Cheney's Got a Gun,

They really shouldn't allow this on a weekend with so many kids out for trick or treating.

Speaking of Cheney my brother forwarded me this video of Cheney's argument not to invade Iraq when Clinton was president. This surfaced about a month back, to bad it didn't come out before the war started or to bad Cheney didn't remember his own words. And Kerry was suppose to be the flip flopper?

The Difference a Year Makes,

I only went to one Admiral game last year and it was a 0-0 tie. How boring. I went to my first game of the season last night and it was a little different.

I went up to the ticket booth and the ticket they were offering was four rows off the ice, but off to the side. At first I was hesitant because I always seem to get stuck on the side that the Admirals are only attacking once. However I noticed they now show which side the Admirals are attacking twice (first and third periods) and that was where our tickets were, so I snatched them up. Before the game started a cute girl skated out on the ice winked at me and threw right to me her shirt. Ok a bunch of girls skated out throwing promotional shirts and right to me would've been someone else shirt if the seats next to me had people in them and she didn't wink, but she was cute. So the first period was a go. Not too much happened until the Admirals had a shorthanded break away with a beautiful pass between the legs, a pass back and the red light went on.

On to the second period where the Admirals were attacking the net on the other side of the ice. And when I say attack I mean it, they scored 6 goals that period. With a 7-0 score the game was getting a little out of hand. One of their roughnecks picked a fight with an Admiral who's talents didn't include fighting, but their guy got an instigating and misconduct so it wasn't too bad. Then an Admiral pummeled one of their guys.

In the third beer period the Admirals scored another shorthanded goal (same guy actually) and lost the shut out on a 5 on 3 with a minute and a half left it the game.

So in the end I got a free t-shirt, watched a route and had a good time.

(Write up)

Wrong One,

Yesterday I was telling the guy I'm working with how much I liked the show Arrested Development. Today he told me he was going to have to show me the paper because there was an article about the show coming back. I was all excited, this could be the best thing that ever happened to me. I got home and one of the first things I checked when I got online was the story. Once I found it I laughed and then got a little sad. It was the wrong arrested development.

Shattered Che,

Despite what some people say I'm not a socialist and I don't idolize Che Guevara. I do think he was an interesting person who lead an interesting life, but that is hardly praising him. One thing I do love about him is how insane he drives conservatives. I came across this story while watching the nephews (our taste in movies is different) last night.

A glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto “Ché” Guevara was destroyed less than two weeks after it was unveiled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government.

They shot it up and smashed it with sledge hammers. You got to be pretty full of hate to pull shit like that.

Although no suspects have been identified, Padilla said it must be the work of a group with links to Venezuelans and Cubans living in Miami,

That's pretty far to go to smash some glass. And why would you use glass to build a monument in a rural area. Road signs in norther Wisconsin could've told you that's trouble.

Someone is going to have to account for her were abouts last week.

Vicious Circles,

When I arrived at break sometime mid last week, two of the guys were talking to each other in low conspiratorial voices. I made a comment about them passing secrets and they told me, "someone else is getting laid off on Friday. We don't know who just someone." Although a week ago I wrote about how I didn't think I was going to get laid off soon, that had all disappeared last week. Because they were talking in low voices and obviously weren't telling me everything I wondered about my job, but I've been here before so I didn't worry.

Without getting into details some other stuff happened during the week that made me think it was my last and them some other stuff happened that made me think I would be staying awhile. When lay offs start it becomes easy to over read things.

Anyways Wednesday I came down with a very weak cold. By Friday I was worn out and told my boss that I was going to leave at noon. I would've just called in sick, but because I thought I might be getting laid off that day I didn't want to have to come in on Monday and do the walk of shame to pick up my tools. I also figured that this would force his hand, if he was going to lay me off he would have to either do it then or at least say something like, "make sure you see me before you go." Neither thing happened and if fact he told me about some work I would be doing next week.

Later on a fitter walked up to me. I think because he thought I was talking to myself because I was in a small room and the guy I was working with was laying under the duct. Once it was established that I wasn't insane the subject quickly went to lay offs and he told me that one of the fitters jokingly told someone that four tinners and two fitters were going to get laid off. The fitter we were talking to was present and assured us that he said it in a very joking way. Anyways this story went all the way around the job and back to the fitter that originally started the story. So I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of that twisted game of telephone. To my defense the guys that told me were morbidly serious (I would be too if I owned houses as expensive as them).

So in the end I don't really know if anyone got laid off because I was home sleeping when it would've happened.

Into the Wild,

I went to see my much talked about Into the Wild last night. The whole theater experience was much better than my last outing. And on top of that the movie was great! Sean Penn did a remarkable job making this movie. The only criticism I had was I thought he could of developed the relationship with the hippies more, but that is probably one of those "the book was better," type of criticism. I thought this book would be hard to make into a movie, but at the risk of sounding redundant Penn pulled if off.

Once again very good.

Time Traveler,

The Time Traveler's Wife
by; Audrey Niffenegger

The time traveler's wife is a story about a guy with a genetic abnormality that causes him to time travel. His trips go back to related times in his life, but the story mostly deals with his trips where he visits his wife as a child.

I first came across this book in a writing class I took a few years ago (although it is a very popular book). We read the first chapter for the class and I really liked it. For some strange reason I originally thought the author was a guy. Then I read a sex scene, from the man's point of view, and thought 'this is a girl writing'. I went back and checked it out and found I was right. There was something about the description that just seemed off to me. This would happen a couple more times in the book.

One of the main things about this book is that it is switching first person. Each section starts out with CLARA or HENRY and that is the first person. This makes the story a bit confusing at times, causing me to look back to see who is in first person. At first I really didn't like this, but then realized that this was the only way that she could tell the story from both points of view which made the book much more interesting. Although I think there was some unnecessary switches.

One thing that I really didn't like was she would write in French (maybe Latin too) and not translate it. It was only a sentence here and there, but it still annoyed me.

I also liked that they made one of the main characters a punk, but it was from the 80's which was just a bad time in punk rock.

For the most part I enjoyed reading it. It got a little to love story towards the end and it took a little effort to believe some of the time traveling stuff, but the strength of the story more than made up for it.

And they are making a movie out of it.

Catalog Choice,

This is cool, that catalog choice I wrote about a couple of days ago is getting noticed outside of liberal blogs.

The Character of Cars,

As I walk down Wisconsin to work every morning I walk past all my coworkers cars. Some tell me interesting stories.

The fitter boss has all these sports type cars. I think he could drive a different car to work every day of the week. But each one is a pile of shit; bondoed, bolted and rusted together. I don't know why he doesn't just concentrate on one and make it a decent car.

There is a nice trunk if you like that kind of thing. It has a camouflage wind thing on the hood and camouflage runner along the side. And not just any camouflage, I'm sure it has a name like north forest camouflage. It strikes me that whoever owns this truck's favorite color is camouflage. How twisted.

In the same vane is the guy who has a arrow shaft for his antenna.

Usually on my walk home I notice a beat little car with a moose and international crane foundation sticker on the back. I look in the window and see an iron worker book. An iron worker conservationist, wow! As different I am from you an iron worker is from me. Pretty impressive. He gets there before me and leaves after so I've never seen the guy, but would love to put a face to the car.

Also where I park in the morning is where the nursing college students park and I realize this world is getting noticeably younger.

Gun to the Head,

I forgot to write about this in the last post.

So I was talking to a guy I work with about the layoffs he said he thought his would be coming soon because he takes a lot of days off. Then he told me how he called in sick the other day because one of his girlfriends (not the one he lives with one of the other two that supposedly know he has multiple girlfriends) had a gun to his head until three the night before. There are some guys at work I know are full of shit (well one less now), but he is not one of them. He told me, "I knew the gun was loaded and could see the safety was off. I thought I was dead." When he first told me about his three girlfriends a few weeks ago all I could think was that doesn't even sound like fun, not to mention pretty sleazy. Maybe the gun to the head will change his ways, but I doubt it.

Well Cheers again.

It's Started,

For a couple weeks my coworkers have been speculating about lay offs. One guy said they would start in two weeks (I was leaning towards a month) and I'm sure he wished he was wrong because he got it today. That sucked because this was the guy that I talked to at lunch. Now I'm stuck with the conspirators. Ugh. They also laid off a guy that the only thing that was surprising about was why it took them this long. Supposedly another guy got it, but it isn't quite clear on who that was; a useless preapprentice or the other foreman. There was a weird story about the other foreman hurting his knee while playing football last night that sounds very suspicious to me, anyways he is not suppose to be back, but it's not clear to me if he was the third guy or not.

Working for an out of town contractor like I am it is pretty much a given that a lay off is inevitable. I'm not to worried now because I'm usually worried when I get laid off so because I'm not worried makes me more not worried. I feel like I'll make it to sometime in December if not later, but that is just a guess. Right now I'm thinking it will be a steady drip of layoffs for the next couple of months, so we shall see how this all plays out. I thought there was a lot of work out there, but I heard one of the guys that got laid off say he was fifty something on the list. That's a lot more guys off than I thought. Well they say a lot of work is coming up, but I've heard that before.

Anyways the guy I was working with took off at noon to get hammered. God Bless him. Pizza, whiskey sours and PBS for me tonight.
Cheers!

Nothing Happening,

As I was drinking talking politics in a bar (ironically named White House) last weekend my friend said something I've been thinking for some time. Nothing is really happening, it seems like everyone is just waiting for the next election. A few things have come up for renewal, but besides that it's just boring. I kind of understand it, the president has dug his heals in, so for anything to go through the Democrats would need a super majority and republicans just don't do that. So everyone is waiting for the next election when the democrats will gain seats in the senate and probably get the white house. I'd guess congress would stay blue or slightly shift shades one way or the other, but I'm just not a big enough wanker to make a prediction on 435 seats (wow I guessed at that number and got it right). Although this stagnate period will probably be over shortly since primaries will be starting right after the new year.

I think the only thing for me that has changed is instead of favoring Edwards with an eye on Obama. I've decided that since my state has a late primary and probably won't matter that I can just vote for whoever is the strongest against Hilary candidate.

But anyways with a lack of politics to write about and trying to put up at least a couple of posts a week, I'm going to start what I've wanted to do for a while write reviews books that I read. I've always meant to do this, but for some reason never got around to it. I don't read very fast so it will probably be around one a month depending on length and interest. Usually I rotate between fiction and nonfiction. It won't be so much a traditional review of the book more of my thoughts and impressions of the book. I got only about twenty pages left in my current book so look for a review this weekend.

It changes,

Found a link to this on Kos, are you Right brain or Left brain? The first time I looked at it it was going counterclockwise, but the two times after that (to get the link) it was going clockwise. So I guess I'm both.

Phone Book Funny,

Around three different companies send me phone books and each of them send three different types of books. Every time I see them on my front step all I can think is, how waste full. So many trees for something I will never use and don't want. Although I keep them in a cupboard, I never take them out until it is time to recycle them. I've looked for ways to opt. out, but haven't found any. Anyways Kos agrees with me, and catalogs. I signed up for Catalogchoice.

And here are some funny clips I found at Crooks and Liars;
Daily Show, SNL

The Fix is in,

The guys I work with are convinced that the Packer game was fixed. Although I would agree there were some pretty shitty calls, I would hardly call it a fix. One guy went so far out of the bounds of reality to claim that the reffs have buzzers on their belts that tell them when to call penalties. He, "has a friend with an inside source." I sure hope if I have bat shit crazy ideas like that I'm smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

And they also believe the government blew up the buildings during 9-11.

Gotta Suck,

Imagine you tried to kill yourself and failed. Not a get attention high school suicide, but a very serous one. Imagine having to face people after that and explain how you thought life just wasn't worth living, especially to the people you know care for you. Then try to explain how it won't happen again. Now imagine that you are a famous actor who has to walk down run ways and will probably have to explain himself in some sort of late night interview, probably for the rest of your life. Now imagine that the first movie your in after that you play a guy who is recovering from a possible suicide attempt.

I hope Owen Wilson is alright or gets better.

Bug Castro,

I've been meaning to write this since last weekend, but haven't found time. I don't want it to get too far away from me so I'm going to skip my usual Wednesday night fiction writing to write about a couple of Netflixs I watched last weekend.

Bug This movie reminded me of Memento or Internal Sunshine OTSM, kind of a mind-fuck movie that takes you into the world of a paranoid, tinfoil hat, crazy who's narcissism seemingly start small but escalate rather quickly. The thing I really liked about the movie is how believable the escalation and how he convinces the lady to go along with him was. Don't get me wrong you think the guy is crazy, it's just believable. It wasn't as good as Memento or ISOTSM, I was only going to give it 3 stars, but since I highly recomend it I bumped it up to 4.

Fidel: The Castro Project This was actually a two part miniseries on Showtime that they should have did a better job splitting up on the DVD since it's run time is over three hours. The very beginning doesn't fit into the movie, then it gets a little boring for awhile and the end was also boring. But in between was a very good look at an idealist, liberal, revolution turned into oppressive dictatorship. A subject that keeps popping up in my life lately.

Silence,

I came across this article today;

Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when they run solely on electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it's safe to cross the street or walk through a parking lot.

I can vouch for this. One time while walking to my campsite at Kohler-Andrae at night, I had a similar incident with a hybrid with only its parking lights on. Maybe they should put bells on the bumpers.

Scary people,

Today I hustled out of work because I had a dentist appointment and time was a bit tight. Just before I got to my car a guy stopped me and said, "Excuse me sir, where is the mental health facility?" Yikes! It reminded me of the time I had to do a job in Milwaukee county jail, right in a pod with all the prisoners walking around me. It stuck me how scary someone becomes just by putting an orange jumpsuit on.

Anyways for the news that all Johntown readers are waiting for no cavities!!!

Putin,

Putin basically appoints himself Prime minister, although this write up down plays it a bit compared to other sources I have seen. It sounds to me like he will take this post and run the country through a puppet president. I think this is widely underreported in our little country, maybe because people aren't interested or occupied with other enemies. To me this looks like a Putin dictatorship is right around the corner if not already here. This is going to be a great disappointment to my ultra conservative friend who lists Putin as one of the people she wants to meet on her myspace page, if he is dictator I don't think he will have time to visit her.

I listen to a Russian talk last year at a friends birthday party. He talked a lot. He mentioned Putin and I asked him his opinion about him. He said he liked him, but didn't want him to be president again because he would basically become a dictator. He also said his grandfather who lived most of his life under a dictatorship would welcome back that type of government. I found his comments on this subject interesting.

I wonder if it will go back the old communism or just go to oppressive regime. Communism is weird to me. Most describe it as far left wing, however to me freedom of the press and free elections are basic staples of liberalism. Communism to me seems what happens when conservatives try to be left wing.

Anyways stand by for the next cold war.

That was stupid,

Like I said I wanted to see the movie The Kingdom. I saw previews for it early in the spring, before I got back to work. I was really looking forward to seeing it, however as it got closer and I saw some of the television ads I became a little less excited, but still wanted to see it. Anyway it came out last weekend and I went to see it last night. I wanted to go to an early show, hopefully a matinee to get in for a few dollars less, but that is hard to do starting at 7 (some jobs start at 6 making matinees much easier to attend). I settled on a 6:40 start time.

So I pulled into the parking lot and get to the cashier and say, "one for The Kingdom." She says, "The 6:40 at the palladium dinner theater or the 7:45 ultra screen?" I said, "What did you say the 6:40 was?" "Palladium dinner theater, it's a two item minimum... are you going to have soda and a popcorn?" "No!" the candy bars in my pocket will suffice. The next show time being an hour away I walked out. I was pretty pissed, that's too much. Just show the movies in normal theaters and I'll take care of dinner myself. This is a new theater, last time I was there I saw an indie movie and it was in a theater that had only about five rows. Although it seemed promising that it will probably have some smaller budget movies, there wasn't the going to the theater feeling that I pay nine fucking dollars for. It felt more like I was watching the movie at some rich guy's house and I don't like rich people, especially when they don't really exist. So far this new theater really sucks.

So anyways I was pissed off and thought maybe I should just wait for the movie to come out on DVD and I could spend the night reading my book and watching Heroes. I got home and check other show times and made the mistake of deciding to still go see the movie.

I drove out to Delafield. Although I probably would of save a little time going to the later show at the Majestic I was pissed at them and didn't want to give them my money (even thought they were both Marcus). So I go into the theater and there is only one other couple there. That seemed promising. A few more people filtered in during the wait. Then as the commercials started (something else I hate, but I won't get into that now) about five couples came in. Two ladies sat right behind me and another couple sat three seats away. In a big theater with only about ten couples and me there was no reason to crowd me. One of the people that sat right by me was real fidgety and moved around a lot during the movie, that was a much minor annoyance compared to the ladies that sat right behind me and whispered all through the movie.

Anyways, I was expecting a political contemporary movie about the middle east along the lines of Syriana. For about the first two thirds that's what I got. A little far fetched, but still enjoyable. Then the movie digressed into a Die Hard type of shoot' em up movie. As I was watching three FBI agents running around a slum in Saudi Arabia indiscriminately shooting, I thought this must be the part that Bin Ladin wrote. However they did make a good point at the end and did a good job at making it. Maybe I was a bit harsh in criticism because of all hassle involved with seeing this movie, I'll have to watch it again at home away from all the stupid, over priced theater bullshit. More than likely that'll be the last time I go to a theater to see a movie.

So I gave it 3 netflix stars; a wait for rental, but still a decent watch.

On the plus side if IMDB's message boards can be trusted Into the Wild should be out in most theaters sometime mid-October, so I'll be going to the theater again soon.