Meh, Obama: Why I'm just not that excited

It has only been recently that I’ve fully identified myself as an Atheist. This was not an overnight change, or a sudden epiphany while eating a ham sandwich. My path to Atheism from Christianity has been a gradual internal dialogue surrounding three questions:

• Do I want or need an a source of omnipotence in my life, and if so, why?
• Do I want or need salvation, and if so from what and by whom?
• Am I generating these answers myself or from outside influence?

Alohomora

I just saw Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 film in theaters (2D, thank you very much), and I loved it! The cinemetography was stellar, giving the film gravity and artistry one would not expect from a book often placed in the children's section at the library. When you stop to think that these actors have been at it for 10 years -- most of them pre-pubescent at the start -- the character development seems to defy probability in its perfection. Because a couple of the films were flops and the sixth one was strangely perverted from its original literary tone, this film (not to exclude its preceding partner) stood out to me as the one they got right. The first book's adaptation was also well done; however, cinematic style has evolved and cannot be fairly compared to a movie from 2001 with actors 10 years junior in life and job experience. I liked the movie. I laughed; I cried; I laughed while crying.

But...

A Light In The Dark[room]

Last night, I watched the Michael Bay film I Am Number Four. I greatly enjoyed Alex Pettyfer as the brooding, isolated teenager. His performance lacked the stereotypical angst of a teen protagonist (i'm looking at you Kristen Stewart); instead he projected a quiet solitude that I found to be more realistic and refreshing.

A Treatise On The Benefits Of Customer Service Skills

I'm pretty sure that customer service standards have hit an all-time low. At the risk of sounding 75 years old, there was a time when people took pride in a job well done. There was a satisfaction in making someone's time with you special. To be fair, that unspecified time I've mentioned focused on creating a clientele base and keeping it. Each customer that you interacted with was a potential lifetime client -- a relationship was expected and encouraged. In an age of instant gratification and isolation, the idea of clients is relegated primarily to professions that directly impact the human body: doctors, hairdressers, dentists, and  beauticians (read bikini waxers). Unless we are personally at risk for dying or looking stupid, Americans have made it clear to service workers that they don't want to be talked to any more than possible, and if they are not processed quickly, it is the worker's fault that the customer has decided to ask for their help. Deplorably, some service workers see this as an excuse to do the bare minimum.

Pop Is Satan's Music, But Otherwise Not Too Bad

I'm generally an elitist snob. Call me old fashioned, but it's not cool to like what everyone else likes, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to let you know how inferior your tastes are. Popular music is for the simple-minded, the people who can't keep track of more than one tempo, volume, key at a time. More than four chords would overcomplicate things and god forbid any other time signature besides 4/4 is used. The words rarely have any substance, and 99% of the time, the subject matter has already been covered on one of Bob Dylan's 34 studio albums. Pop stars prey on impressionable teens whose libidos have tricked their brains into cave-man like responses, which makes me doubt the performers' actual popularity and their artistic motives. I don't like pop music, damn it, and I never will!

Why Am I Bitching, And Why Should You Care?

What's A Pseudo-Geek?

I'm normally classified as a geek since I work with computers, but I'm not a geek in the general definition. I'm more of a renaissance man, having gained knowledge on many subjects but mastering none of them. I can juggle; crochet; ballroom dance; fix computers; ski; fish; fold origami; flag twirl; play piano, french horn and trumpet; act; and I have an enormous wealth of interesting, yet ultimately useless facts. I do not do any one of these activities to the degree that would allow me to call myself a person of that craft.