Two Things You Should All Check Out

First off- a 2-figure set of Peter vs. the Giant Chicken ! (I think I may have to buy this for my office... hehe).

And secondly, there is a new Fantastic Four Trailer available to view online. I just watched it before, and it's way cooler than the initial trailer. I am now officially psyched for this movie.

Finally back

Well, I've been on vacation, which is why I haven't updated in awhile. That said, I have some catching up to do.

I'm doing this strictly from memory, so I may have to come back here and edit stuff (or add it in later), so bear with me.

So let's see, last weekend was nice and calm. Me and Ariana went to the movies again and we finally saw Be Cool. It was amusing. Not a "good movie" in the traditional sense, but it was lots of fun. Let's just say your brain did NOT have to be in the "On" position to enjoy this movie. Plus the Rock was freakin hysterical as the gay bodyguard of Vince Vaughn's character.

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Another amusing thing- thanks to my DVR I now record Saturday Morning cartoons and watch them later in the day. one of the cartoons I record is the anime- Shaman King. Well on last week's episode, they were still in the middle of a huge storyline where the Shaman have to go in teams of 3 and battle each other. So each week they are spotlighting different teams. Well this week one of the main character's teams fought a team called- Team Doom.

The reason I'm mentioning this?

The names of the members of the team were Ronnie, Iaomi and Ozzy- all names of members of very famous Metal bands (Dio & Black Sabbath). They also had a rocker motif to their group. I just found that kinda cool.

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Speaking of cartoons though, this week both the coolest and suckiest thing happened. The cool thing was- this week was the beginning of the Star Wars: Clone Wars Animated series on Cartoon Network.

The sucky thing was- I had almost forgotten about it! I wound up finding out it had already started on Tuesday about an hour before the second episode was supposed to air. I was pretty upset, b/c for some reason I had it in my head that the series was starting the week after. Luckily, Cartoon Network was cool and was posting the entire episode from the previous day on their website. So I watched it on my PC just in time to watch the 2nd episode.

Then they replayed all 5 episodes on Saturday night, which I DVR'd so I was quite happy about that.

The cartoons were freakin AWESOME. Way better than the first season, mostly b/c each episode was no about 15 minutes long each (unlike last season where each episode was only about 3-5 mins each). This allowed for actual dialogue and plot development and stuff.

The series was also pretty important Star Wars canon-wise, as it showed and explained a lot of things that may not be "major" but were cool to see. Such as the Knighting of Anakin, explaining how C-3PO got his gold plating, the kidnapping of Senator Palpatine by General Grievious, and Anakin's first look at the melding of machine and man for evil purposes (a foreshadowing of what he becomes as Darth Vader).

So yeah, it was REALLY well done, and the series ended pretty much exactly where the movie is supposed to begin, which was another cool thing.

Anyone with even the least bit of interest in Star Wars should check it out. I believe the episodes are still posted on the Cartoon Network website, so take a look.

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And finally (since I actually have to cut this post short b/c I gotta run), my mom and her husband wound up winning tix to the Nets vs Grizzlies NBA game at Continental Airlines arena this past Thursday night and they didn't care to go so they gave them to me and Ariana. It was pretty cool b/c the tix were fairly expensive too (they said $75 each).

I had never been to a basketball game before, so I was fairly psyched. I wish it was better teams we were going to see, but beggars can't be choosers.

Once we got seated at the game, we realized that despite the price on the tix, the seats weren't as close as we had imagined. They were still good, but I would have expected more for the price.

The Nets wound up losing the game, but it still wound up being a lot of fun. There were lots of extracurriculars that went on between the quarters that were pretty fun.

One of those extras was a game where they took 2 people from the audience and put them in those fun Sumo wrestling outfits. Then they put balls on each end of the court and a bucket in center court, where the people were supposed to run up to and put the ball into. The catch was, the team's mascot (some Wolf character, which sadly I do not know the name of) was defending the bucket. And in order to defend the goal, he went buckwild on the poor fools in the sumo suits- totally knocking them on their asses anyway he could (flying dropkicks, clotheslines, shoving them to the floor, jumping on top of them, and other assorted wrestling manuevers). It was pretty freakin hilarious. I turned to Ariana after the game (and just as the Mascot was dropping an elbow on one of the fallen sumo's) and said "Now THIS is a game I'd pay to see."

Another fun thing about the game was, that we were on one of the ends of the court, so they started distributing those inflatable "banger" things (the suckers u always see the audience wave to distract the players from making free throws). We didn't get any at first but we were surrounded by some fairly nice people, and a couple offered both me and Ariana a pair. And I couldn't have imagined before, how just adding those stupid banger balloons to the experience of the game could make it SOOOOO much more fun (plus me and Ariana of course used them for fake sword battles after the game in the parking lot).

Another cool thing, I never realized when watching the NBA on TV. They play music during the entire game (except during free throws), which I thought would prob be distracting to the players, but it definitely made for a more fun experience for the audience.

So yeah all in all a fun time was had.

And with that, I am off, b/c I'm about to go see Alter Bridge in concert at Irving Plaza (WHOO! First concert in MONTHS!). Later!

In other news...

While I'm still a little upset over my bonehead move I mentioned in my last post, I need to get past that and continue with my normal blogging.

First, an update on the ticket appeal situation.

So yeah, I went back to the Traffic Court yesterday. I had to sit in front of a panel of 3 judges to argue my case. Thankfully, these guys were all pretty nice. They listened to my entire story and took copies of all the paperwork I brought in. Thing is, they don't give decisions on the spot. They informed me that they need to discuss everything in private and I would get their decision by mail in 10-14 days. So that was kind of annoying, but at this point I've done all I can. Now it's in God's hands, and hopefully I will at LEAST get back the $60 in late fees, b/c like I said, that was just TOTALLY not fair.

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Not everything in my life is bad news though! Some cool stuff has happened also- nothing major but like I said, not bad, lol.

First off, I wound up getting tix for my first concert in MONTHS. Me and Ariana are gonna go see Velvet Revolver and Hoobastank in May at PNC, so that is cool. Also, just yesterday I picked up tix to see Alter Bridge at Irving Plaza for Mar. 29th. I'm pretty excited for that b/c Irving is a great small place for concerts and it's been quite a while since I've been there.

Oh and I dont recall if I mentioned it here already or not but even though it's not a concert, I wound up getting tix for me, Ariana, my grandfather and my mom's husband to go see the Mets vs Giants in June (now just gotta find some good deals on Yankees tix).

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Me and Ariana beat X-Men Legends last weekend, which was pretty cool. In the end I think we ran through the game fairly quickly b/c we'd only play like once or twice a week (on the weekends), and all I did on my own was use the Danger Room to level up our guys- no story progression. So yeah, I think we made fairly good time. And in the end, it was a pretty fun game. It was the first full game Ariana and I have gone through together, so that was cool. I just hope we eventually see a more traditional RPG featuring the X-Men in the future.

Speaking of RPG's though, last week I finally started Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2- The Sith Lords (from now on to be referred to as KOTOR 2 b/c that is just way too long of a name to be typing all the time). It's pretty cool so far, but once again, I just can't wait to get my hands on a lightsaber- THEN the fun really begins.

And in more Star Wars news- I also finished reading another Star Wars novel- this time it was Timothy Zahn's sixth SW book- Survivor's Quest. It was his first stand-alone book for the Star Wars Universe (his previous books were a Trilogy and Duology respectively). In saying that, it wasn't his best work- still great and one of the better Star Wars novels out there but he is definitely better when he can build more things up and have more space to get into the character's heads. Hopefully there will be another multi-book run in his future.

But for now, I go back to Clone Wars novels (the Zahn one was a later novel- featuring Luke). Next one is Dark Rendevous which is supposed to feature Asajj Ventress as one of the main villians, so I'm looking forward to that (and then the following novel- Labyrinth of Evil which is the story that goes directly into Episode 3).

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Over the past 2 weekends, i also caught a couple of movies. First, I went to see Constantine with my buddy David the previous Friday night (that was the weekend Ariana was stuck at events for her job).

I had never read the Hellblazer comics, so I didn't know how true or not the movie was to the book, but as a movie it wasn't bad. Nothing special, but there were some cool parts.

Then this past weekend, me, Ariana and my sister were planning to do one of our little "two for the price of one" features and see both Hitch and Be Cool, but when we got out of Hitch and tried to sneak into Be Cool, the theater was jam-packed and we couldn't find seats, and the next showing wasn't for another 50 minutes and we didn't feel like hanging around, so we just stuck with the one movie, and most likely this weekend we will try the "Double Feature" again and try to see Be Cool and Robots.

As for the movie we DID see- Hitch was fun. Once again, nothing spectacular, but it was a cute date movie. I'd give a recomendation for any couples out there to go see it.

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Another movie I'd give recomendations to, is the Incredibles. I won't go on about it now b/c I know I already sang it's praises when it was originally in the theaters, but it is just that awesome. And it just came out on DVD this week, so you should all pick it up. Also, if you are a Reward Zone member at Bestbuy, if you buy the movie, you a free fairly huge Incredibles Lithograph (I believe it's like 11x16). It's pretty cool looking (if not a little overly big, so I don't have any place to really display it). Still happy to have gotten it though, for collector's sake.

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And last but not least, I finally went to go get my taxes done this week after a little blunder last week when I attempted to go but when me and Ariana arrived I realized that my W-2 forms must have fallen out of my bag at home when I was emptying other stuff out (what was that about me being "smooth" again?), so I had to go again this week. Thankfully things turned out ok, so it helps relieve some of the pain of me having to pay that stupid ticket, now I just gotta hope I don't lose another $130 on top of it due to my whole WWE ticket fiasco, lol. Wish me luck on that one too!

I am so smooth...

... I can't believe the bonehead move i just pulled off.

Basically, last night Ariana told me about this commercial she saw for this WWE- Raw/Smackdown "Supershow" at MSG on Mon. April 18th. What it is, is it's the taping of both Smackdown AND Raw in the same night for the price of one (which is pretty freakin cool).

And so since it is in the week right after my birthday I was psyched to go.

Well the tix were supposed to go on sale tomorrow at noon, but I got an e-mail saying there was an internet pre-sale today. So I after some searching, I found the password to the pre-sale (b/c I know where to look), and got 2 great seats for the show for me and Ariana.

This is where the bonehead play comes in though.. I'm all excited for this thing here at my office, when i overhear the other people talking about this Annual Conference we have to go to in April and how the turnout for it isn't looking too good (only about 50 people so far). And THAT is when my heart started racing...

I FORGOT ABOUT THE FREAKIN ANNUAL CONFERENCE!

I was hoping against hope it wasn't during the week that I had a feeling it was going to be, but sadly it was. The damn conference is from Apr 17-20 out in Cape May, NJ interfering with the damn wrestling show.

I could have kicked myself in the ass... I am so freakin pissed off right now, cuz Ticketmaster does not do refunds, and I just spent like $127 on these 2 seats (like I said, they are very good seats). And my spot in the conference along with the down payment on the hotel room has already been reserved.

So now I gotta figure out what the hell to do. Do I now bring my own car and drive out to the conference myself instead of going in the van with everyone, so I can drive back and forth that Monday night (which I really don't wanna do b/c it's at least a 2 and a half hour drive), or take a train or bus (which I also don't wanna do b/c that would cost extra money), or do I try to somehow get out of this thing by throwing a few "white lies" at my boss all like "well my family just told me they were gonna surprise me for my birthday with expensive tickets to a show that Monday, and they can't return them, can I get out of this conference?" (which is what I'd like to happen, b/c even though my bosses want us to go this year b/c of the stuff happening with the Federal budget cutting our programs and stuff, it's obviously not gonna be very effective if we only have like 50+ people registered- meaning that there will be less than 100 i'm sure in the end). Plus, it's heavily rumored the guy in charge of our programs who reports to Bush will not show up b/c i mean why would he want to? He'd have to show up in front of a bunch of people to tell them they are gonna be out of a job soon... i wouldn't want to do that either. So if there is no gov't representation at this thing, what's the point? B/c last year's conference was an utter waste in my opinion. All we did was freeze our asses off in a sub-zero conference room listening to things that had nothing to do with us. The only upside was that it was in Puerto Rico.

My final option is ebay... but I dunno how successful that would be. B/c while it IS a great deal, and the seats are really good, WWE shows don't tend to sell out as much anymore, so I MIGHT have a hard time getting rid of them.

That is unless any of you would like to take them off my hands? or maybe someone u know? If so it would be a big help, so lemme know.

But yeah just had to share that, b/c I'm still annoyed at myself for not checking my palm-pilot first... oh well...like I said I am "smooth."

Sigh...

So I went downtown today to the Parking Violations Bureau to argue my case. Only thing was, I had to take the 5 train to get down there. And I'm sure all of you heard about the crazyiness with the MTA today on the 4,5 train lines, but I did not when I headed over to the train station (although I found out shortly into the trip). So I arrive at the 5 train station at like 7:40am, and a train doesn't arrive til 8:10am. Now I know the 5 line doesn't have the best service, but damn that was ridiculous...

So not only did it take a half hour to even get ON a train, but then it took almost an hour and a half just to get down to Fulton Street. I swear at some points the train was running so slow that I could have probably walked downtown faster... so that sucked.

But of course that couldn't be the ONLY annoying thing of the day. Sadly the people at the damn Violations Bureau once again screwed me over and wouldn't let me see a judge (despite being told on the phone I could). I made an uproar while I was there though and even had them bring a supervisor out to see me so I could try to get my situation resolved.

Sadly, it didn't go as well as planned. They were like an immovable object, so I was forced to pay the late fee while I was there, but I put in a request for an appeal, and thankfully the lady at the appeals desk was nicer than the other assholes there and set me up with an appeal hearing tomorrow between 11am-12pm. So I just gotta say a prayer and see what happens.

But yeah, just had to share that annoyance... (I hope the 5 line isn't as bad tomorrow as it was this morning, otherwise things aren't looking up...)

Wrestlers apparently have cruddy relationship problems

I had meant to put up this in the post last week but I forgot. It still is just as relevant if not more this week though. It's part of a convo I had with Charles.

Chaz (10:48:45 AM): oh man
Chaz (10:49:17 AM): Matt Hardy and Lita broke up-
Chaz (10:49:32 AM): and apparently, it's playing out on the internet, somewhat, which is too funny-
Chaz (10:50:13 AM): On Matt Hardy's website- his "Matt Fact" window says:

Matt (E)-Fact #5:

Matt hates being lied to and having his trust broken.
Chaz (10:50:25 AM): lolol
SuperSaiyaJinDX (10:50:34 AM): i heard they broke up but i don't know details
SuperSaiyaJinDX (10:50:36 AM): lolol
SuperSaiyaJinDX (10:50:38 AM): oh no
Chaz (10:52:45 AM): yeah, that's just funny
Chaz (10:54:01 AM): oh my god
Chaz (10:54:07 AM): then there are some MORONS on the message board
Chaz (10:54:17 AM): Hardyz4Life says:
Chaz (10:54:20 AM): This is so sad. Someone needs to tell Matt that Kane is just pretending? Right? I mean Lita's not REALLY married to him...I don't think. I just don't see why Matt would be upset. I thought they would be together for ever, and would get married (for real) and like be the first husband and wife tag team champions and stuff...
Chaz (10:54:35 AM): lmao
Chaz (10:59:04 AM): oh sweet lord
SuperSaiyaJinDX (11:08:41 AM): lolol
SuperSaiyaJinDX (11:08:45 AM): oh good lord
SuperSaiyaJinDX (11:09:10 AM): that is freakin funny
SuperSaiyaJinDX (11:09:25 AM): but see! this is the sad thing! the majority of people out there are MORONS!
SuperSaiyaJinDX (11:09:33 AM): the world is filled with idiots
Chaz (11:09:46 AM): seriously
Chaz (11:09:50 AM): Or scary lookin people-
SuperSaiyaJinDX (11:10:03 AM): we may not realize it as much cuz we've surrounded ourselves with fairly intelligent people but for the most part we are all in the minority

I post this mostly b/c the quote from the Hardy fan is freakin hysterical and also b/c the Matt Hardy/Lita situation got even uglier since this convo happened.

Apparently, Lita cheated on Matt Hardy with another wrestler. That wrestler was just revealed this week to be- Edge. This is makes it messier than the usual break-up b/c Edge is (well was now) very good friends with Matt Hardy, oh and Edge is also MARRIED- to Val Venis' sister.

Smell that drama!

So yeah, all of those guys are also on the same show- Raw, and have to work together (there were plans to have Matt Hardy come back to TV in an angle involved with Lita). But now it's just really messy and everyone is wondering what's gonna happen.

Another thing, which I know I shouldn't be making fun of, but well I just gotta mention it, is that Lita is a "face" (aka Good guy), and in her last feud she was facing the awesomely bitchy Trish Stratus. Trish made TONS of comments referring to Lita as a slut, but did it in such over the top ways that you knew it wasn't true and she was just doing her part and acting like a bitch.

The final remark Trish made to Lita though, was the night after Trish won the Women's title from Lita in a match where Lita seriously injured her leg. Trish made a comment to the effect of "Your leg injury might have you lying on your back for a few weeks, but we all know that's a position you're quite used to (wink wink). Cuz we all know, that despite your injury, your legs are still open for business."

And mind you, this was WEEKS before anyone had ANY inkling of the Lita/Edge thing.

So now it's just funny, b/c while Trish was trying to be all bitchy and evil, she wound up being right. Which in my mind makes Trish more awesome (what can I say, I tend to like the heels).

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Oh and that's not the only wrestling relationship going to hell. I just watched this past week's episode of the Surreal Life (in which Chyna of former WWF fame, is a cast member). And during this episode her former fiance (and also former WWE Wrestler) X-Pac (who some of you may remember as 1-2-3 Kid or Syxx) showed up to try to "sweep her off her feet."

And man did things just get sooooo messy.

Now I USED to like X-Pac, back when he first joined Degeneration X. But as time passed, I grew to really dislike him as a character. And I think it was partially b/c he would act like a complete dick. But this was different than how say someone like Trish who I just mentioned before. She "acts" like a bitch, but you can tell it's her doing the part of the character. X-Pac just came across like he is a dick in real life.

And his appearance on this last episode of Surreal Life proved I was correct. He is just such TRASH! Telling Chyna "I love you" but then cursing every two seconds and making her feel like shit (btw, Chyna admitted on the show she had attempted suicide in the past, and it was b/c of this dude).

Now I may not like Chyna either (she has a very grating personality), but I just had to sympathize with her. It was just really messy and kinda creepy to watch.

And after seeing and hearing about things like this, it kinda makes me think about all the wrestlers who have died young, and what their lives must have been like, and it's just sad.

So I hope things turn out well for all people involved in these current situations.

When the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing...

I'm so freakin pissed right now!

Lemme give u a quick background to the story...

Ok, so back in July I got a parking ticket for Double parking. It was a BS ticket in the first place b/c my grandfather was in the car at the time and could have moved it but the cop was being an asshole and gave the ticket anyways. It was for $115 (yeah, ouch).

So I was pretty aggravated by that and was gonna fight the ticket but I really just did NOT feel like going back to the place to fight tix b/c I had JUST been there like barely over a month before to fight another stupid ticket (which i did wind up winning and thus not having to pay). But yeah, I just so was not in the mood to have to go back. So i decided to fight the ticket by mail (which in retrospect was a dumb move but I didn't know better at the time... oh well).

So it took a few months to get a response. I wound up getting it at the end of November and sadly it was Guilty. I was pissed but there wasn't much I could do, so I just paid the ticket on 12/3/04 (I sent it by mail and it was within the 7 days I needed to pay it).

So that's that right?

Well apparently not. At the end of January I get a form in the mail saying I owe $145 for the ticket (the $115 ticket plus $30 in late fees, b/c they said it was 2 months late). This was obviously a mistake so I called the number on the form to ask what was going on. I told them I paid the ticket, they looked it up and they saw I was correct and they said, it must have just crossed in the mail and not worry about it.

So while I found it kind of odd that it could have "crossed in the mail" considering I sent it the first week of December and I was getting this letter the last week of January, they had it in their system that it was paid and said not to worry, so i didn't.

So now THAT's the end of the story right?

Well while on all accounts it SHOULD have been, apparently the Dept of Finance thought otherwise, as just last week I got ANOTHER notice this time saying i owe $60.

I was just like "wha???" It shows that i paid the $115 but that I owe $60 in late fees. This just didn't make sense b/c it was PAID ON TIME!!!

So i looked on my bank statements to prepare to call and complain and I noticed. Despite the fact that I made AND MAILED a check to the Dept of Finance on 12/3/04, it was not cashed until 1/25/05... which is like a month and a half later!

So now I knew why they thought the payment was late, BUT that is not my fault, it's THEIRS!

Having this knowledge I called the help hotline that was on the summons for $60. (Oh and btw, this isn't just any old summons, this sucker says "The Dept of Finance has entered a judgment against you... "and that "NOW YOU ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES..." which include things like "assigning your judgment debt to a collection agency" and "SEIZING ANY OF YOUR MOTOR VEHICLES AND SELLING IT AT AUCTION, etc"

This of course has me freaking out a bit. So I call and explain to the lady on the phone this situation and how the late charges are incorrect and that they need to be removed. She goes on to inform me that they are just a help hotline that tells people where to go or what to do, but they can't do anything about any summons.

She gave me an address to write to, but I didn't wanna wait for things to happen by mail, so I asked if there was anywhere i could go. She told me I could just go to the normal Traffic Violations Office over on Williamsbridge Rd. So that's where i went yesterday, and that's where things got even more confusing.

I get on the line (which thankfully wasn't that long) and speak to the lady there and try to tell her my story but she isn't interested and just asks what I want. I give her a brief rundown just saying that I got late charges that are a mistake. She looks at my paper and tells me "there is nothing we can do for you here, you've already been found guilty, this is a Notice of Judgment Enforcement." I told her "but I PAID it, and I have proof (I had brought my bank statements, etc) and she said I would need to speak to an executive judge. But instead of giving me a number and having me wait she told me to just go to the guard in the front and to ask to speak to an executive judge. So I did that and the lady took my name down.

I waited for about 15 mins and then a lady came to the front and called my name. But instead of having me go to the back and discuss everything,she just talked to me right at the entrance.

Thing is, she wasn't much of a help. She obviously had NO interest in what I had to say. I tried explaining what was going on but she just kept cutting me off all like

"Have you had a hearing?"

I was like "well I got this ticket in the summer..."

"But did you have a hearing already?"

"Well I got this ticket..."

"But did you have a hearing? I need to know so I can get an idea of where we stand..."

I was still determined to try and give my story though so I continued- "Well I got this ticket in the summer, and I fought it by mail..."

"So you did have a hearing?"

"Well yeah..."

"So what was the verdict?"

"It was guilty, but that's not what I am fighting... I keep getting these late fees, but I have proof I paid it on time..."

"Well you need to go to the office there to your right and find out how much you owe..."

"But I don't owe anything, i paid it, and they're still saying i have $60 in late fees..."

"Like I said, you need to go to that office to find out how much you still owe..."

At this point i was getting frustrated so I just spit out "BUT I KNOW HOW MUCH I OWE!!! it says $SIXTY DOLLARS but this is a mistake, cuz I paid the ticket on time!"

She was then just like "oh...." and went on to babble stuff about how I need to appeal that, but it can't be done here and gave me a form for appeals and told me I have to mail that in.

I was just like "but when I called they said i needed to come here. if I do it by mail, then isn't there a chance that while this is going on in the mail, I could accrue even more late fees?" She flat out told me "yes, you probably will. So what you should do is pay it, and then appeal that decision."

I tried to argue with her saying that I shouldn't have to pay it b/c it's a MISTAKE and I had proof, but she just pointed to the form she gave me and continued about how i needed to mail that in all filled out. I then asked "but wait, can't I just do it here?" She told me no, and I was like "so there is NOTHING that can be done for me here right now?" And once again she told me no, and that I just had to mail that form in. She then said good day and left.

So I'm still all pissed and as I'm walking away I start reading this form, and it just so does not match up with what I really need. It says "Use this form ONLY if you want to request an appeal of your hearing decision."

I don't want to appeal my decision... Hell i COULDN"T b/c it's well past the 30 days. I just want them to take off the damn late fees they are trying to charge me b/c they are saying I am 3 months late when I am not.

So now I just have no freakin idea what I should do. I know if I pay the late fees and appeal it, that I will never see that money again. But if I wait and try to do this stuff by mail, I will prob accrue MORE fees (and the next fee will jump up to a total of $100 and the one after that would be $150- even more than the ticket itself) and THEN there is the possibility they may tell me there is nothing I could do and would have to pay that amount (which would absolutely suck).

So right now it's looking like a "Lose-Lose" situation. And it's just so not freakin fair...

I'm gonna try calling the people again and explain what happens, b/c like I said, people are telling me all sorts of different things proving that as my title states- that the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing, b/c if they did, they could just give me a straight answer of what I actually need to do to get this taken care of.

So wish me luck everybody, and if anyone has ANY suggestions or information on what I should do, it would be greatly appreciated.

Star Wars Goodness

Ok, so earlier tonight Fox decided to air the brand new Star Wars trailer for Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith "during" an episode of The OC.

Well I could give a rat's ass about the OC, and I was at Ariana's place and we were watching Smackdown with her Dad. But I would switch to ch. 5 during commercials to see if I would catch it. The commercial breaks actually wound up coinciding for once, which was cool, but nada. At least, not until I tried one last time at like 8:57pm.

The OC was JUST ending and as it was I turned to Ariana and was like "Well I guess we must have missed it, unless they decided to be VERY evil and make everyone wait until the show was over for the preview."

And right on cue as the show ended, the preview began.

Now before I speak about the preview itself, I just gotta say a big fat "HA HA!" (in Nelson-like fashion) to anyone who was stupid enough to sit through the whole episode just to see this preview. And also shame on Fox for tricking those poor geeks into watching a show I'm sure 90% of them would NEVER have watched under normal circumstances, when they COULD have just said "Stay tuned for AFTER the OC for the Star Wars preview," instead of the false promise that it might happen sometime during one of the mid-show commercial breaks.

But in the end, who cares, b/c I lucked into it without having to watch more than 30 seconds of the OC, so hooray!

As for the preview itself- just freakin awesome.

I mentioned in the last post how I am really looking forward to the movie, what with all the books and comics and stuff. Well after seeing this preview I must say that I am now just absolutely giddy.

It just looks so bad-ass... May 19th can't come soon enough...

Change isn't always good

Woke up this morning to Cold Pizza (as always) but I was distressed to find that they have made some changes. Basically I noticed two of the female hosts (Kit Hoover and Thea Andrews) were nowhere to be seen, and then they introduced some new older female co-host. I immediately knew this did not bode well. So I turned on my computer and did a quick internet search to see what the hell was going on.

And sadly, I wound up being right- the people at ESPN2 have decided to make some changes to the show. Basically they are gonna focus more on Sports news. And well... that's just pretty freakin dedundant. ESPN and all it's family of channels HAVE a billion shows centered on sports news (umm, Hello? Sportscenter anyone?). So now they're focusing on sports news, and pulling away a bit from the other stuff that made this show different (this show was cool b/c they spoke about movies, music, gadgets, TV shows, etc and not JUST sports). And the final change was that the two female hosts are now gone, to be replaced by this new lady and that just sucks.

First off Kit Hoover and Thea Andrews were pretty cool. Kit was all bubbly and cute and fun, and Thea was the more respected journalist (and was easy on the eyes too). They also had good chemistry between themselves and the other co-host Jay.

Now they brought in this new chick, who's all old (well not really, but prob mid to late 30's), not hot, and is way too serious. It's like HELLO, this is a morning show, it's supposed to be FUN and laid back. This chick is acting like it's Sportscenter or the sports segment on the 11 o'clock news or something.

So yeah that just kind of annoyed me, I'm so writing in to complain.

But man, that's two shows in 2 weeks the networks have screwed around with that I'm big fans of. They need to learn to just let good things be...

And many become one...

I had been meaning to update the blog sporadically with little things throughout the week, but due to various circumstances I have been unable to, so instead I will just put it all in one big blog today. I will try to make smaller and more frequent posts in the future though, so people aren't reading freakin novels everytime they visit here.

But anyways let's get this thing rolling...

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Rented 3 more movies last week (the last of the 99 cent deal). This time I got Shark Tale (for the family), Mulan 2 (for Ariana) and Chronicles of Riddick (b/c they didn't have the other movies I had wanted to get).

I watched Shark Tale on Sunday night with the family, it was fun but it probably ranks on the very bottom of all the movies of it's kind (like Shrek, Incredibles, Finding Nemo, etc). But that still makes it better than a lot of other movies out there.

I also watched Riddick the day I had to return the movies, and damn was that thing confusing. I dunno if it was just me not paying as much attention to it (b/c I had a lot of stuff to do that day and was just rushing to see the movie before I had to return it) or if it was just really that "out there." I'm gonna guess it was the latter though. So yeah, it wasn't outright terrible, but it was only "ehh."

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Spent Friday down in the city. I went down to Lincoln Center to hand in my grad school application in person, just so they couldn't try and pull any stunts with me like last year. After that though I had a lot of time to kill since Ariana was gonna have to stay late at work busy with an assignment, so I decided to wander around the city.

So from LC on 60th and Columbus, I made my way all the way down to 33rd and 6th (making a few stops in between). Among those stops, I went to Jim Hanley's Universe and Midtown Comics in search of some missing Young Justice and G.I. Joe comics. I turned up mostly empty-handed though, only finding one issue of G.I. Joe that i needed (but at least that gets me one issue closer to completing the entire original Marvel run- I only have 9 more issues left to go).

But yeah it was quite a walk (b/c obviously i had to make my way back also), so I was pretty tired after. It was a good workout though.

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The highlight of my weekend though was definitely on Saturday. After the annoyance in the morning with having to wake up early to go to a TRiO sponsored event at Bronx Community College, the day picked up and me and Ariana headed down to the city to meet up with Joe, Marisa, Henry and Maryellen for dinner (at Asahi) and then to go see Monty Python's "Spamalot".

Henry of course brought along a coconut and so after dinner the guys galloped our way towards the theater while each of our respective girlfriends subtly stayed a good 10 feet behind us, wondering why they love us.

We definitely got a bit of attention for our antics. We got a bunch of stares, people laughing, and then comments from people who were probably also making their way to the play (or were just big Monty Python fans). So that was cool.

As for the show itself, it was absolutely HYSTERICAL. I was lmao throughout almost the entire thing. They kept things true to the movie for the most part with only a few changes but mostly changes that just made it more linear as a whole. And also cuz they really wouldn't be able to translate certain things from the movie to the stage.

But everything they changed worked and they kept in pretty much almost every major scene (the one lone thing some of us missed was the part where Lancelot ran into the castle killing everyone, they still did it, but mostly off stage, so i was kinda disappointed, but that is VERY minor b/c everything else they added in totally made up for it).

Each of the actors was having a blast doing this performance and it showed. The extra character they added in- the Lady of the Lake, was also a lot of fun, and stole every scene she was in.

Then to top off the whole night, after the show we waited at the exit for the actor's to come out and we met all of them. Getting their autographs was a little bit tougher but thanks to persistance and the actors's sympathies towards Ariana's pleadings of "Little person in the back here!" Each of us got the autographs we desired (I personally got Hank Azaria, voice of Homer Simpson- Whoo-Hoo! and David Hyde Pierce- Niles from Frasier for the clueless ones out there)..

We then continued to make fools of ourselves by "galloping" around the outside of the theater for pictures and a video (and also for the fun of it b/c come on, when the hell else are we gonna be able to do this again)?

So yeah, a fun time was definitely had by all.

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I've noticed I have no more time to play video games thanks to my DVR. I've been meaning to start Star Wars: KOTOR 2 (or finish the Grand Theft Auto games) but everyday when I come home from work, I have tons of stuff saved on my DVR that I need to watch that by the time I finish it, it's time for bed.

Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, b/c I'm catching up on some great shows (as I've mentioned in previous posts), but I'm realizing that it's gonna make it REALLY tough for me once I get engrossed in an RPG like KOTOR 2 which will prob take me a good 40-50 hours to complete (over the next two months most likely).

It doesn't help that I still keep seeing games coming out that I want- like this past week, I went to Bestbuy and saw Tekken 5- and I was VERY tempted to buy it. Lord help me...

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Sadly, one less show I'll have to worry about watching is my favorite anime- Yu Yu Hakusho. It used to be on Toonami everyday at 5:30, then they moved it to just on Saturdays at 9:30pm (which i was NEVER home for to see). But now, since I got my DVR, i've been able to watch it again (and lucky me, they had just restarted the series from the 1st episode). However, I noticed that this week they are starting a new anime on Saturdays at 9:30 and I looked through the schedule and have not seen Hakusho on any other time spot.

This really annoyed me, especially b/c as I mentioned they had started it over from the beginning so I would have been able to watch the entire series. But now they are trying to deny me of this. I'm seriously considering writting a letter to Cartoon Network to complain. I'm hoping this is just temporary and they bring it back to the lineup though. I'll be really upset if they don't b/c it truly is probably the best anime out there right now (not crap like Yu-Gi-Oh and stuff).

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I've been going through some of my "older" comics which I've bought but just hadn't had time to read. Lots of times I buy a ton of comics in a week but don't get through them all. I read some right away but there are a handful of series' that I'm actually YEARS behind in- like X-Men. Well another one of those books was Young Justice (the series that eventually became Teen Titans). I've been meaning to catch up with that series for AWHILE, and I finally have for the past two weeks, and actually last night I finished the series (minus the last issue sadly b/c I realized I never had it). So after going online and finding a summary of what happened in that final issue, I can now go on to read Teen Titans (which I have about 21 issues to catch up on). So I'm pretty psyched for that.

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Other stuff I'm psyched for- Star Wars: Episode 3 (and the Clone Wars cartoon preceding it).

As you all know (or very well should know), I'm a HUGE Star Wars geek, and well the final movie in the series is coming out in May, so we're entering the time of year where my anticipation is reaching an all-time high. Now while the first movie was disappointing, and the second movie- while fun, left a lot of loose threads, this final movie should be pretty awesome.

First off, it's gonna be pure action- too many fights are gonna happen that will prevent Lucas from having too much downtime in the movie to screw up the plot- so that's a plus. Also, the movie will have a decidedly darker tone- like Empire Strikes Back (the best movie in the entire Star Wars series) and might possibly come with a PG-13 rating (the first for the franchise). So my hopes are definitely high.

-One thing that came up and bothered me though is that for some reason they are deciding to put the final Star Wars trailer during an episode of The OC next week.

THE HELL!?!

I hate when studios do that! They've done it for Spider-Man and Harry Potter and other big movies, and they always stick it during a show I have NO desire to watch. Thank God I have my DVR now, so I can just record the show and fastforward past all the crap to just watch the trailer.

-But that's about the only bump along the way for the movie hype. The new season of the Clone Wars cartoon airs this month (five 12-minute episodes instead of a bunch of short 3-4 minute long ones). So I'm very psyched for that as the last season ended on a very high note.

The novels and comic books are also definitely doing their part to keep me excited. The artwork for the comics is some of the best I've seen right now and the stories are pretty good themselves and makes a nice bridge from Episode 2 to Episode 3. It's also cool b/c the company doing the comics- Dark Horse is working along with the company doing the novels- Del Rey to make sure the continuities match for the most part. So now I've got TONS of backstory to each of the characters which flesh out everything even more. You don't need to read the books or comics to enjoy the movies, but if you do, I guarantee it would make it more enjoyable b/c there is just SO much going on that the movies will not be able to go into detail about. Such as all the reasons Anakin finally turns to the Dark Side. Sure the "BIG" reasons will be in the movie, but the movie won't be able to convey the years of war Anakin has seen and all the things he and the other Jedi experienced that will be the foundation to all that will actually happen in the movies.

One such book (which I actually just finished about 2 weeks ago) that really developed a character well was- Shatterpoint, which focused on the character of Mace Windu.

When i frst bought the novel, i was tentative to start reading it b/c in my head I was like "I'm probably gonna be bored b/c this book is pretty much ALL about Mace who is a character that hasn't gotten much screentime in the movies. I may not be invested enough in the character to make it through a whole book about him."

But boy, how wrong I was!

Shatterpoint is probably one of the greatest novels I have ever read (right up there with the Timothy Zahn Star Wars trilogy and his following dualogy). The book totally makes the character of Mace Windu come alive and while reading it you can just totally imagine Samuel L. Jackson saying these lines and acting the way he is written. The new supporting characters were also very well fleshed out. My favorite was Nick Rostu, who had such awesome chemistry with Mace. Nick was basically the "Randall" (from Clerks) of the book- he got all the great lines.

The action in the book was also superbly written, especially the huge one on one hand to hand combat match Mace Windu had against the main baddie of the book- Kar Vastor. It was also surprisingly quite violent and bloody for a Star Wars novel, which was also pretty cool. And in the end, despite the fact the novel focuses only focuses on one Jedi on one planet, it has strong parallels to the Clone Wars themselves, and provides a deeper understanding of what is going on in them.

But anyways, here's hoping there is a scene in the movie that shows Mace fighting in the Vaapaad lightsaber style. If they translate it to the screen even CLOSE to how it was described in the book, it would be a sight to see.

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Another thing completely off topic to get excited about- BASEBALL SEASON is starting!

I'm really hoping the Yanks offer another deal like the one we got last year for 6 games for $48 (or something close to that). I just really wanna go to a bunch of Yankee games this year, cuz the Yanks should have an awesome season.

I'm actually also interested in going to one or two Mets games. My mom's husband is a huge SF Giants fan, so I'm gonna go with him and my grandfather (and anyone else who might be interested) to see the Mets vs Giants on Fri June 3rd or Sat June 4th.

Then for myself, I really wanna go see the Marlins again this season (and it should be quite a matchup with the lineup the Mets have now) so I'm planning on going to see Mets vs Marlins on Fri. July 1st (which also happens to be Fireworks night).

So if anyone is interested in joining me for either or both of those games, get back to me ASAP as I will prob purchase the tix for those games this weekend.

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I'm going into concert withdrawal here... I haven't been to a show since Yellowcard- in NOVEMBER! This is probably (no definitely!) the longest concert drought I've had since I started going to shows back in 1998. I feel like I'm gonna start twitching or something real soon if I don't get my fix. But sadly there isn't much coming around (thanks to the suck ass music scene Depression we are currently in).

Velvet Revolver is coming to town with Hoobastank for shows at Jones Beach and PNC, but they are both in May- and both arenas are outdoors, and well, it might not be all that warm yet by that time. So I'm still debating that one. I'm also waiting for the Killers to get their asses back from Europe and tour here again. And I'd also like to see Green Day if/when they swing by again in support of their American Idiot album. And I hope that is soon!

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And last but not least! The new Judas Priest album- Angel of Retribution came out this week! I picked it up on Tuesday and it is pretty freakin good. They are another band I can't wait to see go on tour again, as I will be one of the first to get tix.

And well, stuff just came up for me to do here at work, so I'm out (which works out, b/c I think I've done enough babbling for the day anyways).