The Interpreter

My brother and I went to see The Interpreter today. Overall, I thought it was a very good movie and would recommend that everyone go and see it. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Nicole Kidman's character says, "Vengeance is a lazy form of grief." I thought it was very poignant especially in the world that we live in today.

http://www.theinterpretermovie.com/

You gotta love spring in Chicago

How do we go from 80 to 45 degrees outside? Is this some kind of a cosmic joke? Just when you beak out the shorts, you have to run for a jacket.

Well since I haven't abandoned this blog and left for a first-class trip to Europe, as you might have already guessed, I didn't win the Mega Millions last night, but now its up to $205,000,000. So if you don't hear from me after Friday night, don't call me, I'll call you.

Finally, A New Episode

Well after waiting for 6 weeks, they are finally going to air a new episode of the Gilmore Girls tonight. I can hardly contain myself. Only 4 hours and 32 minutes to go. I can't wait to see what 'To Live and Let Diorama' has in store for us tonight.

Getting New Tires

I went to go and get new tires for my car today. I did some research on Saturday and got some prices from around town. That is my excuse for not working out on Saturday. And then I had to ponder which place I would go to today so that is my excuse for not working out on Sunday. And you already read that I had to spend almost 2 hours waiting for them to replace the tires and that’s my excuse for not working out today. So get off my back, OK. At least I thought about working out each of those days. And really today isn’t over yet so I still could hop in the car and go to Bally’s but instead, I sit here writing this blog entry.

OK now on to my tire story. I ended up going to the place where my uncle just got his tires, thanks Tobe. I went inside and they said that there were 2 or 3 people ahead of me so it would be 30 minutes until they could get to my car and it would take about an hour for them to replace all of the tires. I told them that was ok, I would wait. I just went out to my car and got some magazines and sat outside to read and wait.

They had 2 lawn chairs outside, one on each side of the entrance. I noticed there was a guy sitting in the other chair but didn’t really give anything or anyone much thought. They were actually quite busy today, cars coming and going the entire time. I noticed a woman pull up to the right of me (I always looked up when I heard a car coming near me, you wanna make sure that they aren’t in there to get their brakes done and instead run over me.) Then a guy came out of the shop and said “Oh I wanted to ask you something else.” and then he walked back inside. I thought he was talking to me so I got up and started to walk towards the door when I noticed that he didn’t work there and was talking to the woman that just pulled up. So instead of looking like an idiot, I walked another couple of steps past the door to see if my car was still sitting outside waiting. It was and then I sat back down and continued to read.

Then the woman came back outside and started talking to me. Asking if there was usually such a long wait. I told her that this was my first time there so I didn’t know. I asked if she was getting her tired fix and she said yeah that her husband had to get a tire changed because it was slashed or something like that. So I told her that they told me it would be around an hour and a half. But then again I also told her that I was having all 4 tires done so I’m sure that would take longer. Then she asked either where my car was or what kind of car I had and I told her the blue Ford Focus. Then she went inside. I didn’t think much of it and then continued reading my magazine.

Then a few minutes later, she comes out with her husband. The husband smiles and says hi to me and then the wife asks if I’m the other woman? WHAT? She says that they are getting a divorce and there is another woman and she was wondering if I was the other woman. I told her no. She said because when she drove up, I got up right away. I explained to her that I thought that her husband asked me a question and then realized that he was talking to her and that I didn’t know who he was. I was like, “Sorry, but it’s not me.” Then she walked inside and the husband made a face at her and followed.

Now even though I didn’t do anything wrong and never met these people before in my life, she really made me feel uncomfortable. I tried to continue reading my magazines but I felt like the woman was watching me the entire time. I kind of felt bad for her because she couldn’t trust her husband but on the other hand I don’t think there was going to be anyway for me to convince her that I wasn’t the other woman. So I just ignored her.

Finally, his tire was done and they were leaving. She got into her car and he got into his truck. Then he rolls down his window and says goodbye. At first I didn’t pay any attention and then he said it again, so I looked up and said goodbye. Now I know he did this just to piss his wife off, but I thought it was funny. Then I continued to read and didn’t notice that she was waiting for him to leave. So then I hear him yell out the window, I’m going home. And he squeals out of the parking lot and she follows him.

Then a couple of minutes later, they pulled my car up so I went inside to pay. When I came outside and got into my car, I noticed that she had come back and was watching me. I guess she really wanted to see if I was there to get tires on my car or if I was the other woman. When I started to pull out of the driveway, she drove off and was in front of me on the road. Luckily she turned before my street so I didn’t have to worry about her following me. At first it was sad, then funny, now creepy. If she started following me, I would have called the cops.

Then on the ride home, that song “Jealousy” came on the radio. I thought it was pretty funny and quite a coincidence.

He's Done It Again

OK Now I'm pissed. I just got home from waiting 2 hours to get new tires on my car (I'll post that story later), and I wanted to watch today's Oprah that I taped. What do I get? An ABC News Special Report: The Papal Conclave.

Does anybody give a shit? Even if they do, can't they wait to hear about it during the newscast? Do we really need to interrupt my regularly scheduled program?

The pope has done it again. I thought he couldn’t piss me off anymore now that he is dead and buried and I don’t have to hear anything about it anymore. Nope, now we get the minute-by-minute coverage of the election of the new pope.

Thankfully, I live in Chicago and they air Oprah once again at 11pm. So I won’t miss the second half of the interview with Jon Stewart. But I really don’t need this kind of inconvenience. Don’t people realize that there are very few things that I look forward to during the day and Oprah is one of them?

DAMN THEM ALL!!!!

The Lottery

Mega Millions is up to $168,000,000 since nobody won last night. I’m gonna have to get a ticket for Tuesday’s game. You know what they say, “Go gotta play to win.” So this gets me thinking about what I would do with $168,000,000. Well if you got it all up front, you’d probably only get what $92,000,000 (I’m using the same percentages as the Indiana Powerball advertises, I hope this is accurate.) Then after taxes, I get what … around $60,000,000. That’s a lot of money. Now I know that money cannot buy you heath and happiness but $60,000,000 can buy a lot of other stuff.

As a side note, it would have been way better if I would have won the German lottery; although I don’t know if their jackpots get as high as ours do … but with the Euro being what now about $1.30 it might equal itself out. Anyway, in Germany you get your lottery winnings tax-free for a year. Than whatever money you didn’t spend in the first year, you get taxed on. How awesome is that? I would spend it all in one year on property if I ran out of stuff to buy and then you could always sell off the property later if you needed more spending cash.

First off, I would build a new house for my parents, my brother, and myself. That would finally split us all up and get the adult kids off on our own. Then I would also get us all new cars. My mom has always dreamed of getting a Mercedes. So I’d probably get whichever one of those she wanted. My mom always says, “In America diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but for us German girls, a Mercedes is our best friend.” So makes up crazy sayings like that all the time.

Like this one time, she says to me “You know what your problem is, you want your cookies … and you want them in a bowl too.” I almost peed my pants on this one. I was like “Mom, don’t you mean you want your cake and eat it too.” The woman just cracks me up sometimes.

Back from my tangent… So after getting houses and cars for the immediate family, I’d move on to the extended family as well (that includes those non-blood relatives too, you know who you are). OK your not getting a newly build house but I’ll pay off your mortgage and get you all new cars. Probably wouldn’t let them all pick out their favorites because you know how some people are. = ) But I would get them all the latest hybrid car that’s out there. I think there are quite a few models out now. But since we only buy America at our house (4 Fords sitting in the driveway), you’d be limited to whatever the American made hybrids are. OK since over half my family is also in Germany you can either get an American or a German car. But I want it to be a hybrid so it’s good for the environment and we need to cut down on our dependency on foreign oil. And if you have a problem with that … well then no car for you. Gosh some people can be so picky.

Then I would put a college fund together for all the kids in the family because I believe education is the key. If one of the cousins decides not to go to college, you’re out of luck, I’m not giving you the money so you can trade in your hybrid car for some sports car. Don’t think I haven’t caught on to your plan.

OK so now the entire family is set. I’ve probably dropped quite a bit of $$$ since my dad has 4 siblings and my mom is the oldest of 8; around $21,500,000 to be exact. (You know I’m really calculating this.)

Then I would finance my brother’s first film. He went to film school at Columbia College in downtown Chicago and has been writing scripts since graduation and working to save up some money to film his first feature length. So I would finance the first, demanding a producer’s credit of course, and hopefully the world would see how brilliant he is and finance the rest of his legacy. OH and since he will then be forever in my debt, he will have to bring me to all the premiers so I can be a part of the glitz and glamour and then go home without all the paparazzi.

Since money isn’t an issue, now I could really get started with my career in entertainment marketing. Right now, I’m confined to finding a job in Chicago’s entertainment industry since I can’t afford to move to California or New York on the salary of a marketing assistant (or whatever other job I could get to get my foot in the industry and learn). BUT if money was no object, then I could move wherever the work was.

OK now I know all my friends out there are getting pissed because it seems like I’ve forgotten about them. Well I’m just getting to that … I guess I would fly all of my real friends (you know not just the ones that came out of the woodwork since my lottery win) on an all expense paid trip to Europe. We could tour all of the major cities and just be the “rude touristy Americans” that the world knows and loves. Don’t worry; we’d do it up right. First class all the way.

Now that family and friends are taken care of, it would be time to move on to humanity. Oh yeah, that’s right, I haven’t forgotten about the rest of the world. But I guess I would start right here at home and get Illinois’s education system up to snuff. I have no idea how many schools are in Illinois and how many school kids there are, but I’d like to build enough schools and hire enough teachers so Illinois became the number 1 state for education. I’d have to get some help from teachers on what the perfect student to teacher ratio is, but I’ll save the details for after I’ve actually won the lottery. I would like all schools to have a healthy liberal arts and sports program to keep kids occupied after school. Somebody get me some quotes on how much this will cost me so I can plug the numbers into my spreadsheet. OH and I would also raise the salaries for all teachers and give them enough money in their budget so they don’t have to spend their own money on supplies. A teacher’s salary should reflect their contribution to society and that would definitely call for raises.

After education in Illinois is taken care of and becomes the benchmark for the rest of the nation, I would like to move on to the police, paramedics, and fire fighters. Get them the equipment and salaries that they deserve as well. (I’m also thinking this would give me some leeway the next time a cop pulls me over for speeding.)

OK well since I’m not sure how much the last 2 things are going to cost me, I’ll have to stop for now. Besides the fact that I don’t know how many people are going to read this long posting, but if you’ve made it this far, leave me a comment and let me know.

Poker

I'm not very good at Poker because I really don't bluff well and I always forget what beats what. So my dad helped me out and wrote it our for me once. Just in case you wanted to know.

Poker
(WHAT BEATS WHAT)

Only the best 5 cards count

High Card
1 Pair
2 Pair
3 of a Kind
Straight - i.e. 2-3-4-5-6 any suit
Flush – all 5 cards same suit
Full House – 3 of a kind plus 1 pair
4 of a Kind
Straight Flush - i.e. 2-3-4-5-6 same suit
Royal Flush - A-K-Q-J-10 same suit
5 of a Kind (if playing with wild cards)

I Finally Did It

Well, I finally did it. I went to the gym and worked out today. I bought a 3 year Bally's membership back around January of 2003. Then went to Germany for a year and since coming back to the States in June of 2004, I've been to the gym once. Well now I can say twice. That was a thousand dollars well spent.

My brother goes all the time and invites me along (that would account for 1 of the 2 times) but he wants to spend at least an hour or two there and that is just too long for me. I guess I get bored too easily.

So today after tanning (I figured I was already hot and sweaty so why not), I headed to the gym. I started out on the treadmill. My goal was to walk a brisk walk for 5 minutes, then run for 2 and so on. ... Well I made it through the first run but then I only lasted about a minute on the second run and decided to just do the brisk walk for 20 minutes. Baby steps. = ) After that, I tried some of the machines but I hate it when I have to wait for a machine. Needless to say, I only spent about 30 minutes at the gym today but I figure that gives me alot of room for improvement.

We'll see if I go back tomorrow. = )

Post-Bush Map of North America

Thankfully Illinois is part of the United States of Canada. At least I don't have to move anytime soon.

How Congress Is Voting

Track your senators' and representative's votes by e-mail!

Each week (that Congress is in session) you will receive:
• Key votes by your two Senators and U.S. Representative.
• Links to send e-mail to your members of Congress using pre-addressed forms.
• Upcoming votes for your review and links to offer e-mail input before they vote.

You can go to this website to sign up and keep tabs on what your representatives are voting for.

http://www3.capwiz.com/y/megavote/

Thursday's Dr. Phil - Unethical Marriages

I was watching Thursday's Dr. Phil episode and it was about unethical marriages. So you have the 69 year old man who divorces his wife of 49 years and marries a 27 year old Chinese woman a day before her visa expires, a woman who was married to a guy in prison and now he's getting out, and the best one was a man and a woman who get married and afterwards find out that they have the same father. Yup, they are brother and sister.

Now this really got me thinking. Granted I guess this could happen alot if your dad was sleeping around and had kids that you didn't know about. But what if he didn't know about it either. This got me thinking of sperm banks; specifically anonymous sperm donors. Does anybody really know how many times a guy goes in to donate sperm? So what if some poor college kid is trying to make some extra money and goes to donate his sperm on a regular basis. And a couple of women get pregnant with his sperm. Some 18, 20 years go by and what if both his kids meet up and get married. How will they ever know that they are related? This could be a huge epidemic. What will we have to do, get DNA tests before we get a marriage license to make sure that we aren't related?

Now I’m relatively sure that I know who my real parents are (there is some resemblance to both sides of the family in one way or another). But I don’t know if my dad gave sperm sometime in his life. And it doesn’t even have to be my dad, what about his brothers, cousins, and pretty much any male in my family.

See and you thought the dating pool of available men was small, guess what, it just got smaller. I’m telling you, think about that DNA test before you tie the not. It’s better to find out before, than after.

Comments

OK so I received the comment below for my "Downfall" post and I started writing a response in the comment section but then decided it was long enough that I should just make another post on it. So here it is.

Anonymous said...
"well I guess I can understand why the Iraqis are so mad" - Talked to any Iraqis recently? Oh, I have. And actually, they are extremely grateful. Yes, there is plenty of desolation and destruction, and that is from the crazed insurgents that will bomb the hell out of anything just because they have been subjected to the, as you call it, propaganda and "brainwashing" their entire lives into thinking that we in the US are the evil. Those who are capable of thinking for themselves are more than happy that the coalition is there and appreciate that they are trying to help the Iraqis help themselves. I find your "liberal thoughts" extrememly narrow-minded from someone who, as it sounds to me, has been also "brainwashed" into believing everything the liberal media says is law. Maybe you should consider talking to both sides before you enlighten us.

Which Iraqis are extremely grateful? Yeah that is what the so-called "liberal media" keeps on showing us but I'm talking about the pure numbers. So which Iraqis have you talked to? You can find Iraqis that support this war just like you can find Americans that support this war. But the same goes for the opposite. I would just like to see equal representation of the people of Iraq. Let's poll them all and find out how many are mad and how many are grateful.

No one even knows the number of civilian casualties because it really isn't as important to us as the number of US soldiers killed. I'm saying both numbers are equally important.

Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq

Min Max

17355 19740

according to http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Want to know what some Iraqis think, check out their Blog http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

Also, check out some documentaries because the so-called "liberal media" doesn't seem willing to say anything against this administration.

Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism by Robert Greenwald

Control Room

I agree that the insurgents have been brainwashed into thinking that the US is evil, but what I don't agree with is the way the US has decided to deal with the problem because they have only made it worse. Yes the Iraqis are now free and they held free elections, but look at the number of people who have been killed. More importantly look at the increase in number of insurgents. Instead of eliminating the problem, we managed to make it worse. So is the US safer since invading Iraq, I don't think so. Do the Iraqis feel safer? Well I guess we would have to ask them all in order to get an accurate depiction but look at the destruction that war has done to their land and property, look at the civilian victims, and my question is "was the price worth it?" Maybe it is, but could it have been done in a way where the price of freedom wasn't so great. I guess we will never know.

What I do know is this: there are no weapons of mass destruction, Iraq was not gearing up for war with the US, Saddam and bin Laden are not partners and in fact opposed one another.

P.S. I encourage comments on my BLOG, especially those of opposing viewpoints, but if you want to comment, why do it anonymously? At least have the courage to state your views and stand behind them.

PEACE

Love

I recently met up with some friends that I hadn’t seen in a while and we somehow got on this subject. I was saying how one of our friends was looking better as he aged. Then someone else chimed in that “they say people start to look better to you, the more you get to know them”. After reassuring her that this was not the case in this instance, I started thinking about it all.

So really what “they say” is that there are two different ways to fall in love. I guess you have

1. Love at first sight
2. Over time, they start to look better to you

Personally, I don’t buy the love at first sight theory. Lust at first sight I can buy, but love. Come on, it takes more than good looks for me to fall in love with you. So I guess that leaves me with “the more you know, the better they look”. Now I have experienced this but after thinking about it, couldn’t this just be nothing more than desperation. You start out as friends, and after a couple months, years maybe, nobody better has come along, so you say Hey, they’re not so bad after all. Maybe they don’t start looking better to you but through desperation, your standards have just gone down so now they are good enough.

Now, the romantic in me would like to think that I’m not in love with you because nothing better has come along, so maybe there is a third scenario that meets the other 2 in the middle. Maybe you start seeing this guy because of the lust factor (after all, you do need attraction), then after knowing him for a while, you start to see that there is more to him than meets the eye and that’s what you fall in love with.

But, hey I’m just an amateur at this, what do you think?

Downfall (Der Untergang)

My brother and I saw the movie Downfall last Friday and it was great. It depicts the last 10 days of Hitler's life, from his 56th birthday on April 20th, 1945 to his suicide on April 30th. I have read alot about this film in the Hollywood Reporter over the last couple of months and I was looking forward to seeing it. Let me tell you, it does not disappoint. The German actor who plays Hitler (Bruno Ganz) was phenomenal. It was refreshing to see Hitler depicted as a human being. You could see why he was such a charismatic leader. Don't get me wrong, no one is going to leave the theatre saying "Oh, that poor Hitler", but it is nice to see the different sides of Hitler and leave the audience open to make their own conclusion.

I never understood why people would give their life for a lost cause, but after watching this film, I got it. With all the propaganda and rhetoric that Hitler used, his followers actually believed that life wouldn't be worth living if the Third Reich fell. And as a result, many of those same people committed suicide along with Hitler.

It reminded me of the interviews that you see today on the news of the soldiers that have made it back alive and in one piece from Iraq who reenlist to be sent back. I guess when you have invested so much in something; it’s hard to admit defeat. Or maybe they are just all brainwashed into believing they are doing the right thing. If I made it out alive, I would be well on my way to Canada before I reenlisted, but that’s just me.

Another thing that hit me with the movie was the absolute destruction of war. I guess since we are privileged in this country and have never seen the aftermath of an all out war, we don't give it much thought. But in Downfall, when some of the women leave the Bunker to go outside for a cigarette, the utter destruction just hits you. Think of walking out of your front door, to see everything destroy. I guess if you were lucky, you would be evacuated from the area before the war got to you, but imagine having to go back to your home to see nothing there. I guess you would be happy to be alive but after that wears off, you start to miss all those things that you took for granted. Like your child’s baby pictures and home movies. When you think about an entire town losing its history and culture … well I guess I can understand why the Iraqis are so mad. I would be pissed too if I had to lose everything in order to gain a “better life”.

Another Day...Another Day

Well another week has gone by and I'm still unemployed. I got a call from my temp agency last week saying they had a receptionist position for me at Starbucks. They hyped it all up and told me that it would be a temp-to-hire position so if I was interested, I could have a full time job. After thinking about it and deciding I might as well take this position since it is better than temp work, the temp agency called back and told me that they lost the job. Apparently Starbucks decided to go with someone within the company. So last week was just another disappointment from the temp agency. I'm starting to expect nothing less from them.

I got a list of headhunters from a friend of mine so I am going to call them tomorrow along with some other agencies that specialize in marketing. Hopefully they will be better at finding me work.

Although it seems like "the life", there is only so much Oprah and Dr. Phil that I can take before I need something to occupy my time. Don't get me wrong, the Sims 2 University expansion pack can fill many hours of my day but once your butt falls asleep, it kind of ruins it for you.