Monthly Archives: July 2009

Broken Arrow

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Netflix has Broken Arrow on instaview, and I’m remembering how much I love it.

  • You have Travolta after his career picked up, but before he tipped over and went bugfuck nuts. *Right* before, actually. His performance is stylized, but I (just) still buy that he’s playing a character, not just some louder version of himself.
  • You have Christian Slater after he grew past his baby face, was still young enough to be sexy, but before he turned into a clone of Jack Nicholson.
  • His chemistry with Samantha Mathis is almost as good as it was in Pump Up The Volume.
  • “What does a suspicious truck look like?” Oh, the innocence of the time, when reporting suspicious activity was only something wackaloons did.
  • They’re worried about leaks coming from the hobbyist press. No internet, no bloggers, no ability to arrest folks on the grounds of national security. Seems like such a simple time.
  • Also, humvees were only something you saw in the military.
  • And Hale’s from Trenton, which always makes me smile.
  • The soundtrack really kicks ass. It was my default for long distance driving in college, and my first intro to Hans Zimmer. (King of the bombast though he may be sometimes.)
  • The cell phones are so big!
  • Endangered dirt!
  • Shooting at nukes is bad. :)
  • Out thinking the bad guy is good, but you should really wait until *after* you’ve pulled your save before telling him, y’know?
  • It’s an action movie, yeah, but the real plot is a cat and mouse / move and countermove game between Deakins and Hale. The rest is just nifty set dressing.
  • Though if you view the movie though slash goggles, it’s one very big, messy break up fight.
  • No, really. The soundtrack is just that damn good.
  • Hale really does like smashing bad guy’s faces into things.
  • And the end credits. Yup, one hell of a fun, macho movie.

No fire today

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Me: *working*
Power Surge: *happens*
Fire Alarm: *Goes off*
Me: WAAGH!!?

Me: *Dials Boss*
Boss: Yes?
Me: WHAT IS THIS?!
Boss: Be right down.

Boss: *fixes fire alarm*
Me: That’s much nicer. We’re not actually on fire, right?
Boss: No, everything’s ok.
Me: Cool.
Boss: Calls alarm company, others.

Fire tuck: *arrives*
Me: Uh, boss?
Boss: I’m on this.
Me: Cool.
Boss: *talks to nice firemen*
Fire truck: *departs*

In conclusion, the NFD’s response time is not too bad, fire alarms are very loud, and power surges lead to nothing good.

To the car outside my window

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I understand that you are stuck behind an ass trying to make an illegal left turn, and you would really like to get past him now if not sooner; but obviously, he doesn’t care about your convenience. It seems that he also doesn’t care about the horn you’ve been laying on for the last minute and a half.

I, on the other hand, care deeply about your convenience and would firebomb the scofflaw, if such were possible (as I lack explosives) and legal (as I have no wish to go to prison). However, I think intentions should count for something, so taking our mutual hatred for the illegal-left-hand-turn-making-idiot into account, could you do me this one eensy favor?

Lay. Off. The. Horn.

Obviously, your horn is not producing the desired result. The scofflaw has not moved, and it seems he will not do so until such time as he gets to make his mother-loving, donkey-fellating, left hand turn. Your auto horn, on the other hand, is impacting MY day rather directly, and both I and the customer on the other end of my phone would be eternally in your debt if you would take a few breaths, find your zen, and remember that, auto karma being what it is, the scofflaw will most assuredly get his, probably in short order.

No, really.

I still beat a Turing script. Barely.

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Customer: I’m looking for ::Insert description of item we don’t have anything even close to.:: would ::item:: be a good match?
Me: No. ::item:: is really nothing like what you are looking for, but we could run up a custom quote for you.
Customer: No, my customer is OUT of ::non-existent-box:: and needs more NOW.
What I do not say: Well, obviously it already exists somewhere. You can’t just ask them where they bought it last?
What I do say: I’m sorry, but we don’t have anything that matches what you’re looking for. Here’s the info to begin a custom quote request, if you want to go that direction.
Customer: Allright. I’ll order samples of ::item:: anyway, just to check them out.
Me: You have a good day.

We’re not like a shoe store. There’s no special back room where we’re keeping the one item you really really want. If it’s not listed, we don’t have it. We may be able to magic it up out of nothing, but that does take time and money.