The Midnight Hour

Someone parked about 18 inches into my parking space at work last week, taking up 3/4 of their space and 1/4 of mine. Not one to decline a challenge, I squinted my eyes, adjusted my sideview mirror, and after three tries I had both fit into the confines of my space and given the offending driver 3 inches of clearance to enter his/her car. Not tagging sideview mirrors was the most difficult part, but my Blazer had just enough clearance to get above the offender’s mirrors. Owned.

I can’t believe the negative turn that Sony’s Playstation 3 has taken. My wife was in Wal-Mart last week and they announced over the intercom that they had two PS3s in stock. It was a full 30 minutes and two announcements later that they actually sold out. Thirty minutes may not seem like a lot, but it would have been three minutes just a month ago. Multiple online sources are proclaiming Sony the whipping boy of 2006 for their PS3 debacle. It used to be really expensive, but everybody wanted one. Now it’s just really expensive.

I went into the Toys’R'Us in Oceanside yesterday and it resembled a stock yard. Not only was the store filthy from last minute holiday shoppers (although to the shoopers’ credit, it’s usually filthy at all times of the year), but people were lined up in droves at every register like they were waiting to get branded. Some of them looked like zombies, and most of them smelled like zombies.

We held our annual sexual assault prevention class last week at work. It was a success, and now we are all better prepared to protect ourselves, loved ones, and fellow Marines from sexual assualt. Quotable comments from the instructor and students include:

-”First of all, we’ve got to be f’in professional about this.”

-”I think we’ve all woken up with coyote ugly.”

-”What if you’re more drunk than she is?”

-”Do you want to go to Leavenworth and be somebody’s bubba?”

I talked to a guy last night who had made it out of the Denver airport. He said the lines there are so long that they become intertwined, go in loops, and are generally confusing. He said it would be easy to think you’re getting in line for security and end up at Starbucks.

The Hushed Casket won our first match on the Team Warfare League (TWL) Gears of War Power Ladder. TWL is a community gaming site where you can find other teams to compete against in almost any online multiplayer PC or console game. We formed a team to compete in a ladder where points are awarded for wins and subtracted for losses. Right now we sit at #2 in the ladder after just one win. More to come.

I take the GMAT this Thursday for admission to UAH’s Masters of Management in Technology program (MBA equivalent). I used an online prep course, and I’m traditionally a good test-taker, but it’s still daunting because of how different the GMAT is from other standardized tests. I hope I do well on it, because at $250 a pop, I can’t afford to take it repeatedly!

The Midnight Hour was recently admitted to 9rules.com, a site that collects and links “the best content on the web.” Look for The Midnight Hour in the special interests category, and look for the 9rules logo on these pages coming soon.