Time for an endorsement

This had been a long and boring political process. Since Huckabee and Norris are out, I have decided to endorse cthulhu. You can find more information about him at these websites.
www.cthulhu.org
www.cthulhu.org/cthulhu/index.html
www.cthulhu.com

Actual alien fotage!

Hahaha, just kidding. But I guess this guy
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,359563,00.html
wants Denver tax payers to put together a commission to plan for future alien visits.

Indiana Jones, dont read this if you havn't seen the movie!

I went an saw Indiana Jones on Tuesday. It was fantastic.

Acting was great. I was afraid that Shia LeBouf was going to make me mad, but I think he did a great job. Harrison Ford was totally believable as an older Indiana Jones.

Special effects were great also. Explosions, gun fight scenes, car chases all were done a lot better than in say temple of doom.

The only weak point was in the story. I thought the plot was good, but I saw basically the same story when I watched National Treasure 2 a few months ago. City of gold, under waterfall, the only difference was the interdementional being that escapes in huge flying saucer at the end. Not great, but better than I thought it was going to be.

Sound track was good. Not a lot of original songs, but a lot of 50's songs that fit the period setting of the movie great.

Overall, I give it an 8. You should go see this movie.

Rich Jandt Adventure #6

One summer I was working as an intern at a Church. But I also worked full time at a video arcade. One of our co-workers was a volunteer firefighter, and asked Tim and I if we wanted to go to an indian reservation to purchase illegal fireworks. Asking me if I want something to cause trouble is like asking an alcoholic if he (or she) wants a drink.

So we get up early one morning and pile into his car, and are joined by his son. I had met his son at the arcade, where he routinely won thousands of tickets and got some sweet prizes. The son started to play some Eminem, which I hadn’t really heard before. We all kind of talked about it, and I started to drop some hints about how lame it was. He didn’t get the hint.

After at least a 45 minute drive to the reservation, we finally arrived. My wallet was full of cash, and my mind of intention. We walked around and bought a sweet load of exploding flying and fire causing toys. On the way back home we listened again to the Eminem album, which really isn’t any better the second time in a row.

I wish the story had ended there, but since I was involved…

A few days later Tim and I were sitting on our roof. It was a beautiful day, with a fresh breeze and a town full of tourists. For some reason I thought it would be a great idea to light firecrackers and throw them at people on the street.

Once again, I thought it would be a great idea to light firecrackers and throw them at people on the street. I’m not sure exactly what is wrong with me, but it seems to happen a lot.

After a while one of our co-workers climbs the side of our building and is freaking out. Turns out the cops are waiting for us at the bottom of the building wondering why we decided to throw lit firecrackers at people on the street. I really didn’t have an answer for him.

To make matters worse, a few days after that someone else (I swear I wasn’t involved) made an explosive device and detonated it right next to the arcade where I happened to be working. On our way to church a few days later, we saw a kid detonate another one in a garbage can. Knowing we would be the prime suspects, Tim and I promptly went to the police station to tell them what we saw.

Needless to say, I don’t think they believed us.

Best plan ever

I am starting a grass roots movement to elect Tim Lewis President. Help me get the word out.

Rich Jandt Adventure #5

Here is another older adventure of Rich Jandt. As far as I can remember, this actually happened.

Every third Thursday, we had Pork N Beans night. We would gather together, go to Winco foods, buy all of their Pork N Beans, have a super dance party, and then distribute all of the beans plus other crap we happened to have laying around.

It was the last Pork N Beans night before my best friend Tim graduated, and I knew that we had to go above and beyond. Luckily the summer before I had acquired a large assortment of fireworks. (A forth coming Rich Jandt adventure)

It started out like any other Pork N Beans night, until we came to the distribution portion of the night. Since so many people were graduating, we had a huge pile of stuff to pass out. After the Distribution the room we were celebrating in was almost completely empty. During the dance portion, a whole string of blackcats were thrown into the room scaring us and melting the carpet. At this point we all went wild. I busted out my stash of fireworks that included whistling petes, and mega smoke bombs.

We all decided to go plant a whistling firework at Doc's house. While it would have been prudent to send one or two operative over we went as a herd. The movement of 20 or so people drew the atention of the security guard who stood in the parking lot watching our actions. After planting the device we all started to run. Possibly from excitement, passably from terror Tim tripped in the parking lot and fell.

At first I considered running, for I am known as being very fast even for a fat guy. It was especially attractive because the device had gone off, and the security guard had started to move towards us. I instead decided to not leave a man behind and helped Tim back up. Then we ran like Mo's. Right past the security guard, all the way back to the dorms.

As we were recovering we got an idea. We happened to know a couple ladies who were sleeping in the field, and would love a late night visit from a smoke bomb.

We rolled over there as quite as ninjas. They did not hear us until we were opening the tent, and throwing the lit mega smoke into the tent. It was glorious, except for the fact that the tent started to melt, and all the ladies did was come outside the tent.

We re-retreated and came up with the best idea of our lives. Right across the courtyard from our staging ground was Doctor Lynn, up late working on his graduation speech we was giving the next day. We stealthy placed a whistler on the ledge outside his window and ran. Not the way we needed to, but around the corner and then we circled back. A few minutes later Dr. Lynn calmly walked into the dorm lobby and asked if we had seen the people who had put a whistling firework on his window. It was the best "what whistling firework" routine I have ever witnessed.

Tattoo

I had my tattoo touched up today; I got it a few days before Tim’s wedding. (Happy anniversary btw) And I had forgotten how much it actually hurts. It’s less painful than breaking it, but it does feel like it’s on fire.

It was a painful reminder why I got it in the first place. Other than being a huge Starwars nerd. It is the imperial logo,
http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/impblacklogogray.gif

(sorry for the huge link, I have no idea how to make it look nice like James or Tim).

Darth Vader is definitely a bad guy when we first see him in Starwars A New Hope. He's walking around, choking guys, blowing up planets, generally being a giant space jerk. Yet by the end of Jedi we see him realize that his entire life has been misguided. His actions at the end of the movie kill him, but save the day, and we see him as a ghost alongside Yoda and Obi-wan.

I can see a parallel between Darth Vader and Saul of Tarsus. When we first see Saul he is inciting riots that lead to the death of Christians. After seeing Jesus on the road he is converted and through tradition we know that leads to his death.

When I answer people's questions about the weird symbol on my arm I explain about the inner struggle I deal with. And how Even though Darth Vader and Saul were both murderers and evil, in the end they were able to do the right thing and gain salvation.

Something

So I saw a link on Mike's blog about the something store. I paid $20 bucks (including shipping) for two somethings. My thoughts were that if I doubled up I could increase my chance of getting something good.

I will keep you posted.

Indiana Jones. Spoiler alert!

Ok, mabye no spoiler, but I just read that good ol' Indiana will be involved with space aliens in the new movie.

Nazi's I'm ok with, Russians sure. Alians?

Hot.

It hit 90 today. I rode my bike at 2pm to get to work, and I almost died.

Rich Jandt Adventure #4

I had another run in with the girl from a week ago. You know the one who wanted adult relations with me, but I didn’t have the lobes for it.

She ran up to me in another bar, and apologized for losing me the other week. (She didn’t realize I had actually ran away) To my terror she grabbed my phone and programmed my phone for her number and then called her phone so she would have mine.

I thought she was too wasted the last time to remember me, but she actually seemed to like me. I was upfront with her this time though, and said that maybe we could see each other socially but the upfront sex thing wouldn’t work. We agreed that I would call her this week.

Also I am getting ready to cut my hair off. For those of you who do not know, I have hair to the middle of my shoulders, which I am donating to charity. I bought my last bottle of conditioner so I went big and got some really nice stuff. I was surprised to see that my full mane was thick and full of body. I even had some wavy curls going when it dried off.

Rich Jandt, Producer

One of my unfulfilled fantasies is to make movies. And not the kind of movies you guys are thinking of.

One of the movies I have in mind is loosely biased on the movie Nacho Libre. In this movie I would play the most famous Luchadore in Bend, Oregon. I would have a film crew follow me around Bend documentary style filming pre-arranged situations. I was thinking that I could walk around to a few different bars and have people admire me, I could be jumped by other luchadores who are jealous of my fame and of course I would best them. I could have some kind of dinner or award ceremony where I am given some great honor. I really want it to focus more on the life outside of the ring.

I think that all I would need are two cameras, some stunt men for me to toss around, an awesome mask, a belt and a cape. I have enough connections here in Bend that I could get locations and most of the extras for free.

Rich Jandt Adventure #3

This is an adventure that I had over the course of a few years. All facts are true, and not embellished.

It started with a random drive out of Portland. Andrew, Ryan, Tim, and myself (and mabey Justin) ended up getting this plan in our heads that we were going to the base of Bridal Veil Falls. When we turned off the highway the first thing we encountered was a smallish cemetery.

It was located next to a house, that was currently lived in. And I don't mean it was in the lot next to a lot with a house, I mean it was directly next to a house. The graves were well taken care of, but you could tell that they had been there for a while. They were worn, grey headstones.

The next thing we came across was a small square building that had the word Post Office Painted on it. It was an older building, about 20 foot by 20 foot. Posted on the building was the hours of operation, which listed it being open for two hours three times a week. The parking lot around the building was huge, probably a couple hundred feet long and all gravel, with the Post Office sitting at an odd angle to the main road.

We got out of the parking lot and drove up a series of switch-backs. One both sides of the road up the hill were houses, that had blackberry bushes growing over and through them. We pulled into the drive way of one of them, and got out of the car. Inside of the obviously long abandoned houses we found furniture such as couches area rugs and dressers. It seemed like all of the houses were about the same age, and all had been abandoned at a similar time.

Following the twisty road farther up the hill we found a small turn out, with a red post covered with Asian letters. I have no idea what language, or what it said. It was really out of place though. This would become our base camp. We piled out of the car once again and got ready for our summit.

As I looked up to the base of the falls I saw what appeared to be a u shaped ravine. On the bottom near the sides was lush green Forrest, with trees and ferns growing over every square inch. Near the middle was a small stream, completely lined with blackberry bushes and stinging needles. Pretty much Endor like environment.

Knowing that this was going to be like forging a path through jungle like conditions we had come prepared. From a recent trip to the army surplus store I had bought new combat boots and a machete. I was also wearing a thick sweatshirt, and charheart overalls. The rest of the crew were wearing similar clothing.

As we started our assent, we had to make a choice of either a steeper climb on the outside, or a very wet and cold climb going up the stream. For the most part I was able to withstand the water and stayed to the middle of the ravine. A couple of hundred feet up the hill we came across a square cement building straddling the river. Inside of the building was a dozen bleach bottles, and nothing else. It was a complete mystery.

Farther along came the creepiest thing of the entire trip. On the side of the steam was a grave. Not like the graves in the graveyard, but a small wooden cross. I can't remember the dates on the cross, but it seemed to freak me out. Like there was something wrong with what was written on it. I wanted to dig it up, however I was not allowed to. It seems that my friends have a slightly different set of morals.

After being pulled away from the site, we finished our climb. By the top I was completely covered with mud, and soaked to the bone. However at the top we found a treasure trove of smooth rocks and other cool stuff that had fallen off of the falls. To this day I still have a piece of obsidian that I found in that pile. Looking down on the ravine I was able to make out our arduous trail up, and was amazed at the tenacity it had taken. At one point I had stuck my hands into the mud walls and made my own holds just to climb.

The climb down had not been much easier. I decided that I would just scoot down the stream since I was already covered with mud and water. As I passed that spot with the cross I vowed that I would return, and solve the Mystery of the small grave.

Years passed, I moved to Canada, graduated from college, moved back to Seattle, started to work for the Government. One night I told this tale to my friends Canoe and Alex. They did not believe it, and I wanted to solve that mystery anyway, so we headed down to the ghost town early the next morning.

As I took the exit for Bridal Veil, I noticed that the House that had been next to the graveyard seemed abandoned. The post office was also gone. Up the switch backs no houses were there, the blackberry bushes gone. Even the cement foundations of the houses were gone. The only way I knew we were in the right place was the small red post with the Asian letters on it.

I parked in the same spot I had at least 5 years earlier, and we started our trek. I got a serious feeling of De'ja vu looking up the hill. The cement building was still standing, still filled with bleach bottles. Once we left the site of the building I knew what was next.

I had come with a shovel, and a camera to record my excavation. After looking for what seemed like forever, I am finally certain that the part of the bank that concealed the grave had been washed away. It was gone. I dug at the edge of the bank, but found nothing. The mystery grave was not there anymore. The second assent was glorious. At the base of the falls when I looked back the view was completely different. I could see the river, and most of the hill down. I bet that sight made me feel the same way that Lewis and Clark felt on their first sighting of the Columbia river.

Iron Man

Thanks to positive reviews from my peeps like Mike Lewis, I paid the $9 to go watch Iron Man.

I am trying to come up with some non-positive things to say about it, however the only thing I can come up with is Freakin Sweet!

Good acting. Robert Downey Jr. has somehow pulled off the role as a rich drunk womanizing bastard. Jeff bridges as a bad guy, genus!

Special effects. Awesome! Totally awesome. From the suit to the explosions, nothing seemed hokey or over done.

Soundtrack. ACDC and Sabbath.

Dialog. It was really well written. As for it being a comic book movie, the best written film yet. The jokes were funny, the responses perfect. Even the evil taunting of the bad guy doesn't seem over the top.

Explosions, guns, iron fighting suits, humor, jet fighters

Home sweet home.

I want to ask your opinion on something.

Buying a house, is it a good idea?

I know if I could out-right buy one I would be better off, but what about the 30+ years of inflation laden interest I would have to endure? I have something of an experiment I am wanting to try, where I am going to buy a travel trailer and live it, parking it in a RV park. Costs would be way down, and I could save more for a down payment for a real house.

Pros I see in this is that moving would be real easy, just move. I wouldn't have to rely on other people to uphold their ends of leases. I could save gangsta money living in something I own and just paying 300 bucks for power and space rental.

Cons are no girls will ever date me. I would live in a travel trailer. I do get lonely living alone and being in a small trailer would probably increase that. Also no girls would date me.

Rich Jandt Adventure #2

What an exciting week I just had.

I had to use a week of vacation time or I was going to loose it. It’s tough actually finding 3 weeks a year to leave work and get paid while doing it, but this week was different.

On Tuesday I was called to the office and told I had received a customer complaint. In 4 years this was my first so I was surprised to hear that I was receiving my final written warning for it. Slightly bummed I knew I would be ok as long as I kept my head down, and worked hard.

I got home and my roommate told me that he was moving to Iowa in a week and I had a month to move out. Bummer also because I really like Pete, and I really hate moving.

I decided that I would focus on enjoying my time off, because worrying will not help anything. Besides, I have been though worse. I spent the next day eating tacos, and drinking beer, and the next day eating enchiladas and watching sci-fi movies. Friday I took a class on becoming a Certified Pool Operator. (Swimming pools, not the game of Billiards) On Saturday I played 18 holes of golf, and played wii all night. Sunday I went with a friend to Portland to work on his house. Sorry guys, I got a new phone and I don’t have any of your numbers, also I was there for less that 30 hours and had to do a lot of work. I get back home around 3am on Tuesday, thinking I would relax for the rest of my vacation.

However my roommate tells me that instead of an entire month, I had to be out of the house by Saturday, 4 days away. I have been very good about saving money, and have a couple thousand saved up for an emergency. Just like this one. I spend the next two days being told that I would not be rented to because I have an attack trained German Sheppard.

On Wednesday night I finally start to freak out about becoming homeless. I go back to work and order a beer, tell one of my great co-workers my plight, and she says, “I have a space for rent, it’s in my garage” I go look at it this morning and what she meant to say is that it was a completely finished room, wired with electricity and heat in the garage, with a huge beautiful fenced backyard, and she’s totally down with Baas. So I am moving in tonight.

Also One of my co-workers put in her notice and worked half of it, leaving a huge void to fill at work which pretty much shored up my position, taking me off the “next to go” list. Nothing better than being in trouble and someone else making a huge mistake, totally making everyone forget about you.

God's awesome providence and His love for us is amazing. Some of you might remember that this kind of thing has happened to me before, and just like last time I was taken care of.