Holiday season

Once again it's been way to long since my last post...maybe that should be my NYR(new years resolution). Anyways it is what it is. So this holiday season was a tough one for work. First was NFR, rodeo, to say the least everyone at my bar really hates cowboys and the way they think that 6.41 is expensive for 2 crown and cokes. We were giving the bar away and they still found time to complain. I guess they were missing their gf on the farm.

After that we had a small break and the Christmas season creeped up on us. It was there and gifts all around...merry, merry, merry...and its done. Christmas is not one of my favorite holidays but it is a lot of people's. Which was fun to watch the people come in on Christmas day and drink at the bar...we did!

New Years was crazy! First off we were a little understaffed at the bar, but the best part of that is that there is more money getting spread out to fewer people!!! Actually the best part was that my girl was there at the STROKE of midnight and we kissed!!! I was done by 1:30 and then got to have some drinks. Nice buzz for NYE and nice new start to the new year!!!

Besides that everything is going well...well things are going well, but there is more info. If i reveal it now I won't be able to post it later!

Zombies!!!!!

So this year really has been the year of the zombie. You might think that it's the year of the Vampire but seriously...sparkly vampires? Someone call Buffy back so she can stake there silly asses, and get the Winchester brothers to kill the stupid wolves.
So we are days away from the premier of The Walking Dead series on AMC. There are a lot of people out there that are SUPER excited for it, me being on of them. Now if your a fan of the series already(comic book), then you know the potential of the series. If your not, go run out to your nearest comic book, B&N, or Borders and pick up volume one of the series.

We will sit and wait...go ahead...seriously...need a pee break anyways...

Was worth it huh?

Now besides that series coming out this season, we have had 2 major video games come out relating to zombies. Left 4 Dead 2, and Dead Rising 2! Both are excellent games. Their has also been lots of smaller zombie games as well, so if your looking to kill the undead there is no shortage of zombies.
L4D 2 is a first person shooter that is sweet! You get to blow the shit out of zombies and use other close up weapons too! If you like first person shooters and zombies, well you couldn't have asked for a better way to get your frustrations out!
Dead Rising 2 is a 3rd person game that has you rescuing people and killing zombies as well as completing boss kills and such. Good story and great game, I've had so much fun on both games.
Besides all that there has been a plethora of books and movies that relate to the zombies. They are very popular for dead people!

Waiting....

DON'T PISS OFF THE PEOPLE BRINGING YOU THINGS YOU INGEST

Well this subject has been bouncing around in my head for awhile now. Does that excuse the absence? No, but at least I was thinking of things to write about. And for those who know me, I can't write about everything that's in my head...just sayin'.

Now the subject is the service industry. And I'm not talking about being served, because truthfully that is a whole nother debate. I'm talking about serving, getting someone food, slinging beer. I work behind the bar, technically called a bar-apprentice. But I work with cocktail servers and very experienced bartenders, and was a waiter for a long time.

This rant will prob be random because their are several things that bug the hell out of me that people do, just bear with me.

When you come to a bar that you've never been to ask for a drink menu if you don't know what you want. Don't be a 'tard and ignore the counter top or behind the bar, the drink list and/or specials may be up. A bartender won't be mad if your polite and ask for a menu, it goes with the territory, but if it's busy that is another thing all together. If you don't see anything you like on the menu, ask for your favorite drink. Don't ask for something you heard about from a friend of a friend of someones second cousin that screwed a cow(you know who you are).

But if it is a new drink you heard of, be sure you know what's in it. Drinks have several names, especially new ones and the recipe may be slightly different. If the bartender doesn't know your drink, don't act surprised or that everyone should know it. That is a quick way to have just one drink served to you and anything else might just have "extra" ingredients in it, or no alcohol at all. Some of you who never have had to work a job like this may be surprised, but look to the top of the page. I've done it and I know that 94% of other servers have as well.

So now that we've established that I think most of the population are morons, you've gotten your drink and then you get the price. Now I live in Las Vegas, the prices here aren't that ridiculous...if your off the strip. IF YOU ARE IN A MAJOR CASINO IT IS GOING TO COST YOU TO DRINK. If you come from Bumblefuck, Udaho yes the prices will be more than you are used to. Don't sound like this is going to break your bank because Vegas isn't somewhere you go to on a budget vacation. Hell most places you go on vacation aren't a budget vacation, I'm just sayin'.

You pay the bartender and get your change back. If your real generous you will leave a 5 or more dollar tip. It doesn't happen all the time but it does happen so that's why I mention it. As a rule of thumb tip 1 to 2 dollars a drink, or the change and a dollar. Some servers expect more but if we get that much generally it will be fine. No matter what you think if you don't tip, the next time the server will get to you will be a lot longer than the last time and they will probably be less friendly.

And just because your from another country doesn't mean your not allowed to tip. When we go to your country's we know that we have to follow your traditions, we know that the French act....French. We know that the Italians will be riding Vespa's and that the Japanese will take a lot of pictures of things. So if your in a bar in the US tip, look at the paragraph before for answer.

Getting a server's attention is real easy. Try to look them in the eye to get there attention or raise your hand. Don't make noises, snap, throw things, or be dumb. If we could we would reach over the bar and punch you in the fucking face when you do these things. If we are ignoring you, there is a reason. Could be any number of things. Could be because we want to reach over the bar and beat you with a bottle of booze...just sayin'.

If you have a cocktail server #1 rule: DON'T TOUCH. It's like a strip club, look but don't touch. If it's real loud get close so that they can hear you but don't grab, smack, pinch or demand. If you do, you have a chance to meet security, and they are very friendly. It all boils down to one thing, respect. Be nice and we will be nice to you.

Busy nights kind of change some of the rules. Your not the only one in the bar, there will be 3 people behind you and next to you wanting a drink too. When you get your chance, have your money ready and your drink order. If you have to look behind you to get your buddy's order, by the time you look back we will have moved on. We don't have time to wait while you figure out if your buddy wants the light 64 cal beer that his girlfriend should be drinking instead of him. Have your ID ready too, just because you think you look old enough doesn't mean you do to us. Guys if you don't have grey hair you will prob get carded, girls its harder to tell but we mostly will. Oh and if you hand us a credit card, some places have to check to see if the card is yours so don't be surprised to be carded for that. Don't get upset that you just got carded, just hand it over and accept it. If you get mad and throw it on the bar there is a good chance that we will tell you to pick it up and hand it to us. Take it out of your wallet, clutch, whatever. Fakes are easy to make so we have to make sure.

Closing time...the international signs for closing time are, the music gets turned way down, and the ugly lights get turned on. When that happens it's your cue to finish your drinks and slowly move out of the bar. Don't linger to long because that just delays the clean up, the people that work at a bar want to go home too. Unless your a complete idiot, the staff probably already gave last call, and you missed it. So if your real nice you will leave another tip for keeping your drunk ass getting drinks and not making a fool out of you in front of the tail your trying to pick up.

So all in all, being served is like kindergarten, be nice, don't touch, and don't eat the paste. And if you have any questions look to the video's....I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0IV651z1wk

Faithfully...

So is is that hard to take a story and stay faithful to it?

You would think so, the way that Hollywood tends to change story's "based on true events" or "inspired by true events".

Now with comic book movies you think it would be even easier to do it correctly, I mean a comic book is a story board already so all you have to do is film it. But them some execs get it into there head that audiences won't like it and have to change it to make it more to "our" liking so that "they" can make money.

Now that being said there are three ways a movie can go, the movie follows the source and turns out really well, other times the source is so limited that the movie has to expand on it and then there is the decision to take material and totally disregard what's in it and just keep the name.

Example: Legends of the Fall is a novella by Jim Harrison, now the movie expands on the story and flushes it out...if you like that weepy sort of..thing.

Example: Twilight bullshit by Stephanie Myer made into the worst movie this side of the Pacific. Watching it you could tell that they were missing HUGE sections of the book that obviously filled things in.

Example: Jaws by Peter Benchley...really good book and really great movie. Yes there were parts from the book not in the movie but you would never know watching it.

Now let us move on to my favorite section...comic book adaptions. With the introduction of CGI it is almost possible to do everything that is in a comic book and have it appear onscreen. Now I do realize that some things are done by company's with more money so said heroes and villains look more realistic, but that is not always the case...but we are getting off topic.



(SPOILER ALERT!)Now I just finished watching Kick-Ass and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it followed the story. There were a few parts that i really thought weren't going to make it into the film. Especially the first time that he gets into a fight, i really thought that they were going to change it so that he doesn't get owned as much. And prob the biggest surprise was that Nicolas Cage dies in the movie. In the comic his character gets it too, not the same way but still he bites it. You'd think that the biggest star in the movie would get all egotastic and tell them to change the script, luckily he is also one of the biggest comic book fans out there...he named his son Kal-El for instance. So he put his love of comic over his ego and followed the story. Thank Krom for that.

Now not all comic book adaptions are so lucky. I know that some series like have been going on for 40,50, even 70 years. So like Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, X-men which stories do you pull from?

I can say that the Spider-Man movies did a great job of the feel of those early comics and kept the integrity of what is Spider-Man. Tobey did a great job of making Peter awkward and then in costume to be badass. I really don't think that they should have added so many villains so quickly and then killed them off, but hey it was still a good job.

X-men was good as well....2 out of 3 ain't bad. the first one was really good, the second one even better...the opening scene with Wolverine taking out invaders in the mansion helped a whole lot. And then there was the last one, the best thing out of the movie was Beast being done really well and acted by Kelsey Grammer. But then it was crapped on by the writers and new director.

The Fantastic Four was a good movie, not the one from 1994. That one was underfunded and underacted and any other under you can think of. But the one newer one, it did a good job introducing the characters and showing the way there powers started. It was different than how it happened in the comics but at least they all had the same powers. Dr. Doom was cool but Galactus at the end was kind of shartie.




And then there was Daredevil, nice attempt but really just bad. Bad like thinking Jack, Jim and Tequila go in a shot together...gets the job done but is awful in the process.


I guess what you can deduce from all of this is that an independent comic is more likely to succeed at keeping the story and integrity then say something that has a shitload of history cuz, telling a small story of Batman or Superman is incredibly hard. But it can happen...or Joel Schumacher can come along and ruin it for everyone. If your really picky, you can pick apart any adaption...there is really no such thing as being completely faithful and including everything. But they try sometimes not very hard but oh well...but maybe your like me and you'll see it cuz it's a comic book thing or its from a book you read and no matter how bad it is you will see it. Or maybe not, hey I'm just sayin'

This Looks Like a Job for....

So my girlfriend and I were riding around in the car when she asked the perfect geek question.

If you had a superpower what would it be?

Any geek worth his decoder ring would tell you that they've thought of this. And they probably would have said that they have even thought of a costume. Oh, I'm not talking about the spandex kind...well I'm not talking about it, others may go in that direction, but total function outfit.

So what would it be? Super strength? Invulnerability? Magical Weapon from the Gods? I mean the options are limitless, go to your comic book shop and pick up almost any issue and you'll find about 20 or 30 different powers.

I didn't have to think long when I answered "flight". I'm not saying the give me wings, or shoes with wings on them, or some magical item that allows me to fly. But the self propelled kind. Anyone stuck in traffic or lost anywhere, would tell you that they would love to just float up a couple hundred feet get there bearings and then "oh, that's where i parked my car" off you go.

Now my girlfriend said what would your second power be? Second power? I get one more? Oh joy of joys!! So what would it be? Super-strength! Being able to lift tons of weight like it was nothing. Being able to stand up to whoever you want.

My girlfriend had her own answers too, flight and either invisibility or being able to mind read, and this is a direct quote "to fuck with people". So what would your superpowers be? Would you want to have lasers shoot out of your...eyes? Or maybe when you get mad you turn green and smash a lot of things. I guess that would mean once a month for about 6 days we would have lots of green people smashing shit. Or maybe you would have a healing ability that would let you heal from just about any wound.

So what would it be? And once you start thinking about it, you'll probably start thinking of a costume. Slowly the geeks are taking over, hahahahahahahahaa....hey I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'

Newly Shaven

So now that i am newly shaven, a few things that have been said about it


*you look younger

*you look thinner

*your head doesn't look funny

the funny thing is, is that it's so much easier to deal with. as a performer its so easy to worry about what your hair is going to do to add to your overall look. when i decided that i was going to join this foundation and raise money for them to shave my head, i thought i was a great way to negate the point of "what the fuck am i going to do with my hair?"
now that i have had it done, i like it. its easy to handle i don't have to worry about it and actually its kind of fun to notice how quickly my hair grows.
everything nice that people have had to say about it is true. it does make me look younger, and now that I'm getting older its a good thing.
i really don't think that it does make me look thinner, but i guess that all that hair i had on my head was just fattening me up. next time i see a fat person( and in Vegas you can turn and see 299 degrees of fat) I'll just tell them to shave there head and the rolls will go away.
and its very good to know that my head doesn't have a funny shape. truthfully i was a little worried about that. I've only had my head shaved once before and it wasn't this close, so i knew that i wasn't going to be stewie shaped or oblong. but it's good to know that with my head shaved my head doesn't make people think of the elephant man.
I'm grateful that i do have a full head of hair and that when it grows out, that i have options of what i can do with it. either way I'm glad that i raised almost 1000 dollars for a great cause and i hope that next year i can raise even more. but for now i think I'll keep the look, maybe it will make me more bad ass!!! hey i can always hope.

Bald is beautiful!!

So I have decided to take up a great cause...their is an organization called St. Baldrick's which raises money for children's cancer research. Now what it asked of you is that you try to raise money/get sponsored to have your head shaved.
Now you don't have to be a shavee. You can be a volunteer, that just helps at the function or if your a hairdresser you can be the one shaving people's head!
This is a great organization, it brings awareness and raises money for child cancer research. In some way or another we have all been affected by cancer or cancer related diseases. We all have a family member, friend, friend of a friend or even dated a person with the zodiac sign.
So I am asking you to donate/sponsor me. This isn't one of those, if i walk a certain distance the money you sponsor goes up. This is one lump some thing. So anything you can give would be greatly appreciated. The link here takes you right to my page where you can make a donation. I am thanking you all in advance for anything you can give and next time I'll be letting you know what's being bald like!!!! I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'

https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/participantid/378016