Friday, June 21, 2013

Still Standing

So I'm still, STILL looking for work.  It's been one month, twelve days.  It's getting on my nerves that I cannot find a decent job.  The worst part is that I have yet to get any unemployment benefits.  Six weeks with no income!  I have a car payment and rent coming due!  And every time I call or go online for information I get the same response: your claim is being processed, if additional information is required to complete your claim you will be contacted.  Great.  Since no one has contacted me, I expect that they have all the information they need.  So where's the check?  I wasn't fired because I was an asshole and I was rude to people.  I wasn't fired because I stole, skipped work or was incompetent.  I was in a sales job and the economy sucked.  As a matter of fact, the metrics used to quantify your worth as an employee that ultimately let to my firing show that in the six or seven days that I did work in May I may have been below my goal, but they were STILL better than some of the numbers that people who worked the ENTIRE month attained.  So basically I was better in a WEEK than some people were for the MONTH!  But I'm the only one who got fired.  Figure that one out.  I sold more accessories than one employee and my composite score (based on the total of all your metrics and weighted according to importance to the company) was higher than at least one other employee.
On the plus side, I'm losing weight and gaining some muscle definition.  I really want to join my brother's basketball league at the Jewish Community Center in the next month.  He just finished up one league and he said another will be starting soon.  Also, I'm writing again.  I've put down ten pages and done some heavy editing in my Cycle of the Hunter rewrite and it should be ready for Rock and Shock.  Personally I'm excited to see Michael Rooker.  He was great in Cliffhanger with Lithgow and Stallone.  Matter of fact, he had three of the four best lines in that movie!

1. If you're looking for Mr. Qualen try about 4,000 feet south of here.  He'll be the one wearing the helicopter. (After the climactic final battle of Lithgow vs Stallone AKA 'the Tiff on the Cliff'.)
2. He's not here.  He decided to take a swim to Arizona. (After Stallone killed the secondary bad guy and he fell into the ice-covered river and floated under the ice with the current.)
3. Sissy.  You hit like a sissy. (This one was Stallone, he was getting his ass kicked and up to that point had not mounted any offense or defense in any meaningful way.  However, he was about to grab the bad guy, Kynette, and impale him on a stalactite - those are the ones that grow down from the ceiling.)
4. Season's over, asshole! (after Delmar- one of the bad guys- kicked the shit our or Mr. Rooker and taunted him by doing play by play like it was a soccer game.  While Rooker hangs off the cliff after taking many vicious kicks he reveals a concealed knife and buries it into Delmar's leg.  He leans forward, allowing Rooker to grab the shotgun strapped to Delmar.  Then he screams the line and shoots Delmar in the chest.)
Honorable mention:
Right before the 'fight' with Delmar (I say that because it was no contest).
"Hey Delmar.  From me to you.  You're an asshole."
"And you're a loudmouth punk slag who's about to die."
"Maybe.  But in a minute, I'll be dead.  You will always be an asshole."  Takes off his coat and throws it to the ground.  "So shoot.  I'm getting cold.  Shoot!"
Delmar grabs him by the front of his shirt, points a gun at his face.
"Who's shooting?" he asks, and then gives Rooker a brutal headbutt.
Now I may be a tad off on the quotes, but forgive me.  I'm going by memory.  Sure I could look it up on IMDB, but they don't always get it right either.  I plan on asking him to sign Cliffhanger and writing "Season's over asshole!" as an inscription.  That would be awesome.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Damn!

I really need to get on this more often.  Now that I'm unemployed...well I really have no excuse.  So I've written almost NOTHING in a long time, but I'm trying to get back into it.  This is obviously a start.  I did do a short story regarding some of my characters in the upcoming Cycle of the Hunter re-release as well as another article for Paranormal Association about Atlantis you can find here. 
I'm working on another right now regarding ancient aliens as I've been watching the History Channel series on DVD while I can't sleep and I find it fascinating.  Some very interesting stuff, although to be honest all I keep thinking about is the end of the original Planet of the Apes where Taylor (Charlton Heston) is in the cave with Dr. Zaius, Cornelius and Zira and he is looking at the remains of what he believes is a fabricated heart valve and eyeglasses and other relics.  Dr. Zaius tells him that he can give alternate explanations to each one of the objects in question "as ingenious as your own".  This is how I feel about the ancient alien stuff.  They're taking things from the Bible and other religious texts to interpret interactions with angels and the like as alien encounters.  Each side giving explanations that suit their purposes is the point I'm trying to make.  The one part I really liked in the movie that corresponds to the alien theory is when Taylor finds the doll and Zaius says "My granddaughter plays with human dolls!" and he throws it on the ground and it says "mama" and Taylor asks him if an ape would make a human doll that talked.  Same with ancient aliens - there are several statues and figures and carvings of what look like modern-day aircraft and astronauts.  Why would Aztecs and ancient Egyptians and Mayans do such a thing?  And then you have the people on the other side offering their ingenious explanations saying that what some people are calling air/space conveyances are actually insects.  Interesting stuff, I must say.
So I'm also getting married three months from tomorrow, Friday September 13th.  And let me tell you, not having any money to help pay for things is really tough.  I mean, we did most of our spending already and it was good that I got a decent amount in taxes back because that's where almost all of my tax money went.  But there are still a lot of things that need to be taken care of and I don't need to tell you that weddings can be very expensive, especially when you're paying for it all yourselves.
I'm also very excited for the Bruins tonight!  Game One of the Stanley Cup Final!  I'm hoping they tear through Chicago they way they did with Pittsburgh, but I don't think it will be as lopsided.  I think they'll win in 6.  I'd love a sweep, but I don't think it's in the cards.  Chicago is just too good.  I'd love to win tickets and get to go see them.  We didn't get playoff tickets this year or last year.  We haven't gone since Game Two of the Canadiens series in the championship season.  And we went to the one when we got engaged, April 21, 2010 in the double-overtime victory against the Sabres.
Well that's all for now.  I promise I'll be back soon.
Stay Weird.