The Zombieslayer

After writing a few doomsday pieces on overpopulation, I was thinking I need to mention some stuff I like.

The Slow Food movement. Although not a formal member, I follow a lot of the philosophy of it. Eat organic, heirloom foods. Eat traditional and local food. Don’t eat fast food.

Walking everywhere. If it’s not raining or snowing, why drive to the supermarket if you can walk there? I have no problem walking home carrying a gallon of milk in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other. Neither does my wife or my son. There’s a reason we’re in good shape, and it has nothing to do with genetics and everything to do with our attitudes about wasting resources.

Donald Driver, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Kampman, and Charles Woodson - my favorite Packers. Driver because of his commitment to excellence (no, the Raiders can’t use that any more because they’re a joke and it has become just as stupid as certain corporate slogans). Rodgers because he has been humble through the whole Brett Favre thing and proved it with his abilities instead of his mouth. Kampman because he simply works harder than anyone else. And Woodson because he’s like Deion Sanders but without the ego. Yes, I still root for Favre to succeed, unless he’s playing the Packers.*

Nightwish and Opeth - the two most talented bands out there today. Both from Scandinavia (by the four country, not three country definition). I’m thinking when it comes to music right now, Scandinavia is where it’s at. Most of my fave bands now are from there.

I’m currently reading Watership Down. Loved the movie. Now finally bought the book.

Our apartment.  We live downtown so we can walk everywhere.  I religiously go to the Farmers’ Market every Sunday morning and stock up on fruits and veggies.  Instead of centering the food around meat, it’s pretty even now.

One of the things I’m really loving are heirloom tomatoes.  I love slicing them up and salting the slices.  Very few things taste better than fresh heirloom tomatoes and salt.

We even go vegetarian one or two days a week.  With apartment living, our costs are way down.  Meat is expensive and cutting it out one or two days a week saves a lot.  Plus, we have yet to break $50 for our electric bill.  Yet another thing to love about living in a small apartment instead of a big house.

So tell me, what are you liking now?

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* I got money on both the Packers and the Vikings to win it all.

People complain about Favre being a prima donna. So what? So was General Patton, one of my other heroes. As a Sound Engineer (recording only), I’ve worked with musicians who never even released a CD and still had bigger egos than Brett Favre.

Prima donnas and divas don’t bother me as long as they treat me with respect. If they don’t, I simply refuse to work with them.

I’m going to see the Harry Potter 6 movie today and will link the review to this post when I get back.  In the meantime, I’m a Slytherin.

Why? No, I’m not a bad guy.  I’m a good guy.  But let’s look at the four houses…

From Wikipedia, Gryffindor values courage, bravery, daring, nerve and chivalry.  I don’t value courage and bravery.  Those will get you killed.  Yes, if someone I loved was in trouble, I’d risk my life to help them.  But that’s a given.  So would just about anyone else.

Realistically, being scared keeps you alive.  I have fear because I want to live.  I don’t want to die until I’m in my 90s (or unless I lose my brain, then I’d want to die earlier).

Hufflepuff, values hard work, loyalty, tolerance, and fair play.  OK, I like this house.  I value hard work, loyalty, and fair play.  Tolerance? No.  I’m a very intolerant person.  Some people piss me off and I have no time for their bullshit, and I’ll call a spade a spade.  So that’s three for four.  Almost a Hufflepuff, but not quite.

Ravenclaw values intelligence, creativity, wit, and wisdom.  I’m almost a Ravenclaw.  Intelligence, I got plenty of that.  Creativity and wit, yup.  That’s me.  Extremely on both parts.  Wisdom? Nope.  I got none of that.  If it wasn’t for my wife, I’d probably be either dead, in jail, or homeless.  So that scratches me from Ravenclaw.

Slytherin house values ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness.  Bingo.  That’s me exactly.  I’m a Slytherin.

It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that to be a successful bad guy, you have to be ambitious and cunning (and resourceful).

Now as proof that not all Slytherins are bad, the most brave wizard of all is a Slytherin.  He sacrificed a heck of a lot more than anyone else did, and that’s really saying something because so many of them sacrificed a lot.  (NOTE: I had his name in there but realized it’s a spoiler so took it out).

Slughorn and Andromeda Tonks are both from there, and Ms. Tonks raised one of my favorite characters (Nymphadora).  More proof that Andromeda is cool is she was Sirius’ favorite cousin, and disowned by the Black family (which is a good thing).  Sirius Black as you probably already know is my favorite Harry Potter character.

Anyways, movie starts in four hours.  I got to buy tickets as soon as those dorks open their ticket window.  Have a Happy Wednesday.

UPDATE - My review is up here.  Don’t worry, I was careful not to give anything away.

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.