Entertainment for Here or There

Let me take this time to direct you to some changes in the Monsterbeard links.

First, Bob has moved to a new blog (for the moment) that he wants to call "Bobservations." Yes, yes, that chuckle is what he wants. You should read it because he's pretty interesting when he updates.
Second, Seth has also made a somewhat temporary switch to Tumblr, for whatever reason, and he lives far away in LA, so reading his blog is a good way of knowing what's up with him, since you can't just hang out that easily.
Thirdly, I left Katie out of the initial list because I didn't realize she was still updating. In fact, I still dont' know if she does, but I am very close with her, so she is great.
And bringing up the rear, I have a friend from Chicago who is currently touring with a group called Komen on the Go, which is great. Her travels and travails are recorded (for the time being) at her new blog. So you can go read about the behind the scenes of breast cancer awareness.

And, Lyndsey uncovered a hilarious website that posts the all too familiar notes we find (or leave) for others at Passive-Aggressive Notes. If there are more, I'll be sure to post them. Also, the above people links will be added momentarily. Read this from the CS Monitor in your downtime. I haven't yet. I'm working on it. And in case the last post didn't express it, I really am happy about toughening up on Sudan.

On Memorial Day of All Days

Hey, Cindy "The Shiz-nit" Sheehan is giving up the fight, by which I mean her fight. Because I can't really say that she's giving up a fight that I have never really taken part in, at least not nearly on her level, which I really admire. The article is really sad because she's someone whose motivation and frustration are all real and have nothing to do with herself. But she found herself against walls of people too busy using her for themselves, which left her disillusioned.

And, yes, something might actually be happening in Darfur. Sanctions are going into effect even as you read this. It feels like you have been pushing against an enormous rock called "Endless Bad Shit" and then a giant comes along and effortlessly flicks the rock a few hundred feet. And you look at the rock and you look at the giant (who, by the way, is curling back up to go back to sleep) and you think "Can't you just move it the rest of the way too?"

To explain this analogy, my train of thought is "Gee, while you're busy debating the consideration of the decision to gather troops for the possible eventual peacekeeping in an alternate reality Sudan, do you think you can also get a gun and just shoot those assholes in the face?" Which, to be honest, is exactly my line of thought. I lost that feeling of "Can't we teach these people to get along" when a bunch of guys in a jeep started playing the "drive around and rape all the women" game. After that I decided I'd prefer we just shoot them in the face. But when I say them, I really mean everyone who can be called "the Sudanese Government." And then we'll peacekeep there for a little while because we're so great at nation building.

You can fill in a bunch of angry rambling here. There's no need. It would end something like: But I really did have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Today I worked for 11 hours straight

Happy Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is to honor fallen US soldiers. Not to be confused with Remembrance Day (which we call Veteran's Day) which is to honor the fallen soldiers from the world wars.

The World Wars. My upcoming novel. Soon to be released on trade paperback by Bantam Books! Isn't that the perfect title for a sci-fi paperback about a war between Earth and Mars? I seriously should get a $10,000 advance for that last sentence alone.

I worked from 6:15am to 5:30pm today. It was long. But that is nothing. Next week we will have an orientation for 12 new hires. Typically that number is around 4. So the next month will be quite a bit busier as we try to find a place where 12 people can all learn how to use a register together. But I have the weekend off, so I get to go home and visit some family and friends and celebrate a birthday and do laundry for free.

I've been reading on the train to and from work. It's really nice, especially because the book, The Historian, is very suspenseful. The only problem is that during rush hour its much more difficult to stand and read and hold on and not bump into people during the trip. But at least it's daily reading. And you need that when you're talking about a 660 page book.

Marco DeMarco

I'm boring. I don't have much to say right now. I'd love to talk about how great Avatar or Battlestar Galactica is, but the dorks have probably seen more than I have and the non-dorks don't care.

Heroes! Did anyone watch the season finale? It was disappointing, but I still like the series. It was only disappointing because the series tends to hover on greatness. Like, oooh, people with abilities, only they don't really use them to do cool stuff very often. But with its popularity, Season Two might have better effects and thus, more action.

I finished my revision of my screenplay. Did I mention I was writing a screenplay? I think like a year ago I said it would be done in a month or two. Well eventually I actually finished it (around Christmas) and now I've finished revising it. I'm not yet comfortable enough to let anyone just read it or critique it, and I don't want to force it on people, but I am probably going to give it to a small number of friends and family in the hopes that they might give me good insights and feedback. I don't want to say that you are on this list, because there's the chance that you don't want to be on it. And there's the chance that I'm afraid of putting you on it. Do you know what I mean?

Tell you what: If you would like to be on that list, send me word. And then you are probably on it. But this is not an instant thing. We are looking at a few weeks from now at least.
And I'll give you this: The title is The Pirate Princess.

Thanks for keeping this between us.

They Are Coming For One of Us

My new job, which started out kind of slow, gets better with each day. I'm already getting the hang of training people on my own and learning how to certify them. Yesterday, though, we had to fire a trainee because he was swearing in frustration at the register. His first time there. In front of customers. They call it termination. And then they call it Term for short, which makes it so inhuman.

But, that's the way things go and I don't really think he would have made a good employee in the first place. Not that he can't do a goob job, but he just doesn't seem fit for retail (which is definitely not a bad thing, although people is job one).

Wait, did I just say people is job one? Can I say that without sounding like a corporate sellout (which I guess I am). Well, yeah, I'm going to say that, because people should always be job one. If you put something else before people, you lose something. And I don't mean this to the extreme degree. I mean this in the simple way.

I may have gotten my old boss fired. I do not feel bad in any way. More on this as it happens.

UPDATE: I guess I never bothered to fully explain my new position. My title is Assistant Training Coordinator. I have close to the full authority of a Manager and in some cases more. My job is to prepare new hires for what they'll be doing and what they should know. I'll also be involved in the expansion and development of training programs. I wear business casual.

Do You Like Business Casual?

I start my new job tomorrow morning. And I just closed and it's really late and I should be sleeping! But I'm a bit nervous/excited so here I am.

Tonight this guy came in and while he was waiting for his drink, I overheard him telling his friend about how one time he had been shot at! It was crazy and when I said that his story (which I didn't hear the rest of) was intriguing he said "yeah, don't go to Portland, Oregon." Wha-wha-What? "But I hear it's so nice there" I said, with the hopes of keeping a trip to Portland in my list of things to do. "Well, not if you're my skin color, but you would have a great time," he said. Now would be the time to point out that he was non-white. Although, interestingly enough, he was quite light-skinned. Anyway, it didn't make me feel better. I wanted to say something about racism in certain areas of the country, but what am I thinking, the whole damn place is full of racists (and non-racists too). It's not like we took all the racists and put them in [insert stereotypical area of the country].

For the nerds, I'm really excited about this Japan-only game demo I just downloaded off of Xbox Live. It's a R(ole)P(laying)G(ame) called Eternal Sonata with an amazing premise. The game takes place inside of Chopin's head after he falls into a coma shortly before his death. He dreams up a world where music is a physical part of life, or something like that. I mean, that sells you right there. But the game world is also really beautiful, with lots of bright colors. I'll tell you how it is, but I'm really excited to try it out.

Ninjas are Instruments of Death

Patrick- I started blogging again to give you a suckerpunch to all five of your senses! No one ever sees a ninja coming! And... wait, you thought Spider-man 3 was "o.k."? Maybe you need a slap to those senses. Did you see it? And the emo peter is a problem because he's ruining it for all of us who really are emo! Seriously, no one should see this movie. I can't stress that enough. If you want, watch the first two back to back, you'll enjoy them and pretend that every Spiderman movie of the last 10 years has been great.

I'm watching a show on Animal Planet right now that features a prehistoric aquatic dinosaur being ambushed by sharks and/or another prehistoric aquatic dinosaur. I kid you not. Thank you CG.

And just now I may have run out of things to say for the moment. Yup. Ok then.

War and Peace

I got the job! Yay! Exciting. We'll see how it goes and check back as it developes. Which they might say in... tv news?

Speaking of newsworthy, I have to tell you about two really interesting games I downloaded recently.
The first is called PeaceMaker, and you take on the role of either the Israeli or Palestinian leader and your job is to, well, make peace. Stop me if you've heard this one. Anyway, it's a really challenging and informative game, with all events and pictures taken from actual headlines. The first time I played, I made about 3 moves before the Israeli "Director General" decided that I wasn't fit for office. Give it a try because the demo is free and it's a great example of videogames attempting to educate people and invite a new perspective on an old problem.

The second game is, interestingly enough, the exact opposite. It's called Defcon, and if you've ever seen the movie WarGames (you should. TBS), then you already know all about Global Thermonuclear War. The goal is simple: Lose the least. It is impossible to win, simply because you and your opponents are trading nuclear detonations. Millions on both sides are bound to die, which creates an oddly beautiful display of why nuclear war is terrible. Watching two dozen glowing green harbingers of death arch across the sky to their whited out targets on your screen gives you a sick pleasure, undercut by the white flashes wiping out your own cities at the same time. If you try this one, let me know, and we can set up a time to play a multiplayer game over the internet. I would like that.

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

Why Does Sam Raimi Suck?

Advice: Don't see Spider-Man 3. It is bad. It is so bad I want to send a letter to Sam Raimi asking for him to send me a check for $10. Really. Yes. I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed to be this way, so let's just do ourselves a favor and wait for it on TBS in like 8 months. You will thank me.

The Intricacies of Displacing Persons

WTO: The World Trade Organization (Really, formerly GATT). People like the WTO because it breaks down trade barriers that make it harder for weak economies to trade with strong economies, eg. The US places tariffs on things like Steel and or Corn, which makes it harder for other countries to sell those things at a similar price. The WTO doesn't allow these tariffs.
People don't like the WTO because if you are a member of the WTO and you have environmental laws in place that prohibit the productivity of a corporation in your country, that corporation can sue you and you will have to pay the corporation an amount equal to the lost productivity. The same is true with labor laws. In short, the WTO supercedes concerns for the environment or labor for the sake of productivity, which allows corporations to more easily abuse economic situations (eg. sweatshops, pollution, and child labor).

FTAA: The Free Trade Area of the Americas. In the works for years, the FTAA is an attempt to unite the countries of the Americas (yes there are two! Neither of them is us!) into an free trade zone so that production and money can more easily flow between us. It is, in many ways, a WTO just for us, and carries the same pros and cons. Additional cons might be that conflict and narcotics might more easily flow throughout. Think if there were no checkpoints between here and Columbia. You could pave the streets in bricks of cocaine. And perhaps find members of FARC hiding in your yard.

Immigration Issues: Here's the thing, I have no idea what each side wants and I have no idea where I stand. Is it a problem that unchecked persons are making their way across our porous borders? No. Is it a fact that illegal immigrants provide a slice of productivity and economy that is unrealized by the general populace? Yes. Can we stop people from crossing our borders? No. Can we make it safer and perhaps easier for them to cross said borders? Yes. Is that a good idea? I don't know. The chance that you are an immigrant to this country is very high. Is an immigrant today different from one 200 years ago? Are Mexican lives less valuable than European? Is the US so afraid of terrorists that we are willing to become xenophobic fear-mongerers?

See, it all sort of ties in together. We're coming around full circle. The openness of free trade, the mingling of different cultures and problems, the loss of security and justice with the mix of rich and poor. There are answers somewhere, I think. But pursuing those answers means giving up comfort, making hard choices where the choice we didn't make seems so close to the right one.

It is like trying to unravel the world's largest ball of string. But we can all tug on a thread.

As If Things Aren't Weird Enough

Why can't the size of my font be remembered? Why can't I set it to something besides Largest to Smallest? I should really take the time to make this place look a little more "me."

I'll find out about this new job on Friday. Which is to say they'll make me an offer. But I'm free to refuse it. Will I? Stay tuned.

I'd really like to save up money and then just do whatever for a month or something. I know a lot of people do that, but I specifically want to drive west (something I still haven't done) and see Portland. I'm hearing more and more great things about it. But I have a friend who has plans to move to Montana. Missula, Montana. Check.

I have tickets to Spider-Man 3 at Midnight tomorrow. Are you jealous? Not as jealous as all the people there who see me in my Spider-Man black costume. Oh baby.

I'd like to talk later about some things. Remember, WTO, FTAA, immigration issues, who the hell am I? That's a synopsis of what you can expect either later tonight or tomorrow. It's also similar to the conversation I had with my Mexican-American friend. Yes, I can say my because she's the only person I know who is of Mexican descent.

NEWS ON THE MARCH! Is having a hard deadline of October 1st a good thing for the situation in Iraq? Can you suggest an answer that no one is hearing? Discuss