The Zombieslayer

I got back early this week, but had so much crap to do.  Now looking for work.  The company I was working at got bought out and the entire team got laid off.  This has all happened before so it’s nothing new to me.  I can’t complain as we got a good severance package and I’m set for awhile at least.  I just don’t want to burn through my excess cash because that excess cash will be taking Mrs. Z on our next vacation.

While in Vegas, I won $2.60 in the slots.  Yes, that’s the extent of my gambling.  I play pennies or nickels just long enough to get the cocktail waitress to get me a free drink or two (always tip them well so they’ll come back fast, and be super polite with them.  That’s my tip to you).

As soon as I’m up, I pull out.  I don’t really gamble.  Well, I take that back.  Yes I do.  I gamble on sports.

Brett Favre will be on the Vikings, and he will kick ass if Childress realizes he has to limit Favre’s throws.   The Vikings have a better than average defense and the best player in the NFL in Adrian Peterson.  To win the Super Bowl, the Vikings need to be a run first, ball control, clock eating team and Favre needs to complete passes and move the chains.  Do that, and the Vikings have as good a shot as anyone.  I put money on them to win it all with 8-1 odds.

The Packers on the other hand need to be more aggressive offensively and need that 3-4 defense to work.  If not, it will be another long season.  I put money on my beloved Packers to win it all with 20-1 odds.

If either team wins the Super Bowl, Mrs. Z gets to go on the cruise of her choice.  So yes, I admit, I do gamble.

With me though, I’m not about the money.  I don’t care about losing a few bucks in the slots because I use the slots for the drinks so I could hit Vegas with a nice buzz.  I actually like Vegas.  It’s tacky and superficial but so what? I can’t be pretentious all the time.

My next vacation though will probably be hitting more states.  I’m at 27 now and got 23 more to go.  I’ve been to a lot of countries, but for me, the bigger priority right now is finishing up my own.  America still is beautiful, but each year it is getting more crowded and with the economy in the slumps, you’d notice a lot more garbage and a lot more taggings everywhere, which is really sad.

Anyways, I’m back.  I got to look for work but between errands and job searching, when I get some breaks, I’ll drop by your blogs.  Hope all is well.

Well, I’ve been commenting about politics a lot recently, so I won’t this time.

I saw the new Star Trek movie last night with a bunch of friends.  Let me just say as much as the new James Bond movies suck, this new Star Trek movie was good.  Go see it if you get a chance.  I loved it.  If I’m not feeling lazy, I’ll write a review later.

I was working on a post for jokes you can’t tell at work.  They’re racist, sexist, and make fun of just about everyone.  These were the jokes I grew up with before political correctness and you know what? A lot of them hit one of my races and/or ethnicities.  But so what? They’re funny.

I never got offended as a kid.  I was one of those people who was always laughing (and usually in trouble with teachers).  Maybe it was because I excelled in sports.  I never had to prove anything.

I think if you look behind someone who gets offended easily, you see someone who:

1) led a sheltered life,

2) sucked at everything so is pissed off at the world

It’s usually one of those things.  People who get offended easily are lame, and definitely not fun to hang around with.  I don’t like hanging with people when you feel like you have to walk on egg shells around them.

If there’s one thing I wish for everyone who reads this blog, it’s good health. Health is the most important thing in the world. If you have your health, you can do anything. If you don’t, you’re a burden on your loved ones. As cold as that sounds, it’s true.

I’m not going to lie and say I’m the resident expert in health. I sin a lot. I sometimes eat complete crap. But I walk everywhere. I rarely drive. I love living downtown so I can simply walk to the supermarket, to the drug store, to any restaurant I’m in the mood for, to the movie theater, to the coffee places/internet cafes, and to the local bars.

Walking rules. Walking gives me time to think. At work, I bug people to walk with me and you should see how much better off the people who walk regularly are. You can get the crap off your chest while you walk, and it’s such a stress reliever. I encourage everyone to walk more. It’s one of the best things you can do.

I’m pretty messed up physically. Walking is low impact, so I can walk for miles and not tweak my back or my knees. I never run. Yet, I’m in better shape than most people my age.

I still can do 20 chin ups. I do crunchies and push ups when I remember, but walking is my primary exercise and I feel like it is enough. My body fat is around 10% which is exactly where I want it. I’m no longer an athlete so have no reason to be at 5-7%. I also don’t have bulging muscles any more. No reason to. For me, excess muscle is just excess weight and it takes so much work to keep it. I don’t think it’s worth it, unless you got a shot of really making it as an athlete.

Anyways, that’s my little advice for the day - walk as much as you can. Just watch out for idiots who make right turns but don’t watch for pedestrians.

Happy New Years everyone!

I’ll be heading over to a party in a bit.  Hope all is well for everyone and hope everyone is healthy, and everyone who wants work has work.  Scary times.

Speaking of scary times, read Raemius’s Word on the Economic Crisis.  Yes, a lot of problems are caused by layoffs, outsourcing, and being undercut by globalism as I mentioned three years ago, but Raemius is spot on that a lot of economic problems are also caused by greed and mismanagement at the family level.  He shows a hypothetical situation of Jill and Joe Sixpack not spending money very wisely.  Unfortunately, this is literally half the people I know.

I have a few regrets in life. One of which is I don’t own a publishing company. I’ve always wanted one, and still haven’t reached that goal. There are a lot of good authors out there that are unpublished. Now, I don’t know if Miladysa is published or not, but I do know that her fiction should be if it isn’t. Read this for one example of something that I wish I was reading in my hands, not only online on a blog. Her fiction takes you there. I like fiction that can take you in so you feel you’re actually there experiencing what’s going on.

Thanksgiving went pretty well.  I made the stuffing.  I used one organic Asian Pear, one organic Fuji Apple, one onion, lots of garlic, four slices of well-toasted bread, and about a glass of red wine.  It actually tasted pretty good.  Oh yeah, threw some salt and pepper in there too.

–

Glad the election’s over.  No, nobody or nothing I voted for won.  Ron Paul’s too intelligent to be President of the USA.  Get this, the criticisms I’ve heard of Ron Paul is that “he scares me.”  Sure, throw logic right out the window and use an argument ad hominem.  But then again, I don’t expect intelligence from the American voters.

Dad used to get me Time magazine for Christmas.  I told him not to this year.  I hate that magazine.  Both Time and Newspeak couldn’t do an article on Obama without mentioning his race.  Couldn’t talk about Hillary Clinton and later Sarah Palin without mentioning their gender.  It got pretty fucking annoying.  Pardon my French.

For those of you who make fun of sports, that’s one thing I like about sports.  It was the one thing I did when nobody asked me my race.  I got sick of hearing it.  Had to always fill in my race for whenever I applied for anything except sports.  With sports, I just played.  If I performed well, they liked me.  If I sucked, they didn’t.  That’s how it should be.

–

I saw a bunch of movies and am too lazy to review them so I’ll write a skinny on each of them.

Star Wars Clone Wars - For a cartoon aimed for kids, I found it quite watchable. No, don’t expect good dialog or plot, because after all it is Star Wars which is well-known for bad dialog and plot holes. But still, I enjoyed. 6 dead zombies.

The Eye (2008) - Always a pleasure to see Jessica Alba. Heck, she could be brushing her teeth and she’d be fun to watch. But this is a horror movie so she’s not so hot in this one.

The Pang Brothers give you a flick about a blind girl picking up the eyes from a dead donor. Catch is, the eyes come from a witch. A few predictable plot twists and some scary scenes. Not a bad effort, but not something you’d write home about. 4 dead zombies

The Orphanage - OK horror film buffs, this is how it’s done. I usually see plot twists coming from a mile away but there were a few that even I didn’t get. Excellent first effort from Juan Bayona and of course anything Guillermo Del Toro even sneezes on is going to be watchable.

A couple move into an old home with their adopted child and the home comes with a few surprises. Set in Spain and in Spanish. 8 dead zombies

–

That’s it, folks. Hope you’re all enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend. For those of you not in the USA, hope you’re all enjoying your weekend that started last night. Don’t feel bad. No matter what country you’re from, you probably get more holidays than we do. All Americans do is work.

–

Oh yeah, one more thing…

Watched Conan the Barbarian last night.  I finally bought the DVD because it was $10 for both Conan movies.  That was hands down the most romantic movie ever made.  No, don’t tell me The Titanic or any of that other garbage.  Conan’s girlfriend fought off demons to bring Conan back from the dead.  Now, that’s love folks.

Hello World. My cold is already gone. Slammed it with Vitamin C and plenty of rest. Didn’t even have to hit the bottle of NyQuil (generic, of course).

I got yet another person to try Firefox. She was having problems with Internet Exploder. Surprise, surprise. That’s my good deed for the day. I keep this up and just wondering, how many miracles in one’s name to be a Saint? Two? Three? Any Catholics out there?

The Packers bitch slapped da Bears this weekend 37-3. Here I was getting frustrated with my beloved Packers and they completely demolish da Bears. Good job, Pack. It does seem like Favre and the Jets though are going to go farther than the Packers. It’s simply because the Jets seem to have a lot more heart.

I believe in morale in sports. I think it plays a bigger part than people realize. Proof of that was last years New York Giants, winning the Super Bowl while upsetting three straight teams that are on paper superior.

Now, what I’m about to say is with a HUGE asterisk. I am NOT a financial planner so anything I say, consult a professional first before buying anything. But right now, I’m gambling on two things - the price of oil going back up and Ford. Yes, Ford Motors.

Oil’s kind of a given. It’s cheap right now. People need it. I’m still seeing soccer moms drive around the suburbs in SUVs (with big frowns on their faces of course), so it’s not like our consumption is going down that much. India and China are both poised to be big time oil consumers as they start flaunting their wealth. Keep in mind that for every American, there are almost four Indians and almost four Chinese.

The other thing is Ford Motors. Two things:
1) Obama will be President in January 20, 2009. Obama has already announced a bailout of the auto industries and whether you like it or not, it will pass Congress.
2) I just bought the latest issue of Consumer Reports and Ford leads the domestics.

And lastly, for those anti-gunners out there, here’s something to ruin your day. You all know I own a lot of guns. Lots of them. Well, while your stocks have lost a lot of value, my guns have gone up, up, and up. Now if only I invested in even more guns instead of the Dow…