Well...this is just shit

Firstly I want to apologize for this being extremely late in terms of my normal updates. Vacation, illness and the events in CT have held this up. So this was going to be a blog about my wife and I adventuring in Vermont, but then shithead when and shot up a elementary school, so I need to touch on it.

It's amazing that people keep getting shooting places up all over the us, it just really surprises me that there are that many fucked up people. My heart goes out to the families that have lost loved ones in this tragedy.

Now on to a fun topic, a weeks vacation.

My wife and I ended up on a bit of an unexpected to trip to Vermont this past week. We left on Saturday and 6 hours later we were in the green mountain state. We ended up on vacation because of a timeshare that my parents gifted to my sister and I that we now share, and my week happened to be this week. Now I have not been up to the resort (Smuggler's Notch) in close to 7 years, but I use to go there regularly when I was younger, pretty much every winter in February, so as one would expect, a lot of things have changed, to the point where knew nothing of the area. This was OK because the wife and I were just there to relax, since she needs to take it easy until we find out if there are babies in her belly.

When you ask me what my definition of relaxing is, I'll tell you that it involves beer, music, and maybe a book depending. Typically my wife would agree, however with it being so close to Christ's birthday, she opted for, peppermint tea, and holiday traditions on XM and Christmas movies all week.

Well, being the good husband I am, I thought why not make a fire for her in the fire place...which ended up setting off the smoke alarm when the condo filled with smoke. After this I decided to hit up YouTube to see what I was doing wrong, the only suggestion YouTube had (that I wasn't already doing) was to trim some of wetter bits on the log off. If you look for this "Starting a fire with wet wood" on the YouTube, you'll notice that the men in the video are using either large knives, or a hatchet. I did not have either of these items and instead was relegated to using my folding knife to trim down logs in the same fashion they were in the video. I'm not sure if I need to say it, but a folding knife is not the ideal tool for this type of operation and after about an hour of "trimming" I was holding a dull knife.

My wife being the wonderful woman she is suggested that I get a stone to sharpen my knife, which we did the next day. After getting home I realized I have absolutely no idea how to sharpen a knife, since I haven't done it since Boy Scouts since years ago. However after another quick trip to the internet I had a general idea, that there is no "correct" way to sharpen a knife, which I felt was wrong. So I tried to apply various bits of information that I had gathered from the web. I'm not sure if I was successful, or I had just dulled it enough for it to work as a wedge but I was able to continue with my attempt to build a fire.

About 30mins later a knock come on our condo door. Its the upstairs neighbor, he asks if we're OK cause his smelled a lot more smoke then usual and was worried something might have happened.

After this I bought a Duraflame log that I used to beat mother nature.

The rest of the week we spent looking for moose while we antiqued, since there was no snow for me to ski on. Now as I said this was my first time back in 7years but I did spend ever 2nd week of February of my youth in this resort, in that time I have only ever seen one moose. My wife has never seen a moose, and desperately wanted to see one since there are moose crossing signs all over the place. After not seeing any for the whole week, my wife now believes that wild moose are like Sasquatch. I hope to prove her wrong some day.

There are some other stories here and there but I'll but those in Friday's post.

N

Snow

Tomorrow at this time I plan to be up in Vermont, looking out into my back yard hoping to find a moose which I can make friends with.

This is the first time I'm heading up there in since I was like 19 I guess, so I'm kinda excited. But one upsetting fact is that I'm not going to be skiing.

You see I tried to explain this to the wife, skiing is not fun if you don't have someone to go with. Alternately it is only fun to do alone if you have your own gear, and or are a villain in an 80s movie.

The reason skiing with someone is fun is because you get the chance to compete or push each other to ski better and ultimately you have someone to talk about your runs with after. Now my wife does not ski for several reasons, the main reason is she thinks it's extremely unsafe, she also just went through an FET today so it'd likely be bad bouncing down a mountain.

Aside from skiing though there's fun activities I can enjoy in Vermont, they pretty much revolve around eating, and that's always a plus. Looking forward to a Ben and Jerry's visit, along with a trip to the Cabbot creameries so I can get me some cheese.

Maybe if were lucky a trip to Magic Hat...though that might not be fair since the wife can't drink...

-n-

A narrative

Writing a story is hard work, don't let anyone try to tell you different. Writing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign is much more difficult, since you are not only writing a story but you are making it interactive by trying to let your players tell it through their actions in game (which are typically not heroic when it comes to the group I play with)

So I pose the question, how exact ally do you accomplish this task. I've found that not having any idea why they are doing g what they are doing is actually the best way for me to tell my story.

When you role play you assume the identity of the character you play. This character would ultimately have absolutely no idea what was going on, and so they would use clues in the game to figure it out.

So in the start of this campaign the players found themselves in a castle that suddenly fell under attack. They had no idea why the castle was attacked, no idea who was attacking it and no desire to stay there. Thus they reacted like real people in a situation like that.

Tonight is the 5th session and they still have no idea what they are supposed to be doing, only that they need to bring a duke (whom they all mildly dislike) to the capitol of the kingdom.

Provided they don't act like complete assholes and miss the obvious signs of where to go, they likely find out what they need to do tonight....though they could also spend this session seeing who's character can take a better piss.

-n-

I love the mornings

<p dir=ltr><a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/30/unicorns-existence-proven-says-north-korea/?hpt=hp_t3">Unicorns&#8217; Existence Proven, Says North Korea | </a><a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/30/unicorns-existence-proven-says-north-korea/?hpt=hp_t3">TIME.com</a></p>

Let's stop and read that for a second.

Its nice to see that the North Koreans, is still very much a bunch a wishful children, hell before I read North Korea I was really excited and ready to quit work and discover my own unicorn.

But why can't a unicorn exist? Is it really that far fetched? I mean who's to say that they put the bones together correctly when they found the first dinosaurs? Maybe it actually had wings and breathed fire, we don't know we weren't there.

What we do know is that the north Koreans believe they have found a unicorn, that likely was alive and well until its master Kim Jung il died after killing a bunch of orc.
(You would not believe how hard it is to find a picture of this)

I have to say that I am in support of the crazy claims that the Chinese government makes. Seriously just thinking k all the cool shit that we would know existed if they didn't play big brother on the interweb.

My life in the IT

I once thought the world of IT was a glamorous one, full of new fangled technology and the ability to command respect because, hey let's face it I control your business.

In the recent years I have discovered that this is not the case at all. I'm more like a babysitter, in that I'm trying not to have people break their toys, or providing new toys for people to break.

For example I spend most, if not all of my work day trying to find a serviceable blackberry in the box of "spare phones" (most of which are actually broken) and set up a users iPhone. Granted the setup should have taken me a bit because apple is the devil, and not because the user could not remember any of their passwords (or be bothered to close the 300* documents they had open)

That is actually why I find myself on a bus at 5am, there's a new hire starting today at 9 and her workstation is not up and functioning. This is because there's 13gb of data, that I need to set up her computer, transferring between 1 server to anther that should have taken 5 1/2 hours starting at 430 yesterday.

On a side note I'm going to see a friends bands tonight, and potentially have dinner with some old co-workers after work around 12 hours from now.

This should be an interesting day to say the least....also this is the second time in my entire life its taken me 20 minutes to get into the city.

Additionally I have seen a part of the Port Authority I've never seen before.

-N-

[* the number 300 is not an exaggerated figure and will swear to it in a tours of law]

Manhattan a love story

Holy crap the bus line sucks.

I feel like this is what I say in my head daily even when I've been waiting 30mins and the nice lady ahead of me was kind enough to let me see her new kindle... its pretty rad.

What interesting is that this one little part of my day really me makes me loath everything about my day even if it was good like today.

I think New York has a way of doing that to you. One second you are walking and taking in the sites, the next you are wishing with every fiber of your being that the cabbie that nearly hit you gets stiffed (or his cab is impounded) and I kinda feel like that's what makes New York great. It can show you something awesome for example Rockefeller center during this time of year, and at the same time you can walk down a 15th from 5ave to 8ave narrowly avoid stepping in dog shit like 10 times.

That's what makes the city great, because as the mayor in Ghostbusters 2 says it's every New Yorkers god given right to be pissed off at the world.

Well Lenny you're right, and as I sit here on the bus in the second to last seat I remember that line, while shooting daggers at the person talking on their phone.

Happy belated turkey day.

Nathan

The fine line between drunk, awesome, and super awesome

This weekend is super busy, in a good and bad way.

First the good thing - one of my darling wife's oldest friends is getting married, which means a wedding, and those are always fun.

Now the bad thing - Sunday the day after the wedding we will be heading to a funeral of a beloved family member, and I haven't met a person alive that likes a funeral.

I'm choosing to have this blog focus on the fun experienced this weekend and have recorded to the best of my knowledge (see entry on 11/18/12) the experiences I have had this weekend.

11/16/12 the arrival.

Today I've found myself working from a hotel room in PA while my wife was doing bridesmaid type things. I currently find myself in a church pew watching the rehearsal.

Sitting here has reminded me that this weekend I will be spending more time in churches then I have spent in the last 7 years. I'm actually surprises that I didn't burst into flames when I walked through the door.

We'll we are off to the rehearsal dinner I'll continue this tomorrow.

11/17/12

I'm killing time before the wedding. Actually before my sister and brother-in-law arrive at the hotel. I've decided that I need to get a new black shirt so I drove my ass to King of Prussia mall to visit Macy's. The mall apparently does not open til 10.

I knew this, but was really hoping that there would be some place to have a leisurely breakfast. Urbanspoon told me about some but they weren't up to my high standard of dining, so I said fuck it and started driving.

I ended up at a Khole's where I tries on shirts that I couldn't button across my chest, then synced my phone to the Bluetooth in my wife's car. Then I found Walmart, which is where I am currently typing this. I should remind everyone its 9am on a Saturday, so there is no reason that I should be at a Walmart other then I am bored out of my mind. That's understandable. What's not is the sheer number of people in the store at 9am.

There were at least 20 people lined up to either return or buy something, which is incredible. Now what makes this even better is they are buying weird shit, a couch, and some dude has a notepad (I know this cause I'm standing in the stationary aisle). My question is what drives you to buy a couch or notepad at 9am is there something so pressing you needed to write down that it couldn't wait u til 10. Did you not have a place to sit and if so how have you been meeting your sitting needs up until this point?

I have a reason for being here, out this early shopping, I'm bored and want a shirt.

Its 910 and I still need to find breakfast before I shrivel up like a supermodel.

11/17/12

945

Found a diner and likely pisses off the waitress since I only ordered a buttered roll and coffee. I'm now at Macy's, which much to my dismay had not only been open since 9, but do not have the shirt I wanted/needed. This fact has not stop the salesman from attempting to show me every other shirt in the store, despite my protest.

11/17/12 [later in the day]
Just picked up my wife's bags from where they are getting ready, also helped the father of the groome hop a fence in a tux. I pretenses to be James Bond.

Apparently there are no trash receptacles at this particular church. I'm not really sure how this type of stuff works but aren't there normally places to throw out coffee cups prior to praising god? I mean people go yo church early sent they.

Brides about to arrive.
159pm

11/17/12

Asked my sister in law who the dudes around Jesus are...apparently they are apostles. I thought there were 12.

Seconds later.

Found the others

[entered after the wedding but happened around 210pm]

11/17/12
Car stereo playing Luciferian Blues. I am singing it loudly. This reminded me why I feel uncomfortable in church.

320pm

11/18/12

Apparently I got very, very drunk at the reception. So drunk in fact that I have no clue how I got back to the hotel (I know there was a shuttle, so I think my wife put me on that)

I'm pretty sure I had an awesome time based purely on the fact that I'm awesome sober and using thAt logic am super awesome drunk.

Below are events as I remember them and as they were relayed to me today.

Prior to the bus ride.
1. Slid into a dance circle and sang "Living on a Prayer" at the top of mg lungs.
2. Signed the guest book apologizing for my hand writing.
3. Signaled every white glove server with appetizers and then told them I didn't want their stuff when I realized I had eaten it already.
4. Instructed the bartender now not to make my martinis.
5. Said the phrase shrimp balls about 10x too many.
6. Downloaded Shazam
7. Hugged the bride
8. Stopped dancing turned to my wife and said " woah, I'm drunk" smiled and continues to dance.

On the bus to the hotel.
1. Got super excited that the shuttle was passing a dollar tree cause they sell beef jerky.
2. Asked my brother in law and sister in law's date if they knew of a place I could get delivery burritos. This was apparently very important to me.
3. Asked the bus driver to play rock n roll.
4. Said inappropriate to my wife loudly.
5. Sorta fell off the seat on the bus.

In the hotel.
1.Was put to bed by my wife, who went to the after party, and was discovered laying completely horizontal across a king sized bed.
2. Told my wife every parking lot level we were not parked on while she was trying to find her car.

At brunch the next day
1. Experienced one of my only hang rivers ever
2. Heard i was awesome (later told that what was actually said was I was a fun drunk by the brides mom maybe I'm fuzzy on the details)

On the car ride home
1. Slept in the back of the car from philly to home (bout 2 hours) because I was too drunk/hung over to drive home.
2. Was told I was growing by our friends husband because I had a hang over. (I think I grew up because achieved this level of drunkenness by with martinis, like James Bond.)

Found out towards the end of the day that I was in fact not the drunkest, someone that was not me, threw up on the shuttle. Does that mean I win or lose?

I'll take it as a win.

Trusty Chords

Last night Meg and I were in Brooklyn, hipster capitol of the east coast (Seattle of course being the west coast's) to see Dave Hause, a very intoxicated Brendan Kelly, Jenny Owens Young, and special surprise guest, who wasn't really that much of a surprise, Brian Fallon.

There was a comedian too who's name escapes me, and that makes me sad because I nearly pissed myself cause I was laughing so hard.

But I noticed a trend last night that I've been seeing for years and its actually start g to bother me as much as I know it bothers some bands. Bootlegging. I think Dave Hause put it best last night, "That he can't even make a record without people knowing all the songs before it's released" (I am of course paraphrasing because I'll be damned if I can remember back to 2am this morning).

He's right of course, in this day and age you go to a show and take out you "YouTube Machine" (totally how I'm going g to refer to smart phones from this day forward) and instantly everyone in the world can see a very drunken Brendan Kelly playing Skulls (awesome BTW)

I feel like that's fucking shitty. Firstly if the band or artist wanted to put out a video of a song they are working on, then they'd do that. We as the audience are privileged when an artist plays a new song for us. They're not asking us for anything other then out price of our tickets and maybe some beer. They deserve to be respected and when they ask you not to film the show and put it on YouTube, don't fucking film the show and put it on YouTube.

Brian and Jenny covered Ring of Fire last night, it was awesome and cool, and I'll never hear it again but I remember that it was both awesome and cool. The Revival Tour Dave covered Emma with Dan from Alkaline Trio, it happens to be one of my favorite songs. I recorded it and the only people that have scene it are me and my wife. Why because its not for distribution, its not something I have the right to show others.

I'm treading a fine line here since I've totally bootlegged before and I'm sure everyone has a bootleg or two. But the difference is that I snuck a tape recorder (minidisk player) and covertly, (in the good on a sweatshirt) recorded a band, (blink182) and only like ten people heard that, cause the fucking internet wasn't ruining things.

-N-

Long night

Playing Halo4 will have real blog tomorrow. Right now I plan on using bus for its intended purpose...sleep

Why?

At some point in your life you are going to find yourself questioning you life decisions. Why did I do X and not Y is typically the most common question that will go through your head. This will likely happen on a Saturday at 8 in the morning while you stand on line outside in the cold at the department of motor vehicles trying to get your expired licence and registration renewed.

Everyone else on the line are currently asking themselves the same question, and its highly likely that they are not discovering any answer other then the fact that a hurricane destroyed life.

So how exactly did I get into this situation and what choices could I have made to avoid this?

Well, we should begin at the beginning. Four weeks ago i got my renewal forms in the mail. My reaction was that of most people, "Shit, I've got like two weeks before I need to worry about it. I'm going to work on my D&D campaign and play Halo in chronological order"
Three weeks ago I was packing for a businesses trip to Ohio, and the to Chicago, I would have been back in NJ on the 11/1 (the day my things expired). Again I had a reaction similar to most people when waiting for the renewal day, "Is it Ok to eat this meat i found in the back of the fridge?"

Well then Sandy decided to be a royal bitch and and piss all over NJ.

I know that people had their lives devastated by Sandy in many different ways and as I said before its important that you donate to the relief effort. But there are people like me who have been fucked by that storm in other ways, mainly she has taken a very precious commodity from me,time.

What follows is a short list of how this storm has spent my time:
4 days with out power
2 1/2 hours trying to get to work on Wednesday the 1st.
1 1/2 hours getting gas
3 hours total driving back and fourth to Hillburn NY
10 total walking back and fourth to my parents house to use/help maintain their generator
1 hour waiting to renew my licence and registration and listening the the obnoxious 17 year old , more concerned about getting to football practice then getting his licence, and is ignorant yuppie mother complain about waiting on line like the mother has never renewed her licence before. (They also sat right next to me while waiting to get the picture taken)

Fuck you Sandy you goddamn bitch, fuck you for destroying homes and fuck you for putting these yuppies next to me.

I'm moving

Another election has come and gone and depending on what side of the political fence you're on, you feel great, or you feel like Donald Trump (UI on my phone doesn't let me put the link in so just search Trump and election reaction in good old' Google). Whatever the case is there's one very important thing you all need to remember, Washington State legalized marijuana for recreational use.

That's friggen huge, let's forget everything else, healthcare, taxes, the economy, and really look at this, a state said fuck the federal government and made it OK to have an ounce of weed plus smoke it in public. This is astonishingly great and here's why. (Thought this wasn't going to be a list didn't you)

1. Job creation - with the amount the vote passed by more then half the residence of hipster-ville USA will be needing weed. Now since its being regulated, and grown and distributed by the state, you're going to need a lot of manpower to be able to run this operation. Trucks to ship the stuff to your stores, buildings to process it in, inventory systems to manage the supply, and of course people to run this all, which means jobs and when you have more people working, you are collecting a more taxes which means....
2. More state revenue - let's forget for a second that more workers mean more tax money coming into the government, and let's look ate the raw numbers that I could be potentially making up. On average you can spend $20 bucks on 1.5oz of weed (this comes from a forum not from personal exp, cause I get me weed for free) if taxed the same way as alcohol which is taxed by proof and volume you could stand to make a sizeable amount per dime sold. But along with making money, Washington will be saving money....
3. Less petty arrests - I'm all for the war on drugs, cocaine and heroin and speed and all that shit and that's because they really really fuck people up in ways that will ruin their lives. Weed on the other hand does not, but the police seen to think it does so they arrest and prosecute you the same way or a little more leniently, I don't no I'm not the police. By getting rid of these petty arrests,you save money on processing the accused person, who is likely going to go right out again and get hi, and give law enforcement the chance to focus on important things, like figuring out who keeps stealing my pens at work.

Bottom line is that despite the best efforts of people stuck in a prohibition era America mindset, weed is now legal in Washington State and that means I'm going to PAX Prime.

-n-

Back on a bus

My stint in Jersey City has ended for the time being, and now I find myself traveling to Manhattan a week after the worst storm in the history of the east coast.

Let's talk about the storm. It fucking sucked there is absolutely no way else to say it. I can't even begin to understand how it must feel to lose a home and all your possessions in a flash. Its devastation I'm sure. I was lucky, I was in lower bergen county so I didn't get hit that badly and only lost power for about a week. I've donated all of my unused bottled water and some clothing to the relief shelter for the residents of Little Ferry and Moonachi since they were the hardest hit by us. If you are able to give anything please do.

Now on to what I try to pass off as humor.

As we know I'm a bit of a prepper, so the only good thing that came out of Sandy was the chance to learn several things...

1. I have not prepared enough for disasters that could potentially involve my wife. Where I have a go bag for here but I have forgotten that she is cold pretty much 24/7 and thinks I'm crazy. Just something I have to work on.
2. I have developed a taste for cold soup and cold baked beans. This is actually wonderful because heating things create a delay in the practice of getting food into my mouth, and this kills that delay.
3. My combat boots are the best thing I have bought in the last year. I lived in these, I was warm, and had dependable foot ware.
4. If I'm going to get a generator I need to make sure it's propane or at least I need a three week supply of gas ready to go.
5. The dog needs a go pack. Dogs are useful in surviving situations (I'm not sure how useful a 2yr old puppy would be but I'll cross that bridge when I get there) but you need to make sure you have enough provisions for them, specifically water, which I don't want to carry.
6. I need both a bigger knife and axe. This should be self explanatory.

All and all though, I think I did pretty well and would have managed to live fine either in my house or the on the road, and am prepared for the next storm that going to hit us Wednesday.

-n-

The movie theater in the sky.

I assume many if not all of you have been to a movie in the last 20 years. You know how it works, you go in as people are going out, get into a potentially warm with pee seat. Then struggle to get comfy for like an hour and by then the movie is over.... I realized plans are the same way.

Here I am in Detroit, home of cars, murders, and teams that beat the Yankees, and my plan has just landed. They are cleaning it up because its full of people germs. Additionally, there's the bitch traveling with her dog, who keep bitching to the woman at the counter she NEEDS to have a bulkhead, window seat, in the front of the plane....you know what I have to say. I've been away from my wife for a week, and working, you look like you've been fucking around all day with your dog, so shut your mouth and give me your seat.

On the road again

Travel. I do t think I've met a person who doesn't like to travel, exploring new places doing new things, exploration is in our blood, and there for travel is in there too.

For those of you that know me on a personal level, you'll know that I use to travel for work a lot back in the day. I spent pretty much 4 months of 2010 living out of a hotel in Corona CA. Something that I enjoyed, that's right I enjoy traveling for work.

You're typically not supposed to believe it when people say this and for good reason, traveling for work is not fun. You rarely get to do anything other then work, while you're on location, you are sleeping in a strange bed, and you have to deal with the dredge of the earth when checking into airports. So clearly its something g you would expect people to hate.

Not this guy. I thing the reason I like traveling for work stems from the fact that I wanted to live on a tour bus and wake up in a new place daily. In some strange way this kind of allows me to fill that inner desire of mine to live the life of a dude in a band (minus all the cool shit that goes into being in a band, like playing music)

Its this mentality that keeps me from going crazy when I travel for work, and by not going crazy, I actually enjoy it to a point.

When do you stop being punk rock

I've been hearing that Billy Joe Armstrong recently checked into rehab and also apologized for smashing his guitar and basically being punk rock.

So explain something to me, how can you sell yourself as punk rock when you are apologizing. I seem to recall punk rock being about fucking authority and all that anarchy type stuff. I understand musicians grow up musically, or mentally or whatever but seriously if you are going to continue to label yourself as punks act like NOFX,who truth be told aren't really that punk rock anymore, but at least they act like it.

So, when is it time to call it quits as a punk band? Honestly I think its when you ashamed of being punk rock. Now I don't want anyone to think for a moment that I am not saying people with substance abuse issues shouldn't seek help, but god damn it don't apologize for smashing you guitar and the show being stopped.

What people seem to forget is that punk rock is a beautiful fucked up mess of a thing. All these young kids don't know about going to a show and seeing a guitar player fall off the stage because he was so drunk (been there for that and know the guitarist who  has grown up but is still just as punk rock as always), had a show stopped because the singer broke his nose (saw that at the warped tour), or had to worry about the cops showing up to shut down a show you were having in an American legion with no permit (played one of those). That's what's special about punk rock, it takes the rejects and the people that do this shit, and it puts you with more people that are exactly like you, meaning you don't need to apologize, because your with "friends".

I'm not punk rock, at least not the way I'd like to be. But I don't pretend to be, I've never pretended. I write songs about girls and love, I've never really "stuck it to the man" outside of high school, in fact I actually work for the man and he pays me very well.

Anyway that's my rant, nothing deep nothing meaningfully just a suggestion. Don't apologize for what you are, don't pretend to be what your not.

Checks a balances

Let me first apologise. I have not been on top of this posting, I blame myself, the lack of direct public transportation to the Jersey City office and my company's internet policy that I have no intention of breaking. You readers deserve a blog every Monday Wednesdays and Friday and I have failed to deliver. To the 1 ans 1/2 people reading this I'm sorry.

This week I'm going to touch on a topic I despise frankly because its so fucked everyone rights about it. I am of course talking about the political process in this country.

Around this time of year, actually for September 2011 on we have been bombarded with political messages, no matter where I turn I hear about, 47%, Obama-care, a dog being strapped to the roof or a car, how the current president thinks we need to have a former president as "secretary of explaining things" and how congress isn't doing anything.

This fucking while political system is stalled for a year while the parties parade their candidates around in a dog an pony show for the nation. In this time there is no one running the country except the hacks in congress who are to busy pushing their own parties agendas or waiting for recess that they are about a useful as a lawn mower in Vegas (note grass doesn't grow in vegas , fact.)

After the election other the old president picks up where he left off, with the members of the other party in congress and the senate vetoing bills out of spite, or...we have a new guy who take another half of year making public appearances and kissing more babies to thank America for making them head of the do nothing collective.

Seriously speaking the government as a whole tends to have too many checks and balances that nothing gets done. I mean the president really has no power when you get right down to it, because everyone and his kid brother can veto something. In short the government is too big.

No just to clear things up, I am not and do not support the Tea Party because frankly I think its full of a bunch of disillusioned yuppies that think they are starting the new revolutionary war. More do I support the GOP as they are a bunch of rich white guys that think anyone that isn't wealthy wants to to steal their money, and I'm really starting not to care about the Democratic Party either, the damned hippies.

Look whole issue here is we don't have strong leaders, and the ones that offer a glimmer of hope are quickly bogged down by the committees in Washington paying the others party back for some wrong they feel has been committed.

What this country needs is a reboot. The government needs to be completely reevaluated, and there needs to be one person in charge someone to say "get on the fucking ball and stop dicking around you all live here" cause seriously congress and the senate make all the decisions and the need a ref. Basically the office of president should work like a mom, if two branches of the government can't play nice, then no one plays and presidents rule is law.

Of course well never really have that because we're going to be voting for weenies, the candidates that we've seen in the last few years (Clinton aside) haven't had the balls to actually punch the government into submission. Instead we're given choices and typically chose the least incompetent of the group of candidates.

This year we actually have little choice here about who we vote for, sure Obama has done a lot of stuff but the country is still in the shitter as a whole, and seriously, if anyone can consider voting for Romney you're likely the same set of geniuses that put bush in office. Both are incompetent Romney cause of his mental capacity and Obama because he just won't bitch smack the rest of the government.

The only choice is basically who is less likely to fuck up the country more for their term, and honestly the devil you know if better then the devil you don't.

And back on the treadmill

So I'm headed back to the gym tonight for like the first time in like a month. This should be interesting mainly because I was kicking ass for a while doing about 3 miles a visit and losing weight. But now I'm fat and winded walking up the stairs, you we'll see if I die.

Last week was marked the end of my first week working in a scrap yard. I think I might have said how working in a scrap yard  is friggen awesome. There are like huge machines breaking things all over the place, it makes me feel like a kid playing in the dirt again. I've got some pictures that I've stuck on the bottom of this, since the phone UI sucks.

Working here has reminded me of how much I like working at places like this, where things are created and processed. It fulfills a manly need to do manly things, which I like, cause I'm manly. That's right, manly.

Let me give you a breakdown of the updates in up through the second week of October. I'm going back into NYC around then so these updates will be more on time like Monday Wednesday and Friday mornings, just like old times, cause I'll be busing it.

But until then I'm going to at least keep to the days. I'll make sure you get your dose of Nathan, just cause I'm that type of guy.

Jersey City vs NYC

I started my new job Monday of this week, as I'm sure you all know from reading this on a regular basis. That job is in the lovely city of New York, known for large green french women...and pizza.

It just so happens that said company has a training facility in Jersey City. I don't know if I mentioned this but its takes me a little under an hour to get into the city which is to be expected. What amazes me is that the facility in Jersey City takes just as much if not a longer am mount of time to get to, because let's face it commuting through Jersey City blows.

Google map Princeton Ave Jersey City, and then map from Lyndhurst...you will see that it should take like maybe 25 minutes....do that same thing at 7am in the morning friggen 1hour on the best days.

I'm not complaining, I'm just flabbergasted by how this works. I get into my office, not even just into the city but in to my office in less time then it takes me to pull into the parking lot when I drive to Jersey City.

Weird.....

Welcoming me back with open arms.

I'm trying a new thing. Not really trying per say, more doing. I took a job in NYC. Yay! I am out of North Bergen and on to 14th street.

So what does this mean? Well the short version is I will be writing this on the bus. As you will see from the attached picture(s) I'm still trying g to figure out bloggers UI on the phone to keep it formatted the way I like and you're used to seeing it. As of right now you're just going to see a lot of my face.

I'm sure the many (three) of you who read this may have gotten the idea that I'm a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to dealing with other people. Well that's true, I dislike most people, its a sickness but one that I am manging to cope with...dispute the face that someone with in my radius on the bus keeps farting.

That actually, this creates a nice segue for me to mention a project I was working on a while back when my commute took me to the Bronx (blah). I was planning on writing a set of guidelines for bus educated and handing the out, or putting at the stops along the route.

I may take up that project again, because seriously you should have enough common sense not to fart in a tin can with 30+ people...btw given been on this bus since 725ish, and the smell has been there since 728...its now 745 which means this is an on going problem.....

Anyway I would appreciate if any of you, my readers, have interesting public transportation stories, you share them through comments. I'm sure I'll have a lot of similar entries along these lines so if you have more then one you can always enter them next time round.

Lots of love (last pic test)

There's a stranger in my house

Not my house, my parents house.

For the second time, my parents are hosting an exchange student for a year. This may seem like an odd thing to do but if you're thinking it is you have never met my parents. Both are extremely nice and polite and honestly, they make me think that most American children could stand to learn a thing or two from them. They are also both from Germany, which I'm bringing up because I want to make a sound of music joke.



Polite but not an accurate representation of the exchange students, they don't sing as much

For those of you not familiar with how exchanging a student works let me explain it to you because it's nothing like "Bon Voyage Charlie Brown.




Nothing like this. The first exchange student never let our dog drive

First off the "exchange" notion is kind of a little misleading, since you are in fact not exchanging anything, there is just a student coming to live with you. I think it would make more sense to call it studying abroad since that's really what it is.

Secondly, from what I understand about the way it works, none of the classes count towards your education in you home country. Which means that you get the experience to traveling and learning something just for the joy of learning, and not because you need it to graduate. Which is fine I suppose since you just take placement exams to see what level of classes you are in the following year.

Thirdly, you travel alone. I assume the receiving school, could take more then one exchange student, but in the case of both of the exchange students they have not. So I can imagine it's pretty scary for them being aways from their family for such a long time. Hell, I use to cry when my parents tried to send me away for the weekend to my Aunts house in Freehold and that's only an hour away.



I can't be with these people I only see them during the holidays

No, I know these children have come here to learn about America, but they have actually taught me a lot, and one of them has only been here a day.

As I said above they are very polite, and I have to say I find myself being polite around them. It's nice because it's not something you think to do every day because lets face it, it's easier to think everyone is some rednecked hick that doesn't know that talking while you have a big wad of chew in you mouth is gross.

Above: How I picture most everyone

They also think before they speak, this is because they are not 100% comfortable with the language I'm sure, but also because they don't want to offend. This is not the case here and a perfect example is my last statement about rednecks.

And the last thing I have learned is that American schools are awful. The first exchange student that my parents hosted was light years ahead of the other students in her grade here, and I can only assume that the same will be true for their current student. I think it's because other countries understand that education is a necessity and not a privilege, and also I don't think the lower half of the countries are populated by hillbillies.

How I picture most of the south

Anyway I welcome the new exchange student to my parents home, and hope she has a wonderful time seeing the country, but not this part.

Seriously why am I hating on rednecks today

Birthday

I'm getting older. This year I'll be 29, and outwardly I appear to be an adult. This is of course an outward appearance only, mentally I still feel like I haven't grown up past a 10yr old.

Dude just farted, awesome

The reason I feel so young may have something to do with the way I look at things. For example, after about 12 I've started to look at my life in terms of a JRPG (for those of you who don't know the lingo). Every year I level up at my birthday.

Congratulations, you have gained a level in business analysis 

This helps me keep the fun in my day, because I look at everything like a level grind, and the battles are my day to day interactions with people. I actually wanted to experiment with using a skill based system that would dictate how I am going to react to people, and I may still do this for the next two weeks, just for fun.

What do you mean you don't agree with me? My diplomacy bonus goes to 11!

The other thing that I like about this view on they way my life plays out is that JRPGs always have happy endings. The hero is always overcoming the trials that are presented to him, which is a mirror to the shit that's been going on in my life, that's been giving me a desire to punch a baby. I'll get over it because that's what happens when you level up, you get a new quest and you get new skills, and you get new gear (again for you non lingo people, quests=things to strive for, skills=well skills, and gear=cool stuff like gadgets).

Anyway what I'm trying to say is, the key to getting out of this (life) alive is to amuse yourself and try to keep a positive outlook, because like a JRPG things will work out they way.

Unusually uplifting post right...find out why next Firday, or maybe Monday.

Football Season is starting

I'm not a football fan.

I have tried for years to like it, I mean I can see Met-Life Stadium from my house, 9 minutes according to google. It seems kinda silly that I've never paid attention or even really liked football with a stadium being that close, so last year I made an effort. This was in part because my father-in-law is a season ticket holder, and because I gave baseball a shot and I liked it, so this year I'm making it a point to try to catch some games on TV or something. Admirable I know.

What's hard for me is that barely know any of the rules, or the positions of anything. My limited understand of the game is that one team tries to carry a ball to the other teams end zone and then kick it through the uprights. I also believe there has to be a quarterback and something called a tight-end which I can only assume is some kind of player with a very muscular behind, since guitars aren't part of football.

First thing that comes to mind when I hear tight end...actually the second

I've asked for my friends to explain things to me, but it always sounds like gibberish, which I assume is what they hear from me when I talk business process deign and workflow analysis. The few bits I have picked up (see above) have allowed me to appear like I enjoy things like when a team gets a touch down kicks the ball through the up rights.

This IS good right?

Well tonight I go to a preseason Giants game, which coincidentally is why I am opening up about my lack of manly knowledge. My goal this season it to figure out why there are positions like corner-back and a wide-receiver, cause I'm under the impression their job is pretty much the same.

Though I could be mistaken.

Re-learning to tell a story

We're touching on me being a nerd again today.

I think I may have told you all how a few years ago I started to get into Dungeons and Dragons. This was something that I have no shame in saying I was avoiding for several reasons, the first of which being the stereotypical mouth breathers that play the game.

Well of course since I was playing with a bunch of close friends, I had a blast, because we were basically just drunk and yelling at each other about killing monsters. Since the end of the first game I have completely immersed myself in the tabletop RPG culture. No to tell the truth I started playing to get inspiration for the novel I've been trying to write for like 10+ years, which was at a stand still up to that point. Well while I was playing I started to develop an idea of a prequel to my unwritten novel. So I've decided to run my own D&D game, using the players to tell the story or at least part of it and as always I've learned something. Telling a story is hard.

Typically when I write I plan everything out in advance, locations, action sequences, and other things like that, but I have to work a little differently here, since the guys playing are the ones that are doing the actions. So the approach I've taken to the story is setting up a beginning and an end, and just some stuff I'd like to touch on, and let the narrative play out through the characters (players) actions.

I'll be keeping a log of the game which I'll be posting after every session on another page. It won't be updated as frequently but you'll all be able to see what I do on Tuesday nights.

I'll introduce the characters in a few days, and hopefully have the first "chapter" up after that, so check back (Friday?) for a the beginning of a rollicking tale of magic, swords, and drunkenness.

Sorry...But you're baby is smug

Sorry about last week ya'll I was on vacation...from everything really.

There's been some stuff going on in the life of nothing that I really don't want to get into too deeply, but I will just say that what's been going on has given me the desire to punch a baby, and the family surrounding a baby.

It's like they are taunting me with their smug baby faces saying, "Hey fat hairy dude, look at me I'm a baby and I'm totally better then you." Of course they're not really saying that babies can't talk after all, but I sure as hell bet they are thinking it, the little bastards.

Then there's the parents, who are almost as smug as their smug little poop factories. Especially the women, there's even a song about it.

Now please please don't take this as I am saying that I actually want to hit little children, I don't, nor do I condone it (unless it's funny) and I actually have a few friends who have awesome kids and I love and who are not in the least bit smug. But parents look, smug babies piss people off, teach you babies not to be smug and everyone will be happier for it.

The twitter story is going to pick up this Friday btw.

Going for Gold

Disclaimer: This post is super video heavy today.

The Olympics are almost over, and as we close the chapter on another 2 1/2 weeks of sweaty bodies, I'd like to take the time to bring you attention to an event that I discovered this year thanks to one of my friends.

That right there is trampoline gymnastics, or as it's listed on the Olympic telecast schedule, trampolining. When I first heard about this I thought this was a joke, but after a quick trip to wiki, I was just dumb founded. Now it can be said I stopped paying attention to gymnastics when I got too old to think the female athletes were attractive anymore, which was around 1996, but I've been watching this event on youtube and I have to say it's pretty freaking rad.

Seriously watch this whole thing

If you can't watch the whole thing just watch from 1630 to1721. How friggen intense it that?! Can you jump that high on a trampoline, cause I can't. So this is amazing right, a little known event that's really cool, well I thought I might try to see if there were other less known events super cool at the events. This is what I found and my reactions when reading them.

1. The Canoe Slalom - What?! You get to do a slalom course in a canoe? I didn't think there was anyway to make a canoe manly unless it was made out of wood and animal hide.

Awesome

2. Rhythmic Gymnastics - So dancing is an Olympic sport...Correction it's dancing with objects...that still sucks. Really exactly how many gymnastic events do we need?

Stupid

3. Modern Pentathlon - Running, swimming, riding, shooting, sword play? I assume this is much more interesting then the Old Pentathlon, I think it might be a little more exciting if they were attacking each other with the swords and the guns...What? They are attacking each other with the swords? I'll take 50% of fun.

This is a super long video, just look up some pics of this.

There you have it, 3 odd events at the current 2012 games. As a parting note today, I'm going to leave you with a link to events that use to be in the Olympics, some that I believe we should still have (tug of war=awesome)

The end of the world

My sister is getting married, and what's great about that is I enjoy her fiancee a lot, but I feel he's having a negative effect on my mental state. It's nothing major, like we're sitting in his basement doing LSD, we're just planning for a global scale disaster. Cause stuff like this could happen.

In short I've become a prepper. Which is good because it gives me something to obsess about, but it totally sucks when it comes to my birthday and various other gift giving holidays (Columbus Day?). Where I would typically ask for xbox games for Christmas and my birthday, I'm asking for survival knives, GI medkits and this. I mean take a look at an exert from the first page of my amazon wishlist.

Top item: Water treatment tables

You all know I've always been hoping for a zombie related disaster, and if you have read any of my facebook posts during that horrible shit in Florida (the face eating guy) you can see that I was ready for a full on crisis, so it's not like I haven't been planning something to happen. What I'm doing now is a little different, since it's not so much getting ready for zombies (which I'm still doing and urge you to do the same) but more for dealing with the aftermath of a global disaster, excluding a meteor strike.

You can't prep for this unless you are Bruce Willis

One of the issues with prepping is the insanely expensive things you need to get. You seem to need to amass a small fortune in order to procure said gear for you and your family, (by that I mean my wife who I surmise thinks i am crazy). This of course makes it terribly inconvenient for anything to happen before you have your survival gear. Coupled with that is the unfortunate realization that you will have to lug your gear a safe place, which will require a lot of physical endurance, requiring you to get a gym membership, which I now have.

I'm going to out run a tsunami, or a lake

I've also learned that you should have a survival group, this means a group of people that will insure that you survive (at least that what it means to me), and you should practice surviving with them. Weather it be on camping trips or team building exercises like airsoft, paint ball or catch the chimp, my group is of 7 a nice number for a lot a situations that I'll touch on at some other time.

My survival group would not be this glee club looking

That's better.

The bottom line is if you are going to prep, make sure you have money, are in shape, and above all have friends...cause that lone wolf shit will get your ass zombified or full of radiation, ya know. which ever comes first.

A dog

I got a dog for Christmas. In the nine months since then I have made some startling discoveries about what owning a dog (1yr old) actually means.  Apparently having a dog when you live with your parents is not actually having a dog.

Her cuteness makes up for her being a pain in the ass...sometimes

1. You never actually took care of the dog at you parents:

I'm sure you though you did, especially when you were walking the dog in 7ft snow drifts or in the rain. But that's not taking care of a dog, taking care of a dog is waking you 1 hour earlier then you have to because then dog decides she needs to go out then, or bringing your couch cushion covers to the dry cleaner because you decided to go to the bathroom before you took the dog out.

See as a child living in your parents house you only ever have to really play with the dog, sure you might have chores like walking and feeding the pup, but you can always count on your parents picking up the slack if you happen to forget to do it, or you just don't do it.

2. Cats really don't get along with dogs:

It's a stereotype that has been thriving for years and as with most stereotypes it's base in fact, Cats HATE dogs.

No Dog = Relaxed Cats

I don't think in nine months I have had a single day where I have not heard a cat freak out, chase the dog around, corner her and beat the crap out of her, requiring me to get up and break up the very one sides fight. It's all because the dog doesn't get that the cats don't like her, and actively goes out of her way to to be around them. It's funny sure, but maybe after the 20th time of getting clocked in the head by a 15lb cat (the black one) you would think twice about messing with them. Nope, so my wife and I endure the constant war zone that my 1st floor has become.

3. Puppies don't have off switches:

As a child, like I said above, you really only have to play with a dog. At that time in your life you have a huge amount of energy and time where you and the dog can explore do lots of child and dog things. As you become an adult you start to lose both time and energy, however the dog does not. Let me give you an example of my day,

1. 6am: Walk dog
2. 615-630: Feed dog and cats
3. 631: Break up first fight of the day between dog and cats
4. 635: Attempt to shower while dog throws pull toy at you
5. 645: Attempt to get ready while dog throws pull toy at you
6. 650: Break up second fight of the day between dog and cats
7. 655: Start trying to get dog in crate so house is not destroyed
8. 715: Leave for work
9. 8-5pm: Work
10. 530: get tackled by dog when entering the house
11. 531: walk dog
12. 6pm: Attempt to eat dinner while dog throws pull toy at you
13. 645: Take dog to the yard throw ball around
14. 655: Take exhausted dog inside
15. 656: Break up third fight of the day between dog and cats
16. 701: Attempt to watch TV while the dog throws pull toy at you
17. 705: Give up and play tug of war with the dog
18. 710: Feed dog and cats
19. 711: Break up fourth fight of the day between dog and cats
20. 716-8: try to tire out dog
21. 8: Walk dog
22. 830-930: Try to tire out dog
23. 930-1059: FREE TIME
24. 11pm: Go to bed
25. 1101-6am: Fight with dog and wife for covers in the bed
26. Repeat

I love my dog, I just wish someone had warned me.

So Say We All

It's a well-known fact, that I'm a little into the "genre" (fantasy/sci-fi) and have been for some time. I been leaning more towards the fantasy side of things in recent years for two primary reasons; the first being that reading sci-fi books gets me down since we are sorely lacking things that we were promised by this time in our existence. The second reason is more personal, and mainly deals with my loss of innocence in 1997 and again in 1999

Pictured the Death of Innocence.

However, this does not mean I shun sci-fi like. Quite the contrary, I just need something to keep my attention the way lightsabers use to. That something happens to be Battlestar Galatica, the re-imagined series that started in 2003, which I watched religiously until the middle of the 3rd season. I really don't recall why I stopped watching, I think the writers did something that pissed me off and I just lost interest. I honestly don't remember but I decided to start watching it again and have started to realize a few things. The Cylons really want the humans to live, because the humans are clearly morons.

See all those toasters in the back, they have our best interest in mind

For those of you who haven't seen the show, I would suggest you try to change that. It basically revolves around the fact that humanity created Cylons (the tin cans up there in the back) to labor for them, the Cylons rebel, there's a war, humanity is almost completely wiped out save 47,581 survivors who are looking for the legendary 13 colony of Earth. Oh and the Cylons look like us now(The two chicks in the middle of the picture), which kinda adds a whole interesting twist to the show, and proves my point.

Part of the way through the first episode we find out the Cylons look like humans, to the point where you can't tell them apart. A main plot device running through the first season is trying to get a cylon detector up and running, so blood samples can be analyzed by this man.

Gaius Baltar, dick.

Mr. Baltar is a brilliant man who is plagued by guilt because he inadvertently helped the Cylons destroy humanity. During the series he also receives and acts on advice he receives from a woman he knows to be a Cylon. The leaders of the exiled humans make mention of how they do not trust him time and time again but they give him important jobs like creating and operating the Cylon detector, or being the Vice-President. This results in Gaius betraying humanity time and time again (they have no idea of course). At one point the commander of the fleet expresses, to Gaius and several others, he doesn't think the Gaius is being completely honest with them, and then suddenly drops it. It's like they know the story needs to  move along, and the only way to do that is to ignore a the sketchy actions of this guy.

I don't think I noticed this as much the first time I watched the series, but after having gone through the first 2 seasons in a weekend, I have to say he throws up so many red flags that it's astonishing he's not in the brig, or thrown out an airlock after the third episode. Anyway, because of all his lying and general sketchiness, he directly puts the entire fleet as risk several times, and the only reason they don't die is because the Cylons, intervene in some way or another; either by telling them that they are going to find a planet that will show them the way to earth, to not blowing up the only Battlestar left when they have several opportunities.

Two of these women aren't Cylons and all have been on the main ship in the series

There's no apparent reason for this, unless there is, I wouldn't know for sure since I have only gotten to the middle of season 3. From what I can tell, the Cylons want the humans to find earth as much as the humans do. Which doesn't make sense, considering they nuked humanity's homeworlds with intent of eradication the race in the first episode.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but, it just goes to show; that if a show is generally entertaining and awesome, you will overlook the apparent flaws in the writing.

My Breakfast Story

For years I though the phrase "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was a load of crap. To me lunch has always been the most important meal, because during lunch people don't judge you when you eat a hero sandwich full of various deli meats, like they do at breakfast. Breakfast has always been an appetizer to lunch and dinner in my eyes. Breakfast has remained an afterthought for many years, that was of course before I was married.... My wife is a stickler for healthy eating and that means the days of eating a whole banana cream pie, and skipping breakfast are gone. I feel like Cliff Huxtable, just with less money and a better fashion sense.

Cliff Couldn't pull off the Poka-dots

Part of my wife's Make Me Healthy campaign is to get me to start eating breakfast, and this would have been fine if it was awesome breakfast like  bacon, ham, sausage, and eggs on buttered toast, but apparently those items aren't healthy (who knew). There aren't actually a whole lot of tasty things that are healthy for you, and this makes me very upset, since the alternative is me spending my mornings eating peanut butter and rice cakes. Suffice to say, I was very pissy during breakfast consumption, until...I was exposed to homemade smoothies. Gasp! Could I have found a way to make something delicious and healthy? You bet'cha! The idea that I can throw various items into a blender and create something both filling and yummy baffles me, how could I have not known about this in my 28 years of life? The trick of course is to put awesome things into the blender to make something equally awesome, I have only been experimenting with fruits and yogurt but I hope to move into the complex carbs and meat; basically a breakfast soup. 

Like this

Needless to say I have a new goal in my life, create the perfect breakfast smoothie comprised of meats and other fantastic savory items. I'm sure that this will be a long journey full of mystery and excitement, but I plan to trek on until I have discovered the perfect mixture of items that I can drink.

Time Travel

88mph...I'm sure many of you know what the means, and for those of you that don't allow me to explain. There's a little, relatively unknown, trilogy of movies that heavily feature a DeLorean, a flux capacitor and the phrase "Great Scott". I am of course talking about Back To The Future, which I feel opened a generation to the idea a time travel.

Well the idea that you could be clothed to do it

Arguably Back to the Future is one of the greatest movies about time travel of all times simply because Doc Brown is actually concerned about messing with the timeline (until the end of course). This brings me to what's always bothered me about any time travel movie, it's that fact that many of them are about stopping some future event from transpiring, or fixing a passed mistake and no one giving the shit about the ramifications or their actions on other people.

"Oh well, so we have three balls now"

Take the newest entry into the time travel movies coming out, Looper. For those of you that didn't click that link let me give you a quick idea of what happens. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a time hit-man, who has to kill his future self (Bruce Willis), basically Willis is sent back in time to be offed by Levitt. This doesn't work out of course and Willis gets a gun and basically turns into, what I assume is a future version of, John McClane. Then he runs around his past destroying things, and throwing gold bars around.

There are already several issues here, but I'm only going to deal with the most aggravating...the guy is shooting himself. I'm not sure if anyone realizes this, but it means he's gone through this exact scenario before. We can assume this is a face judging by the trailer, as Willis knows exactly how to startle his younger self(throwing a gold bar). So clearly he's already experienced the exact same thing when he is younger, and grew up knowing that he was going to be sent back in time and have to fight his younger self and still did nothing to avoid it. On top of it, what does Willis hope to accomplish by killing or maiming his younger self since he will deal with the repercussions of the injuries, or ya know die. So he's going to rampage through Levitt's time destroying things and altering the timeline for everyone he comes in contact with, not only potentially changing his life but the lives of everyone else. What about those poor people in the back ground there, walking around minding their own business?

That dude would have cured cancer is this explosion hadn't happened

Who cares, Bruce Gordon-Levitt isn't dead, even thought it would have absolutely no effect on his younger self, since Joseph Willis-McClane is going to grow up to be Bruce Gordon-Levitt anyway.I assume the movie's name means that the main character is constantly repeating the exact same series of events through out his life knowing he's destine to fight himself...which now that I think of it might be a really cool movie, John McCalne vs John McCalne.

This type of stuff runs through every movie with time travel...the exception being Harry Potter and only because Harry uses the best movie bandage next to R2D2...magic.