Observations ‘n facts

Ever notice that there’s Wells Fargo and also Wells Cargo? LOL.

Does anybody ever really take a nap? Like for fun? Like really fall asleep in the middle of the day?

I’ve had this Elton John song, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, stuck in my head for literally two weeks straight. What am I supposed to do about that?

I watched through all of Twin Peaks for the first time. Brilliant. The way all television should be.

I am working towards 100% completion on Indiana Jones LEGO Adventures for Xbox 360.

Where’d you go…

Isn’t it trite when someone has a blog and they don’t update it; then they write a post explaining how utterly busy or unavailable they’ve been? You won’t get that here at Charletorium, no sir. Mysterious absences go unexplained. I’m pretty much like an episode of LOST.

What’s good in games this week? Indiana Jones Lego Adventures. What’s rolling down the hill into oblivion? Grand Theft Auto IV, Age of Conan.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been actually doing work rather than playing a lot of games. But Indy Lego is just too much fun to pass up. Like way too much fun. Especially when you’re playing with someone else. And you’ve got Old Style.

Guess what? We’ve got a sweet new place for August. It’s in a pretty hip little area of da Chi. Urban me.

And you know what, I’m going to take it easy this weekend. Partly because I’m utterly poor (grumble… grumble… security deposit… grumble…), partly ’cause I’m worn out from last weekend.

By the by, There’s a funny statement on the lease for our new place — “drains don’t clog themselves, people clog them.” Makes me think of other funny stuff you can apply: “ice caps don’t melt themselves, people melt them.”

The currency of zeal

I purposefully distance myself from the fray of “election season”, since I enjoy spending my time avoiding subjects that breed zealots*.

People who try too hard to change others’ minds are themselves too easily persuaded.

Too often have I met someone who will outrightly criticize Christianity and its followers — and then in the next breath fervently convince me that his “eyes have been opened” by an article relating to some controversial issue that he read on the Internet. How can you criticize one kind of blind faith and then adamantly propagate another? Despite the fact that I’m not Christian, I’m more likely to trust an ancient book than some loudmouth blog (blogs which — beamingly proud — I am calling ‘blogaganda’).

Do me a favor, America: For everything that you read or hear, go try to find another source that gives the opposite point of view. Seriously.

Let’s pick an easy one. Go find three articles on the Internet for the death penalty. Now go find three articles against. Now make a decision. And shut up, I don’t care what you think. The best way you can tell me what to think is by voting for a candidate who supports your beliefs — while not letting the flying crap get in your ear.

For every advertising campaign that I abhor (don’t smoke marijuana or you will die in a cocoon), there’s usually one that I admire**. The popular Rock the Vote campaign has a wonderful message: vote. And that’s it. If every political blowhard preached making informed decisions rather than agreeing with his or her decision, then the “stupid” people that the zealots claim they are trying to protect will actually get smarter. The catch is that thereafter begins the cycle of propaganda. So maybe before we “educate” people on what we think they need or want — or on what we want, we should consider showing them the best way to decide for themselves.

Right, that’s called loving parenting from intelligent, unbiased people, and a decent education. Uh oh. Okay, let’s think of something else. What can we salvage here? Ah, education.

Despite existing on a workable level, the American government and election system is in tangles. The situation’s redundant — snowballing. It needs an overhaul. But it’s going to take us just as long to get out as it took us to get in. So let’s start at the beginning. Fund education — education for kids and adults — education that can present both sides of any issue as long as the data that are being taught are backed up with facts and research.

A subject that’s become just as important as reading and math is media literacy. Teach people how to decipher the messages by which they’re being bombarded literally every minute. Teach them not to take the easy way out by listening to whatever sounds best. Teach them to know what’s best for them. People aren’t gonna change unless they have a reason. And you handing out fliers on the street or cheering at a rally isn’t reason enough, sorry.

Every time you tell me to support this or vote for that, as far as I’m concerned you’re talking to yourself.

It’s never too late to change, and if you think you can change me — go ahead and try. But don’t be such an asshole about it.

*I know that it comes across as ironic and zealous that I’m writing an opinion post against zealots, but hear me out.

** Seriously, how can you argue with these things: learn, vote. The rest comes naturally. If you learn early on why you shouldn’t eat MacDonald’s, you won’t.

Tales from the chuckside

I’ve been pretty busy lately, but all of my obligations are fitting neatly into the space of my day, like little Tetris blocks of obligation. So I’m getting lots of things done — which is good, but it leaves me with little time to do the things I want — things like watching TV.

Luckily for me, my cable television company (despite having horrible video compression ratios that make everything look like it’s on YouTube) provided me with a DVR (note from professor Charlie: Digital Video Recorder). The magic of a DVR is that it allows you to open a TV schedule and select a show that you wanna record. And any time that show comes on, the DVR will dutifully perserve it for the ages.

Anyway, last night I was freakin’ swamped with stuff to do, so I went to record Top Chef Chicago so I could watch it later. But I couldn’t! Disk Drive Full, said the DVR. I’d just cleared a bunch of shows from the queue a week earlier — I couldn’t imagine what could be clogging the bowels of my poor DVR.

When I checked, I realized that — months ago — I had set it to record Tales from the Darkside whenever the show came on. Luckily for me, yesterday was some kind of Tales from the Darkside marathon on the sci fi channel. So my DVR recorded eighteen episodes of this wonderful eighties b-horror TV! Sadly in the process it erased a Mars Volta concert (in HD grr…) and Spielberg’s Munich, but who cares!

So this post is just a very convuluted way of telling everybody how awesome Tales from the Darkside is. Just yesterday I delightfully delved into the wonderful world of TftDS (as us fans refer to it in shorthand), watching the first of the many episodes to which I now have instant access.

The episode was about a collections agent who worked from home, angrily calling slackers to demand payment. One day she’s going about her duties in her expensive Manhattan condo (with central air and a giant stereo system), when she starts getting phone calls from a debtor that had recently died! This freaks her out, and the ghost won’t stop calling. Anyway, an Angel of Death, posing as a city worker, comes on behalf of the dead to wreak revenge on the collections agent. See, it turns out that the collections agent, by way of her incesant phone calls, had driven this poor laundry lady (with a brain tumor, by-the-way) to suicide. In the end, the angel of death decides to show mercy on the collections agent by not killing her, but by instead transforming her into her victim — an old mexican woman with a brain tumor living in a run down tenemant with overdue washer and dryer payments.

Must-see-TV indeed!

sigh…

Grand theft pocketbook

Oh man, life’s cool lately. Within the coming month:

A) Special screening of Death Wish 3 with some guys from work featuring Charles Bronson burgers (read White Castle Sliders).

B) Buddy of mine’s coming to stay while he starts a new job in the area.

C) Visit from my lady and also some family and friends — off to a Cubs game!

D) New episodes of LOST resume!

E) Moving within the city pretty soon — possibly with aforementioned buddy.

F) Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360! Five days and counting!

Strangely, I’m especially looking forward to playing GTA IV. Rockstar Games set a standard for open-world game play and immersion with the original Grand Theft Auto, and from what I’ve seen from the previews, the latest installment will not disappoint. My brain is scrambling to think of an example to provide — but honestly the game appears to be so vast and packed full that I feel like if I included one thing, I’d be excluding a million others. So just wait for the rockin’ review to come soon. I am gonna have to do a lot of playing to get through a good amount of the game before other stuff in life demands my attention, but that’s fine — if only to prove to myself that I am not an obsessed gamer nerd.

Extreme coincidence

I’m used to the rumble of traffic outside of my bedroom window — at least I’m used to it enough that I don’t really pay attention to it.

But this morning when I was getting ready for work, a truck roared by, putting out a particularly strident whine that caught my attention. Right after it passed, another truck went by, this one bellowing out almost an exact minor third above the previous truck.

I know a minor third when I hear it, so this caused my ears to perk up. But before I could finish processing this oddity, another track passed — this one a half-step above the last.

Then the world seemed to go silent as my brain tried to put it all together. The timbre of the trucks through my window, the intervals, the timing — there was something so familiar about it all.

Then, seeming to accompany the series of truck “notes” I was replaying in my head, a twinkly little ostinato figure entered my thoughts, and I realized:

The theme song from Halloween by John Carpenter. Creepy.

A title for this damn post

For lunch at work today we went to Kuma’s Corner — home of the metal burger. Oh man. I had the Metallica — bleu cheese, bacon, and buffalo sauce all on top of a giant burger, sandwiched between a pretzel bun. This is a bold statement from me indeed — I think that Kuma’s Corner may officially be my favorite burger ever. Next time I plan on tackling the Slayer, described by the menu as:

Pile of fries topped with a ½ lb. Burger, Chili, Cherry Peppers, Andouille, Onions, Jack Cheese, and Anger.

Extra anger, please. Mmm… So good.

In other news I actually got off my duff and hung around downtown yesterday. That may not sound exciting, but it was great fun. I’ve never had the experience of moving somewhere and not knowing anyone. It’s quite a chore to make friends, it seems. Anyway, I have nobody to blame but myself for spreading my wings and coming out here (so I’m not complaining), but I’m glad to say that I’m getting a little better at actually doing stuff for fun. Doing stuff besides Rock Band.

So I ran around downtown and got all touristy — taking pictures with my cell phone and thinking about how great the city is despite that it was freezing cold and all snowy-like. And isn’t it great meeting new people! Refreshing and full of hope and goodness. Nothing bad about it. Everyone goes home happy. Good to have other people around who aren’t in the frontline trenches of audio.

More snow’s coming and I’m not happy about that. My thoughts lately have been full of spring and summer — telling myself that the short days and bitter weather are on their way out, slow as a slug, but going away.

Here’s to more hanging out, an interesting political season, lots of work, and good episodes of LOST. Oh and a duly repaired Xbox.

Beer too. Mmm beer…