I don’t care what you hear. I don’t care what you think. I just wanted to be clear on these two things. I made the mistake with the Hulk movie of trying to be clever in telling you it sucked. I’m not doing that this time. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was shit. It should have been called Terminator 3: The Same Old Thing. Because this piece of shit was a cheap imitation of Cameron’s second Terminator movie. And that’s being polite.

Avoid this movie. Avoid this movie if you liked the first two. This third flick is the work of a cheap no talent fuck. Is it any surprise that Cameron didn’t have anything to do with it? No, because it’s utter shit. T3 was predictable from the beginning. I’m not talking about the beginning of the flick. Since the first trailer I knew this movie was going to suck.

The worst thing about it seeing this movie was the fact I had said to myself “I’m not going to go see this piece of shit”, somewhere along that thought process I made a mistake. I suppose I shouldn’t get so bent of out of shape about a bad movie. But I do. And here’s the thing. I think the people involved with T3 need to pay a heavy price. They all need to pay for cheapening the great finish of T2. I’m not talking about monetary payment. All though being able to sue over bad movie is a good idea and may need to be explored as an option at a later date.

No I’m saying these people need to pay the ultimate price. Death. Death in a number of different ways. The young people in the flick can be spared. They are young and may not understand about the artistic roll call. So I’m willing to over look it this time. But the director and the producers, they need to be put down. For the sake of future movies. These people shouldn’t be allowed to continue. Whether it be a ban from making movies or maybe they just need to be took out back and be shot. And I’m willing to let them have a clean death. A nice shot right to the back of the head.

I mean what was Schwarzenegger thinking? Does he need the paycheck that bad? Shit if he’s hurting for money, I would be willing to send him what I can. Do these people who make these movies even like the movies themselves? How could they be fans of this series? How could they be fans of this series when they make a movie like T3? I just don’t understand it. It’s to bad Schwarzenegger wasn’t born here in America. Because he would be the perfect bad actor to bad politician since Reagan.

Now you will have to excuse me, I need to exorcise this movie from my system. I think a T2 multiple viewing will help. In time my pain will pass, I hope.

It’s funny how certain subjects come up more than once. A recent rumor floating around the hotel says that “they” are going to get uniforms for the employees and then take the cost out of the paychecks of the employees. Now this topic was brought to my attention by a few people. I was asked if “they” could do this.

The simple answer is no “they” can’t. The Illinois Department of Labor’s WAGE PAYMENT AND COLLECTION ACT say thats against the law:

Section 300.840 Uniforms Required by an Employer

An employer shall not deduct the cost of purchasing and/or of cleaning uniforms required by the employer from an employee’s wages or final compensation, unless the employee’s express written consent is given freely at the time the deduction is made. Distinctive outfits or accessories, or both, intended to identify the employee with a specific employer shall be considered a uniform. If an employer requires a general type of ordinary basic street clothing to be worn, but permits variations in the detail of dress, this shall not be considered a uniform. However, when an employer requires that an employee purchase street clothes either from the employer or from a third party designated by the employer, the clothing shall be considered a uniform.

So as you can see “they” can’t do this. I want to draw your attention to that last bit there, were it says:

when an employer requires that an employee purchase street clothes either from the employer or from a third party designated by the employer, the clothing shall be considered a uniform.

I bring this up because I asked the Assistant GM about this rumor. She told me this rumor wasn’t true. She said “they” will purchase one uniform for the employee. After that it’s up to us. But this above bit of text here is important. The part were it says “from the employer or from a third party designated by the employer” is something to remember.

If for whatever reason say you need a second uniform and “they” say you have to buy it from So & So Inc. Well guess what? “They” will be purchasing the second uniform as well. And you got to remember to stand up for yourselves. You have to make sure that “they” know that you won’t stand for this bullshit.

To make it easy for you later on when you decide you want to file a complaint against the hotel, I have found the link to the the page with info such as phone number and even the required forms to fill out. Bookmark this page for future reference.

Here is a funny one my Mom sent me.

Dear Employee:

As a result of the reduction of money budgeted for department areas, we are forced to cut down on our number of personnel.

Under this plan, older employees will be asked to take early retirement, thus permitting the retention of younger people who represent our future. Therefore, a program to phase out older personnel by the end of the current fiscal year, via retirement, will be placed into effect immediately.

This program will be known as SLAP (Sever Late-Aged Personnel). Employees who are SLAPPED will be given the opportunity to look for jobs outside the company.

SLAPPED employees can request a review of their employment records before actual retirement takes place. This review phase of the program is called SCREW.

SCREW (Survey of Capabilities of Retired Early Workers). All employees who have been SLAPPED and SCREWED may file an appeal with upper management.

This appeal is called SHAFT (Study by Higher Authority Following Termination).

Under the terms of the new policy, an employee may be SLAPPED once, SCREWED twice, but may be SHAFTED as many times as the company deems appropriate.

If an employee follows the above procedure, he/she will be entitled to get: HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel’s Early Severance) or CLAP (Combined Lump sum Assistance Payment).

As HERPES and CLAP are considered benefit plans, any employee who has received HERPES or CLAP will no longer be SLAPPED or SCREWED by the company.

Management wishes to assure the younger employees who remain on board that the company will continue its policy of training employees through our:

Special High Intensity Training (SHIT). We take pride in the amount of SHIT our employees receive. We have given our employees more SHIT than any company in this area. If any employee feels they do not receive enough SHIT on the job, see your immediate supervisor.

Your supervisor is specially trained to make sure you receive all the SHIT you can stand.

And, once again, thanks for all your years of service with us.

The funny thing is I bet the hotel would come up with stupid shit like this.

Here’s another thing you may not know about me. I have been collecting business cards for a number of years. Business cards of the people who run the hotel. I have a nice collection going. It started out as a simple thing. I would pick up one here or there. And they would all sit in a pile some where.

The collecting of these business cards didn’t take on a deeper meaning until later in my life as a hotel employee. It wasn’t until I noticed I had a problem with authority. This was around the same time I started to notice that some of these managers were as dumb as a box of rocks. My collection of business cards then took on another meaning.

All of these cards I kept were ways for me to remember all of the assholes who came and went while I was still a peon at the hotel. It’s kind of a game. I don’t ask for a business card or just pick one up until I figure the cards owner has ran out of time at the hotel. It’s kind of like my own way of maintaining a management deadpool.

On occasion I like to look at all of them and note that I’m still at the hotel and they are not. It’s a small personal victory being able to remind myself that I have outlasted all of these people. And with this new bunch of owners/managers I grab these business cards as quick as I can. Sometimes I get lucky and a poor fool just gives me one.

Of course to be fair with this business card deadpool I have going, I always chuck my own business card into the pile whenever I get some. Since I have two in the pile and the rest have one each, I guess my odds are higher. Except I don’t worry about that anymore.

This title may tell some people enough. But for shits and giggles I’m going to explain it like you all don’t know what I’m talking about.

The first thing we need to is figure out just what the term fanboy means. No legitimate dictionary has the word in it’s pages. So you have to look else where for a definition of this term. The only place I could find on the net that has a definition is a place called Wikipedia, a self described “free encyclopedia”. Here is what they say:

Fanboy is a derogatory term used to describe someone who is utterly devoted to a hobby or a subject, to the point where it becomes an obsession. “Fanboys” are often experts on minor details regarding their hobbies, and they take these details extremely seriously. The stereotypical image often associated with Star Trek fans (or Trekkies) can be used to describe a fanboy: a person with little or no social life outside the circle of fans he or she associates with.

Hits it on the head in my opinion. Of course it’s not something I admit to people who are not into comic books. On the other hand the other Marvel fanboys irritate me. I can’t stand them. My favorite comic book store Tomorrow Is Yesterday is full of them.

But since I’m coming out of the closet, I admit I am a Marvel fanboy. I have been for a long time. To some who actually read what I write this may not come to any surprise. The next question is why am I a Marvel fanboy? The simplest answer is that when I started reading comics Marvel had the best stuff. I’m talking late 70’s early 80’s. Marvel’s characters had a touch of the common man. They had problems that you and me would face. And in my opinion the stories Marvel told were just the best comics at that time.

So it pisses me off big time whenever a Marvel character gets the big screen treatment. It pisses me off because the Marvel fanboy in me always comes out. I can’t help it. I nitpick the movies. I bitch and complain when they fuck up a totally perfect story and make a shit movie. Daredevil jumps to mind.

It boggles my mind. Lets use the Hulk movie for example of how they take a simple concept and ruin it by trying to modernize it. Betty Ross (the girlfriend of Bruce Banners) in the movie is a scientist. In the comics she’s just a housewife kind of women. What does turning her into a scientist accomplish? Other than appeasing the beast that is politically correctness?

The way the Hulk comes about is another thing I have a problem with. In the comics it’s very simple. Banner worked for Betty’s dad General Ross. Banner invented the gamma bomb. A commie spy sabotage’s the test run of the bomb. Banner races out to save Rick Jones who had wandered out into the test site. Simple yet effective. Sure you can’t have any references to a commie spy. But you could have still used the sabotage plot.

There were other issues I had with the film, but that’s something for another post. But you see now what I mean when I say I’m a Marvel fanboy.

I only hinted at what I was really trying to say a few posts ago. The post called Virtual Wolds just didn’t some it up will enough and I’ve thought about this subject for a bit. Before I start let me make you read a passage from Henry V by my bud Bill:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition

This comes from a speech that King Henry gave to his men right before a major battle. A battle that the english army had to face a far superior french army. This speech is my favorite of all of the bards work. It just says something that is hard to put into words, yet Shakespeare was able to do it.

If you never read this one I really recommend you follow this link (scroll down to line 30) first and then come back here. This Crispin’s Day speech is even used for military recruitment over in england. And you have to admit it is a pretty powerful bit of text.

It’s rather fitting for the game Dark Age of Camelot. But it is something that just may transcend this mmorpg I play. These people I play with no longer are just buddies I have in a game. It’s become something more than that. Friends are what they all are now. It doesn’t matter what age they are. It doesn’t matter if they are male or female. Race or Color has no bearing in this friendship I share with these people.

And in a world with so many problems is this “virtual friendship” I have with these people so bad? I don’t think so. As the Bard says “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother”, and it applies to real life and mmorpg’s. And that’s good enough for me.

I got this e-mail today. It was absurd enough to put up here. Take a look:

From:Jacinda Pearson
To:webmaster@hotelblues.com
Subject:hotelblues.com

I discovered hotelblues.com in Yahoo, my favorite directory. I am requesting that you create a link from hotelblues.com to my client’s web site if you feel that their content is in some way related or complements your site. In exchange, I’ll post a link from their site to yours.

Exchanging links will help bring in more business for both your web site and my client’s. An added benefit is increased search engine traffic because the search engines rank sites higher that have a good number of relevant links.

This is not a free-for-all link exchange, I don’t waste my time with them and you shouldn’t either. I am only linking to related web sites so that all my links are relevant to my site.

I would like to send you my client’s web address, so that you can review their site. My client is a leading corporate team building and teamwork consulting firm providing fun leadership skills development, management training, and teambuilding programs.

Please let me know if you are interested in exchanging links. I’ll send you more details once I hear back from you.

Looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Jacinda Pearson
jacindapearson@link-builder.com
http://www.link-builder.com

P.S. If for any reason you don’t want me to contact again, just email me and let me know.

The part that says:

My client is a leading corporate team building and teamwork consulting firm providing fun leadership skills development, management training, and teambuilding programs.

That made me laugh. Because it makes me wonder if these assholes even read the sites they send spam out to. Because I wonder if people read Hotelblues.com and think “this guy needs links to sites that are a leading corporate team building and teamwork consulting firm providing fun leadership skills development, management training, and teambuilding programs”. Either this person didn’t read this site or I’m losing my touch.

Of course the site they mention in the e-mail has a faq. Here is what they say about their e-mail being spam:

That is a difficult question to answer because of the many different definitions of SPAM. The first thing to note is that most state laws governing SPAM have to do with advertising for a commercial purpose. Exchanging links hardly falls into that condition. And the federal government has not enacted any SPAM laws governing this condition.

Sounds like they are dodging the question. Spam to me is when someone sends me shit that I didn’t ask for. And that’s what this e-mail is spam. I would e-mail this chick back just to see what her “clients” site was, but I would just be giving them a reason to spam me more.