Conclusions of Variety A Personal Blog on my happenings and thoughts

I’m SoakedPosted by cczernia on February 23rd, 2005

Well, our rain has made national news and LA has declared National Disaster. Supposedly, we are going to be getting record rain fall. It is suppose to clear out today but more is predicted for next week. We’ve had more rain than Seattle and the surfers have been stinky. This, of course is all to make up for our record days without rain over the summer which also made the surfers stinky.

So really, we got to make up our mind if we want to be wet or dry. I think we should mix it up a little. Either way it is annoyance but also neat in its own way. I don’t hate rain, I like it and it didn’t rain enough in NM so I’m soaking it all in… and that is butter on toast.

At my apartment when it poors I like to pop open the door a watch it come down and take in the smells and sounds. And like Captain John Sheridan of Babylon 5 [me geek] I think it helps me sleep at night.

So, besides the stinky surfers and slight inconveniences I’ve been enjoying the rain but I’m ready for it to end because I think we should save some for the summer to piss off tourists.

The PicnicPosted by cczernia on February 21st, 2005

This weekend Stephanie and I saw “The Picnic” which was written by William Inge. I had actually read this play and it was fun seeing a production of it. I asked for some classic Americana and got it with this but once again have mixed feelings on the themes and concepts presented.

“The Picnic” was shown at the Coronado Playhouse which is on the East side of the Island and shows off a beautiful view of downtown San Diego. I got the impression that the playhouse was a temperary structure as the head of the playhouse mentioned something about moving back to their original location. It did have caberet style seating which was nice. Also, the hot actor in this one was Jeff Lippold who played Hal so Stephanie got the eye candie for this one. It didn’t help that he spent most of the play with his shirt off.

A classic 50’s Romance

The play takes place on Labor day Weekend in the joint back yards of two middle-aged widows. The one house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster school teacher. The other house belongs to Helen Potts, who lives with her elderly and invalid mother. Into this female atmosphere comes a young man named Hal Carter, whose animal vitality seriously upsets the entire group. Hal is a most interesting character, a child of parents who ignored him, self-conscious of his failings and his position behind the eight ball. Flo is sensitively wary of temptations for her daughters. Madge, bored with being only a beauty, sacrifices her chances for a wealthy marriage for the excitement Hal promises. Her sister, Millie, finds her balance for the first time through the stranger’s brief attention. And the spinster is stirred to make an issue out of the dangling courtship that has brightened her life in a dreary, minor way.

Once again problems with the them. “Burn This” was almost a modern version of “The Picnic.” Both plays were both about passion and passion seems to triumph. Both plays had a bad boy and a nice girl and the nice girl always resists the badboy until the very end and they run off together. Of course these plays seem to conveniently end with the two getting together, they never show the part where the two drive each other crazy.

Besides the overall theme of the play it was overall fun but not great. The acting was good and the actors had the characters down. One strange thing was Ben Morales, who plays Alan kept getting red in the face like he was really mad.

So overall a good time at an average play. Still having a blast though and love going to all these interesting playhouses.

Ready to Rock OutPosted by cczernia on February 21st, 2005

Who is ready to rock out? I am. Just got a new pioneer car stereo. My old stereo had been broken for about a year. The volume button would suddenly have an urge to skyrocket and freak me out. I decided to go all out and got an auxillery attachment so I can plug in my ipod. Works great. So now, I’m just that much more money. Now, I just need to fix that stupid oil leak and I’m good to go. Perhaps a trip to vegas with toons and oil. Vegas baby, Vegas.

Stephanie and I went to see “The Picnic” a play by William Inge on Saturday which was fun. Sunday kicked much ass though as Glen came over, we got some breakfast at the a coffee place on Cass. Then a few hours of Halo, which I determined we suck at. However, I see this as a good thing because it keeps the game fun. Whenver I master a video game I loose interest in it and I’ve been playing Halo for about 3 years and I still suck.

We then went and saw “Constantine” with the Champions group which included: Nathan, Glen, Jonathan, and Jonathan’s wife Michelle also came along. Movie kicked much ass and so far it is my favorite genre movie this year (it only being February). Of course I really like “Underworld” and “Hellboy” plus I had read a few graphic novels of “Hellblazer” the comic that the movie “Constantine” was based off of. The movie stayed true to the books and was tons of fun. Keanu Reeves didn’t distract from the movie and I plan on getting it on DVD.

After the movie we went to get Chinease food and Stephanie joined up with us (as she didn’t want to see the movie, even though she is reconsidering because she found out that it has Gavin, lead singer to the Band “Bush”, was in it). After that Stephanie, Glen, and I went to the bar in PB and got some beers.

Now, I’m stuck at work on President’s day while all my friends have the day of. But it is raining so HA. I am victorious once again!!!

Sappy V-dayPosted by cczernia on February 16th, 2005

V-day aka Valentines Day. I like to think it sounds like D-day. Anyway, I have been having too much fun bitching over V-day and getting over dramatic about it. Stephanie caught on quick and made sure to get me a very special Valentine or Valentines that I thought I should share. America, I give you what you want!!!!

29 and CountingPosted by cczernia on February 15th, 2005

Today is my birthday. I’m 29 years old! Woohoo!. Damn, one more year till 30.

Valentine’s Day, Fuck!Posted by cczernia on February 14th, 2005

I’ve never been a big Valentines Day fan. It always tried to steal the glory from my b-day. All of a sudden everyone goes stupid to have romance day. A day, that must have been invented by men.

Here is my theory. When a man meets a woman he decides to court her. He buys her flowers, and takes her out, hooking her with sweet nothings and general valentine day kind of things. Pretty soon the man starts to lure the girl in until he finally has her, and he gets her stuffed and mounted on the wall. He no longer wants to work for her affection. However, she is going to yern for the ole attention, so many sitcoms have told us and hilarity ensues.

The answer, Valentines Day. Instead of randomly surprising and trying to remain romantic we invent a few specific days for romance with Valentine’s Day the king. Toss in an anniversary, a birthday and maybe another holiday, like Halloween in case you managed to catch a goth chick or something else wierd. Men no longer need to be spontaniously romantic but simply have to fullfill a romance quota and the rest of the time can be spent watching ballgames, drinking beer at the bar, and spending too much time at the office.

Well, I just can’t get into it. Never liked the holiday but I’m not going to be a total party pooper. I made a valentine for all you lovers out there.

My American LifePosted by cczernia on February 14th, 2005

I had a good weekend. Hung out with Jonathan, got drunk, played Halo 2 online and tried to get him banned from it so he would roleplay more Next day I hung out with Mark and we went to the game store (thanks again for the book) and then got sushi. We then played Resident Evil 4.

Had to leave early to meet up with Stephanie for “An Evening with Ira Glass.” Ira Glass is the host to a show called This American Life. Stephanie was a big fan of the show though I had never heard it (actually, I did briefly on the way to El Paso when I had to catch my flight after Christmas in Cruces and here on Joe’s Blog). He had also been a producer and reporter for a number of shows on NPR including “All Things Considered” which I was more familier with. Neither one of us knew what to expect.

So, we headed up to UCSD which was disorganized. We had problems finding parking and then they had a double booking problem. However, after 15 min they got everyone seated and started the show. “An Evening with Ira Glass” reminded me a lot of the “Firefly/Joss Whedon” presentation at last years comic-con. He talked about the show and his history in radio. At the end he had a question and answer session just like Joss Whedon did.

In the end the show was educational. I was a bit lost as it was a show for fans of “This American Life” and I imagine my reaction would be similar to someone who went to the “Firefly” presentation and had never seen Buffy or Firefly.

On Sunday I ended up forming a migraine late morning and ended up drugging myself up. I did make a major effort to catch “This American Life” at 2pm. I turned on the radio and layed down. However, after about 10min I could not focus on the show, after about 20min I kept dozing off for a minute or two. After half an hour I had completly lost interest and turned it off to watch anime.

Later that evening I went to Stephanie’s for my b-day dinner which she made paella, my favorite. We also had a bottle of wine, bread and orange slice. We then watched “Lord of the Ring: Fellowship of the Ring” which she had been putting off but because it was my b-day gave in. As I expected, she didn’t like the movie but we had a few laughs making fun of the movie. She gave me a Cure CD and Tori Amos’ new book

Shuttin it DownPosted by cczernia on February 11th, 2005

Well, I guess I’m the party pooper and no one really knew. By that I mean that I finally called the cops on a party as a noise complaint. I had been thinking about it forever as parties in the court yard of my apartment could get real loud. With my window being right next to the court yard and most parties not starting until after 12 it could become extremely difficult to get some sleep.

A few weeks ago I was at Jonathan and Michelle’s and a party across the street started up and I saw Jonathan call it in. I got the number he called and was ready to use it.

At 1pm last night the a party drifted in front of my window. To give you a better idea as to how bad this is I could hear to people perfectly as though they were in my room talking. This is combined with yelling “woohoo.” So, I got the distributor who asked me my name, number, address, and some details. She then asked me if I was willing to make a citizens arrest. I was upset and tired at the time and said yes.

In less than 10 minutes the cop showed up and shut down the party. I could hear him talking from my room and I heard him bring up the citizen arrest thing. I really didn’t want anyone to get in trouble, I just wanted the noise to calm down. Not sure if anything happened to the person though.

This of course made me nervous as I had never done anything like that before. Thinking I had broken some underwritten law of PB, a party pooper in PB, heresy! Anyway, you could hear a pin drop after the cop left. Fell asleep a short while later.

Pre-Days, Rwanda, and No-BowlPosted by cczernia on February 7th, 2005

I went and saw Hotel Rwanda on Friday. Absolutly amazing! It is one of those movies that burn and you never want to see it again but it is still brilliant. About a man who works as a manager for a four star hotel in Rwanda and turns in into a refugee camp during the Hutu try to kill all the Tutsis.

On a happier note Stephanie and I went to Scott and Dede’s for dinner to send Scott off on his first 1 month cruise in the Coast Guard. Dede kicked ass and made me Pre-Bday Cake which I didn’t expect.

And once again I did not celebrate in the great American tradition of sitting around the TV and watching the super bowl. Instead, I played Halo with Glen. We watched about 5 minutes of the painful military opening ceremonies and Glen said “Chris, make it stop.” In which I replied “There is not stopping this, Bush is out of control.” Well, I thought it was funny.

And yet I think playing Halo for 4 hours during the Super-bowl might have been better then what I did last year in which I counted books at Gametowne for their annual inventory. Strangely enough, it was also the second adventure of my Fading Suns game which means The Champions (current gaming group) is a year old.

At Zerneeak dot comPosted by cczernia on February 2nd, 2005

I know have new email address. However all my old emails addresses work. So, now I am Chris (@) zerneeak.com. However, you can still use chris (@) czernopkins.org.

I will slowly start converting all my emails over and am hoping that in a year or two to remove czernopkins.org completly. So, that only took around two weeks to fix. Which is about three times faster then it is taking to set up my works SSL server.