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| | So I am rapidly approaching three weeks removed from employment. To tell the truth, I m kind of digging it. Why didn t I think of this before? Office Space was on to something.
I still need to update my resume. I keep meaning to, but I m finding myself with very little spare time on my hands. Weird. You would think not having a job would really free up one s schedule. But that hasn t been the case. Been spending a lot of time with Sharon, time at the coffee shop, time at the Guild... I m a busy boy. Still need to do my taxes too.
Obviously the job search has not really even started. My plan is to take my time and weigh my options. Options are good. And I feel no need to rush things. I m in good shape for a while.
My pre-Oscar movie list is due to be posted soon. Sadly the list was on my laptop... my work laptop... so I m waiting for my personal files to be mailed to me. Then I can post my much anticipated ratings.
In the meantime go see Watchmen. It is very well done. I am a big fan of the comic and was looking forward to the movie with both giddy anticipation and abject dread. The dread of course stemming from the fear of another beloved title being crapped upon by Hollywood. And I had little faith in the director... I mean, did you see 300? Awful.
But he didn t screw it up. The montage at the start of the film was brilliant. I d say it was maybe the boldest decision made by the director and I think it really worked. It really set the tone and personally, let me breath easier for the rest of the film, confident that maybe he wasn t going to screw it up. The casting was excellent. Rorschach and the Comedian were awesome. Especially the Comedian. Night Owl was a dead ringer for the comic. The rest were, at the very least, passable. Snyder kept his ridiculous slow-mo/fast-mo fight scene sequences to a bearable minimum (see South Park for a proper lampooning of that nonsense).
This was clearly a movie made for the fans. There were a lot of subtle nods to the fanbase. Lots of oblique references to the source material... quick shots here and there of elements from the comic that could never be fully explored (even in a three hour movie). Lots of shots taken directly from comic panels.
My biggest problem with the film was that I m not sure it stands on its own (I certainly had no problem with the changed ending... I think it works better than the original). So much was covered so quickly, I m not sure an average movie-goer could really follow. I don t know if many of the key moments could hold sufficient emotional weight or gravity for those with no foreknowledge (Manhattan and SS on Mars, Manhattan s departure from humanity etc). Ozymandias seemed like little more than an afterthought until the final act. And there were several jumps of plot or location with little or no explanation... Owl and Rorschach just zipping off to the South Pole to Karnak, the prison riot (I m not sure it was even intimated that Rorschach was the cause of the riot). Etc etc.
Problem is just about everyone I know has read the comic, so it s hard to know for sure. Having spoken to a few people who have seen the film without knowing the source, it seems to be about 50/50 if they were able to follow the action. Reading reviews online seem to support that. Would be curious to hear further takes from readers.
Also... huzzah for the great blue flopping penis. Flop flop flop.
Anyway, I m planning to make two more viewings of the film. Sneaking in an IMAX would be cool too, but I don t know if that s gonna happen or not.
Well, enough blathering for now. Thought I d just update and let everyone know that ye olde Bampf is fearlessly forging ahead sans job.
Later,
bampf | | | For those not in the know, I just got downsized! Crazy. Never thought it would happen to me. See it happening to everyone else... but not me. Guess I shouldn t make those kind of assumptions.
So after six years of dedicated service my job has become 'redundant' and then I m out the door. Yeesh. The perils of being a tiny cog in giant corporate machine. Ah well. Not the end of the world.
On the upside I get a nice severance package and the government teat looms large. So I don t feel the need to panic just yet.
Just thought I d give everyone a head s up. And if you are in the IT field and know of any openings let me know.
-bampf | | 2/18/2009 3:09:42 PM Housecleaning. Turn down your sheet? | Comments (4) |
| Hey everyone in BampfBlogLand(tm). How s it going?
Things are good round these parts. Been very busy. But busy good... as opposed to busy bad. Doing well at sticking to my oath of internet-eschewing. And reaping the rewards from it.
Took in a Wings game last weekend. Third I ve seen. As it turns out indoor lacrosse is a pretty fun time. Something Chad tried to convince me of about 6 years ago or so. Just took a while to sink in. It s a minor sports fix as we try to struggle through these long, awful months of footballlessness (just made that word up!). Anyway, Wings played the worst game of lacrosse I d ever seen (and judging by the reactions of the fans... maybe ever!).
And it was awesome. Sure I was cheering for the Wings. Doing my best to pull for the home team. But let me tell ya... seeing Philly fans turn on their team in a blink of an eye... and with such ardent zeal! Awesome. Boos and catcalls. Insulting players performance, heart, family heritage... you name it. They were out for blood. I personally heard multiple fans discuss their desire to wait outside the stadium and jump players. And these are the home fans!
Fucking awesome. I love you, Philly.
In other news, took advantage of the Monday holiday to go visit Gettysburg with Sharon. Good times. Finally got to see the new visitor s center. Something I ve been meaning to do for a long time. It s really nice. Check it out, if you haven t already. And the Cyclorama painting got a new, fitting home as well. Nice to see that. It was always one of my favorites. I m still impressed by the thing even though I ve seen it now at least six or seven times.
We made our way around the battlefields. Saw some sights. Had some awesome Dobbin House onion soup and even gave into our consumer sides by visiting the outlets once the sun had fallen (abandoning the historical sites before dusk for the commercial woulda been wrong). It s an interesting testament to the state of our economy that a 50% off sale isn t worth checking out. It takes 70% off or greater to even stir a little interest. Huzzah for recession-proof jobs.
In BampfBlog(tm) news I ve done some BlogFriend additions and subtractions. Welcome Kenn(nnn) aka The Defiler and Jape aka JP (who I am including even though I haven t seen him in person for almost 2 years). Wanderer got the ax until he finally gets his new site up and running... lazy bum. And Todd will be served with his first notice of inactivity come Friday. Slacker.
So check out those blogs. Both very amusing and well written. More than I can say for this thing...
Anyway, that is all for now. My 2008 movie review will be posted soon. Hafta beat that self-important jerkoff, Oscar, to the punch.
-bampf | | | Ok, I am indeed still basking in the afterglow. The DVR is chocked full of football... the original broadcast, the NFL Network Replay, the Live Wire SuperBowl edition, First 11 SuperBowl edition... probably an astounding near 8 hours of coverage. Glorious.
Should be enough to hold me over for these next hellish 5 months. When there are no sports to be found anywhere. It s sad.
Speaking of... I hear that every baseball player of the modern era is an unrepentant cheater. And all lying scumbags to boot. And this is front page news? I mean, this is news, period? I said that almost five years ago right here on this blog: "every achievement of the last 10 years has been invalidated with the sudden swarm of overwhelming evidence that every baseball player of the modern era is a doper and a God-damned cheater." My only hope is that the new president will re-instate the firing squad for these fuckwads. See if he really comes through on this message of Hope.
Hm... other news items. Well speaking of... I was optimistic about our new Pres for about 10 days. I liked just about everything I read. Sadly it seems it took only about three weeks to return to business as usual. Graft, criminal politician nominees, special interests pandering, record pork levels, and elaborate media subterfuge (hey, we re gonna limit executive payrolls... just not those of anybody who s pocketed billions in handouts already). Sigh.
S Okay. I m still well armed and the freezer is full for the imminent zombie apocalypse.
What else have I been doing? Getting outdoors a lot. Three hiking trips in the last two weeks. Probably about seven in the last 3 months. Watching movies. Cooking excellent food. Spending lots of quality time with Sharon. Screw you, interwebs!
I did go on a Nerd Retreat last week. That was fun. Spent the weekend in a cabin/cottage in Caledonia with Josh (Cop/Ranger/Svengar Josh, not Probie) and his buddies that I went to Gen Con with doing nerd stuff. Ran my X Crawl adventure for the third time and got some nice compliments on it. Excellent. Talk about getting some mileage out of an adventure!
Still making a lot of trips into the office. Hopefully that project will be done soon and I can go back to my pajama wearing ways, as the turnpike is really starting to wear on me.
Time to go. Gotta go play some racquetball. Sweet.
-bampf | | | Ok. I m slowly coming down off the high. What an incredible game. Thought I d post some thoughts... and I have a lot of them.
First, I think this is was the greatest SuperBowl game ever. Last year was the greatest SuperBowl game ever until yesterday. If you add in the back story, last year is better (huge underdog NYG upsetting the most evil empire since the Khmer Rouge and ending the perfect season). No back story, on the strength of the game alone... this year was The One (aka The Keanu Reeves).
As much as I would have liked to win by blowout and skip all the nervous cardiac moments, this was a much better way to go. Cards played a hell of a game. Larry Fitzgerald is ungodly. I still can t process the idea of him making that catch with Ike Taylor mashing the ball. Seeing Fitzgerald s expression when Santonio made the winning catch was admittedly heartbreaking. Nothing at all like three years ago when the whining, trash-talking Seahawks got their just desserts.
Santonio was incredible. Ben was unbelievably good. He made so many absurd plays under duress, being Ben. That was maybe the best he has looked all year. Talk about saving the best for last. Should silence a lot of critics. He has twice the hardware of any Manning brother now. Suck it, Mannings.
The final drive was maybe the best in Superbowl history. That TD pass was incredible. That was a gift to the millions of viewers. It just doesn t get any better than that... catching a ball with your helmet is pretty amazing but on the back end of that play was Eli being Eli and just floating a jump ball up for grabs like he so often does and relying on a spectacular individual effort from a receiver.
Heath Miller is the man. I wish one of the TV stations had picked up on this and given him the appropriate accolades: It happened on the ridiculous play where Ben scrambled left, then right, then spun around, and then beamed a strike to Heath for 11 yards on 3rd and 10. On that play Heath stayed in to block. He blocked a blitzing safety and shoved him to the outside, riding him 10 yards back and away. Ten yards behind the line of scrimmage. That s where he was when he stopped blocking. He then saw Ben scrambling and hustled 20 yards downfield (10 yards past the line of scrimmage) to make a clutch catch. That is amazing. A Jeremy Shockey would have quit after blocking a guy 10 yards back from the line of scrimmage (I know, I know, the idea of Shockey blocking someone is kind of far fetched to begin with)... not Heath. Heath is the proto-typical blue collar hard working Steeler player and he hustled his ass off. I know it s cliche, but I really think that play typified what the Steelers are.
Best. Franchise. Ever. Best sports franchise ever. I really believe that. That s six championships. Most ever in the NFL. The most competitive league in the world. In this age of free agency and salary caps, winning twice in four years is absurd. Every year multiple teams go from worst to first and vice versa. What the Patriots did was absolutely unfathomable... really it is... until you consider they are unabashed and unrepentant cheaters. Led by a scumbag win-at-all-cost coach and pretty boy jerkoff. And if anyone tries to counter my best franchise argument by mentioning the Yankees will get punched right in the mouth. Cause that would only prove you don t understand sports. Or are an asshole. Or both.
I thought the officiating was pretty good. I know it will be talked about a bit. There were some iffy calls. Three very questionable ones went against us. I don t think the Ben rush TD shoulda been overturned. His knee never went down and I just didn t see any clear evidence of when his shin was down (as opposed to his foot). Two holding calls against us (both negating excellent Santonio catches, as if he didn t have enough of a monster game) were poor. The call for the safety was bad. Hartwig basically got run over. He wasn t clinging on and dragging down. He was getting decked. Nothing illegal about that. The result looked kinda like holding, but making that call in such a critical situation is really weak. The earlier hold on Kemoeatu was extremely iffy and occurred during a double team. A very rare call. Cards got flagged a lot, but most were blatant fouls (including maybe three of the most flagrant holds in NFL history by Gandy). The roughing the passer call... real iffy. The final fumble. No question. Any controversy is purely media generated. It was clearly a fumble. The booth saw it was clearly a fumble. No extended review needed. Game over.
Well, that was my take on the Best SuperBowl Ever. Feel free to comment or counter... but only with intelligent arguments (yeah, I know, such a sports discussion on the internet has never, ever happened).
I m gonna go back to being a very happy man, basking in the afterglow.
-bampf | | | BEST... SUPERBOWL... EVER.
That is all.
-b | | | Yeah, I know, I m slacking on the BampfBlog(tm) duties again. It largely due to that stay-away-from-the-computer thing I ve been doing. Ya see, that s where the blog lives.
Anyway, I m safely out of the Susquehanna and feeling pretty good about the whole thing. It actually wasn t nearly as bad as one would expect. The worst part is your feet. They re completely numbed and kinda hurt like hell (once feeling starts to return). Running back to you towel and clothes is really awkward when you can t feel your feet. Like... really awkward.
It was strangely invigorating though. I d do it again if given the opportunity. Thanks goes out to everyone who donated. The CV team raised, I think, over $1500 and I accounted for a not insignificant portion of that.
The other big news is, of course, the SuperBowl. I am ecstatic. We re on the precipice of becoming the greatest sports franchise in history! And we re pretty heavily favored at that. I can not wait. I m pretty confident about the game. There s no question that we re the better team... but I also recognize that the Cards are the kind of team with the tools to surprise a superior team. They ve made a marvelous run of it and have that underdog thing goin for them in a big way.
It s interesting that some sportscasters have painted the Steelers as the big bully looking to squash the young upstart. It s not a wholly inaccurate picture. But I m OK with being the bully this time.
The menu for the grand event is set and I have already begun cooking. The cooking will continue with minor interruptions for the next 36 hours.
The Menu:
A giant mound of Chicken Salad
Dried beef meat dip
Bacon wrapped glazed water chestnuts
Twice baked baked potatoes
Mini barbecue Meatloafs
Pulled shrimp BBQ
Rosemary Parmesan popovers
That s what I m preparing. I know Lil Smokies, some kind of cake and a chocolate Kahlua trifle will also be in attendance.
Oh yeah.
So, yeah, life is good. Been spending a lot of time with Sharon, doing many fun things. So that has been great. Exciting times ahead.
More posts to follow, hopefully, but for now I need to get back to cooking.
Go Stillers!
-bampf |
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