The Perks of Fun-Employment

A lay-off from a job is a lot like a break-up. You were happy...maybe not in love, but really happy--content. Then he calls you up and says "let's get some coffee..."

You're thinking coffee?? Since when do we get coffee? Okay..

This is the part where he tells you that it's not you, it's him, he just doesn't have the budget for a girlfriend anymore. To that you say "What? But I cost pennies compared to your last girlfriends!"

Then you gather your things, get your music off of his computer, and take the walk to shame back to your car, box in hand.

All that being said, and now being over the "mourning" process, no more sleeping in half the day, no more booze and ice cream... I am now reaping the few, but precious perks of Fun-Employment.

1) I made a mix. Yeah yeah yeah, a little dramatic. but seriously, one of my best coping mechanisms. Here are a few songs off of my Fun-Employment mix:

-Time To Move On......Tom Petty

-The Thanks I get.......Wilco

-P.S. It All Falls Down......Richard Swift

-How To Disappear Completely....Radiohead

-Leavin Blues....Lead Belly

Just to name a few.

2) I made more beer. Beer takes time...Time I have plenty of these days. Tyler came by on sunday and we brewed a Russian Imperial Stout. Very excited about this one.

3) I don't feel like I'm 22 going on 85 anymore. Let me explain: When I was working, I would get tired at like 9:00 at night. "Guys I gotta go to bed, I'm beat". But now I can stay up till 3 and wake up at 11...no problemo. Enjoying my youth.

4) More time to sew and make art.

5) I bought a book. I only like reading when I've got the time..vacations are prime reading time for me. I purchased East of Eden, which I have had recommended to me many many a time. 600 pages people! 600! I figure this will be my literature of choice for the next 2 years.

6) Unemployment checks. Obama extended the time available to receive unemployment, so I'm going to "cash" in on that..pun intended. Thanks Pres.

7) Budgeting skillz. This is the best time to perfect my money saving abilities. Joy.

8) I'm really stretching for this one (pun intended) but I suppose I have more time to work-out now. Although I didn't work out at Affliction even when I had a free gym and a personal trainer at hand....FAIL. But IT IS a perk non the less.

9) Assess The Situation..time. I can now figure out what I want to do next. The big question mark.

10) And last but certainly not least, I can go to Portfolio coffee house and update my blog more regularly and drink copious amounts of espresso. Like I'm doing right now...

Some Photos From Metallica

Heavy Metal

Tonight I will have the pleasure of attending a Metallica show at the Honda arena in Anaheim, joined by fellow colleagues and bosses. I'm not a huge Metallica metal head fan, but I can appreciate a band and their important place in music. Hey, it's a classic.
I will be wearing something very very similar to this. More pictures to follow after I rock n' roll this evening. Ciao.

Christmas Things List

Dear Santa,

1) Beer Glasses

2) Robots
3) Puppies
4) Cona Coffee maker
5) Stumptown coffee
Love,

Jody

Movie Update

Over Thanks Giving weekend I had the pleasure of watching 3 fabulous movies. The first was by director and master-creepy-mind David Lynch, Inland Empire. It was one of his tamer films which made it a little more enjoyable for me to watch. We were so inspired by the "Lynchian" way of directing, that we made our own version of Inland Empire. I'm sure Sister Dailey will be posting it on her blog Blinking Against the Brightness shortly.

Same face the whole movie. Brilliant.

The second movie we watched was called Ballast. I really enjoyed this film, but if you're into resolved endings and a strong plot line then I wouldn't suggest this movie. It's very slow and very realistic. There isn't much dialog or soundtrack either. I know i'm not making it sound very good, but honestly it was a beautiful movie and a really moving story.

Lastly, I went and saw Wes Anderson's new movie: The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Holy Moly! Such a good movie. All stop motion animation which is just such a feast for the eyes. You must go see this movie!

Titanic, ADVENTURE OUT OF TIME!!!

During my internet perusing this evening, I was trying to find the game Chips Challenge that I have such fond memories of playing on the old PC at mom and dad's house quite a few years ago. After not being able to find an online version that I could play, I remembered a game that I loved maybe even a little bit more than Chip's...Titanc: Adventure Out of Time. Now I don't consider myself a gamer by any means, my family to this day doesn't even own a dance dance revolution. The closest thing we came to mario bros, was computer games. I had all the good ones: Magic School Bus-Body Adventure, and Space Adventure. Then I graduated to the really good stuff and I purchased the Titanic game. This is no magic school bus my friends.
Visually INSANE. You could explore the entire ship and walk up to people and they would talk to you and give you clues. The goal of the game was to collect all of the special objects, get off the boat with out drowning, and to not get killed by one of the not so nice people on the ship.

I never actually made it to the sinking of the ship part because A: Our computer kept crashing due to the shotty software, and PC-ness of it all, B: Because this game took DAYS to play, and C: Because I could never seem to get past the scary man in the boiler room with the gun that would shoot and kill me every time. SO ANNOYING! And let me tell you, this game was creeeeepy. So scary. Honestly I think that David Lynch had a hand in developing it. Even the music and lighting was creepy.

All that to say, I sinserely miss this game and would give my right arm to have an updated version for my Mac. Hats off to you if you ever played it too.