Beer Time: Spaten Munich style Lager

Ah, beer time. One of my favorite times ever. I'm feeling in a German mood so I picked up a few different kinds of German beer, some of which I've had maybe once or twice years ago but I can't remember for sure. Memory problems aside, here we go!

Spaten is a Munich based brewery which makes many different kinds of beers including Franziskaner, which I'm also a big fan of, so I decided to try their flagship lager. Cool bottle, especially since I like green beer bottles, very German sounding name and a slightly higher ABV than is common for this type of beer. In fact, upon inspecting the bottle I found this:

 

It's technically considered a malt liquor!!

Oh man, could this be any more awesome? 5.2% is a little higher than the average 4% or so for this type of beer. When I tasted it I immediately thought it tasted like a "fancy malt liquor." Those were my exact thoughts. It tastes somewhat strong, but it's not overpowering like Hurricane or anything like that. It's very smooth, but at the same time you know it at least somewhat means business. It also has a very malty flavor, which makes sense as I read somewhere that this was supposed to be Germany's answer to Czech beer. Overall I think Spaten is very good and I would definitely try it again, and I'm sure I'll be trying more varieties of it also such as the Oktoberfest.

A few notes from a former Walmart employee

I'm no longer employed with Walmart (yes, it was my decision) and just wanted to post a few funny pictures that I took there that I had forgotten about. Since they were taken while I was working they are all camera phone pics, so deal with the quality. Oh speaking of, I ordered my new digital camera today! Should be here in about a week.
Hows 'bout we start with some inspiration from Walmart's founder and extremely rich champion of low wages and poor worker treatment, Sam Walton:

First of all, I doubt this is an actual quote. I mean, I know the guy was from Arkansas but I think he'd have the good sense to check his grammar before making this poster. Can you spot the typo? It cracked me up the first time I saw it.
Second, we move on to the fast paced world of milk crates.

That's right. Prohibited by law. So Walmart was in effect saying "fuck the po-lice" by using this in their store. I'm half kidding, here. The real reason they have this warning on them is that evidently these crates cost a lot to make. I've even seen some with "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL" printed on them, which I wish very much I had a picture of. Next  is just some funny shit i saw on a box.

That is quite possibly the best company name in existence. Ever. This was on a case of canned coconut milk.
That's about it. I'm very happy to not be employed there anymore, though I will miss some of the people I worked with. And feel bad for them.

Goodass Food #1

So I'm back. While I don't have much time to explain as I have to be at work in about 30 minutes, I did want to make a quick post about a place that's near and dear to my heart, because they have some of the best damn Chinese food I've ever eaten. Deep, right?
I'm talking about a little hole in the wall place in Bluff Park, AL called New China. I've been going there since I was a kid (also, I think, since the place opened) and have gone back at least a couple times a month ever since. If you go there at lunch time the place will be packed out with everyone wanting to snatch up one of the delicious and cheap as hell lunch specials. My favorite thing on the menu is still the sesame chicken, but I've eaten most of the items on the menu at one time or another and have liked everything I've ever gotten from there. They also have the best fried dumplings I've ever had, period. Damn, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. But seriously, to drive my point home, check out my lunch from earlier today:

Sesame chicken, fried rice, egg roll, and hot and sour soup with some crispy noodles. Know how much this cost me? SIX BUCKS with tax. That's cheaper than McDonald's and a whole hell of a lot better. The place and food are not fancy by any means, but every time I go there I get awesome Chinese food fast and cheap which for me is a winning combination. If you are in the Birmingham area you definitely need to check this place out. It is G-E-W-D gewd. They don't have a website but here's a link to their Urbanspoon page, which as of right now has 386 votes with 97% thumbs up. Try it and you'll see why.

I'll explain more about my current situation when I have time.

Oblivion

I don't want to get into a habit of not posting, because it's a slippery slope. I've been sick for a couple of days and since I couldn't get out of bed I decided to watch this movie. I still think Tom Cruise is pretty damn crazy after that whole Scientology jumping on Oprah's couch thing, but he's been in some very good movies. And the man does not age. He either has a really good plastic surgeon or maybe there's some truth to that Scientology craziness.
Anyway, in case you can't tell I tend to enjoy movies that are post apocalyptic or focus on the end of the world, so when I saw the preview for this one a while back I wanted to see it. And speaking of, one thing that disappointed me a little bit is that you don't get to see as many ruined cities and signs of civilization long gone as they made it look like. You do get to see the remains of the Statue of Liberty, the stadium where the last Superbowl was played, etc, but not much else.
Basically, all of humanity has fled Earth and lives either in a bigass space station called the TET, or in a space colony on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Tom Cruise and his support/lover live in a control tower above the surface of Earth, and maintain drone workers that help protect these big machines that draw the salt water from the ocean to be used for power (they explain the process pretty well in the movie). There are also some bad guys who are remnants of an alien invasion that destroyed the world called Scavs that sabotage the process and destroy the drones from time to time.
Basically, this story is a pretty big mindfuck, as what you think is going on is nothing like what's actually going on. I'm not going to give it away. My other complaint is that in this two hour movie Morgan Freeman's character doesn't get a whole lot of screen time. I'm going to give this movie a solid rating of OK. Worth watching for some of the WTF moments that come out of left field and are totally unexpected, as well as some cool special effects and a great use of Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale."

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

I'm almost out of books by Vonnegut to read, and that makes me sad. Now, however, is not a time for sadness but a time to talk about this very entertaining book I just finished reading.
There are a few Mr. Rosewaters in this book, the first of which being Lister Ames Rosewater, a senator from Indiana who founded the Rosewater Foundation to aid his descendants and himself in not having to pay taxes on the family estate since it is a non profit organization. The foundation has millions upon millions of dollars that multiply thanks to investments made by the large New York City law firm that runs the foundation. The foundation also pays a $3.5 million a year pension to Lister's son Eliot.
Eliot Rosewater is thought by many to be insane, because he actually wants to help people, despite never having to lift a finger for the rest of his life. He opens an office and takes calls from people 24 hours a day who need help. Sometimes the callers just need someone to talk to, sometimes they need a little money, sometimes they need legal advice or how to get something done, like receiving VA benefits, etc. Eliot takes all their calls, 24/7. This takes place in Rosewater County, Indiana.
Meanwhile on the other side of the country, in Rhode Island to be exact, a distant cousin of Eliot's, who at first does not even know they are related, sells insurance and has a largely miserable life. A lawyer, Norman Mushari, finds that the loophole in the charter of the foundation is if the next in line to be chair of the foundation is found mentally incompetent, control will go to the next in line and Norman will collect a large sum of money for his help in the situation. It's not too hard to think that Eliot is crazy and many people do. I don't want to give any more of the story away so you're just going to have to read the book, and it is 220 pages well read. A great story, a great ending.

After Earth

I'm the kind of movie watcher who can be completely sold on watching a movie just from watching a trailer. I'm also someone who grew up in the nineties. So of course I'm at least some measure of a Will Smith fan. I'm not going to rewatch Men in Black while listening to "Miami," but I liked him in Independence Day and I am Legend. Oh, and Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
So when I saw the preview for this movie I wanted to see it. The story has a good premise, that being that a thousand years into the future, Earth was evacuated to another planet in another solar system because all the pollution had all but destroyed the world. Will Smith's character is a general in the military aboard a spaceship bound for some futuristic world when the ship has a run in with an asteroid field and is damaged. The ship makes a crash landing and breaks apart in the process. This particular part is what I wish they hadn't put in the trailer because it's one of the best parts in the movie and if I hadn't seen it in the trailer I wouldn't have expected Will Smith to suddenly get sucked almost completely out of the ship when it broke apart and it would've scared the bajeezus out of me, being so sudden and unexpected.
So the general and his son are the only two survivors of the crash, except for a giant monster in a cage aboard the ship that can sense its enemies by smelling fear. Literally. So from there, there are a few "Oh, come on" moments and there are some "How the hell is that possible?" moments, but this isn't meant to be a realistic movie. To sum it up: Dad & son must find a way to survive the perils of a futuristic Earth uninhabited by humans, in which the climate fluctuates rapidly (the temperatures go from a comfortable temp during the day to below freezing at night, just about everywhere) and there are natural predators everywhere. Son must reach the other part of the ship 100km away to retrieve a distress beacon so they can get rescued.

******SPOILER ALERT******* IF YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING SPOILED, DON'T READ THE PARAGRAPH BELOW.
The rescue, once the beacon is found, happens UNBELIEVABLY FAST. I had a slight issue with this. And also, Will Smith's character by all laws of nature should've died before they were rescued, and I have a feeling the only reason he didn't die was so the story would have a happy ending. Keeping in mind this is a PG-13 movie, I guess I can live with it.
*******END SPOILERS*******

OK, so how is the movie? It's alright. Not great. Not terrible. Somewhere in between. I do feel like the current IMDB rating of 4.9/10 is on the low side, and there are a lot of 2/10 and 3/10 reviews on there that I feel like are unfair. So what's my rating? I'm giving this movie a 6/10. It's not terrible, and there are some good effects. Worth watching.

Moving...

I got fired today. We got a new store manager about two or three weeks ago and she was power tripping, as many new managers do. So what did I do to get fired?
Steal? No.
Being rude to a customer? No.
Making terrorist threats? Close, but no.

I didn't card a sixty year old woman who was buying beer.
Not sixteen, one six, no.
Sixty. Six zero.
Apparently, it's against company policy to sell alcohol to anyone without checking their ID first, even if the person is obviously old enough. I was not aware of this policy, and ridiculous though it may be, I got fired over it. So what does this mean for me?

I'm moving back to Birmingham. Why, you ask?
Well, ever since (and before) I moved to Dothan I've tried to find a decent job here. Last count I applied for over 200 jobs. Know how many interviews I went on? None, except Dollar General.
There just aren't that many jobs around here. I realize that this probably isn't really my fault, but I still feel like a failure. I just knew that we could make things work. We could make it through. Now it looks like to help out my girlfriend I'm going back to Birmingham where I'll have a much easier time finding a job. I'm hoping I'll be able to go back to the pizza joint I worked at before I moved down here.
As I said earlier, I feel like I have failed. I feel like a loser.
That's not going to stop me from doing my best to provide for myself and my girlfriend. Before I moved I worked two jobs totalling about 60 hours a week and would have no problem doing that again as long as I was making decent money. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you want, huh?
She's gonna stay here and finish the fall semester of school and should be joining me in Birmingham in December if all goes as planned... and I pray it does. I'm going back tomorrow and will start my job search immediately. I'll keep y'all updated.