Buyer Beware

Just in case you forgot:



Just to confirm, thats www.condoqueen.com, despite my suggestive crop.

Oscarnation (I Can't Believe I Watched the Whole Thing!)

Crash?

I'll be the first to admit I haven't seen as many of the films nominated for this year's Academy Awards as I should have seen, but I have seen Crash. "Hated It."

The award for most entertaining bit goes to Stephen Colbert's voice during the fake commercials.

I really did watch the entire 3.5 hour broadcast. Its been a few years since I've endured the Oscars, and as I said to Joe as I left his apartment "Let's never do that again unless one of us in nominated for an award."

I had forgotten how excruciatingly boring it is to watch the Oscars. I've seen cliche movies about bad-boy racists saving the lives of black women trapped in a car after a freak accident that were more entertaining.

Puh-lease!

Waydowntown

Waydowntown was a small movie from 2000 which focused on several 20-somethings, living in Calgary, involved in a wager to see who could go the longest without stepping outside. The wager was made possible by Calgary's maze of skyways, which connect many of the downtown buildings. Its a fun movie, and hard to find on DVD but well worth it if you ever have a chance to see it.

I am reminded of the film because recent Minneapolite Rick was explaining yesterday his ability to travel form his apartment in Minnetonka to his place of work in downtown Minneapolis without ever needing to step outside. Thanks to his buildings underground parking, naturally.

Tomorrow Belongs To Me

I have a somewhat perverse obsession with German propaganda from WWII. Even when I was much younger I used to read books about Joseph Goebbels and Dr. Josef Mengele, aka "The Angel of Death." I'll let you figure out why this person is remembered by such a gruesome nickname. When I was studying in Europe I ended up taking a tour of the Dachau concentration camp, outside of Munich, on Easter Sunday. The timing was coincidental, but it certainly made the whole experience that much more creepy. At least in my head at the time it did.

Anyway, I've always been perplexed by the German publics ability to seemingly not notice the round-up and mass murder of millions of innocent people. Of course, I also understand the heavy pull of wanting to be apart of something bigger than oneself. That's why I am so fascinated by the German propaganda machine. If the propagandists were good at one thing, it was making an emotional connection.

Listen to the song in the link below and think about how it makes you feel. Festive, happy, boastful, proud, joyous? Everything is just peachy right?

Horst Wessel Lied

Now look at the lyrics of this song translated into English. Amazing how your mood immediately changes right?

Lyrics

Now think how you would feel if this was your only frame of reference. Most of the song's lyrics are not inherently evil. 'Bread for all,' 'fight for freedom,' 'soon we set things right.' If you have no alternative message, it seems reasonable a person might actually believe the Nazi's were the 'good guys.'

The End is Nigh

Today marked day #8 of my tedious 9-day stretch of consecutive working. The sun will come out tomorrow. For three days. And then back behind the clouds until the next significant period of time away form sales managing. To make matters worse, 5 of the 9 days have been closing shifts. This means I go to work between noon an 1 PM, and get home about 10:30 PM.

I close tomorrow night to finish off the extended week from hell. So far, the plan for the weekend is to get as drunk as humanly possible. Alas, most if not all of my Minneapolitan friends will be tending to their own careers this weekend. So unless any of ye faithful readers steps up to the plate I may be drinking alone.

Adding to my own personal corporate nightmare, I thought I had a decent chance of getting re-assigned to a different store by the end of this week. But my boss seemed pretty clueless when I talked to him about it yesterday. Oh well, I guess I'll have to be content selling a product I don't believe in to a customer I don't like in a store I'm not keen on to say the least. Who needs more money anyhow?

Its Peanut Butter/Jelly Time! (Peanut Butter Jelly with a Baseball Bat)

Ben and the Rock host a fabulous dinner party tonight featuring Joe's famous tortilla soup, some kind of pulled pork dish from Ben, and my contribution (a $40 cake - I hope there's a bar of silver in the middle). Plus some asparagus and other stuff no doubt. If I remember to take my camera I'll post some pictures of the festivities later tonight.

Speaking of cake, here is a picture of my friend Tom's confectionery rendition of R2D2:



Before you dole out any praise for this accomplishment, you should know that he used a cake mold of R2D2. I didn't know such a thing existed, but apparently he has a C3P0 mold as well.

The Amazing Adventures of 11 Couples Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the Lost Colony of Atlantis

The Amazing Race.

Thanks to Rick, it seems I'm hooked on yet another in a series of reality television programs designed simply to pass the night away. Luckily, I've got nothing better to do. PR2 ends in two weeks, and then my weekly reality dose moves to Tuesday nights; featuring both American Idol and The Amazing Race. Who could ask for anything more?

In case you missed the first episode, these homos are totally eliminated.