Cinco de Mine-O

After a month of filling out this and faxing that, I closed on my condo today. Hallelujah, but what a month. I totally understand why people say buying a place is one of the most stressful things. I lost about twelve pounds in the process and what already looked like alien arms now look even skinnier. Soon, I'll be throwing down tamales like jelly beans, so I should fatten back up in no time.

It was a scary week giving the down payment and seeing my saving account dwindle by two-thirds in a day. Literally, a year of saving gone in an instant. I hope it is worth it. Now I'm officially in the car market, so that search begins tomorrow. Oh yeah, and a job would be nice. Prayers are greatly appreciated.

I love NYC, but a Sandtrooper belongs in the desert. That's just the way it is.

2nd loan in progress

Just a quick update. I was able to secure a second loan through a credit union. Pretty much every bank we tried didn't go for the rent/owned situation of the condo. Anyway, I did get another loan, but it is at a full point higher. No fun, but at least things are progressing. I should be closing on the place next week, although after the first major roadbump, I'm not holding my breath until I have the keys.

---------------------------------------------

Once again, I don't have any related pictures, so here's a video of my new E11 blaster with the Blastercore chip. It's pretty impressive what the nerds can build these days. What you don't get from the video is how unbelievably loud this is in person.

Life is a crapcake and we're all taking a bite.

Unfortunately, some of us have larger slices of the crapcake than others. I found out today I no longer have a home loan. The bank got cold feet because only 40% of the units in the complex are owned and 60% are rented They require at least 50% owned. The sucky part is that we know for a fact that the owner is selling all the units one at a time, but the bank wouldn't go for it. The bank would have to pull out after I paid for the inspection and gave the earnest money.

There's still time to find a loan from another bank. The drag is that interest rates went up this week and if I can't find a decent loan from another bank, I'm going to lose a minimum of $2K from all this. On top of that, I would still have to find a place to live in 7 weeks because our lease is up May 31st.

Dig Up Her Bones

Two of the coolest people I know are Phil Moy and girlfriend Tiffany Mamone.  Both are extremely talented artists that have incredible imaginations.   Last summer Phil shot a series of photographs called Buckets Off, putting a face to the costumes you might see walking around at various cons.    The series was a great success and has now been published in a book by the same title.   I have a picture in the book with a blurb of my own. 



Unfortunately, I was not able to NYC showing, but here are some pictures  his blog.

http://philipmoyphotography.blogspot.com/2010/03/mentors-buckets-off-new-york-city.html

The same day we photographed my Shock Trooper armor, we took some pictures for another project of various portraits.   With Phil's amazing Photoshop, he made the previously scary photo look even creepier. 

First Version


Second Version

Yikes, I'm an adult!!! - Part 1

There's something about paying roughly $1000 a month in rent for eleven years straight that makes me queasy.  I love NYC, but I could have bought a house with the money I have flushed down the toilet.  Sometimes renting is the only option, but regardless, it is a win/lose situation since one is basically paying off someone else's mortgage.   Somehow I've always been on the wrong side of that transaction.  I aimed to change that.

As many of you know, I visited New Mexico in April of 2009 after a twenty year absence. I visited a few towns and stayed mostly at the family cabin in Tres Ritos (all documented in previous blog entries). Instantly, I felt at home in that state, as if my life had been waiting to take a week long exhale. From that point on, the notion of living in Santa Fe had filled my head.  I watched the housing market online almost daily, seeing what money can buy. For those of you not familiar with Santa Fe, it is probably the priciest town in the southwest, and for good reason.  With a population of a mere seventy thousand, Santa Fe attracts those who seek something truly different.  The climate is wonderful, the scenery is breathtaking, and the food is worth a trip alone.

This last weekend, I flew out to Santa Fe to check out some condos.  Houses were simply out of my reach.   My realtor and my father (who is also a realtor) were waiting and we hit the ground running.  Within an hour of getting into town, we were looking at places. The first few were discouraging, because they were pretty shabby and hardly seemed worth the money.  We then saw two other places, both of which I loved, but were rather small. Seeing how I have lived in tiny rooms for the most of eleven years, the size didn't bother me a bit. We then visited the condo that was first on my list. The price was reasonable and it was clearly a nicer place than any of the others.

After crunching numbers over a few tamales, I made an offer on the place. We decided to low ball it and see if the seller would take it. Thirty-six long hours went by before we heard a response.  The realtor contacted me with the seller's counteroffer and seeing how my flight was leaving within a few hours, the seller made a counteroffer and I took it.  My departure from NYC will come right at the end of May after Pearl Jam plays at the Garden.   I sort of view that as swan song for New York and I get sort of teary-eyed thinking about it.   I'll be packing the U-Haul and moving into my own place within days.   I never thought I would own a place, especially one with such cool floors, but now I do.

The furniture in these pictures is "display" furniture to help sell the place.   It worked.  I don't actually own any furniture at this point, so I'll be starting from scratch.   Thankfully, Obama likes to give away free money, so my $8,000 tax credit can help me swank this place up with a giant TV and maybe a couch.  However, I do own a life-sized Han Solo in Carbonite, which I will thrilled to display after more than a decade in storage.  

Why couldn't I have known this while he was alive?

So, my father and uncle told me this remarkable story about my grandfather.  This story that is so badass that I wish I had known about this before he died.  I would have talked to him at length about this and probably recorded it somehow.   Back when he was maybe twenty or so, he was hitchhiking from Mississippi to New Mexico for a job, probably on a farm or something of that nature.   A man pulls up in a car with his wife behind him in another car.   He asked if my grandfather would drive that car so he could ride with his wife in the other car.   That sounded reasonable, so they both drove off down the road for a short time, maybe a few hours or so.  

Eventually, they got to the place where the husband and wife needed to go north.   My grandfather got out of the car, the couple each took a car again and drove off.   My grandfather didn't think anything of it.    After a few days passes by, he sees the car he drove and the couple on the front of the local newspaper.

Fruits of my labor.

Around the middle of last year, I made the decision to write reviews for all of the films I see.   I started a page over at http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/716483/reviews/ and have now written twenty-six reviews.   Granted, that is a very small amount, but it's a solid start.   Rotten Tomatoes is an amazingly resourceful site, but if you aren't an established critic, a little guy can get lost in the mix.

I have now joined the team of writers over at DVD Verdict and more specifically Cinema Verdict.  My focus will remain on theatrical reviews, but occasionally I'll check out a DVD as well just to keep the reviews coming.   Soon I'll have a bio page set up where others can easily keep track of my reviews.   (I'll be sure to post that page here when it is available).   Hey, it's something.

----------------------------------------

I don't really have a picture to post related to this blog entry, so I'll post this picture which I found this week. 

The only thing missing is the body

Since I believe most people find me really weird, I figure I might as well reinforce that belief.    This may be why I have a Psycho themed bathroom.    Writing about this will inevitably take away from the shock factor you might have had if you had walked in cold, but I figured Phoebe might want to see it.    It usually gets a chuckle, but some people are legitimately creeped out which is all the better.

The most important thing is the Psycho shower curtain.    I've been using this shower curtain for about thirteen years, simply because I haven't been able to find another.    It has undergone numerous repairs and the holes have been fixed several times.   I've seen other curtains in this same vein, but no others were licensed by Universal and usually look cheesy.     This is the only one I've found that says Psycho and has the trademarked image of Mother holding the knife.

Next is the skull and wig that I keep on the back of the toilet.    I thought about keeping a bloody knife next to it, but I elected against it for safety reasons.     

On the wall I have a lithograph of Janet Leigh screaming her face off.

The only colors in the bathroom are red, black and white.   The floor is black and white checked which looks great against the red floor mat and towels.     I find this a nice alternative to other parts where I live which have been Empire Strikes Back themed for about thirty years.

If I did use the F-word......

I'm not one to use the F-word, but if I were, it would probably be used in conjunction with my disdain for The Chipmunks.    If you do hear me slip, don't feel the need to point out the inconsistencies between my faith and mouth.   I am fully aware of these things and can admit my shortcomings, mostly because of my understanding that I'm internally flawed to begin with.  At least that's my excuse.   I digress.

My parents will gladly point out that I did like The Chipmunks at a much younger point in my life and how I probably laughed at their cute little voices to no end.   I think the more recent disdain has taken an influx because of the tendency of Hollywood to put a modern tilt on an already irritating idea.  Specifically, The Chipmunks have gone hip hop and as you can see on the poster for The Chipmunks movie, they are "keeping it real" as opposed to just singing Christmas songs.     

This is both an insult to the hip hop industry as well as chipmunks as a rodent.   I suppose this is an insult to Entourage as well (referring to the slogan), but I've never actually seen that show to make a comparison.  I don't find Jeremy Piven's voice nearly as shrill as Theodore's if that counts for anything.   I used to love looking at chipmunks in New Mexico, but now my mind is plagued by high voices when I see one scurrying around.    Anyway, this poster is just flat out dumb and unfortunately the poster for The Chipmunks 2, The Squeakqual carries on the flame of retardedness.   

  

This time Alvin has his hat turned sideways to show his rebellious streak.  Instead of Theodore giving the peace sign with his fingers, it is now Simon.    Also, Simon is back to wearing his thick, nerdy glasses, which makes me wonder if his sunglasses in the first poster were prescription lenses.  Doubtful, but I do wonder.  That being said, I can't imagine ruining Christmas day by sitting through this film.

Now the movie business taking an idea from bad to worse isn't new.    Here are just a few examples:

1) a digital Garfield

2) George Lucas went from a digital Jabba the Hutt to Jar Jar Binks in a few short years

3) Toy Story 2 and 3 (also all digital)

While all of those are awful in their own right, I find this particular character transformation (which looks to be hand drawn) taking my disgust to a new level.

 

Lord, help us all.

Are we so enlightened?

There are things I love about NYC and things I hate.   Among the things I love are the vast amount of great concerts I get to see here as everyone plays in New York.   I also like the energy of the city at times as it is vibrant and full of life.   Among the things I dislike include the weather and the absolute disdain that the locals have for their own city.   They litter relentlessly on their own streets and then make fun of the tourists, who undoubtedly take better care of this city than they do.

The thing I hate most about New York (specifically New Yorkers) is the notion that they are better than everyone else.   At some point they were given the impression that they are more enlightened to the world and that people in other parts of the country are simply not as good as we are.  

I would like to take this post to declare or, dare I say it, prove that New Yorkers really aren't so enlightened.    Seeing as how today is Friday the 13th, I thought it the perfect day to present my case.    As part of my experiment, I carried my camera with me for a week and photographed the elevator panels in every building I entered with more than thirteen floors.    Out of the nine buildings I went into, surprisingly only one had a thirteenth floor *. 

How could this be?    Is the enlightened New Yorker so naive to believe that if they live on a thirteenth floor that something bad will happen to them?     It is important to note that a few of these buildings are less than ten years old, meaning that this superstition is still fully alive today in New York City.   The naivety extends to beyond that of just a missing floor.    Is the thirteenth floor not thirteen floors off the ground regardless of what it is named?   Meaning, someone living on a fourteenth floor is really living on the thirteen floor of the building.   The name is arbitrary if you think about it.    Superstitious tenants should be wary of such smoke and mirrors so as not to be fooled into living on such an unlucky floor.

If this ratio of one of our nine elevators is representative of the entire city, then a staggering 89% of New York City buildings do not have a 13th floor.   I find this rather astonishing for a city that claims to know it all.  I am interested if this phenomenon is present in other cities, thereby making other places as unenlightened as we are.    Please enlighten me as to the elevators in your area.     I, for one, would gladly live on a thirteenth floor, especially if it would come with a reduction in rent.

*Interesting that most elevators put a star on the first floor.   I'm not sure what superstition that is referring to or how that came about.