I Must Have Been Really Drunk...

When the hell did I get married? And why isn't my wife cleaning my house, cooking my dinner or doing my laundry, dammit? And don't get me started on our love life!

 

Also, my middle initial is not "J" and the house number had a wrong digit (yet this still made it into my mailbox the other day).

Quick Review: Paranormal Activity 3

Here we go again. Like so many movie franchises, the quality continues on a downward trend in "Paranormal Activity 3." The orginal featured a woman named Katie being haunted, the sequel told the story of her sister Kristi, also haunted, and this one...well, there are no more siblings, apparently. So this time we have a prequel, going back in time to 1988, when young Katie and Kristi lived with their mother and her boyfriend. This means camera equipment is much less sophisticated. Think VHS tapes. Yet the boyfriend conveniently has a "business" (based in the garage) filming wedding videos and such, so he's got cameras to place all around the house. The same basic plot is in place -- a nice, happy family lives a nice, happy life until strange things begin to go bump in the night. Only this time it's less interesting, less intense and missing much of the humor and charm of the original. The idea that someone in danger (or trying to rescue someone else in danger) would be sure to carry his clunky VHS camera with him is ridiculous. And things are left open for another installment, which seems highly likely considering that PA3 is yet another cash cow, with a cheap budget and huge box office. The problem is, unless the filmmakers find another family in the present to scare, or have someone look for the infant from PA2, their only other option is following this same family further into the past. Sony Betamax next? My grade: D-plus.

My Odd Little Nice Day

The freak snow "storm" that showed up today (more like rain/snow/occasional sleet with much of the snow and sleet melting upon impact and the rest disappearing tomorrow) was the setting for a weird, fluky but ultimately rather good day.

It started with my alarm going off at 9:15 this morning (well, technically yesterday morning since I'm writing this a little past midnight, but go with me here). I turned it off and went back to sleep. I dreamed that the Phillies were playing, and I was suddenly called in to play third base. I was so excited! Then the batter hit a soft line drive that clanked off my glove for an error that allowed a run to score. At this point there was a pitching change, and I decided to run into the clubhouse for some reason. I was walking around, talking to someone in there for a couple of minutes. Then I heard a noise and realize that the game resumed without me. I wasn't bothered by this. I was like "Oh, well" -- and then I went out into the seats and sat down to watch more of the game. (And then I found myself out on a street with all of my family. Not sure why.)

I woke up, looked at the clock radio...and it had no time. My power had gone out. I checked my watch -- it was 10:30. I looked out my bedroom window and saw that the rain that began while I was asleep had already mixed with snow, earlier than predicted by the forecasters. I went down into my basement to check the fuse box (although why would it be a blown fuse? Hardly any electricity was being used at that time). Then I called PECO to see if they were aware of it (their automated system said they were working on it). I checked the clock that's on my oven, and saw that it was stopped at 10:15, meaning it hadn't been out long.

A little after 11, the power returned. Just then, I looked out my window and saw a FedEx truck, and there was a knock on my door. The driver had left a package. It was maybe five feet long, but not heavy at all. It was marked "fragile." I don't know why but I thought it might be a fishing rod or two. Although it had my house address on it, it had someone else's name. Perplexed, I brought it inside, went upstairs to shower and get dressed.

MixBlog 10-27-11

I need to put some content up here so the twelve or so of you who are actually reading this stuff (as compared to all the hits I get from people doing Google searches for pictures of shirtless guys*) continue to stop by, so here are some little observations...

Baseball: Right now I'm watching Game 6 of the World Series. It's kind of bizarre. It's 4-4 in the 6th as I write this and both the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals seem to be trying to give the game away with various displays of ineptitude. If they're this mistake-prone in Game 6, what happens if the Cards tie the series and they have to play the dreaded all-or-nothing Game 7? Update: 7-4 Texas in the 7th. Will this game end before I finish this post?

Hockey: Speaking of mistake-prone, I had the Flyers game on earlier. They were playing the Atlanta Thrashers Winnipeg Jets 2.0, who came into the game with a 2-5-1 record, at the Whatever-The-Bank's-Called-This-Week Center. Last night the Flyers lost at Montreal by a 5-1 score. The Canadiens were 1-5-2 before beating the Flyers and hadn't won a home game. So you had to figure the Flyers would be kind of desperate to put together a solid effort.

They fell behind 5-1 in the second period. I tweeted about it at the time and used these hashtags: #karma #apologizesimmonds (referring to this). After the teams traded goals, the Flyers then scored two more in the second and three in the first three minutes of the third period to take a 7-6 lead. I was worried that my tweet was serving as a reverse jinx.

Working At Working

Just want to vent a little.

One week and one day into my new job, and I kind of miss being out of work. While I admit I wasted plenty of time during the day, now it seems like I have little time. Working a full day, with a commute of 1 1/4 hours each way -- which is actually a little worse than the commute I used to have -- is wearing on me. Between checking the websites I regularly visit, plus Facebook and Twitter, and this little blog, plus those TV shows I watch regularly*, and keeping up with reading Entertainment Weekly and some other stuff, it feels like I have no time to just relax.

So I'm staying up as late as I can to try and squeeze it all in, which means I tend to get less sleep than I'd like. And I haven't been to a movie in this span. I was hoping to try and see something this past weekend but slept in both days. If I go to a movie it'll have to be at night or on the weekends. I thought that I'd be able to handle this particular schedule. It's a seasonal job, generally running from September through March each year. It can be extended a little bit, but essentially I'd have the whole summer off. But I'm already feeling worn down a little.

I'm wondering if I might be better off with a year-round part-time job, maybe three days per week. The problem is, even if I start applying for such jobs, I can't take any days off to go to a job interview. So I'm sort of stuck. I'm not at the point where I'd just quit this job. Obviously, I can't afford it financially. But I need to find a way to make some more time.

*There are also one or two new shows I've considered watching, but haven't started to yet. Now multiple episodes have aired and I'm behind in them, and there's just no way I can catch up now, even if the episodes are still available through On Demand.

Philadelphia Revolution Hockey?

I was about to get out of a bus near my house after I ran some errands today, and saw another bus pulling to the corner. When I saw what the bus said, I was intrigued, so when I exited my bus, I shot some video.



Seeing as how I'm not enthused about the Flyers right now, thanks to their lying (definitely) bigot (possibly) Wayne Simmonds, this intrigued me. I found their website -- it's a bit subpar, but I've been able to piece together that the Philadelphia Revolution is a junior hockey organization, with teams in three different leagues. They play their home games at a rink in Warwick Township. In fact, one team had a game there tonight, with a 5:40 pm scheduled start.

I don't know why their bus was around the corner from my house at 4:15, less than 90 minutes before game time. I think there's a chance the driver was lost, or thought he was lost. The bus was headed north on Frankford Ave. to Grant Ave., made a right on to Grant and (as I took my video) parked along the road for about two minutes before resuming the trip. But based on Google's directions from there to the rink, they were headed in the wrong direction when the bus turned onto Grant.

I wish them well. Definitely more than the Flyers right now. But they need to spell the word "sponsor" correctly.

Rittenhouse Square Yarn Bomb

I wrote about the odd and surprisingly popular phenomenon known as yarn bombing once before, and got quite a few hits on the blog because of it. Naturally, when I saw this picture, which was taken yesterday by my friend Kurt (so you can't use it without paying him -- you can send me the money and I'll be sure to get it to him), I felt that I should, you know, try and get some more hits. (Speaking of which, no noticeable uptick in hits from Joe Jonas fans. Explains his album sales, I suppose.)

This statue is "The Sundial," and it's in Rittenhouse Square. With a chill in the air, some thoughtful person decided to help these frolicking naked children keep warm. Well, one of them, anyway. Well, for the kid's head, at least...wait, what horrible creature saw these poor naked kids and decided to torture them by leaving just one hat for the two of them?

Too Long For Twitter: Joe Jonas' Album Sales

Really, this is more about the mess that is today's music industry. The debut solo album by Joe Jonas sold just 18,000 copies in its first week. Amazingly weak.

Yet that was good enough to be number 15 on the Billboard 200 top albums chart. 15. That's practically a top-10 debut, which used to be a big deal!

I guarantee that if Joe Jonas announced that he's gay (and I'm not saying he is or isn't because I have no idea) he'd have sold a lot more albums. A lot more.

Oh, all right, you talked me into it. Here's Joe and Nick on the beach, and Nick in a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform showing off his best asset.

Quick Review: 50/50

I'm not sure if it had something to do with "Green Hornet" or not, but I'm starting to tire of Seth Rogen's act. I suppose his character in "50/50" was supposed to act the way he did. After all, he was in a sense playing himself. "50/50" was written by Will Reiser, Rogen's friend, and is loosely based (so much so that their names are changed in the film) on Reiser's being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and how Rogen helped get him through chemo, and then surgery. The movie explains why Seth...I mean, Kyle, reacted the way he did to Will's...I mean, Adam's situation. Adam is played by the always adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and whether Adam's dealing with his medical situation or the responses of his friend, his mother (Anjelica Huston), his needy girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), or his fresh-out-of-college psychologist (Anna Kendrick), Gordon-Levitt never fails to connect. I'd have rated this higher but, you know, I'm just getting a little tired of Seth Rogen. Sorry. My grade: B.

2011 World Series

It's the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers this year.

Bleh. I don't want either team to win (although I suppose, if you held a gun to my head, I'd say I hate St. Louis and their phony fans and their slimy manager who supports the Tea Party nuts more than the team once co-owned by George W. Bush). I don't plan to watch very intently. It might be on in the background while I'm online or something but that's it. But since I've been making predictions for the playoffs, I guess I have to do it for this series as well, so...Rangers in 5.

Wake me up when pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater.