Substantial Silence Since Summer Cinematic Scrutiny

¡Hola! It's been quite a while since I've posted a blog.
Let's see... What have I missed?...
Nothing significant comes to mind from September... Talk Like a Pirate Day was September 19th, and Marc made a fun day out of it at Moe's. He said if our customers ordered their food in "pirate speak" they'd get their drink for free. I took a shift just so I could work that day. That was so much fun!
There's a bit more to speak of in October. Crystal and I went to Gloucester, Va and I got a tattoo! It spells "Geek" in binary on my right upper arm. It's pretty awesome, if I don't say so myself. Also, to commemorate Halloween I wore some special contacts to work the Friday before Halloween, and that was fun.
Earlier this month I (and Crystal) went with some friends to Nekocon, an anime convention. That was loads of fun, and a necessary escape. I got my anime/geek fix, bought some new contacts, and decided on a new favorite (not #1, of course!) anime: Code Geass.
This week is pretty busy: I took tomorrow off from work so I can go to TCC and sign up for classes for January. Thursday is Thanksgiving of course, we'll have a large gathering at the Myers for dinner. On Saturday Crystal and I are commemorating a year of dating by exchanging gifts and going on a road trip somewhere.

Review: District 9

The film District 9 was, after all was said and done, quite good I think.
The movie was presented in the form of a documentary, with people being interviewed after the story took place. As per the documentary format, a hand held camera was used throughout the movie. This was the cause for some trepidation on my part, having seen the effect the movie Cloverfield had on its audience members because of the hand held camera. Fortunately District 9 did not have such chaotic camera work, so that had no adverse effects beyond worrying me.
The story itself was very interesting: an alien race is forced to live in slum like conditions in a makeshift compound known as "District 9", located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The story centralizes around a government agent, Wikus Van De Merwe, who is exposed to the alien race's biotechnology.
My only problem with the movie is that it took so long for the story to develop.
The film is, however, rater R for excessive language and plentiful gory violence. If it were not so gruesome and riddled with obscenities, I would recommend it greatly.

August: Agonizing Anticipation

August is finally here, and only a few days in I could tell this month is going to bother me.
I've already made plans for celebrating Crystal's birthday toward the end of the month, so I'm spending as little money as I can this month. I've been looking forward to this celebration for a few months now, so by now the anticipation is really getting to me, and it's only going to get worse; especially since I'm keeping the day's events a secret from Crystal, and I spend so much time with her.

Maybe Moe's might make me manager?

It's been a while since I last blogged. The hunt for a second or full-time job isn't going very well, but things are good at Moe's.

Since I got my own vehicle I've gotten bolder in asking Marc, my manager, to show me what more I can learn to do in order to make things easier for him. One thing I had in mind was caterings. Usually it's either Marc or Alyson that delivers the caterings, but since I also have a license, I asked what needs to be done in order for me to be able to take them myself, since I know that both Marc and Alyson prefer to be able to stay at the store and help there.
Marc took my request and not only offered to let me ride along a few times, but he showed me how to prepare the catering the night before, and soon he is going to show me how to take the order over the phone, so I will be able to take care of a catering from phone order to set up, to delivery. I'm very excited!

Escalators exasperate everyone.

I hurt my knee yesterday, and <-- yonder photo shows what it now looks like - at the end of the second day!
I don't have much else to talk about, so I'll stop typing now.
I mean it. I'm going to stop now.
I need to stop. I'm getting grossed out by this picture.
I'm going to stop looking at it.
I will. Now.
Any time now.

Boy, blogging sure beats boredom!

I haven't blogged in a while. Not that nothing's happened, but I usually have a hard time knowing what to say.
My 20th birthday was on Friday the 24th. I made a much bigger deal about it than Crystal liked. Marc, my manager at Moe's, makes gourmet cakes on the side. (He's trying to make a business out of it.) I got him to make me a cake for my birthday. (See left.)
The cake was made to serve 20 people, so I invited as many people as I could to come over to my house for cake, then mini golf. Unfortunately, only 5 people said they would come, but then only 2 people showed up. It was still pretty fun, since we ended up going to Moe's for lunch, then bowling at Oceana Naval Base. I've never been there, so it was pretty cool to be able to go.
The cake turned out amazingly: it was very tasty and looked great. My continual complaint is that I paid quite a bit of money for it, and I didn't have very many people to share it with, so it seems like a big waste. Oh well, it was a momentous occasion, so I guess it was worth it.

Advocating Anime

Crystal has been softening to the idea of anime.

She knows I've attended the anime club at school and went to Nekocon a few (4) times.

I've argued the point with her a few times that anime isn't all satanic or porn like my mom seems to think. I told her about my favorite anime: Ghost In the Shell, and how it's very intelligent and philosophical. It was even named by the Wachowski brothers as one of the inspirations for the Matrix trilogy.

She said she'd watch it. (Just to appease me.)

Randy has apparently seen some of this very series in the past, and was also excited to watch it with us. Awesome, he can help me explain and advocate Ghost In the Shell to Crystal.

She saw an episode, and decided she could tolerate it further. I was convinced she'd like it, so I continued to show her more, and she conintued to say it was a little interesting and she wouldn't mind seeing some more.

Finally we were at her parents' place this afternoon with her sisters while her parents went out, and we saw another episode or two, and Crystal told me that she likes Ghost In the Shell.

Score! I win!