Everyone loves movies, but most people don’t love them as much as I do. The whole experience, be it at an overpriced mega-movie theater, or sitting comfortably in your own home theater, is something that I’ve enjoyed since I was a little boy and could actually follow along with the plot.

I really get into movies, especially really good movies. I laugh, gasp, get scared, jump in my seat, shout at the TV, tear up at emotional scenes, and get excited at plot advancements. I’ve been known to exclaim “Oh shit!” loudly in the theater (embarrassing my mom during The Two Towers, hehe), and get so freaked out by Cloverfield that when the movie went all silent for a moment, all you could hear was me breathing hard.

I try not to be a movie snob when it comes to most films, but I have my limits. Ridiculous comedies (like most Adam Sandler films), Musicals, and blatant “chick flicks” (like Sisterhood of the Traveling Terms of Endearment or whatever) I mostly avoid. I can tolerate musicals sometimes, but it depends highly on the content. For instance Little Shop of Horrors is awesome, as is Chicago. The Sound of Music and Mulan Rouge, not so much.

Rather than discussing the entire history of my movie watching experience (a la the last article), I thought instead I’d list a few of my all-time favorite movies and why I enjoy them so much. Looking forward to hearing feedback about some of these in the comments.

Pulp Fiction (1995)
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Plot: The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption. (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Pretty much everyone, but especially Samuel L. Jackson.
Why I Love This Film: When it was released, I had never seen a film anything quite like it. The fast-paced dialog, the disjointed time-jumping storyline, and the phenominal performances by everyone in the cast.
Scenes I Love: Mia & Vincent’s first meeting, the “foot rub” conversation between Jules and Vincent, and Harvey Keitel’s entire appearance.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Directed by: Joel and Ethan Cohen
Plot: Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey”, set in the deep south during the 1930’s. In it, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: George Clooney (”My Hair!”), John Torturro, Holly Hunter, and especially John Goodman
Why I Love This Film: I have a deep love for Greek Mythology, so when I discovered that this is a “modern day retelling” of Homer’s “The Odyssey” (as if Mark Twain had written it) I was all over this film. I spent the entire first three viewings picking out all the similarities in the original and the movie: The blind prophet at the beginning, the “sirens” by the river (although in the book, Ulysses was tied to the mast of his ship with wax stuck in his ears to avoid hearing the singing while his men jumped to their watery death), John Goodman’s “Cyclops”, the “suitors”, and of course the great flood at the end.
Scenes I Love: “He’s been turned into a…. horrrrrrrrrny toooooad”, “Damn! We’re in a tight spot!”, “Those boys desecrated a burning cross!”.. I could go on and on.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Directed by: Irvin Kershner (Yes, George Lucas did NOT direct the best Star Wars movie ever made! His college professor did!)
Plot: While Luke takes advanced Jedi training from Yoda, his friends are relentlessly pursued by Darth Vader as part of his plan to capture Luke. (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Harrison Ford, James Earl Jones, Carrie Fisher. Mark Hamil was only now starting to get less annoying than his previous whiny version of Luke. He wont become a badass (albeit an emo badass) until Jedi.
Why I Love This Film: When I got my very first home video machine (read: BETAMAX), this was the only movie I owned. I had of course seen all the films before then, but I was almost a teenager when I owned the BETA so I took a fine appreciation for the film and it is still today my absolute favorite Star Wars film out of any of them. It was so dark and brooding compared to the first film; Luke finds out the biggest enemy in the galaxy is his father, loses his arm, his friend gets frozen in carbonite and shipped off to a giant green slug on Tatooine, and the C3P0 is all but destroyed. There was no happy ending to this film.
Scenes I Love: “Laugh it up, fuzzball.” Chewbacca reassembling C3P0 (and putting his head on backwards, much to his dismay), Leia to Han: “I love you.” Han to Leia: “I know.”

Legend (1985)
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Plot: A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from both destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves. (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Tim Motherfuckin Curry. Oh and that creepy elf guy (David Bennent).
Why I Love This Film: This was fantasy done right. Fantasy films previous to Lord of the Rings were spotty at best. They were either way over-the-top campy like Krull or Dragonslayer, or way too dark and violent like Conan and Red Sonja. A few gems appeared in the 80’s to help the series, one was Willow, and the other was the supremely badass LEGEND. The entire movie may have been a flop if it wasn’t for Tim Curry’s amazing performance (and makeup) as the Lord of Darkness. Tom Cruise, before the craziness and the cult, actually put forth a decent performance as the forest-dwelling Jack.
Scenes I Love: Jack getting his armor, the first meeting of Lily and the Lord of Darkness (”Eat, Drink, Sit.”), anything with the Gnomes.

The Princess Bride (1987)
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Plot: A classic fairy tale, with swordplay, giants, an evil prince, a beautiful princess, and yes, some kissing (as read by a kindly grandfather). (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Pretty much everyone including Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, and of course Billy Crystal and Carol Kane.
Why I Love This Film: Because at heart, I’m a big hopeless romantic. I think I’ve watched this film over 50 times in my life, and I would sit down and watch it again right this minute if it was on a television nearby. From the instantly quotable one-liners: “INCONCEIVABLE!” “My name is Indigo Montoya..”, to the epic sword battles, to the odd and dry humor that peppers the film, nothing in this movie disappoints. Even the romantic parts call attention to its own “cheese” by having the Grandson (played by a very young Fred Savage) bemoan the kissing, at least at first.
Scenes I Love: The entire opening, “As You Wish”, ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size), and of course Miracle Max and his wonderful loving wife Valerie.

Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
Directed by: Chris Columbus
Plot: Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) agrees to babysit after her “dream” date stands her up. Expecting a dull evening, Chris settles down with three kids for a night of TV … and boredom. But when her frantic friend Brenda calls and pleads to be rescued from the bus station in downtown Chicago, the evening soon explodes into an endless whirl of hair-raising adventures! (Amazon)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Elizabeth Shue, Vincent D’Onofrio
Why I Love This Film: Okay, this film isn’t worth of any awards, nor should it be considered a “classic” by any means, but that doesn’t make me love this film any less. I remember this film fondly as a kid, and I’m pretty sure my very first celebrity crush/lust was Elizabeth Shue. Despite the films obvious cheesiness, it’s actually a really funny comedy and falls in line with a lot of other decent “family” comedies out at the same time (think Uncle Buck). Vincent D’Onofrio’s appearance as a garage mechanic/Thor at the end is really entertaining to look at considering his recent portfolio (The Cell, Law & Order: SVU, etc).
Scenes I Love: When Chris (Elizabeth Shue) finds her boyfriend (played by West Wing/Studio 60’s Bradley Whitford) on a date with another woman, Sara’s deadly skyscraper adventure, and of course the gang meeting Thor at the end.

The Goonies (1985)
Directed By: Richard Donner
Plot: They call themselves “The Goonies.” The secret caves. The old lighthouse. The lost map. The treacherous traps. The hidden treasure. And Sloth… Join the adventure. (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Sean Astin, Anne Ramsey, Jeff Cohen (Chunk)
Why I Love This Film: C’mon. Pirate treasure, secret maps found in attics, idiot criminals, and a friendly monster. This movie had everything a boy wanted in it, up and including a hot redhead in a tennis skirt. I think this is the only movie I’ve seen more than The Princess Bride, and my young adventures into sewer pipes and underground caverns is entirely to blame on this film. This movie still holds up extremely well with today’s generation, and is probably one of the most demanded sequels people still want. There’s been several rumors of a sequel, but nothing has ever gotten off the ground. Unless it was written, directed, and starred all the same people (except Mama Fratelli and Sloth, RIP), there’s no way it could ever come close to how awesome this movie is.
Scenes I Love: The “Truffle Shuffle”, Chunk’s first meeting with Sloth, Mouth and the marble bag.

Donnie Darko (2001)
Directed and Written by: Richard Kelly
Plot: A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident. (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Jake Gyllenhaal, Noah Wylie, James Duval (as Frank), and even Drew Barrymore isn’t annoying!
Why I Love This Film: First off, the plot synopsis above is a joke. That is not what this movie is about at all, and makes it seem like some kind of weird horror movie. If you haven’t seen this movie, you may not want to read after this, although i’ll do my best to avoid any big spoilers. What the movie is about is this: Donnie is a distressed teenager who is awoken in the night by a disembodied voice beckoning him to the local golf course. While he is discussing the end of the world with a 6′ rabbit, a jet engine crashes through the roof of his house directly above his bedroom that would have killed him upon impact. What he discovers then is that time and reality have been fractured, and through Frank (the bunny), and a few other spiritual guides (his friends, his teachers, Roberta Sparrow) along the way, seeks to fix the broken universe before the world ends. This is explained in greater detail on the Directors Cut of the film and in the audio commentary with Richard Kelly himself (as interviewed by Kevin Smith!) You seriously cannot watch this movie only once.
Scenes I Love: The “Knife” scene in the bathroom, Donnie skulking out of Patrick Swayze’s house with flames behind him, the creepy scene with him talking to Frank in the movie theater.

The Professional (AKA Leon) (1994)
Directed and Written by: Luc Besson
Plot: Professional assassin Leon reluctantly takes care of 12-year-old Mathilda, a neighbor whose parents are killed, and teaches her his trade. (IMDB)
Actors Who Make This Film Great: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and Natalie Portman in her first film!
Why I Love This Film: Fantastic storytelling, characters you care about, and Gary Fucking Oldman. I swear I’ve never seen a bad movie with this guy in it. Regardless, whether you’ve seen it as The Professional or Leon: The Professional, this film is not only absolutely beautiful to watch cinematically, but also just a damn good film from start to finish. Luc Besson went well beyond the call of duty for this film after realizing the character of “The Cleaner” from his previous film, La Femme Nikita, was underused and wished to develop an entire story for the character, both played by Jean Reno. Natalie Portman grabbed a lot of people’s attention in her first major motion picture role as the 12 year old Mathilda who trains with Leon to become a professional herself. Along with The Goonies, this is also one of the most highly demanded sequels. I’d love to see Natalie Portman back in the same role, 10 years later and following along in Leon’s footsteps.
Scenes I Love: Practice shooting on the roof with the paintball gun, the Mathilda/Leon fashion show, any scene involving Gary Oldman.

HONORABLE MENTION:
True Romance - Directed from a script written by Quentin Tarantino, this had a super all-star cast that kept you clinging to your seat from beginning to the end. Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, and Val Kilmer (as Elvis)

Airplane - The First and best parody film out there, this is one film that still leaves me hurting in laughter afterwards. Looks like I picked a hell of a week to quit sniffing glue.

Labyrinth - Muppets, Jennifer Connelly, and David Bowie. Don’t go that way. If you’d kept on going that way, you’d have gone straight to the castle!

Any many more too numerous to name here. These films I discuss above aren’t all masterpieces, but they are films that hold a special place in my heart and come to mind when I think of all my favorite movies. I’m constantly adding movies to my “favorites” list, but these will always be at the very top.

I logged into my Wordpress dashboard the other day and realized I was only ten entries away from my 1,000th blog. I’ve been busy with life and haven’t had the motivation to post lately, even so much as letting the fifth anniversary of the website come and go without a mention.

Since 10 is such an easy number to work into blog entries, I thought I’d do a “10 Things” list, but break it into ten separate entries with more content than a typical top ten list does.

The topics discussed are in no particular order, except for the 1000th entry.

10 Things I Love: VIDEO GAMES

It’s no surprise to people who know me and for the regular readers of this website that I’m a big fan of video games.

It all started when I was a small child and my granddad let me play his Colecovision for the first time. Playing with those blocky characters and obnoxious tweets and chirps that passed for video game sound effects opened me up to a whole other world that I had never seen before.

My next great adventure in video games came with the release of the most perfect toy in the world for a boy in 1988: The Nintendo Entertainment System. I wasn’t fortunate enough to have one myself, but luckily I had a friend who was terrible at it and asked me to beat Legend of Zelda while he watched. I was over at his house every weekend for like two months exploring the first version of Hyrule, occasionally breaking to jump on Koopas dressed like an Italian plumber.

If the Colecovision was my gateway drug into video games, then Nintendo was the crack that got me hooked for a lifetime. The addiction only got worse as I grew older.

THE ARCADES
As the years passed and arcades began dwindling down to mostly movie theaters and an occasional mall (as the early 80’s arcade craze had come and gone), a few revolutionary titles started popping up that took my interest.

One of these was a game that has no equal: Street Fighter II Turbo Edition.

This simple 2D side scrolling fighter game lured a whole new generation of teenagers back to the arcades, myself included. My previous arcade game experience only really included the original sit-down-in-it Star Wars game, the Simpsons game, and of course the classics like Galaga and Pac-Man. Street Fighter II blew me away though. It wasn’t just that you could play with your friends in the game, it was the fact that you could KICK THEIR ASSES in it.

Later Mortal Kombat would come and kick all our asses bloodily, and the Street Fighter series went from sequel to sequel to eventually fighting the entire Marvel Universe and SF parent company Capcom’s entire character library. Arcade fighters have all but disappeared nowadays as the home consoles are easier and cheaper to develop for, but you can still find them hidden in corners of places, begging for your quarters.

THE PC YEARS

The very first REAL PC Video Game I played (read: not Solitaire) is one that would have made my Mother very angry if she knew I was playing it (at 13): Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. The very adult-oriented game only accepted text input commands like “LOOK IN SINK” “GET DIAMOND RING”, or “TALK TO HOOKER” “WEAR CONDOM” “HAVE SEX WITH HOOKER”. (Seriously, if you didn’t wear the condom, you died immediately afterwards as the hooker endlessly smoked her 8-bit cigarette.)

I followed it up with less risque fare from the fledgling Sierra Industries: Space Quest, Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, etc. As the genre grew popular and people actually became interested in playing computer games, along came other classics like LucasArts Maniac Mansion (and the awesome sequel, Day of the Tentacle), and Escape from Monkey Island, all using the same text-based input and eventually using that newfangled mouse device people liked so much.

I also played the original Wolfenstein 3D, the precursor to DOOM, QUAKE, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, etc. Quake was amazing in that it was the first FPS to allow multiplayer right out of the box, albeit only over my 9600 baud modem. Yes, I’m name dropping the l33t early 90s tech. Maybe I’ll talk about my ZIP drive later.

Real Time Strategy came into play with Warcraft and Command and Conquer, titles that still are producing quality games today and eventually leading to my current obsessions: MMO’s.

THE MMO’S

Most people know of Ultima Online or Everquest as their first MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online Game), but I started with possibly the worst one I could have chosen, but was blinded by the belief that the franchise wouldn’t let me down: Star Wars Galaxies.

It was.. disappointing. After barely a month playing I quit the game and discontinued my account, believing I was signing off of MMO’s for ever. I eventually heard of a new one that included one of my other loves: Comics. That game was City of Heroes.

I played CoH for about eight months, never quite reaching the max level (which was 40 at the time), but through the game I forged some far away friendships that I would never have had the opportunity to in the past with other games. Eventually I and most of my other CoH mates moved over to the current giant elephant in the room: World of Warcraft.

No need to go into WoW as I’ve discussed it several times on this site already and pretty much everyone knows what it is at this point. I have tried other MMO games since, including City of Villains, the follow-up/expansion to CoH, Dungeons & Dragons Online (OMG SUXX0R), Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeon Runners, Guild Wars, Tabular Rasa, Fly For Fun, MapleStory, and a couple others not worth mentioning.

CONSOLES

I have a love/hate relationship with consoles. Since I’m such a hardcore PC gamer, i’m always reticent to thrown money on a $300-400 console that is planned to be obsolete in 2-3 years, if not less when I already have a computer more than capable of playing many of the same games. The need has grown even less over the years as computer graphics have gotten better and better.

I have owned a few consoles over the years. The first being the Sega Genesis, which I (foolishly) traded my friend the whole original Weapon X saga in Marvel Comics Presents for it. That saga is worth about four times today what the Genesis was brand new when released. I had Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Kid Chameleon (with its maddening 99 levels of nonsense).

I was able to finagle myself an XBOX when it came out and was actually quite pleased with it for a few years until I finally sold it to a video game shop. I even bought a refurbished PS2 just to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then returned both when I finished. I absolutely hate Playstation and their ridiculously expensive peripherals that are required to play games (read: Memory card) but don’t come included with the system.

PS3 and XBOX360 dropped and I could care less. I would only want the XBOX360 just for the media-center capabilities of it, but the PS3 is a glorified BlueRay marketing device with a dwindling catalog of stale video games.

However when I caught wind of the Nintendo Wii, I became a rabid fanboy to which I still am a legion of today. Not only was it moderately priced, but the games are actually FUN on it and encouraged me to do more than move my thumbs (and throw the controller across the room in frustration). Guitar Hero III, Super Mario Galaxy, and Smash Brothers Brawl all reinforced the absolute FUN of the system.

THE FUTURE

Who knows? With strange and new titles like Spore coming out, as well as rumors of Blizzard’s new MMO and Starcraft II, the future of video games is only getting more and more integrated into daily life for a lot of people. Either they’re grinding to level whatever in their MMO, outracing their opponents on Mario Kart, sticking a plasma grenade to your friends head in Halo 3, or even attending a concert in Second Life, people of all ages are beginning to enjoy video games in many forms.

For me, I’ll be right there playing whatever new time sucking game comes out next until I am old and my grandchildren have beaten me ruthlessly in Unreal Live Tournament 2060.

My name is Haggis. I live in San Antonio, Texas, and I’m an Orc Warrior. For the HORDE!

Of course it’s no secret that i’m an avid addict player of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game World of Warcraft. In fact I’ve been playing the MMO off and on since it came out.

I am attempting a milestone in the game, a first for me. The games level cap, or maximum level, is 70. I am currently 1/3 the way through level 69, so I decided to live blog the event.

I have vowed to reach level 70 before the new year, which is as the start of this article, 20 hours away. Since the company I work for is so awesome, I’ve got the next two days off to do nothing but play this game and ring in the New Year.

I stopped at the store and got a 24oz Mocha Cappuccino, a bag of Doritos, two bags of peanut M&M’s, some Sour Nerds (which are awesome, by the way), and a 12 pack of Coca-Cola.

If I don’t die from lack of sleep or go into a diabetic coma, I should be able to achieve this modest goal.

So here goes.

2:00am - Been playing for 2h 36m already, gained 119k experience from about five quests. Stopped momentarily to start this article. I am currently 6 1/2 bars out of 20 from leveling. Yay!

2:10am - I mention the liveblogging on my guild channel. I get accused of spamming. (He was kidding). I keep forgetting to buy ammo.

2:20am - Died. I did take two with me though. I’d like to take this opportunity (while I run back to my corpse) to explain why it’s taken me several years, off and on, to bring one character to the level cap.

I am the slowest leveler ever. I am extremely casual with the game, so I do what i’m having fun with. If I’m getting killed all the time by high level enemies, i’ll do something else like try to level up my fishing skill for a week, or another week flying around getting rare cooking recipes. I really did this. I don’t care if I should be getting xp, I want to experience everything the game has to offer, and I think I’ve done very well so far.

I am looking forward to the endgame content, which is coming very soon. Ok, back to grinding.

2:45am - Died once more from the elite you see in the pic above. Did finish the quest. Small break for bio (ie refreshments and/or bathroom).

3:00am - Writer and fellow WoW addict Smokin is joining me to help me knock out a few quests faster with his uber level 70 mage skills. Should help knock out a few more knotches. 64% left until level!

3:35am - Sleepy eyes are hitting me, but i’m still all hyper from the cappuccino and all the sugar. Pausing to adjust my iTunes playlist for more upbeat music to smash things to.

5:00am - I can’t believe I’m still awake, and still slightly coherent. I’m more than halfway now, with 43% to go. I’ve gained 332,684 since I started at 11:30pm, not bad for 5 1/2 hours. I think I’ve actually caught a second wind, and I’m gonna keep on for a few more hours after a quick stop to the Shattrath to drop stuff off in the bank.

5:35am - Back to the grind. Smokin is out, he’s about to fall asleep at the keyboard. I need another soda. I submitted this story to WoWInsider, hopefully I’ll get some kind of honorable mention. Probably not.

5:37am - Here’s the link to my character on the WoW Armory: Haggis on Mug’Thol. And for those curious, my total /played time so far is 24 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes. I don’t think that’s terrible overall, right?

5:51am - Okay so I just spent 15 minutes on taking a screenshot of me doing the Hammer Time. I think it was totally worth it.

I got bored with my music so I turned on the TV and found the original Star Trek series on TV Land, followed by Night Court. Awesome.

6:10am - Okay, I remember Markie Post’s hair being bad, but not that bad. The intro song is just as great as I remembered it.

6:40am - Wings is on now. It’s amazing so many of these people went on to much bigger roles, especially Tony Shaloub. I just died twice in a row, but the second time was my fault. I was trying to sneak around to get a quest item, and I forgot that Warriors aren’t too subtle. 5 1/2 bars to go.

7:19am - Dear god, the sun is up. I am out of my mind.

7:30am - Submitted to Digg. I’m definitely out of my mind.

8:12am - Three bars left! OMG! The Today Show is boring.

9:03am - Thanks for all the support and blog mentions, it’s keeping me going! Not that I have far to go, with 7.3% left, or 1 1/2 bar! Gah I’m so tired.

And in response to Horns, I am a casual player, but I am also a bit of a nut. I haven’t been playing the whole time. I played for about 8 months then quit for over a year, till about three months ago. Not so bad I guess.

10:04am - I’m still here! Somehow. I have 14k remaining, and I just finished two quests. Prepare yourselves! XD

10:16am - DING! I did it!

Here’s a few statistics for this play session:

Total time played: 24d 8h 22m
Total time played this session: 10h 50m
Total XP Gained this session: 649,810
Total Gold Gained: 215gp 57s

10:49am - Yes, I’m still awake. Had to borrow a hundred gold or so for my flying mount, and picked up my first piece of Season 1 Gear, the Gladiator’s Plate Gauntlets. Flying to Shadowmoon at this moment.

10:55am - Okay, I’m about 200gp short for the skill, so I’m calling it a day for now. I’ll get the rest later, I’m just happy I finally made it.

I hope everyone has enjoyed sharing the experience with me. It’s certainly taken me a very, very long time to get here, but I’ve enjoyed (almost) every step of the way. I think Terrokar Forest, Tarren Mill, and Stranglethorn Veil were my least favorite zones in the whole game, the ones that almost made me quit.

Thanks again for everyone’s support, especially my friends and fellow guild mates:

Oldrengrim/Smokin for helping me grind through those tough parts when I needed a lot more damage done.

Grimish & Gruelosh for cheering me on for 2 1/2 years and keeping me in every guild that you belong with.

Tyla, Nathran, Bourban, and Lumas for making all those instances lately a blast. You guys are the reason for my no Pick Up Groups rule, why would I want to go with anyone else?

Everyone else in Warlords on Mug’Thol, and everyone reading this blog entry last night/this morning. I’ve had a lot of fun doing this, but I’m going to sleep now and not waking up until it’s dark again.

Woot!

This post could be titled “Good Son/Bad Son”. Good Son because I drove to Houston and back twice so my Mom could spend Thanksgiving with me. Bad Son because I’m totally about to make fun of her.

“Black Friday” was originally so named because of the heavy traffic on that day, although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit)

On that very day I was taking my Mom downtown to do touristy stuff (like see the Alamo, tour the Riverwalk, all the things I don’t do now that I live here), and one of the best places to park is the mall parking garage downtown.

I mentioned this and immediately retorted, “Ooh, wait. We can’t park there, it’s Black Friday. Going to be a madhouse at the mall.” (Luckily, nobody seems to like that mall so it was quite empty with plenty of parking.)

My mom, confused look on her face, says, “What does that mean?”

“Black Friday, ya know.” I respond, thinking she would understand the term by me simply repeating it. Why doesn’t that ever seem to work?

Pause, looking sheepish, almost whispering. “… is that when all the Black people come out?”

I laughed for a good minute before replying, “Yes Mom, that’s the one day they come out of their houses, but if they see their shadow they go back indoors for another 6 weeks.”

“Oh shut up,” was her only response. I <3 my Mom. XD

I’ve been quite the shutter bug since I finally got around to buying myself a digital camera again after I lost the last one in California. I try to find any opportunity to take photos now just to fulfill the secret desire to be a decent photographer.

I switched from Flickr to Picasa Web Albums a few months back (which I recommend everyone do, they offer 2gb of photo space and unlimited albums without the 200-picture restriction Flickr has), and I’ve gotten quite the collection built up.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s five thousand of my recent words:

Brackenridge Park is right across the street from my apartments, and I finally remembered to take my camera with me on a few trips to the park. This was from a rose bush right outside one of the main entrances. The light was just right in that part of the day that it made the whole picture glow.

(more…)

I wanted to do something special for my thirtieth birthday this year, which is no small feat in itself as my luck with planning birthday parties has always gone awry in some fashion.

It was also that much more difficult that I now have two cities that I call home: the current home of San Antonio, and my home town of Houston. It appears that I may also be turning Austin into my “weekend home” as of lately, but that’s a whole other story.

Despite all odds against us–and that includes some of the worst weather in Texas in the past twenty years–fate and good fortune were to shine upon us that day.
(more…)

I think I’ve finally convinced myself that I am what John Dvorak refers to as a “joiner.”

I’ve successfully added myself to just about every blog, social bookmarking, digg, netscape, and whatever else is out there to offer. I found a particularly good one tonight, called BlogCatalog.

It’s a pretty nice community of fellow bloggers just looking for visitors, something this little blog is desperately in need of lately. My erratic posting habits don’t really help the visit count, but still for a site that used to get 500+ visitors a day average, it’s now down to about 200.

I know, it’s a Catch-22. Post more, get more visits. Lack of visits make me post less. The vicious cycle begins all over again.

I just spammed the hell out of the site hoping to get a little “link love” from my fellow bloggers. So far I’ve had a couple dozen, and I welcome you all to my not-so-daily ramblings. Hopefully you’ll add me to your RSS readers and stick around.

Five years ago I was just starting one of my first jobs in my field, working for a small yellow pages company. I was living alone but not enjoying it very much, and I was considering getting another apartment with a friend.

Ten years ago I was working for a telephone survey company and taking a year off before starting college. I made employee of the month two months in a row because I memorized the order of keys needed to advance to the next call without having to wait for the slow computer load screens, which brought my call rate to less than a second between calls.

Fifteen years ago I was nervous about going to high school, and probably spending my nights talking to strangers on BBS Chat boards (that’s pre-internet, folks). The irony is that I’d been telling online people I was 15 for three years, just so they’d take me seriously. At 15. What was I thinking?

Twenty years ago I was spending my time at the school park playing GI Joes and Transformers in the dirt, and throwing them off playground structures with makeshift parachutes. The rest of the time was spent riding my bike all over the neighborhood, or attempting to build tree forts in the woods next to my apartments.

Twenty-five years ago I was very excited about starting Kindergarten. Earlier that year I had gotten on the bus with a neighbor girl and went right into her classroom like I belonged there. The only supplies I brought were my sister’s Happy Days lunchbox filled with Marshmellows and a Thermos™ full of water. The administrative staff thought it was all very cute and funny. My mother did not.

And Thirty years ago today, I was squeezed out of my mother and thrust upon the world for the very first time.

Friends - check
Money - check
Well-slept - check
Opposite sex - check
Guitar - check
Microphone - check
Messages waiting on me when I come home - check

How come everything I think I need always comes with batteries?
What do you think it means?

- John Mayer, “Something’s Missing”
Heavier Things

I’d like to introduce everyone to the newest contributing editor of The Daily Haggis, Smokin’!

He’s a frequent commenter on Pajiba and a treasure trove of useless pop culture trivia, so of course he fits right into this website of useless pop culture news.

I’ve known Smokin’ for over ten years now, since we met in English class back in High School. We bonded over a Nine Inch Nails song of all things, and since then he’s proven himself to be a great friend many times over.

He’ll be covering many of the same topics that are already on this site, as well as some new features and content yet to come.

Welcome him to the team!

(I’m sure he’s gonna kill me over that picture.)