communication breakdown

The Good Life

Sometimes, everything just falls into place. Take the last couple days, for instance. I finish 3rd out of 18 in our monthly poker game last night, taking home double my entry fee. The miserable excuse for a college known as UGA loses to Auburn in football. The pristine institution known as Georgia Tech, on the other hand, steps up in a mighty way and knocks off Miami, the #3 team in the nation, in a game which they supposedly had no chance. I went to see Harry Potter on Saturday and it was great (review forthcoming). I won my fantasy football matchup. Heck, I even happened to glance at a $50 gift certificate that I've had on my desk for about a year, just in time to notice that it was expiring in a couple days and that I needed to use it ASAP. It's like nothing could go wrong.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, I'm starting a week of vacation on Tuesday. If only things could always go this well...

Horror Movie Month (Postmortem)

Well, after quite a delay, I finally finished my Netflix horror movie project that I started in October. The idea was to watch 20 noteworthy horror films that I've never seen, before Halloween. Clearly, I overshot the date by a bit. But, in my defense, I didn't start until mid-October, and a series of events prevented me from watching some of the movies in a reasonable time frame. Regardless, I got through the list and I'm glad I did it. Here are my thoughts in retrospect. But first, for the sake of reference, here is the initial list again, for your viewing pleasure:

Now, some superlatives I'd like to award:

Best Movie:

• 5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) - A simple premise, executed to perfection. Romero creates a real sense of desperation in this film, and the black/white filming just makes it look eerier. If that wasn't enough, there's the debate about the social commentary in the film, and of course, the bitterly ironic ending. The sequel "Dawn of the Dead" gets all the credit, but this is the film that sets the bar for the entire zombie subgenre.
• 4. The Haunting (1963) - I was shocked by how good this was, not only because of its age, but because of how strongly it constrasts to the horrible, horrible 1999 remake. As with "Night of the Living Dead", the black/white feel adds to the creepiness, and this film clearly wrote the book on how to make a psychological thriller. No blood, no monsters - just noises, clever camerawork, and the unknown inside your head.
• 3. The Changeling (1980) - A film that clearly borrows from "The Haunting", but takes things up a notch. It is edgier, scarier, and has a more thorough and intriguing storyline. Not to mention the acting here is better, led by the stellar George C. Scott.
• 2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - The original; the classic. It was exactly what I expected, and that was a good thing. And it was able to live up to the hype, which was impressive. The movie itself is lacking in certain areas, but it makes up for it with numerous scenes of sheer terror. In its scariest moments, it is rivaled (and surpassed) only by "The Exoricst".
• 1. Carrie (1976) - again, this one caught me off-guard. I knew of this movie, and had always heard it spoken of fondly, but never heard it mentioned among the classics. For my money, it belongs in the pantheon of great horror movies, not just because it's scary, but because it's a great film, too. Brian de Palma is a fantastic director, and this is one of his best efforts. This movie held me captivated and disturbed from beginning to end.

Scariest Scene:

• 5. The Haunting (the banging sounds in the middle of the night) - Isn't it amazing how effective a loud sound can be? It sounds cheesy, but watch this movie in the dark, and see if you don't get totally creeped out by the mysterious banging sounds coming from nowhere...
• 4. The Changeling (the mirror breaks while John looks in for a close-up) - This was a scene executed to perfection, in that you couldn't have predicted it coming. Then, as if it wasn't scary enough, you see a dead man's face in the cracked mirror. Yikes.
• 3. When a Stranger Calls (initial phone call) -

  Babysitter: What do you want?
  Caller: Your... blood............ all over me!

  Need I say more?
• 2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Leatherface kills his first two victims) - This is just a scene of merciless horror, one of the many this movie is famous for. When the girl runs in, trips into Leatherhead, who beats her over the head with a mallet, picks her up, throws her onto a large meat hook, then starts ripping into her boyfriend with a chainsaw while she watches... that's about as much as any person can stand to watch.
• 1. Carrie (the final scene) - I refuse to tell you what happens here, just because it would be a travesty to ruin this for anyone who hasn't seen it or doesn't know about it. Let me just say this: it is the only scene out of any of these movies to literally make me jump out of my chair and cause my heart to race for minutes. That hasn't happened to me since I was a kid. Unbelievable.

Goriest Movie: Dead Alive - Wow, this one wasn't even close. Peter Jackson goes absolutely bezerk in this zombie send-up. The last 30 minutes are a complete bloodbath, to the point where it becomes over-the-top hilarity. Horror film buffs who are okay with campy dialogue and cheesy humor will love this one.

Worst Movie: Army of Darkness - Yet again, this movie wins this non-award hands-down. What a horribly worthless film. And yes, I do realize that many of you probably feel that I'm speaking blasphemously, but I really don't care. There was nothing good about this film. The gore and special effects were nothing that you hadn't already seen in Evil Dead II. The story is completely ridiculous, and the humor - if you can call it that - is completely cheesy slapstick garbage. It was only 81 minutes long, and I regretted every minute of it.

So there it is. I had fun, and will probably look to do another one of these themed "projects" in the near future. And of course, I'll be writing all of the gory details here! (pun intended)

The Season of Concerts - Finale

Well, this past Tuesday was the Ben Folds concert at the Tabernacle. I love seeing shows there, and I've always wanted to see Ben, but I must admit that I was a little nervous that I might not like it as much, since it's a very different style of concert from all the others I've attended. Having seen the show now, I will say that it was a different experience, but nonetheless it was a lot of fun.

In some ways it was a mellower show, because the focus was much more on the piano than the drum/guitar combo, and then of course there are the plentiful numbers of awesome solo ballads which Ben Folds does so well. But he sure did play a lot of music - about 2.5 hours worth. He started off playing purely new stuff from his last 2 solo albums, which was good, but lacking something special. Then his backup band left stage and he took over for awhile, playing almost all older stuff from the Ben Folds Five days. Then the band came back and he played a ton more, mixing it up across all albums. The conclusion was absolutely tremendous - he rocked out with 5 or 6 offerings from his most classic material, including my favorite Ben Folds song "Philosophy". "Army" was also of particular note, as he played the role of conductor by separating the crowd into sections and leading the group through the sing-along portion of the song. He did it with such gusto that you couldn't help but admire and laugh.

The only complaint I have was my own fault - we got great positioning on the floor (2nd row again!), but we happened to be on the right side of the stage. Well, the piano was turned such that Ben sat on the left side facing the right, so while we could see him well, we couldn't see his hands work the piano at all. Too bad. Anyways, I'm really glad I went. For those who might be curious, here's the setlist:

1. Bastard
2. Gone
3. Annie Waits
4. Trusted
5. Jesusland
6. Jesusland (pop version)
7. You To Thank
8. Still Fighting It
9. Prison Food
10. Landed
11. Bitches Ain't Shit
12. Brick (without band)
13. Don't Change Your Plans (without band)
14. Lullaby (without band)
15. Luckiest (without band)
16. The Last Polka
17. Army
18. Ascent of Stan
19. Where's Summer B?
20. There's Always Someone Cooler Than You
21. Late
22. Zak and Sara
23. Rockin The Suburbs
24. Not The Same
25. Philosophy
26. Narcolepsy
27. One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces

Ramble On

Do you ever just feel like everyone's out to get you? First, it was my run of bad luck with my car, which I have detailed in my previous posts. Lately, it just seems that I've got a target on my vehicle when I'm on the road. Luckily, I haven't been involved in any problems since my fender-bender a couple months ago, but it seems that the number of drivers gunning for me has taken a sharp upturn recently. In the last few days alone, I've had to take evasive maneuvers just to avoid several idiots who either pulled out in front of me or tried to cut me off. (Note: "evasive maneuvers" is probably overstating it a bit, but I just felt like saying it) And if that wasn't bad enough, the vast majority of these fools were on cellphones. If I were King (and I should be), I would force everyone who uses a cellphone while driving to talk with Paris Hilton on the phone for an hour. That ought to teach them - more than likely, they'll throw their phone in the river and run away screaming...

Lions, and Bears, and Concerts, oh my!

Well, continuing my latest trend of attending concerts, I saw Audioslave at the Gwinnett Arena two weeks ago. The show was insane. There were two opening acts, and we planned on getting in early so that we could maximize the advantage of our floor seats and get right up to the stage. Unfortunately, my complete inability to find my way around town once I take a wrong turn resulted in me showing up 30 minutes late, even though I left an hour ahead of time. This is a painful subject - don't ask. Anyways, we missed one of the opening acts entirely, and I was sure that all the die-hard fans would have already been in place, preventing us from getting good position. Boy, was I wrong. When we got in, there was almost nobody on the floor - we walked right up to about the 4th row. It took almost no effort at all to get up the 2nd row, which is where we spent the rest of the show.

The opening acts were OK, but Audioslave was tremendous. We were on the right-side of the stage, directly below where Tom Morello was standing. Simply put, he's the greatest guitarist I've ever seen in person. Not only is he supremely talented, but he has such a fascinating on-stage persona - he's very concentrated and focused on the music, but he is super intense as he rocks the fool out of his guitars. When he jumped up on top of the speakers (which was often), he was so close that I could almost touch him. It was fantastic. Then there was Chris Cornell - he was very confident and active as the lead singer, and he often came over to Morello's area and jumped up on the speakers to sing. The crowd was wildly into it, and the whole thing was such a rush - I am convinced that, going to a show like that, the only way to do it is with floor tickets. Don't even bother with a seat ticket, it's just not the same.

The setlist was very nice; they mixed it up quite evenly and did almost all of their hits. Despite my love for Audioslave and their material, the best part of the show, bar none, was the Soundgarden throwback when they played Rusty Cage and Spoonman back-to-back. I was going wild - that was definitely the closest I'll ever get to seeing or hearing Soundgarden live, which if you remember, ranked #3 on my list of Top 10 Concerts I Wish I Had Attended. The sad thing was that, when they started playing Rusty Cage (a classic), many of the fans didn't recognize it - several people asked me what song it was. What a shame...

If that wasn't enough, I'm going to see Ben Folds at the Tabernacle (one of Atlanta's best concert venues) in a week. Ben Folds ranks #8 on the previous list, so I'm very excited to be crossing an entry off that Top 10. I think it's going to be a fantastic show.

Site of the Day

Looking for a great time-waster? If you enjoy movies like I do, then beware: this site might consume way more of your time than you intend for it to. Colin's Movie Monologue Page is a database of monologues/dialogues for all kinds of movies, searchable by movie title. This site is based on submissions, so new ones are being added all of the time. I stumbled across this site one day, and got stuck for hours reminiscing about some of my favorite movie scenes. Enjoy!

The Ramblin' Wreck

I'm kind of surprised that I've made it this far into the GT football season without commenting on it. Considering my love for college football, and for my alma mater in particular, it's always on my mind. I guess it's about time that I put down some of my thoughts for others to disagree with:

• First off, we're 6-2. Can't argue or complain much about that. Unfortunately, I feel we're heading for a 3-game skid, after which we'll end up 6-5 and barely bowl eligible. But I sure hope I'm wrong. I predicted either 6-5 or 7-4 at the beginning of the season, and I've seen nothing to sway my feelings yet.
• Best win: Auburn. I was there - it was a textbook "all of the pieces coming together" game. Our QB played well, made good decisions. Our defense caused turnovers and prevented Auburn from scoring. The outcome was never really in doubt - and this was all on the road. Fantastic opening to the season.
• Worst loss: NC State. Forget that we lost 51-7 to VT; they are a great team, and that was a textbook "when it rains, it pours" game. The NC State loss was unforgivable. This was a mediocre team, coming into our house, and stealing a win. Sure, we missed a couple field goals, but that's going to happen at some point. It boils down to the fact that we had a chance to win at the end of the game, and we made a poor playcall. Despite what the apologists say about it being the right decision because we "tried to put the ball in our best player's hands", the fact remains that from the 2 yard line, with 30 seconds to go, an outstanding RB, and a reeling defense, you attempt to pound it into the end zone, not loft a pass over the middle where - surprise! - it can be (and was) intercepted. What a heartbreak.
• Coach Controversy: Finally, I arrive at the taboo topic. Should he be fired or have his contact extended? A lot depends on the fnial 3 games, but my firm opinion is that Chan Gailey is not the right head coach of the future for Georgia Tech football. There are several reasons for this:
  • He has a consistent pattern of mediocrity. He has yet to win more than 7 regular-season games since he's been here, and we're on track for more of the same, despite the fact that our players have matured and become more experienced during his tenure.
  • He lacks big-time recruitability. While he is excellent at finding mid-level recruits, he is not the kind of man to bring in some of the top talent which, on occasion, we should be able to compete for.
  • His playcalling has been suspect at times. See the loss at NC State, along with near-losses to Clemson and UNC.
  • Most importantly, under his tutelage, our teams have always exhibited certain traits which I tend to attribute to poor coaching. This includes coming out flat for same games, not showing up at all for other games, and always losing at least one game which we have no business losing. This year alone, our season already fits the "Chan Pattern": one game we weren't supposed to win (Auburn), one loss to a bad team (NC State), and one blowout (VT). I would much rather have a consistent team that shows up to play hard for every game than one with such ups-and-downs and inconsistencies. To me, that is a sign of suspect coaching.

  Don't get me wrong, Gailey is a stand-up guy who respects academics and has integrity. But I want integrity from my pastor and boss. From my football coach, I want wins - not at the expense of character, but in addition to it. I'm convinced that Chan Gailey will probably prevent our program from taking a dive, but he's not the guy to bring us any modicum of real success.
  

Zoom Zoom

Here I go again, taking too long between posts. I seem to have fallen out of the groove that I was in for awhile there. I need to be careful, or I'll run the risk of just letting this site slip into oblivion, like 99.99% of the rest of the blogs in the universe. I'm sure there would be a riot if I let that happen.

Well, several things have happened since my last post. Most of them seem to revolve around my car, for better or worse. Perhaps the most interesting of which was the Mazda Zoom Zoom Live event that I attended with some buddies. I must say, it was quite different than I expected - but it was a hell of a good time. I figured there would be a professional driving class, an opportunity to test drive some of their cars, and some racing courses that you would have to pay to try. Oh no - the racing was the primary focus of the whole event. There were 4 different racing courses, each of which you could do multiple times, and they were all free. Some were better than others, but here is the general run-down of the setup:

• Match Time Gymkhana - The idea here was to race through a course, using your pick of a Mazda 3/5/6, while trying to exactly match the target time. Points were given if you were within 2 seconds of the match time, and the closest time for the day won a Bose Wave Radio.
• Jinba Ittai Experience - This course was different but fun. The idea was to race the new Miata through a course while trying to beat the target time, but there was a big catch. Mounted to the front of the Miata was a large bowl, and inside the large bowl was a smaller bowl containing 3 golf balls. The object was to navigate the course while keeping all 3 balls in the smaller bowl - time was added to your run if you lost any of the balls.
• Performance Challenge - This was an all-out race course - balls to the wall in the new Miata. Try to beat the target time, but it ain't pattycake.
• School of Zoom - This was the driving course, but it was more a small tutorial on navigating a hairpin curve. After the class, you got to take a stroll in the RX-8 with a driving instructor in the passenger seat.

Points were given in the first 3 events, and you won stuff if you got enough points. I took top points on the Jinba Ittai Experience (and I didn't see anyone else who did), but I didn't score on any of the others, so it's a toss-up. My buddy Daniel probably had the more enviable finish, as he scored on all 3 courses, which equaled out to my one top score. I really wanted to beat the target time on the Performance Challenge, but I really never came close. Despite my flair for the dramatic on the highway, I had never done any racing or autocross before, so it was all a new experience for me. But it sure was fun.

Now, if only the rest of the car-related stuff that has happened recently was that enjoyable...

Fun With Potholes

In what seems to be becoming a weekly habit for me, I ruined yet another tire. This is like the third one in 2 months. And it's always the front passenger tire! This one was the most brutal of all - I was coming south on Spring Street towards GT campus, in moderate traffic, so I could only see so much of the road in front of me. I was moving at about 45, and I changed lanes to pass somebody. I'm in the middle of the lane change, and then WHAM, I say hello to the biggest damn crater ever found on pavement. I swear that a meteor had to have crashed right there in downtown Atlanta. It was at least a foot deep. No covering, no cones, nothing. Needless to say, I hit this thing full-on, and it felt and sounded like I tore off the front of my car. I knew the tire was done.

Sure enough, it started bubbling up the next day. I made another appointment to bring the car in and have the tire replaced. But there's a twist this time. When I got the tire a mere 3 weeks before, they told me that they were now doing free Road Hazard coverage on all their tires. Bingo. So the tire was covered. But I got hit by the Car Dealer Rule:

When you bring your car in to the dealer, they will find something else wrong with the car that will cost at least $500

As a result of hitting the pothole, I bent both of my passenger-side wheels. Not good. They are expensive wheels. It ended up costing me $600 to replace them. I'm holding out hope that I can sell the old ones somewhere and recuperate some of the cost. But needless to say, that was a nice kick in the gut. And of course, when I went back to the scene of the crime to get some pictures of the city's negligence, it was all nice and covered up with a metal plate and marked with cones. Screw me.

The Most Useless Class Ever

So I took a defensive driving course this past week. Talk about worthless. Essentially, it was a 6-hour driver's education course, which serves me no purpose, because if there's one thing in life that I know how to do, it's drive.

I think it's interesting that they put such faith in courses like this. I'm sure it's great for a teenager learning to drive for the first time. But at this point, my habits and tendencies are set in stone. I drive how I drive, and no course is going to change that. In fact, the most important thing I learned from the course is that, by law, slower drivers in the left lane on the highway must move right and yield to faster traffic, even if they are already doing the speed limit. The irony here is that knowing that will only serve to make me a more aggressive driver, because now I feel even more justified about "encouraging" slow drivers to get out of my lane.

The other interesting thing I noticed were the discussions that my classmates had about speeding. As expected, the instructor attempted to persuade us not to speed, stating that it was not worth the consequences, and that the most you ever gain from speeding is a few minutes of extra time anyways. Everybody seemed to agree with that assessment. Except for one major problem - when I speed, I don't do it to save time. Never have. I speed because I enjoy speeding! My mind and body enjoy to be moving quickly. My car definitely enjoys the speed - it is designed to be driven hard. I don't get stressed at high speeds - I actually relax. So when people tell me to slow down because it's not worth saving five minutes... they just don't get it.

Parting Shots

• So, October is over, but I'm not yet done with my Horror Movie Tribute Month. I didn't get through the 20 movies yet, mostly because I didn't start until mid-October. Never fear, I'm standing strong and will finish soon. Expect a nice write-up synopsis with some awards and recognitions after I'm done.
• I can't believe it, but I'm getting dangerously close to my 100th post. I feel compelled to do something cool for that one. I have a few things in mind - keep your eyes peeled within the next few weeks...