Month: April 2011

A brilliant analogy if I must say so myself

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

You know when you’re watching an episode of Deal or No Deal, and 99% of the time, the contestant will lose out on the $1,000,000, somewhere in the middle of the show?  The music gets that epic tone, and everyone face palms, and Howie Mandel goes “ohhhhh,” but then the show goes on just fine, because the case with $750,000 is still left, and that’s still a lot of money to potentially win.  But then ultimately, they’ll say “no deal,” one too many times, and not only will most of the time, they lose out on the $750,000, the $500,000, the $250,000, etc, etc, and before we know it, they’re desperately clawing at the opportunity that they can win about as much money as they would if they won a regular episode of Wheel of Fortune.  But it’s still okay, because even $25,000 is still a really nice chunk of change to win, especially for no other skill than when to say “yes.”

The situation I’m in right now is a lot like this.  But instead, the banker is dead, so there are no tempting compromises for me to possibly cash out with, and every single case above $25 has already been eliminated.  At this point, I’m literally playing for $5 or $0.05, but it doesn’t matter which one I ultimately end up with, because I’ve still really just lost the game anyway, but it’s still gotta be played for the sake of finality.

I thought this year was supposed to be better than the last year.  Even with the start of the baseball season, I can’t help but feel like garbage on a fairly regular basis, and my head’s most certainly not in the right places lately.  Call me crazy, but there are parts of me that would rather be enduring the uncertain stress of not know when my next paycheck is coming, as opposed to some of the shit I’m dealing with right now.  April is supposed to be my month, and it’s definitely not the case right now, and I’m resenting my parents for it.  I don’t really want to go to Virginia this weekend, but I’m going anyway.  Family deals with bullshit head on, not over any fucking phones.

The importance of ass

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It most certainly is important.

Unfortunately, this powerpoint isn’t really as entertaining as one so aptly titled might be, but even despite the forgone conclusion, I still couldn’t help but feel a tad hopeful that maybe it wasn’t just a coincidentally poor abbreviation as result of an egregiously long file name.

Lately, this work assignment’s been a little tedious.  The person I work directly under is out for the next ten days or so, so I thought I might have it a little easy without concern of someone watching what I’m doing on the side behind my back.  However, the traffic manager here recently retired, so there are about three different people bringing me work now, constantly interrupting me, and sniffing around over my shoulders, so such hopes for a relaxing work environment where I could do some substantial writing on the side are a bit dashed.

There will be blurbs until the free time returns

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Apparently, I don’t have nearly as much free time as I think I do.  To me, this is not really a bad thing, as being busy is better than being bored.  I’ve got a large backlog of photos and words to catch up to, and between work, going to baseball games, family shit, and a subsequent impromptu trip up to Virginia this weekend ahead, I will not be able to get to them.  So until I can play catch up, I will relegate to brogging random blurbs until I do catch up.

After picking up my friends and indulging in some Gladys Knight chicken & waffles during the start of Wrestlemania weekend, while walking down Peachtree Street, I spotted WWE superstar, Kane.  He literally passed by me coming out of the Peachtree Center, and despite me recognizing him, Huzzard didn’t believe me, thinking he should be taller.  We caught up to him while he was stopped by other wrestling nerds who happened to recognize him as well, and I got to take this picture with him.  Not pictured: white plastic bag with probably something relatively healthy in it.  Or Manchu Wok.

Nerds like me, who are interested in behind-the-scenes wrestling hierarchy knows that Kane is among the most well-respected wrestlers today, among fans and peers.  Having met Kane myself now, and especially in comparison to guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kane is easily one of the nicest.  Not bad for a guy who’s character has been involved in storylines involving necrophilia, knocking up Lita, and once needing to speak with the aid of a tracheotomy speaking valve.

The strongest brand in fiction

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Part of what I do for a living involves a lot of brand management. Ensuring the consistency of the brand’s usage, making sure all future projects and endeavors incorporate and also ensure the integrity of the identity, and so forth. Needless to say, I think I know a little something about branding.

So despite the fact that it’s a fictional universe, Capcom has gone through some pretty impressive lengths to ensure that the brand of the Umbrella Corporation is impressively strong. Dare I say it, but I’d venture a statement that Umbrella is the strongest brand in fiction.

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A quick status blurb

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

There are a lot of things that I need to catch up with – Wrestlemania weekend mainly, with a lot of words, stories, pictures, and random other things I’d like to brog about.  But with recent events, emotional roller coasters, watching baseball, going to baseball games, keeping track of baseball stats, and writing about baseball in two other blogs, the substantial posts will have to take a back seat.  With the Braves home opener tonight, along with a busy Saturday ahead, catching up will have to wait a little bit longer, but not too much, hopefully.

Sunday appears to be a day in which I will sleep in, likely need a Waffle House hangover trip, but as far as I can tell, appears to be a suitable day in which I can catch up.  But even such plans are predicated on whether or not I’m even in the mood to write about life and events in the first place.  Or, I may just cop out, and proceed to brog via visual photos, with hopefully witty captions instead, but at least people can see that my life isn’t that boring.

I could easily have kept my post count chugging along by posting one of the rainy-day posts I write and draft for when I hit writers blocks, but instead, I felt the compulsion to write about how I’m feeling – confused mostly, and a little weary.

The ironic musical episode

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Typically, most prime-time dramas ultimately get to a point where they have a musical episode.  House, M.D., and Nip / Tuck come to mind as series that have, in later seasons featured at least one episode where there are song and dance scores.  Such episodes are the oddest ones, because typically song and dance have positive connotations, and we’re expected to be excited, entertained, and made happy by seeing such boisterous activity.  But in drama shows like the ones mentioned, the musical episodes’ routines always go the way of ironic.  They’re still visually and sometimes audibly entertaining, but the subject matter in which they’re performing to, is usually either hinted through cryptic undertones, or blatantly, negative.  Cuddy has cancer and is going to die.  Christian Troy might have the HIV and could die.  Julia’s child is going to be born with a physical defect.  Etc, etc.

Last night, I had a dream, that was the ironic musical episode of dreams.  It’s amazing how a dream can feel like it takes place in an eternity, but when trying to re-tell it to yourself, it only takes seconds.  Yet the impact of such a dream has me feeling miserable, and honestly was capable of altering my entire evening.

It’s not so much that there was a lot of song, but there was certainly music.  How it went, I have no idea, but it was something to where there was dancing to be performed to it.  And it wasn’t people doing it, but animals.  Lots of animals.  Domestic pets, dogs and cats.  Amidst these animals were animals that were somehow familiar to me, but I couldn’t tell you which ones they were to save my life, save for one.  In unison, on their hind legs, awkwardly balanced, they danced, in an entertaining, YouTube-million-hits-like way.  Within my dream, I couldn’t shake this apprehensive feeling, as if I were aware that I were in the ironic musical, and that something bad was going to happen.

The next thing I know, I hear “just the canines,” and before I know it, it’s only the dogs left on stage, continuing to dance.  Wobbly legged, moving around on stage.  Suddenly, the voice calls out for “the old ones” and suddenly, it’s the Nik up on stage, by himself.  With his last ounces of energy, he tippy-toes around the stage, trying his hardest to keep balance, and do a spin.  It’s clear he wants to do it one more time, but he just can’t.  Age has caught up to him, in spite of his efforts, and the rest was just a blur, but I knew that he was gone.  This was a song and dance for his passing, that I’d rather have never seen.

I woke up at 3 in the morning, quietly, and not to like any ridiculous cold sweats.  I just opened my eyes, glanced at the alarm console on the wall, and then the clock.  I had never wanted to cry more than that moment in my entire life, or so it feels like.

Typically, Wednesdays are trivia nights.  When recollection of the dream came back to me earlier today, I decided to forgo trivia, and come straight home and sit around with the Nik instead.  Reality dictates that the Nik won’t live forever, and when the fateful day comes, if this is any indication, I’m going to be a fucking trainwreck for weeks.

A little bit of reality

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I seldom write about my family.  It’s not that it’s because I don’t love them or anything, because that couldn’t be any further from the truth.  I don’t really know why I don’t, it’s not like their lives aren’t mind-numbingly boring either.  It’s just, I don’t really write about my family.  I suppose my family life is something I’d rather keep out of my writing, and that there are more interesting or attempted humorous things to write about instead.

To cut to the chase, and what’s been ill-timely, eating at my mind for the last few days is that my parents are debating on separating.  An actual legal divorce is probably unlikely, since neither of them would genuinely want to engage in the very American act of having to go through the work to make it happen when instead, my dad could just simply move out.

I’d like to think that as I near 30, news like this would be a bit easier to digest than at a volatile teenager’s age, but I’m finding out witnessing my own emotions and thoughts, that it’s still not any less thrilling.  I suppose I can rationalize both parties better than if I were a kid, and I won’t be trying to blame myself for anything, but I’m still feeling a bit upset by the circumstances.

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