The Inner Geek

It's been a busy week since I last posted. Singing rehearsals and performance, recording for a new album, my second ever LAN party, lots to do at work and.......ok hold on a second.....did I say LAN party?

Well I suppose I did!

Yup, I have now been to two, count 'em, two LAN parties in my whole lifetime. Both of which were this year, within the last month.
It sounds strange to me, someone in their thirties, to say the phrase "LAN party" without giggling a little. I somehow picture teenagers going to a party and playing video games all day, with their moms outside on the deck in the backyard having a few wobbly pops.
But then again, people nowadays seem to be embracing their inner geek. I guess I can as well without fear of reprisal. Well, not much anyway. There are certainly a lot of geek types where I work, so there should be no problems there.
Now my neighbors on the other hand, well they would make fun of me for sure.

They believe in cars, music, and chicks.

Hold on a sec.....that sounds pretty good. Like you could picture a car, with a chick in it, and some loud music playing from it. Yeah, that's pretty sweet!

Alright, I can definitely see the merit in their side of this. After all, I am a maple leaf carrying Canadian, I know how to drink and whore around with the best of 'em!
But I also can stay at home every once in a while and hone my video playing acuity. You have to hone, you gotta! You gotta keep your trigger finger strong, and sensitive. You need to practice all the time, lest your hand cramp up in the middle of a crazy fire fight! Or you come face to face with your nemesis online, and bam, he takes you down in PK glory...tea bagging his way into legend on your face!

Yeah, sometimes it's a fine line between having geek tendencies, and going all the way geek. Going geek happen to all kinds of people, and it's not always something you can see coming, or avoid for that matter.
A few extra minutes on the computer each night. Choosing to surf or troll the boards instead of watching tv.
God forbid you ever lose your girlfriend, because that's the time when you are most at risk of going geek. Too much time on your hands, more money in your pocket......maybe a few too many visits to the local game store?! Huh?!
Yup, and just like that....SHAAAA-BAM, you got a new game on the front seat next to you. You look over at it several times as you drive home, eagerly thinking of how cool it will be to play it.
You might even contemplate opening the game while driving home, yeah. Maybe you could gain a few insights into the game-play of this title prior to even installing it! Yeah, You could be a pro within a few hours if you got a jump start.

Wow, that was too real for me! I think that happened to me a month or so ago.

Wait, did I hit geek already??? No, I went to a wedding social 2 weekends ago, I'm safe. And as I recall, I drank heavily, and hit on a few women. Yes, I have staved off catching geek for the time being.
The problem is, geek is always knocking on my door. Geek is constantly trying to get me to play for his team.
Geek may be an influence in my life, and if geek were a town, I would say I do know the route to get there, and have to admit to visiting it now and then.
But I don't live in geek. Some of my friends do, but I just like visiting once in a while.

So, in the end, really nothing to be ashamed of people.

Embrace Your Inner Geek!

Laterz.
AH

Movie Review - Employee Of The Month

So I downloaded Employee of the Month yesterday.
I watched it today.
And the verdict?

Strong Like

I think overall it was pretty good. I laughed, not uproariously, but I laughed nonetheless. There were a few places where if I had been drinking liquid, it would have spewed out my nose. So I will, in the end, give the movie a 7 out of 10 rating.

Here's my scintillating synopsis:
Zak, a slacker bag boy at Super Club (a large bulk product store like Costco), meets a new employee Amy(Jessica Simpson), and after finding out she is hot for Employees of the month.....he decides to embark on attaining this lofty goal (well both goals really, getting Employee of the Month, and bagging Jessica Simpson in the process).

Most of the movie deals with the battle between Zak, and the 17-month-in-a-row Employee of the Month.....Vince Downey. They try outdoing each other, and by the end of the month, it's a tie.
They have a contest to break the tie, which is whoever can ring through a specific amount of items the fastest.
I won't spoil the ending, so go an see the movie.

That's pretty much all I wanted to post tonight.
Work was good today.
I have to get up in 4.5 hours for work.
Tomorrow will be a long day at work.
End of blog for tonight.

Laterz.
AH

Oh, and here's a little Jessica for the boys.....

Having a Good Day.....

Having a good day....

Yup, every once in a while, you look back at the day you just had, and you just have to smile. Maybe for no other reason than something small which made you smile, or something big that made you laugh.
It doesn't really matter what it was, but you get a warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach that you just had a good day.
And sometimes you may not even know why you are feeling this way.....but you are. And there you go.

So that's where I am right now.....I had a good day.

Thinking back on my day, I can't put my finger on exactly what made it a good day. I had several meetings. I received way too many emails. I had a few things drop onto my plate through the course of the day. So work-wise, a pretty typical day.

The weather was decent. It warmed up to just above freezing today. And for those not in the Northern climates of North America, above freezing right now is like heaven. The Sun was out. Spring was in the air really. Pretty nice day.

I am pretty sure most of the people I saw today were the usual bunch.

Alright, so thinking about this while I have been typing, I may have an idea of what is making this a good day for me.
I feel like I have arrived at work.
No, not physically arriving at work, rather I felt today, at no particular moment I can recall, that I felt good in the Operations Management shoes I have wear there.
Yeah that's it.
Today felt different. Somehow I felt at ease with my role.
It's been several months at this new position, but today felt.....natural. It felt like I belonged. It felt like my opinion mattered. It felt like others viewed me as the position I am in, not what I was previously. I felt confident.

Now that I think of it, I spoke to many different people today, and each conversation made solidified my feeling they all felt comfortable with what I was doing. I have felt, in the last few months, that each conversation I have I am thinking about what a person in my position would say. Sometimes second guessing whether what I have said was appropriate for someone in my position.
Today there was none of that.

In the grand scheme of things, this day will likely not stick out in my mind all that much.
It will be a small blip in the overall good time I had on this big, spinning, blue ball.
It's the butterfly effect I wonder about sometimes though.

I wonder how many others had a good day because of me.....


Laterz
AH

God, Inc. etc.....

So I've been surfing around a lot lately, and have re-affirmed my interest in the God, Inc series on YouTube. I think this should be a network sitcom, I really do. These short episodes are great!
So this entry is going to be short on thought, and long on hilarity........

God, Inc. - Episode 1



God, Inc. - Episode 2



God, Inc. - Episode 3



God, Inc. - Episode 4



God, Inc. - Episode 5



God, Inc. - Episode 6




OK, I lied, I am going to continue with some more comments.

Along with God, Inc I have also been watching a lot of Robot Chicken these days. Funny, funny stuff! Someone had mentioned to me a couple weeks ago about Robot Chicken, and once I watched the first minute of one episode.....I was a fan.

So what does all of this say about me?

Um.....

Well, ok let's not get too serious about it all. I am not sure whether you can come to any hard and fast conclusions about me simply by a couple of viewing habits.
It does show I like funny things.

oooo

that sounds so backwoods it's not funny. And there's that word again.....funny. I seem to be using an inordinate amount of "funny's" in this blog entry.
Should it matter?
The funny thing? Like the fact I'm using the word funny too much....not the fact I like things that are funny?
And then you have to ask what in the hell is this guy on about now? IS he actually debating whether or not to use the word funny as much as he has been?
Strange....very strange. Yet I can't stop typing!

On a totally unrelated topic, I think they should add the word "blather" to the dictionary.

So let's talk about this week's American Idol shows. Horrendous!
They voted out Brandon, which I think is an alright choice. But truly, the person who should have gone home this week was Sanjaya! Sweet Jesus, what is the public thinking?
That boy needs to go home. He needs to buy some confidence, and wait for his voice to change.
And to tell you the truth.....he freaks me out a little. He's a little too happy, and shy, and tee hee hee'ish.
Even when the judges are telling him he is awful, he looks like a deer in the headlights, and can't seem to comprehend why they are telling him these things.
IT'S BECAUSE YOU STINK UP THE STAGE CONSISTENTLY DUDE!

Oh my, I used the word dude......that will either date me, or .....yeah it will just date me.
I don't care.

Alright, I have had enough. I need some food, and some sleep.

Laterz.
AH

The Idiocy Continues

I will admit, I have a penchant for American Idol (and Canadian Idol for that matter).

It amazes me, however, how people vote for the bad singers near the beginning of this competition. And I won't sugar coat this, Antonella Barba should have gone home tonight. But, in all their wisdom, the voters have decided good looks are apparently more important in a singing competition than singing talent is.
Yipes!
Pretty scary!
I don't think she was utterly awful, but there are far more talented individuals who should still be around on the show, rather than her.
And I am not an Antonella hater.....I am simply not, in any way, shape, or form, an Antonella fan.

I have also created a new word to explain the strange phenomenon of voting for craptastic singers on this show.....I call it Barbonics!
The definition is as follows: The art of voting for sub-standard singing, in a competition based mostly on ones singing abilities.

Using Barbonics, crappy singers can get far in this competition.

Hurray, hurray, let's all celebrate mediocrity!

Laterz
AH