A good time had by all, I guess...

Yes, it's Thursday and the majority of this blog is about this past weekend. I'm slow, what can I see. First, some updates for the previous entry (see Bittersweet Return):

A)The bank situation. Not merely content with screwing me once, Wachovia comes back for sloppy seconds. I get hit with more overdraft charges for things that should have gone through 4 or 5 days to a week prior. Which left me with a negative balance. It smelled funny and I never could get a satisfactory answer from anyone with Wachovia. And wouldn't you know it, I had just enabled direct deposit. But due to the time I discovered my account problem, it was too late for me to cancel my direct deposit. So, I went down to Wachovia Friday morning and withdrew everything from my account. I wanted to do this first before closing my account because honestly I didn't want them to attempt some sort of shennanigans with my money or give me grief. But, of course, because I did this and apparently whoever their system admin or bank computer programmer is (I'm assuming it's the same 8 year old child, which could be an unintended insult to 8 year olds everywhere), there was a problem closing out the account. It took me like 15 or 20 minutes for a trip that should have been only 5 minutes. So, if I can reiterate again: if the time comes and you have to make a banking choice between a blind chimpanzee with rabies or Wachovia, go with the blind, rabid chimp, it's definitely the safer bet. Oh and our final banking destination? We went with Capitol One. Meg and I got a good vibe with them (they were honest and upfront with us, which was a definite upgrade). I'll keep you posted on how things work out with them.

B) The hard drive issue. Needless to say, there are lots of things I'm gonna have to leave unsaid about this one at the risk of hurting some feelings with people who may or may not read this thing. Suffice to say, the hard drive cratered before I was actually able to pull anything off it. So over 400 GB of data are gone. All my music, movies, family pictures, some writing, and my detailed catalog of my movie library on DVD (Don't laugh, I have almost 2000 movies and television series collected.). Gone. On the bright side, I got my replacement hard drive yesterday. Yay.

Now, onwards. This weekend my good friend (and godfather to my kids) Marcus, came over for an evening of video games, movies, adult beverages and good food. I played Assassin's Creed (which is a hell of a fun game)and BioShock (another great game). We drank a nice amount of adult beverages, had a great dinner and watched "No Country For Old Men". It was a great movie, beautifully shot, with great characters that drew you in. And yes, the ending is a bit...unexpected (and no, I don't mean it has some sort of M. Night Shyamalan twist ending) but I don't believe it detracted from the film in any way. I highly recommend it. One of the first films in awhile (excluding "The Departed", which also deserved it) that got the "Best Picture Oscar" and deserved it.

Then, Marcus went home and everyone except my sister-in-law and myself went to bed. I wanted to watch another movie, so I fired up "Pathfinder". I thought, "This one has to be kinda good. I mean c'mon, it's gotten Indians and Vikings. Swords, action, one of the guys from 'Lord Of The Rings'." Now, I'm gonna chalk it up to the aforementioned beverages because I was feeling pretty good. But it took until almost the halfway point of the movie when I was struck by an epiphany. I stopped, looked at Jamie and said, "Oh my god. This is a BAD movie. Dammit." The "Dammit" was because I was to the halfway point and I knew was going to have to now sit through the rest, just to finish it. I was too much invested in this steaming pile of celluloid to just quit now. Now, I know some of you would have no problem just picking up the remote and turning it off. But not me. I'm too obsessive to an almost masochistic extent. I have to watch to see the end. Whether it be the morbid fascination we usually attribute to watching a car wreck or wanting to see if there is something to the film, some redeeming quality or just that natural tendency to have any story left unfinished, I couldn't tell you. Maybe it's an amalgam of all these things and more. I just know, at that point I had to finish the stupid thing. Which I did. And I was still left feeling unfulfilled. Oh well.

That's all for now, folks. But mark your calenders as a very important date is approaching. Namely April 26. Or as it is known in parts of the world, "The Celebration of the Day of Birth of Sir Kyle Robot-Monkey." Yes, bee-yotches, it's my birthday so plan accordingly.

And because life can be so confusing sometimes, I present this well viewed video of the infamous Miss South Carolina...with subtitles! Enjoy.