The Force wasn't strong enough until...

I accosted these rebel scums...

Threatening them with imprisonment, I was bribed....


Then I needed a cigarette...

Happy Halloween!

Da Duck gets LAMER...

In today's USAToday (online edition), I read this:

"President Bush accused Democratic lawmakers on Friday of wasting time by passing legislation to expand children's health coverage, knowing that he would veto it again. At the same time, he criticized Congress for failing to approve spending bills to keep the government running."

Let me see if I got my politics and angles correct...

Republicans are for a smaller government and lower taxes. Why then is he spending lots of our tax dollars to build the government, entailing an excessive amount of bureaucracy? Furthermore, a shitload of money is shifted to defense from programs that help our fellow Americans. So....why won't this fuckhead expand health coverage to our impoverished kids?

Possible explanation...
He is spending stupendous amounts of money (without raising taxes, I'll get to this later) on defense so that terrorists can't harm our sick and needy kids. He is protecting these kids' rights to suffer from (i) the lack of medical treatment and (ii) repetitive Nyquil/Robitussin dosing. To emphasis his benevolence, he has blocked or severely limited research into promising stem cell developments to cure sicknesses and diseases. The voice of God in his gut told him that he is the Decider and so he hath decided that these needy Americans need his ignorance and neglect to understand the suffering of Jesus Christ. After all, his evangelical base tells him that Rapture is soon upon us and that these ailing fools will be amongst the first welcomed into JC's bosom.

If the Rapture doesn't come for several decades, the neglected children will surely grow up and become a part of the massive labor force dedicated to paying off the debt burden he hath decided to unleash onto all Americans.

He is the coolest and smartest deciding fucking Duck. EVER!

Boston Legit

Right after watching Infernal Affairs 2 and 3, I popped open a Blue Moon and kicked back to watch Beauty and The Geek and Boston Legal that I DVR'ed. The smooth buzz came on just before Boston Legal started.

I am a fan of Spader's Shore. When the alchyhall hit, my random thoughts gathered and formed dreamlike profiles. Shore's current (and past) infatuation, Lorraine, reminds me a woman whose neck and legs, have delighted my innards, and she is also in the law business. I don't speak gibberish when around her but I so dig her being a blue-collar football-loving appropriately-cussing babe.

Shore's boss, Shirley, continues to evoke comparisons with a beloved friend who likes to control her environment. And similarly, she's in a relationship where she's "allowing" herself to be swayed by "allowing" him to be there. Regardless, there's a glow and the incandescence is growing. Cheers!

Certainly, the alcohol was flowing as I thought about how I was a bitch to someone recently. Just Friday night, I made a comment into space and she claimed that she wasn't a culprit. I rolled my eyes and said "I wasn't talking to you...the world doesn't revolve around you...it ain't all about you." I wondered if I should apologize.

As I write this, my feeling is: she can bite me. The infatuation is gone and I enjoyed it while it lasted. I won't "allow" myself to be warped by her. Otherwise, my private "Shirley" would slap me upside my head.

Movie review:
Infernal Affairs 2: wasn't a bad movie; reminded me a bit of Michael Corleone's consolidation of power
Infernal Affairs 3: should have been called "Madness Descent" and was sort of all over the place.

Kelly Chen is fantastically cute. Sammi Cheng was cuter when she was fuller. The American version sucked.

OMG, it's ONJ!

"A place where nobody dared to go, The love that we came to know They call it Xanadu

And now, Open your eyes and see, What we have made is real, We are in Xanadu

A million lights are dancing, And there you are, A shooting star, An everlasting world, And you're here with me, Eternally

Xanadu, your neon lights will shine, For you, Xanadu

The love, The echoes of long ago, You needed the world to know, They are in Xanadu

The dream, That came through a million years, That lived on through all the tears, It came to Xanadu

A million lights are dancing, And there you are, A shooting star, An everlasting world, And you're here with me, Eternally

Xanadu, Xanadu, (now we are here) In Xanadu
Xanadu, Xanadu, (now we are here) In Xanadu

Now that I'm here, Now that you're near in Xanadu
Now that I'm here, Now that you're near in Xanadu
Xanadu..."

Ecstatic nostalgia. In friggin HD too!

The Force is with Me

TK0816 Reporting for Imperial duty...



What is your purpose here and where is your identification?



Freeze Rebel scum!



It just feels great to have gotten it done in a total of 3 afternoons. Many thanks to my namesake for his attention to detail and taking time from his family to do most of the work on this project. Cheers!

Becoming a StormTrooper

May the Force be with my namesake who is helping me to build my StormTrooper outfit.

Here are some pictures of the progress:









I should be a fully functional StormTrooper next Sunday.

Standards

I was told that I was acting very weird this morning. To top it off, "DAMN" was used to emphasize the particular degree of my weirdness. I don't mind these remarks and usually revel in them. However, I'm a bit more than annoyed.

It started with remarks presuming my being hungover today from yet another bout of unrestrained boozing. After the second swat of the allegations, it dawned on me that there exists a mental profile of me being a habitual booze-master. As I do enjoy my drinks with a certain passion, I am far from the daily lush. As it continued, I got the impression that I was being judged by a "I go near the fence but wouldn't dare touch it nor climb over it" person. In other words, a fucking talker and an err-on-the-safe-side person.

Grrrrr....I dislike these hide-behind-conservative-values folks who live vicariously through others' exploits and adventures while covertly wishing they had an ounce of moxie but overtly showing disdain and criticism. The top blew when it was asked "r u ok today? u wanna talk?"

Maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion. Maybe they're concerned. Maybe I am a lush.

Uh...fuck no. I have fun the way I like it. I'll apologize if it hurts anyone or anything. And thinking back on this person, I haven't judged them at all for the stupid shit they've done. Frankly, they should be the last to judge given their current state of flux. Hell, a drink or five would probably help them to see shit better and to express themselves.

Wanker.

Reconstruction

Weeks later, the folks are still trying to get their lives back together.

The city, state and federal government and their silly agencies haven't really helped. My friend's cousin's house (the one with the folks on their roof) got a measly $150 per person in the house. The rest of the money probably went to government cronies.

Firing Blanks

That's how I would characterize the bank I work for. Or "All bark and no bite."

I'm now back from a seemingly long vacation which started the second half of August with one day in the office and the next at the U.S. Open. followed by Labor Day weekend.

While I was at the Open, management hired someone to be my new boss, which explains the exile (or banishment) to the 3rd floor. It is now 10:05AM and he's NOT here. Hahahahahahaha......

I was just remarking to co-workers that he wouldn't last 3 months. One said 2 months. It appears that we both may be wrong as it's the 2nd day and I haven't seen him yet.

Also, my former boss appears to be competing with me, as if I didn't have enough competition from the LA office. Such geniuses!

The daily mindfuck is offset by the coming of the football season. Booya!

Pai Gow

My vacation started the moment I left the office today. I thought I would stay in tonight to catch up on television shows on my DVR. Around 10PM, I was utterly bored, so I went out to Chinatown to meet up with my cousin. A few beers later, I was watching a bunch of Chinamen, who got paid today, gather around a table to play Pai Gow. I had nary a clue what was going on but continued to watch.

Holy shit! These folks were flinging around $20s, $50s and $100s. It reminded me of an incident from college during freshmen year. My roommate was taking Sociology 101 and showed me an article that said "It is more natural for a Cantonese to gamble than it is for a baby to drink milk."

DOH!

Tornado!!!

Yup, that's right. A tornado touched within 100 yards of my building early this morning. Here are some pictures from my window.

There's no train service so it looks like I'll be working from home.

Over-protective mom

Yesterday, I had dim-sum lunch with a friend who recently came back from a project in Florida. He told me a wonderfully funny story that I thought I'd share with you.

First, the background stuff for context. I was telling my friend about the difficulties that my 14 year old nephew was experiencing growing up as his mom is so crazy that she follows him everywhere. She walks him to and from school. She'll watch him play handball all day at the park. She's employing a whole bunch of counter-sneaky measures against him. The thing is that he's a good kid.

My friend then says that folks he met in Florida said that moms have an affinity for their sons and dads for their daughters. A neighbor/friend of his host in Florida is very over-protective of her 13 year old son and almost indifferent towards her recently born daughter. She'll come over to the host's place throwing down cocktails while toting the baby. Once, she even left the baby in front of the fake fireplace to go smoke pot upstairs. Not that she doesn't love her daughter, she's crazy about her son.

So crazy that she goes through his stuff, his myspace page and deploys various intelligence-gathering schemes. She once asked her son if he had sex to which he answered no. She pushed on the matter by saying that she could have him tested to find out if he had indeed had sex. A blatant lie by an overzealous and loving mother. At the point, he stammered and said that he's done other things but did not have sex. Again, she pushed for the truth and insisted that there are tests that can prove if he's a virgin or not. That's when he blurted out that he "beats his meat".

The mother wanted to laugh and puke but didn't. When the son walked away, she was gagging.

If my friend reads this, please feel free to correct my recollection of this awesomely funny story.

7th Book

I finished the seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowlings did a nice job wrapping up lots of loose ends. Only four notable "good" characters die, one in the escape and three during the shoot-out. Spoiler alert: the very last chapter takes place 19 years later.

Yet another step back

After finding a good parking spot two blocks from the subway entrance, I made my way to the station with a small umbrella as the regular large one was already in the office. With music pumping and my heart rate jumping, it was wonderful to soak in the cool humidity. Yes, I do dig this humidity because it's cool. A bit cooler would be nicer.

The R train comes in and there are plenty of seats but I choose to stand as I'm engrossed with the news. As we pull into 59th Street, there's an N train waiting for us. Nice! I make my way across the platform and into the train. As always, I make my way to the middle so as to not block the area by the doors. Plus, there's usually room and, if the air con is on, it's cooler. As I turn to my right, this young man gets up from his seat as it seems he just realized that he needed the R train that I just got off. I stop my advance to let him out.

Immediately, a young Asian (I hate this word as chances are he was Chinese) boy makes for the seat and get seated. Just then this older Mongolian-looking thrusts herself into the seat and with a right hip-check nudges the boy between her and the woman sitting at the end. I didn't think much of it and I made my way to the roomy middle. Mongola (as I shall call the older woman) completes the bum-rush and the kid is forced out of the seat. Damn!

Other folks were shaking their heads but did nothing. I think the woman at the end said something but Mongola didn't respond as she probably didn't speak English. Mongola seemed to possess a combination of "I'm older, respect me", "fight for it and it's yours" and "I don't give a rat's ass". For the next three stops, she held her position at Queen Toad on the lilypad which included leaning against the guy next to her (he fell asleep after shaking his head at her).

What's a witness to do?

P.S., where credit is due

Armin Van Buuren came to town last Friday. He spun at McCarren Pool Park in Brooklyn and did a fantabulous job. Jennifer Rene, Susanna and Rank 1 were his guest performers. Unlike his set at the Tobacco Warehouse last year, he only spun for 4 hours (6PM - 10PM) this time around. Nevertheless, it great.

Photos were taken by my friend Pimpcess (aspiring future wife of AVB). Thanks!

Credit doesn't deserve credit

It's frightening when the answer to this question "Are people really that stupid?" is an emphatic "Yes!". This is probably the worst week at work in the 4.5 years I've been here. Multiple closings happened almost simultaneously and the folks in Credit are claiming ignorance, wielding their ugly wrenches to stall the closing engines and whining about semantics. I especially laugh at the last part given how poor their English is. (Side note: bad and funny as Ebonics may be, at least it's understandable.)

The general manager is going to have a massive conniption when he gets back on Monday. A part of me is worried that he might fire me because he's a chickenshit punk-ass who believes that we should be safe rather than sorry. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn't really work in today's banking industry as the bank is now sorry for being safe. Furthermore, he's given Credit too much power/oversight to cripple the sales folks from growing the bank.

Six months of not having to work could be fun. Actually, three months as I would need to get a gig by the end of the fifth month.

Still deluded...

Does our President realize he is a Lame-Ass Duck? For all of his gut-advised-by-God-feelings to lead this great nation of ours, why are we so disliked by the rest of the world and our own citizens are clashing with each other? Surely, he will have a lasting legacy as being among the worst leaders of this country rather than the delusions of grandeur when took over the Oval.

If I called for a revolution, I will surely be monitored by the government for subversive activities despite my guaranteed right to voice my disagreements and grievances of how my government is being run. The near-mockery that is Washington clearly cannot continue as I am sure I am not among the few who seeks drastic evolution of mindset in our leaders.

Frankly, I'm hoping Bloomberg will change his mind, throw $500 million into a campaign and win the 2008 presidency. He's done a pretty good job with New York City. I like his shun-the-lobbyists and his we-need-to-fix-this-mess mentality.

Run Mike Run.

Harry Potter

I was invited to a private viewing of the fifth episode of Harry Potter tonight. I brought along my nephew as he grew fond of the books I had given him to read. Like him, I wasn't crazy about the movie but did like the direction it was going. Definitely darker.

The director did a wonderful job with Dolores Umbridge. I hated her so much as it brought back a few uncomfortable memories. I do relate somewhat with Harry's plight and was quite annoyed with his constant whining and selfish acts. I suppose I was the same at that age but I can't quite recall the memories to nullify the current bitching of those bitching days.

It seemed like the children and teens in the audience enjoyed the movie. Hopefully, the next installment will be much better, in my eyes. I am looking forward to receiving the last book a few days after its release. I already read the spoiler which many have disavowed.

I don't recommend reading any reviews of the movie or book as the power of suggestion is much too great and will likely swing your opinion.

Enjoy the movie. And book.

Spoiler: Voldemort kills someone. As if you didn't already know.

Kudos!

Mika Brzezinski chose NOT to do the story on Paris Hilton which MSNBC's producer had as the lead. She took shit from her colleagues but I'm very proud of her for standing her ground on trying to relay real news. She tried to burn the story but was stopped. Later, she got up and shredded the story.

You go girl!

To see it on YouTube, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdNcCcweL0

So tired........

Public Service Notice: Always check to see if your flight is on time or delayed.

My friends and I learned the hard way last night after we got to the airport. Our flight was delayed from a scheduled 1030PM until an actual 200AM. Had we known, we would have gone into San Francisco for additional eats instead of lounging on the gate's uncomfortable seats.

Coffee is not helping and I'm so ready to pass out. Tired enough to not even have dinner and just sleep.................

h3h, I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked because the batteries died. But I did get some. We'll talk about it when we get together.

For now, I'm out of this friggin office and go home to bed.