"The future's uncertain and the end is always near"

Japanese Maple And The Ring

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:28:03 GMT

This would have been great to post for Halloween but better late than never. The Japanese Maple tree we have in the front of the house literally just changed about 6 days ago. I didn't even know we had a Japanese maple. I would just come home and look at our tree and say "damn, that's a fine lookin' tree we got there". Then about 6 days ago i come home and it's blood red and looks absolutely gorgeous. Because i can't help but think in movies as i couldn't help but remember the scene from the ring where Rachel watches the tape for the first time in the cabin and the sun is beating down on the tree and it's glowing this beautiful blood red. It really hit me as the film is based on the Japanese film called Ringu and was like "Duh, Japanese film, Japanese maple"

The Ring

My House

I promise i don't have any VHS tapes that will kill you...well maybe a few :)

After Pictures For The House

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:52:45 GMT

If you don't remember what the before pictures looked like you can click here

Master Bath first floor sink

Master Bath Sink & Mirror

Master Bath Closet

Kickin' slate coffee table

Dining Room without furniture

Dining Room onlooking Living Room

Dining Room With Furniture

Living Room/Fireplace with furniture

Deck and yard

I love this shot

PSA from Warren Ellis

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:07:56 GMT

Dont Forget To VOTE!

The House!

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:42:08 GMT

We've finally settled in to the new house and so far we've been quite happy and surprised at what great shape the house is in. During the inspection we were told that the house was well built and very solid but we never thought that the bulk of our work would just be painting. Most of the pictures that i'm posting can be considered "before" pictures and we'll soon enough post "after" pics.

The Walkway

The Living Room

The Living Room W/ Natural Light

The Dining Room

The Kitchen

The Sunporch

The Patio

Full Bath First Floor

Bedroom 1 On The First floor

Bedroom 2 On Second Floor

Bedroom 3 on Second Floor

Second Floor Hallway

Full Bath Second Floor

Full Finished Basement (View 1)

Full Finished Basement (View 2)

Full Finished Basement (View 3)

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:15:45 GMT

I haven't posted in forever as things have been quite busy lately. To even say life has been busy is a complete understatement to be honest. We moved back home to help out my parents as they both have had their health comprimised in the last couple of years, more so my mother. We made a bold move and huge sacrifice to move back home and to live in about a 300 Sq Ft basement (which can really show you what you're made of). I even thought we were crazy at some points through all of this. Surprisingly we've had very little fights and very little to complain about being down there. I think it's because we both saw the good to come of it and we always kept our eye on the ball. My parents are going to be putting up their house very soon in hopes to sell, retire and kick back. They would have done this a while ago but the timing was aweful, hence the reason we moved back in.

We're just about to purchase a beautiful home in Union, NJ in a great area, close to everything including NYC. We actually close on July 25th. So far there have been no complications other than Weichert Financial being up our butts constantly to make sure we "actually" have the downpayment AND the closing costs. To say that banks are scared shitless to lend money out these days is an understatement. Even if you have the money, they want to see EVERYTHING. I guess this is the way it should be and was and should have stayed...maybe the country wouldn't be in this kind of a mess otherwise.

I have been reading posts though. I check often in fact. I hope i have a lot more to post about in the coming future.

Stay out of my God Damn video games!

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:52:03 GMT

I happen to own an XBOX 360 and i'm a member of the community here on LJ. I get this today...

My Chemical Romance songpack on XBOX live market place...
Guitar Hero II MCR song pack available now on marketplace
500 ms points
34 mb or thereabouts

- Teenagers
- This is how I disappear
- Famous Last Words

pretty fun.

1987 - Betty Glover Library Workout Tape Ad

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:19:52 GMT

Sweet JESUS! This woman's voice has BAD PORNO written all over it!

Ron Paul

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:06:33 GMT

I'm never one to talk religion or politics as they usually get pretty heated. I'm making an exception with this man Ron Paul. He's not a traditional Republican. He's actually shunned by them because he has realistic views. He's too smart to be president, that's why it probably will not go any further than this. I hope i'm wrong because he has my vote. I recommend looking up any info on him that you can. I'll start you off with this.

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:05:09 GMT

Happy birthdays to both gabbogabbo and lostarcadia!

Heath Ledger as The Joker

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Tue, 22 May 2007 00:36:03 GMT

Looks like they are not only going for dark but deeply demented. Did i mention i can't wait for the next Batman film Next Summer?!?

"Shove it up your Manifold!"

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:26:56 GMT

About three weeks ago i took my truck my mechanic in Newark who i've been going to for years and who i trust completely. Basically i knew the brakes needed to be done, i could feel it. Sounded like the rotors were shot but they just needed to be resurfaced plus i needed new brake pads and what not. Not too shabby. When ever i bring it there i ALWAYS ask him to check the necessaries and fluids. Well about a week after that i noticed that my truck was getting a little hot. OK a little is too easy a term, it had moved from C to H in about 10 minutes of driving. I pulled over to find that the Anti-freeze tank was dry as a bone. So because of where i was i paid $16.99 to the inconvenient convenience store for a container of 50/50 anti-freeze. It REALLY pissed me off that i paid for something that should have cost me $6 at best. Later on that day the truck was doing the same thing and the tank was empty yet again. So the next day after the tank was yet again empty i decided that it would just be easier to take my truck to the AAMCO we use for our work vans. This is where the story gets better...

I figure it would be easier for the simple fact that i would need someone to drive me to work while my truck is worked on in Newark as i live 15 miles in the opposite direction. When i lived home with my parents it was only 10 minutes away. I figured it was probably a hole in the tank or a hose busted loose or something simple like that. Now i love my truck, i've had it for 9 years already and it's 13 years old. it has 177,000 miles on it and rides perfectly. It's a tank and always performs, until i brought it to this place in Hackensack. They've been fixing my work vans for years now and they've done a great job. So it's now there for 2 days and i haven't gotten a phone call to say what's wrong so i call them. Well basically it's not just an anti-freeze leak. The manifold needs to be replaced and all the lines that go to it because they were all rusted. How much i ask? $560 says the man. It's more than i wanted to pay and i know i'd pay ALOT less with my guy in Newark but i figured it was the gamble i'd have to take and i lost. So i say OK. I get a call about 45 minutes later saying that the seal on one of my tires is broken and is loose as a goose and can cause serious damage. So i said how much is that? He says the part is $20 but the labor is going to be alot more than that. The total after taxes parts and labor came to $836! They then called me 30 minutes later to say it was finished. The labor they charged me for these seal had to be about $225. For 30 minutes work?? Now at this point i just want my truck back and just let it go, i've learned a VERY expensive lesson. So i'm driving it and it feels real funny. It's shaking and the idle is really rough. Also the thing that bothered me most is i would have to put my foot down on the gas REALLY far for it to move. Case in point, i'm on the parkway and in traffic. When a car would pull about 10 car lengths away from me i'd hit the gas to catch up yet i'm not moving and my truck isn't as responsive as it used ot be. So i lived with it for a week to see if it would get better because i did just have reconstructive surgery on my truck anf though it might take a few days for it to be back to snuff. So i take it back on Monday of last week and they call me later that day saying "there isn't anything wrong with the truck and you can come get it". So i decide to live with it for another week. Well this past Friday i decide to visit my good 'ol pal Chris in scenic Vernon, NJ. As i'm driving i have to jam on the gas to get it to go as usual and then it would kick in. I did this SO MUCH that the gas pedal gets stuck and here i go doing 75 down a residential road because i can't get the truck to stop. I have to jam on the brakes to get it to slow down all while smoke is coming from the front drivers side tire. I narrowly avoid an awful car accident by swerving out of the way just in time and made a left down a side street doing about 50! I call them right back after this incident and to my surprise i was very nice about the whole situation. We agreed to bring it back yesterday so they can look at it yet again. I get the call last night at about 5:30pm saying the truck is finished and they couldn't find anything wrong with it and they cut the rug so the brake pedal wouldn't stick any more. So i just went to pick up the truck about 45 minutes again and i must say as of this writing right now the truck drives perfect. They say they didn't find anything wrong and didn't do anything but i know they did because it purrs like a kitten again and is driving normal. So am i crazy to think that they fixed their problem and are saying that they didn't find anything because they would have to admit ot screwing up something or what? i mean it could do the same shit on my ride home or explode into a fierce phoenix but as of right now, it's perfect.

300 is love

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:18:37 GMT

Where do i begin? Being a huge fan of Frank Miller and the graphic novel of the same name i really doubt i would have loved the film any less if i had never picked up a copy of 300 10 years ago. It's just a great film from start to finish. If you have read the graphic novel then you know like the rest of us just how damn near perfect a film it truly is. I was literally shaking my head in amazement in the theater at how pane for pane and dialog for dialog the film really was. People must have seen me shaking my head and thought i wasn't enjoying it but it was the complete opposite, it was because i was amazed.

The only real discernable difference is that Leonida's wife had a much smaller part in the novel. I thought it was great that they gave her a much bigger and better part. You could just tell that she was a powerful and hard as nails type woman in the comic although the only real lines she has in the novel is "Spartan" "Come back with your shield...or on it" as Leonidas and his 300 men were leaving Sparta. That's not an easy thing to say to the person you love.

Don't buy into the reviewers. I don't think many know that it's based on a graphic novel and if they do they should read it first before making opinions. "It;s not historically accurate!" they say, so what i say! It's better than loosely based on fact and i can give two craps if the academy won't recognize it like they do EVERY Dame Judy Dench film.

I need to see this film again. Maybe I’ll do IMAX this time.

Brilliant!

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:38:11 GMT

Fav film scene meme

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:45:21 GMT

Cleaning my office

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:52:15 GMT

I came across a CD that i had saved today while i was doing a little cleaning up. Things can get messy easy when you're a tech so i wasn't surprised that i found it. So anyway i found some pretty cool stuff on the CD. Back when the video game NHL 2002 from Electronic Arts was out for the PC little did i know it would be the last installment to my knowledge that they would incorporate face mapping technology. Maybe people couldn't get the hang of it and that's why they took it away, i dunno. In my opinion i thought it worked great! I found an entire hockey team i made up using nothing but celebrities, here are a few. Ahhh the memories.

"a bowsha bowsha bow!"

"You should see the toast, i couldn't fit it through the door!"

"Toolshed!"

"I, i, i want the knife....pleeeeaaassseeeee"

Unemployed

PS3 madness

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:02:45 GMT

Now that people have been robbed at gunpoint, shot and riots have started for the glitchy PS3 the average price is going down even more at every auction on eBay. This is probably due to the fact that there is about 30,000 PS3 auctions on ebay right now. When that many people sell the same thing and want to make that kind of money they usually don't. Take this idiot for instance:

60GB PS3 with one wireless controller and 4 games-FREE SHIPPING

They packed in 4 games and an extra controller with free overnight shipping. The auction went for $1482. Here's the breakdown.

$600 system
4 games $59.99 x4
PS3 Controller $50
Overnight shipping (anywhere from $30-100, we'll just say $50)

Roughly it cost them about $950. So a profit of about $530 was made. To think, this person probably waited in line, in the rain and in a tent all week. That sounds worth it!

I wonder how many people who waited outside for a week are home with the system and it glitched up, i wonder how they feel?

I feel great, beacause i know it's happening somewhere, haha!

My Space

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:12:56 GMT

I was at one of my libraries today doing a roll over when a mother and a daughter came in asking if it was possible for My Space to be barred from the public PC's. I gently let them know that it's up to the library and not me although i know how to block the site. What i found most amazing about the situation was the women were asking to have it removed because the girls sister was not allowed to go to My Space at home and was coming to the library to do it. In their words "she's out of control and is on it too much". The mother could barely speak english and i highly doubt she really knows much about anything as the daughter she had with her was wearing a red sweatshirt that clearly said "Louisiana, MOTHERFUCKER!" Barring My Space is the least of her problems.

Devils Hockey is back!

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:04:09 GMT

Going to tonight's game. It's the first home game of the season, we go every year. I'm freakin' excited as hell!

effin' brilliant!

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:54:48 GMT

Co-Worker scews up my Time slot and morning commute

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 13:38:23 GMT

Quite frankly at this point i'm tired of talking about it. Here goes though. Early last week my co-worker says to me "I want to start alternating months where we switch time slots". Now i was fine with this idea 3 years ago when it was put on the table when i first started the job. It was a new job and i was willing to compromise. I've had the 8-4pm time since then and he has had 9-5pm. This is a no brainer as he literally lives maybe (2 miles) 10 minutes from where i work, i live 28 miles and i have to drive up the God forsaken joke we call the Garden State Parkway. I honestly don't mind coming in for 9am but it's leaving at 5pm that will really burn me. It roughly takes 2 hours drive in that mess. So i won't be getting home until abut 7pm and it's going to get dark soon, JOY!

This is also what pissed me off, how the situation was handled. On Tuesday of last week when it was brought up i talked to my boss and she said we'd have a meeting to decide on who would be coming in at what time and make it fair for everyone. Well apparently he talked to her to and the story changed. "Just make sure you both agree about the time, the two of you will have to agree on it". Well the thing that got me was he told me this AS I WAS LEAVING Friday at 4pm. He waited all week and all damn day so he could tell me as i left so it was me, him and the fucking wall. If i had known earlier i would have set up a meeting.

I left today at 7:45am and entire hour after me usual time to come in at 8am. I got to work at 8:15am. There was no traffic. "Some days are going to be like this i said to myself", but i don't get paid for the 45 minutes i'm in early. Now i know this as fact: If i leave at 5pm i'll roughly get home around 6:30-7pm (more closer to 7pm) If i leave at 6pm i'll get home at roughly 7-7:15pm so why would i stay untl 5pm and sit in two hours of traffic and get aggravated and stressed when i could just sit at my desk, work another hour (which i won' get paid for) and leave at 6pm and only have to sit in 1 hour of traffic?

Yeah exactly, it's fucked up. I came in today saying maybe this won't be so bad but the more i think about it the more i get pissed off. The last thing i need is bad blood with someone that sits three feet away from me who i genuinely like, i mean i invited him to my wedding for Christ's sake!

My boss is off today so i can't talk about it until tomorrow or at the end of the week so i can give a better idea of the time i will be losing and maybe, just maybe i can talk them into paying me for the extra hour. We'll see.

Dead PC Power Supply

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 23:20:20 GMT

Yeah, it sucks. I just bought this fucking thing not more than two months ago and it's already dead. I turned on my PC and then less than 30 seconds later it went off. I've never had a power supply die on me in one of my PC's ever and i got some pretty old PC's. It's not even under warranty as i bought on super discount. I've paid less money for other power supplies than i did for this and they ALL still work. Alas i think it's time to spend a decent buck for a good one (In the range of $70-100), maybe. *Sigh*

Movie Day!

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:33:01 GMT

If you haven't watched the trailer for 300 from my last post you need to catch up. Here are some more interesting films that are coming out soon.

From Guillermo del Toro director of The Devils Backbone and Hellboy comes:
Pan's Labyrinth

This film looks interesting but it's coming out in ill fated January. If no one knows what that means it's this little known fact: They reserve the garbage for January. The movies no one wants to see but the studios feel they'll lose more money than not releasing it. So when you see a film released in Jan it probably sucks, BAD. We do get gems though such as The Butterfly Effect and Seven. This is a "The Studios just don't get it" mistake. Any way here is:
The Invisible

To the naked eye one would say this looks boring due to the fact of all the awards and the slow paced trailer. Well in my eye it just only shows that it probably has character and story:
Climates

This just looks like fun:
Shoot 'em Up

And finally after making the AMAZING Batman Begins Christopher Nolan brings:
The Prestige

Frank Miller's 300

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 04:04:42 GMT

Anyone who enjoys graphic novels knows who Frank Miller is. This movie is based on his graphic novel of the same name and it looks fucking AMAZING!

Look for it March 17, 2007. I'm so in the theater for this.

Frank Miller's 300

Stolen from mipplet

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:48:00 GMT

Here's my collage, i also have naughty pictures in there too. I'm glad because if it was all movies and electronics i'd probably shoot myself.

Create your own! Originally Written By ga_woo, Hosted and ReWritten by darkman424

NJ's Best Hot Dogs

Joeycasz@gmail.com — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:43:19 GMT

There's plenty of places i've heard before but there's a few i've never heard of. Oh and being from Newark and always going there with my father i've been to ALL the hot dog trucks mentioned. Callahan's was no where on the list either. Although they are known for their dogs, they should be famous for thier burgers, they are SOOOOO much better. Although Hiram's in Fort Lee was voted best Chili dog!

Here's the full article:

The Top Dogs