| Food. Good. |
[Sep. 16th, 2006|11:02 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta - Ghetto Boys | ] |
I just returned home from one of the finest meals of my life. There is a restaurant in Old Sacramento called The Firehouse and it serves some amazing food. The picture above is the very room that I dined in. I was seated just to the left of the painting furthest back.
Appetizers consisted of a Smoked Salmon dish and Foie gras, which is a fatty duck or goose liver over a black pepper brioche. I had never had Foie gras before and while the consistency was a bit funny it tasted great. I didn't know until just a few minutes ago however that it's not pretty, what they do to the animals to prepare them. According to Wikipedia it's "one of the greatest delicacies in French cuisine" but I doubt I'll order it again.
After that I had a Lobster Bisque which was outstanding. First they bring out a shallow plate with nothing but three or four little peices of lobster in it and we're all thinking, "where is the rest of it?" Then they bring out sauce pans full of the bisque and pour it over. It was tasty and spicy but not spicy enough to burn your lips.
Then for the entree I had one of the specials called "The Black and White," which is Filet Mignon and Lobster over Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Vegetables. The Filet Mignon was very tender and I have to say that was the best tasting Lobster I've ever had. The friends I was there with were laughing at me because I was eating so slowly. They thought I looked like a food critic. I couldn't help it. It was all so tasty I didn't want to rush my meal.
I need to eat like that more often. Too bad it cost about $80 per person. I need to get paid better so I can eat like that more often. In the meantime, I guess it's Chipotle and Carl's Jr. for me. |
|
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| In a weird place. |
[Aug. 15th, 2006|04:55 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | Not easily categorized. | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Freaks of the Industry - Digital Underground | ] |
That's my apartment building in Sacramento. I've been living here since the beginning of May. I really like my apartment. In many ways I really like living alone. It's nice to not have to compromise or be considerate of someone else's space, privacy or whatever. I've furnished it with the essentials: bed, couches, T.V., microwave, computer desk. There are still a couple things I'd like to add but it's not important that I do it right away and these days I'm more reluctant than I've ever been in my life to spend money. I guess having tasted a life of financial irresponsibility and debt, I'm hesitant to fall back into it. Not that I don't have any debt. I financed the furniture but they were "one year, same as cash" kinda deals which are a whole lot smarter than using run of the mill credit cards. I'm very comfortable here. The thing is, when I moved in, I imagined being social again the way that I was while living in Berkeley. That hasn't happened though. A few people have come by to visit but it's not even the number of people that have visited, it's more my attitude. It takes energy to be social, even just to call up a friend and these days I just don't feel like I have it in me most of the time. The last time I'd felt like this for any extended period of time was around the time I left Sacramento for Berkeley. My logic tells me that it's not that I'm back in Sacramento but rather that I'm not in school or living in a coop or surrounded by the people I met while I was. But many of those friends, who's company I really enjoy, I haven't mustered the energy to contact. On the other hand, there are several people at work that I could see myself being great friends with outside of work and yet I haven't made the effort to be social with them. So it's not that I don't have opportunities to develop relationships with people who are around me. My irrational side feels that this city somehow sucks the life out of me. I'm not depressed the way that I was when I lived here before but I think the fact that I have my own apartment rather than living in my parents home can explain that. I feel very confused. I can't decide whether I'm enjoying my life or not. I don't dislike my job and that's huge. It pays enough for me to be comfortable and spend a reasonable amount on recreation. I'd love to make more but that would just be a bonus. Looking back at this entry, it seems so scattered. I think my thoughts are usually more structured than this but I suppose this is just more evidence of the confusion I feel. The one thing I think I can say about this with a fair amount of certainty is that if there is a scale with depression/disatisfaction at one end and happiness/fulfillment at the other, I'm closer to the middle than either end. Maybe happiness/fulfillment is actually a balanced/harmonious state that falls near the middle of the scale and the end that's opposite depression/disatisfaction is insanity/megalomania... which then puts me on the bottom half of the scale; how appropriate. Actually, it's probably more of a triangle. I'm losing focus. I think it's about time I end this. |
|
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| Very good but something's missing. |
[Jun. 28th, 2006|01:59 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Right Now - Fort Minor | ] |
I just watched Superman Returns. I can't think of another movie I've been looking forward to more than this one for some time. I was hoping for and expecting greatness.
As I watched the credits sequence I had chills running up my spine. All the excitement of watching the 1979 Richard Donner film was coming back to me. As the movie went on, I liked what I was seeing more and more. The visual style is outstanding and the three major characters were played well, perhaps better than I've ever seen them. The execution of the action/special effects was impressive and the dialogue in the script was interesting without being hammy (or just fucking akward to the point of physical discomfort like in the Spider-man movies). Lastly the plot was intelligent enough, I was a little confused by some of the motivations near the end, but hey, sometimes people do shit you don't understand. All of this should add up to a fucking great movie but somehow it's not quite that.
There were moments where I thought, "Damn, that was cool," and got a rush from it. But there was also a lot of time that I spent thinking, "Ok, ok, let's get to it." It seems like it was building to something more but never delivered. The climax didn't feel very climactic. In the most intense scene of the movie, Lex makes Superman his little baby bitch and after that he never really gets what's coming to him. Actually, as I write this, I'm realizing that's exactly the flaw of this movie. There's really no moment of satisfaction where Superman comes back and gives him the beat down he deserves. Lex is thwarted and left in a less than ideal situation but that's no where near as satisfying as a fucking BEATDOWN. Take a movie like Gladiator starring Russel Crowe, a movie with many a flaw. I still came away from Gladiator feeling very pumped up because atleast Maximus gets a hold of Ceasar at the very end in front of all those people and fucks his shit up. That was some satisfying killin'. Obviously Superman isn't going to kill Lex like that, but there still should have been some serious retribution. Damn, now that I know what it is that bothers me, it bothers me so much more. Damn.
I'll probably still go see this movie a couple more times, cuz I'm desperate like that. |
|
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| Rain. |
[Mar. 31st, 2006|03:18 pm] |
I was just woken up by a thunderclap (yes, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon). The rain is coming down harder than I've seen it do so all year. I have my window open as I sit here and type this and I can hardly hear the sounds of the keys being pressed over the rainfall. There are car alarms going off down the street, sirens blaring in the distance. The thundering continues here and there and if you weren't waiting for it, it'd probably startle you. The rain is really wreaking some havok and I don't know why but it makes me feel really good. I went out side to stand in it for a moment or two and just watch the rain fall.
When I was in my teens, I would go out and take a walk whenever the weather was like this. I'd walk in it for a good hour or two sometimes. I was a less happy person at the time and even then something about rainfall made me feel a lot better. I remember coming home completely drenched and cold down to the bones. I'd come in, dry off, put on some warm clothes and sit in the front room staring out the window. |
|
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| My trivial life. |
[Mar. 22nd, 2006|10:41 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Out of Control - She Wants Revenge | ] |
I doubt what I'm about to write would be of interest to anyone.
I got a haircut this morning. I haven't had my hair cut by a professional barber/stylist/whatever in a long ass time. I've just been using a home grooming kit that I bought at Target or some shit for the last 2-3 years to buzz my hair every so often. Occasionally, if I'm feelin' wild and crazy, I even get someone to clean up the back a little bit so I don't have those little wisps of hair at the top of my neck. You know what though, it feels really nice to have my hair cut professionally. She tapered it off towards the bottom, cleaned around the ears and back, used a hair dryer and a brush to get rid of the stray hairs and when I walked outside and the wind hit the back of my head it felt downright pleasurable. It cost me 12 fucking bucks plus a tip but still, downright pleasurable. That's really a ridiculous amount considering that's pretty much what my home grooming kit cost and I've been using it for 2-3 years. Despite that, I think I might just go back once a month or so.
I had it done because I had nothing to do for about three hours while my truck was getting serviced at Toyota. I was in for a tire rotation and wheel alignment and also because I was on the freeway yesterday and a large peice of metal was hit by a car in the lane next to me, at which point it ricocheted directly into my passenger side headlight and turn signal, thereby destroying them. It was immensly frustrating for me... and costly. I think I would be more frustrated if I didn't work where I do, though. I so often have people come in because their kid or dog or whatever tripped over their portable's power cord and I have to tell them, "Yeah, it sucks but you're going to have to pay to have that repaired and it costs $200," or some similar scenario. Whether it's a computer or a vehicle, sometimes shit happens and sometimes it's not really your fault but it's not the manufacturer's either so as the owner, you're stuck paying for it. I understand that so much better now.
Warcraft still rules. It's consuming my life. I was afraid this would happen. |
|
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| Enjoying the moment. |
[Mar. 13th, 2006|03:19 am] |
The Sacramento Kings are above .500 for the first time this season. They did it with a win against Dallas, who was 1 game ahead of San Antonio for first place in the Western Conference coming into this game. This win marks their 12th straight victory at home and puts them in the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Amazingly, they did it with defense, holding the Mavericks to a mere 80 points. The final score in this game was 85-80. This is insane for two teams who three seasons ago had the two highest points-per-game averages in the league. They set a record that year for the highest combined point total in a playoff game. Overall this has been a really rough season to be a Kings fan. I'm just going to enjoy this moment.
Also, no matter what anyone says, World of Warcraft is fucking awesome. |
|
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| Life is alright. |
[Feb. 27th, 2006|12:04 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  calm | ] |
I'm starting to get people nudging me into posting to LJ again. I didn't think it had been that long since I last posted but I guess it's been about three or four weeks. Life is moving forward without any major ups or downs.
I'm enjoying my job quite a bit. I looked over my entries relating to my previous job and I could see that it was bad for me. I almost immediately disliked it. By the third week I was already diplomatically saying that I really don't like it. I'm at about week 5 or 6 now with this one and I like it even more than when I started. Definitely a much better trend.
I'm purchasing a new computer soon and it will be powerful enough to run World of Warcraft very very well and so I think I will join the craze. I've been a little wary of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games because it seems that they tend dominate people's lives but quite a few of the guys at work are playing it and it would be nice to be able to join in on their network gaming nights. I hope that I still spend more time in the real world than a virtual one but I've been looking over the website for the game and I think it's going to be really cool. If I drop off the face of the planet for a while you might want to go looking for me in Azeroth.
I'm going to continue in my current living situation for a while longer. Don't have any specific goals or time limits set but I'm going to be patient for now. Thanks for the input several of you gave, it helped.
I miss drinking. Perhaps not the drinks themselves so much as the laughing that comes along with the entertaining conversation that often follows. Well... it's probably about a 50/50 split. I need to find a local drinking buddy. |
|
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| Wanna be stupid. |
[Jan. 29th, 2006|08:42 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | frustrated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Soldier - Eminem | ] |
I was all ready to move a couple of weeks ago. I was looking at apartments and if I had found one that I liked I would have signed a lease. Living in my mother's house wears on me. It's not bad. We don't interact enough for her maternal instincts to really get under my skin but I'm constantly annoyed that I don't have the freedom to do whatever I'd like here because it's not my place. I don't feel like I have enough space because my mother arranges her space in a much more cramped way than I would; there is so much I'd change if it were my decision. I don't invite anyone over and in a way I'm not really here either; I can't be myself when I'm around my mother. I love her and wish the best for her but I obviously can't stay here indefinitely. Things had normalized around here about as much as I think they will and so I thought it was time. Then my grandmother took a spill and hit her head. Her blood pressure problems have been worse since then and she's more confused and disoriented than ever. My mother spends a lot of time taking care of her and it's tiresome and emotional for her.
My family has been over a lot since then and so one night I told my uncle that I planned to move out. He gave me a half hour long "don't be stupid" speech about this being a bad time to move out and it actually made a lot of sense. It was about how my moving out would probably upset my mother and grandmother during a difficult time but also about how I'd be wasting a great opportunity.
It's very realistic that I could afford a one bedroom apartment in the areas I would like to live for $500 - $650, which would be less than a quarter of my monthly income. If I were to split a place with my friend Matt, whose also interested in moving to the same area, we could split a 2 bedroom for $700 - $1000, making my rent even less. It seems to me that it would be easy to live on my own off the income I'm making and still be able to save a good amount of money. At least that's what I thought until I talked to my uncle. There are obviously other costs to consider: utilities, food, phone, internet, gas and upkeep for my truck are a few examples. When added all up, it will be quite a bit more. Even after that is seems like I'd be fine. My uncle's argument however is that I will find a way to spend the money. I might be alright for a while but lets say I splurge and decide to buy some really nice furniture or I have to get some major repair done on my truck or worse yet my truck dies and I'm forced to buy a new vehicle to get to work. Something will happen to prevent me from sticking to my financial plan and I'll end up using credit cards to get myself out of it.
He recommends that I stay at home until I've banked away a respectable safety net of cash, $30,000 was the figure he used. With the expenses I have now and the money I spend here and there, it'll probably take in the neighborhood of a year to save up to a figure like that. That's a long time to live in a place that I'm not entirely comfortable living in. The thing that gives him some clout is that he's doing pretty well financially now and I remember when I was a kid that he lived here at my parents house for about 2 years when he was young doing exactly what he recommends I do now. He said he realizes it can be difficult at times, living with my mother, he knows because she's his sister and he finds her difficult too, and that I should just close my eyes and ears, shut my door, and do whatever else I need to do to keep myself sane for a year or however long it takes to get where I need to be or she tells me to get the hell out. When that time comes, my mother will probably be in a better place emotionally and I can move out with some financial security and feel better about it too. To move out now when I don't really NEED to, he says, would be stupid.
Fuck. |
|
|
| I should apologize. |
[Dec. 10th, 2005|09:29 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Precious - Depeche Mode | ] |
I went to the Sacramento Kings home game against the Houston Rockets on Thursday night. The Kings lost. It was extremely dissappointing, if not unexpected. They built up a prettty sizable lead in the third quarter but it all fell apart and T-Mac just couldn't be contained.
Everyone will say this is stupid, and if anyone else were saying it I'd agree, but none-the-less I'm starting to feel it: my living in Sacramento again is hurting my team. Growing up in Sac I've always been a big Kings fan. I was going to games when they were still wearing red and blue uniforms and they were the worst team in the league (this is not an exaggeration, they lost 59 games in the 1989-90 season). I left Sacramento in 1999 to live in the bay area. That year, their winning percentage went from .320 to .540 and they've been a winning team ever since, Pacific Division Champs twice and Western Conference Champs once. For the first time since 1998, the Kings are a losing team. They currently have a winning percentage of .400 and have lost 4 home games in a row at home, something they haven't done since I left in 1998. While I was in the Bay Area, my San Francisco 49ers who won 5 SuperBowl Rings over the 80's and 90's with Joe Montana and Steve Young, went to shit. Something they're still recovering from. I'm a curse. I'd say I should move to L.A. but it would probably just have the opposite effect on the Lakers.
Worse than the Kings losing is the loss of Arco Arena. The Arco Arena I remember anyway. Arco Arena used to be the loudest fucking place in the entire NBA and perhaps all of sports. I used to go and not be able to hear myself think. This is when they were total shit back in the 90's. Even though they were losing, the crowd would be loud as hell. The score board has decibal meters which light up as the crowd gets louder. Back in the day, they would shoot to the top at least a dozen times in each game and when you got really loud, flames would shoot out. On Thursday the highest the decibal meter got was about a third of the way up. It was really sad. Teams used to fear coming to Arco Arena and the Kings always had an insane home win record because of it. The correllation between the fan noise and the 4 consecutive home losses is pretty obvious to see. I was cheering and stomping my feet and yelling at the refs the entire first half and well into the third but when things started to fall apart and I was the only one still clapping and yelling I just felt stupid and stopped.
If I were a truly loyal fan I would have slammed a few more beers and kept cheering anyway until I either got the rest of the crowd cheering with me or I was physically removed from the stadium.
BTW, Yao Ming is fucking huge and T-Mac makes this game look so fucking easy. |
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| I have a bad feeling about this.... |
[Dec. 7th, 2005|11:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  anxious | ] |
X-men III Announcement Trailer
Superman and Superman II were filmed together and they were pretty good. Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace were shit.
Batman and Batman Returns by Tim Burton were good. Batman Forever by Joel Schumacher was lame and I don't even want to speak of the fourth move in the series.
Thus far the third movie in each franchise has been the beginning of the end.
Now we come to X-men III. If only Bryan Singer could be in two places at once. Rather than waiting for Bryan Singer to finish with Superman, 20th Century Fox has replaced him with Brett Ratner, best known for directing the Rush Hour movies. Please Brett, don't shit all over Mr. Singer's vision. The first two movies gave me so much hope. |
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| Superman Returns |
[Nov. 26th, 2005|08:45 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Liberation Front - The Thievery Corporation | ] |
So there is a new Superman movie coming out next year and the first trailer was just recently released. I'm pretty excited about it. Bryan Singer, who directed the X-Men films, is at the helm, which is great since I really liked them.
Superman Returns Teaser Trailer
The trailer doesn't show much but what it does show looks pretty cool and I thought it was a nice touch that they used the music and voiceover from the original 1979 Superman film by Richard Donner. I also like that they've cast a virtual uknown in the lead role. Christopher Reeve was virtually unknown when he was cast in the role and I think that's a big part of the reason why he was so believable. From what I hear this is not a complete re-imagining of the franchise like Batman Begins. This movie picks up after the events in Superman II and pretends that the events of Superman III and IV never took place, which is fine since I remember the third and fourth movies being pretty craptastic.
I've seen them again recently and I have to admit, there is a sizable helping of cheese in the first two Superman films. On top of that, there are some serious inconsistencies, plot holes and general fakeness in them too, the second one in particular. I still enjoy them when I watch them but I think a lot of that has to do with nostalgia and leniency for a time period in which this genre was in it's infancy. If I were to judge them based on the same standards I'd judge a contemporary movie, I'd be really upset, perhaps to the point that I would call them bad movies.
I'd always thought of the first two Superman films as being a very good model for how superhero comic books should be adapted into feature films. X-Men and X2:X-Men United treated the material with the right balance of tongue-in-cheek humor and seriousness to create a believable world that at the same time gives a wink to the fact that it is fantastical. Very few superhero comic book adaptations strike this balance correctly.
The way I see it there are really three milestones for films in the superhero comic book adaptation genre. The first was Superman. That was the first movie that successfully adapted a comic book into a good feature film and showed that they could be profitable. Then there was a drought for years. The Superman sequels got progressively worse; comic book movies were given next to no budget and put in the hands of really bad directors. I believe despite the success of Superman, most people still didn't think it was a respectable genre.
The second milestone was Batman directed by Tim Burton. With the Superman franchise all but buried after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Warner Bros took a real chance by putting the kind of money they did into Batman. The movie was a huge hit because Tim Burton was able to strike that balance between a world that's fantastical but believable within the rules it sets. Batman Returns again was a financial success and overall a good movie. It wasn't until they lost Tim Burton that things went south again for the genre. He was replaced by Joel Schumacher, a complete imbecile, who turned the Batman movies into moronic, two hour long commercials to sell toys to kids. Following Batman and Robin I thought the genre was finished. I thought whatever respect the first two movies had managed to garner for the genre was completely lost.
Luckily I was wrong and 20th Century Fox got a real director to make X-Men. That real director was Bryan Singer, most famous for The Usual Suspects at the time. A person that cares more about telling good stories than selling toys. Again, like Batman and Superman before it, it struck that elusive balance and became a big financial success. Thankfully, it didn't end with X-men. Although I think the acting and humor in Spiderman is extremely cheesy, they did get a real director, Sam Raimes, and he was able to create a believable world, characters and decent plot. Now, with the recent Batman Begins, it seems the studios are finally understanding that if you get directors that tell good stories, like Christopher Nolan, who did Memento before Batman Begins, superhero comic book adaptations can reach a very large audience. There are still occasionaly misteps, like Fantastic Four, but hopefully those misteps will become fewer and farther between. I'd like to think that at this point, the biggest lessons have been learned and the genre is here to stay.
Since he started off the third age of comic book movies that brought the genre to maturity, I think it's very fitting that Bryan Singer be the one to revive the Superman franchise. It's like coming full circle. Let's just hope the powers that be don't slip in any cameo's by Nuclear Man ;-). |
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| Black Friday |
[Nov. 25th, 2005|06:20 pm] |
This is such an interesting day. The majority of us have the day off from work and the majority of those off from work are either being very lazy, being very greedy, being very glutonous or some combination thereof. It makes me think that I might some day be a very successful restaraunt owner. I've toyed around with the idea of owning a restaraunt for a long time. It's not that I'm a good cook or even that I particularly like cooking. Certainly my mother and grandmother get infinitely more satisfaction from feeding people. I'm not business-savvy. I'm not entrepenuerial. I'm not even that excited about the idea of being my own boss. I do however, have a twisted sense of humor.
So, my idea is to create a restaraunt that is all-you-can-eat. Not a novel concept, right? This one would have a twist though. The price of your meal decreases with the amount of food that you eat. The initital cost would be slightly pricey. The interesting thing will be to see how much people are willing to eat to pay a little less. Brilliant, I know.
If anyone has the start-up capital and an interest in sick human experiments. Let me know. |
|
|
| Hey Everyone. |
[Oct. 22nd, 2005|03:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  grateful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Crying Shame - Jack Johnson | ] |
So I haven't been writing much here in livejournal lately. Several people have brought that up to me. Most recently my friend Ian emailed me about it and the message finally hit home. I've met a lot of really great people in my life. Most of them I don't see very often these days. It's hard to keep in touch with people that you care about when there are so many and they're spread across the entire world. Just because you don't hear from me, it doesn't mean that I don't think about you and wish that you're enjoying your life. I often wonder how my friends are doing, even the ones I don't know as well as I'd like or didn't have in my life for as long as I'd have liked. But, I forget that some of you may also be thinking about me and wondering how I'm doing. Ian reminded me that for some people who aren't a part of my every day life right now, my livejournal was a way to stay connected to my life. I look at livejournal every day to see how friends are doing. It's good to know I have friends out there who go to livejournal looking to read about what's happening with me. From now on I'll try to post something every now and then even if I don't feel like writing and even if I don't think what I have to write about is very noteworthy. To start I'll share with you my emails back to Ian.
Hey,
Life is good, I suppose, can't complain. The Apple gig is pretty nice, thought it is already feeling like a job. I hope to move up quickly so I don't have to take customer calls anymore.
I don't see most of my friends often, obviously because they're in the bay area or elsewhere. I see Matt at work and that's nice. I get to spend time with Kylie (Matt's niece). She's really cute now (pic below). I hang out with Sara Andre once or twice a week. If I had my way I'd see her more but she's in Davis, about a half hour away, and she stays pretty busy with Vet School.
My mom is ok. She seems to be fine other than being slightly reclusive and sometimes a bit emotional. My grandmother is living here with us and her health is so-so. It's difficult to interact with her because we have little in common and her english is as limited as my korean. Also she doesn't really ever have anything to do so she's constantly trying to feed me, which sounds good on the surface but in fact it quickly becomes very aggravating. I can only eat so many times a day.
I spend a lot of time reading books and watching movies and TV shows on my PowerBook. If you haven't seen Lost, that shit is dope. You can download it as soon as you upgrade to the latest iTunes and Quicktime, which I'm sure you already knew. I started working on a comic strip for a while back in August or so but I haven't done much with it since being hired at Apple. I find that when I come home from a day of troubleshooting, I just want to relax my mind with something mildly stimulating... being creative takes too much focus.
Fill me in on what's going on in your life. Hope you and Andrea are enjoying yourselves (Insert masturbation joke here). I'm not always so good at remembering to touch base with friends far away. Thanks for doing that. Your calls and emails usually come at a time when I could really use one.
-Eric
"He who wusses out, lives to wuss out another day." - Some Wuss
I forgot to add the pic of Kylie. Here it is:
-Eric
"Uh no, you've got the wrong number, this is 9-1.... 2." - Chief Wiggum |
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| Once again... proud of my British heritage. |
[Aug. 17th, 2005|04:45 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | restless | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Jim Dale | ] |
The British do have a way with words.... A real-life customer complaint
letter sent to NTL (to their complaints dept....)
Dear Cretins,
I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for
your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone. During this
three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had
not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity
of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details,
so that you can either pursue your professional perogative, and seek to
rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can
have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working
day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office:
My initial installation was cancelled without warning, resulting in my
spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your
technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a further 57
minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more
annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful
website....HOW?
I alleviated the boredom by playing with my testicles for a few minutes
- an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.
The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later,
although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools -
such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem
had still not arrived. After 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks my modem
arrived... six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it.
I estimate your internet server's downtime is roughly 35%... hours
between about 6pm -midnight, Mon-Fri, and most of the weekend. I am
still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 calls on my
mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a
variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly
skilled bollock jugglers.
I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone
will call me back); that no telephone line is available (and someone
will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows
whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off);
that I will be transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an
answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be
transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating
Scottish robot woman...and several other variations on this theme.
Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a
thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of
those crucially important testicle-moments to attend to. Frankly I don't
care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustration's
in print than to shout them at your unending hold music. Forgive me,
therefore, if I continue.
I thought BT were shit, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of god-
awful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more
disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to
their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't
anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered
to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless
shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of
distended rectum incompetents of the highest order.
British Telecom - wankers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons
of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless
inadequacy. Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and
foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that
you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for
the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to
deliver - any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and
disbelief quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused
rage. I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my
cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for
both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not
become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the
time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did
not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them
the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and its worthless
employees.
Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, you
irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twats.
John |
|
|
| When it rains, it pours. |
[Jul. 8th, 2005|04:47 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | pleased | ] |
| [ | music |
| | A giggly, babbling toddler. | ] |
So my first three weeks or so of joblessness has been pretty dry. I'd applied for several positions online, mostly Apple related, and turned up nothing. I didn't get the transfer to a Copy Central in the Sacramento area. Also, I hadn't gotten any contract work from 8 Speed Multimedia in about 2 months.
Well on Wednesday I got interviewed for the Satellite Dish Installation job and provided my background check and drug test are ok, I have that job. It sounds like hard work, but interesting and profitable. I'd likely make in the area of 45-60K/year. They're supposed to get back to me about the results of my tests early next week and then I would likely start training the following week. Training would last 2 weeks while they paid me $10/hr to do it. After that, I would get paid per job (the amount depending on what each job entailed). Also, since I'll need to haul a lot of equipment and tools around, I'd have to drive either my truck or a company van. Luckily my truck is white because if it weren't, they'd want me to paint it. As it is, I'd still have to put a camper shell on it, probably at my expense, and let them slap their logo on it. I don't particularly like this idea since I don't want to pay for a camper, I don't even want a camper, I certainly don't want their logo on my truck, and I don't want to have to load and unload the ladders each day. The alternative is to use a company vehicle. The shitty part about that is that I'd get paid less since they wouldn't be reimbursing my driving expenses and I'd have to go to the office, which is a 30-45 minute drive depending on traffic) every day to pick it up and drop it off.
This morning I met with a recruiter from a temp agency for an Apple Tech Support position. They put me through 3 tests: a test of my Macintosh knowledge, a typing test, and a listening skills test. I heard and figured that the Mac knowledge test would be cake... not quite. I only answered 31 out of 38 correctly. Not horrible, but I would have liked to do better... they however, thought that was fine. Next I took the typing test. They require 35 words per minute and I easily clocked in at 64 w.p.m. Lastly I took the listening skills test which consisted of me putting on a headseat and listening to a series of "hypothetical calls". They were pretty good... people rambling on and on with useless info through which you have to sift and pick out the important information. Often they added ambient noise, static, multiple people talking, and distracting children. They only let you listen to the call once without the ability to pause and then you have to answer a series of questions about them afterwards. I thought I would do horribly at this because I tend to have trouble hearing people on phones or when there is lots of ambient noise but amazingly I answered 27 out of 28 correctly. The recruiter said she had never seen anyone score that high before. Afterwards I was supposed to be intereviewed by a senior recruiter but she actually remembered me from the job fair I saw her at 2 months ago when she offered me a Sales position, which i turned down. So, now I've got that job lined up too. It's quite a dillema since I've wanted this for a while but I'm pretty excited about the sattelite job as well. Luckily, my training for Apple won't start till August 12th so I have time.
Then, this afternoon, I get a call from Fairbanks Enterprises(Copy Central) telling me that they have a position for me at one of the stores in this area. I drive out there and meet the manager who is a really nice guy. It's a small shop that gets nearly no walk in customers, easily the most annoying part of the job at the previous store I worked at. He would need me to be a driver and assist in production. And I can drive the company vehicle without a hit in pay. Excellent. He says I seem like a great choice since he won't have to train me. I can start a week from today. I'll continue to get paid $10/hr and keep my medical benefits. So now I have three jobs. Another interesting note about this is that it happens to be located, literally, across the street from the strip club where my step-father took me when I was 16 years old (Ahhhhh, the memories).
Now I come home to find I have an email from Jim at 8 Speed Multimedia asking what I'm up to because he may have some work for me. Sweet!
Now I have to decide what I want to do with it all. I have a feeling when all is said and done, I'll find myself at Apple because I think it's what I would enjoy the most even though I'd make more doing the Satellite installation work. Of course, I'll probably take whatever I can get from 8 Speed as well since I can do that according to my own schedule and it's a good pay day at $30/hr.
Three weeks of drought followed by 3 days of torrential downfall. Nuts, I say! |
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| 20 Down |
[Jul. 6th, 2005|05:43 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | restless/listless | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Jim Dale | ] |
LIVING IN SACTOWN
It's still weird living in Sactown. I visited the bay area last week and it still feels like home.
DEALING WITH THE HEAT
Sac is heating up. I've been dealing with the heat much better than I expected to. Other than the last couple of nights when I've had a little bit of difficulty getting to sleep because of it, it's hasn't been too bad and most definitely not as bad as I remember it. I shouldn't feel too proud of myself; it's going to get hotter and stay hotter for longer. I bought a bunch of sleeveless tshirts. I spent Saturday out on the American River and got a sunburn on my legs, haven't felt one in a long time.
JOB YO, JOB.
Dependent on my background check and drug test coming through positive, I have a new job. It's quite a departure from most everything I've done up to this point in my life. My mother had Dish Network installed last week and I was chatting with the installation guy while he worked. He told me how much he likes his job, not only the job itself which allows him to get outside, get exercise, get to know the city and meet people, but also the pay. As an independent contractor he makes a minimum of 60K a year. After watching what he did, I decided I could do that. He referred me to a company that will pay you to train and so I sent them a resume yesterday and got a job with them today. I'm expected to make between 45 and 60K/year. Not too bad eh? I'm still pursueing a job with Apple as well but if I end up liking this job maybe I'll stick with it. I may find out it actually sucks but it's good money in the mean time.
FAMILY
My mother seems alright most of the time. But she locks herself in her room a lot. I know she's hurting more than she's letting on. We don't talk much about David right now. My grandmother is difficult. I find myself getting irritated with her often. I'm trying to be understanding. She's making me fear old age the way Dwong does. Matt's family is doing well. I'm helping Kristine a little to find another job. Kylie knows me well now and I'm having a good time with her.
FRIENDS
Dave came up to visit this weekend. I see Alta and Susan from time to time. I see Matt pretty much every day but really he's more like family. I stayed with Peggy when I was in SF. We saw a play and watched a bunch of mindless, morally bankrupt television (yes, VH1). I haven't really been going out and trying to meet new people here.
TIME FILLERS
I re-read Ender's Game and am in the middle of Ender's Shadow (I'm sure I'll have some thoughts on it and will likely post them). I've put several more hours into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In the beginning of the game you aren't supposed to be able to venture to other cities but I snuck into Las Venturas(Vegas) and nearly made it to the opposite shore before the cops gunned me down.
I can think of a dozen things I need or want to do but I'm starting to lose my motivation to do much of anything. I haven't mowed the lawn or washed the truck in a week and a half. If I don't keep myself occupied with something, 901 days is going to feel like 9001. I think I'll go to Walmart. |
|
|
| The end of an era. |
[Jun. 5th, 2005|12:05 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | hopeful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Summertime - Will Smith | ] |
I'm no longer a resident of Berkeley. A six year chapter of my life just came to a close. Most of the move happened in the last couple of weeks. I've been moving a little bit of stuff back every other weekend or so for a couple of months though. While in Sacramento, I've been cleaning out my mother's house to make room for the stuff I'll be moving in and also just to keep my sanity. I can't really deal with the disorganization of my mother's house now that I've lived outside of it for so long. She was a little resistant to me throwing anything away at first but now that she's seen the results in the garage, she's more at peace with me purging the house.
I started pushing the move into high gear a little over a week ago. It was a lot more difficult that I imagined it would be. It would have been easier had I not driven down to L.A. last weekend for my friend Koohong's wedding but he's a good friend and with any luck, it's the only wedding he'll ever have. I'm glad I went but it definitely multiplied my stress level. So two Friday's ago I drove from Berkeley to Sacramento to drop off some stuff and then drove to L.A. in the morning. The drive took about 6 hours as I didn't hit any traffic. The time went by relatively quickly because I was listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on my iPod. I got to the Sky Hall in L.A. about 2 hours before the wedding was scheduled to start. I took a look around, ran into Koohong, and then decided to go and buy a nice shirt for the wedding since I didn't much like the one I brought. I drove to the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills. Good God! Every other girl there looked like a model or actress. I went to Bloomindales. I'd heard of them but I'd never been in one. It seemed a little nicer than say a Macy's or Nordstroms. The first shirt I found fit great and was on sale for $42.00. I think that may be the most expensive shirt I've ever bought. After buying that I rushed back to the Sky Hall just in time for the wedding. It was a really pretty wedding. Albert, my now former roommate, and I sat there making jokes most of the time. I took a little bit of video footage also.
After the wedding I met up with my friend Kelly. He and I go back to middle school. Now he's studying law at USC. I've been meaning to come down and visit forever. He lived not 10 minutes away from the Sky Hall so it was a perfect opportunity. We went out to a bar and Kelly always gets the ladies to come out. I wasn't really into the girls, although they seemed nice, but I had a good time hanging out. Woke up the next morning and had to take off immediately to get back and start moving again. I hit a bit of traffic on the way back but still made it to Berkeley before nightfall. I took another trip to Sacramento and back that evening to drop off some more stuff.
The next day Albert packed up all his stuff while I was at work and then when I got home we spent the entire night cleaning the apartment and moving his stuff to his new place on Northside. The cleaning was intense. it's amazing how much dirt and grime can build up over 7 months of being a slob. By 11pm or so we were exhausted and decided to stop cleaning for the day. I packed up another load for Sacramento. I was pretty tired but thankfully Sara was nice enough to go with me to keep me company and make sure I don't fall asleep on the road. I honestly think if she wasn't there I may not have made it. She met my mom and ate some food against her will. Thanks for being a good sport about that Sara.
Albert and I were supposed to be completely out and have the apartment ready for a walkthorugh inspection by Tuesday at noon. We didn't quite make it but the apartment manager Tom could see we were busting our asses so he said it was cool that we take another day. My biggest problem was trying to get rid of furniture. I was trying to sell the bed on craigslist. At the last minute someone bought the headboard and frame for $80 but I was still stuck with a mattress and box spring. I also had a dinner table that I didn't want to keep and the bar, I was supposed to give to Kim but our schedules didn't work out and so I never got it to her. Having all this stuff meant more trips to Sac that I didn't have time for and no place really to store them. I tried to drop it off at the Salvation Army on University Ave but they said I needed to take that kind of stuff to some place in Oakland. I didn't have time to make 2-3 trips to Oakland and back, we needed to be out. I tried to contacting people in the coops to donate to a free pile but I couldn't get a hold of anyone so I ended up finding a dilapidated house in the neighborhood that already had a bunch of free/throwaway furniture out front and added to the pile with the matress, box spring and dinner table. I felt like a dick but I was running out of alternatives. The bar I put in the back of the truck and just stored it there until I got to Sac.
I stayed over at Kamill's place for a couple of nights after that. I'm still working in Berkeley and will continue to until the 17th of June. Now that I was out of the apartment, I spent my time when I wasn't working dropping off the cable box, getting the utilities turned off, etc... there's a lot of annoying crap associated with moving. it was really cool of Kamill to let me crash. He and his roommates were really accomodating.
Starting this Sunday I'll be house/cat-sitting for my boss and working more hours to cover him while he's on vacation. His place is just a block from Northside Coop Apts and 2 blocks from Ridge house where I spent 4-5 years living in Berkeley. I haven't been back on that side of campus in so long. It felt a little weird when i went by there to see the place and pick up the key. I'll have to visit my favorite Korean BBQ restaraunt again. The cat I'll be looking after seems really neurotic. I'm sure I'll have a good time with it.
I came up to Sac Friday night and yesterday I went river rafting with Susan, who I met in Ridge house and has been living in Sac for a year. It was great. I hadn't gone rafting since I was 10 years old. it was a different experience as an adult. Not better or worse, but different. The river was really high and moving fast. The trip was short and the water was freaking cold since it was snow runoff. I had 5 beers and it was the most relaxing time I'd had in more than a week. Afterwards we went to Folsom Lake. I hadn't been there since I was about 6 or 7 years old. I had a good time there too. I basically had a little lunch fell asleep under the blistering sun. I'm a little toast but amazingly still not burnt. Susan... kinda burnt. Later that night, Dave showed up from SF and we went out to a little dive bar that I really really liked. The drinks were strong and cheap. There was a pool table, shuffleboard, jukebox, outdoor seating, a varied group of colorful locals and something I've never before seen at any bar: a resident cat. It walks around sniffing people and drinks, sitting on bar stools, strolling in and out as it pleases... it thinks it owns the place. Afterwards we went to a late night food spot called Hot Rod for chili cheese fries. I had a really fun day and I feel like I'm rediscovering Sacramento. I may end up liking this place before long. it's amazing what life throws at you. |
|
|
| Inspired by a German. |
[May. 18th, 2005|12:52 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Gettin' It - Too Short | ] |
Those krazy Germans! Who says they don't have a sense of humor? Well, I do. At least until they come to the states... Texas to be precise, and develop a sadistic sense of humor that Americans love. Just take a look at the latest invention of self-proclaimed German American UberGeek, Daniel Guermeur!
I should make a product like that. My best friend's mom loves puzzles but, like keyboards to many normal people, they're just too easy. Well here comes a new product that's sure to please:
Das Puzzle
Just read these features!
1. Completely black... ON BOTH SIDES! (An image to guide you is for wussies)
2. 10,000 peices... plus 10 extra peices that don't fit anywhere! (Choose carefully)
3. No border peices! (C'mon.. building a border first is so methodical... just feel your way through it)
4. Irregular shape! (Squares, triangles, circles... no... you'd be expecting that)
5. Hidden surprise features! (Oh... you'll see)
Pre-order yours today for only $9.99! Contact me and I'll supply you with my PayPal account information.
Estimated time of delivery will vary... a lot. |
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slimsketchy's journal
