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Stan's Page - A History of Poor Web Design and Version 2.5

While this somewhat contradicts my attempt to get away from the computer, it does end up being something new for me to do and play with while at home aside from just playing games and watching TV, so... i'm starting to much with my webpage again.  Probably nothing major since I don't care enough to learn proper web design, but it would be a nice refresher and give me a chance to clean up my site with what i'm affectionately calling version 2.5.  

Boring Days...

I haven't had much to say on here lately; probably because life's been pretty plain and static the last few months.  Quite frankly, there just isn't a whole lot of new stuff going on in my life.  Work has been.... probably less then exciting.  I'm kind of stuck in limbo, as it feels like i'm at a point where I don't know enough to take on fancy new projects, but stuck without a whole lot to do and thus not learning much in the field.  I'm trying to become self motivated enough to learn on my own, and slowly working my way through this Cisco CCNA book on my desk, but it's tough.  Especially when it just feels like i'm not having the fun that I was perviously at my old position.  I don't get to travel anymore, I don't get to tinker with computer components anymore, and I don't feel as involved.  It's tough, and a change that I guess i'll have to get used to, but the uncertainty I have and the feeling that I have no clue what I'm doing can be grinding.

MNF

This Monday Night Football game is fantastic. I'm not particularly a fan of either team, but boy are they fun to watch. If I only I wasn't working through most of the first half.

Yatta

Tom Brady injured = yatta.

Politics

This is pretty funny... the Daily Show always brings the funny.

Da?

iono

Your Moment of Zen

I'm tired and a little burnt out from work. The extra junk during my on call weeks sure haven't been helping. I took a few days off August 11th and 12th just to relax a bit. Not sure if i'll do anything in particular, but it would be nice to get away.

Dark Knight was awesome. I need to see it again in IMAX. Maybe next weekend anyone?

And for the man who has everything...

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp;jsessionid=2YKNUV1BNQKURLAQBBJSCNNMCAEFIIWE?id=0041414228322a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&QueryText=butt+out+tool&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=butt+out+tool&noImage=0&_requestid=27281

Make sure you read the instructions. Just in case.

Hancock

Movie rating continued...

Hancock - B-

I probably won't see Hellboy 2, but after that is THE DARK KNIGHT. Woohoo! It's gonna rock my face off, and i get to see it opening day for work.

Summer Movie Madness

I've seen a crap load of movies this summer, so here's a quick run down off the top of my head:

Iron Man - A
Indiana Jones - C
The Bank Job - B-
The Incredible Hulk - B
Get Smart - B+
Wanted - C+
Wall-E - A-
Kung Fu Panda - A
Harold and Kumar - B+
Sex and the City - D
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - A-
The Forbidden Kingdom - C

Final

Yes, I know. Yes, it sucks. Yes, I'm devastated.

Exercise Man Stan

Been getting a lot more exercise lately to help trim down my fattening self... so far...

Saturday - Ran/(walked) a mile
Sunday - Lap, tennis, stairs
Monday - Basketball
Tuesday - Basketball
Wednesday - Mile, stairs

My body's been holding up decently, but i'm pretty tired and a bit sore.

Lakers

Hell fucking yeah! Kobe > All

Anxious

I feel like I should be writing something meaningful, but the exact words aren't coming to mind. Blah.

Indiana Jones and the Wrath of Stan

I wrote this on a forum but I figure i'll copy and paste it here. My review of the latest Indy.

Caught an afternoon show today at a packed house, mostly with families and kids it seemed. Unfortunately I came away dissapointed. I didn't hate it, but I can't say I enjoyed it at all. I watched Doom and Last Crusade the last two nights, and for me this ranks far below Doom as far as ratings go. I know everyone's been trying to rationalize to those who disliked the movies by making generalizations as far as expectations or comparisons to the previous movies, but honestly I don't think those fit.

Having just watched the previous 2 Indy's (and Raiders a few weeks ago), in none of those movies where there scenes that made me want to groan like this one. And my expectations were pretty mellow after hearing mixed reviews ever since opening night. For whatever reason, the movie just didn't work for me. I agree with pretty much all the main complaints already said.

The alien plot felt out of place, and while it's far LESS far fetched then acts of God to me, it just didn't work. I think I just dig the whole searching for historical artifacts aspect of the movies, along with the puzzles and problem solving that made me like Crusade and Raiders the most. The supporting characters were also poor, and honestly only Shia, who I dreaded the most, was the only decent one. I didn't care for Marion, Mac was just pointless, and I thought Cate's character was bland and didn't seem like a soldier at all when she was moving around. The complaints of the animal scenes and Shia swinging are justified to me as well. I don't mind the CGI itself (having watched some pretty hokey scenes in Doom last night), but I saw no reason to include them. The ants just reminded me of the scarabs from The Mummy.

The only redeeming thing throughout the movie was that the action was fairly good, and while Harrison looked slow as Indy due to age, they did a fairly good job. There's just something about the music and the character that continues to make things fun.

For me, i'd have Raiders an A, Doom a B (I enjoyed this more then I actually remembered), and Crusade an A-. This would be a C.

Windows

Blia walked into a window the other day. It was funny and I laughed. :)

High Schooling

It's kind of funny looking back in time and remembering what you go through going up, and seeing all the dumb things you do as a kid. It's even worse seeing the dumb things ingrained in our society that's become the norm. I went to my parent's house on Sunday and found that my mom had left a stack of applicants for some scholarship that her organization is sponsoring, asking me to read over them and pick the ones I like since her English isn't that great. I ended up skimming through a big ass stack of maybe 40 kids, listing the usual stuff like their transcript, their extracurricular activities, and an essay about someone they admired.

Yikes.

I seriously can't believe how lame it is to see every kid go through the same song and dance to get to a good college. Granted I'm probably different since I didn't give two shits about most of that stuff when I was actually that age, but at least then I could see all my peers doing it and just thought it was a normal thing to do. All the clubs that people sign up for, all the volunteering for random places like hospitals or labs, all the extra classes that people take to get those 4.5 GPA's. How can anyone look back at that life and not realize how much bullshit all that stuff is? Seriously. Every kid is exactly the same, trying to overachieve to impress some college entrance dude with a bunch of cookie cutter lists. I don't get it. I can't believe how fake that whole life is, let alone the presumption that all those things actually make a difference or make a better person for it all.

Seriously. You think some kid joining 10 different clubs is a benefit to society? Those things are created for the sole purpose of artificially making a kid look good. No one signs up for those things because they want to; it's all fake. No one volunteers at those hospitals when they're 15 unless their parents are forcing them to be a doctor. All those kids that are signed up to track and field because they can run as slow as fuck and still be on a team, or play some instrument that they'll never touch again in their lives (yeah yeah, myself included on that one), or some internship at an office in some field they have absolutely no interest in. I just can't believe how impersonal and un-unique these things are, as if they're supposed to make you stand out in life. All they make me think is mommy and daddy pushed their kid too hard and took away 4 years of high school life just for college.

I know some of these kids pan out to do something special in life, but man does that depress me. I'd never push my kid in that direction. Regardless, I tried to pick kids that did something unique, that were inspired by someone else other then their Dad who was such a great man, or their Grandmother that taught them to be good when they were 7. Lame! Cheers to the person that wrote about their eating disorder and learned something about life.

Rant over.

Random

Just something random. I love this video.

Rentals

Been renting movies from The Redbox at Albertson's, which is pretty cool to get a DVD for a dollar a day. Last night I watched Aliens versus Predator Requiem.... and it was pretty shitty. Dumb plot. Dumb characters. Weak action. The only thing going for it was that it was actually rated R unlike the last one, so you get to see people get f'd up. But that was about it. I don't get why it's so hard to make a good AvP movie.

Just finished watching Cloverfield.... and dug it quite a bit. It was exciting, they showed the monster just enough to make things suspenseful, and it was a fun ride the whole time. Not sure if i'll buy it on DVD, but maybe if it comes out on Blu-Ray sometime down the line. A recommendation from me.

Dining in Hell

We went to the swap meet again this morning and checked out the poster guy that I picked up the Dark Knight poster a few months back and ended up with this:

Pretty cool if you ask me. It's textured like my Dark Knight poster. I dug it since it wasn't one of the standard posters that i've seen used for the movie marketing, and I've been trying to find something longer horizontally like that for awhile. And of course I dig the movie a ton anyway. It's nice having some new things up on the wall, especially things that reflect my hobbies and personality. We also did some re-arranging a couple weeks back, so my new TV set up looks like this:


Was watching Sweeney Todd right there that I rented from the Albertsons Redbox. And too the left above the fireplace is my bad ass Orc statue.

Nothing too major going on lately.... been busy as hell with work which is half good, half crappy. Finally bought Super Smash Bros Brawl today from Costco. Kirby! Kirby! Watched the Kite Runner on DVD the other night. The book was a lot better. And.... I guess that's all! Go Lakers!

Gone Baby.... Gone.

Watched Gone Baby Gone last week. Fantastic movie. Affleck rocks. Both of them. Highly recommended.

Not a whole lot new lately... parents came back from Taiwan and my Mom's been a little sick which sucks. We went to the Getty Museum 2 weeks ago... that was ok. A little dissapointed. It's funny when you look at historical pieces of art and realize almost every great piece is influenced by religion. Not that it's a bad thing, considering all the wars that are fought over God. But still.

Blu-Ray collection has increased a tad. I probably won't buy anything more new unless I find it onsale.

At work, my basketball team is called the Fighting Cockateers. Cool huh?

My boss recommended a book for me to read. So far, I haven't gotten to spend a whole lot of time reading it, but I think after this post i'll read a little bit more. It's called Crucial Conversations and it's about how to react at those tense moments. It kind of surprises me how well my boss knows me.

Nothing else really interesting to write about... its Monday, and i'm already looking forward to the next weekend. I've been feeling a bit detached lately to all my friends and old acquaintances. It's weird growing up sometimes.

Casino Royale

Finally watched Casino Royale tonight... on Blu-Ray no less. Pretty cool movie, some neat action, albeit a somewhat confusing plot at some points. For some reason I've never been big on the Bond movies, but I think this will have me sold on the next one. Daniel Craig was pretty awesome.

In other news, i've had trouble with my shins lately... shin splints I guess after playing basketball. I've been trying to drink more milk (calcium) hoping it would help quell the pain, and after playing on Tuesday and again today, I'm doing ok! I guess we'll see how I feel tomorrow morning, but its kind of nice. I guess milk really does a body good. Go figure.