It's Me and the Moon on Halloween


Ah, Halloween, controversy be thy name.

I stole that line from one of my writers when I was newspaper editor in high school, but anyway.

It's Halloween! And I once again don't have a costume and don't care to make one because even if I did, I wouldn't have anywhere to wear it to. So, it'd just be a complete and utter waste of time.

But then again, what isn't for me?

Anyway, I actually do have plans tonight. I'm going with Erico Suave and Disneyland's own Artie to watch Alien (the rerelease). I've never seen it before, so I'm not really expecting much out of anything. I mean, it's an oldie. How scary could it be? : )

Yesterday, I bought the Dashboard Confessional album "A Mark - A Mission - A Brand - A Scar" at Best Buy for $10. I really like that song "Hands Down," so I figured, why the hell not. I'll probably like them.

As of right now, I'm very unimpressed. The other songs are rather slow and not as catchy and the word "whiney" popped into my head while giving it a listen.

On the other hand, I can't get enough of Something Corporate's album "North." At first, I felt lukewarm about it, nothing too catchy, mainly slow ballads. But after extended listenings, I love it. The lyrics are very deep and reflect more of their "Konstantine" side, rather than their "Woke Up in a Car" style.

Maybe I'll warm up to Dashboard Confessional the same way I did with Something Corporate.

And in one last piece of news that is sure to get a "who gives a fop" out of you, I completely 100% completed The Simpsons: Hit & Run game. It was such a blast. The game pissed me off at times, but was beatable and very fun. It was really nice just taking a stroll around Springfield and looking for all the faithful gags from all seasons of the show. I definitely recommend this game if you're a fan of the Simpsons. It'll make you ooh and ahh and giggle throughout.

Have a safe time trick-or-treating everyone. Stay safe.



Dressing up as a Crazy 88 thug,

Ricky

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Ashes Just Fall to the Ground


Welcome to fire season.

It's miserable down here in California; the air is shoddy, there's ash everywhere, it's dark and just disgusting. Just the other day, we were watching the fire burn up in distant mountains from the Oblong's place. It seemed really cool then. But knowing that it's fast approaching and could hit cities like Riverside or Chino... I don't know. When are these fires going to end?

Yesterday, my mom told me the oddest thing. She told me that I should go back to school for a film degree. She said she would totally support me through it, which I knew to be true with whatever I would do. It's just weird to me. A week ago, I was thinking that I should get a job that I don't want because I went into a major that I didn't have any passion for, and how I wasn't thrilled at all about the thought of sitting at a desk doing accounting stuff all day. But now, wow, how simple things turn around. I can actually go to school and learn something that I really want to learn, do stuff that I do in my free time anyway. Is that crazy?

I looked up the film program at Cal State Fullerton and am thinking of enrolling there. I'm scared though. Don't really know why, but I am.

One last detail: I dreamt up an interesting story idea last night about a homeless man sitting on a park bench. I'm working out the story details right now, but I'm really looking forward to making it a short story to add to my little collection.

More details later. But right now, back to the plot outline.



Approaching writer's block at the denouement,

Ricky

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My Stomach Hurts... Let's Make This Quick


Ditto to the subject heading.

I don't know if it was the wontons that I had for dinner or the Sun Chips, Kettle Chips, and Ice Cream I had for lunch, but my stomach is ablaze with rumbles.

Yesterday I got the new Something Corporate album "North" from Target for $6.98. After a few listens, I find that I do like it, but there isn't really a song that catches my eye. They're all sad piano melodies with nice lyrics, but I need a little more bounce to my songs; doesn't hurt to be catchy too.

I also bought the new direct-to-video Batman animated movie, "Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman." I'm always eager to watch new animated Batman adventures, so I was really anticipating this movie. It was good, but not great. The plot was basically "who is Batwoman" and it was extremely predictable. But it's Batman so I can't complain.

Tomorrow brings about no plans, except to watch Scrubs and Friends that SHOULD HAVE been new last week. I hate NBC.



Tired and annoyed,

Ricky

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As Tired as an Antelope Half Devoured by a Pack of Wild Incestuous Mules


Wow. I'm exhausterbated.

Seriously. I can barely even bare to type this.

Today I went to Disneyland with Timotei, Lee Leman, Charmin and her boyfriend. We were there at 11am to get an early start on the free grub. It was Mother Routes' company's annual company picnic (once again held at Disneyland) and they had a catered lunch with hot dogs, barbeque chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, bread, chips and salsa, cookies, and unlimited flat fountain drinks. I only had one plate because with waking up so early, I was feeling really queasy, wanting so badly to puke up whatever was making me sick. I couldn't puke though, but I was dry heaving all day. So, while tired as all hell, I trudged along and played tour guide.

While trying to get fastpasses for Haunted Mansion Holiday, I met up with an old Routes friend, Jose Canyoosy. He gave me a backdoor pass for the ride which was completely sweet! I love having friends in high places. Thanks Jose!

So we went on that, Indy, Pooh, Pirates, Small World, and Matterhorn.

I slept through Pirates and Small World. It was just way too hot to willingly do ANYTHING today. And I was wearing a black shirt and also forgot to put on deodorant.

Since most every cool ride in Disneyland is closed, we basically did everything we could have, by using fastpasses to their fullest. By 6:30pm, we were done and left for home.

We were supposed to meet up with Razor Ramon and the kids, but they decided not to go until 7pm. So we completely missed them.

I was so happy to leave the resort and return home. Timotei and I stopped by The Hat and got some pastrami dips and chili cheese fries. I still have half a sandwich left.

Okay, all yous people get to bed... because I want to also...



Barfing,

Ricky

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Los Angeles Sucks


Both Saturday and Sunday, I went with Timotei and Father Routes, along with Granny M (Goo Goo Doll and Psyman came on Saturday only) to the old Los Angeles houses where we had to patch up the driveway and paint a wall. In two days, we accomplished far less than anything on Trading Spaces or While You Were Out, but that's okay. We didn't have all their high tech tools or handy carpenters.

Once again, Granny M proves to be a full-fledged trooper. She was squatting down all day filling in those cracks in the blacktop. My knees started to hurt, but I couldn't exactly take a break while she was still at it (I could only imagine how much her knees hurt). So we did a ton of crap there while baking in the sun. And work is still not done... we still have to do a bunch of crap inside the house. Sigh...

Somebody save me.

Also Saturday night, I saw Kill Bill. It was my first Quentin Tarantino movie and it was such a freakin' blast!!! There were tons of killings, limbs flying around, blood spurting, and I had a good laugh at all of it. I had a huge smile on my face during the movie, which might sound kinda morbid, but it was really a fun ass movie! I can't wait till the second installment.

Today was all about rest and relaxation, so I'm gonna continue that and let you all do whatever the heck you do.



Eagerly awaiting Something Corporate's next album,

Ricky

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10 Things I Love About Haunted Mansion Holiday


Today I went to Disneyland. That marks exactly how many times since I started this blogger thing? I swear, every other blogger is about going to Disneyland.

Nyet-- To be fair, I haven't gone in a long time (3 weeks or so) and needed to see Haunted Mansion Holiday.

So I went with AWJ at around 4pm. We got there at 5pm and headed straight for the mansion. The wait was 10 minutes long, so we went in right away.

The gimmick this year is that Oogie Boogie, the villain from the Nightmare Before Christmas movie, invaded the mansion and hid 10 of his special touches to the decor. It's up to you to find them.

They give you a map with clues as to where his surprises are hidden. Some of them are hard to notice, but overall, pretty easy to find.

They changed the end. Instead of Lock, Stock, and Barrel, we see a new animatronic Oogie Boogie figure that looks incredibly realistic and creepy. He spins his wheel to determine which present/treat you get.

The first time we rode, we got a box with a question mark. At first, I felt kinda bummed because it seemed like the bogus gift. Some other gifts include candy cane snakes, dynamite, skeleton gingerbread men, etc. But if you get the "mystery box," you get a bonus surprise. Lock, Stock, and Barrel jump out and blow air at you. It's really neat.

We rode the ride twice and rode Pooh and then left the park to go eat dinner. We ate at Storyteller's Cafe. I had a good ol' fashioned burger and fries. Really good.

Anyway, yada yada yada, we went home. I watched Friends, Scrubs, and Coupling on tape and now I'm here doing nothing.



Boring you once again,

Ricky

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A Big Fat Meh


Let's see. I don't really want to write this... and since there's nothing really new to add, I'll just hurry it along so I can get back to the couch.

I haven't yet cut my hair. Maybe today.

I skateboarded down my neighborhood for the first time yesterday.

I voted today.

I ate Carl's Jr. today.

I haven't been on this year's Haunted Mansion Holiday yet.

I bought the Lion King Special Edition.

I'm done.



Tired. Lazy. Wanna go anywhere but home.

Ricky

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Monsters Under My Bed... Tell Me Who's Got My Back?


Probably the only time my title doesn't relate to anything I'm going to write. Well, now I just feel stupid because now I have to explain myself, which nulls the first sentence. That song was played like 4 times today, so it's still in my head. Cool song.

Anyway, on Wednesday, I treated Erico Suave to lunch at Denny's before he had to go to work. We caught up with junk and he told me to keep an eye out for Judge Joe Brown because Disneyland's Own MacArthur (sixth picture down) will be on it settling a dispute with his ex-roommate. I'll try to get coverage of that for my Celebrity Sightings page.

After I dropped him off at his place, his parents handed me tons of free chips. Let me just say that I didn't know what goodness was until I tried Lays Kettle Cooked Jalapeño flavored chips. Damn fine chips.

Thursday, Angel Wing Jasmine and I headed to Beaumont for some riding. That place is so damn sweet. It's huge and has tons of trails that wind through mountains and mountains of lostness. I was all ready for riding though because I picked up two boxes of Quaker Oat Chewy granola bars and stuffed my face full of those.

When we got there, AWJ had to change out of her jeans and into her riding pants, so she stood on one side of her truck while I stood on the other, not peeking. So while she stood in her underwear, this guy riding a YZ came by pretending to just ride around and then circled around Monstro to catch a peek of AWJ. Damn pervs man! She said he couldn't see anything though because she had her pants up already or something, but still.

While I was riding the bike, AWJ decided to drive her truck and show me the trail I should take. She I was on the bike chasing her truck. Man that was fun as f***. We passed a bunch of other riders who were dumbfounded by what we were doing. Then, I passed her so that she was chasing me. That was fun until I couldn't make it up a big hill in second gear and then choked. AWJ had to jump out of the truck and help me push the bike to the top. Then she took over and I got to offroad in her truck. That was more fun!

So after nearly 3 hours riding, we, both tired as hell, headed back to her storage center to drop off the bike.

Then we went to the UCR "Disneyland" Transportation Hub #1 parking lot so that I could skateboard some. I'm really getting the hang of it. I didn't fall this time, but I still don't have an ollie. My skateboard just won't jump like it's supposed to! So I just skated around for a while in my safety gear (I was a bit apprehensive about getting back on the skateboard after... The Incident).

Then we went to eat dinner at Olive Garden for their "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" special. We got incredibly full and left and I headed home.

There will be a new Route on our riding adventure up on the site most likely tomorrow. Till then, thank you and good night.



Puking up that 7th granola bar (Mmm, tastes like cookies and raisins),

Ricky

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Like Gym Class All Over Again...


I'm just gonna make this quick and easy, so I can get to other things.

Sunday I went with my dad and Timotei to our old Los Angeles house that's being rented out by some people. Anyway, people just dump their big garbage out in the back planter, so we (I don't know why we had to do it exactly) had to clean up the crap. There was a whole lot of crap.

So we loaded all these wood planks, rusted gyms, and discarded cabinets and crap into trash cans and the truck and cleaned out all the weeds.

Quick realization: Granny M is such a trooper. She was there with us and she did more work than I did. She just went in, hammered things out, cut out weeds and plants... EVERYTHING! She even got bruised up, shrugged it off, and went back to cleaning. Man. Making us under-80-year-olders look bad.

I don't normally encourage raising rent on tenants, but those f***ers have it coming to them. Make us do all that crap.

Anyway, that night, Angel Wing Jasmine and I went to Downtown Disney to see The Rundown. It was pretty funny (Seann William Scott is funny as usual and The Rock is a pretty good action star [though sometimes his acting is stiff as a monkey hard-on]).

Yesterday did nothing.

Today, I went to Santa Monica Pier to hang out with AWJ. We first walked down the pier (it was flippin' cold) and then to 3rd Street Promenade for lunch. I had crappy New York Style Pizza. Let me tell you, no one beats New York Pizzaria.

After we got back, and were assaulted by many bums, we did some rollerblading down the coast. It was fun. Then we did a little skateboarding.

One small detail: When we were rollerblading, we passed by Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That white guy with the white hair and the vampire... uh... I don't watch Buffy. But AWJ recognized him. He was chatting with a bicyclist while taking a break from rollerblading. Thought that was pretty neat.

We then walked down to the Muscle Beach section and tried a few things. I climbed the rope (which was pretty easy and fun, but scary once up there), we played around on the rings (I was trying to do stuff from my old gymnastics days, but couldn't), tried to swing down a line of rings (but we were too short and don't have monkey arms), and swung on a set of swings. AWJ got some serious air. I however couldn't get that high for some strange reason. It seems like it was easier when I was in elementary school (though I was smaller back then).

After that, we got tired and I got extremely drowsy, so she drove me home.

And now here I am. No plans for the rest of the night. Maybe I'll eat something. And... I'm done! Thank Blog!



Too tired and lazy to think up anything remotely... f*** it,

Ricky

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The Life of an Unemployee


I don't even think that's a word: unemployee. In fact, I'm pretty damn sure that it isn't a word. But it works, I think. If you can be an employee... then what are you when you aren't employed; an unemployee.

Okay, that was the biggest waste of time you've ever read. So I'll skip to the point.

These past 3 days have been anything but productive. I wake up, get ready to go nowhere, play on the computer, watch TV, go to the Oblong's for leftovers, talk on the phone, and then sleep.

With everyone either working or going to school, I'm left to do crap.

Today, after sitting for too long at the computer, I went to get something to eat and then thought about taking Ollie out for a ride. Well, instead, I took a nap. Thus is the life of an unemployee.

I watched the premiere of Friends today and I found it to be incredibly enjoyable. It was basically a laugh-a-minute episode and a throw back to the good times of Friends. Very well done and a great start to the final season. I also saw the show Coupling which I didn't find funny at first, but warmed up to it after a few good jokes. Then at the end, when it all came together, I really gave the show props for being smart and funny. I only hope it can keep going full steam ahead. I just don't see how a show about six friends hooking up can last very long (unless they continually add fresh people to the mix).

I've been working on a few site upgrades to The Routes, mainly adding a few new features, such as a navigation bar that makes it easier to get around the website and a new section to put single pictures up and give quick updates. I'm always thinking of new ways to improve my site. If you have any suggestions or comments, please be sure to contact me using the link "Send Feedback" to the top-right of this page.

One last thing, my elbow injury is fully scabbed and hurts when I extend my arm. It sucks. Alas, thus is the life of a skater. Just how long exactly till I can pick at the scab and be fully healed? And will it leave a scar? I certainly hope so!



Waiting to do anything remotely fun,

Ricky

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