00

I saw Kevin Smith do this on his website, and I thought it may be a fun idea for me to try as well.

Of the 219 major film releases of 2006, I am sad to say I only caught 24. That's less than one new movie every two weeks. Not to say I would've liked to see all 219, hell, some of the 24 I saw I regret.

But tonight, I'm going to try my hand at film critic, and I guess, give you my top 24 movies of 2006!!! Enjoy, if you must.

24.) Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - Am I the only one who thinks Will Ferrell is a one trick pony? His character in Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is as familiar as the title in Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgandy. Same as he was in Old School, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, A Night at the Roxbury, Zoolander, Elf... he's basically a loud idiot. Oh, I just can't wait to see Blades of Glory.

23.) Grandma's Boy - Really? Everyone told me this was an hilarious movie, but really? I think I laughed once. Honestly, I don't remember when.

22.) Poseidon - Perhaps the most phoned in movie of last year. A remake of a classic film that was much better, starring a bunch of Kurt Russells, with the exception of a gay Richard Dreyfuss (you can tell he's gay because he has an earring). The screenwriters exercise in mediocrity was never more prevailing then when Matt Dillion's character, Lucky Larry, drunk and suddenly and inexplicably angry at everyone, claims he can cross this pipe to the other side of the rotunda to safety, against the advice of the hero, because "you don't just get the nickname "Lucky Larry." You gotta be lucky!" Larry is then quite predictably crushed to death.

21.) Underworld: Evolution - This one only makes it this far up the list because I'm still sort of happy I saw it. Really bad movie. Really bad. And yet, it may be my favorite memory at the theater last year. I went to see this with Erin. It was about vampires and werewolves I think. There was a girl vampire and a vampire/werewolf/dude who were trying to stop this other vampire guy and werewolf guy. This movie was so totally over the top that we laughed through the whole ending, much to the chagrin of those around us. The final vampire guy pulls a helicopter out of the sky, and it's all downhill from there. We were in tears laughing, my stomach hurt, the whole nine yards. But yeah, really bad movie.

The rest of these are harder to put into order, as I liked them all. But here they are.

20.) X-Men: The Last Stand - I think I liked this X-Men better than the last two. The Phoenix was really cool. I've heard it argued that she was underused, but to use her anymore would've added hours to this movie in backstory about who the Phoenix was.

19.) Silent Hill - The best live action video game movie ever made. Though it's competition in that category was scarce. (Super Mario Bros., Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, House of the Dead...) It was actually kind of scary. So the video game movie record is now 1-34.

18.) Click - A film that tugs at your heart a bit disguised as an Adam Sandler comedy. Well played Click, well played.

17.) The Da Vinci Code - They tried really hard to cram everything in the book into this movie, and unfortunately, they were just about successful, making the movie come off kind of preachy. There was a lot of info to swallow in the book, but you were reading it, making it much easier to take. Plus, I'm a Tom Hanks fan, but he was the only actor that didn't belong in this movie.

16.) 16 Blocks - This movie was like Die Hard, if Bruce Willis was an out of shape, deadbeat cop. Plus, Mos Def was really good as Eddie, the cake guy.

15.) Superman Returns - The Man of Steel is always cool. I'll admit, I never really liked Superman until I got into Smallville, and so maybe that's why I didn't dig this movie more. It was very much a sequel to the original Donner films, which is cool, but I was really hoping that Kevin Spacy's Lex Luthor would be more like Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor and less like Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor. Smallville's Lex is much more cold and dark. Hackman's Lex hung out with Otis.

14.) The Last Kiss - Zach Braff is quickly becoming one of my favorite people, because of this movie, Garden State, and my girlfriend getting me hooked on Scrubs. Well done from start to finish, the fight scene was heart breaking, and the ending was perfect.

13.) Clerks II - I'm always a fan of Kevin Smith, and I pretty much like everything he's done. (Even Jersey Girl) This movie did not disappoint, as I was prepared for it to do.

12.) Mission Impossible III - I am not however a fan of Tom Cruise. But even Tom couldn't spoil this movie. I enjoyed the first film, I hated the second. I only saw this one for two reasons: J.J. Abrams of Lost fame was the director, and it was free, as I snuck into the theater after watching the god-awful Posiedon.

11.) Saw III - Call me lame, I love the Saw movies. They're gory to the point of borderline nausea, but in a different way than other gory movies. They don't show you anything any gorier than any other movie, they just make you THINK about things gorier than other movies. Saw is like the "what's grosser than gross" joke of the entertainment industry. They just suggest, your mind fills it in. Plus, they're really smart flicks too. I'm usually good at guessing endings, but all three of these stumped me.

10.) V For Vendetta - Wachowski's + political message movie + bald Natalie Portman = Awesome.

9.) Lady in the Water - Yeah, Lady in the Water. Deal with it. A lot of lists put this as one of the worst movies of last year, I'm putting it in my top ten. Why? I really liked it, that's why. It felt like a bedtime story, like a creepy, M. Night Shyamalan bedtime story. I think people didn't like it for the same reason people didn't like Jersey Girl. They were expecting something else. Sadly, they missed out on a cool flick waiting for Haley Joel Osment to see dead people again.

8.) A Scanner Darkly - If you didn't live in or near a major city, you probably missed the theatrical release of this film entirely. The film was fully rotoscoped (meaning animated over live action) and had Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Downy Jr... ringing any bells yet? Check it out, it's really good.

7.) Brick - Another one you may have missed. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt from 3rd Rock From the Sun, it's basically a detective story. The fact that everyone involved is a high school student is what really blows your mind though. It's very film noir, in the vein of The Maltese Falcon, yet set perfectly in a modern day high school.

6.) Inside Man - The only thing I didn't like about this Spike Lee joint was how smarmy Jodie Foster's character was all the time. But she was supposed to be like that. A very good movie. Denzel is awesome, Clive Owen is awesome. This movie... awesome.

5.) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Yeah. I'm sorry, I love these movies, and I can't wait for part three At World's End. I've said it before, Johnny Depp is the best actor working today, and this movie was just really really fun.

4.) Little Miss Sunshine - Like American Beauty meets National Lampoon's Vacation. The characters in this movie were so well done, and personally, I hope Abigail Breslin wins an Oscar for best supporting actress. Everyone in this movie was so spot on, you couldn't help but want to smack Greg Kinnear, you couldn't help but want to hug Steve Carell. And the ending... so funny.

3.) Children of Men - This was the movie that blew me away this year. I think the movie consisted of seven shots from start to finish. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but the amount of work and timing that had to go into making the shots last as long as they did was phenomenal. The story was really well done, because it was never really about the fact that women couldn't have babies. That was just the backdrop to a quest story. And those long shots made the movie feel so intense.

2.) The Pursuit of Happyness - If this movie doesn't make you believe that you can do anything you set your mind to, you will probably spend your life serving Big Macs. Will and Jaden Smith are both amazing in this movie based on the true life of Chris Gardner, founder of Gardner Rich & Co. The TRAILER for this film choked me up, and I doubt I will ever forget the visual of the ending.

1.) The Departed - Holy. Freaking. Cow. This was a movie. All you other chump movies out there (which I will get to in a moment) who dare to step into the ring, this movie has embarrassed you. DiCaprio, Nicholson, Damon, Wahlberg, Sheen, and Scorsese. Doesn't really get any bigger than that, folks. You have not seen a movie about cops and organized crime unless you have seen this movie. I agree with Kevin Smith, Matt Damon's transformation in the elevator is acting at it's best. Jack Nicholson is as good if not better in this movie than anything he's ever done. I am first in line when it hits DVD this month.

So there it is. My top 24 that I got to see. I know there was a few on there that shouldn't have made the top 24, mainly because there were some that I missed. In fact, here are the ones that I am bummed that I missed so far.

Pan's Labyrinth
Rocky Balboa
Stranger Than Fiction (Will Ferrell not as a loud idiot?!?)
Lucky Number Slevin
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Beowulf and Grendel
World Trade Center
Snakes on a Plane (Yeah, I'm serious. Maybe for bad movie night...)
Idiocracy (I like Mike Judge)
The Science of Sleep (I like Michel Gondry)
The Last King of Scotland (Forest Whitaker is tearing up the best actor circuit)
Babel (Yeah, I didn't see Babel yet. I swear, it's on my "to do" list)
Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen was the only thing funny about Talledega Nights)
Cars (Looks cute)

Then there's the ones that I'm kind of glad I missed.

Basic Instinct 2 (There's really not much more Sharon Stone has left to offer after the first one.)
Slither (A disgusting worm that makes people gross and unappealing, and that's just the guy from Firefly...)
Little Man (Why do the Wayans get to keep making movies?)
Scary Movie 4 (...and yet not even the Wayans will do these anymore.)
See No Evil (Kane, unless you're Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, if you're a wrestler, don't make movies.)
The Marine (John Cena, see above.)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Didn't we say all we needed to with 2 Fast 2 Furious?)
Miami Vice (...or Bad Boys 3.)
Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola... please stop.)
Final Destination 3 (This looks like one of those sequels that is really just the first movie with different actors.)
Big Momma's House 2 (Martin Lawrence, you can do "cop" better, like in Bad Boys or Blue Streak.)
The Pink Panther (I'm kind of glad Peter Sellers is dead, so he didn't have to see this day.)
and of course...
Bloodrayne (That Uwe Boll can keep making movies serves as proof that contracts with the devil are set in f***ing stone.)

So there it is. My 2006 in movies.

Okay okay, one more list.

What I'm looking forward to (and you should be too) in 2007:

The Number 23
Hannibal Rising
Reno 911: Miami
Hot Fuzz
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Spider-Man 3
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Reign Over Me
Live Free or Die Hard
Shrek the Third
The Dead Girl
Balls of Fury
Zodiac
300
The Ex
28 Weeks Later
The Bourne Ultimatum
Fanboys
Resident Evil: Extinction (yeah, I know... but I'll still see it.)
Saw IV
American Gangster
His Dark Materials
I Am Legend
National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets

Okay, seriously, I'm done now.

Comment away all you people impatient for a post. :)

-j

man it's been so long since I've seen the ocean...

2007-01-06T00:09:00.000-05:00

My brother Jordan just landed in Florence Italy. He'll be there until May. He already loves it.

I've got to work 10-7 tomorrow, then I have sunday off, and every intention of working all flippin' day. I've got a lot I need to study, a lot I need to write, just a whole hell of a lot on my plate. I'm kind of excited to get started.

Another bill got paid off today. I'm doing really well knocking them out one by one. The ones left though are the ones that are going to take a long time to get done. I killed off all the small stuff.

Little by little. One spoonful at a time, until my plate is clean.

I'm not the only one staring at the sun.

2007-01-05T01:01:00.000-05:00

Happy new year. I've not got much else to say other than that. Yesterday was Lola's birthday, happy birthday to you.

It was fun night tonight, we went to Fandango's then Shakespeare's. I left a few times then came back.

It was an entirely unproductive day off.

j

I had a bad day,

2006-12-20T22:54:00.000-05:00

...for no other reason than I'm in a valley. But the only way to go from here is up.

Just one of those days. I'm starting to get sick of this path I'm on, and I'm looking to do something drastic soon. Not scary drastic, something good. I hope.

...So Build It.

2006-12-19T00:42:00.000-05:00

Well the christmas party was a blast. I got an awesome cotton candy maker. Also, it was my first christmas with Erin, so it was very nice. Although, nice is one of those words girls hate to hear, nice is really what it was. It was exciting, and wonderful and all that, but moreso just nice, comfortable. It felt right.

My job is starting to drive me crazy. Not that it's a bad job, or that I don't like the people I work with, or anything like that. Not at all. In fact I spent a good bit of time last week making ringtones. Yes, making ringtones, by singing them into a phone, and then setting them as my ringtone.

The problem is, as fun as that is, it's time I'm wasting. I've burned over a year at my job right now, and while I'm too sensible to just up and quit, I've also put a career that I went to school for on hold for far longer than I thought I would. I've been writing, sure. I've meant well. I've meant to do a lot of things that never got going. And everyday I go to my job is another day I'm reminded that it's not what I should be doing. At the beginning of every eight hour shift, I look at what my day will be, and realize that I'll have to put off what I'm good at and what I love until tomorrow. Then tomorrow comes, and I slap that damn nametag on again and put it off another day.

The good news is, for the first time in a while, I'm feeling better, as if there is a light upcoming. I feel like the winds of change are blowing, and frankly, they may be blowing very hard.

It will be very interesting to see where I am in one year.

That having been said, if I'm still slapping on that same nametag in a year, I want someone to shoot me.

*j

blasting yourself into the present to blur some past indignity

2006-12-13T22:37:00.000-05:00

christmas party at 7pm.

It's that time again.

2006-12-08T00:21:00.000-05:00

Well it looks like Blogger has gone through some changes recently.

I'm writing again. I appear to be "en fuego." I'm currently writing two separate scripts simultaneously, which I've never done before. Also, they're completely different genres, one a comedy one a action/drama thing. I think that helps.

Anyway, back at it.

Bye.
-j

The BCS doesn't care about Maize and Blue people

2006-12-06T11:12:00.000-05:00

Today I am a huge Ohio State fan.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a Michigan fan more, but I want OSU to cream Florida for the National Championship. Then Michigan to cream USC in the Rose Bowl. Then maybe all those voters who jumped a team that was #9 four weeks before their last game over a team whos only loss was to the #1 team away and by three, will look at what they did. Also maybe we can get over this whole "The SEC is the hardest conference" crap when the Big Ten champ decimates the SEC champ, and maybe they won't get automatic bids they don't deserve.

I digress.

There's going to be a christmas party at my house on Dec. 17. It's a sunday. I figure we can do it like we do Friends Thanksgiving. Everybody bring something, yada yada. If someone can let Joe D. and Heather know, that would be great, I don't have their number. I think we might do some secret santa thing or something. Details are still up in the air, but won't be for long. Come one, come all.

Go Blue.

Go Bucks.

-j

Kramer doesn't care about black people.

2006-11-26T21:49:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again. The months end in "-ber" so it must be the ever growing christmas season.

I don't want to sound like one of those "I hate christmas" people, but I hate christmas. No, that's wrong, I don't hate christmas. I hate working in retail. The holiday is fun, becasue I get together with my family who I don't get to see enough of, get to get them lame gifts that sounded really good at the time, and usually get the new season of 24 on DVD.

The part I hate is that after Halloween, everything becomes about christmas. Nevermind Thanksgiving is in there somewhere. Then comes Black Friday, and the 46 days of christmas kick into overtime. Black Friday, if you don't know, is the day after Thanksgiving when stores open at like 3am so people can go absolutely apeshit to get the greatest deals on loads of stuff. It's called Black Friday by corporations because its the day that they tend to start their profits for the year, thus getting out of the red and into the black, thus making it a good day. It's called Black Friday by employees of those corporations on the retail front because it is the day when the darkest of society's all cousuming soul spews forth and the most greedy potential of humanity bombarded by capitalism is realized. Last year people were trampled running into a Wal-Mart.

That is the side of christmas that I hate. Do you remember the end of The Lord of the Flies when the ship shows up to rescue the kids, and they all start crying because they hadn't realized how completely carried away they had all gotten? That's what it seems we need.

That's all I got. Later.
j

Europeans don't care about black people.

2006-11-05T11:22:00.000-05:00

Kanye's gone and done it again.

This time at the MTV Europe Music Awards, when he didn't win for Best Video he came up on stage anyway and pouted publicly like a little kid, saying between swear words that his video should have won because it "cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons."

Talk about art.

John Kerry's Joke.

2006-11-03T19:21:00.000-05:00

Yeah, why not weigh in on this the same as millions of bloggers with opinions as worthless as mine.

John Kerry made a "joke" about kids getting an education or they'll get stuck in Iraq.

Was it a good joke? No. Was it unnecessary? Yes. Was it in poor taste? Yes. Was it inaccurate? Unfortunately not.

I'm not saying our troops are somehow stupid, and I'm sure John Kerry, a Vietnam Vet would never imply such a thing either. But I'd implore you to find one single ground troop with a PhD. You'd be hard pressed, because if you have a PhD, you don't join the army, you go into a field that you got your title of Doctor in, because you are in demand. I'm not saying our troops are idiots, I don't have a PhD either. I don't know anyone who has a PhD. But if you drop out of college, or even finish with a bachelors degree, the state of the economy is so terrible in the last six years, that one of the only ways to get money to raise a family is to fight in Iraq, because there certainly aren't any more decent paying low to mid level jobs around here.

Hence, get a good education or you'll be stuck in Iraq. Not that tough of a riddle to decipher.

But this is what will happen.

Bush and the GOP who are struggling to do ANYTHING right will latch onto this one "botched joke" made by one man, and try to convince all the "tell us what to think" conservatives that all Democrats hate the troops, and think they're stupid, and want them to die in Iraq, and hate Jesus, and want to hand out free abortions, and make spanish the national language, and burn the flag, and kill kittens, etc. etc. etc.

And they will win control of the House and the Senate again.

We've seen it before folks. Here's Bush's terrible economy. Here's his failure in the war in Iraq. Here's his failure to prevent 9/11. Here's him passing the buck and blaming everyone else. Here's his lack of WMD's in Iraq. Here's the rising death tolls of those troops we so adamently "support" yet leave to die without adequate armor in a baseless war. Here's the renegade Osama bin Laden, who we still haven't caught. Here's his dealings with Enron. Here's him sitting around while gas reaches $3.35 a gallon.

But Kerry "flip-flopped."

And the right ate it right up.

It doesn't take much, does it?

It's like all the shit that's gone wrong with the GOP and Bush have magically just been wisked away by a "joke" taken out of context and bent to make it seem like it was an attack on the troops and not an attack on George W. Bush.

The republicans are sharks. And all it takes is a tiny drop of blood in the water for them to attack visciously. One tiny imprefection and they treat it like it's a personal offense.

Lucky for them, yet shameful for us, that we don't hold them to the same standards.

We'll scorch the earth
Set fire to the sky
We stoop so low
To reach so high
-U2; Red Hill Mining Town

I'm catching flak.

2006-10-27T07:32:00.000-04:00

It's 7:26am on a friday. I'm getting ready to go to work. As soon as work lets out I'm heading to Indiana to spend the weekend with Erin.

It's hard to be creative and witty at 7:26am on a friday.

My "Lost" question this week: If the Hydra is on a smaller island, how did the polar bears get on the main island?

The answer I usually get is that polar bears are natural swimmers.

The house is cold this morning. I find though that if you turn the heat on, even on low, the room you're in gets surprisingly hot.

I should probably get going, but I can tell this morning is going to be a morning that takes me forever to get motivated enough to move.

I've had a stuffy nose for about seven months now. Seriously.

Okay, I do have an observation. This is a little bit out of date, as these things have been around for a while, but I feel the need to ask, what is the deal with those "bullethole" stickers? You know, the metallic colored stickers that have the black dot in the center that people usually stick on their car to make it look like their car has been shot up? I ask, because my second monitor I got for free before it was sent to Goodwill from the eBay store, and whoever was selling it put one on the monitor. Like that makes you some kind of hardcore nerd, the fact that someone shot your computer monitor. I'm pretty sure these things don't have a metal undercore, and I'm pretty sure you're a total dorkass for buying this sticker in the first place, to put on your car, let alone your PC.

Also the Tigers lost last night. It's a bummer. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that they're the Tigers, and that if you had told me at the beginning of the season that they'd have a season over 500, I would've considered that a big deal. They're in the World Series. If they lose, I'm pretty sure that we'll still be proud of them.

Okay, seriously, though, I have to go get ready for work. Have a good weekend everyone.

-j

I'm back.

2006-10-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone.

I have the internet again. I'm moved to Comstock. Things are slowly but surely getting setup here.

I woke up this morning to an inch of snow. It appears we've just skipped fall, seeing as fall officially started about two weeks ago. Gotta love it. Did you see all the leaves changing colors, or did you stay in that day?

Anyway, I've got to get going to work. Sorry this is so short.

-j

F U Right.

2006-09-28T11:15:00.000-04:00

Anybody else see President Clinton totally embarrass the Fox News Network? Check it out here.

Anybody else see Keith Olbermann totally embarrass the Fox News Network and George Bush? Check it out here.

And here's a classic.

Now it's later.

2006-09-16T19:33:00.000-04:00

Hail to the victors. Michigan just beat #2 Notre Dame 47-21.

Anyways, I've been told to update this page more often, and so I'm going to try. It's not as easy because the internet connection in the house right now is not on my computer.

What's new in my life. Not really anything. Still unfortunately working my current job. Still hate it every day. Other than that everything is going pretty good.

My birthday is in ten days. I'm putting it out there so no one gets mad at me for not telling them. I have to go to a training in Novi, MI that day. I have to leave here at 5:00 am. Happy birthday to me.

What else is new... not much of anything. Sorry I'm so boring lately. I promise someday my life will be much less repetitve and more exciting, then you, my faithful reader(s) will be rewarded for paying attention for so long. But as for now, it's just the same old same old. Sorry. Believe me, I'm sorry.

So long,
jgp

And so it's September, and what have we done...

2006-09-01T01:49:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't been updating this blog recently. But here's the rundown of everything that's been going on in my life recently.

I moved out of the house on Axtell and into the house on KL, and in the next few weeks I'll be moving again into the house on King.

I got promoted at my job into the same position.

I didn't get the job at GRCC.

Nobody doesn't know I'm in a relationship.

Jamie and Charlie moved to Missouri.

I met Frank, and watched a BAMF Japanese movie called Battle Royale.

...that's about all I can think of.

If you get a moment, and have a couple bucks...

2006-08-10T21:40:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, my friend Lola is taking part in the Komen Grand Rapids Race for the Cure 2006 to raise money for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Grand Rapids Affiliate and would really welcome your support. If you'd like to sponsor them, go to this webpage and drop a couple dimes.

2006-08-09T14:23:00.000-04:00

it's almost like laughing at the same tired joke for far too long. telling the same stories. wearing the same clothes.

this isn't me. this was me. i walked out the front door of this party years ago.

yet here i am.

it's like i never left. nothing's changed. that's the hardest part. so much should have.

i got on the train. i got off the train. somedays i can't even find the tracks.

this is not the end of the road. i refuse to let it happen. i will not lose my way.

gotta focus. gotta leave. gotta get back on the train. i know i can. i did it before. it was the best time of my life.

i can't get bogged down. i have to shift my priorities. i need to remember that i'm not staying at this party for long. but i need to grab my coat before i can leave.

(j)

It will be mine... oh yes... it will be mine.

2006-08-08T21:45:00.000-04:00

Someday. Someday I'll own this.

When I do, I'll be able to make movies that look like this.

couldn't agree more

2006-08-07T20:52:00.000-04:00

A post by Rob.

today

2006-08-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

Today, I believe, will be a long day, because I'm going to be waiting for it to be over all day. I don't start at work until 11:30a, I don't get out until 8:30p. My boss is coming in today supposedly. Hopefully he'll bring that other guy he brought when I was all alone to stand over my shoulder and tell me everything I do wrong. Joy.

Thankfully though at the end of the day Erin will be here, which is why I'm going to be counting the minutes between now and then. We're going to Marine City tomorrow for the weekend. My moms birthday is tomorrow. There's going to be a lot of people around. It should be a lot of fun.

If only I can ge through work today and tomorrow.

I haven't heard anything back from GRCC yet, but it's still early. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

-j

late night lyrics

2006-08-03T00:47:00.000-04:00

...you say go slowly i fall behind the second hand unwinds if you're lost you can look and you will find me time after time miller's angels in black and white welcome everyone in children dreaming of wrong and right wrapped in grace and in sin harry truman doris day red china johnny wray one day i'll fly away leave all this to yesterday what more could your love do for me when will love be through with me why live life from dream to dream and dread the day when dreaming ends i don't need a whole lot of money i don't need a big fine car i got everything that a man could want i got more than i could ask for sometimes is never quite enough if you're flawless then you'll win my love don't forget to win first place don't forget to keep that smile on your face when you were here before couldn't look you in the eye you're just like an angel your skin makes me cry you float like a feather in a beautiful world i wish i was special you're so f***ing special but i'm a creep i'm a weirdo what the hell am i doing here i don't belong here tommy doesn't know what day it is old man look at my life i'm a lot like you were i close my eyes only for a moment and the moments gone brother bought a coconut he bought it for a dime his sister had another one she paid it for the lime six in the morning police at my door time is on my side yes it is crazy mary look back and you're done silent night holy night all is calm all is bright you get to feel so guilty got so much for so little then you find that feeling just won't go away i take a couple uppers i down a couple downers but nothing compares to these blue and yellow purple pills fall is here hear the yell back to school ring the bell she packed my bags last night preflight zero hour nine am and i'm going to be high as a kite by then please allow me to introduce myself i'm a man of wealth and taste i'm only a man no silly red sheet digging for kryptonite on this one way street i was down at the new amsterdam staring at this yellow haired girl mr jones strikes up a conversation with a black haired flamenco dancer this train is bound for glory this train yeah i'll be king when dogs get wings can i help it if i still dream time to time and the cradle will rock goddamn you half japanese girls you do it to me everytime it's easier not to be wise and measure these things by your brains i sank into eden with you alone in the church by and by don't ask me what you know is true don't have to tell you i love your precious heart i was standing you were there two worlds collided and they could never tear us apart if i leave here tomorrow then i saw her face now i'm a believer crash into me and i come into you i wish i was an alien at home behind the sun i wish i was the souvenier you kept your house key on...

I've got a bad case of loving you.

2006-07-21T10:23:00.000-04:00

I just got back from the doctors office. I've successfully dropped my blood pressure from the "concerning" 165/98 to the "excellent" 124/82. Unfortunately somewhere along the way I gained four pounds. That's what I'm working on now.

After moving Rob into his third floor apartment yesterday, I've determined I'm entirely out of shape. So no more soda for me. That's step one. Step two, no more eating unless I'm hungry. Step three, my doctor recommended a 30 minute brisk walk three times a week. I'm going to do that, or skate at Wings Stadium if I can.

All I know is that a hardcore workout puts me in an amazingly good mood. Last night after moving Rob in we all went out to dinner and I couldn't get over how great I felt. Plus I've always wanted to be studly.

Employment

2006-07-19T09:29:00.000-04:00

So what's new...

I just applied for a new job in Grand Rapids at GRCC. It's a job where I need to know how to edit and do videography and lighting and all the things I actually went to school for, and it pays significantly more than the job I currently have.

Needless to say the job I currently have is not one I like at all. I've read in the news a lot that people are getting in a lot of trouble for blogging about their jobs, so I'm not going to say who I work for, suffice to say that I work for a company that is contracted by a major cell phone company. I am a "technician" at said cell phone company. A "technician" is someone who is supposed to fix phones by looking at them and saying that they're broken, then giving the customer a new one. We also check software settings and everything. Nothing that we're more qualified to do than anyone else. When a customer comes in happy because they want a new phone, the sales guys get to talk to them. When they come in pissed off because they dropped their phone in a toilet and they are absolutely convinced that that should be covered by their warranty and they should get a new one for free, they get sent back to us.

A "technician" is also expected to sell frilly accessories that people don't want, and frilly little data stuff that people don't need. See I don't know about you, but if I go to a store and someone tries to sell me something I didn't come in for, I try to avoid going back to that store. If you ever went to Meijer for a gallon of milk, and the guys in the red shirts followed you around telling you how much you absolutely NEEDED to have a corkscrew and a bag of Alpo, wouldn't you try shopping at D&W next time? I'm not saying that the practice pushes our already low customer base away, I'm just saying it seems pretty annoying. And when their boss Marion tries it, you can tell that those customers aren't coming back.

"Oh you barely have enough money to pay your bill? Well, how about buying this car charger, this earpiece and a case for your phone? It's only $59! You'd be saving money! Well, yeah, I guess you'd be saving money if you were going to buy all three seperately... not if you were not planning on buying any of them... How about ringback tones! It only adds a little bit to your bill every month, the bill you were just saying you could barely pay. Do you do a lot of text messaging? No? Well you should sign up for our text messaging bundle. It gives you unlimited mobile to mobile texting and 1000 messages to other carriers all for $15 a month! I realize you said you don't do text messaging, but maybe you should start..."

By the end of it the customer hasn't bought anything else and is clawing to get out the door.

I've never really liked sales. Something about it always seems shady. Something about making the customer believe that they need what I'm selling. It's lying. I'm getting paid to lie, and the more people believe me, the more commision I make. Nobody needs ringback tones. Nobody needs unlimited text messaging. Nobody really needs cell phones. They're a conveinience. A lot of these people need the money that I'd be trying to dupe them out of.

Granted, I'm not as bad as all that. None of us are. When people come in to buy cell phones we sell them cell phones. If people want a car charger, we sell them a car charger. We show them what other options are available, and if they don't want them, we let it drop. But we're not supposed to.

I can't do it though. I can't push something unneccessary on a person who can't afford their bill. I've been there before. Who am I kidding, I'm there now.

But that's not the stuff I even deal with the most. I deal with the customers who break their phones, then blame me, then throw a fit as if they'll shrivel up and die if they go an hour without a cell phone. It's always the same thing.

"What if I'm driving and my car breaks down?!? What will I do?!? It's so unsafe!"

I often wonder if these people remember the eighties. Or even the early nineties. A time not so long ago, where there were cars, and no cell phones. These cars would break down from time to time, there would be car accidents, and yet, no cell phones. And most of these people I deal with were there. Granted, some of them are 16 and missed the eighties all together. And usually, they're the ones who are okay with going without it for a little while. But way back all those years ago, you used to have to get out of you car and *gasp* WALK to a *double gasp* PAYPHONE! So in the unlikely event that your brand new gas gussling Hummer 2 somehow breaks down on the side of the road in the next two to three business days, I give you full permission to find a pay phone and call me directly. I'll call everyone you need. I'll call a tow truck, I'll call your insurance company, I'll alert your next of kin of this atrocious tragedy.

Otherwise, if I'm not dealing with them, I'm supposed to call our customers and ask them if they want any data packages. That's right "technician" also means "telemarketer." It's not that bad when the stuff I'm signing them up for actually lowers their bill. Then they're happy about it. When the ones come up that I'm supposed to call, and it would make their bill more expensive, I don't call. That's where I draw the line.

Okay, so that was my really long rant about work. Sorry to subject you all to that.

-j

Jeez.

2006-07-18T00:15:00.000-04:00

Once again I've gone about a month without adding anything to this blog. I used to write on it at least twice a day. I guess I have a life now.

Just kidding, I still have no life.

It is ridiculously hot in my room. I don't even want to move.

Now it's raining. Hard. Oh it's cooled the air. It's a huge thunderstorm. I love trying to sleep during huge thunderstorms. No sarcasm. It might be weird, but it's true. I think they're relaxing.

I promise I'll write more soon, but now I'm off to bed. Goodnight.

-j

Superman Represents.

2006-06-21T21:54:00.000-04:00

I'm kind of excited about the new Superman movie coming out next wednesday, and I've been really getting into Smallville in the last couple weeks. So I looked around online to see if critics are liking the new movie (which they are) and I've come across all of these articles about Superman being gay, or Superman being Jesus. Religious groups are claiming Clark Kent represents Jesus Christ, because he is a man sent to earth from the sky by his father to save mankind. Gay groups are claiming that Superman represents gays because he is a man who is forced to live a double life, one that is his public persona, acceptable to the world, and the real him that he keeps hidden away from society.

Rather than point out how completely lame and stupid this is, Jon and I decided that we could find out more groups that Kal-El represents.

Readers of my blog, kneel before Zod.

Latinos. Just as Superman was forced to cross the universe to get to America, Mexicans have to cross the border. The blue suit obviously represents the Rio Grande.

Inner City Youth. Lex Luthor, the big head of Luthor Corp, an old, angry, bald white man tries to keep Superman down. Lex is the Man. Superman is forced to represent Krypton, and smack his honky ass around a bit.

PETA. Both stand up for the weaker creatures on earth.

The NRA. Neither are opposed to bullets. Both claim to protect through threat of violence. Both claim to stand for the "American Way."

The RIAA. Both have more power than they should. Both hate pirates.

Clowns. Both dress ridiculously to please the people selflessly.

Greenpeace. A superhero that fights the head of a major evil corporation (LuthorCorp.) with violence when necessary.

The Tobacco Industry. Both multifaceted (Phillip Morris also owns Kraft Foods) both living a double life. Also, both were started on a farm.

The Fast Food Industry. Both are really fast. Also, both fast food and Superman can serve as a crutch to society, offering them easy solutions to problems that could be solved with a little of their own effort. Getting a cat out of a tree, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...

Keith Richards. Both men are seemingly indestructible.

The Green Party / Ralph Nader. While Superman fights a war against evil, a war that cannot possibly be won, Nader fights a battle to win the White House, another insurmountable feat. Also, both are unsafe at any speed.

Eskimos. Is it any wonder that the Fortress of Solitude lies in the arctic?

The FFA. The Future Farmers of America come from Kansas, are niave to the world, they grew up on a farm, and had their first sexual exprience with a sheep.

Young Republicans. See Above.

Paris Hilton. Both are youth with more gifts than they can handle. Both have a father named Jor-El... I think.

Saddham Hussein. Both Superman and Saddham are powerful men, who use their power until a crusty old white man (Luthor/Bush) interferes. Both have shirts sporting a large 'S'.

Shaquille O'Neal. C'mon, Shaq even HAS a Superman symbol permanently scarred into his flesh. An amazing athlete who can win championships, set records for rebounds, but that freethrow line is his own personal Kryptonite.

Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. A child is born to fantastical parents who take her away from a harsh world of paparazzi and reporters to be born in a far away land. Kal-El is born to fantastical parents who send him to another world to grow up. Also I'm pretty sure that Shiloh can fly.

Men Against Pornography Both are entirely made up.

Anything I forgot? Leave a comment.

-j

Oh, hello.

2006-06-11T13:42:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back from Colorado. We had a really good time. Thanks again to Ed and Stacy and Éowyn and Kristine for showing us around.

We got to see Red Rocks, and Lookout Mountain, and some dinosaur tracks. Then we went downtown a few times and went to many bars. We went to Boulder before hiking up in Rocky Mountain National Park, and went to Johnny Garabinos (or something) for lunch the next day.

Erin surprised me before we left. She was supposed to come up on the wednesday before we left, but she came up on the friday before we left. Then she stayed until thursday. It was a rare moment in our lifetimes where we were in the same place for two weeks straight. It was really refreshing.

We came up with a creepy movie with a working title of "The Room." I'll be working on it for a while I think. I really like it.

2006-05-19T10:59:00.000-04:00

This has gone on for long enough. It's time I built something. Anything. Before I completely forget.

oo

Happy belated birthday IYBI,TWC!!

2006-05-03T20:11:00.000-04:00

Wow. Six days ago, this blog turned five. I've been doing this blogger thing for over five years now. That's kindergaten age.

Congrats, blog.

j

I have a blog? Oh yeah....

2006-05-03T10:04:00.000-04:00

I've been seriously neglecting this site for a little while now. I feel bad. Sorry.

It's just that, I don't really have a lot to say anymore. All I really do is work now, and then I watch 24 or Lost or Scrubs.

Lost is new tonight. I don't think they should trust Michael. I think he's on the side of the Others now. They probably promised him Walt back if he led some of the survivors into the woods. Who knows.

Erin just left. It's wednesday morning and Erin just left. It's getting harder for her to go everytime. She left like 20 minutes ago, and I miss her.

We had a pretty good weekend. She got here on friday night, and we went out to Bells and Boomerangs (two separate bars, not one) with Charlie and Jamie. It was a lot of fun. Some jerk stole the drivers side rearview mirror off of my car. I thought it was funny when it happened, now it's kind of annoying.

Saturday we went across state to see the Red Wings lose what turned out to be their last home game of the 05-06 season. It was a lot of fun to go to Joe Louis Arena, Erin had never been there before. We met Jordan there who was not to happy with the outcome of the game. They looked fine in the first period, then they looked like they all got really drunk during the first intermission. They got booed in their own arena. I wouldn't boo them, but I understand the frustration in the arena. Monday they were up 2-0 going into the third period, but again managed to lose 4-3. I want to keep watching the playoffs, so now I'm going to follow the Avalanche. Hell, if I move to Denver, I may start doing that more anyway.

After that we went to Marine City for a night. My parents were there. That's always a good time. I made breakfast on sunday morning, then Erin and I stuck around until about 4:30pm and we went to dinner at the Rivera before taking off.

Sunday night, we just kind of hung out. Monday I was scheduled to work, but I took a half day because it sucked just sitting there while she was here. So we went downtown to the Union for lunch, then we got coffee across the street. I got a hot chocolate with a shot of strawberry, which I stated that I like because it tastes like chocolate with strawberries. After Erin laughed at my obviousness, we went to the museum. I love the museum. It's so flippin fun. Then we went over to Jason's for 24 and Medium that night, but left right after because she was getting a headache from the smoke. I played Phantasmagoria at Jasons. It was cool.

Yesterday was really nice because it was a rainy day, and so we just stayed in and acted lazy the whole time. We watched a couple movies, Short Circuit and The Emperors New Groove. Then we made tacos, and she made me watch American Idol. That Chris guy is pretty cool. I hope he wins. Then we watched Scrubs.

We set the alarm last night for 7:00am, but we didn't get up until 9:30. Then she went back to Indiana. That was my really long weekend. It was really great.

I've decided I'm going to start writing a few short films. Stuff I can film over a weekend. Something like Rain. That way I don't get discouraged when I realize I don't have time to do a feature.

Erin and I are going to Colorado in less than a month. I can't wait.

Okay, gotta go.
j

Main Screen Turn On

2006-04-09T12:06:00.000-04:00

My nerdiness has hit critical mass.

Last night John Aitken and I spent a few hours trying to hook up my second monitor to my computer. He took my old video card from my old computer and put it into the new one, which had seemingly millions of conflicts. Then when we finally got it working with a crappy card, there were all kinds of problems with ghosting and darkness, and it looked ugly.

After a while, we finally got it to turn on and work right, then it froze and then nothing worked, and we set everything back, and gave up.

This morning, I got up and looked at what we had done. I clicked roll back drivers, and everything worked. I have two monitors, and one TV out. Not only that, I found a color setting in the second monitor that made it look a lot brighter.

Anyway, thanks a lot John for all the work you put into this. I really really appreciate it.

Also last night, we got the opportunity to view Mike Hurst's "House of the Dead II." Not being directed by Uwe Boll seemed to help. The film was better than Boll's version, which Jon Kameya pointed out filming paint dry on a wall for two hours would be better than Boll's version.

I'll sum up.

There's this government agency called AMS that kills zombies. The cop from the first movie is back and still legless, and she heads up AMS. There are two agents named Ellis and Nightengale. They go to this "isolated university" where zombies have killed everyone and have been running loose for 29 days, and in that 29 days, no one outside the campus has noticed they can't contact their kids, because it's "isolated." So then the AMS guys go in to try to find the original generation zero zombie, and they bring a few army guys headed by Dalton, played by a man named "Sticky Fingaz." Then everyone dies, ecxept for the AMS people, then the city gets over run by zombies, and a missle blows up a building, and then some other stuff happens, and then the movie ends.

Pretty awesome.

-j

A small Irish band.

2006-04-04T00:36:00.000-04:00

"You say you'll give me a highway with no one on it, a treasure just to look upon it, all the riches in the night. You say you'll give me eyes in a moon of blindness, a river in a time of dryness, a harbor in the tempest. All the promises we make from the cradle to the grave... when all I want is you." -U2

Sunday, two days ago. There was a bad storm outside, Joss Stone inside. It started like any other sunday, but it most certainly wasn't. It could quite possibly be the best sunday I'll get in this life. It rained really hard. Lightning, thunder and wind.

And all of a sudden, the storm was finally over.

Tee hee hee

2006-03-29T18:54:00.000-05:00

Yerty drew boobies.

Hello everyone. What's new here?

Erin gets back from her very much deserved sunny Florida vacation tomorrow. As lame as it is that she has to go back to Richmond Indiana, I'm looking forward to her coming home so I can go visit her this weekend.

In the last two days, I've been having these anxiety tremors I'll call them. I'll be sitting still doing nothing special, then all of a sudden I feel slight panic and nervousness, and then I feel my heart rate speed up and I start breathing heavier. I think I know what started it, or what's causing it, but I don't know. It's almost like I had too much caffiene.

I'm waiting for some good news. I'm planning a trip to Denver this June (1-6) and I'm waiting to hear if my PTO for it has been approved or not. I hope it doesn't take too long for the decision, because the round trip flight is very cheap right now.

Also, my computer may have re-fried itself. One of the drives I have is bad, and has crapped out again. Luckily there wasn't much on it. Nothing at all important.

I'm going to have to drop off the machine to John to see if he can fix these issues I've got. Also, I'm trying to hook up the second monitor I got from Wade in California, and I've had conflicting reports on the possibility of it. Jon K says it's as easy as hooking up another PCI ATI video card. John A (who built the PC) says it'll be more complicated if not super expensive.

We shall see.

Lost night tonight. Sun is pregnant. Carla is pregnant on Scrubs, which I've really started to like. Really cool show. Dr. Cox is my favorite character. I love his little monologues, like:

"Okay, think of what little patience I have as, oh, I don't know, your virginity. You always thought it would be there, until that night Junior Year when you were feeling a little down about yourself and your pal Kevin, who just wanted to be friends, well, he dropped by and he brought a copy of About Last Night and a four-pack of Bartels & James and woo hoo hoo, it was gone forever - just like my patience is now."

or

"You'd better go ahead and enjoy this while you can, Bob, because if your evil genie goes ahead and grants your wish and I'm gone forever, then the only one you're going to be able to contend with around here is yourself. And when you really get to know that person, oh, dear God, you'll scream so loud that Satan will want to tear up that contract he made with you at birth just so he can get some sleep."

Anyway, almost time to head over. See ya.

-j

This Blog has gotten dusty.....

2006-03-23T10:33:00.000-05:00

It appears I've been severely slacking on this site. Even as I sit here though, I really can't think of anything to say.

How lame is this?

-j

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

2006-03-06T10:24:00.000-05:00

It looks like a few of my posts have been deleted for some reason. I know I had a song that was stuck in my head posted up here. Maybe I'm just not writing as much as I used to.

I still have writers block. Actually I'm sure that's not true. I just haven't tried to write anything in the last few months. I'm doing my best to hold on to the writer/director side of me right now, but just as I thought I would, I'm looking at myself as an employee of Solectron working at a Verizon Wireless. I knew it would happen. I'm trying to balance it all out, but after a long day of dealing with stupid people who can't fathom driving from here to grandmothers cottage without their cell phone (just like we all used to 5-7 years ago), I just feel like turning off when I get home to my little crammed bedroom.

I was really good at this out in Los Angeles, which seems like a whole other lifetime now. I was good at it because it was all I had to worry about. I could focus on it. Now I'm focused on why certain types of MP3's won't show up on the transflash card to a Samsung a950.

This isn't a pity me post. Everybody has their other things to worry about while they pursue what it is they want. I just hate the feeling I'm getting that cell phones are all I think about anymore. I'm back in Kalamazoo, it feels like I never left. Like I never stepped out to pursue this dream of mine. People ask what I do, I tell them I fix cell phones. This is supposed to be a steady job so I can make some money to pay off the debts I incurred while in Los Angeles, and to keep my head above water. Instead, it's taken over. Now when I think about shooting a movie, I wonder what the point is, because I'm sure I'll have to work that day.

The point is I'm losing site of my goals. I'm forgetting who I am. I'm settling into this miserable life I never wanted. I just don't know what else to do.

Life isn't all miserable. In fact certain aspects of it are the best that they've ever been.

I haven't said this yet on here, but hell, everyone who reads this already knows. I'm very in love. I've got a girlfriend now. A beautiful, wonderful, sweet, smart woman named Erin. A girl I met in high school, my best friend for ten years, a girl I've been in love with for quite a while, and that I'm still very much in love with today. I don't want to be quiet about it anymore, I want to tell everyone. So I guess now it's officially out of the bag. I am completely in love with Erin.

Secret over. :)

That feels really good. Really really good.

I love you Schmoo. Very much. You're my best friend soulmate.

It's now 10:55am. I have to be at work in a half hour.

-j

I just wanna scream "Hello."

2006-02-09T21:10:00.000-05:00

My god, it's been so long... never dreamed you'd return...

I guess I've been slacking a bit on the blogging, and that's not to say nothing truly blog-worthy has been happening, I guess I've just been crazy busy. I've just found something much better to do with my spare time I guess. No offense to you my humble reader(s), I very much appreciate your interest in my day to day life.

Work is going well.

Life is going very well.

My writers block may have been broken. I feel very refreshed on the whole aspect of writing now. All it took was my muse.

I'm very much looking forward to this weekend. Three days off.

Tonight I'm doing laundry and packing for my trip. I wish I could shake this headache.

Sorry this is so short everyone. Sorry it's been so long. I've got a lot to say, I just don't know if it's okay to say yet. That's all.

Anyways, I'm getting back to laundry.

Later.
-j-

11:11

2006-02-07T11:12:00.000-05:00

I haven't written anything here in a long time!

Snozzberries.

2006-01-23T01:48:00.000-05:00

There's no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going. There's no knowing where we're rowing, or which way the river's flowing. Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing? Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. Are the fires of hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Yes, the danger must be growing 'Cause the rowers keep on rowing. And they're certainly not showing any signs that they are slowing....

2006-01-21T23:30:00.000-05:00

If you need a friend,
don't look to a stranger,
You know in the end,
I'll always be there.

And when you're in doubt,
and when you're in danger,
Take a look all around,
and I'll be there.

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me,
I promise, I promise you I will.

When your day is through,
and so is your temper,
You know what to do,
I'm gonna always be there.

Sometimes if I shout,
it's not what's intended.
These words just come out,
with no gripe to bear.

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me,
I promise, I promise you...

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
And if I had to walk the world, that make you fall for me,
I promise you, I promise you I will.

I gotta tell ya, I need to tell ya, I gotta tell ya, I gotta tell ya...

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me,
I promise you, I promise you...

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
And if I have to walk the world to make you fall for me,
I promise you, I promise you I will ...
I will...
I will...
I will...

"We don't want to talk about Dave."

2006-01-21T21:24:00.000-05:00

Been a while....

It was an interesting day yesterday. I started out okay, then moved to slightly grouchy when a customer accused me of making his LG phone unable to support MP3 ringtones simply so that I could make more money. Then we move on to the customers who decided to stay until just after an hour after we closed asking all types of stupid questions. Then, of course there was Jon and I escorting a completely random, extremely drunk kid six blocks through the freezing cold and ridiculous heavy snowfall wearing a t-shirt and a hoodie, while he bled profusely through a large head wound he may or may not have received by falling face first into the side of our house at 1:30 in the morning, only to be on a party line with is drunk ex-boyfriend in Oshtemo who was only concerned with whether or not he broke his glasses, to be accused of trying to steal his cell phone, to be threatened to be "cut" if we talked about Dave, and of course there was the not so subtlely played sarcastic "thanks a lot" when we handed him over to the EMT's at about 2:45am.

God bless the Student Ghetto.

The best part is, I couldn't have made that up, and I'm pretty sure you'll see it in a movie I do sometime.

In other news, I'm planning a week long trip to Denver this June. It should be a very good time.

-j-

Geronimo

2006-01-09T00:51:00.000-05:00

I wish I had words to describe how strong you are. But I promise you this, today and forever, that if you ever need me, I'll be there in a heartbeat. Know that always.

See you soon.

-j-

coconut lime verbena makes me crazy

2006-01-06T21:08:00.000-05:00

seriously.

it's 9:10pm on friday night, and i've nowhere to go. perhaps i'll clean my room up a bit. finish off some laundry or something. maybe i should just wait until sunday.

i can't even describe how i feel right now. suffice it to say i feel really really super awesomely good. like wicked stupid style.

-j-

G'n'R

2006-01-05T12:22:00.000-05:00

Shed a tear 'cause I'm missing you
I'm still alright to smile
Girl, I think about you every day now
Was a time when I wasn't sure
But you set my mind at ease
There is no doubt you're in my heart now
Said woman take it slow
It'll work itself out fine
All we need is just a little patience
Said sugar make it slow
And we'll come together fine
All we need is just a little patience

Sit here on the stairs
'Cause I'd rather be alone
If I can't have you right now, I'll wait dear
Sometimes, I get so tense
But I can't speed up the time
But you know, love, there's one more thing to consider
Said woman take it slow
Things will be just fine
You and I'll just use a little patience
Said sugar take the time
'Cause the lights are shining bright
You and I've got what it takes to make it
We won't fake it, Oh never break it
'Cause I can't take it

A little patience,
Need a little patience, yeah
Just a little patience, yeah
Some more patience, yeah
I've been walking these streets at night
Just trying to get it right
It's hard to see with so many around
You know I don't like being stuck in a crowd
And the streets don't change but maybe the name
I ain't got time for the game
'Cause I need you
Yeah, yeah well I need you
Oh, I need you
Whoa, I need you
Ooh, this time....

"I've got a feeling '21 is going to be a good year, especially if you and me see it in together..."

2006-01-05T00:39:00.000-05:00

2003: I wrote and directed Twelve Page Paper, figuring out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

2004: Twelve Page Paper premieres. I get accepted to NYFA and move to Los Angeles to go to begin film school.

2005: I shoot backlots at Universal, film both Rain and The Looker, graduate from film school with my whole family coming out to L.A. to see my thesis played in a theater in Beverly Hills. I land a stable job back in Kalamazoo working with a bunch of cool people.

Something tells me though, that this year just might top them all.

Future's so bright y'all.
-j-

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T10:57:00.000-05:00

Happy new year everybody. My new years resolution is to refer to the current year as "Twenty Oh Six" instead of "Two Thousand Six." Pretty dumb, I know, but I'll probably be able to go a few months without breaking it.

It was a pretty easy going end to 2005. Jason, Erin and I went to Gallaghers with the hope of seeing Brill play, but alas our hopes were dashed. So we spent the whole night playing word games on the touch screen game at the bar. We did the countdown thing, then the first song to play at the bar of the new year was Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer" which the ENTIRE bar sang along to. We left at about 1:30am.

Anyway, happy '06 everyone.

-j-

Welcome to Kowagoopa. Please enjoy your stay.

2005-12-27T19:19:00.000-05:00

You can't lose what you don't put in the middle. But you can't win much either.

Quad Damage

2005-12-23T01:14:00.000-05:00

I had a dream last night that I was playing Quake 3 in some brand new awesome virtual reality game, where you were running around in what looked like a suburban neighborhood, and you had a light up panel on your arm that could switch your guns. Also I was playing against Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, and I was trying desperately to kill them with my railgun. Then I found their mansion and I broke in with my teammate who was Elisha Cuthbert, who plays the daughter on "24." They didn't know we were in the house, but they quit playing. Suddenly we realized we could get in a lot of trouble for being in their house with guns, and we thought they'd try to kill us for real. So while I was upstairs in their attic like room, I got a flashlight from the Oracle from The Matrix and turned off all the lights, and shined the flashlight down the stairs, so that if they came up, they wouldn't be able to see because their eyes would have to readjust to the darkness, and in that time, I could shoot them with my railgun. But they never came. So Elisha and I left, but we realized we'd still get in a lot of trouble, and that we needed to leave the country, so we went to Canada, which was conveniently on the other side of a fence that was thirty yards away. We climbed the fence, and while on the other side, I noticed we were in danger, because the villain guy from "24" was going to try to kidnap Elisha. Then they burst through the fence in a car and grabbed us and held us at gunpoint, and that's when I woke up.

I enjoy writing my dreams down on this blog, and I've been doing it for almost five years now, because I tend to forget my dreams. And when I go back in my archives and find a very old dream that I posted, I can remember it all very vividly. Like the one in my uncles house where we all died and turned into ghosts and the monster was eating our souls, and at the end I could kick a soccer ball... that was years ago, but after I go back and read it, I picture it in my mind like I had the dream last night.

Gotta go to bed now. I'm up too late as it is.

-jgp-

just nod if you can hear me

2005-12-17T01:32:00.000-05:00

I should be sleeping now, but instead, I opted to take my chore time and spend it teaming up with the Violent Toilet Thing to decimate the Big Gay Mule and the Inscrutable Drama Queen at a game of Shout About Music. We won game 1 69-0, game 2 90-0, and halfway through game 3, the DVD player decided to show mercy upon Jason and Jamie, and commit hara kiri. It died for their sins.

The problem is that I've got so little to do and so much time, (strike that, reverse it), to get my living quarters up to, at minimum, sub-standard qualifications before Schmoo gets here tomorrow afternoon.

Actually, everything is really done, and the room is somewhat emmaculate, but I'm waiting to switch a load from washer to dryer before going to sleep. Any minute now.

Goodnight.
-j-

Crapgasm

2005-12-16T19:12:00.000-05:00

Q: What the best part about Howard Stern being exclusively on Sirrius Satelite Radio?

A: I don't have Sirrius Satelite Radio.

Nor do I suspect I'll want to pay money to hear an ugly lanky old man say, "Wow, look at your tits. Those are amazing. Wow. Are they real? They are? Wow. I'll bet you like to have sex, don't you. You do, don't you? Yeah. You're dirty. Look at you. Wow." I avoided it when it was free.

Zzzz...

2005-12-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

I got off the phone with my mom at about 7:30pm last night. That's the last thing I remember. Next thing I knew I was waking up at 8am, confused on what day it was.

I went to the hospital yesterday for the severe headache and muscle pain I was having after the flu. They stuck me with an I.V. because I was severely dehydrated. They gave me pills for the headache, and then put this other stuff into the I.V. that they said would make me "a little sleepy." After that, I had a little difficulty walking, I kept slurring my words, and Erin made fun of me on the phone. I think she made fun of me. I really can't remember anything we talked about last night except that she wanted me to say the word "sandwiches." I think I fell asleep on the phone with her a few times. Sorry Schmoo. I just remember really long pauses in our conversation where I believe I was thinking of things to say, but I wasn't actually saying them. Then she would say something, and I'd get that startled awake feeling. Then my mom called. I don't even remember what she said.

Anyway today I feel better. I'd say I'm at about 80%. The headache is still there, but it's not as bad. My lungs still feel tight, but they're not as bad either. I'm about to eat two PB&Js because I'm starving. Later.

-j-

PS. Many thanks to Johanna, my roommate, who selflessly sat by me for hours in the ER lobby waiting for my name to get called, and who seems to be suffering for it now. Thank you, and I'm sorry.

Godsmack

2005-12-12T10:56:00.000-05:00

"I never really get sick. I don't really even remember the last time I got sick." -JP not even a week ago.

I guess I had this coming.

About 1:30am on saturday/sunday, I very quickly came down with what I thought was just an upset stomach, but ended up being an all night pukey dry heaving extravaganza that lasted until 11am sunday morning. I felt sick all day sunday, but I coudln't sleep, and I was really hungry but couldn't keep anything down. Now it's evolved into a massive headache, an overall grogginess, and what can only be described as a "waterlogged" lung feeling, which is slightly concerning. Plus my right arm is killing me, it feels like I slept on it all night.

The good news is that I feel better now. I've gone from 10% to probably 60% now.

I don't have to work until wednesday too, so I have time to recover, which is a big plus.

Anyway, I'm going to watch a movie or something. bye.

-jp

Little Pieces

2005-12-10T10:38:00.000-05:00

Lester, I'm just gonna start kicking your ass if you don't tell me the truth. She wasn't killed, now what the hell is going on?

Lost...... interest?

2005-12-08T08:45:00.000-05:00

Lost is the bad boyfriend of television.

At first everything was awesome and sweet. We got along great. Then starting with the second season, things went awry. Suddenly there were broken promises in the trailers for the next weeks show. The fate of all the survivors was not revealed in the second episode of the season, but they said it would be. Then the show left for three weeks, inexplicably. Last night, we got straight stood up. They showed a trailer for a new episode last week, and we got a repeat this week. And apparently, there will be no new episode until january. Again, no reason why.

But I'll keep watching. Even though this show is behaving badly, I'll stick with it, because I remember the good times, and deep in my heart, I hope that things will be that again.

But just watch yourself, Lost, because 24 comes back in january as well. If you're still doing me wrong, I'll have no problem leaving you for Jack Bauer and his guarenteed non-stop season.

This may be the post I'm most ashamed of.

-j-

Talent.

2005-12-02T07:08:00.000-05:00

Wicked pissah.

Skinny people or fat people.

2005-12-01T10:13:00.000-05:00

I've noticed this trend on TV recently where skinny supermodels like Tyra Banks or attractive TV news reporters put on a giant fat suit and walk the streets and observe the cruelity that other people put fat people through with hidden cameras.

How freaking stupid.

It isn't cruelity, Tyra. It's the way normal people treat each other. Someone didn't make eye contact with you? Someone didn't want to sit by you on the bus? People ignored you when you said "good morning?" Welcome to the world of average looking people. No offense, but when you're a stunning supermodel, and you've been drop dead gorgeous your whole life, maybe you don't have an accurate perception of actual human sociological interaction. People always make eye contact with you because you're beautiful, they always want to sit by you on the bus because they get to be closer to the really hot chick, and maybe someone else on the bus will think you're together, everyone says good morning to you because it can start a conversation that can potentially lead to getting your phone number. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Personally, I think the actual screwed up part is how we treat beautiful people.

I think it would be interesting to take an ugly fat girl and somehow put her in a beautiful suit. She'd suddenly notice that people are always staring at her, she's the center of attention, everyone wants to know what she thinks is cool so they can live their lives accordingly, everyone smiles at her, they hold doors for her, she never has to buy herself a drink at the bar again, all the scuzzy guys at said bar are throwing every pick up line they've ever heard at her just to receive an ounce of her attention, a smile, a little giggle, men fight over her, other women are jealous of her, she gets out of speeding tickets just by playfully pouting to the officer, the rules stop applying to her as she becomes some type of royalty.

I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to make Tyra Banks feel guilty for being beautiful, she really can't help it. And any ugly person or average person if given the opportunity would love to be more attractive. It's why we all cram into gyms and get on Atkins. If you're born with it, live it up.

It really is an interesting experiment though to let someone experience the paradigm of another human. I think if we could do that more often, it would solve a lot of problems. If we just look at the world from someone else's point of view, if we walk a mile in another person's shoes, maybe we'd understand each other a little better. Maybe we wouldn't need to yell at a store clerk when their store runs out of beanie babies, because we'd realize that it's really not his fault. Maybe we wouldn't need to make fun of other people in a mean way, because we'd understand that it hurts. Maybe we wouldn't need to go to war with other nations because we realize that they're doing what they think is right. Maybe we wouldn't have terrorism because terrorists would understand that most citizens mean them no harm. Maybe it would just be a better world.

So remember: take care of yourselves -- and each other. :)

-j-

Proper Words

2005-11-23T02:36:00.000-05:00

This is from a kids video from 1984.

I'd ask if it was just me who thought a middle aged man dressed in kids clothes sitting on a playground singing this song was one of the creepiest things imaginable, but I know I'm not the only one.

-j-

Bummer.

2005-11-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

5 YEARS AGO

How old were you?:20

What grade were you in?: junior in college

Where did you go to school?: WMU

Where did you work?: Babbages

Where did u live?: Kalamazoo, MI

Where did you hang out?: The OP

How was your hair style?: Uh, short.

Did you wear braces?: no

Did you wear glasses?: no

Who was your best friend?: Erin

Who was your boyfriend/girlfriend: none

Who was your celebrity crush?: Claire Forlani

Who was your regular-person crush?: :)

How many piercings did you have?: 1

How many tattoos did you have?: 0

What was your favorite band?: Pearl Jam

What was your biggest fear?: regret

Had you smoked a cigarette yet?: yes

Had you gotten drunk or high yet?: yes

Today

How old are you?: 25

What grade are you in?: college grad

Where do you go to school?: n/a

Where do you work?: Solectron

Where do u live?: Kalamazoo, MI

Where do you hang out?: OP, Galaghers, Boomerangs, Jason and Jamies house

How is your hair style?: short

Do you wear braces?: no

Who is your best friend?: Erin

Who is your boyfriend/girlfriend?: None

Who is your celebrity crush?: Keira Knightley

Who is your regular-person crush?: same as before

How many piercings do you have?: 1

How many tattoos do you have?: 0

What is your biggest fear?: regret

What is your favorite band?: Pearl Jam

Have you smoked a cigarette yet?: yes

Have you gotten drunk or high yet?: yes

2005-11-22T13:13:00.000-05:00

Oceans apart day after day
And I slowly go insane
I hear your voice on the line
But it doesn't stop the pain

If I see you next to never
How can we say forever

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I took for granted, all the times
That I thought would last somehow
I hear the laughter, I taste the tears
But I can't get near you now

Oh, can't you see it baby
You've got me going crazy

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I wonder how we can survive
This romance
But in the end if I'm with you
I'll take the chance

Oh, can't you see it baby
You've got me going crazy

Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

The Customer Service of Nightmares

2005-11-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

I was going out to eat with a few friends, and they wanted to go to Subway. I instead wanted to go to Dairy Queen, so I went there without them. I tried to get a Cherry Shake, but they said they didn't have them. Then this video screen popped up saying all the shake flavors they had, and cherry was one of them, and they made it for me. Then I wanted another shake so I ordered a chocolate shake, and I tried to pay with a credit card. The card was denied, so they wanted me to sign a contract saying I owed them $10, because each shake was $5. And I thought rather out loud that $5 for a small shake was way too much, especially since I didn't even drink any of the second one yet. I agreed to pay $6, and the manager lady got really really mad. Her face was getting really red, but the other people who worked for her were on my side. Then I saw Eric Connor, my old writing teacher from NYFA, sitting on the other side of what had changed from a Dairy Queen into a giant outdoor tiki bar and grill. I went over to say hello to himn briefly, and made mention of the fact that I've had bad writers block for the last few months. He showed me a website that would help, then I got in the car with Jon Kameya and Rob MacInnis. We drove away from the tiki bar and grill/dairy queen and I told them the story about the stupid manager. Then I scooped up a handful of a "Bloomin' Onion" they had on the floor and shovelled it into my mouth. Then I woke up.

Here I go again on my own.

2005-11-20T23:25:00.000-05:00

I'm back from Minneapolis. It was a fun week consisting of lots of cell phone learnin', and some snow, a few white knuckle car rides, 22 cable channels, a lot of talking to Erin, Michael Crichton's "State of Fear," and a GSM poster with Dolph Lundgren.

I got back in time for our "friends thanksgiving" which was a lot of fun. I made meatballs, which we renamed "Lamb Fries" only we couldn't think of the name while we were eating them. There was two and a half buttloads of people who came by, and everyone seemingly brought at least three pies.

There was turkey and stuffing and potatoes and salads and rolls and corn and lamb fries and pie and pie and pie. Good time.

Tomorrow I start my Solectron job at the Verizon store in Grand Rapids. I'm there for two weeks, then I start in my home store here in Kalamazoo. I hope everything goes well. I'm a little nervous I guess, but I think I'll do fine.

I have a short real thanksgiving again this year. Although come to think about it I had a short one last year too, and couldn't make it home. But luckily I got to spend it with family in Sacremento, but this year I get to see my parents again. So that's always cool.

Anyway, I'm about to head to bed, and try to get a decent nights sleep before I start a new job.

Goodnight everyone.
-j-

It's a celebration, bitches!

2005-11-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

I got a little crazy last night. I (very) drunk emailed Kristine, then I drew a big Superman symbol on my chest, watched MST3K, and fell asleep.

I'm flying to Minneapolis tonight for work, and I'll be there all week, so I'm probably not going to update for a while. It's supposed to be windy and snowy all week.

So take care everyone. Remember, the "Friends Thanksgiving" is Saturday night. See you in a week.

-j-

I got the blues, the reds and the pinks.

2005-11-11T04:37:00.000-05:00

I can't sleep again. 4:37am. Lame.
-j-

The Crying Game 2: Cry Harder

2005-11-08T23:43:00.000-05:00

Adam steals it at the very end with his pitch. Congrats. Do you take the red snapper or go for what is in the box?

I here announce the case over.

The sequel to my previous post... about sequels.

2005-11-05T17:55:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I just thought of a fun idea. Pitch an idea for the most unnecessary and ridiculous sequel you can come up with in my comments section, and I'll award a winner. I'll do one too. Good luck.

Mr. Smith goes to Moobyworld.

2005-11-04T22:18:00.000-05:00

You know me, you know I'm a fan of Kevin Smith. I celebrate the guys whole catalogue. I do have to say, I'm a little apprehensive about Clerks 2. Kevin Smith is allowed to do whatever he wants, but first he said no more Jay and Silent Bob movies, and that didn't happen, then he said no big stars were going to be in this one, but already it's got Rosario Dawson, Ben Affleck, and Jason Lee.

Personally, I'm all for it. But in a time where there isn't an original thought in the mind of any Hollywood executive, and the studios put forth the comic book film, the 70's/80's TV show remake, or the unneccessary sequel, out comes the unneccessary sequel from the man who put independent film on the map.

Also on the soon to be released unneccessary sequel list:

Rocky VI
Big Mommas House 2
Garfield 2
Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift
Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction
Scary Movie 4
Final Destination 3
The Grudge 2
Mission Impossible 3
Underworld 2
Rush Hour 3

Seriously folks. How about we think of something new.

Maybe I'll think of it. Who knows.

-j-

The Mile High City just got a little higher.

2005-11-04T13:37:00.000-05:00

Citizens of Denver just passed a resolution making it legal for people over 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana within city limits.

That Morrisey guy is just angry and saying that they can still prosecute under state law, which I guess is true, but lame, because all they'll be able to do is fine the offender $100. Boo to you District Attorney Mitch Morrisey. The people of your city have spoken, and you still wish to deny them their pot because of a loophole that allows you to make money. You sir, are a jerk.

I'm not stoned right now.

-j-

Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis.

2005-11-04T01:09:00.000-05:00

I’m not afraid to bend my back
I’m not afraid of dirt
But how I fear the things I do
For lack of honest work
My family is lost to me
They could not bear the hurt
To see the state their boy is in
For lack of honest work

I hold no blame for anyone
’twas I who did arrange
To pay my union dues so i’d
Not have to learn or change
And when I was replaced, ’twas i
Who started down the hill
And drank away my savings ’til
I couldn’t stop myself

The prophets of a brave new world
Captains of industry
Have visions grand and great designs
But none have room for me
They see a world where everyone
Is rich and smart and young
But if I live to see such things
Too late for me they come

I know I’m not the only one
To fall beneath the wheel
Such company can not assuage
The loneliness I feel
So many are resigned to be
Society’s debris
But I will be remembered for
The life life took from me

For I’m not afraid to bend my back
I’m not afraid of dirt
But how I fear the things I do
For lack of honest work

The Student Ghetto

2005-11-03T13:58:00.000-05:00

When you can step out on your porch at night and hear your neighbors having sex, your houses are too close.

She sounded like she was having a great time.

Tuesday in Amsterdam

2005-11-02T23:23:00.000-05:00

A picture of Amsterdam
Bare trees under glass
Framed in the grey and white afternoon light
Of a winter long passed

When I was a riser
To Dublin I'd roam
She was a bareback rider
Some miles from home

Come back to me.

She’s a carnival diver
Hung in the sky
Cutting through time like a memory
Strung on a wire

Now the color of anything
Fades in the air
She is the film of a book
Of the story of the smell of her hair

Come back to me.

When everything’s over
And everything’s clear
When everyone’s older
And no one is here

I try to remember
A girl on a wire
Tumbling and diving above Steven’s Green
Like a kite in the air

Come back to me.

-lyrics by Adam Duritz

It's raining in Baltimore, baby. But everything else is the same.

2005-10-31T22:31:00.000-05:00

The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, and consequently one of my favorite books. The book is told the same way the movie was. It starts out with a young William Goldman sick at home, and his grandfather reading him the very very long version of "The Princess Bride" originally written by a man named S. Morgenstern.

I have had friends who claim that their friends uncles grandfathers sister-in-law (twice removed) has an original version of the extended "The Princess Bride" locked away in some safe, and that they've seen it, and that it's worth two entire butt-loads of money.

The truth is that there never was an original version of "The Princess Bride" and that the story was entirely written by William Goldman, and the grandfather telling the sick grandson was a brilliant story device entirely conceptualized by the author.

My favorite character was always Inigo. Partially because I loved his cool accent, but more because of that fight scene at the end between him and Count Rugen, the Six Fingered Man, where he keeps repeating that famous line, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Plus, that's a killer line when Rugen is beat, and he makes him offer him all these riches in exchange for mercy, and he says "Offer me everything I ask for" and Rugen says "Anything you want." And he stabs him in the stomach and says, "I want my father back you son of a bitch." Remember that? That was awesome.

Vengeance is a powerful thing. It made Bruce Wayne become Batman, even though in the Nolan film, the guy who killed his parents was dead years before. It makes more poetic sense in the original Burton film that the guy who killed his parents was the Joker. But even in the Burton version, once the Joker is dead and his parents avenged, he keeps fighting criminals. Vengeance is what drives the Leonard character in Memento, another Chris Nolan film, even though if he gets revenge, he'll never even remember it. (spoiler avoided)

It's odd, but it seems that when the Joker kills your parents, or when Count Rugen kills your father, you can cling to vengeance. When you lose something you feel passionate about, you immediately want to clasp onto something else you feel passionate about to fill that void. And usually the nearest thing to clasp to is the pain and anger you have over losing the someone or something that you loved. You can let it consume you, and fill you in all the places that you are now empty, and it can drive you to study swordplay for twenty years, or put on the Batsuit. It's a fire that does not die easily, because it seeped into all the cracks and holes the loss left you. And if it was a deep loss, it left a lot of damage.

It isn't always vengeance, because some things cannot be avenged. Heartbreak for example. To quote another of my favorite movies, Swingers:

"I don't know man, sometimes it still hurts. I don't know man, it's like you wake up every day and it hurts a little less, and then you wake up one day and it doesn't hurt at all. And it's like, and this might sound a little weird, but it's like you almost miss that pain."
"You miss the pain?"
"Yeah. For the same reason you miss her, because you lived with it for so long."

It's really strange how that works. It's entirely true. I broke up with this girl once, and it was really hard. I was screwed up for about a year. It was before I had this blog, and I needed someone to talk to about it, or some way to get it out, and so I got my camcorder and I taped myself talking. All my anger and my sadness and all that depressing crap fired at a camcorder, which felt like it was the only thing that would listen to me without judging me.

I found the tape a few days ago, and not realizing what it was, I put it in. It's very interesting, and I highly recommend doing it sometime if you're really stressed or angry. I recommend being entirely honest. I also recommend making sure no one else sees it. (I let Rob borrow my camcorder, and I accidentally left the tape in it. When he gave it back he very awkwardly said, "You left a tape of yourself in the camera... you looked pretty mad.")

I watched most of it, and I thought it was actually funny. You ever look back at a hard time in your life and wonder what it was you were thinking, and why you took it so hard, and you wish you could just go back and slap yourself and tell yourself to stop being retarded? Now I know EXACTLY what I was thinking. It wasn't pretty. I was mad, I was sad and crying, I was furious, I was saying some awfully mean things, and one of the last segments I had shaved off all my facial hair, I looked like I had just woken up from a coma, I was barely acceptably dressed, and I turned the camera on and stared off into space for like three straight minutes without saying a word.

It was pretty pathetic.

I looked at it and laughed because now it doesn't hurt anymore, and it seems so far away from a time that it did. And I listened to the things that I said and I thought to myself, "Why am I so upset about this?" In the video I was all kinds of mad because she went to see some movie that I wanted to see with her. God was I mad. Now I look at it and think, "Of course she went without you, you had been broken up for six months. That means you don't go on dates anymore." She especially shouldn't have gone with someone as seemingly psychotic as I was if her seeing a movie without me set me off that bad. All in all it seemed pretty stupid.

But I think I get it now.

I wasn't trying to hang on to her. I was trying to hang on to the pain. Because in her absence, it was what I had left. It was the thing I now felt passionate about. My anger, my depression, my rage, it was all very real.

In not being allowed to love her, I fell in love with how much it hurt.

You're always made to believe that nothing worth doing is easy. In some twisted sick way, it also meant that if I didn't feel hurt, it meant that my love for her was very casual and weak. I don't know if that is true or not.

But I understand.

You do miss the pain because you lived with it for so long. You do love it in place of what you lost. Is it misguided? Yes. Is it irrational? Yes. Is it wrong or abnormal? Absolutely not.

And most importantly, looking back, I realize that just because the pain went away, it doesn't mean my love for her was weak and casual. It means my love for the pain was. She broke up with me. I broke up with how much it hurt.

It's your party. Why wouldn't you be invited?

-j-

M347B4115&P0747035

2005-10-31T14:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween.

It was a really good weekend. Everyday was one of those days where when the clock hit midnight, I smiled because absolutely everything went right.

Now it's monday, and the weekend is over, and I'm looking back at real life again. It was like being intoxicated, and now I'm paying for it. You never regret the drunken partying, you just realize that you were never really thinking about the hangover.

I've got a big headache, I'm kind of light headed, and I've got a bad cough. Dressing up like a pirate seemed like a good idea at the time, but wearing shorts and a thin shirt outside at the end of october in Michigan definitely has consequences.

Erin came up this past weekend. We had a lot of fun. We made meatballs and potatoes the way my mom does and they turned out super awesome.

I had a job interview on friday for Verizon, and it went smashingly. The interview lasted about an hour, and at the end, he said I was one of the best interviews he's had in a really long time. The job pays really well, it's full time, eventually there's all types of benefits, PTO, etc, etc. And I figure since Verizon is a nationwide company, if next summer I decide to go to Denver, I can just put in a transfer request, and see if I can just start a job there right away. It'll be nice to be getting paychecks again.

However, I don't have the job yet. I just had a really good interview. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please.

I'm supposed to go over to Jamie and Jason's and hang out with Charlie, but I'm dragging ass today. I don't feel well at all. Plus I just realized that I slept with the window open last night, because I'm freaking brilliant.

I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas last night for the first time. I think Johnny Depp is an amazing actor. Although, I must admit, I have no idea what that movie was about, or if there was a deeper plot than a Hunter S. Thompson character and his attorney being on a long drug binge in Las Vegas. That's probably all it was. I absolutely loved the part where Raoul was hiding behind the bar and the photographer knocked on the door, and he was terrified. Or the part right before it:

"There's a big machine in the sky, some kind of electric snake coming straight at us."
"Shoot it."
"Not yet... I want to see its habits."

It was good.

-j-

I walk through in the air between the rain though myself and back again.

2005-10-26T17:30:00.000-04:00

Masta Cow is coming up tomorrow, so I've got a bit of work to do to make my room look at least mildly respectable.

I've determined that if I were famous, I think Brad Pitt and I would be good friends. I've never met the guy or anything, but I listened to the audio commentary for Oceans 11 last night, and apparently he liked Mystery Science Theater 3000. In my opinion, that's enough to make us best pals.

I'm hungry, and I'm not sure what to eat. I had one of those Subway Mozzerella Chicken sandwiches that look so tasty on TV. They look better than they taste, but not by much.

Speaking of which, if you're hungry and it's really late, look up into the sky. McDonalds has started marking all it's 24 hour locations by shining a spotlight into the sky like the Bat Signal. They should have the McDonalds logo in the light and call it "The Fat Signal." Hehe. I just made that up. I can be pretty funny sometimes.

Gotta get working.
-j-

5pm

2005-10-25T17:36:00.000-04:00

...is when I got off work today. 1pm is the last time that I did anything productive. 6am is the time I got to the theater to set up for the most insane set I've ever seen in a play. 3pm is when I started getting overtime pay.

The trippiest part of today was a choir of little kids singing my name.

The worst part of the day was the guy who apparently was a pro electrician who continually insulted me because it was my first day and I had no idea what I was doing.

The best part of the day was coming home and sitting in this office chair. Soon to be replaced with taking a hot shower and lying down. After not having a job for a long time, getting up at 5am and being on your feet for 11 hours is quite a shock.

Marcy, if you've got the camera, I can take some pictures for you. My friend Erin will be up here thursday, so I'll be hanging out with her this weekend. I'm sure I can get some time to take your photos though. Let me know what you need of me.

I'm about to crash. Later.
-j-

5am

2005-10-25T05:14:00.000-04:00

This is when I usually go to bed, not get up.

I got to falling asleep at around 11:30pm though. My plan actually worked. I caught a bit of the Wings vs. Blue Jackets game last night, up until Shanahan scored from behind the net. I watched it on OLN. Don't even get me started on that.

I'm on my way out now. The only redeeming value of being up this early: McDonalds Breakfast.

-j-

Wu too.

2005-10-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

My Wu name is "Action-Packed Mentallist."

My personal Wu-Tang Clan would consist of:

Erin Cain aka Masta Cow
Kristine Williams Boswell aka Erratic Assassin
Éowyn Mishawn aka Homicidal Terrahawk
Jason Ervin aka Big Gay Mule
Jamie Flynn aka Inscrutable Drama Queen
Charlie DeBone aka Tha Visible Choirboy
Chris Brill aka Violent Toilet Thing
John Aitken aka Dependable Skeleton
and
Marcy Bross aka Fiendish Observational Comedian.

My old friend Tera Breinich's name would be Bastard BASTARD Harbourmastah.

My mom would be Ol' Filthy Sweaty Bastard. My dad: Cybernetic Tiger. Jordan is Grand Moff Puppeteer, and Brent is Flippant She-Creature.

My favorite is my great uncle Ed though, or should I say my great uncle Dubious Masturbatah-X.

When I put in Éowyn's full name it said "Please go back to the form and fill in the form with sensible names! This is no laughing matter." Too funny.

Damn you, Starship Troopers!

2005-10-24T09:19:00.000-04:00

...seriously.

Why me?

2005-10-23T03:56:00.000-04:00

My CD/DVD burner is now carving a nice round groove into any CD I put into it. Just one more thing on my list of crapiness. This is the last straw.

You ever get to that point where stuff keeps going wrong, and you're really stressed out on top of that, and you're having a terrible time, and then that one additional unnecessary ridiculous thing goes wrong, and you just can't help but laugh, because it just figures. And for that moment you can step out of yourself and see what a comedic calamity your life has recently become, and you get a little chuckle out of it as your world kind of crumbles around you.

Maybe it's me not taking the troubles too seriously. Maybe it's a defense mechanism to prevent a panic attack. Whatever it is, can look around me right now, and think that it can only get better from here.

I know I'm wrong, but I do my best to focus on the positive things. I guess that's why I can sometimes laugh at how I've basically fallen apart and how I currently completely suck at life.

See? That last sentence I wrote with a smile on my face, because while it may be true, it's written in a dramatic and humorous way. I even went back a few times and added adverbs to try to maximize the funny.

"Time passes in moments... moments which, rushing past, define the path of a life, just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen, to consider whether the path we take in life is our own making, or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed. But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?"