Last night I had a dream. I don't want to tell you the whole dream, but I really want to share with you my favorite part:
I went to a school play put on by kindergarteners that somehow combined the story of the founding fathers of the United States of America, and the Cloud City portion of The Empire Strikes Back. All of the characters were played by 5 year olds in full costume, except for Lando Calrissian, who was still played by actor Billy Dee Williams.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Taco Bell & Rudeness
I've been in Florida for a few days with my family, visiting relatives. Yesterday we went to a beach. On our way back to my aunt's house, where we were staying, my sister and I got a Taco Bell craving. When we got to the restaurant, we walked in, and there was this divider wall between the door we came in and the counter, and my sister seemed to not know which way to go around. I said we should go to the right since that's how you usually go up to the counter in fast food restaurants. On the way up to the counter, I realized we were walking on a freshly-mopped floor, which made me hesitate for a second, but since we were already several steps into it, we just kept going. There was a "wet floor" sign around the corner which we had no way of seeing from where we came in. I am a janitor, and have been for years. Mopping is a big part of my job, and it's not that big of a deal when someone walks across a floor you just mopped. Floors are meant to be walked on. That's their purpose. And obviously they get dirty. That's what mopping is for. And whenever you mop the floor, it's only a matter of time before someone walks across it again. It's just the nature of the job. If you are bothered by it, you'll go crazy.
So anyway, there was a young girl (maybe a teenager, maybe in her early 20's) behind the cash register, and as we got closer to the counter and I smiled at her, the thought in my head was, "She's rather cute." Then she spoke.
"Why didn't you just go the other way?" It was a very rude tone, and it really caught me off guard. I wasn't quite sure how to respond. The phrase that came out of my mouth was "I... don't... know." She repeated her question, possibly with an even ruder tone than she originally said it. My sister and I both explained to her that in most restaurants there is a queue with ropes or railings, and you are supposed to enter at the right and exit on the other side where you pick up your food. In fact, this might have been the only time I've been in a Taco Bell where it wasn't set up like that. First she acted like she had absolutely no idea what we were talking about, and eventually she said "Well it's not like that." My sister said "Well obviously we can see that now." That shut her up.
We attempted to pick out what we wanted by looking up at the menu, but we could feel her staring daggers at us. I couldn't concentrate on the menu for more than 2 seconds at a time without my line of sight dropping back down to the girl behind the register. I was planning on still ordering food there, as I am pretty easygoing when it comes to the rudeness of strangers, but my sister was offended enough that she didn't even want to eat there. We walked back out the same way we came in, walking over the slightly less freshly-mopped floor.
So anyway, there was a young girl (maybe a teenager, maybe in her early 20's) behind the cash register, and as we got closer to the counter and I smiled at her, the thought in my head was, "She's rather cute." Then she spoke.
"Why didn't you just go the other way?" It was a very rude tone, and it really caught me off guard. I wasn't quite sure how to respond. The phrase that came out of my mouth was "I... don't... know." She repeated her question, possibly with an even ruder tone than she originally said it. My sister and I both explained to her that in most restaurants there is a queue with ropes or railings, and you are supposed to enter at the right and exit on the other side where you pick up your food. In fact, this might have been the only time I've been in a Taco Bell where it wasn't set up like that. First she acted like she had absolutely no idea what we were talking about, and eventually she said "Well it's not like that." My sister said "Well obviously we can see that now." That shut her up.
We attempted to pick out what we wanted by looking up at the menu, but we could feel her staring daggers at us. I couldn't concentrate on the menu for more than 2 seconds at a time without my line of sight dropping back down to the girl behind the register. I was planning on still ordering food there, as I am pretty easygoing when it comes to the rudeness of strangers, but my sister was offended enough that she didn't even want to eat there. We walked back out the same way we came in, walking over the slightly less freshly-mopped floor.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Volcanic Sunlight...
...is the innermost part of something special.
Saul Williams' new album Volcanic Sunlight comes out on May 2nd (and I'm assuming May 3rd in the States), just a few days from now. I guess I'm a little late with this, but on April 21st, he posted four videos on youtube about the album.
Saul Williams' new album Volcanic Sunlight comes out on May 2nd (and I'm assuming May 3rd in the States), just a few days from now. I guess I'm a little late with this, but on April 21st, he posted four videos on youtube about the album.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Gerard Smith
A member of one of my favorite bands, TV On The Radio died this morning. Gerard Smith was a pretty young guy (34 years old), and I wasn't even aware he was fighting lung cancer, so his death came as quite a shock to me. While he is mostly known for being the bass player with stage fright (I can relate to that), he also has been credited for many other instruments, including guitar, electric sitar, piano, organ, synthesizers, Rhodes, samples, and vocals.I'm not sure if Gerard Smith is credited on the song "Will Do", since 4 of the 5 members of the band are credited for playing bass on their new album Nine Types Of Light (which was just released about a week ago), but I wanted to post it anyway.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Werewolf Balls, Spaceman Balls.
Here's a little update since I haven't posted anything in a while.
I went to a St. Patrick's Day party at my cousin Megan's house. We ate food, talked, played board games, played Rock Band (including the wonderful LEGO version). Here's a photo of some of us playing Rock Band. I'm the tall guy standing up.
A week later, I went to the mall with Patrick and Caleb. It was Caleb's first malltrip with us, and I was worried that our malling style was boring him, because we generally just wander around aimlessly, but I think we all had a good time.
We went to a toy store in the mall, and played in there for quite a while. This toy store always has cheap, statuesque "action" figures that don't come in any packaging, so it was quite easy to play with them, or mostly just posing them. I put a man with a gun riding a white tiger, shooting at a triceratops. There was a werewolf figure that I noticed was so detailed that it was actually anatomically correct. While it was wearing torn blue shorts, they were very tight, and you could easily see the bulges where his penis and testicles were. Whoever designed that figure must have been such a perfectionist. I made the anatomically correct werewolf ride a horse.
When we went to the food court to eat dinner, there was a new Chinese restaurant right next door to the Chinese restaurant we usually get food at when we're at the mall. We were walking past the new restaurant to get to our usual place when we were intercepted by a young man giving out samples of chicken. Then we noticed our usual place also had a person out in front aggressively handing out chicken samples. The other restaurants in the food court must have felt that these two competing Chinese restaurants giving out samples were making them look bad, or maybe it just got them into the competitive spirit too, because several other restaurants were giving out free samples of their food too. If we had just walked one lap around the food court collecting free samples, we probably would have gotten the equivalent of an entire meal, and I'm not exaggerating at all.
The Borders Books at the mall went out of business. I had no idea until we got there and the store was almost completely empty. There would be an almost completely empty shelf except for one lonely book I'd never heard of sitting there. We didn't even go in because it looked so depressing. Borders was probably my favorite store at the mall. Besides the fact that it just had so many things I'm interested in, it also stayed open an hour later than every other store in the mall, so even after most of the mall was closing, you could go hang out at Borders for a while before going home. Now when all the other stores close, there's no where to go except home. We walked by Borders again later, and it was completely empty. No books on any shelf, and there was a sign on the door that said "Closed". I assume it meant for good, so we practically watched it die. I looked in the window of that empty store with empty shelves, and a sign on the bookshelf ten feet in front of me said "True Crime". Well said, sign. Well said.
We also saw the movie Paul. I'm kind of shocked I haven't heard anyone talk about this movie, even though it's been over a week now since I saw it. It's seriously the best new comedy I've seen in ages. I didn't know much about it going in, aside from who played the three main characters, and I was expecting to at least enjoy myself, but I couldn't have guessed I'd be nearly as entertained as I was. There were so many wonderful actors showing up throughout the movie, including Sigourney Weaver (whose voice I recognized immediately), and there was a "phoned-in" cameo by one of my favorite filmmakers. There were so many references to science fiction movies that I love, but they were always really clever references. There was a lot of swearing, but it all had to do with the story, and was really funny swearing that I can guarantee you've never heard anything like before. The movie was also surprisingly pretty deep and intelligent. Anyone who is a fan of comedies, or a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (from Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead, and Hot Fuzz), and anyone who is into Science Fiction needs to go see the movie.
Also, I guess I should mention I finally took a driving test today and passed. I now have a license to drive.
I went to a St. Patrick's Day party at my cousin Megan's house. We ate food, talked, played board games, played Rock Band (including the wonderful LEGO version). Here's a photo of some of us playing Rock Band. I'm the tall guy standing up.
A week later, I went to the mall with Patrick and Caleb. It was Caleb's first malltrip with us, and I was worried that our malling style was boring him, because we generally just wander around aimlessly, but I think we all had a good time.
We went to a toy store in the mall, and played in there for quite a while. This toy store always has cheap, statuesque "action" figures that don't come in any packaging, so it was quite easy to play with them, or mostly just posing them. I put a man with a gun riding a white tiger, shooting at a triceratops. There was a werewolf figure that I noticed was so detailed that it was actually anatomically correct. While it was wearing torn blue shorts, they were very tight, and you could easily see the bulges where his penis and testicles were. Whoever designed that figure must have been such a perfectionist. I made the anatomically correct werewolf ride a horse.
When we went to the food court to eat dinner, there was a new Chinese restaurant right next door to the Chinese restaurant we usually get food at when we're at the mall. We were walking past the new restaurant to get to our usual place when we were intercepted by a young man giving out samples of chicken. Then we noticed our usual place also had a person out in front aggressively handing out chicken samples. The other restaurants in the food court must have felt that these two competing Chinese restaurants giving out samples were making them look bad, or maybe it just got them into the competitive spirit too, because several other restaurants were giving out free samples of their food too. If we had just walked one lap around the food court collecting free samples, we probably would have gotten the equivalent of an entire meal, and I'm not exaggerating at all.
The Borders Books at the mall went out of business. I had no idea until we got there and the store was almost completely empty. There would be an almost completely empty shelf except for one lonely book I'd never heard of sitting there. We didn't even go in because it looked so depressing. Borders was probably my favorite store at the mall. Besides the fact that it just had so many things I'm interested in, it also stayed open an hour later than every other store in the mall, so even after most of the mall was closing, you could go hang out at Borders for a while before going home. Now when all the other stores close, there's no where to go except home. We walked by Borders again later, and it was completely empty. No books on any shelf, and there was a sign on the door that said "Closed". I assume it meant for good, so we practically watched it die. I looked in the window of that empty store with empty shelves, and a sign on the bookshelf ten feet in front of me said "True Crime". Well said, sign. Well said.
We also saw the movie Paul. I'm kind of shocked I haven't heard anyone talk about this movie, even though it's been over a week now since I saw it. It's seriously the best new comedy I've seen in ages. I didn't know much about it going in, aside from who played the three main characters, and I was expecting to at least enjoy myself, but I couldn't have guessed I'd be nearly as entertained as I was. There were so many wonderful actors showing up throughout the movie, including Sigourney Weaver (whose voice I recognized immediately), and there was a "phoned-in" cameo by one of my favorite filmmakers. There were so many references to science fiction movies that I love, but they were always really clever references. There was a lot of swearing, but it all had to do with the story, and was really funny swearing that I can guarantee you've never heard anything like before. The movie was also surprisingly pretty deep and intelligent. Anyone who is a fan of comedies, or a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (from Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead, and Hot Fuzz), and anyone who is into Science Fiction needs to go see the movie.
Also, I guess I should mention I finally took a driving test today and passed. I now have a license to drive.
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