The things my dad told me would come in handy.

     I thought about this they other day.  I was leaving the house, and I locked both the dead bolt and the door lock.  As I did so Wendy asked, why do you lock both locks?  You just need to lock one.  I told her it was a habit.  It is an extra 30 seconds of planning you can have when some one is picking the lock to get in.  She gave me an odd look.

     That is what my dad told me when I was younger, he said remember if you lock both locks it takes roughly 30 seconds to pick a lock, and with both locked that is a full minute you have plan what you need to do.  I am pretty sure my dad was fairly paranoid, or highly enlightened as to what kind of evil was out in the world and he wanted us to have preparation.  It is because of him that I don't take the exact same way to and from work all the time.  I have about 5 or so ways to and from work and I randomly take them.  I think it had something to do with what dad did in the military.  Maybe I've been watching to many spy films or something.  He told me never put my back to door when  I am out eating.  He told me too always carry a lighter, even though I don't smoke.  I have kind of fell lacks on that one, I currently don't have a lighter with me.  

     These kind of things make me think that I'd could hope to have a little bit of an extra edge if something should happen, rather than a person who never had the benefit of that added wisdom.  I know I am not going to react like someone who has actually had military training.  It is just a little something extra that might help should something like bad happen.  

    I suppose here I would make a reference to how this relates to Han Solo but right now I am just going to say, I am grateful for everything my dad told me, and he's still with me whenever I remember the things he taught me. A little sappy I know but, hey not everyone can be a emotionless bad ass all the time.  You like me because I'm a scoundrel. 

   Ian

The guy I take my transport to fix will cause me more problems.

  So I had to take my car in to a mechanic today, because I couldn't get the warning break light to switch off.  I tried the few things I knew it could be but without any luck.  I know there are going to come back at me with the whole, Oh this is broken and this is broken and this is broken it will be $2000 to fix it all to get your break light warning light fixed.  I hope they can set me up a payment plan because I can't pay that up front.  I just need the light to be out to pass inspection.  So why can't they just do that.  A few of my friends suggested just pulling the bulb or the fuse for the warning lights.  I'd rather fix the problem then cover it up.  With my luck that little cover up will just cause me a shit ton of problems later down the road I know it.  I will just get the thing fixed and be done with it.
    Han brought his ship in to be fixed by his old friend.  And they fixed it, but his friend also just up and turned him into the authorities as well.  He says it was under duress but I am not sure how hard it was Vader to convince Lando to  turn on the guy that won his ship from him.  The only consolation to that is Lando nearly gets his ass captured because of the sabotage that empire pulled on the Falcon.  Just goes to show tricking your friends always comes back to get you.
    Being a pessimist I will have to say that I expect a horrible diagnosis from the mechanic and that it will cost me an arm and a leg.  Which works out for me, because I am either proven right by the negative out come, or pleasantly suprised that it wasn't as bad as I expected.  That's how I look at life and there is no changing me.  I never expect the best from anything, it helps me not get my hopes up.  Getting excited about something is just going make you feel disappointed when it isn't as much as you had hoped it would be.  Look at Episode I, everyone was hyping the crap out of the film.  And people saw it and were sickened with what had been done with the film. I for one was not super excited for the film, yes I wanted to see it, but unlike all the rest of the over zealous fans out there.  I waited until the weekend to go and see the film.  I didn't care about being the first person in line.  Trying to keep my lows from dipping too low and my highs to stay a little more than pleased is tough, but manageable.  I'm such a cheery person to be around.  You like me because I'm a scoundrel.

Ian

I could save Luke on Hoth

    So last night on my way home I noticed the wind wind was blowing in that all to tell tale sign of cold weather coming.  It makes me smile knowing that I'll be able to feel comfortable driving around the next day.  I've always loved the cold weather over the hot or even warm weather.  I don't know if being born in a cold place has some effect on you at a young age or what.  I've always been a very warm bodied person.  So the cold never really bothers me.  Unless you want to get into factors like heavy wind chill or rain or snow.  Everyone needs some kind of protection from the elements.  I'm no elf.  What I am is great and staying out in the cold weather and enjoying it.   I guess being born in Iceland has some effect on me, who knows.  My girl isn't complaining when I crawl in to bed and heat it up like an electric blanket.
    Which is why I would be awesome at saving Luke on Hoth.  Hell the cool won't bother me.  So what if my Tantan will freeze before I reach the first marker.  When I see you in Hell I'll be all blue and frozen looking like your skinny ass.   They did film most of the Hoth scenes in Norway, which is roughly the same latitude as Iceland.  I doubt the weather is much different.  Aside form the lovely geothermal energy Iceland is packing.  I would just toss Luke in the steaming lake of warm water rather than stuff him in the belly of the stinking Tantan.
   I just like to be the one guy out there still wearing shorts and sandals in December when it is 40 degrees outside and they are all dressed like they are going skiing.  Of course in order to make me look less like a crazy person I often wear long pants or maybe a hoodie or light jacket.  I just laugh at the shivering women and teeth chattering men.  You like be because I'm a scoundrel.

Ian

I'd still be fixing a bucket of bolts.

     I did some corrections to my last repair job on my car.  I replaced the belts a while back but, I didn't make sure they were tight enough so as not to cause them to slip.  So my car would occasionally make loud squealing sounds.  This for some reason, like my old 200SX Datsun burning oil, made me embarrassed to drive around.  Unlike replacing the engine block to fix the Datsun, this problem was much simpler.  Tighten down the fly wheel bolt to the fan belt, and loosen and re-position the alternator on the drive belt.  The only thing that makes this difficult is the Japanese have much smaller hands than I do.  I got it all done though so the car is no longer making that screaming like a small animal being skinned alive.
   Though even Han had to fix his ship constantly.  There is a sense of pride in knowing you can fix your own car for minor repairs.  I think people that have new cars that they trade in before they need to do real up keep on their cars are missing out on the kind of training you'll need for the zombie apocalypse.   Granted I am not saying I am an expert and fixing all things about my car.  Just a few weeks ago I gave up and took my car into a shop to get it fixed because I couldn't take the time to fix it because I was on a time limit and a mechanic can find out what is wrong much faster than I can.  But just knowing that I can fix my car if there are issues with it make me feel pretty freaking cool that I did it myself and it is staying fixed.  I suppose that will translate over to home ownership as well.
    I guess that reason is why I like to have cars that are not brand new.  I mean when I had my brand new car, yeah it was nice to have a car all shiny and new no worries about anything wrong with it.  But it was also boring.  I probably can blame the fact that my father and brother were always fixing cars.  I know how to take apart a  '76 VW Bug, a '81 Doge Ram Van, and an '81 Nissan Datsun 200SX.  Because we kept most of those gars running into the late '90s
    NO NO! THIS ONE GOES THERE, THAT ONE GOES THERE! GOT IT?
You like me because I'm a scoundrel.

I wouldn't show up to work so early.

     I've been developing a routine of showing up to work around 10:30,  when work starts at 11.  The time has stared to fall more and more and more.  I'm now showing up to work at 10.  Why am I doing this?  Is it because there is nothing to keep my interest at home long enough to warrant me staying there longer?   There is the fact that I don't have internet at home at the moment.  Being away from my precious flow of information is something you can feel.   Like the moments where you are wondering, where do I know that actress from... Oh I can just IMDB... no I can fucking no internet.  Han never had the problem of lack of information.  He seemed to know just what to do when something came up that he didn't know about.  Just start fucking shooting.  Blast the crap out of it.  I think that's a novel short term solution,  I would give it a try if I had a blaster.  

      The good news is that The internet is going to be fixed today hopefully.  Then I can go back to staring at really bad student films on Netflix like "Thankskilling" and "Ninjas vs. Vampires"  You have no idea how bad and yet hilarious these films are until you see them for yourself.  The sad part is that at moments the actors in the film seem to take themselves quite seriously.  I just heard about a new film that popped up on Netflix.  Machete Babes or something like that.   Han never really sat thru and bad films.  He was too busy packing up his load of cash after saving that snotty princess to miss that Atari style briefing for the fist Death Star attack.  And he was way to busy trying to put his baby back together before the ATAT stomped the base in on Hoth to listen to that snotty princess talk about how 2 tiny X-wings are suppose to fend of a battle fortress like a Star Destroyer.  Sure he sat thru that briefing for the last Death Star assault but look at that cool 3D hologram technology that popped up, that's no 8 bit graphics that quality shit man.  Not to mention he's acting all snarky that Lando is a general making him think that he's jealous of him.  Then out of the blue he is called out as the general with balls of steel for going for the dangerous mission of shutting down the shield generator.   He knew what he was doing acting all coy.  

     I am still probably going to be coming in just at early, maybe I'll draw a line when I start to show before my bosses.  Or maybe that will be the time I can start sneaking drinks out of the break room and into my car.  Nothing like keeping your smuggling skills up. Which reminds me that I need to work on my transport.  I can't get it to pass inspection because the break light is stuck on.  It is the light that indicates that the parking break is on.  I just stayed on one day, my break system is working perfectly.  But since there is a red light on the dashboard the inspection guy won't past it.  I have to replace the break light switch or something like that.  I will have to look that up or just take it to a mechanic to get it fixed.  I know if I try working on it I'll just realize that I have to replace the negative power cup link.  That is always a tremendous hassle.  I need to get that taken care of to get rid of the ticket I got for expired inspection.  The ticket involved in me having a suspended licence is going to be a drag.  I still don't know exactly what I need to do to clear that up.  Sounds like a hole lot of waiting around at the DMV. 

     I might have gone to jail for that, but lucky for me the cop that pulled me over was a K9 unit.  He couldn't take me in, is what he said.  I've had to ride in the front seat before, so I know he just didn't want to have to deal with me.  He was still an asshole about it.  Calling my car a rolling peace of shit, and when I tired to engage him in some friendly conversation he was still an asshole.  I asked him what his dog's name was.  He said it was "Angry"  when I asked him if he was serious he didn't responded.  What a douche.

     Well now it is nearly 11 so that means it is back to my hard job of testing the quality of this video game.  My life may not be as awesome as Han's but it is still pretty cool.  You like me because I'm a scoundrel. 

I could just walk up and start working.

     Distractions come in all shapes, some more pleasing than others.  Nevertheless they are still distracting, no matter how pleasing they are.   I keep telling myself that I should be able to keep up a regular update to my general musings, but it always seems that I don't know what exactly to write about or even weather I've talked about the same thing in a previous update.  Things happen that compel me to write them out and I should always write when I feel the urge.  Stephen King said writing is something you just need to keep doing to get better at it.  I often thought of just trying to write a short story, and limit it to something like 10 pages, that way I have to make my story short and resolve quickly.  I tend to think of these grand ideas for a novel like story and then I start writing and quickly loose track of what I wanted to write about because I end up putting in so much detail over small things that I lose the key focus of the story.  I miss being in school where I would have some one like my creative writing teacher barking at me over finishing my story.  Maybe if I had an editor of publisher to do that I could get my ass in gear and finish something.
      I did a job interview for Trion games on Saturday, it went well from what I thought.  I was looking into a Quality Assurance postion, but they asked me what I would hope to work on if I where to continue down this carrier path.  I told them I love to write and the idea of writing lore and story line for a video game appeals to me.  I was then asked if I actually had any legitimate publications of my writing.  I felt extreamly frustrated that I was not able to say yes.  I have written lots of things that I think would make fun articles for people to read but they are very opinionated I just wish I could get my writing out there.  This is the best way I know for that.  The problem is that no one reads blogs anymore.  If I wanted to get noticed more I would have to start a YouTube channel and talk into the camera.  That bugs me, most of the time I am chatting constantly in my head about things to no one.  It is much easier for me to let it flood out through my fingers and onto the screen than to talk into a camera.  My ideas travel much more smoothly when they go down through my arms than if they travel down to my mouth and diaphragm*.  Maybe it has to do with being the middle child and knowing that if I talk I'm not going to be heard, but if I write it down, than eventually it will be read.   The problem comes when there is so much other crap stuck on the fridge, finger paintings of my younger sister, A+ grade Biology Tests from my older sister, letters of Acquitted chargers from my older brother.  That I have little place to put my stuff.   So I force you people to read it, well not really force I don't even know how many people read these things.   I wish I could have some kind of number.  Rather than just going to a party and having people tell me that they like what I write.   I mean I am shocked just how many people do.  Then I get a little self conscious of what was it I said the last time I wrote something.
     Now on to Han, I know that's why you're really here.  That guy didn't have to apply to take Obi Wan to Alderann, he just said, look 10000 credits and I will take you.  He got the job was like, do pay me in advance because I am that bad ass.  I couldn't walk into a job and say, I will do what you want but I need $10000 in advance.  I'd get laughed at, I  don't have the look down I guess.  I need to buy more white shirts and black vests to wear around.  Not sure I dig the blue pants with yellow stripe  down the legs but I could rock it.  You have to own that look or you just look creepy like when Lando was wearing Han's clothes at the end of Empire.  That was messed up man.  Once Han got the princess back to the rebels he was just interested in the money.  I've always loved that about the dogma behind mercenaries, I'll do whatever you want just as long as I get paid.  I like this idea and I willing to apply it to my employment.  I will do what they ask me to do they just need to make sure I get my money.   If my money is less than what I want or not there on time.  I'm not doing what they ask.  I've yet to be asked anything amoral but... who knows.  And people that pass themselves off as mercenaries but then suddenly have a heart when it comes to people suffering as a result of their actions are just hypocritical.  This is why I never got into Fire Fly.  I am constantly told that I have to watch that series, that it was awesome.  I find it hard to watch a show that shows me how hypocritical they are in the first episode I watched.
    People can try and point out to me that even though Han said he wasn't in it for the revolution or for the princess he was in it to be paid.  He came back to help out Luke because he cared for him.  No he didn't come back because he wanted to be all caring, he came back because he noticed that there was power to be gained from helping out the rebels.  Suddenly he's a general in an army by the end of the film.  Going from paid grunt to well paid general is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.  You can't tell me that Han didn't do what he felt like after he casually blew Greedo away without even blinking.  After Han got back from being tortured in Cloud City, that look on his face wasn't that of fear or hopelessness, he said "They didn't even ask me any questions?" He was thinking, if they had I would have sold anyone of them out to save my ass.  That is why he looked so shocked.
      I guess employers aren't interested in to hiring someone who's loyalties lie with the person with the biggest paycheck for me.  Speaking of which, if any of my would be employers happen to Google me and find this blog, think of what you could get me to do if you committed to paying me.  No not really...yes really, no just kidding, or am I?

You like me because I'm a scoundrel
    Ian Serna


*Who knew there was a silent "G" in diaphragm? You know how long I spend annoyed with spell check? I'm glad Google was all like "Did you mean diaphragm, you idiot?"

They wouldn't have said anything.

     I was told today by my sister, that if I was going to be staying here much longer I was going to have to start parking my car in the garage.  The home owners association thinks my car is ugly.  Can you believe that?  My car is ugly.  Yeah she may not look like much but.. I said that already.  I know the is like the second entry I've written involving my car.  If my like were like Han Solo's though you wouldn't notice. Han loved his ship over everything else in his galaxy.  Like when that prince offered him a new ship if he would leave and not pursue Princess Lea as a wife.  He laughed in his face, the only the he loved more than Lea was his ship what is that guy thinking.  I'm not saying that my car is that dear to me, this is about how my life isn't like Han's, but the car is like the only thing I own that I could live in if I suddenly found myself homeless.  At least I have the car.  All the damage to it, I wouldn't be so mad about if any of it was caused by me.  The fenders look like that because of other people.  If I had a good job, like the one I just lost, maybe I would get some body work done on it, and then go from there.  I know I shouldn't really fly off the handle about his, Luke gave Han a ton of shit for how his ship looked when he first saw it.  Han played it off, he didn't get mad about it he just treated Luke like he was just some buzzing fly near his ear.  I am not going to rave on about his, I just thought it would be something else I could throw up here.  I don't know how interesting this blog is but coming up with ways I can use my knowlege of Han Solo's life to compare it to mine is getting tricky and fun, and I don't know how I am going to keep coming up with titles to fit into the tag line.
  "You like me because I'm a scoundrel"
           Ian Serna

These things wouldn't bother me

    The more time I spend looking around this town, it just seems like all annoying pretentious things I hated about L.A. condensed into a smaller city.  The constant blabber from people about how they are vegan, or vegetarian.  The way everyone around here is some kind of musician or artist.  People seem to talk about how this is a cultural hub for Texas, it is like one giant culture of people that sit around coffee shops talking about how lame it is to own a gas powered car, then they pull away in a car that get 12 mpg.  Han didn't have to deal wit this shit. Hanging out in wretched hives of scum and villainy, shooting the guys that pissed you off there wouldn't get you arrested it would just get a few glances from the bar.  It might even boost your credibility.  

    I stop and ask myself how many ugly burn orange cars are in this town and the I remember that UT is here.  It is the same reason that all these people here look like they just got out of high school, because some of them did.   And the 30-40 year old ones that still look like that just seem pathetic.  Han had it better, if the people weren't offering money to have him take them places or their stuff places in his rust bucket freighter. He could just hang out and drink Corellian ale and work on his ship.  I mean no one is offering me money to take them places, in my shitty little Civic, she may not like like much but she's got it where it counts.  Close to 40mpg.  I made a liquor store run in less than 2 miles.  She's efficient enough for you old hippie.  I suppose I could work on my car and get the A/C fixed.   I mean if you look at it. I am already at Lando's, TR did sell me the car fair and square, I could be like, "I'm here for repairs", and TR could say, "What have you done to my car?"

   Back to Han having women falling over at this feet.  I should try and avoid getting anywhere near that dating sight I singed up for after rum.  I think I probably pissed off or annoyed 3 ladies last night.  It was at that point I realized how pathetic I must seem.  Unemployed, buzzed on a Tuesday, and trying to find a date over the internet.  Han never had that problem, it was never Tuesday in a galaxy far far away.  

I wouldn't need to do this.

    I signed up for a free dating site.  If I where Han, I'd just flash my smile that's 12 parsecs wide  and the girls panties just melt off.  Who knows, this might be good for me.  I couldn't be any more desperate and lonely than anyone else on that sight right?  I mean at least I am posting honest pictures of myself up.  I find it strange how my personality could hit a 91% compatibility with some one but they are like an 8 on the hotness scale, but I'm like a 5.5, I get half a point for being native american (exotic factor).  Hell I sill sent the hot chick a message.  Or should I say a poorly constructed joke about something she said on her profile.  I did that to all the girls I sent messages too, hopefully some will find me interesting.  If I am really lucky, I could land several of them and play roulette with crazy bitch factor. If I where Han, I'd just pop them off with my blaster under the table though. I can thank my silly English friends who do the Yogpodcast, Simon and Lewis where playing around on the dating site I decided to use, because it is free.  At the moment I am not about to borrow a much of money from a large gangster slug to make ends meet.  Though I have been looking into Han's biz.  Running counterfeit jeans out of a car hole.  I could probably get things really moving come the later months of the year.  You know that big thing in that place near those woods that happens for a while.
   Enough about my rendezvous at docking bay 94. I've been stuck listening to the same System of a Down track for a few hours now because I can't get it out of my head.  So I have to get it out of my brains active memory by burning it into my subconsciousness. I mean I like BYOB but humming it all the time was starting to bother people around me.  See if I were Han I wouldn't have to worry about his.  I bet he could hum all the songs he wanted in that Carbonite shell, lucky prick.  I suppose this is a bit short but, it is getting late and I wake up late as it is, pfft if I was Han I'd  be next to a sexy princess or at least a warm Wookie.  Damn that guys is awesome.
"You like be because I'm a scoundrel"
     Ian Serna

New and exciting

     So, I've decided that I will start this new blog, because I feel that if I focus on film reviews on one and then just put the random crap in another, I can get a more focused audiences on one or the other, and that way I can do what I want in one and have the other look more consistent.  If that makes sense to anyone I will consider the idea a success and move on.

     So what I plan on doing with this blog is what I wanted to do which was just either write about how awesome my day was, or just make up how awesome it was.   Like today I totally beat the first Diablo in a few hours.  Then I called this girl and she was so impressed with that that she sent me a picture of her collection of quotes from my other blog.  It was impressive and flattering that she would pay so much attention to me.  Not really I'm not impressed with anyone's attention to me because I'm am to cool and I already expect it.  Because if my life where like Han Solo's then I wouldn't be searching for approval I would know I already have it.  If not then you're not worth my time to begin with.  Trust me if you don't read this you're throwing away a fortune here don't be a fool.  Today I discovered that I can boost the graphics power of my computer, all I need is to drive down to planet Houston and get the cable that I can use to bridge two Nvidia cards together, so they can use there GPUs to process my display.  I will go back to being a regular at updating my blog's because why the hell else am I going to do.  Some one said to  me I should network and make my online presence more viable.  The same person that is pushing me to get a job.  I really think it would be very difficult to really do both.  I have to either commit to one or the other.  I'll commit to this one or now.
      Making the trip back to Houston or Staying in Austin is really the coin flip right now.  I know one person that won't mind if I stay, and I know another that would probably hate if I showed back up in Houston.  They know who they are and I am not going to name names... Oh wait Han Solo would, David Andrew and Robin Serna-Switzer.  HA man I love the title of this blog.  I can get away with all kinds of crap because I can always invoke it in the name of a character that didn't give a shit about anyone unless it benefited him.  I will do my best to commit to these blogs.   I know I have fallen off the wagon for my film review blog, I promise tomorrow I will recall the memory of the films I watched a few months ago and do reviews over there on them.  Everyone please make sure to pester me about posting regularly.  I really helps me keep focused.  And knowing that I have people reading what I am writing gives me motivation to keep writing.  I don't even care if it is negative feed back at least I know that some one has taken the time to read what I wrote.  I will end it here for now.  I will update my other blog "Brilliant Oxymoron" http://suicideranger.insanejournal.com/ tomorrow. Thanks.
   "You like me because I'm a scoundrel."
        Ian Serna