What's shakin?

There was a whole lotta shakin goin on here in Southern CA today! Well, just 10 seconds or so... In case you live under a rock, Los Angeles experienced a 5.4 earthquake that was felt here in San Diego (a 2-3 hour drive away). This was my first earthquake experience...I'm not an earthquake virgin any more!!! Booyah!! One of my friends who also moved here from Michigan had been waiting forever to experience an earthquake as well, and he just happened to be in LA when it happened...lucky guy!

I know, I know..I should be a little worried about "The Big One", right? Nah...if it happens, it happens. My chances of dying in an earthquake are much smaller than dying by lightning or tornado in the East...or dying by car accident...or elephant stampede...or Rage virus.

In other news, I found out that one of our credit union members did not want to do business with me yesterday because she is a bigot...er, a devout Christian who is not permitted to do business with homosexuals. That is what she said to my manager, at least, when he asked her why she was so adamant that I not assist her. Funny, she let me assist her a few times before...I guess she got too much of a good thing and needed to resist temptation? Hmm... She had a horrible facelift performed on her that makes her look like she was once a man or is a drag queen, so I almost felt like calling her and telling her I don't do business with transsexuals. lol

How she could tell I am gay, I have no clue...I don't think I'm THAT obvious. Those good ol' bigots...gotta love 'em. Such sad people who are so closed-minded. I should also remind her that one of her fellow conservatives recently tried to shoot a bunch of more liberal Christians the other day...at a church. Now, how many homosexuals (that are out of the closet) go around shooting people because of differing beliefs? I think the bigots have us outnumbered on that one.

I'm not really all that offended...just thought I'd point some things out lol. And I thought I'd heard it all...

Myspace vs. Facebook..and the winner is...

I created a profile on Myspace over 2 years ago and have seen Myspace undergo quite a few changes in that amount of time, as most websites do to keep up with the times. I created my Facebook profile a year or so ago and have seen a few changes there as well. Both sites have been great ways to keep up with most of my friends (except for those who are too lame to create a profile! lol), but I have decided to retire one profile, my Myspace profile.

Why? Well, over the last year, I have constantly compared my experiences with both sites. Myspace, for all its grandeur and popularity, has a horribly faulty server that allows a plethora of technical difficulties. I can't tell you how many times I will type out a message to a friend, click Send, and watch as all that typing goes into a black hole when the words "Sorry! An unexpected technical error has occurred." It happens so often that I usually copy my text before sending so that I don't have to re-type it when the error occurs. Not good at all, Tomboy.

Another thing I have grown to despise about Myspace is the explosion of ads on the site. Now, it's so bad that I have to wait until the latest movie trailer plays through before being able to sign in. Absolutely ridiculous. Then, when you are in, you are bombarded by huge ads throughout the page..they take up way too much room, compared to the space occupied on Facebook's pages. How annoying are the guys and girls pretending to talk to us via Match.com or True.com? I'm tempted to try to contact them and tell them their make-up artist missed a spot. This tells me either Myspace is hurting financially and needs lots of advertisers, or that Myspace is greedy for $$$$.

Yet another grievance is that Myspace is a chaotic mess, compared to Facebook's more pristine, Apple-esque look. Myspace looks like it was put together by a bunch of teenagers (hell, it practically was)...and because people can customize their page in any horrible way possible, it can be a nightmare to visit a potential friend's page lol. Scrolling photographs, videos galore, backgrounds that make reading a person's profile an exercise in futility. Maybe when I get a computer with more RAM, I will appreciate such freedom of expression lol. But most of the time, I cringe when someone wants me to check out his/her page, fearing Mr. Freeze will visit my 5-year-old computer yet again.

Facebook, on the other hand, is a bit more organized. I can visit profiles without fear of my computer overloading. I can message friends without an error occurring. In fact, I can barely even recall 1 or 2 errors occurring on Facebook. Myspace's technical team should give Facebook's a call. Facebook is more appealing to the eye, as well. AND the ads are much less than what you find at Myspace. I can sign in without having to watch a movie trailer..woohoo!! Also, it's important to note that Myspace has been playing catch up and copycat with Facebook for the last year or so. Look at Myspace's news feeds that showed up recently...looks very familiar...and Myspace started letting users move boxes around on their profile...also familiar.

Facebook is the Apple to Myspace's Microsoft. I am pleased to announce that in the battle of Myspace vs. Facebook, Facebook wins by 1,942, 342 points.

To any of my Myspace friends who aren't on Facebook or who haven't friended me on Facebook, go to Facebook now and either set up a profile and/or Friend me...time's a-wastin...hop to it! lol

I'll be deleting my Myspace profile on July 31st...can't wait!! Sorry, Tomboy...

The Dark Knight: best movie of the year?

With The Dark Knight, Director Christopher Nolan has delivered his best feature film yet. Definitely the most incredible film I've seen in quite a while, even with a running time of 2.5 hours. And yes, Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker is absolutely riveting...if this performance doesn't give the late actor an Oscar nomination at the very least, I'll be more than a little disappointed.

Going back to Christopher Nolan (since he deserves a bit more praise than even the stellar actors)...once I knew he was going to be involved in the Batman sequel, practically since the end of Batman Begins, I was pretty sure he'd have another excellent movie under his belt. I became a huge fan of Nolan's after seeing Memento (one of my top 10 favorite movies) for the first time in 2000; it is also one of the few movies I've watched multiple times. Following Memento, he directed Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and of course, The Dark Knight, with Insomnia being the weakest, in my opinion...and really, only because of Al Pacino, who annoyed me in that movie...hell, he always annoys me. Also of note, every movie Nolan has directed has scored at least 75% or more on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer...very impressive.

The only Nolan film I haven't seen is Following, which is his directorial debut - I do plan to eventually see it. As for the future, I'm not sure what Nolan's next project will be, but I intend to see whatever he brings to the screen next. And I certainly hope he will be directing a third Batman movie at some point in the near future...I anticipate that news in the coming months! Go Warner Bros.!!

So, to sum it all up, if you didn't contribute to the biggest, baddest, most splendiferous box office money madness ever this weekend, put on some white face paint and smeared red lipstick, and get out to your local cinema and see this movie!!! And when you get there, fight the temptation to see such gems as Meet Dave and Space Chimps instead...it'll be hard, but you can do it!

p.s. If you haven't seen any of Christopher Nolan's other films, rent them...now.

The George W. Bush Sewage Plant...has a nice ring to it.

In the News:

"Voters to decide on naming sewage plant for Bush" - that's the kind of headline that I LOVE seeing!! Go, San Francisco voters! If this gets passed, it will be hilarious. I can just see Democrat families visiting San Francisco and having their pictures taken in front of the sign that reads "The George W. Bush Sewage Plant". A very small portion of the just desserts our current leader deserves.

If you want to read the full (very short) article, I hope you noticed the hyperlink above. If you didn't...well, how the hell do you survive on the Internet?? lol


On another note, San Diego's Gay Pride festival is this weekend. If you live in San Diego, you might've noticed a large increase in the number of guys out jogging and working out over the last few weeks. It's because they are proud of themselves and the gay rights movement, not because they are preparing for a big hookup weekend...neeeever that. lol Anyway, I really, really, really feel for anyone who is a housekeeper at a hotel in San Diego this weekend...they are going to see some weird shit...

Wimbledon's King dethroned in a match for the ages

Federer shakes Nadal's hand as Nadal keeps repeating "Mine!" "Mine!" "Mine!"

Sports:

This morning, I made the effort to get up at 6:00 to watch what I thought would be just another Federer-Nadal Grand Slam Final match. Instead, I witnessed the most thrilling, most engrossing match in my years of being a tennis fan (the commentators consider it to possibly be the greatest match of all time).

The match stands out for several reasons: 1) it was the longest match in Wimbledon history, clocking in at 4 hours, 48 minutes, not including the rain delays, which in reality dragged the match out over 7 hours! 2) From what the NBC commentators were saying, it was the latest-ending match (the court was almost plunged into darkness just after the end of the match - there are no real lights for nighttime play). 3) Federer and Nadal now have faced each other in more Grand Slam finals than any other pair. 4) Both men brought their best game to the court and put on a show that even overshadowed the excellent Venus-Davenport Wimbledon Women's Final match that wowed the world a few years ago.

While Nadal came away the champion, Federer cannot be considered a loser. Hopefully, there will be more fantastic showdowns in the future (with Federer coming out on top next time! lol). Now, just another month and a half until the US Open!! Tennis really is the greatest sport there is...uh oh...I think I might've offended the rabid soccer fans...gasp! Time to skidaddle...

Venus is still Queen at Wimbledon...and my surreal day at the office.

Venus and Serena Williams, holding their new dinner plates that they bought at Costco.

Sports:

This is my favorite part about the 4th of July weekend: the Wimbledon championships!!

The Williams sisters put on a pretty good show today in Wimbledon's Women's Final. Venus, of course, prevailed...these days, she is the better sister. Woohoo!! The highlight for me was Game 3 of the 2nd set, which lasted quite a while as Serena gave her all to break Venus one last time before Venus ran away with the show. I am hesitantly looking forward to tomorrow's Men's Final...hesitantly, because I'm not so confident Federer will win this time. We'll see...


All About Me:

A special version of my work nametag.

Since something like this rarely happens to a guy like me, I have to shout it from the rooftops lol. On Tuesday, I was given the shock of the year...hell, the decade...when I was awarded Employee of the Month!! I know to some people, it may not seem like a big deal, but I have a very strong work ethic; to me, this is one of the highest honors I could ever achieve.

Here are all the details (hope you have a big cup of coffee): When I showed up for work that morning, I was expecting our usual branch meeting. When several executives and employees from other departments/branches showed up, that's when many of us were wondering what the hell was going on. We all assumed our branch was being thrown a 1-year-anniversary party (since our office just celebrated that on our own).

So, after we were all seated, the director of Human Resources addressed us all (about 30 or so in attendance) and finally told us she and everyone else were at our branch to award July's Employee of the Month to someone sitting among us. As she gave us hints, I kept looking at two of my teammates until the part about "high value on accuracy" and the sense of humor remark. Then, this giddy smile appeared on my face as my name was read out, and that giddy smile was glued on my face for about an hour lol.

So, I had to stand in front of everyone and listen as others made some very touching comments about me...and then I was asked to say something. Speaking in front of that many people is not my forte at all..and I don't really remember what I said..I hope it was good, as I was being videotaped too! lol

This is how cool my credit union is...I received a really nice plaque, a watch, a gift certificate to use to detail my car, a special nametag (pictured above), a nice dinner with my managers and an executive of my choice (easy decision), and a $500 check!! I will also be put into the running for Employee of the Year, along with the other 11 EOM's; should I somehow win that even higher honor, I might faint, especially since I would have to speak in front of the entire company (400-500 people) at our annual meeting. But then there's a $3000 bonus involved, so....

It was such a surreal event...I'm not used to being the center of attention (except when people read this blog, of course lol), and I don't really seek out the spotlight. Like I said before, this is one of the greatest accomplishments for me in quite a while, so I feel justified in writing so much about the experience lol. I am still so excited, but part of me feels a little guilty because I think that 2 of my teammates deserve this award more than I do.

Still, I love where I work and am looking forward to what the future holds there!