Pootenheimer SMASH
I've been on a Hulk kick lately (in case you couldn't tell by my counter icon). Oh, yeah. I've been a big fan of the Hulk ever since I was a kid. I went out and rented the old-school set of TV movies of the Hulk. I'd seen them before, but it's been several years since I have. The funny thing is the memories it brought back. I used to LOVE the first movie, The Hulk Returns. It has Thor in it! I remembered all the music from it, it got me excited just watching this last time, when some of the music kicked in, because I remember it exciting me when I watched it originally. I think I'm going to have to buy it, it's just too cool. And Lou Ferrigno makes a very cool Hulk.

The other thing I've been doing with Hulk stuff is reading some of the comics. I found a full set online, so I've been reading through the comics, to learn the recent story behind the Hulk. It's very intricate, convoluted, and fascinating. And who doesn't love a super hero who's stronger than anyone and is basically invincible, even if a little misguided on occasion? I'm particularly entertained by scenes where some poor schmuck thinks HE'S the one who can take the Hulk out. And he learns the sad truth, but oh, too late. Hulk smash!

Yeah, so I'm writing a third paragraph about the Hulk. Man, I am a fan. Which makes me sad about the recent movie. Because it didn't do well, and a lot of people were expecting to see a whole movie basically consisting of, well, Hulk smashing. And lo and behold, there's actually a full plot in the movie. I think the storyline was developed to try to parallel the comic a bit, but in truth, it's difficult to really relay the story fully enough in two hours or so to keep people intrigued. Especially when most people want to basically watch a Godzilla-style movie. I think I might have to buy that movie, too, though, because I am one of the few who actually DOES care more about the storyline, and there are a few very cool action sequences. Hulk smash!

So I got my first paycheck. Yay! And I managed to pay off about half my bills completely, and knock a chunk off of some of the others. It's quite a relief. That, and I also managed to snag something new with the apartment. I found out a few things about the way they're laid out. Essentially, on either side of my apartment are two other apartments; they're the second floor of three-bedroom apartments that take up two floors. Very nice apartments, I believe. And they come equipped with an attached garage, which has stairs that go from the garage to the second floor, or the first floor of that apartment. There are three garages on each side of the building, two of which are the attached ones (if I understand correctly). Which leaves the middle one. And I managed to snag it after the last people who had it moved out. Yay! It's sweet! It means I can keep weather from affecting my car, which has been a pain in the past. Either from severe heat, possible hail damage, or snow/ice that takes time to scrape off. Now I don't have to worry about it. Woo! And there's extra room for storage, so I can keep a lot of my packing materials when I finish unpacking all my stuff, now that I know I can keep the apartment. Plus there's an inside door, which exits by the covered stairs, so if it IS raining, I can stay nice and dry. Yaaay! Lots of bonuses, and it's really not too much more on top of the rent. Personally, I think it's worth it, and it IS hard to land that garage.

And work has been good. Things run a little bit slower at the City, but that's okay. I had orientation today (the first session), and they talked about all the rules, sexual harassment, and about benefits. Ooh, benefits. I'm still learning Perl, which I've found out is quite cool. I think if I can get used to it, it may replace my old KSH scripts.

Ah, and kung fu this week has been fairly quiet. Not too many people this week, really, although I did finish writing an article for Sifu and the newsletter, about conditioning. And Sifu actually liked this one. Which is good, because he didn't like the last two attempts I made at writing an article. Bleah. Also, we've been practicing the new Chin Na techniques in class, which I think are pretty slick. They're VERY effective, and if you do them right, they don't take much effort at all. It doesn't look like you're doing anything, but a very subtle twist here, a turn there, and the opponent is bent over in pain. Very fun stuff.

Okay, and that's enough blog for today. I shall head from here to choir practice, and then probably chill a bit on my non-kung fu night. So random link time! This is something that EVERYONE should know about, but just in case you're not up on all the details on keeping your computer safe, secure, and current (and you're running some kind of Windows machine), here you go.

- posted by Pootenheimer @ 3:31 PM | 3 comments