Now With More Nudity

A Family Friendly Beverage.
(Originally written 8/3/2008)

So the good people at Saranac, makers of fine ales and lagers, have decided to expand their menu a bit, and added some fine sodas, for the kids. I'm not entirely sure how long they have been doing this, so this may be old news. However, it was quite new to me. Anyway, I picked up a six-pack of the Shirley Temple soda and damn is it good.

As you probably know, a Shirley Temple is a soft drink made with 7-Up and cherry juice. It's purpose is to make children feel like they are having a drink while their parents are getting sloshed at the bar. I guess that works for designated drivers and AA members as well. So, having tried the Saranac version for the first time, I immediately realized that this is the drink for me. You see, I'm a sugar junkie. There can never be too much sugar in anything for me. And this soda, it tastes so sickeningly sweet that it almost makes me cringe. Almost. I mean, the amount of sugar taste that you get, you would think you mistakenly picked up the sugar bowl and took a sip of that. Seriously, it's like they made the bottle out of pure cane sugar.

It is fantastic.

They also have a root beer, an orange cream, and a ginger beer. I'll probably try those eventually, but for now, I'll stick with the Shirley Temple and all of it's teeth-rotting beauty.

And That Was The Low Setting!

Nothing really going on.
(Originally written 7/28/2008)

I have to say, it's been a rather quiet week around here. Yesterday, my girlfriend and I rented the movie 21. That was pretty good. Not as good as I was expecting, but I don't regret the rental.

Other than that, pretty boring. I did some drawing for a friend of my girlfriend. He is a mixed martial artist and he wants to start his own clothing line. So he asked her to come up with some sketches and ideas, with maybe a website to follow. That's pretty cool, because it means the opportunity for some more cash.

So, I got Sunday. Saturday was not much. Family party. Friday, work. Oh, and a job interview. Good stuff. Pretty excited about that.

Thursday was work. Wednesday was work. Tuesday was work. Monday was work.
Yep, not much.

Hope you enjoyed my cranial diarrhea.

Oh, it's also 12:28 in the morning. I know this without even looking at the clock. Wanna know how? The sprinklers in our apartment complex just came on.

Discussion of a Quandry

The Attack of the Dark Knight Returns.
(Originally written 7/21/2009)

Yeah, the title of this post doesn't really make any sense, but The Dark Knight was an awesome fucking movie. It was so awesome, I barely remember what happened during most of it. Some might view this as a bad thing, as in "Oh. You were so bored that your mind wandered and you didn't even catch most of the film."

No. Not at all. I was so blown away by the action, acting, plot twists, and drama that my human brain couldn't comprehend it all at once.

Seriously. Heath Ledger was great as the Joker. His performance shits all over Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero. It's that good. Granted, it wasn't so good that he needed to OD on prescription meds and die, but, hey. That's on him. The Joker's entire scheme seems to by so completely random that when it makes sense at the end, you can tell that he is that crazy.

But aside from that, the best part of the movie was the Harvey Dent plot. Aaron Eckhart is riveting as Gotham's DA, and he plays his part with such panache, that you can't see anyone else in this role. Not even Tommy Lee Jones. Seriously!

I don't think I need to say anything about Christian Bale. It's pretty much agreed that since Batman Begins, he is the best Batman to ever be filmed. And if anyone tries to argue that point, then he or she and I have some problems.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, you need to. If you have, but you want to see it again, call me. I'll go with you.

Stee-Rike Two!

Chicken good.
(Originally written 7/7/2008)

So, fast food chain McDonalds has introduced a few new chicken items to their menu. The first one that I heard of was the Southern Style chicken biscuit breakfast sandwich. That sounded good to me, seeing as how I have had such an item at my local Chick-Fil-A franchise. However, driving down a road near my street I saw a billboard that advertised a Southern Style chicken sandwich. Now, this wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for the fact that it also mentioned that the sandwich contained a pair of pickles. Hmmm...

Might these be two crucial pickles?

Come on, McDonalds. You aren't fooling anyone. This "Southern Style" chicken sandwich has been around since Truett Cathy first offered it in the Dwarf Grill. You aren't offering anything "new." In fact, you may as well just call it the "Chick-Fil-A Style chicken sandwich." (They also launched a website to promote the new items. Somehow dancing is supposed to settle a philosophical debate.)

I don't hate McDonalds. With that said, though, I love Chick-Fil-A. So if you feel that I am being biased, it's because I am. But seriously, what is the difference between these two sandwiches besides the name on the receipt? The quality of chicken, maybe? If that's the case, I will certainly choose Chick-Fil-A anyday. Though McDonalds' chicken isn't terrible (as opposed to Burger King, which is downright awful), it does not compare in any way to Chick-Fil-A.

What makes me happy is that I am not the only one to notice this particular brand of mimicry. The New York Times ran an article about it, as did Time magazine. However, since they are rather big name publications, and I am just one schmoe in my corner of the internet, they refuse to take a stand on the issue. Not me, though. Given the choice; Chick-Fil-A.

There is no competition here. If I want a quality chicken sandwich, whether it's eight in the morning or eight in the evening, I'm going to Chick-Fil-A. If I want a greasy, squashed cheeseburger with synthetic sauce, I'll go to McDonalds. And never the 'tween shall meet.
Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Send me an e-mail if you feel as strongly as I do so we can spark some debate over here at CnP.

That's a Quality Pinata

Wal-Mart Sucks.
(Originally written 6/30/2008)

Yes, I am against Wal-Mart as a retail entity, as I am sure many people in the world are. However, my hatred has been backed-up by the information in the movie Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

I have always understood that, with the low prices that Wal-Mart offers, somebody somewhere must be taken advantage of. However, Wal-Mart is one step above using sweatshops over in China. Apparently, they also offer housing for their employees, and the rent is taken out of their paychecks. That doesn't sound so bad; however, even if an employee doesn't live in the company housing, they take the rent out of their paychecks.

Wal-Mart is also so opposed to unions that if the word is even breathed under someone's breath, they bring in an Anti-Union Task Force, at the price of $7,000,000, to take control of the store. The store manager loses all control, they install cameras and bugs to listen to people, they freeze raises so as not to appear to bribe anyone. This shit is absolutely crazy the kind of things that Wal-Mart does.

Not only that, but the widow of Sam Walton and his four children are each worth over $10 billion. Did you know that the entire family has only given about 1% of their money to charity. OK, I know. You're probably saying "It's their money. They don't have to give it away." I'll agree with that. However, Bill Gates has donated 58% of his income to charity. Wal-Mart offers some sort of charity where their employees can donate money to help other employees who have lost their houses and belongings in storms and hurricanes and things. In 2005, the employees donated about $5 million. The Waltons... $6,000. What the fuck is that shit? When you have $12 billion dollars, give a little away. No one can possible spend that much in a lifetime. Especially when you husband and father believed that the most important aspect of the company is the employees. Without the employees, you ain't selling shit. I would love to see Sam Walton's wife with a pallet jack unloading a truck. Remember your roots, motherfucker!

Sorry for the tirade. That movie got me so pumped up about my hatred for Wal-Mart. I haven't even touched on some of the sickest shit that they do as a company. How can a company of this size get away with the law-breaking that they do? Someone needs to step in and do something. Bill Gates and Microsoft was harassed for years about creating a monopoly. Well, in my opinion, when you come into an area and all of your competition is closing it's doors, I'd say that's one hell of a monopoly.

Inter-Company Crossover

June Comic Watch.
(Originally written 6/22/2008)

I picked up my comics on Friday night, and after making it through most of them, I have a few thoughts.

Number 1; Secret Invasion is coming out awesome. For the sake of spoilers, I won't go into detail, but the newest issue focuses on one important character, and the final outcome definitely brings mixed feelings for me. Superficially, the end of that issue is so obvious that it kind of made me say "Well, that explains a lot." However, with the understanding of how much thought and work Brian Michael Bendis has put into the story over the past few years, it just couldn't be that simple. I have to expect more.

Number 2; The newest Ultimate X-Men storyline kicks ass. I have recently begun to lose a little steam with this title; it seemed that a lot of what was happening was subpar, at best. Even the whole Apocalypse storyline was lacking that OOMPH. However, Aron Coleite has hit on something that is working so far. Even the super-powered character designs are frigging awesome. I particularly like Angel.

Number 3; New Exiles has gotten a little better, though I'm still cautious about it. Chris Claremont has not been at his best over the past couple of years. I feel that his recent runs on a few of the X-titles were... well, crap. Not to mention the changes that he brought the Exiles just didn't meet with my approval (I still miss Blink). The newest issue, however, was pretty good. I do like how he is giving Morph a chance to be more than just comic relief. This is definitely an improvement over last month (a prince falls in love with a dragon? What the fuck?). Hopefully, things are looking up.

Number 4; X-Force. Man, the blood, the violence, the changes in character. Not to mention the return of Archangel (who looks awesome at the end of issue 4, by the way). Yost and Kyle are doing great here.

That's pretty much all that sticks out in my mind right now. That, and I haven't finished all of my books. When I do, and if something hits me good enough, I'll be sure to give you my opinion.

Imagine What Halloween Is Like

NaNoWriMo.
(Originally written 6/16/2008)

Yes, I know that looks very weird, but allow me to explain.

So I picked up this book by a guy named Chris Baty called No Plot? No Problem! The purpose of the book is to help aspiring writers to write a full length novel, of 50,000 words or more, within the time span of 30 days. Sounds pretty cool huh?

Apparently, he and twenty of his friends did this in July of 1999. Out of the original 21, only 6 finished. Baty was so pumped after finishing a full-length novel that he began to make National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo... get it?) an annual thing. He changed the actual month to November, as a way to beat the shitty weather blues, and he gets tens of thousands of people signing up for this thing.

He can add one more to the roster.

I think I'm gonna do this in November. I have some cool stories that I would like to get out there and write. But the problem is I never find the time to write them. One of the things he talks about in the introduction of the book is that having a deadline helps to push you to get work done. And being busy helps even more, which I believe completely. There are plenty of times that I have all of the time in the world to do shit, but I putz around and don't get anything done. Then I get pissed off at myself. But if I absolutely have to do that, then I finish this up first. Makes sense.

Anyway, if any one else is interested in learning more about this check out the National Novel Writing Month website. And, hey. Sign up if you want. It would be cool to go head to head a few of you people out there in internet-land.