Nickerblog

no more kings

Funny, and the song is catchy!

via Carly

Anti-Hero

Did they really just start Season 2 of Heroes with a fucking PRODUCT PLACEMENT?

Claire's Dad:  "Well, your mom and I were gonna surprise you for your birthday...."

HE HANDS HER THE KEYS

Claire: "Oh My Gosh!  The ROGUE?"

CUT TO BEAUTY SHOT OF THE 2008 NISSAN ROGUE

Thanks for INSTANTLY taking me out of the show I've been waiting all summer for, NBC.  Ugh.  At least TRY to bury your transparent commercial for Nissan with a more clever device.  I mean, I understand why advertisers are forced to stick their ads directly into shows, but for fuck's sake, BE CREATIVE about it.  I've got it paused while I write this.  Lets hope it gets better. 

If I watch Journeyman and dude from ROME pulls out an iPhone, I'm turning off my TV for a year.

cloak of rain

Combinations of events lead to everything.  If you're a gambler, you believe that modifying any of these small events can have a negative outcome on the ideal result.  Some call it superstition.  If you're a small time thief, you wait for these anomalies, these moments of weakness, to make your move.  When the world lines up right, whether you're a poker player, a craps player, a stock market junkie, or a petty burglar, sometimes you hit the jackpot.

The show I work on features a fairly prominent skateboarder, who happens to be included in the newest skateboarding video game release from EA Sports called "SKATE."  The aforementioned skateboarder gave me an advance copy of the game, which is designed to be played on the XBOX 360 gaming console.  Although I am a fan of video games, I have thus far resisted the urge to purchase a high end gaming console like the XBOX, or the PS3, or the Wii.  I crumbled when Guitar Hero came out, and bought a used PS2, but I have enough timesucks in my life, so I purposely avoided the kickassery that is XBOX Live, that all my friends constantly tell me about.

Receiving the new SKATE game, coupled with the receipt of an unexpected residual check from a commercial that is still running somewhere (somehow), led me to buy a new XBOX 360, a wireless adaptor (to get online), and an extra wireless controller.  I brought it to my office, with the intention of leaving it there as the office gaming console, so that everyone could try the SKATE game, and to perhaps get some Madden and FIFA '08 tournies going.  Yesterday I decided to bring it home, just for the weekend, to play with my new toy.

It doesn't rain much in Los Angeles in the summer.  It's one of the nice things about LA, and one of the reasons I love it here.  The weather is terrific.  However, when it does rain, it often rains long and hard, washing away the summer-long buildup of dust and soot and grit.  It blankets the night with a cleansing torrent of water and sound.  Last night, for the first time in several months, it rained like that.  Sheets of rain slammed into Los Angeles, and I didn't mind at all.  Mostly, it felt nice to learn that our roof seems able to manage torrential downpours (unlike our last house).  With my wife and daughter asleep in our bedroom, and our dog calmly sleeping in his place on the couch, I threw on some headphones and watched a few episodes of AMC's "Madmen."

At around 2am, I remembered that my new XBOX 360 was sitting in my car.  It was pouring when I came home, and rather than risk getting it wet, I left it in the car for a few hours until the rain let up.

Perhaps you see where this is going.

I walked out to my car, anxious to finally put some time into figuring out the SKATE game, and I paused as I approached.  The familiar glint of shattered glass winked up at me from the driveway next to my car, and I knew instantly that my XBOX 360 was gone, along with the wireless add-on and the game of SKATE I had been looking forward to playing.  My rage was almost instantly outweighed by my fear that the thief might still be close, and although the idea of catching a thief in the act may be appealing to some, to me it is an unnecessary risk.  My stuff is replaceable, but if I get knifed or shot by a panicked burglar, my life changes dramatically. 

I called the police, who told me that because of the rain there wasn't much hope of pulling decent prints off the crime scene.  I did happen to write my name in red Sharpie on all of my equipment (since I was going to leave it in the office at work), but I doubt there is much of a conscience in the person or people who stole it, and therefore the red name on the new XBOX is unlikely to trigger any remorse.  This afternoon, I cleaned up my car and vacuumed up the glass.  It made me angry, but I try to manage it by keeping it in perspective.  First of all, we can agree that I never should have left that thing sitting in my car.  I was lulled into a false sense of security by this quiet neighborhood, and I suppose car break-ins are part of the cost of living in a big city.  This is my fourth one in 12 years.  One time, they actually caught the guy.  He was a meth addict, looking for a way to keep the surge going.

And in all of this, as annoying and infuriating as it is, there is a silver lining.  My American Express card covers the loss.  I'll be reimbursed for the XBOX and all of the accessories that got yanked out of my car with it, since I used my AMEX Business card to purchase the items.  This is the second time they've bailed me out of a crappy situation, and it reaffirms my faith in their card.  It's why I use it for all of my purchases.  In this case, it eased my frustration exponentially.

Still, if you've had something similar happen to you, you know the feeling of violation that goes with it.  It's no fun, and it set my weekend off in a way I did not expect.  In thiefland, this thief hit the lottery.  The rain gave him the cloak he needed to smash a window right outside my house without me, or my "quick to bark at every single thing in life except, apparently, ACTUAL BURGLARS" dog.  The one night I leave something of value in my car for a few hours, he hits.

Safelite will come out to replace my car window on Monday for around 200 bucks.  It's not the end of the world, but I'm not thrilled that I have to do it.  When I think of all of the other bad things that can happen to people, I suppose this is small on the big scale. 

But dammit, it pisses me off.