One month later: Michael Jackson is still news!

So today I was reading the news online and I must've found like two thousand different articles on Michael Jackson. If it wasn't some freaking audience to determine the fate of some movie deal, or some random paternity claim from some dude, it was some recycled biographic story that most likely everyone has read at least ten or twenty times already. It was weird, because, you know, the dude has been dead for like, what, more than a month now?

I understand that he was the king of pop and all that shit, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was exposed to his music when I was little, but seriously. My first reaction was to blame it on the money-hungry media, because this is exactly the kind of thing they'd milk for all it's worth, but then I have to remind myself that, well, it is the media... this is what they do. And if they're doing it, there's a reason for it, and it all became clear when I checked iTunes and other music sites and saw that MJ's record sales are going through the roof!

So, clearly, it's not that the media is obsessed with Michael Jackson. It's that WE are obsessed with Michael Jackson and the media is just being the good provider/crack dealer that it's always been, and spoon-feeding us these news because they know we'll take it with a grin. So it's clearly not their fault. It's ours.

Seriously, world. Sometimes I wonder how we've survived so long and invented stuff like cars and the internet when our attention span is oh! so limited! If this is all that matters to us right now, then what does that say about us as a whole? Is humanity really this shallow? Because if we are, then we're really, really lucky that we've made it this far.

Now, I don't hate Michael Jackson. I think he was a great artist, and as far as the allegations go, to me it's innocent until proven guilty, which he never was, so I have no reason to judge him on that. But it's a damn shame that he had to DIE for people to remember again how incredible he really was. It's just sad. But I guess that's the way it goes, right? You never know how great something really is until you no longer have it.

I watched G.I. Joe and my brain didn't die!

My friends are really judgmental about a lot of stuff, and I can't really blame them because I'm kind of like that too about some things, so when we decided to go watch G.I. Joe today, I knew we weren't going to do it for the entertainment value of the picture, but rather, for the laugh-inducing experience that usually comes from going to the cinema together and completely eviscerating a movie as it progresses through a plethora of snarky remarks and small jokes.

This time it wasn't quite as easy to to do due to the theater being packed, but as usual my friends don't really care if they're alone or surrounded by a crowd. When they feel like ranting they'll rant, and so will I, to be honest. And we did. Boy did we?

The most striking thing to me was the parade of cheesy lines that takes place throughout the ENTIRETY OF THE MOVIE! "That redhead is really starting to annoy me" or "This is just the start" made me laugh really hard. It was all recycled from almost every action movie since the 90's.

Next came the CGI's. This movie was riddled with them. I can understand a movie like Transformers being riddled with CGI's because, well, it's giant transforming robots from outer space. But G.I Joe is glorified Black Ops at best, so really, it's not that imperative.

It was also very unrealistic, with the suits that turn you into superman and the nanites that eat through metal and destroy cities, and massive industrial plants and secret bases beneath Paris and the Arctic Ocean and the Egyptian Desert, and the submarines and the planes and the helicopters and the crazy japanese ninja kids that kill their own masters and the western kids that drove them to that who are now black-clad, silent killer-types, and mind-contro,l and explosions, and blah blah blah blah!

I think It shouldn't be hard for anyone to conclude that I found this movie terrible, but actually, that wouldn't be entirely true, because the same could be said of almost any movie that has come out every summer for the past three years or so, and even though it is most certainly true, there is something that you have to accept about this kind of movie and that kind of justifies the way it is: it is a popcorn movie!

It doesn't need to be deep, or plot-driven, or even coherent, or even have good acting. It just needs to be entertaining, and this movie... well, it does have its entertainment value, but it's not really mind-blowing. It is a good movie in those terms, but let me tell you, it's no Transformers, it's no Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, and it's definitely no Iron Man. It's just a typical, rather forgettable popcorn movie, that will most likely do well, and we'll likely see a sequel of in a year or two, but that's about it.

If you can deal with that, go ahead and waste your ten dollars. And if you can't, then hold on to them a little longer and maybe something better will come out next week.

Twitter got DOS'd!! OH NOES!!!

Why, oh why?! LOL! I know this sounds pathetic, but I really want to check my Twitter and it makes me really frustrated that I can't. It's stupid, but I guess it has become a big necessity to me. I use my twitter mostly to stay in touch with my friends and my family, just like everyone else, really, but still, even though I don't check it all that often, just knowing that it's not working is making me feel really pissed off.

Mind you, this happens to me with everything, not just Twitter or internet sites. Whenever my internet connection decides to die on me, or my cell phone, or my TV, or anything, really, I get angry and frustrated. I just like to know that the things that I have are working, and it gets to me when they don't, even if I'm not really using them. I know, it's kind of sad, but that's just the way I am.

Anyway, if you want to know more about Twitter's current status, you can go to http://status.twitter.com/

P.S: Also, apparently Facebook isn't working all too well either. Superb...

EDIT: Okay, now it's kind of working again. But it's not fully functional yet.

Work Rant!

So today I got pretty close to turning unemployed. I mentioned this in a previous entry, but I feel like it should be said once more: at the moment I don't perceive my job as anything other than a means for me to pay my bills and you know, afford my life in general on my own, without having to resort to other sources of money like, oh say, my parents. And that's fine to me. I don't really feel any kind of compromise or attachment to my work. And I'm not stupid, I know that my employers expect me to be all "Yay! I love my job!", and I do put up a pretty good front, but today was just one of those days that almost had be go "Fuck this shit!" and walk out.

Luckily, I have enough self-restraint not to let my impulses get the best of me; but still, the fact remains that today I felt really exploited at my job. They basically had me working 'till just about an hour ago, because there was this big thing that needed to be done and I had to be there in order for it to be carried about, and to me that sounds totally bullshitty because, c'mon, am I really that indispensable?

There isn't much responsibility involved in my position. There are some things that I have to do and that I'm good at that are the reason why I have the job that I have, but they're all stuff that can be done, and that is done within the regular nine-to-five schedule. What they had me do today not only forced me to stay overtime, but it is also not at all one of my responsibilities. It is not something that I have to take care of! It isn't even something that I know much of, for crying out loud! That being said, it was a pretty simple thing, but it was repetitive and tiresome, and it's something that anyone else could have done, so right now I feel like this got dumped on me because whoever got this assignment didn't really want to do it.

Now, I'm not going to quit my job over this, even though I did get pretty close to just walking out, but no. I'm just going to take a deep breath, shake this feeling of annoyance off and go back to work tomorrow, because, again, I'm just doing this right now because I need the money; this isn't my career choice, it's just a source of income. And I'll do it hoping that what happened today will just be an isolated occurrence that isn't bound to repeat itself.

If it does, however, I'll quit. It's not even that they're not paying me enough to do that shit. It's simply that they're not paying me to do that shit!