**crunch**

So I'm sitting in my car fiddling with my bag when all of a sudden I hear a crunch, and get jarred over a foot. I whip my head around in time to see and feel a big white POS disentangling it's self from the side of my car.

OK, so I'm a little pissed. I get out of the car and inspect the damage while the other driver finishes parking (badly I might add), and find that the lower part of my rear passenger door is partially caved in and pretty scratched up.

I knew immediately that I wasn't going to file a claim. The $300 dollars or so I would get to fix the door (or buy a Wii, lets be realistic) would be quickly erased by the fact that my insurance would go up by $25 a month.

The other driver finished her inexpert parking and brought out her insurance papers and asked if I wanted to trade info. I said no, and told her that it would just fuck up my insurance,but If she wanted to give me something to help compensate for the damage that would be great. I let her know I wasn't very happy about the side of my car looking like shit, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

She then proceeded to put her info back in the car, gather up the other people in her car and leave. She did not apologize, did not say another word just walked away, glaring at me.

It's not liked I yelled, it's not like I called her any names. I swore a little, and showed that I was unhappy. She just slinked away like a fucking coward. If I wasn't in the car, I'm fairly sure she would have took off with out leaving a note.

Bunch of fucking savages in this town.

Make Shit Up

Okay, so with the exceptions of the Drag Me To Hell and the upcoming District 9, it seems like all of this summer's sci-fi type entertainment have been re imaginings, remakes, sequels, interpretations of a toy based marketing opportunity, or some combination there of.

Don't get me wrong, I like some of this stuff (new Star Trek was awesome, and I'm sure the new Harry Potter is just fine), but how about a little bit of originality? Or, filming a book who's themes haven't been done to death? Let The Right One In & True Blood are great and all, but they are still vampire stories.

Of course a lot of this stuff is drek. The Transformers sequel was stunningly bad, and my expectations were pretty low. Between the racist caricatures in robot form, testicle jokes, rampant sexism, nonsensical & self contradictory metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, and the most obvious McGuffin in the history of McGuffins, I'm surprised it wasn't a George Lucas film (Okay, that's not fair, Lucas doesn't do testicle jokes). You will of course have to drag me kicking and screaming into the GI Joe movie. If I am to be forced to watch it, I must be made pliant with alcohol before, during, and after the film.

I see that Joe Haldeman's Forever War is in the planning stages with Ridley Scott attached, and that's promising. However: he has now signed to do an Alien prequel. I'll probably like it (anything is an improvement over AvP: Requiem), but it's ground that's been covered.

District 9 does look good though. It's plot sounds engaging, it has power armor/mechs, and Peter Jackson's involvement is usually a good sign. Beyond that we have 9, which could be great, or a big build up to nothing. It's premise is interesting and it's voice cast impressive, but it's produced by Tim Burton and I hope he kept his grubby little hands out of the visual design.

Do not go see Transformers

Do not watch Transformers: ROTF. It's really as loud, dumb, long and offensive as the critics say.

Instead, go see a Serenity Charity Screening. You'll feel better, really.

Obamarama

So it's official, Obama v. McCain in the big smackdown of November '08.

I don't share my sister's hope in this matter. I'm a bit more pragmatic about these things, and I want Obama to win to protect some of our basic fucking liberties.

Do I think he's the second coming of FDR? No, but he's less likely to appoint Supreme Court Justices that are going to strip away our reproductive rights, or be outright hostile to our civil liberties.

He won't do much for gay rights (I don't think he'll do anything against them either, but I want progress, not stagnation), and I'm pessimistic on what can be done to end the clusterfuck war that we've been illegally drawn into.

It's also a bit of basic math: President Obama will probably do about one to four things in a month that I'm not crazy about, and will really piss me off about three or four times a year. President McCain will do about four things a week that really piss me off.

As a comparison, when Dubya opens his mouth and says anything at all, I get really pissed off.

Forward Glare + Headphones = No

The simple mathematical formula above is something that I post for the benefit of the "political panhandlers" of our fair city.

Now, don't get me wrong, I actually support, and in fact donate a small amount to some of these organizations (ACLU, Greenpeace, etc) , but the standing on the corner with a clipboard and a windbreaker method of drumming up donations has got to stop.

They often stand in front of BLB01 (they've been banned them from the porch), pull guilt trips about pandas, and basically get in the way. There has got to be a better way to reach the common man than hiring pushy kids with boundary issues to harass people on the street.

So remember canvassers, when I'm walking to work with my head phones and a distant forward glare: I don't want to stop and talk about pandas, I don't want to give you my credit card number, and I don't want to listen to your guilt trip. When you have to lean over and wave frantically in front of me to get my attention, I have probably seen you, and am ignoring you on purpose.

Shouting at me and sticking your hand in front of my chest as I attempt to walk by is a good damn way to get yelled at, and if you have a problem with that, you need to get tough, or get a different job.