Catch-Up or Nigeria Scam?

Playing a little catch up here, checked out "The Aristocrats" with Erin and had a decent little laugh. With that in mind, the movie did not need to be a) on the big screen, or b) 90 minutes. Most of the time the comedians were just saying the same thing over and over again about how dirty the joke was and how the ending was different. It's the definition of a 20 minute idea stretched too thin... but still funny (especially Bob Saget's and Kevin Pollak's versions).
I've been doing the usual working (while there's still hours to be had) and trying to get some stuff off the ground. I've got some cool ideas that I'm going to try to get done asap. The search for another job progresses slowly, due to both laziness and the desire to do other things.
The new Incredible Hulk game rocks, as does Advance Wars DS. With that in mind, I'm getting sick of video games in general (mostly due to the lack of new ideas or genres, with the exception of the DS) and will probably begin to purge them from my system and home. Ebay, I'm looking at you for this!
I had the oddest customer on Sunday, a girl who just recently graduated with a BA and was offered a job at Unicef. At the drop of a hat, she was moving to Montreal. She brought in 22 untaped and unlabeled boxes to ship there, with no address to ship them to (she plans on finding an apartment when she arrives). She literally could not spell, tape, or speak properly, saying things like "these are my clothings" or writing things like "hold for depo" on the boxes. Her boobs kept popping out of here loose shirt which had all the guys oogling, but not me, I'm taken. She then loudly proclaimed that she was not sorry because she was a feminist. She asked me to thank her for her staying and helping to tape all the boxes, despite doing such a bad job that I had to redo all the ones she did. Why I should thank her for that I'm still not sure, but she wasn't going to give up. In the end, it took about 45 minutes and $500 for her to get out of the place and in the meantime, she had built the line behind her out the door and down the street. I was not impressed. Did I mention that she was bubbly and stupid?
I think that someone tried to pull the famous Nigeria scam on me online, but I didn't bite and they have backed off. Take that internet scammers!
This thursday is Billy Idol!!!! Woot!

Garbage or Cashews!

Lee and I went to the Garbage show tonight and judging from what he said, each had a good time. Being a fairly new fan, I was a tad lost on some songs, but they played 7 from the new album (the only one I have) so I was able to keep up pretty well. Shirley Manson, who revealed to the crowd that she is turning 39 tomorrow, was a great stage presence; super bouncy and energetic. Her mini skirt didn't hurt either... that girl has some legs! Anyway, this concert stood out for being the only one I've been to where the band takes audience requests! I'm glad that I wasn't picked, as I wouldn't know what to ask for.
In other news, my mom bought a huge tub o' cashews from Costco. They are soooooo delicious and 50g of them give you 22% of your daily recommended allotment of saturated fats! I think I just ate a crap load more than that.

Premiere or 40 Year Old Virgin

Last night was the illustrious premiere of my short film at The Graffiti gallery. Well, gallery is not the best word, because the place was a shit hole. Situated on Higgins and Gomez, deep in the heart of whore country (we saw two on the opposite street corner!) the gallery was basically a congregation of all the refuse and old chairs that the organizers could find. The films were projected on a wall (which actually worked fairly well) and the crowd was a mixture of the participants in the class and their friends. Most of the films had SOMETHING that could be salvaged, but a great deal were ponderous pretentious nothings, sort of what I expected. I don't think that there was really any understanding of the fact that you should not overstay your welcome. I think you need to get in, say it, and get the hell out as fast as possible. I'd say 99% of all student films do not understand this and tend to run WAY too long. My film was definitely the shortest of the bunch, and not to toot my own horn or anything, the most solid. Was it the most "artistic" or "thoughtful" no. But I was trying to make fun of that whole genre by creating something better through sheer randomness and "accident." There was a slight hiccup as the CD player kept restarting the song I had chosen ("Baby please don't go" by AC/DC) but on the whole, the thing went well. I'm actually going to get the thing professionally transferred onto Mini DV this week, so I shall soon be able to show other people exactly what I spent $260 on.
Friday night, I checked out "The 40 year old Virgin" with a large congregation of peeps, which included: Erin, Lee, Tyler, Kari, Brad, and Ashleigh. I'd have to say that it was a damn good little movie, with laughs and heart. It was probably a better "film" then "Wedding Crashers" if only due to its attempt to flesh out the characters a little more. Steve Correl has a bright future in features if he can star in films that show his strengths as well as this one. A definite recommendation!
Oh yeah, before I forget, I was a tad put off when I bumped into my cousin at the screening. Apparently there has been a falling out between my aunt and my mom, and there might not be much contact anymore. Coming as a bit of a shock to me, I had to ask my mom about it this morning. As it turns out, it has to do with my aunt's lack of contact with us over the years and her sudden snapping at my mom's phone messages (which tend to be long and drawn out... like a student film!). In most cases I would say that my mom was somewhat at fault, (and I thought that from what my cousin said) but after hearing my mom's side of the whole thing, I'd have to actually take her side on this one. We haven't really seen our cousins all that much over our lives, maybe 2 or 3 times a year tops, sometimes less and I just assumed that was mutual. It turns out that it was more one sided, as my parents and brother call and invite them to many things, they just don't return phone calls. My dad is going to have to be the one to solve this one, as my aunt is his younger sister and she seems to only really listen/talk to him. Yay for family feuds!

Power Outage or Movie Showing on Saturday!

I walked into work today to find the whole place in darkness. It turns out that some power line or transformer related object blew and put a large section of Portage avenue in the black. We were without power for about 13 hours! That meant hand writing out all the waybills for people shipping, guestimating weights, using flashlights and camping torches to see, and trying in vain not to trip over something. It was apparently just like it used to be in the 70's! (or so all the old timers kept saying) This week was also the beginning of a new, more streamlined bus schedule, with a bunch of local towns losing service. Apparently this means that there will be shift cuts as well. At this point, I'm unsure if I will have any hours come September. I just love the uncertainty, it rocks hardcore... (sarcasm).
I've received word that this coming saturday will be the showing of the short film I made. Well, not just mine, but the films of the whole class. It'll be at 10pm (doors open at 9) at the Graffiti Gallery on Higgins and Gomez. Free admission with a canned good! Come see my picture "Random Pointless Shit." It'll be swell!

That's Odd or The Muppet Show

An odd thing happened to me while walking from work to the Subway across the street. A drunken aboriginal pulled some flowers out of a nearby flower bed, slurred something, and threw them at me! He missed by a mile and they all landed in the street, but still! What did that poor flower bed ever do to him?
The Muppet Show is seriously the greatest TV show of all time. No other show is as timeless and perfect in all ways. Music, lighthearted comedy, puns, great characters... the genius never ends. Get Season 1 on DVD!!!!!!!

Broken Flowers or Heroscape!

Friday night, Erin, Lee and I checked out the new Bill Murray flick "Broken Flowers." Being a Jim Jarmusch film, it was very indie and judging by the reactions of the audience there, not very well received. I liked it well enough, although it did a lot of annoyingly obvious indie things (like the non-ending, long shots of nothing) but I don't think that the people there really had any idea of what they were getting into. Some of the audience was the stoner comedy crowd, obviously expecting an old-school Bill Murray film ala "Man Who Knew Too Little, Rushmore, Operation Dumbo Drop", others were seniors, expecting something like "Lost in Translation," and the rest were quite obviously film students there because of the Jarmusch-ness of the whole thing. You could seriously predict exactly how everyone would react just by looking at them. The stoners would hate it, the seniors wouldn't really get it, and the film students would profess their undying love, if only because it was indie-style (and as a film student you have to love that shit). I don't think any of those reactions are from really observing what went on, merely from watching. I'm not saying that I have all the answers or right views either.
The funniest part of the whole night was during the full frontal nudity of the young girl... a senior near us gasped in fright! Too funny.
I've won the other heroscape expansions from ebay this past week, and should have them in my possession in a few weeks. Bridge combat arrives!

Busy Concert Month or Sherlock Holmes

Last night Erin and I went to see the Foo Fighters at the MTS centre. It was a hella loud and well played show. They played all their biggest hits and had the people rockin' and moshin'. Having had my fill of rush floor seating years ago, after the Watchmen and Metallica debacles of standing for 4 hours, I will not I go for the floor anymore. This time I chose to get some actual seats and have the option of sitting down, should the need arise. The audience seemed skewed more towards the 16 year old, but the show was definitely skewed more toward the older fan, as Dave Grohl told everyone that he wanted to get them out before last call. All was said and done by 11pm, so he delivered. The opening acts, The Constantines and Sloan were decent and great (in that order). Having wanted to see Sloan for a while, I was happy that they were as good live as I'd heard. This show basically begins a busy 5 weeks for concerts for me, with Garbage, Billy Idol, and Robert Plant all to follow. Should be good times!
I'm finally getting around to reading the Sherlock Holmes stories, despite being a fan since I was a wee lad. I can remember my dad reading me some as a kid, but never actually reading them myself. So far, so good!

Eeeeagh or Sleeping Lots

There have been a few annoyances piling up lately, nothing too serious, but enough to get me slightly ticked off. The first of which comes from paypal. A while ago, I shipped something that I sold for Ryan on Ebay to Italy. It was much cheaper to use Surface Mail, which the buyer agreed. The buyer filed a claim that he never received the item and paypal refunded his money. The took it out of my account. I let them know that I had proof of shipping (in the form of receipts) but they say that only shipping with a tracking number qualifies. Canada post does not offer tracking numbers on surface mail. Paypal has sent me email threatening to go to a collections agency and whatnot. I sent them a super angry email and said that I wanted to fax in copies of my receipts to prove my story and they finally responded to me and agreed. Hopefully everything will get worked out, as I do not feel that I should have to pay anything when I fulfilled my end of the bargain.
The next small annoyance comes from being shortchanged on my paycheck, but that has happened before and always gets resolved, so I am not worried at all. The third small annoyance comes from the fact that the accounting department at work called me about a check I took in from some customer. Apparently I forgot to mark it on my deposit slip and they wanted to know what I did with it. I said that it was in the envelope to which the lady responded "I guess I'll HAVE to take your WORD for it" implying something. What I would do with a check made out to Greyhound I have no idea, but that was still the implication. This wouldn't bother me at all but the policy at Greyhound is that if you are short in your deposit or float, you have to make up the difference yourself. This wouldn't be a big deal if the company was more organized and not so retardedly inept. I can't and don't have any faith that things run smoothly. I didn't want to sign the sheet agreeing to their policy, but I really had no choice once moving into the Express classification. I'm sure that this will all turn out ok, as I know for a fact that I put the check in the deposit bag.
Other than working and sleeping long hours (like 9-10 hours a day) I've done very little this week. I've done a little writing, watched a few flicks (Requiem for a Heavyweight, Bottle Rocket, and Downfall) and tried to read my monster Encyclopedia of Mythology. This weekend should be interesting as I still don't know what I am working!