8/14
Went to see The Hollow Man last night.  Not a bad movie.  Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely not bad, either.  However, the experience of going to the movie itself completely pissed me off.  After driving around for ten minutes to find a parking spot, walking 5 minutes in 95 degree weather, then waiting in line for ten minutes to pay $16 for two tickets, and another $11 for a Coke, an Icee, some Raisinets, and some stale Whoppers, we take our seats.  Movie starts.  Cholos in front of us are carrying on some conversation in spanish.  A cell phone rings behind us, and the owner answers.  A kid starts talking to his mother.  A baby starts screaming, and the mother refuses to take it out of the theater.  It's times like this that make me glad we invested in a DVD player and have started spending more evenings at home.  I like movies, and I don't mind shelling out money to go see them, as long as I can enjoy the experience.  That being said, I have a few suggestions.  These suggestions are merely ideas which I feel will better the experience for those who enjoy movies, and eventually, help the movie industry grow.

1.     AMC theaters is doing this, and I think it's a great example that all others should follow.  Charge full going admission for everybody, regardless of age.  This means that babies are not allowed into the theaters without an admission ticket.  Honestly, what does a baby get out of a movie?  This should discourage parents from bringing their babies to the theater just to avoid paying a babysitter.  People go to movies to watch the movie, not hear some kid screaming at the top of his lungs.

2.     Deny admission to any child under the age of 13 to any R-rated film, regardless of whether or not they are with an adult.  I'm not saying this for moral issues, as I'm sure there are many 11 year olds who can handle adult themes far better than many adults.  No, I'm saying this because most kids under that age wont shut up during the movie, regardless of whether or not their parents tell them to.

3.     Lower ticket costs....advertise!!!  I'm not talkin' the little slide shows before the film starts rolling, I'm talkin' full on filmed commercials.  Is there a product tie-in to the upcoming movie?  Advertise it!!!  Companies will pay big bucks to reach an audience, and here you have 300 people staring at a huge screen, and they can't change the channel!!!  Drop the admission prices a buck or two, and allow advertisements before the movie.  I myself don't mind it, and I'm sure there are others who would gladly watch a few commercials in order to save a couple bucks on admission.

4.     Instead of having one central ticket taker for the multiplex, station a ticket taker/usher at the entrance to each individual theater.  Yes, this may require a slight staffing increase, but it serves several purposes.  a)  It helps enforce the first two above rules by verifying age before entry to the theater itself, not just the premises.  b)  Once the previews are over, the ticket taker/usher enters the theater and stays in the back of the theater for the duration of the film.  This way he/she can observe the audience during the film, and act upon anything that may come up, from audience disturbances to errors in film projection / sound.  Nothing is more annoying than having to leave the theater to find an usher to deal with such things, and miss part of the movie. c)  Prevent "Theater Hopping."  By checking tickets at the entrance to the theater itself, the usher can catch those trying to see more than one movie on a ticket. 

5.     Use of cell-phones, pagers, laser pointers, or other such disruptive devices is cause for immediate removal from the theater.  I would love it if there were some additional penalty that could be tacked on, but I see no legal way of enforcing it.

6.     Allow outside food and beverage into the theater.  People try to sneak food into the theater because it is so outrageously expensive to purchase snacks in the theater.  So instead, how about charging some sort of "corkage fee" of $.50 - $1.00 to bring outside food and beverages in.

7/24
Had a rather embarrassing moment the other day which I'd like to share with y'all.  A friend of mine who grew up down the street from me was getting married this past Saturday.  So we're there sitting in the pew at the back of the church waiting for the ceremony to start.  My friend is Catholic, so of course, this is a Catholic wedding, very formal, with about 300 people in attendance.  The church is decorated beautifully, with baskets of real flowers hanging from the edges of the pews.  Anyhow...the music begins, and the rear doors begin to open for my friend the bride to walk down the aisle.  As we all turn around to watch, I brush against one of the baskets, which wasn't secured too terribly well.  It goes crashing down into the aisle, five feet directly in front of the opening doors.  So I dive down into the aisle, grab the basket, and hold it up against the pew where it had been hanging just as the doors finish opening.  Dammit, I had to hold that basket through the entire ceremony!!!  A quick lil' 15 minute ceremony like we had last month wouldn't have been bad...but this was a CATHOLIC wedding ceremony, and we had about an hour of up and down and up and down and up and...well...just a lot of excercise.  So through all this, I'm sittin' there holding this basket to the side of the pew, trying not to spill out even more dirt than I already have into the aisle.  We're almost to the end of the ceremony.  My left arm is sore from holding the basket, my right arm is sore from Kate hitting it and joking "I can't take you anywhere!!!"  So the ceremony ends, and I'm thinkin' not many people saw it.  I'm thinkin' I'm okay.  So later that night at the reception, I find out that quite a few people saw the incident, and that I am now known as "That guy holding up the flowers."  Gee, isn't it great to be known?

7/17
Okay...all the wedding stuff is officially over.  Now to find places to put all the stuff we got.  We have about three rooms full o' loot, and a one bedroom apartment.  There are only so many boxes of china we can use as furniture.  :P  If anyone knows of a good, cheap 2 bedroom apartment in the liveable areas (read, SOUTH of downtown) of Long Beach, drop me a line.  That being said...moving onward...Kate tells me my right nostril looks like a kidney bean.  I knew there was some reason I married her.  :)

6/26
Went and did somethin' fun over the weekend.  Got married.  No, it wasn't a spontaneous thing.  We actually began planning it back in May of '99, when I proposed to Kate.  It really was a wonderful experience, though for reasons which should be obvious, I hope I never have to do it again.  Kate's got a wonderful family and group of friends out there, and I greatly enjoyed hanging out with them, and the wedding itself was top drawer.  Oklahoma (where all of Kate's contingent is) is really quite the nice lil' state.  There's a considerable difference in the people, I believe.  Out here in California, I think we tend to have a much higher percentage of @$$holes than out there.  In Oklahoma, people don't seem to be in quite the rush they are out here.  A lot fewer morons on the freeway out there, too.  Anyhow...that's my bit for now.

6/3
'Nothin' much going on at the moment.  Another annoying day at work, but I'd rather not talk about it now.  Instead, I shall rant about the reason I haven't updated in a while...The Sims!!!  Kate and I are completely addicted to this game.  I can't quite explain it, it's just addicting.  We lose all track of time.  I think the average sleep time for me has dropped a couple hours since we got the game.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you.  It's a rather fun game.  Mebbe I'll put up some o' my stuff later.  For now, I must browse the web.  I've been tending my sims for far too long, and I've fallen behind in my web page viewing activities.

5/21
Just finished watching the season finale of The X-Files.  Damn, that's what the show's been missing this past season...the work of the older X-Files vet writers (and you can't get much more old-school X than the creator, can you?)  All season long the show has been plagued by halfassed stories, and the one story that I recall that contributed to the ongoing X-Files mythology was really just kind of lame in the end.  But here we have...BUM-BUM-BUUUUMMMM...stuff happening.  All you who haven't seen it but want to, go to this link of my choosing, and do not return until you have seen the episode, for I am about to give a few spoilers.  Okay, it was great to see Kreiceck (sp?) again.  And Covurrubius.  And the Lone Gunmen.  And Skinner.  All standing around the same table in the FBI building working together!!!  Never in a million years would I have seen that coming.  And my guess as to Scully's partner for most of next year:  Skinner.  After seeing the UFO flying off with Mulder, I think he's finally starting to understand what Mulder and Scully have been working on all this time.  If they're gonna give Scully a new partner, there's nobody else I'd want to see take Mulder's place.  Skinner's a badass.  He deserves that spot if Mulder leaves.  And the re-appearance of Cancer Man (Which they finally actually called him.  Take THAT tobacco companies!) and then his death at the hands of Kreiceck and a lengthy flight of stairs.  Too cool.  There's a lot more I liked about the episode, but my fingers are too damn tired.  13 hour day at work yesterday, followed by three hours of sleep.  Not good.  :P

5/9
I think those little sensor that open the door up for you at the supermarket zap the intelligence out of some people.  Kate and I went to Costco the other day to have some pictures developed, and figured we might as well do a bit of shopping while we waited.  Then I realized why I don't like shopping at crowded stores...all the stupid people.  As we all know, stupid people in stores always try to place their shopping carts in the spot that will inconvenience the most people possible.  We're trying to get down the main aisle to take a gander at what they had in the DVD section (ended up buying Being John Malkovich.  Creepy movie).  Anyhow...as we're walkin' down the aisle, we come across a backup of people.  Looking ahead, we see that two knuckleheads have pulled their carts up side by side in the middle of the aisle and have struck up a conversation.  While I heartily endorse conversing with your fellow humans, and I think I speak for most everybody here when I say, DON'T DO IT IN THE FRICKIN' MIDDLE OF THE MAIN AISLE OF A WAREHOUSE STORE!!!!   Additionally, parents, please don't turn your kids loose while shopping.  There's only so much dodging I can do before one of your kids runs around the corner and face-first into the front of my cart.  Be a parent, watch your kid.  Thank you.

PS - Folks, if you aren't going to change lanes...TURN OFF YOUR BLINKERS!!!

5/5
Driving around Long Beach yesterday, and I noticed that the police population had seemingly quadrupled.  Every third car I passed on the street was a police car, very few of them from Long Beach.  There were police and sheriff vehicles from all over Southern California in Long Beach for Officer Black's memorial service.  For those of you who don't know, Officer Darryl Black was a Long Beach Police Officer whose car was ambushed last week, he was shot and killed, his partner (last I had heard) was seriously wounded.  My question is this:  What kind of a chickensh** opens fire on a police car?  The police are out there 24-7, working their asses off for us, they don't get time off for Christmas.  No day off for Easter.  They work 10-12 hour days, risking their lives for us, being paid considerably less than they are worth, and what do we give them in return?  Lawsuits.  Bad press.  Criticism.  Yes, there are those in the various police departments who give the rest a bad name.  I don't deny that.  But they are so very few.  Unfortunately, it is those few bad apples who get all the press, for beating the snot out of someone, for corruption, for whatever.  Rarely do we hear the good.  It really pisses me off when I read the paper and see someone suing the police department for damages incurred while the plaintiff was doin' something they shouldn't have been?  Example:  The North Hollywood Bank Shootout a few years ago.  Two men in full body armor and enough ammunition to supply a small nation's army open fire on the police and the general area.  These men had armor-piercing ammunition.  They had no intent on just scaring the officers away, they wanted to kill.  The shootout lasted considerably longer than most, and in the end, both suspects were dead.  Months later, the family of one of the dead suspects (and I really don't think suspect is the right word...that bastard was caught red handed.  No suspicion about it) had the tactless balls to sue the police department for letting their boy die!!!  The way I look at it, with the first shot he fired at the police, he forfeited all rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of whatever the hell else he wanted.  Quite frankly, I hope he died a slow, painful death.  Police officers are out there doing what I feel has got to be the most thankless job in the world, and they do it because it needs being done.  I've got a close friend who graduates from the LAPD Acadamy in two weeks, and I couldn't be more proud.  I hold him in the highest respect.  All I ask is that when dealing with the police, be it recieving a ticket or just running into them on the street, be kind.  Let them know you appreciate what they're doing.  I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

5/2
Impatient people suck.  Impatient people who get pissy suck more.  Impatient people who get pissy because you are so busy you can't drop everything and cater to them exclusively suck the most.  We were horribly understaffed today.  We lost two co-workers last week, and another was out sick today.  For a period of time, it was just myself and one other person, with about 15 customers.  For a service-oriented business, that just doesn't work.  I'm up at the counter answering the phone, ringing customers up, and trying to answer customer questions all at the same time.  Just doesn't lend itself well to sanity.  I can't really be too mad at the management above me for that...they have nobody to work with.  Everybody who could have been working today (and was reachable) was working today.  No, I'm pissed at the customers who refused to think for themselves.  I'm pissed at the customers who want to deal exclusively with me, but get pissy when they have to wait until I'm done with the person I was helping before they came in.  I'm pissed at the customers who bitch and moan and demand I get their job done, even when I just showed them it was physically impossible, as demonstrated by our copier's innards spread out on the floor and the technition probing around inside it.  I'm just plain pissed, and I need to move on.  I've been far to damn moody these past few weeks, getting pissed off at things more frequently.  It's all just wearing me down, fixing things.  Bleh.