A Man Named Dana

The latest: my washing machine is fixed! Hooray! Now I can have clean clothes once more. I am excited at this prospect.

The repairman showed up at my house with the replacement part last Friday but after putting it in he determined that it was the wrong part. Great. He left but said he'd be back in touch once he found the right part. Okay.

A couple hours later I get a phone call from the guy saying that the right part was a factory order and would cost about $200 plus take another week to get in town. Boo. I told him to forget it--I'd probably buy a new machine instead.

So I buttoned up the old machine, gave it some TLC and ran it through the wash/spin cycle for one last time. Tears were shed. But low and behold, just as I was finishing my touching eulogy the old baby kicked into the rinse/spin cycle! Hallelujah! It had risen from the dead just like poor Lazarus.

I guess there must be a Higher Power if a twenty-five year old machine can come back to life after a week of inactivity.

Whatever. I'm just glad to have fresh drawers and such to wear.

Hello all. I'm sorry that it's been over a week since I last posted anything here. I hope to never let that long of a span go without some kind of word on my condition.

I wish I could report that I was into some kind of delicious trouble or having some horrible adventures but, alas, I cannot. I was merely working and catching up with life after my weekend in Green Bay, WI.

Ahhh, yes, Green Bay. What a lovely little town on the shore of Lake Michigan. It's an 8-hour plus drive from my hometown -- long but pretty -- filled with scenic wonders and cheese outlet stores. I didn't stop for any cheese.

I do recommend Green Bay for the reason of seeing Lambeau Field. I'm not a Packer fan but I really like the $295 million dollar refurbishment they've completed on the historic field and surrounding area.

Well, anyway, check it out.

I'm sitting here waiting for the appliance repairman to fix a broken timer on my washing machine. It's been out since before I went to Green Bay. The shop had to special order the timer for my machine and now I'm waiting for the repairman to "schedule me in" so I can once again wear clean clothes. I'm praying that he shows up today because I'm not going underwearless again. As God is my witness, I promise you, faithful readers, that I'm forever staying clad in my Fruit-of-the-Looms !

I'm heading out tomorrow morning with a friend on a road trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin.

This guy is really into playing HALO on the Xbox Video Game System. Really. We're going to Green Bay so he can practice with his teammates in order to compete in a Halo tournament on Saturday.

Me? I'm just going along for the road trip. Plus, it'll be interesting to cruise by Lambeau Field with a chance to glimpse the rabid Packer fans in attendance at the summer camp.

What else is there to do in Green Bay during the summer besides eating cheese and taunting football crazies?

We shall soon find out!

Ok, so the subtitle of my site is "You think you have problems? I've got problems, oh, yes, I've got problems." Right? Well, so far I've not really unloaded my problems on this site nor really given you a rational explanation as to why I think I've got problems. Some of you, or maybe all of you, might be wondering when the bitching is going to begin.

Well, I can promise you that as soon as I feel comfortable about it I'll dump it all out for you to examine.

Right now I'm just too busy working my minimum wage jobs at the local cineplexes to formulate much of anything in my head. One thing I've noticed is that minimum wage jobs were never meant to be 40-hour per week jobs. Why? Well, you are so busy doing such asinine work for so little money that you quickly become trapped in a never-ending cycle of work and recovery in order to make ends meet. Sometimes you need more than one minimum wage job just to meet your basic financial obligations. Pretty soon you have no free time in which to recover from the grind of the minimum wage work-week and then you sink deeper into the quagmire of debt and depression.

How long can anyone keep this vicious cycle active before it kills you?

I'm working on it.

Well, I just saw The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen this afternoon.

I won't give away the plot or spoil anything for those of you who want to check it out, but let me just say that I was disappointed with what I saw on the screen. It was as though the filmmakers thought they could throw everything up on the screen they could think of and then hope something would stick. Let's face it: the special effects were the star of this film, not the script and not Sean Connery or any other aspect of the production. But as good as the special effects are these days they cannot make a picture worth the price of admission if everything else is sub-par.

Where have the good summer blockbuster films gone? Pirates of the Caribbean? Sure, its a Jerry Bruckheimer production, but that's no indication of a good film despite my feelings for his 1998 classic Armageddon.

Maybe I'm just growing pickier the older I get, but I really miss the old classics like Jaws and Independence Day.

Will Smith where are you when we need you?

Let the merchandising begin!

You'll notice I've made a few more changes to my site. On the left is a list of links that I endorse. One addition is the link to the Amazon.com Hot 100 DVD's. If you follow that link and if you buy anything as a result of clicking on that link I will earn a small commission. But wait! That commission costs you NOTHING! That's right: Amazon.com doesn't add anything to your final bill as a result of clicking what they call an "associate" link. So please, if you would, click, shop, and help support A Man Named Dana.

Next, I'm going recommend a book for you to check out:
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the... Now, if you click this link you'll go directly to the Amazon.com page to learn more and I'll earn $0.30 if you buy it!

About the book: even if you don't dig fast food you MUST read this fascinating account of how America rules the world in terms of deciding how, what, and when we eat. I really couldn't put this book down once I started.

I'm looking forward to reading Eric Schlosser's new work,
Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap.... I've read several excellent reviews of the book. But even if the reviews were bad I'd still read it because of his earlier work.

So there, I've made a couple of recommendations for you to consider. I promise, really I do, that I'm not going to start throwing merchandise at you willy-nilly just so I can make a buck. Money is nice, but I respect all of you too much to abuse our relationship in that manner. But if I recommend something, you should take a serious look at it, after all, isn't that why you're reading this? To gain some insight into A Man Named Dana?

Okay, okay. I'm sorry I didn't blog for the past four or five days. Wednesday and Thursday are my crunch days. We also dumped a big holiday in the mix last Friday and by the time the weekend rolled around I was one tired doggie.

But I'm back.

I'm still trying to design some cool logo/image to put on my merchandise. If you've got any suggestions I'd be really happy to listen and maybe steal them for my stuff. Oh, eh, I mean, "incorporate" them with appropriate credit. Heheh.

I've been picking up a lot of hours at the theatres in town. I'm also positioning myself to pick up some freelance video work. I don't think that'll be a stable source of cash, but its worth a shot right now just to see what the market is like in this area.

Sorry this post is so dull. I'm going to make it up to y'all very shortly--you can bet on it.

Cheers!

Hey folks. I'm glad to see that there are visitors to my site. Thank you for checking this blog out. I really, really, really mean that. As long as people come around I'll make every effort to upload more of my grey matter into the system.

You'll notice that since we're on a new month, my June posts are now in my archive. If you haven't checked them out yet make sure you do--there are some classic quotes in there.

Also, in my post earlier this morning you'll see that I finally figured out how to do links. Yeah, it's not hard, but for the blog newbies out here it is a little daunting. It'll get easier and with each passing post I'll be adding more of that kind of thing to all of my posts wherever appropriate.

One thing I want to try is adding a book and DVD list so you can tune in (and purchase) materials I'm currently enjoying too. Plus, and this is a biggie, I'm going to do some product merchandising too! Yep, that's right--you too will be able to buy your very own coffee mug with a Dana logo or picture. Yummy. I'm not doing it for the money, oh, no, not yet, rather I'm doing it for the coolness of seeing my face all over a variety of swag that people need in everyday life.

Oh, man, this blogging is the shizzle.

Last night I watched The Terminator in my basement theatre with a couple of friends. We were preparing ourselves for today's release of T3 by visiting the film that started it all.

My first reaction to the film was: ''look at the freakin' hair on Linda Hamilton'!'' My second reaction was: ''listen to the freakin' porn music!''

The MGM Special Edition DVD of the film has a "new, state-of-the-art 5.1 stereo remix" that really shows off the music and effects in all of it's 1984 glory. Okay, so the original film was mono but through todays' technology filmmakers can beef up their films to match our modern expectations.

The only thing they can't seem to figure out is how to digitally revamp Linda's 'do.

Okay, so I seem obsessed with her hair, but believe me, you can't concentrate on anything else when she's on-screen except for her high, shaggy locks.

Is this what we were like in 1984? Wow.

On the plus side, the special effects by Stan Winston still look pretty good and James Cameron's hand-held camera infuses the pciture with a dynamic claustrophobia that keeps tension up throughout.

Check it out and you'll see what I mean.