Look sir! Faffing!

Must. Post. More...

Okay, here's a bunch of random stuff that happened over the past 3 weeks:


Three weekends ago, I went to see "Iron Man".
I drove to Norwalk to connect with coyoteseven, and gizmoelf also drove down to join us.
We rendez-vouse at an AMC theater. I hate AMC theaters. They don't do matinées on weekend. They play tons
of commercials. Last time I went to an AMC theater, the movie played in a room the size of a bus.
But, what the hell, this was opening weekend for "Iron Man", and I really wanted to see the flick.
So we went in, got our tickets and went to the screening room immediately. We claimed decent seats,
then we took turns going to the bathroom and/or getting snacks while one of us stood guard.
True to my French upbringing, I bought nothing. :)
The seemingly endless parade of commercials. Holy crap! I usually to a Pacific theater or to The Bridge,
and neither shows nearly this much crap! Eventually, we got some trailers: Indy, Batman, and a couple of
truly horrid ones ("The Love Guru" and "You Don't Mess With The Zohan").
Then the film finally started.
I hate to sound like everyone else, but there's no avoiding it: "Iron Man" is awesome fun.
I'm definitely getting it on DVD and standing in line for the sequel.
Robert Downey Jr. is frakking PERFECT in the role!
After the movie, C7 was incredibly cool and treated us to Outback Steakhouse! OMG!
I had a porterhouse steak and it was insanely good. EVERYTHING was insanely good!
Man, the last time I had a porterhouse, it was at Houston's and I looooooong time ago!
C7 and Gizmo had some booze, and I was tempted to imbibe, but I stayed dry.
It was really late when we were done, so I gave C7 a ride back and went home.


On Friday May 9th, I went to Amoeba Music in Hollywood to sell some of my late brother's records.
I had 6 milk crates full of vinyl, and it was going to take the guy a while to look at 'em, so I gave
him my cell number and left to get some food. I got into the Fnord StRanger and turned the key.
Click.
Uh oh.
I tried again.
Click.
I moved the shift lever to make sure it was in Park, and tried again.
Click.
Okay, at this point, it was useless to call AAA because the Amoeba guy wasn't done with the vinyl yet.
So I left the truck in the Amoeba underground lot and went to a nearby Baja Fresh for a late lunch.
I also called C7 to share my misery with him. He said he had never had this kind of problem with the truck.
I went to Amoeba and futzed around, looking at various things, waiting for vinyl to be done.
Eventually, he was finished. I took cash instead of credit, and took the 2 leftover crates to the truck.
I called AAA, they came and tried to jumpstart me but nothing happened. Something was seriously wrong.
The AAA guy laid a screwdriver across both solenoid terminals and aside from a few sparks, nothing happened.
He told me that a car would usually start if you did that, so this was serious.
I had them tow the StRanger to an auto shop nearby (it was 8pm by then) and took the bus home.
The next day I called the auto shop to see what was what. I was told the starter motor was dead and needed
to be replaced. But the mechanic wasn't in today. But the auto shop next door was open and had mechanics
on duty so was it okay to puch the truck next door and have them call me? Why, sure! I had a job interview
on Monday 12th, so I kinda needed to have the truck to make it. So the auto shop next door called me and
pretty much told me the same thing as the other guy: dead starter, must be replaced, gonna cost the same.
The gentleman on the phone was Russian and very nononsense. He said:
"I can fix truck today if you say yes. If you say no, have nice weekend."
So I said yes.
They closed at noon, but he agreed to stay a little longer since I had to rely on the bus to get there.
I showered, dressed and grabbed the Santa Monica Blvd. bus to get to the auto shop on time.
The mechanics were just finishing up as I arrived. The Russian gentleman pointed at the shiny new
starter installed on the truck (waaaaaaaaay down in the engine compartment, under the oil filter).
He also showed me a frayed and cracked battery terminal that he had replaced free of charge.
He was actually rather friendly, just not frivolous. :)
I paid the bill, thanked him and drove the truck away.
It was lunchtime, so I stopped at a nearby Shakey's pizza, which also been renovated recently.
After lunch, I got back into the StRanger and turned the key.
Click.
I wish I was kidding.
I called my new Russian friend, who happened to still be at the shop. He was nonplussed and said he was
coming right over. I then called C7 to share this latest insanity with him. Mr. Russian arrived in style,
at the wheel of a shiny E-series Benz, with one of the mechanics in shotgun position.
The grease monkey immediately found the problem: one of the wires on the starter had come loose.
He put it back in and used pliers to crimp it in place. I now know where to look if this happens again.
I called C7 back and let him know of the happy dénouement.

So, eventhough I got $405 in cash for the records, it took $243 to get the starter fixed.
This is my life. Le sigh...


So I had the interview last Monday. It was for testing a cellphone application that lets you share
pics and vids with all your friends quickly. The interview seemed to go okay (they always do).
The company had a lot of people working at folding tables and I didn't see any cubicles.
At this point, I'll take what I can. I have no income at all. My unemployment is gone, has been gone.
I really need to find something, and soon.


Last Thursday, infamous furry artist Mitch Beiro arrived in L.A. for the weekend and we did stuff.
On Thursday, we checked out the newly-opened Tesla Motors dealership in my neck of the woods.
I will make a separate post with plenty of pictures.
On Saturday, we went to Califur, which replaced ConFurence as the local SoCal furry con.
This will also be a separate post with pictures.
When I came back from Califur, I found an e-mail from the company I had interviewed with on Monday.
They didn't give me the job. Frak!


I saw a fanatic today.
I was at Trader Joe's, buying a couple of things.
The fanatic was at a register, paying for her purchases.
She had a credit-card-sized device on her keychain.
I thought it was a calculator at first, but it had no keypad.
It did have an LCD display though, with numbers counting down.
It had a picture of George W. Bush on it.
It had some words on it that said something like "Bush Presidency Countdown".
I overheard the fanatic hope that someone would shoot George W. Bush before the end of the countdown.
It all reminded me of a couple of lines from a song by Voice Of The Beehive:
"I know what I believe, don't need to wear it on my sleeve..."
I guess she never heard that song.


It's been hot in L.A., but the weather is finally cooling down.
I think I should sleep okay tonight.

My Stimulus check came in today's mail. It will help pay the rent. Yea!