Tonight I went to watch a movie with my sister. I looked through the showing flicks and none of them looked like it would be very good. I mean just a bunch of chick flicks and some crappy horror films. However one movie that I had never heard of caught my eye. It was called Stay.

The only reason I thought this would be the movie to watch was because it was a psychological thriller, and I dig most of those.

Well I am going to give this a big fat “Smartass Recommends” on this one IF you like movies that REALLY make you think. My sister called this a huge Mind Fuck that made her head hurt to which I had to try to explain a lot of it at the end.

Hell it didn’t make much sense to me either, until the end when they tied everything up perfectly. I gotta say that this is better than Memento. The movie will probably bomb, because nobody has ever heard of it, like Swordfish which was a phenominal flick that didn’t get enough press. I mean there were only 3 other people in the entire theater and I have never seen a commercial for it.

So this post is the commercial. I’d explain it, but I don’t really want to since the ending changes your perception of the rest of the movie so I can’t just give you a solid “this movie is about” thing. So just go watch it, if you like movies that confuse you and make you think. If you don’t, stay away from this one.

Otherwords, Happy Halloween! Cj Christy on Mania TV (you can watch that on the TV page of this website) was dressing up as a math geek, well I LOVED her t-shirt. It said “your (sq. root symbol) -1 Girlfriend. Basically I understood that one, that translates to “your imaginary girlfriend”, what a classy shirt! Good Stuff.

Made ya look… ;)

“It’s good to be the King” – Mel Brooks (The History of the World pt. 1)

So I didn’t really take into account the fact that it was Halloween. Ok it really wasn’t, I mean that is the 31st, BUT that being a Monday, and this being a Saturday it’s a no-brainer adjustment.

I say I didn’t take it into account, as If I had I wouldn’t have drank 3 shots of Absinthe @ 7pm. I had been having sore muscles, and no pills I decided that the best way to fix that was Absinthe. Well at just before 8 I got a phone call, and lucky them; I was still awake!!!! This stuff normally nocks me on my ass.

Well I went and met up with them at hotel a few miles from downtown. Well while we were waiting for a cab I was informed of a Wedding going on downstairs. Not being able to resist, I went down to crash for a little while. Sadly I was none to impressed with the seemingly single girls, so I wandered off as quick as I came.

Now being the biggest event that Wisconsin throws, in which every year riots break out and people get maced. Every year the town tries to cancel the event to no avail, it’s to big to stop. People would still come even if it was “canceled”.

Gotta say my favorite part of this event every year is the fact that every woman out seems to have absolutely no inhibitions. I mean a good 90% of their costumes contain less material than a swimming suit, which is A-OK with me!

Well In the spirit of taking a cab, I kept drinking. I said I wasn’t going to pay for a drink all night, and well…. I didn’t, but it never ended.

I mean I had my shots at home, then I had 3 captain and cokes at the hotel, then we went out and I had a Saki Bomb, and another double captain and coke, then 1.5 jumbo Long Island Tea’s. People were still trying to get me to drink more after that, but I refused to get sick and know my limit.

At one point in the night a guy tried to start a fight with me. There were two cute girls sitting at my table while my friends were waiting in line for a bathroom. Well this guy felt that he was entitled to these girls for some reason, and he then told me that THEY wanted me to leave, and when I laughed at him he started rolling up his sleeves and said “we can do this here, or outside”. Impressed with my choices, I instead to just keep sitting down and start ignoring him and guess what… IT WORKED, he went away!

It’s 2am or so and one of my friends wanted to go to State Street, as we were on University a block off. I was not going to do any more drinking and I was the only one who could still hold my sentence structure together so I put the kabosh on that. To be honest I actually think she just WANTED to get maced AGAIN this year just to say that we were part of the riots!

As it was the cops were pulling people out of bars that were not on State Street and FORCING them to go to State St. No I am not kidding, they emptied a couple bars just to be able to “better control” where people were since they had over 100 cops on State St and they had fenced it off so that they could shove people around better. Well this sounded like a reason for people to riot to me!

Went back and got some Gumby’s Pizza, that didn’t show up until 4:30am! Slow ass MoFo’s, my drunk companions ordered and paid for it all, not that I was cheap but they were CRAZY, they ordered a large pizza and 20″ of Pokey Sticks!!!! It cost $32 bucks, and I was asleep by the time it got there, the next morning it was hardly touched, but I gotta say leftover Pokey Sticks (no I am not making this up, that’s what they are called.. .get it, I’m Gumby Damn it!) are pretty good!

Slept like shit, but didn’t get sick, and didn’t pass out like one person did (into a big heavy lump on the floor).

Good Times, Great Holidays (I would go through and color, and bold this but I don’t feel like rereading what I wrote, so suck it up and just read it instead of reading bold words.)

Due to being strong-armed into going out tonight after having a couple shots of Absinthe. I have decided to postpone information about the pufferfish.

I will however mention that I quit my job, and am once again gainfully self-employed.

So be happy, that means I spend entire days working on my website (like today for example) which is why some pages look flawless, and others (which I have not “fixed” to new method) look like ass.

So, as all of you now have lots of questions that you are planning to ask me. I thought I would take a pre-emptive strike and read your minds through remote-viewing and just answer the questions for you. So here is the list to all of them in no particular order.

Yes, I know it’s broken…. I’ll fix it tomorrow

Why yes, Thank You! ;)

Because I’m tired.

Don’t worry, the post about the puffer-fish is coming tomorrow (fine later TODAY, I get it, you don’t need to be all technical about it.)

Perhaps…

Not even a bit…. but if I were you I would lay off the mexican smack for awhile.

Yang.

No, If you don’t understand the answer, it’s because I was not answering your question. (and that goes for both of you thinking this question!)

Well, maybe a little bit…. It runs in my family…

Just lucky I guess…

Why not???? Well, besides the time and effort and frustration….

Fine, I’ll write about that LATER today, as well…

Why? What have you heard???

—————————————————

Man, you guys sure do have a lot of questions, you should get out more, maybe pick up a hobby…

Well, today was the day. The day I decided to quit. I only lasted 2 months, certainly not the longest I have gone. I learned a lot there. I still believe Zimbrick Honda to be as good as car sales gets. I just don’t feel like I belonged there.

Now the decision to quit was a pain in the mental ass (or whatever the verbal equivalent is)! I mean I just quit a $80-100k a year job!!!! Hell, I was good at it, and would of gotten even better with time!

So I am sure most people think *or know* I am nuts…. Or at least would if they didn’t personally know me, since all you have to do is talk to me for 3.23 minutes (or so) to figure out what I am passionate about. I had to be honest with myself, I didn’t enjoy what I was doing, I was good at it, and it was good for me… but I was not happy, so that’s the end of the story.

Well, perhaps there is a bit more story….

So I went in to quit gracefully. You know, 2+ weeks notice and hopefully a letgo saying “ok James, feel free to keep doing outside sales for us since it’s so damn natural for you to just sell things to people at random” or something like that. However the Sales Manager didn’t have the same idea in mind…

Now awhile back when I talked to both Sales Managers both of them had wanted me to stay, and were very nice about it, glad that I was willing to talk to them abou it. However when I decided to work for myself over working for them it was a different story with one of the Managers.

He said I would regret it, and told me that if I was going to leave that I should do it right then and there! I mean empty your desk, do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars! He said that if I wanted to leave he didn’t want me to talk to any of their customers, which is sad because I have nothing against the company, so they are missing out on some extra sales.

I was not in a hurry to leave as I wanted to say goodbye to everybody, which since that Manager (aka the emotional manager) decided he couldn’t take it and needed to go home directly after our conversation…. gave me plenty of time to talk to just about everybody.

So I can’t stay and get another somewhat helpful paycheck, but I did get some nice parting gifts. One of them being a computer monitor. Yes, I said that correctly, and NO I didn’t steal it. It was given to me earlier in the day by one of bigshots who had just gotten a new monitor, and didn’t want the old one. After several “are you sure?’s, I happily stuffed it in my car ;)

The other being, and yes I know you have all been waiting for this (how sad). A Pufferfish, with “squeeze and squirt action” Yes that’s right, I am quoting that directly off the original label that came with it. This was given to me after orientation, it has served me well for entertaining people while they are at my desk on numerous occasions.

I COULD leave it for the next person, but then I wouldn’t have it. So SMOKE YOU, IT’S MINE!

Lastly I worked out a deal with one of the nicest salesman there that I will get $50 bucks for every person I refer to him in the future. Now granted, that sucks compared to doing outside sales, but that means when people are looking for a car I still have a person to send them to. Get it, yes, I get $50 bucks, but you get the nicest salesman and a great car, so PLEASE keep asking me about cars :)

Hmm, I suppose now I need to make some more websites, or something, and fairly soon since I didn’t stay long enough to get ahead on my bills. Bah.

I have been feeling really behind lately. I mean I go to work and during the downtime, all I can think of is things that I could be doing at home. In turn I am actually considering quitting my job, to rebalance my life.

Oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned that on here before. Well basically it’s looking like I need to stay. I mean If I stay, I will make 3-4 times the amount of money I make working for myself. If I stay my debt will quickly be paid off, and I will be able to buy a new car and a house.

If I go, I will be able to get back on track with consistent sleep, exercise, websites, etc…

It’s funny, I am actually pretty good at this job, but I feel weird there. My gut says go, but my head says stay. I have never really been one to follow rational thought but I haven’t really been able to say why I want to go, or why I want to stay. I can’t come up with good enough reasons for either, so my head is all funked up.

Reasons I want to leave————————-

• Hate getting up early and commuting over beltline to work
• Freezing cold at work sitting right by door to side lot, that opens all the time
• Long hours, find it hard to stay on task… I don’t want to be selling ALL day, and when there are no customers, I am supposed to be doing followup, but I don’t have THAT many people to follow up with and I feel rotten just sitting around trying to learn more about cars etc..
• Half the customers are jerks, I mean I work at the best dealership in Madison, but people still going in expecting you to be an ass, so they start defensive and ready for it…
• Haven’t been exercising since I started, and I eat fast food everyday….. So health is deteriating.
• The people who do really well have been selling cars for 3-30 years, 50% of their sales come from referrals. I am impatient, and cannot see myself selling cars for 30 years.
• I am far behind where I want to be on my websites, and well…. enjoyment for life!
• I am not very competitive, you have to be to sell cars.
• I prefer working for myself, no pressure, no coworkers….
• Don’t like calling prospects all the time

Reasons I want to stay—————–

• Never get another chance to work there, I believe that this is the best dealership around, in reputation, product and in traffic. If I leave they won’t hire me back and I will never sell cars again. So if It’s just me being a stupid immature kid and a couple years down the line I want to sell cars, It wouldn’t be in this State.
• I would really like to pay off my debt, credit card and family both, when I was working for myself I was very slowly paying off the debt, but staying would pay it off fast.
• I have EXPENSIVE taste, I would like to buy a nice new car, the nice house I live in, and lots of other very nice, very expensive things.
• It’s good for me. I mean I have learned a lot already. Putting up with angry customers, coworkers, downtime, and car sales all requires patience… Something I tend to lack. It’s the only skill I cannot learn by browsing the internet

I think it would be easier to get fired. I think the only way that will happen is if I cannot make my numbers for the next 2 months which is not likely. It is really slow right now, but I am not exactly bad at sales so that probably won’t happen.

See I suffer from a case of EGO. I do not fear leaving because I know that I am talented enough to do whatever the hell I want to do, and cocky enough to know that I can do it myself, or get another job with ease. I do not fear ending up on the street, or being poor, but I tend to work better out of need instead of want. Since I do not NEED this job, my logic says to leave, but I really WANT this job, and want to succeed at it.

So my head is screwed up right now. I actually went and talked to both of the sales managers and told them that I was considering quitting. Both of them wanted me to stay, but respected the fact that I might go. The only thing that was odd, is anytime I have wanted to quit someplace, I have simply done it. If the gut says go, then I go…. but this time I can’t seem to do it.

So while I am figuring this out, I decided to make it easier on myself to try to stay by working on the things I dislike about the job. Starting today with being way behind on shit….

Well, I am actually kind of proud of myself. Today I got shit DONE! Not everything, but hell of a lot of progress. Not just on my websites, but dishes, cleaning the house, my room, burning cd’s I owed to people, sorting some shit on my computer, all the laundry AND all the folding.

Tomorrow I am back to being forced awake by an alarm clock (grr, can’t i just comfortably wake up early). I will try to nock one more thing off the list, whether it’s getting more shit done after work, or actually starting to exercise again. It has to be something or I will never survive getting perpetually behind.

Thanx for reading about my bullshit. You probably read about the IE design problem I was having last night, but that I fixed without a complete redesign so the new site will be launching soon.

I was tempted to put “how to fucking tick people off” just so that I would have used fucking for the title of three posts in a row, but decided that just because something is the most versatile word in the english language doesn’t mean we need to use it profusely….

This list was stolen from some random site on the internet, as I would never encourage you TRY to tick people off as they will already find you doing so without your attempts…

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write “for sexual favors.”
3. Specify that your drive-through order is “TO-GO.”
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions “to keep them tuned up.”
7. Reply to everything someone says with “that’s what you think.”
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and “cc” them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words “in accordance with prophesy.”
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and “accidentally” flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you “like it that way.”
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. don’t use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
    “DO YOU HEAR THAT?”
    “What?”
    “Never mind, it’s gone now.”
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce “No, wait, I messed it up,” and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn’t rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about “psychological profiles.”

Ya know, I don’t force people to upgrade to firefox, I mean this website looks flawless in both browsers. However it loads kind of slow, it is bloated with tons of tables and most pages I have to use “quirks mode” (aka: the anti-standard), just to get it to work.

Now I go and start designing a new website, and get the design to be exactly how I want it to look, work etc… and then I open it in Internet Explorer to find that it’s TOTALLY different and completly worthless, so now I am kind of pissed.

This was a tableless design that I created, it was able to comply to super hard-core standards like XHTML, CSS2, etc…., it was all made with absolute positioning, while ALSO being able to resize, with the page and keep perfect percentages, it was able to hold 100% height with no scrollbar, etc… it was PERFECT. All I would of had to do was add an iframe to the big blue center section that was the same size, make some things transparent, and insert my content….

But NOOOOOOOOO, IE had to go and NOT comply with the standards, it wants me to have to “estimate” how much of a percentage to have to stretch things, it wants non-exact positioning and basically just wants to make me have to use tables for the whole damn thing….

Bah, so I was going to get this part done tonight, and insert the content tomorrow, but now I am angry and don’t want to work on it anymore.

If you haven’t switched to Firefox yet, below is just one of the many reasons why you should:

Firefox
(click for larger view)

Internet Explorer
(click for larger view)

Instead of just updating my links and nobody ever noticing, I am actually going to tell you a link that you need to visit.

There are LOTS of fantastic websites I have been to lately, but this one gets the SmartAss Seal of Approval. You think I am crazy now, just wait until you see this website, then you will KNOW I’m crazy writing an entire post just for it.

http://www.thebricktestament.com/

P.S. – Somebody Please Damn Charter.net to Hell, I am only getting a 1.3 meg Internet connection which I am paying for 3 times that, and I can not get through to their customer service….. BASTARDS