4.29.2006

Someone almost had a meltdown over nothing...

So, I went to one of my favorite specialty grocery stores this morning to load up on the usual suspects of fruit leather, cereal bars, stone ground wheat tortilla chips and a few other items that we like. Anyway, we don't go to Trader Joes every week since there are only specific items that we get from there, therefore it tends to be like a once every month or two trip to stock up on the items that are much better than anywhere else. They rearranged the store. They painted the walls and put up some new decor and sealed their stone floors. It looks good and I was not bothered by the rearrangement since I knew the items I was looking for were still there even if they happened to be in a different aisle. Anyway, no big deal. I see a few older people talking about how confused they are. Ok, that's fair to assume they might be resistant to change. No big deal. So, I find all of my items and get to the checkout counter and the guy says, "Did you find everything you were looking for?" I said, "Yes, but it was kind of an adjustment to the new layout." He said, "Yeah, we're really sorry about that." I said, "Naw, it's no big deal. If you didn’t have what I was looking for, then I might have a problem." INSERT: OBLIGATORY LAUGHS. The guy tells me, "I'm glad you said the new layout was ok since I have already been cussed out by a few people; literally. They were older people and really frustrated by the new layout." I said, "Are you serious?" He says, "I wish I wasn't." I have much respect for the older generation, but I hope that I don't have such a short fuse when it comes to change when I get to their age. The fact that I am part of the Internet generation might be an advantage. Either way, I just think the people pissed off by the new store layout have a much easier life than many people because it was not that serious and certainly nothing to elevate the pressure over...

4.23.2006

On a recent trip to the grocery store....


..you never know what you will see. :p

4.17.2006

Just be yourself. Sooner or later, things work out...


Sheesh...The story is so typical. Guy sees girl. Girl doesn't really notice guy, but guy thinks that he can convince her to think otherwise. The backdrop for this situation is on the job. The timeframe was today. The guy and girls in this drama will remain nameless (of course). Anyway, I was walking down a particular hallway and see the girl and she is walking down the hall as if on eggshells since she had like 6 different sized boxes in her hands that were just delivered. I felt this was going to end badly for her, but I let the drama play itself out as I was getting closer. She had a look of concentration on her face and I waited until I was closer to greet her. I had already intended to ask her if she needed some help since I knew this pseudo-balancing act was about to come to an end. Well, I look in her direction and say, "Hey, ________, how are you?" Not meaning to startle her, but also not being surprised that she reacted to an above average volume greeting. The boxes jumped out of her hands onto the floor. Ok, well, I said, "Let me help you with those." Before I could even knell down, a guy from the other side of the building flies past me down the hallway and grabs some of the boxes and says to me, "Let me show you how it's done." I said, "Uh, ok. It's all you." I let the sarcasm in my eyes speak to this girls eyes and she knew I would circle back for a reaction to this silly episode later on because this is not the first incident in which this guy tries to be her hero. The point here is that if this guy (or any guy) just plays it cool and loses the whole "junior-high-passing-a-note-with-two-check-boxes-yes-or-no" mindset, the girls will notice, but when you play the "I-have-it-all-under-control-but-I-look-like-a-Fabio-wannabe-on-a-romance-novel" mindset, then you just look like a clown.

4.13.2006

Gimme six!!


...just because.

4.09.2006

4.05.2006

Apocalypto


I heard about this film a few months ago and I read some more info on it today and I am hyped to see it. I am a huge fan of Mel Gibson directed films. Even if you were to remove the storylines and subject matter, you are left with an amazingly detailed and scored film that really strikes so many emotions. The Passion of the Christ was amazing in terms of it's cinema graphic qualities. Some people were upset at the use of an old (Aramaic) language, but I really think it lends to the authenticity of a film. If you can read, you should not be upset a subtitles. Man, get over it! The use of light, sound, costumes, camera angles and many other subtleties made that movie one of my absolute favorites.
I think Apocalypto has a lot to live up to since The Passion set the bar pretty high for Gibson. I really enjoy documentaries about the Mayan people and find the artifacts and historical accounts from that time intriguing. Apparently, Gibson is resurrecting an old Mayan language for this film as well. I'm not even Mexican, but I think attention to the Mayan people is a great situation and should spur interest that may not have been achieved otherwise. The teaser trailer for the film looks interesting, but I hope they release another one soon for more of a sense of the characters. CG gets lame sometimes and I think this film will do a great job in the use of realism based on dozens of takes on certain scenes and an obsessive attention detail on Gibson's directing. We shall see......

4.01.2006

Relax babies. Try to understand before you speak...


Oh man....even I am not immune to the situation at hand in this post. I may have instantly made some enemies for myself at no fault of my own. Allow myself to explain myself. So, I wake up this morning and check my email before leaving the house to workout. Well, I get this PowerPoint file from a friend of mine who lives in Nevada. Well, as most people may do, you trust the person/people you get forwards from and hope & pray to the cyber-gods that your email/spam/intrusion detection/hardware-software firewall will catch any of the nastiness from cyberspace before it gets to your inbox. Well, anyone who knows me should know that I am allergic to being a nuisance to people. I don't like to create havoc since it is a waste of energy. Anyway, I decide that I should send out this .ppt file to a distribution of people who I think may find it interesting or amusing. Well, it turns out that I get a reply back right after sending it out and I am labeled a spammer. Ouch! That cuts pretty deep since I loathe all things spam. Even that canned mystery meat outside of the virtual world so popular in Hawaii does not have a favorable position in my eyes. :p

I got to thinking after several people were kind of pissed by this and replied back to me on how interesting it is that people can (and are) be so clueless about a particular technology if something outside of the norm can/does happen. I knew exactly what happened when a few people told me they received a dozen or more copies of the message from me; as I said in a follow up email to people, it was out of my control. I am super conscious of keeping my Windows updates current and I run Nortons, Avast and Zone Alarm. And every other day I use Ad-Aware, Spybot and CCleaner to kill any ad ware. Yet, something happened out of the norm. In reality, it could have also been a breach with my ISP, but my point is with technology there can be MANY potential issues that cause for something to happen, but if you do not understand such things, your anger is what clouds the mind. I am positive these are the people who have not worked in an office environment with MS Outlook as the primary personal information manager responsible for email and any personal/public folders. I have been in work environments where a virus or worm hit and emails were being sent like machine gun fire. It's just the dark side of technology. It happens. Is it annoying? Yes, but it happens, so tighten up your diapers and accept the reality! Sheesh. Who's to say that today (April 1st) may not be one of those particular dates where someone wants to try out some new virus, spam bot, etc. to annoy people.....Shall we just run from our keyboards now? Uh.....no.



The lesson in all this is that I should have just used my mac this morning. [Inner Napoleon Dynamite voice] Idiot!! [/Inner Napoleon Dynamite voice]