J. Jason Lazarus Blog

So.. yeah. This is my favorite (and only) video rental store in town. In fact, it’s also the only locally owned one in town, for those of you that think I’m one to support only chain stores and all - it’s the only rental store I go to anymore. Apparently somehow their recent commerical found its way onto Youtube. Enjoy!

In fact, just to prove the point - about two months ago, I went to ETZ Video trying to, on a whim, checkout Dead Rising to play at Gary’s. No such luck - and, being as desperate as I was, I went to Blockbuster (God forbid me) and grabbed a copy. Here I am, waiting for over 10 minutes in line to find out that, oh, I can’t check anything out.

Why?

Because I don’t have my card with me. Well, you’ve got that dandy computer in front of you - look up my bloomin’ name! What? It’s NOT THERE? I used to rent here all the time! What?? If I haven’t rented in the past three months you ERASE ME? WHAT? Screw this! I mean seriously, who ERASES you from their system, forces you to dig through your old wallets and stacks of endless reciepts at home for your membership card or forces you to fill out yet another application, which by the way, last I remember, required a credit card? Seriously! Way to completely alienate your buying public!
Yeah, nonetheless, I was empty handed that night. Coarse, tonight they had it at ETZ. Heh - oh well, that’s what I get for *trying* to use another service in town. I swear complete allegiance to this store.
Seriously, for all your video needs - ETZ is the place. I’m constantly amazed at how many movies he gets that I’ve never heard of - extra goodness for me.

Other than that, nothing - absolutely nothing but working and sleeping has been going on this week. Had some fun with Bonnie in the Photo Lab this last weekend (yay!)and plan to have some more before next week’s end. More later.

Never thought sitting in Stitham’s English class that I’d ever be able to use that word. I guess I have come far in my life.

Yeeeah… so about late August I stopped shaving the majority of my face and decided to see how I’d look with a beard - I’d have to say I like the outcome. I don’t know how long I’ll keep it but it’s a nice change of pace. Least I know I can grow hair on other parts of my head. I’ve been keeping it trimmed basically - even though it doesn’t show in this photo.
And no, for the record, my recent hippie-esqe delves into home brewing and gross hirsuteness are no, I repeat, NO indicator of things to come. I’m still a money loving, technology grubbing consumerist.

Not much going on right now. Work, Sleep, Work, pretty much. Been saving up cash for our upcoming trip. Hope all is well with all of you - I’m sure I’ll be wishing you all a good holidays again far before they pass, but if I don’t, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As a shock to almost all of my friends we decided to move. Last week we started apartment hunting around Monday and managed to find a beauty on Wednesday. Although it’s not a house it really does feel like one - mainly because it’s HUGE! I’d say right around 1000 square feet - if not more! We went out looking for a two bedroom apartment under the impression that we’d get something like the setup we have right now (combo living room, dining, kitchen) but with two bedrooms and we managed to net something more than we could’ve ever expected. What we did get was a 2 bedroom basement apartment with large dining room, living room and office/den, HUGE kitchen and a sizeable 3/4 bath. Free laundry, electric, heat, water and garbage. All for $850/mnth! The ONLY thing it’s missing is a garage and I can deal with that! Literally, the place is perfect - it’s exactly what we need. The Kitchen is so big that it’s larger than our bedroom on campus was - it has DOUBLE sinks which is a concept I’m still grasping… has a huge in-counter cutting board… the entire apartment has so many electrical plugs it’s insane…. just everything about it is so great! One of the very few bummers is that we’re now downtown which makes commutes to campus a little frustrating seeing that Deanna’s got to be on campus at 6:30am and I don’t have to show till 9 or later most days. Just means I’ll be cuddling up somewhere for an hour or two each morning to get some additional shuteye or *shutter* going to the gym. But - it does mean going to the store in the middle of the night is no longer such a chore - Freds and everything else on the east side of town is less than a 5 minute drive away. In the summer we’ll be able to walk down to Soltace Celebrations as well as Golden Days. As soon as winter starts sliding away we’ll be able to walk to McCafferty’s Coffee Shop for a early Sunday Mornin’ Coffee. Although I’m dealing with the obvious stress of moving, and as you can see from the pictures we’ve got a good portion already over there, it’s still a work in progress and beats dealing with the stress of staying on UAF, going to check on something at work cause it’s “only 2 minutes away”, and dealing with the overhead construction that’s slated to end sometime next month (riiiight).
The pictures of it aren’t that great - I’ll try to get some better ones soon - they were taken at 5:45 this morning. They also don’t show the other bedroom cause it’s a complete mess. I’m considering going out tonight and buying a couch and a desk for the place - my computer doesn’t function well on a ledge. I’m also hoping to get internet/phone/cable hooked up this week - relying on one cell phone for all incoming calls sucks. Still trying to decide how much a month I’m really willing to pay for internet/phone/cable and whether I should just get basic cable or digital - whether I should get 3mb/s unlimited download broadband or something slightly cheaper…. hmmm. Things to consider.

So, I saw Happy Feet. Very, very cute film - that is, until about halfway through the movie where they decided to make the seemingly subtle green overtones and started splashing the screen green ala-Sydney Pollack.
Ok, I’ll admit, I’m a slight environmentalist. Those that know me know how passionate I was able to get about the environment and recycling when I held the Recycling Director position on campus. But I’d like to call myself a Republican Environmentalist - by that meaning, I’m a freaking REALIST. No matter how much we try, our species will end up effecting every ecosystem on this planet - do I think we can do it less? Hells yeah. But do I think we need to all join the Al Gore movement and start eating grass and throwing away anything that takes electricity? Hells no.
So here we are, watching, admittedly, a children’s movie - but very enjoyable and fun to watch. Then, out of nowhere, the movie points a big green finger angerly at its endearing public - stating that WE are ALL killing penguins and WE are ALL ruining the environment and making it so bad that there just happens to be piles of junk littering Antartica’s shores. I understand, every once in a while, some Green yahoo gets the idea that they need to make every American feel guilty for what they all do, and I understand that it manages, once in a while, to manifest as a Children’s movie just so that little Timmy can make their parents feel guilty when they eat the “Penguin’s fish” tonight at dinner. Consider Ferngully, a movie that was undoubtedly green - and green with a Sydney Pollack spray again. But the subtitle for the movie gave it away: the Last Rainforest. You couldn’t walk into that movie without knowing the onslaught of green ideals were going to be pummeling you in the gut for two hours - but Happy Feet - hell, look at the poster - does that look like a centerpiece for the green movement?
I don’t care if green undertones exist in children’s movies - I do have an issue when they make us out to be unapologetic monsters that rival only the devil for their evil ways. I do have issues with movies that punch you in the gut with this and then continue to fake you out time and time again from flipping back and forth, away and toward these hardcore ideals that we’re completely ruining our planet with no chance of saving except for us all killing each other and letting the animals take back over. Some of us DO actually try not to effect the world as much as others.
And yet, the whole idea that humans as a whole should not effect and potentially destroy their surroundings is so popular, even though the “Don’t Tread on Mother Earth” ideal is foreign to Darwin’s own thinking - how can you expect a species to NOT effect their surroundings and, furthermore, when we’re unwilling to put our population under control, we’re unable to control the amount of devastating effects we cause? Wolves in Alaska will almost eliminate populations of rabbits each couple of years - and yet, the tide turns, wolves are forced to find other sources of food or thin out their numbers until the rabbits rebound. But humans are much more able to change their eating habits to accomodate what is nearby - so if Atlantic Cod goes up double, or three times the price, supply and demand manages to accomodate the potential of decemating a population. Furthermore, green ideals in all of us understand the potential and the problem behind decemating populations. I’d like to think that nowadays our need for such a punch in the gut isn’t needed - but with the overwelming interest in the potential of the world turning into a greenhouse oven in the next 5 seconds, people have bought into the realistic POV’s as well as the unrealistic.
Nobody wants to hear that glaciers are growing. Nobody wants to hear news coverage of caribou herds being larger than ever. Nobody wants to hear that Arctic Ocean temperatures are actually cooler. Nobody wants to consider that we’re still coming out of the middle ages’ Mini Ice Age. Panic sells - the truth doesn’t.
Rawr.

In other words, good movie if you constantly roll your eyes at how bad you, as a human, apparently are. If taking a child that can comprehend these blatant green overtones, make sure he or she eats a freaking Fish Sandwich for lunch and Fishsticks for dinner as well. Might want to bring some with you into the theater. Lol i’m evil.