How cool is this?

The Below Honors Program

Does anyone think they should stop making scholarship foundations for the extremely gifted kids? I do. Shit. Don't they have enough already? How many different organizations do they need to pay their entire tuition because they are really damn smart?

Why not start a scholarship for the outstandingly mediocre kids. Like, "No one else does just enough quite like you do, why not continue to do just enough on our dime?" It could be called the Just Enough Scholarship. Kids do just enough to get by, and then some foundation pays just enough for them to go to school.

Why not an "I think you've got potential" scholarship. Like, "Hey, you kind of sucked it up in high school. But who gives a fuck about high school, I think you've got potential."

So your straight C average stumbled you into the state school, fuck, good for you, here's some money.

How about a "Hey dumbass" scholarship. Everyone forgets about the kids who slept through class or skipped a day to go swimming with some friends, for a week, and still managed to get a high C. Hey dumbass, maybe if you almost try college you'll do ok, here is some money.

"Home work wastes perfectly good relaxation time" Scholarship. So you never did homework, and still managed to pass everything to the fullest extent that you could with a zero homework average. Someone should give that kid some money. Why? Because he/she is smarter than the kids who did their homework and still only got a B.

I'm sick of over achievers.

Good Omens

Just started reading good omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. 15 pages in my tylenol PM kicked in, but I can already tell I'm going to like this book.

"Dog: Satanical hellhound and cat warrior."

I've thought this for years.

Common sense, who needs it?

In the latest issue of Time Out New York, there is nice little list of suggestions of "How to Succeed in Anything." It is full of funny little tales of doing the opposite of the right thing has gotten people ahead in life. Number six on this list is to simply ignore common sense. This does not, at least not at first, seem to be a good piece of advice. I like to think I have a good amount of common sense, and am fully aware of when I choose to ignore it(see the post below this). I have also become very aware of when others choose to ignore common sense, or even just good judgement; also, the places they have gotten by doing so. 

This brings me to work. I work as a bellman, at a nice hotel. I am constantly faced with the lack of, or at least the lack of use of, common sense within the establishment. My job requires me to look nice, each season they provide a new, hip, uniform for the bellman to wear. It would seem obvious that we have nice winter coats, as my job requires a lot of time spent outside(getting taxis, bringing in luggage, blah blah blah). Instead, the seven bellman share 2 or 3 coats that are, at least, 2 years old. The coats have become a bit worn out, and given the way we are supposed to look, we should really have new ones. There have been many examples of the company trying to save money, usually at the expense of us, this is one of them(it's a recession). 

But when I arrived at work tonight, I saw a bulletin posted in the back office asking us, the bellman, to please come in at a certain date and time, to get fitted for the new custom tailored jacket we would be getting. It would seem that, after a few years, the hotel found enough money in it's budget to get new coats; nice new coats. The coats will be fantastic, most likely the best around. Great, right? Only it's midway through February, by the time these coats get to us I'm sure we will probably get a a couple weeks out of them before it is no longer winter. Maybe I didn't stress enough the importance of our uniforms, or maybe I completely left out my employer's constant struggle to get us uniforms on time(we were intended to have our latest uniforms in time for fashion week of last year, we got them a couple months later). One would think that now, given the time of year, that instead of giving us great new coats that will just have to sit around and wait until next year, why not just get a jump start on a nice spring/summer uniform(there will, undoubtedly, be a lack of money to buy those). The people on staff to take care of these things are in a very successful position with, most likely, a very successful pay check. I'm sure, in the eyes of their even more successful superiors, they will have done a fantastic job. All I ask is, where is the very successful use of common sense? It seems to have been ignored. But hey, look where my use of common sense has gotten me. I open doors for rich people, who probably ignored their common sense. 

"Why don't you blog about it."

Some girl I knew in college said that to me once, "Why don't you blog about it," when I asked her why she stopped answering my calls. I had previously blogged about how I thought she was a poor excuse for a friend.

I am capable of some pretty amazing things when I'm drunk. Last night, I may have drank too much. But it's ok, it was nighttime. Also, I fully planned on drinking too much.

So I go to this show, at a bar, with Sean. We were there to see this band Sakes Alive. We went early as to avoid a doorman. We left around 8, I think I had been up since 6. Remember, I work overnight. But I wake up at night, so it is ok for me to start drinking that quickly after getting up. As it was my only day off this week, I had, previous to going out, decided to get fucking lit up. And so I did. I was putting back Jack and Cokes like water at the bar, and then, in the effort to stay sober for the show, switched to beer. I had seen this girl at the bar earlier, and in my small amount of effort, had basically told her she should go to the show because I was going. She didn't go, go figure. And then I saw her again at the next bar I went to, only she was with some other guy. I think it was one of the guys from the starting line. No joke. I made some comment about how I hate that band, which isn't even true, I've never even listened to them. It made Jesse uncomfortable, probably because the starting line dude was right behind me, and I was talking about how much better Jesse's band is.

Then this girl came back to to talk to me(I think her name was Alex), probably because the starting line suck, and I'm a pretty cool dude(again, I've never really listened to their band, so I'm just saying they suck because I have nothing better to say about them). I was in wasted mode when this girl came back, as Sean periodically sent me texts saying "Settle down" and "Seriously, settle down." I cared little. We had been drinking pitchers, and mixed drinks by the time Jesse and Jessica met us at the second bar, this was long before the girl came back. I made an effort to make it look like I was talking to Jessica for a short time after each of Sean's texts, and then continued to not settle down. I was ridiculous, as everything I said seemed to make Jessica laugh, and not because I was saying something intended to be funny. It was awesome. And for some reason this Alex girl decided to give me her number, and again, I remember caring very little at the time. But it is cool. This morning I read my text messages to discover that I drunk texted Jen Jun, my good friend, a play by play of the whole night, who knows, maybe she was interested. I've apoligized, but it isn't all bad, as through re-reading these texts I discovered that at one point this Alex girl spilled her drink on me. And I was the drunk one. Then Jesse and Jessica took me home. And by that I mean we left together, but I'm pretty sure it was intended to take me home.

As I was leaving, Jesse points out this other girl, Kristina, who I met at this same bar a few weeks ago. I really wanted to talk to her(she was pretty hot). Given my current state, Sean talked me out of it, probably a good thing. However, it did spark my interest in this girl again. And I go home to leave her a drunk facebook message saying how we should hang out. I met this girl once, weeks ago, but for some reason remembered her name. This blows my mind. The message I sent her was so carefully constructed, not a single misspelled word, it was fucking gold. I think it was so well put together it almost made it hard to read. Also, I think I used the word "you" twice in a row. She has since written me back, confused as to who I am. Whatever.

Also, I have that band, Sakes Alive, sleeping on my floor right now. It has been so long since I've had that much fun, it almost makes me hate my job less.

Brothers and sisters, I am an atomic bomb.

I just finished reading The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance. As usual, I am a bit late on this series, and I'm sure most of the initial hype has died down; this is when I love to discover new things, after everyone else has. Anyway. I have been hearing a lot about new original comics lately, mostly in a debate between Kirkman and Bendis on the reality of being able to make your own comic; now with adding The Umbrella Academy to the list of original comics that I read, I'm really excited about it.

This comic is incredible, to say the least. Gerard's story is very well done, the idea, the writing itself, even the structure of the story, and the manner in which the story unfolds. Gerard had created a very unique story, and has a style of storytelling that is both all his own, and appropriately typical at the same time(when it needs to be). The series started on free comic book day, with a teaser issue. One of the first lines is, "It's really you ---And you're dead. Sorry about that." Together with images behind these lines, it really does make for a great teaser.

The story is really made by the art though. The look of the comic is very Gothic, fitting to the themes of the story, Gabriel Ba did a great job with the characters, but more importantly the world they live in. The color is really what takes it up a notch, set mostly with dark colors, lots of black, gray, brown, even all the reds blues and greens have a darkness about them. But then come these outrageously bright kind of obscure colors, mostly in the action scenes, that just blow your mind. I think the image below doesn't really do it justice, but it has examples of both.

The cover art as well, it is really just very well done. They are, again, very dark and simple. But just really good. Art, for me, makes a breaks a comic. I continually judge books by their covers. If I don't like the art of a comic, it is hard for me to really get into it. I'm sure I've missed some great comics because of this, I'm also sure I've liked some pretty bad comics because I liked the art.


If you enjoy comics, read this one. It is worth it, and then some.

The Man.

So Sean and I are at the Apple Store in Soho, Sean has an appointment to try and get his iPhone fixed. We head over the area where those things happen, and wait to check in with the awesomely hot little Asian girl in the orange shirt.

There is a group of people in front of us. These people have not really formed a line, just a small group, each waiting for their turn, at least Sean and I were. As more people started to come up it was clear they were trying to go next, regardless of the people who were there first(Sean and I). One girl gets away with it, and then this punk kid who was probably the most important 14 year old at his high school steps in front of us. The girl in the Orange shirt is still helping the last girl who jumped in before us, and when she finishes this punk kid goes to speak up, but is cut off by this older guy standing next to him who pointed out that it was Sean and I's turn, and he needed to wait. We thanked this man, and I think even thanked the kid for waiting his damn turn, and we checked in.

After we discussed that the older guy was probably pretty cool, we assumed he was the punk kids father, and new his son was a punk kid. Come to find out that that is not true, we saw the punk kid with what turned out to be his punk father, and the older cool guy sitting down with his wife, probably waiting his turn. Earlier he was not teaching his son common decency, he was just being awesome. That's when we knew he was the man.