Watching Movies

It's a hot time of the year for movies, and I've gone to see two movies that opened in the last two weekends for the first time maybe ever. I've limited my movie-going experience to once or twice a year in the last 4 or 5 years, so the idea of actually attending two movies on consecutive opening weekends is alien (haha). I saw Wolverine and Star Trek and enjoyed both immensely, although my wallet wasn't as thrilled. In addition to actually seeing these movies I actually did something I rarely have done in the past, tracked and looked forward to the release of both movies. I did this for the Watchmen earlier but prior to that almost never. I waited for the release of Wolverine because I knew that if I didn't see it right away then I wouldn't see it in theatres, because Star Trek would come out. I knew that if I procrastinated on Star Trek then I would miss Terminator when it comes out. It was a slippery slope and thusfar I've stayed on top of things.

The movie schedule was so strange this year, at least 6 movies that I want to see, starting earlier with Watchmen, and then Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator, then G.I. Joe and finally Transformers 2. I also kinda want to see 'The Hangover' but I probably won't. I will likely miss at least two out of these other 3 movies as well, probably Transformers and G.I. Joe. So unlike me to plan to see movies though. I wonder if this is all the excitement I have in old age, is planning what I'm going to see this weekend.

Time Travel is a Lame Plot Device

So I saw the new Star Trek Movie on Friday, and it was fantastic. Yes I didn't like that they basically wiped out all of the history of Star Trek, and yes I think that Star Trek relies on Time travel way too much to fix plots. But overall I liked the movie, it was colorful and fun and worth the time sitting in the theatre...Although the couple who brought their infant and 3 year old and sat next to me can die in a fire. Something is f'd up when your infant starts crying during the most dramatic moment of the movie (the crying was as predictable as my love of ruit smoothies). Also when your 3 year old child, who keeps complaining and jumping around and kicking the godamn seats, won't stop being distracting it's time to hire a babysitter and realize what is and isn't appropriate for kids to watch. But that aside I liked the movie.

What did annoy me a little bit is that the director opted for the much too common "spin the camera around during action sequences" method of filming. This is nausea inducing since sometimes it makes what I'm sure are wonderfully choreographed but you would never know since the camera moves too fast. One scene actually did make me feel a little dizzy when they refused to keep a steady camera. It's annoying and I'm sure all these directors are doing it for a reason but honestly it makes me want to punch you in the face when you take all the time to set up these dazzling backgrounds and then you attach a camera to the back of a squirrel who is being chased by a fox and that's how you shoot action scenes.

But yes I liked Star Trek, and I would recommend it to anyone who can handle the fact that Star Trek seems so devoid of new ideas that they have to have time travel in every movie to make the plot work. Hey they rebooted James Bond without having to bring time travel into it, how about you take a clue Star Trek. Also the guy playing Dr. McCoy was a little much, it's a reboot not an impersonation...

So Full

So my co-worker and I rolled up to Hodad's which is in the shops area of Ocean Beach within sight of the ocean. We got there at maybe 10 after 11 and were one of the first few people in the door. The wait staff was really on the ball, and the place filled up roughly 10 minutes after we got there. We sat right by the open window at the front of the place so that we could see the street and have a breeze when we ate lunch. There were license plates all over the interior as well as several surfboards hanging all over the place.

We got a basket of Frings, which is fries and onion rings, and were unable to finish the basket (that came with 2 sides of ranch). Our burgers came out and when I lifted up the tiny package of this burger it felt like it weighed 5 lbs. I looked at the burger and was concerned that my jaw might not be big enough at first. This was a single cheeseburger, I can't imagine how large a double would be, quite likely jawbreaking proportions. The burger was very good, I don't know about top 5 in the country, but it was very good. But what was better then the burger was the vegetables on said burger. The two slices of tomato were huge (as large as the hamburger patty) and fresh, I would be very challenged to find tomato that fresh. The onion was equally as large and fresh as the tomato and so the entire burger was like it had 3 patties, just not all meat.

After finishing my burger, which I did very quickly since 1) I was very hungry and 2) I didn't want to make a mess so I ate it fast so as not to make a mess, I was as full as I've ever been. But I didn't have that overwhelmingly disgusting feeling you normally have after eating something so big. I actually felt pretty content because of the freshness of it all and the lack of grease.

The overall experience of the place was well worth it, and we got there just in time before the real lunch rush. I am going to take a nap at my desk now since I'm so full from that delicious burger.

Hell yes Lunch

Rarely do I get super excited about lunch plans. But today I'm going to Hodad's which was recently on CNN as one of the 5 best burger places in the country. I've been excited to go go ever since last week when my co-worker and I planned the trip. The funny thing is that I'm not even a huge burger guy, I don't really eat too much red meat, maybe once a month or less. I think I'm more excited by the prospects of actually havign a plan to go somewhere on purpose with prior planny. Hell yeah planning out my lunch ahead of time, this rocks! I'll report if it was fully as awesome as expected since afterall it is supposed to be one of the best places in the country to get a burger.

Rich Patch of Sugar

I've been more and more faithful to eating oatmeal that I bring from home at work. It's quick easy and usually fills me up in the morning. But every once in awhile I don't stir the oatmeal enough and then when I'm eating it some random spoonfull will contain all the cinnamon flavoring that I didn't spread around.

I've got to tell you that it is th emost disgusting thing in the world when you are eating warm mushy oatmeal, and then you get one bite that is full of rich cinnamon sugar and it's all sandy and full of too much flavor...yuck. I'm just saying, it can ruin your morning.

Work work and more work

I haven't written much lately, and that could be because I'm lazy. or because I've been at work for the last three weeks almost non-stop. My boss called me into her office the other day and told me that there might be an issue with the 40 hours of OT I worked from Tuesday to today.

I love when work is busy, but I'm so worn out and mentally exhausted it is just a chore to be here. On top of that I had my Vegas trip for my other job cancelled today when they claimed that I needed to be here on Friday for full coverage. Even though I begged them for a day off. Seriously what the hell.

The worst part about work being this busy is that you miss out on working out. When you are in the office from 6am to 10pm or later you kinda miss your window to go workout. You also eat like shit because you are too drained to make your own food and you don't have time to go out and get anything good.

If you're looking for someone to blame for this blame 2 things. The first would be the Federal Budget schedule, which makes me super busy anytime a budget is due. The second thing would be the Obama administration, who put off this budget submit from the end of december till no and now we have an exceptionally condensed schedule. 3 days to do an IT budget? 5 days to do other exhibits? 1 fucking day to do a godamn exhibit that requires every fucking dollar we have to be shown where it's being spent? Everyone here at the office is burnt out, we're all tired, and I can't help think that this is going to be problematic when we jump right into the new budget.

I'm actually typing this as I'm waiting for someone to send me some data...someone who I know for a fact fell asleep on her couch late last night trying to finish it. Unreal.

My new Friend!

So I walked into the men's room this morning to wash my hands (which I do like 4000000 times a day) there was a new friend in there. It was a huge cockroach. So naturally I struck up a conversation, turns out his name is Pete, the cockroach, which is what I called him because I have other friends named Pete and I wouldn't want to get them confused. He mostly scuttles around for a living, infesting this old building I work in. He called me Marty, the human, presumably so he could tell me apart from some other friend of his named Marty (another cockroach). We chatted for awhile and decided to go out to lunch sometime, and now in retrospect I feel kinda silly because I have no ideas what cockroaches eat...I mean generally I'm down for anything but what if he wants to go get greasy fried food. I hate eating greasy fried food when I'm at work...

Seriously though, that's one big cockroach.