rew | ff

Nerd alert

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

So, not to brag or anything, but Sean and I build one hell of an automatic transmission.

I'm a lot like Al Capone, actually

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

So there's a warrant out for me in Oregon now, because I haven't paid my state taxes in two years. Whoops.

The upshot of this is that I'm very likely dropping out of school. Not sure what I'll be doing, but I clearly need money and going back to Oregon seems like a dubious idea, so New York will probably be my destination. I keep forgetting I have a degree already that is useful only in two towns (NYC and LA), so maybe it's best to see if I can still do something with it.

I'll try to write more tomorrow... other developments (Sean's car apparently making the Vegas trip its last hurrah) have kept me busy. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, one more thing... FUCK THE LAKERS!!! Hooray for Rasheed Wallace and the failure of the NBA's maddeningly obvious game-fixing policies.

Ah, Christ, I can't find it...

Monday, June 14, 2004

To hell with it!

I say again, defense and pitching win ball games.

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Holy shit, there's a new New Coke. I guess it worked out so well last time, why not try it again?

If you haven't read this, it's worth checking out. Bruce Springsteen posted it on his site, but it's a recent speech by Al Gore. It's very long, but it's a great read and serves to re-ask the question: How in the name of all that is holy did we manage to elect a retarded Texan, who is so brainless that as owner of the Texas Rangers he never managed to learn that pitching is what wins baseball games (a clear sign of things to come, as he not only ignored years of knowledge and experience, but stubbornly stuck with his losing plan even when it was abundantly clear that it was a miserable failure), over Al Gore? So Gore's kind of boring. At least his IQ is higher than that of my socks.

Apparently when I'm stuck home alone my mind turns to politics. I apologize to anyone whom I've offended over the last couple of days. These are just my opinions; I'm not saying I'm right or wrong.

This morning those dudes came by and bought my spare 5 speed transmission. I intended to eventually put it in my car, but the need for money is more pressing than the need for an overdrive gear at this point. They seemed interested in the car, but I don't think they would have offered very much money, and I'd already decided I should hold on to it for a while (we'll need both cars once I start double-phasing). Other than that, I've just been bumming around all day. Right now the Red Sox are on TV, as well as the Pistons / Lakers game, so I'm switching between the two, favoring the Sox. Pedro's pitching, after all.

Sean and Dane apparently got a late start out of Vegas, so they're on the road now. Hopefully Sean's car will prove me wrong and make it there and back with no trouble. Once the games are over I'll probably head over to the pool or something... still going solo for a couple more hours.

One is the loneliest number

Saturday, June 12, 2004

Yesterday Sean and I got out of school early (again), because the move over to the new campus is taking longer than expected. Surprise, surprise. Anyway, it was another unexpected treat, particularly because Sean had been planning on cutting out early anyway for his and Dane's trip to Vegas, and this way he didn't have to miss any time.

So today was the first day of my lonely weekend. I stayed in last night, played Max Payne, watched TV and went to bed early. Work was extremely hectic... at this point, Freakshow has realized that I'm more than capable of doing a lot of the smaller jobs that come in to the shop and is having me do them instead of the mechanics (that way all the money from the job goes straight to the shop). This is nice in that I definitely enjoy working on cars more than cleaning up the shop, but annoying in that Freakshow still acts like I'm five years old while I'm working, giving me "tips" on incredibly easy things like oil changes and tire rotation. Also, doing a bunch of extra work means it's difficult to impossible to keep up on the more ordinary things I'm supposed to do each day. The bosses don't take it into account that they've basically doubled my workload, and keep giving me shit about not getting the regular stuff done. And to top it off, Freakshow is now skimming 50% off any extra money I do make (for stuff like patching tires, tips, etc) to help cover up his frequent thefts from the cash box. With my double-phasing plan, I've only got about 2 months left working there, and I can't wait until it's over.

Once I got home I immediately got drunk and called Kramer to bitch about all the Reagan sympathy (see yesterday's entry). A drunk Sean called from Las Vegas to tell me how crazy it is... he said it's more overwhelming than New York was the first time he was there. I played Max Payne some more, sobered up, and went to meet Bobby and Aaron at a tavern in Peoria. We had yet another cute, friendly waitress who I wouldn't mind getting to know better.

With all due respect...

Friday, June 11, 2004

Today, for the first time since I started this job, I switched the radio in the shop van away from NPR. I've had it. I can't take any more about Reagan. I understand not wanting to speak ill of the dead. But it's been a week now, and this guy finally, mercifully died at age 93 after a long illness. Nick Berg, at 26, had his head sawn off by terrorists and the video of it posted on the internet for despicable automotive students to laugh at. One was in the news for about 2 days; one continues on every radio and news channel for what may end up being weeks on end. I don't get it.

To me this is an extremely disturbing example of denial on what appears to be a national scale. Phoenix is by no means a barometer for the rest of the country (thank god), but from what I hear the sentiment here does not differ too much from that of New York City. I think this is insane. I was 11 years old when Reagan left office, and I have absolutely no trouble recalling all the problems, controversies and inconsistencies of his presidency. And I have, as has been noted in this space, an atrocious memory. How are all these 30 and 40 year olds blocking all of this out? How is anyone who isn't rich remembering this man fondly? How on earth can we still, as a country, hold total bullshit like Clinton's affair to be a somehow greater sin than all the shit that Reagan and the Bushes have pulled over their near 16 years of running the country? How the flying fuck can NPR, which surely owes many of its troubles to these administrations, look the other way for a week straight? This is driving me insane.

At this point I am entirely sick of people in general. I'm sure this is symptomatic of living in Phoenix, but I also think I need to get out of this country for a while. I think we in this country are a ridiculous, disgusting group for the most part. Simply based on a typical day at my work and school, I can say that we are dishonest, irresponsible, self-righteous, fat, viscious, uncaring, selfish, greedy, fat, stupid, fat, lazy, and fat. And we clearly don't learn from our mistakes. No wonder the Bush administration is so cynical in its views of the typical American, and seems to think we will all believe whatever it says, no matter how contradictory or blatantly untrue.

© Long Shot Films 2004