Groonkly Bits

I found this movie recommendation site via The Coffee Achiever‘s post. Giving it the Top 5 treatment a la High Fidelity seemed the best way to test the waters.

So far it recommended these flicks in the following order and according to my current mood:

1) Run Lola Run: Already seen it and thought it was damn awesome.

2) Secretary: I’ve seen this one too. It made me realize that domination can be fun and a little…a lot… weird.

3) Y Tu Mama Tambien: One movie I haven’t seen but have heard good stuff about. It must be worth something since the director is doing Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

4) 8 1/2: Never seen it. I guess it’s time to finally check out a Fellini flick.

5) Memento: Watched it and consider it worth its weight in gold.

I give the What to Rent system 3 out of 5 stars.

1 Comment | In: Linked | | #

Some old thoughts are stirring in my mind these days. I started thinking on college days and how good I had things back then, but, of course, didn?t realize it. Here are a few things that I miss.

I miss the first year in the CCRH dorms. It was a big change from LayFayette, AL. I tell you that for nothing.

I miss when the dorms only had only 4 open floors (that first year of business) and knowing, at least the face, of everyone who lived there.

I miss working the CCRH front desk long before it went to hell and buried itself in regulations and piss poor tenants.

I miss the barefoot girl who sat outside the dorms to smoke and unwind.

I miss dangling a foot outside my third floor dorm window and watching the day go by.

I miss hanging out at the front desk (cause there was never other things to do) while Bil or Hoops were working. One night we used three-way calling to get roughly 100 people on the line at the same time. It crashed the phone network for the building. That may rank high on the dork-o-meter but damnit it was funny!

I miss Delta Chi. I never would have met brothers from other mothers MedicMike or Mareska if not for D-Chi.

I miss the lame ass frat parties (D-Chi excluded) I was invited to while working the desk.

I miss hanging with roommates DT and Charles. I still see them but not as much as before. Also, age has made them a little bit saner.

I miss playing Sega in room 213.

I miss hanging with Clyde, Gwen and Ali.

I miss rollerblading down Amsouth?s parking deck and not knowing how to brake.

I miss the old Toysrus-adjacent Velvet Underground. It was one of the few nightclubs I could get into.

I miss sparring at Berry’s Studio 4 nights out of the week. After a few months, I was actually kicking some ass.

I miss that classes and tests were the only real stresses in my life and that having beer money was the only concern.

I miss not knowing what I had.

No Comments | In: Too Many Thoughts | | #

Rainy days
Have their ways
Of making me say
It will be okay.

No Comments | In: Groonk's Poetry Pit | | #

“…evil things have plans. They have things to do.”
-Anya, BtVS, ‘After Life‘

I need a plan.

No Comments | In: Quotes | | #

The first discovery of the day. The last post of the night.

On March 24, 2004 at 5:48 p.m, Emily Ava Cuthbert was born to Matthew and Misty.

The way I figure things, closing the day on a good thing will balance the world.

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The second worse thing about being a Gentleman of Leisure is the damn junk you get into while watching TV.

I want one of those damn 1 to 1 coffee makers. But I gave up mass doses of caffeine over 3 years ago. Thus my dilemma.

Other than that lack of money thing.

No Comments | In: Buy Me | | #

Writing that bit on Alabama put me in a bad place. It’s time to turn that around with another trip into my world of amateur photography.

These are early photos from my Die Puny Huntsville series named Huntsville by Day. All in widescreen format.

Nightmare Hall

LAWoman73 was cleaning out her office before her final push to sunny California. I dropped by after work to lend a hand and shoot the shit. As we were leaving with her last load of crap, I noticed that the hallway looked like something out of my nightmares. I did my best to capture “the horror.”

Squared Away

Before I dropped by her office, I took a stroll around downtown Huntsville. If you look closely, you can see my distorted silhouette in the glass.

Climbing the Wall

Another random shot from that August evening.

View from my Car

Toying around with my sepia function early in my photography career produced this shot. It was taken while I was driving east bound on University Drive. If I’m not mistaken I had just grabbed a whopper from Burger King. I dig the old timey feel sepia gave the shot so I kept the photo.

2 Comments | In: Groonk: In Absence of Words | | #

I am sick of living in a state that is a reference for everything that?s farked up socially in this country. I can?t watch TV or go out in public without hearing some noise about stupid shit that Alabama has done.

I flip on the news and whenever there?s a socially backwards plot happening, Alabama is the first word out of the reporter?s mouth. I watch a sitcom and the same rule applies. And every single freaking time a joke comes up about Alabama being the second worse education system in the country, the only reply most Alabamians have is, ?Thank God for Mississippi.’

The other night I was watching Family Business. That?s the Showtime documentary program that delves into the life of family run porn business owner Seymore Butts (Adam Glasser). This particular episode was on free speech. Adam was standing around in his warehouse, surrounded by butt loads of his porn on dvd and vhs, when he saw a box addressed to Alabama. He flips out. (For those of you who don?t know, Alabama is one of those states that do not allow what it deems to be pornography to be shipped into or out of its borders.) What follows is a meeting involving all the members of team Butts where the infuriated Adam does his best to drive home the fact that they can?t let stuff like that get past them cause it could result in jail time for any of them.

So there it is. The Alabama stigma strikes again. Racial animosity burned the brightest here and still burns behind certain smiling faces. Alabama kids get little more education than a cicada and no one seems to care. And in Alabama, sex can only be missionary, only between a man and a woman and God help you if you want to enhance your pleasure through other means. Alabama, the state in which I live.

My rant ends here.

No Comments | In: Too Many Thoughts | | #

I’ve been all in this noise the past week and it’s time The Groonk weighed in. Who would win in this ultimate battle of aerial predatory paragons?

One word. Two syllables.

Deathroll.

Croc’s got the shark beat, folks. Deal with it.

No Comments | In: Funny HaHa | | #

The whole canned air shopping spree was coming to a close. I had my air and a Daft Punk video, that I couldn?t afford but grabbed cause you only live once, and I was ready to get out of Best Buy. I brought my goods to the checkout counter. The cashier gave me the obligatory greeting. She also began to push some magazine bullshit on me. Eight free issues of Entertainment Weekly or eight issues of Sports Illustrated. Entertainment is my raison d?etre, so the choice was obvious.

The Great Maker only knows why I relented and signed up for those Weeklys. Maybe it was because I was in a damn good mood that day. It’s even possible there was a song in my heart at the time. Or maybe I felt the need to be snail mailed to death by a magazine corporation. It?s been about 10 years since I?ve had battle with one of those.

?Huh.? she says.

?What?? I say.

She proceeds to tell me that all the guys she?s asked picked the Entertainment Weekly and all the girls picked Sports Illustrated. I made the comment that most guys who come in here (Best Buy) more than likely aren?t big into The Sports. She didn?t seem to catch my drift but that was ok.

I quickly began to wonder what type of girls were grabbing the sports magazines. Are the rags for their husbands as 7d suggests or are they sporty girls with tanned legs and sweatbands and short shorts. Maybe they?re business ladies. By day they?re power brokers who close multi million dollar deals with breathy but sure confidence. By night they lounge in La-Z-Boys wearing sweats and eating wings in front of a TV forever stuck on ESPN.

I snapped out of that weird place, the chat wound down and I returned to finishing that day?s errands.

No Comments | In: Too Many Thoughts | | #