I'm surrounded by frickin' idiots!

I'm increasingly convinced that my insurance company's claims office is staffed by a bunch of idiots. I got a call yesterday from the claims adjustor that the estimator was going to call me to set up an appointment to look at my car. She was suprised when I told her the estimator was supposed to have looked at my car the day before. I sure hope they get their heads out of their asses and figure out what's going on. Otherwise I'll never get my car back.

In other idiocacy related news, Chris and I went to see "Meet the Fockers" on Monday. We got there about 10 minutes early, usually plenty of time to get popcorn and such. Well, we stood in line and waited for at least 12 minutes, during which time the person at the register in the line we were in disappeared. At that point Chris decided to go to the Customer Service window to complain. He told them it was taking forever, and so the lady says something to one of the other people and then ignores Chris for another five minutes. By this time I was really annoyed and went to find seats. Chris doesn't get into the movie until about 5 minutes in, and tells me later that when he finally got the lady's attention again, she told him they were going to open another register to ring him up. Well, before they could open the register the guy had to count out his drawer and that apparently took forever. Really. I've been to plenty of other theaters, but I think they must hire the biggest idiots to work there, because nowhere else is it as slow to get what ever you need. Ok, rant over.

-The Dork

Worst Idea Ever.

So, I'm majorly bummed. Last night I went to Meijer (at 13 mile) with Chris, and we spent an inordinate amount of time there. Anyway the bummer part is, after we get out, it's snowing, and I decide, "Here's a nice big parking lot, devoid of solid objects to run into" after which I do a little vroom, vroom, and suddenly I'm going faster than I expected and there is a curb I'm rapidly approaching. I put on the brakes and while I did slow down some, I still hit the front passenger wheel hard into the curb. So, a cop, who apparently just hangs around the Meijer parking lot rolls over, rolls down his window, waits for me to roll down mine and says, "Nice job there, jackass." I guess I'm lucky I didn't get a ticket for reckless driving or something, but calling me a jackass? What an ass! We rolled the car back from the curb and found it was, in a word, fucked. Well after that I had to call roadside assistance for a tow, the insurance company, and then Austin so Chris could get a ride home. At least the towtruck guy was really nice. Also, big props to Austin for staying up half the night to drop off Chris and then pick me up at the dealership where the car was dropped off.

Now, I'm just waiting to hear from the insurance company, and I haven't been very impressed so far by the expediency with which they're handling my claim. Hopefully it will be fixed fairly quickly.

All Quiet on the Berkley Front

Isn't it fun to use literary allusions on your 'blog? I think I'm better at thinking up titles for my posts than actually anything to write in them. So, I've only been on vacation for 2 days, and already I've pretty much lost track of what day it is. Although, Chris was nice enough to remind me that today is his birthday, so, Happy Birthday Chris (1)! So, Chris and I rented a couple of games last night, and after Chris left, I started to play Super Monkey Ball 2. It was suprisingly difficult, either that or I have no hand-eye coordination, which would explain why I've always sucked at video games.

I still have to get my mom something for Christmas, and that's always difficult. At least she has a list for us, but that doesn't make it that much easier. Oh well, I'll find something.

I guess that is all for now.

Why I will still not buy a French car

Car self-destructs in assassination bid

I think I told someone I would never buy a French car because in the movie Ronin every single car in that movie that gets hit in an accident blows up. And they were all Peugots, Renaults, Citroens... I mean really. I know it's a movie, but when cars explode and they're not in a movie, then you can begin to question it.

More pirate jokes

Because they are funny...

Pirate Jokes 1
Pirate Jokes 2
Pirate Jokes 3
Pirate Joke 4

And it seems there are a limited number of pirate jokes out there, although I have one I didn't see on those sites.

Q. What does a Pirate say?

A. Arghhhhhh!

Q. What does a Boston Pirate say?

A. Ahhhhhhhh! (must imagine Boston-ian no "R" accent)

-The Dork

Joss Whedon is a genius...

Or at least awesomely brilliant. I just finally got around to reading Fray and it was very good. Highly recommended if 1.) You like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or anything in the Whedon-verse; 2.) You like vampires and flying cars; 3.) You like awesome comic books.

The book has the 8 episodes of the mini-series in them along with a preface by Jeph Loeb and Joss himself, along with some sketches and concepts from the artist. I will definately be looking out stuff from Karl Moline in the future. Also, since Joss is writing Astonishing X-Men right now, (which is supposed to be one of the best current comics) I'll have to hopefully pick up that when it goes to trade paperback.

-The Geek

As if.

Cult of Mac 'Blog

If you're a fan of Apple, check this out. Very cool. I will include a link to something else a bit later.

Desperately Seeking "Housewives"

I wonder if anyone has used that title yet in reference to Desperate Housewives?

SPOILER ALERT! This means you Dan. Watch the tape right now.

Anywho, just a quick review of last night's episode. I am glad that Mrs. Huber got what was coming to her. I really didn't like her, although that was probably by design. I thought the fashion show was just a little too "The O.C." although Terri Hatcher was smokin'. I loved when Bree threw the bottle of urine on Rex. The shot of the cupboard when she goes to get it was great, all the Tupperware all organized, because that is pretty much the exact opposite of my cupboards, everything there is totally haphazard as it comes out of the dishwasher and just gets thrown whereever it will stay. Glad to see Julie getting a Zack Attack. And at the end the body is actually an adult female. Hmm. Could this be who Mike is looking for?

Cameo alert: The nanny that Lynette poaches was one of the twins in "Dude, Where's My Car?" in case you couldn't figure out where you'd seen her before. Of course the other of the twins was Jennifer Garner.

Weekend Update

So, lets see. Um. Friday, Dan and Chris and Austin came over and we played Dan's Xbox. Then I was hella tired from the sleep deficit of mine and went to bed early-ish (is 2am early?). On Saturday I went to Austin's folk's place for Chinese Hot Pot. I know there's some other name for it, but I can't remember it. That was very tasty. Mmmmm... hotpot. On my way to Austin's I stopped at Best Buy to get Austin a gift. And I also got me gift, an Okama Gamesphere, no, actually a Nintendo GameCube. I was hoping to get the "Bonus" set, but they had probably run out, so I still got the one with the game I wanted, MarioKart Double Dash. It's super fun. We played that a bit at Austin's after the meal, and then I went to John's where we went to work installing the hardwood floors. Mike is now tired and sore. This morning, er, afternoon, I went back over there to help again. We finished about 90% of the bedroom before calling it a night. It's pretty hard work. I'm glad I don't do that for a living. Anyway, my arms are sore and I'm going to bed.

I'm sinister

Southpaws thrash righties: Study

Well, it's now scientifically proven. Left handed people are better at surviving hostile situations. Or something. Whatever. All I got to say is "Suck it, righties!" Yeah. That's about it.

Whatever happened to my Rock N' Roll?

Aerosmith Sells You A Buick

Cool article. I also was pretty appalled by Buick's co-opting of a classic song to sell a pretty blah car. Let the ire be raised.

Why is Canada so much cooler about these things?

From Yahoo!
Canada to Move on Gay Marriage After Court Ruling

Now, why is the States so backwards and retarded about this? What they are doing there makes perfect sense. It's not like they are letting people marry chairs or pets or other inanimate objects.

I know what will decide the format war...

From The Register
http://www.theregister.com/2004/12/09/disney_backs_blu-ray/
So, it looks like both sides in the HD-DVD format war have signed up big enough players to make some sort of a move on the market. But I think the thing that both Blu-Ray and DVD Forum are forgetting is that what really will swing the gate one way or the other is which porno studios will support their format. That's what decided the VHS-or-Beta debate. Just my 2 cents.

Porn, it's what made this country great.

Mike's New Subaru WRX

Mike's New Subaru WRX,
originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

This is my new car. I don't think I've told everyone about it yet, but I kind of wanted to get a picture up instead of just talking about it. I got a pretty decent deal, and it's just awesome. It's fast and has the new-hotness about it. And, yes, I might let you drive, if you know how to drive stick and are really nice to her. I think I'll name her Daphne, because Subaru's are known as "Scoobies" and that just ties in nicely. *grin*

OH MY GOD!!!!!

ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I even express how fuckin' cool this is going to be!!!!!




I am practically speakless.

Matthew Lesko got me free money from the government

So, as I went to bed very late last night I had the thought that maybe I could get a government grant to study the effects of blogging on sleep patterns. It seems that bloggers stay up late. Now, I wouldn't actually do any actual work on the study, and most of the money would be spent on beer and Pr0n. Still this seems like a reasonable hypothesis.

I need to do some more work on the template for my blog. I like the general format, but I kind of want the side bar more like how Ryan has his. Need more linky thingies. Mikey likey! I think this lack of sleep is making me a bit off this morning, but that could just be my normal state, and I'm only just now documenting it.

Coronado mentioned that I should review TV shows. I did watch Scrubs last night and it was awesome. I especially liked Todd high-fiving someone back to life. I also have a small backlog of bad TV I'll comment on later. I recorded "The Librarian" with Noah Wyle, which looked cheesy and it's about a librarian, which considering that I worked in libraries for several of my pre-real world jobs, I can totally relate to. Not! I also watch North Shore (I know, BAD MIKE! But Brooke Burke is hot!) and I'll post a review of the last episode too. I'm trying to think what else I have that I should watch... hmmm, The Growing Pains Movie is still on my computer. I don't know, but I'll have plenty of time to catch up on everything while everything else is in reruns. That and I'm totally gonna slack off while I'm off work from next Friday on til the New Year. I might even get the chance to watch so many of the movies and tv show DVDs I've bought but not watched or even opened.

This post is turning really random. Probably the longer I take to send it in, the more stuff that will wander in.

BTW Flickr is cool. I uploaded a bunch of pictures from the Labor day party.

Ok. That's probably enough for now.

I'm only subversively evil for the forces of good.

You scored as Chaotic Good. A Chaotic Good person is someone who has little intrinsic respect for laws or authority, seeing them as insufficient to sustain what's right. These people work according to their own moral compass which, while good, is not necessarily always aligned with that of society. Despite their chaotic tendancies, these people are good at heart.

What is your Alignment?
created with QuizFarm.com

Why does this seem wrong to me?

I just saw this when I checked my mail. It's wrong! Women should fully flaunt their breasts with great abandon! Not try to disguise them!

Downplay a Large Bust

Nothing in particular

I am the son and the heir.

Basically I'm still testing out a few features of this account,
including the posting of articles by email.

So, I was just looking at the Best Buy ad, and see that they have the Nintendo Game Cube for $100 with Mario Kart and 2 controllers. Maybe I should get one, and Mario Party and a couple extra controllers. Hmm. Maybe. Maybe for Christmas. Maybe someone could get me one. (hint, hint)

"Dude, all we want is our Okama Game-sphere."

Ok, I guess that's all, I didn't really have anything profound to say, although, that doesn't really seem to be a requirement for having a 'blog.

Roger, Over. What's the clearance, Clarence?

Jen and Jay on Halloween

Jen and Jay on Halloween,
originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

I just thought I'd share this cool picture from the Halloween Party at Austin's. Mostly this must be first 'blog fever, but I'm having fun finding out all the stuff that's out there for photo sharing and whatnot. And if you look in the background you can see Jessica "Karen Walker" B., holding aloft her drink. I'll probably try to get more photos from other group events up on the site so y'alls can see them.

Maybe the Lions don't suck...

Yesterday I went to the Lions game. My co-worker had gotten some free tickets from a supplier, and extended the offer to me. I hadn't been down to the new Fords (the s is deliberate) Field, so it was win/win. It was actually a pretty good time. The Lions actually played well, their defense was better than in a lot of other games, and I hadn't had anything to eat all day, so I got drunk pretty quickly. There were also a couple of cute girls sitting next to us, but as usual I didn't have the balls to talk to them much, other than when they would excuse themselves to go to the bathroom.
So, the Lions won the game, although we left a little early to go back to our car, but my co-worker and his buddy wanted to go over to Greektown Casino. My co-worker lost all the money he brought, I only ended up losing about 10 bucks, so, overall, not too bad for a couple hours entertainment. Totally.

Random Linky Thingy

http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/

Cool site with remixes of songs (AKA "mash-ups" in UK slang). Especially check out the Beatles/Radiohead one.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041205/music_nm/tech_music_dc

Interesting article alluding to the fact that record companies are full of crap when they are claiming that file sharing hurts the artists. The obvious conclusion to me is that it may impact the record companies outrageous profits, and that's the only reason they care. Because it's pretty obvious they don't care about the artists.

Band names I and/or Austin/Dan have thought of

during last year's Hamtramck Blowout, we compiled a list of possible band names at the Clock (and wrote them on a napkin because that is where all important info is kept). here's the list plus a late addition from Mike:

Zap Branigan
Millenium Falcon Crest
Town Slut
Near Mint Condition
Ass Pennies
Manchesters UK
Stonesbury Park
Green Peaness
Brocktune's Ghost
Fellow's Bellows
Wellfed Jesus
The Amazing Flying Asshole Family
Deathrow Tea Party
It Must Be Bunnies

and, just the other night, John Wayne Brady Bunch (or Experience)

I'm part of the in-crowd!

Yeah. I've been thinking about creating a blog for a while, but it wasn't 'til Beckie started one, that I decide to do it. Do it! (pumping fist in air motion) I guess the major impetus was to have place to post fun things and well, geeky thing too, that I find in my travels on the web. That and to totally dig on my friends behind their backs. No, not really, but I may bitch a bit about them. Especially when they're being dumbasses. Ok. Well that should be enough for the first post.