"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" and "The Couch From Hell!"

Well, it’s finally here. The day that I’ve been waiting for. Heck, it’s the day the city of Ruston has been waiting for. Tomorrow marks the last day of my official residence in Ruston, Louisiana and Louisiana as a whole.

In a moment of pure maudlin revelry, I would like to reflect on several things that have happened over my tenure here in Ruston –

When I came here, I was but a strapping young lad of 18, fresh out of high school. Now, at 28, it amazes me that over 1/3 of my life has been spent in one place. That’s amazing. Ruston is a great place to live, don’t get me wrong, but the fact that there is NOTHING to do here really kind of brings it down a notch or two as far as “cool places to live” is concerned.

I’ve had several roomies over the years – Trey: the guy who shaved his arms and legs that smoked pot and would ask me for food at 2am. Michael: the guy who was dating the girl that I would end up dating, and who ended up marrying the girl I was dating at that time. Ty: what exactly can you REALLY say about Ty? Mike: it was great rooming with him because we were polar opposites…he worked nights and slept during the day…he was messy…he was quiet (or, was the fact that I was never there when he was awake the answer to this?!). Matt: the guy who has been by my side to help me through just about everything that I’ve been through over the last 10 years…a true friend. A TRUE friend.

There are many other people that have influenced my stay here. Barbara, Becky, Pete, Liz, my coworkers, Petrus, Lesa, Alicia…they all, in one form or another, have made their mark on my memories of this place. To forget them would be to forget my experiences here…and that will never happen.

Ok, maudlin session over for now…on to other things.

I have the couch from hell. No, literally, it must be possessed or something. Nobody wants it. Not even me. I don’t want it. I don’t have the room for it and I SURELY am not moving it just to end up selling it later. That’s asinine.

I’ve had this couch in the paper for almost 2 weeks and only one person expressed an interest. So, I’ve asked everyone that I know if they need a couch or if they know someone who needs a couch. Nothing. Oh, the guy that did want the couch decided not to call me back the evening he said he would (2 weeks ago). Now, finally, one of the ladies I work with decided she would like the couch. Yay! I load it up into the truck and drive to North Monroe only to find that her doorways are 3 inches too narrow. Three inches!!! I tried every door of her house…same problem. So, I load the couch back into my truck and I go back home. On the way, I decide that a cool option would be to cut the rope that is holding it into the bed and let it fly out. YES! What a wonderful plan! Well, I ended up not doing this and put it back in the apartment.

My sister and her boyfriend visited this weekend and she said that, worst case, she could come up and take it home (she lives in Baton Rouge) and sell it there. I was elated. I had something to fall back on just in case everything else fell through.

I got a phone call this morning from my dad concerning the moving of the couch to Baton Rouge. Essentially what I got from him was this: The couch will not reside in Baton Rouge. End of story. This frustrated me to no end. Now, I had a viable solution to the problem, but someone else decided that it was no longer viable. Fine. I can live with that.

Final solution to the problem? Well, tonight when I get off work, I’m going home. I will pick up said couch. I will take said couch to Goodwill and will drop it off there for them to sell. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Oh, and before I forget…Bye Ruston!

Spoilers contained within, there may be.

Star Wars. The name is well known in both fantasy and science fiction worlds. For almost 30 years, we have lived with Star Wars in all its many different forms: merchandizing, movies, books, comics, magazine articles, internet discussion groups, and yes…even blogs. Well, it would almost be nice to say that this is the end of an era for those of us that were born within the later half of the 70’s through the early part of the 80’s, but I don’t think we’ve seen the end of anything yet.

I saw the new Star Wars movie last night, and I have to tell you – Compared to Episodes I and II, this movie really is much better and much more in tune with the original 3 shows. However, I wouldn’t be so foolish to state that it was any better than any of the original 3. There are several key areas that make this movie one of the best, but there are several reasons that make it not THE best.

**Spoilers may be contained from here on until the Spoiler End section, so if you don’t want to know about the movie, skip this part**

Good things about the movie:
1) The musical score is definitely one of the better of the 6. That could be, of course, because it ties in all the thematic elements for the various characters (some familiar, some not), but I think it’s also because this time, you really feel the intensity of the scenes…and this is brought about because of the music.
2) CGI…outstanding. There are MANY different CGI characters, sets, events (heck, the first part of the movie would have been completely impossible using models and a black screen…trust me…) that were in this movie. Some, you could tell…others, you only knew they were because of the impossibility of the movements.
3) Darth Vader is born. Now, we all know that he was “born” long before this movie - heck, he was born before Episode I even – but, he is finally BORN. The first time he takes the signature breath…well, you know it’s him. I wanted to cheer at this point as Vader was always the stronger of the actors (except for Harrison Ford) and one of my favorites.
4) Character tie-ins. This is the part that I wasn’t really expecting, but now that I think about it, I really should have. You get to see quite a few of the original characters (albeit slightly younger!) in the roles that you expect them to be in. You get to see how Darth Sidious gets the wrinkled and rough appearance. You see Chewbacca. You see Uncle Owen. The list goes on and on.

Bad things about the movie:
1) Hayden Christensen – The guy can’t act. His lines were delivered with the choppy effectiveness of a food processor. I don’t know what it is about him that drew Lucas to pick him…but it surely wasn’t his acting abilities.
2) CGI…outstanding. Yes, I know. But it’s a strength and a weakness. Some of the CGI characters were so unbelievable as to make them seem almost “cartoon”ish. I don’t know how else to explain it other than that. Some of the characters rocked…others, well, they didn’t.
3) Some of the sound editing was off. You could see characters lips move in a different way than what they were saying. I realize that’s very nit-picky, but I’m a very particular type person and I would think that Lucas would be so to considering this is the LAST of the movies in this series, and he knows that bigger fans than I will be even more nit-picky.
4) General Grevious. What’s up with the coughing and wheezing?! I mean, this guy is a droid with a human heart, brain and eyes…not lungs!

If I had to rate this movie out of 5 stars, I would give it a 4 simply because of these things. Good movie, but flawed in several important areas.

**End Spoilers**

Anyway, I’ll probably end up making another post or two before I move. Oh yes, I forgot – Today makes the beginning of the last week of work for me. Yes, that’s right…in exactly 1 week, I will officially be leaving work here for the last time. In all honesty, I can’t wait.

How dumb can people be?!

Every once in a while, someone sends me something that’s out there on the internet that I just have to sit back and say, “WHAT?!” The following is all about one such thing.

A friend of mine just sent me a link to this article by the BBC about something that happened in Cambodia. I’m still kind of surprised by it is why I’m being so cryptic. I’m not going to link to the page for fear of reprisals from whoever else might want to be upset with me over it. Anyway, the point of the article was this: 42 fighting midgets were slaughtered by a lion. Yes…you read that correctly. Fighting midgets were killed.

Now, someone being mauled by a lion isn’t really that big of a deal, I guess. It happens all the time. Let me set up the situation for you, though. There is (erm, was) a group of fighting midgets in Cambodia that were managed by this guy that stated that they would fight anything or anyone…man, beast or machine. Well, this other Cambodian guy took him up on his challenge and said that he wanted them to fight a lion. The manager agreed…and the fight was on.

Forty-two midgets, all well versed in all sorts of fighting styles, no doubt, entered the ring that also contained one non-midget lion. Only the full-sized lion exited the ring in anything resembling the same condition.

Now…does any of this just seem a little too far-fetched to be even remotely considered to be true?! Well, good job sports fans! It’s a fake. Please consult this page for more details: http://lionvs40midgets.tripod.com/

Anyway, I just want you all to know that I had to post that because a) I told my friend Red I would, and b) I needed the humor. Why do I need the humor? Stress…let me tell you:

Moving has to be the single most stressful thing I’ve ever been through. Not only do you have to worry about getting things shut down and ready for whoever takes over when you leave (I have a 3+ page document for whoever takes over this job so they aren’t just hurled into this job like I was), but you also have to worry about getting 10 signatures on this piece of paper saying that it is ok for you to leave. On top of that, you have to worry about forwarding all of your mail, stopping all your services (electricity, water etc), changing banks, insurance policies…well, the list goes on and on, let me tell you. Anyway, it’s been somewhat stressful, but the stress is finally going away because groovy and I talked about it last night, and it got me to try and figure out what it was that was causing all the stress. Once I realized what it was, it made dealing with it so much easier (just like she said it would).

Subservience…is it all it’s cracked up to be?

From the earliest times that I can remember, my parents have always told me, “The best thing you can be is a servant to others.” That is, the best thing you can do is to help people all the time. On some levels, I guess I can agree with this, but I can definitely see where this attitude can cause several problems not only with ones self, but also with the people that one chooses to associate with (namely significant others).

Let’s take work for an example real quick. From time to time, I am requested to do things for other people. Now, by other people, I mean: students, faculty or staff. Now, I have no problem helping out students; after all, they are the reason that I get paid every month! The problem is when one of the faculty or staff comes to me asking me to do some of their work so that they don’t have to. For instance: “Scott, I need to go back to my office for a second. Could you watch these students?” Of course I say, “Sure!” The second turns into five minutes, and finally a half hour. Frustrated, I walk away from the lab that the students that are in it (where they are supposed to be supervised).

Or, take friends for example. I have a friend that is CONSTANTLY asking me to do things for him. It’s not like I’m doing anything important or anything. So, I try to help him out as best I can, and then when I get back home to try and do the things that I need/want to do, there is no time, or I’m tired or whatever. On top of that, it’s never just one instance of him asking for something. It’s incessant. There is never really a time when we just sit there and talk. It’s always either about work, or him wanting me to do something for him. That’s not right!!! This causes great frustration for me that I, unfortunately, complain about.

Personally, I think it’s better to complain (express one’s feelings) about a thing than to let it build up and explode out of you at some later date when the thing that caused the frustration is long forgotten by everyone in the free world BUT you, and then when you DO blow up, everyone looks at you and says, “My goodness! Where did that come from? He always was such a patient person!” It’s crap, I tell you…CRAP!

I’m tired of being everyone’s doorstep. I’m tired of letting people take advantage of me. I’m tired of doing everyone else’s work and letting them reap the benefits. I’m tired of not being recognized for what it is that I actually do. I’m tired of these feelings of frustration that well up inside me when I say “Yes” when I really mean, “Do it yourself!!!!”

So…if I’m tired of all of this…what do I do? I’ll tell you…I don’t know. The logical thing to do would be to start expressing what I REALLY think about helping some people. That, unfortunately, goes against the grain of everything that I am and have been for the last 28 years. So, back to key question: What do I do? Well, dear reader…you tell me. What do I do? How do I stop this vicious cycle of subservience?