Rubbing elbows with a movie star

A fine hello to all of you, dear readers! Well, one my goals in life (or at least something I thought about on occasion)--to get a movie star's autograph--happened today. That's right, Bruce Campbell signed a book of mine!

As a bit of backround, Bruce has written two books, If Chins Could Kill; Confessions of a B Movie Star and How to Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. The bookstore in Coffman was selling both of them for on July 27th (today), Bruce was going to be signing books. Now I've been a fan of his for quite some time. He was in a great yet short lived TV show "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," and was in a few episodes of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess" (I watched Hercules, but not really Xena; just stating his resume). He's mainly known for his role as Ash, hero of "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness" (I've not seen either). Most recently, he was in "Bubba Hotep," which is a terrific film. This, combined with the fact that his books are hilarious (I perused them quickly), I bought Chins and patiently awaited this day.

Now I won't go into detail about the waiting in line. It was boring; not much more can be said. I caught the occasional wiff of marijuana, but that was it. I waited in line for about an hour (I could've been out of there faster, but that would entail a boring stroy), and then I approached the signing table. Hello's were exchanged between Bruce and I, and then I noticed he was left-handed, so I said "oh cool, a lefty." He replies, "you a lefty too? You know something, only leftys have mentioned that...the righties don't give a shit."

THAT IS SO COOL!

So yes happy readers, I too am happy...and will stay that way for quite some time. Until then, back to reading my autographed book!

A slip up in the graduating plan...

Quick little thing.

As many of you know, I'm now going to double major in History (I'm already working on an English major). However, this means that I may not graduate in 4 years. Thus, I'm lamenting that I didn't grab a "Class of 2008" t-shirt at convocation this past Fall. I can't after all, wear my 2007 shirt in public if I'm not walking down the aisles of Northrop come Spring 2007.
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Spring boarding off of that, some things about the U have frightened me.

1. Our new MSA President (or whatever organization she's with; I didn't vote, I haven't voted, and I probably never will vote in MSA elections cause it does nothing), has said, "I want to change the complicated notion of gender." RIGHT....
Thank goodness MSA has no actual power, otherwise I would seriously regret not voting.

2. The Daily in general. It really is a terrible newspaper for the most part. Bad journalism. Bad editorials (I almost sent in a letter to deal with a writer who clearly didn't understand the partial state shutdown; but the shutdown's over so it's a moot point).

3. Vending machine prices have gone up. Seriously, what the F#@&! Now M&M's, skittles, and the like are 80 cents, instead of the normal 75. No longer can you just pop in 3 quarters (which was oh so convenient), but you have to pop an extra nickel. Who the f#@& bothers to carry around a nickel?!

There was more, but I forgot while making those three above points into coherent lamentations. In a perfect world, the ideas will return to me.

Certain joys of driving

Lately, I've hated driving. With a certain degree of passion, one might say. Basically, I'm fed up with drivers being jerks.

Fortunately, there are certain things that make driving enjoyable. Like driving barefoot. It is one of the coolest things ever, and you truely become one with your vehicle. Perfection at the zen level even.
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Or something like that (I'm not that familiar with Eastern religious ideas).

Now being summer, there's the eternal debate of AC vs window. What is one to do? On the one hand, AC can be quite cool, but you lose the summer experience of the wind blowing through your hair. Plus, you don't accelerate as fast (which is a necessity when you're on the freeway). However, you really can't listen to music too well when the windows are rolled down; too noisy. And lets be honest folks, listening to tunes is definitely part of those lazy day summers. Yet, those aesthetic pleasures play second fiddle to staying cool. If it's 90 degrees with no wind, then it's windows up. So basically, when I'm traveling fast I go with the AC (after I've merged of course); if I'm on side roads just chilling, it's windows down. The only exception is when a Kelly Clarkson song or Gwen Stefani's "I ain't no hollaback girl" comes on, then it's windows up and AC on.

On that note, it's cool when there's nobody else on the road (or if there are other cars, they're way far away from you) to start driving to the song that's on the radio. You know what I'm talking about, jerking the car to the right [or the left] at a particularily rocking part. Yeah, nothing like listening to KQ92 and making my Malibu groove to classic rock.

But drive easy readers, I am a safe driver (no accidents), so despite these oddities, I'm perfectly fine to ride with. Plus, I don't even talk on the cell phone. A pox upon those of you who do!

New movie viewing experience

Last weekend, I went and saw "Land of the Dead." For those unfamiliar with the world of cinema, the basic idea of it is that there's been a zombie apocalypse, and now humanity is holed up in cities. There are the occasional raids into zombie-infested lands for supplies. Then of course, the zombies get it in their head to go and attack the city. Havoc [and gore] ensue. Why? Why would I see such a flick you ask? I honestly can't say. I'm not much of a horror/gore kind of a guy, so this isn't my type of movie. Yet, for some odd and pecuilar reason, I wanted to go see it. So, when my friends and brother bailed on me (we were going to see "War of the Worlds," which we did later but I digress), I thought, "Adam my boy, you wanted to see a movie today, so by golly, you're GOING to see a movie today." Hopping into my car, I headed off to the movie theater.

Now when I got there, the was a strong pull towards Land of the Dead (Land). An evil part of me wanted to just go see War of the Worlds, but my good part prevailed. "Cinderalla Man" looked good, but the next showing was two hours later, so that was out. "Rebound?" Mmm...nah. So, I strode up to the ticket-teller (or whatever you call the people who see the tickets), and in a cheerful yet firm voice said, "One for Land of the Dead at 5:20 please." Then I had to say it again because the little microphone that you're supposed to speak into was broken, so the teller didn't hear what I said. Thus, 20 seconds later and four dollars poorer, I was clutching my neon-orange ticked for that Zombie picture.

The movie was...interesting. There was good and bad. Kudos to killing a midget. Well, elaborating on that point, there's this evil midget who tries to kill the hero, so the hero's friend (who's a bit mentally handicapped) plugs him in the head when the midget is trying to run away (it was a really good shot). Good times.

Now there was gore and blood. Scatch that; there was an EXTREME amount of such stuff. I don't feel like going into detail; it makes me feel quesy. And actually, the movie has affected my eating habits. Even up to this day.

Another thing that I got out of this movie is that you have to be really stupid get eaten. I mean seriously, the IQ of a lot of these survivors must be pretty close to nothing. That, or their 5 senses are non-existent.

On a final note, apparantly, this movie is an allegory for the war in Iraq. That said, it's a very crappy analogy. Also, the movie ends with our "hero," when faced with the choice of blowing up some zombies who are walking away, he says [sic], "they're looking for a place, just like us." Yeah, except the zombies are undoubtedly looking for a place where they can eat more people.
p.s. if anybody knows, did I use that "sic" thing right?

In conclusion, I'm glad (and I use that term loosely) that I saw it. The movie had its moments, and there were actually some good elements in the story. I give it 6.5 out of 10.

Oh, should a zombie apocalypse ever occur, I'm sure I'd survive it. Any of you readers are more than welcome to come with me and start a new civilization.

Relax, I'm not dead...although we all gotta go sometime

I realize I haven't updated for awhile, and I apologize. See, here's my basic routine for summer:

Wake up between 10-11
Eat, shower
Go to work until 4:30; get home at 5
Do stuff with friends or just vegetate in front of the TV or Computer
Stay up till about midnight; go to bed

And the cycle repeats itself. Thus, blogging has become more like an interruption rather than the adventure into writing that it normally is. Quelle dommage.

BUT...good news is on the way (so on the flip side, that's bad news for excessively pessimistic and negative people). Some ideas are percolating in my mind, so you should be getting your fix of new Adam blogs soon.

Until then, here's an update on life. Last week, went to a Twins game with Daniel. It was pretty cool, and they [the Twins] won! This broke my 19 year record of going to Twins' games and seeing them lose.

Now there were only two bad things about going to the game. One, the overwhelming amount of underage girls. Consequently, slim chances of finding a lady. Two, sports fans. Or rather, loud-mouthed ones.

See excitable readers, there's nothing that bugs me more than heckling. It irritates me to no end. I just feel like to turning around and saying "fine then, get off your a$$ and do what he does. What? Oh that's right, you can't. You're an untalented scum-bag." Maybe not that extreme, but still. Plus, the hecklers are loud and annoying. Nothing like some idiot screaming a player's name as loud as he can, just two rows behind you.

On a final, happy sports related note, I'm actually considering getting a Twins cap. Why is this even something to consider? Several reasons. One, I look bad in hats. Really I do. Something about the shape of my head and the way my face looks just seems to clash with hat wearing. That said, I mean, there's a chance that I might not get one. Meh. Secondly, it's symbolic of me rekindling my love of the Twins (it's basically been dead since the baseball strike; a traumatic experience for a little kid). Thirdly, I do need something to keep the sun out of my eyes; I can't wear sunglasses really because my normal glasses get in the way (and neither the clip on sunglasses nor transitional lenses work for me). Fourthly (is that even a word?), I'm torn about whether to get the "TC" or the "M" style. While the TC is the original, I grew up with the M, so it is a debate.

Until next time, Happy 4th of July!