The Final Borders Haul

So as you probably know by now, Borders has finally closed, or at least is almost closed, by now.  My local store's last day was last Thursday and I decided to pop my head in one last time on Wednesday.  Pretty much everything else was wiped out but a few hundred books, and quite a few mangas surprisingly enough.  DVDs, Blu-Rays, CDs and graphic novels were completely gone.  I was quite shocked how quickly everything was gone because I had gone a week or so before and they still had quite a few Blu-Rays.  Then when I went back for my second-to-last trip, they were down to about 15, 20 tops.  By then, the only movie I was interested in getting was Die Hard.  There were still a few DVDs here and there at that time, and I just about snagged the recent 10th Anniversary Edition of Audition for pretty cheap but held off, since I already own the previous release and if I were to upgrade it would be to Blu-Ray.  But for the last visit, nothing of importance was left.  Though, by that point they were getting rid of books by making them a $1 each so I managed to snag a few things of slight interest and one thing I was super-psyched at finding...though now I'm getting ahead of myself.  I know I already posted a list last time but it kinda got buried under all that stuff so here's the final list:

Podcast. Also, why no podcasts?

So, yeah, I realized I haven't updated this in about a month...because I'm lazy.  Well, really I'm not, I just don't have much to show for it.  For one, I've been focusing more on my comedy, but still just doing Open Mics (for now, more on that later).  Also, I've kinda dropped the ball on my writing for the Freakin' Awesome Network.  Though I have started a monthly feature called This Month In Metal, I've dropped the ball lately on my normal weekly feature Wrestling With Extra Sleaze.  Even though I've only done it for about a month or two, I feel like I'm already burnt out on the subject matter, kinda like my friend who decided to write her college thesis on Nazi propaganda films and didn't quite realize "Hey, I'm going to be doing nothing but research on the worst people that ever lived for the next few years."  Only with me, it was like "Hey, I'm going to be nothing but watching the worst wrestling that's ever wrestled...even though I've been doing that already, but now I have to write about it!"  Obviously, I haven't been able to update this here blog and therefore I decided to shut down (or at least un-publish) the Facebook page for it so, if you haven't already, "Like" my Writing/Comedy page if you want to continue getting updates.  Also, my chances to go to GenCon this year and become an extra for The Avengers movie fell through, so there's that.

Sarcasmatron Audio Time Go! #4 - Birthday Bad Movie Blowout Bonanza

Wa-hey!  I have a podcast!  I believe it's the longest one I've done thus far (on my own, at least) but really it's just me talking about what movies I've acquired recently.  Most of them suck.  But I also got my own Blu-Ray player so I talk a bit about how that's only going to make my movie buying habits even worse.  Also, I checked out Captain America: The First Avenger and gave it a mini-review.

Content Free July?

Sorry about the lack of podcasts recently...or anything really.  That is unless you've frequented the Freakin' Awesome Network where I've been continuing my Wrestling With Extra Sleaze column.  But other than that, I haven't done a damn thing, and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better for the rest of this month here at Sarcasmatron.  Last week, I didn't feel like doing much at all.  No podcasts, no stand-up comedy, no nothing.  And now it seems like what free time I have to write or do whatever (namely the weekends) is being taken up by other things.  For instance, this weekend, I'm not even doing anything for the July 4th holiday. However, I will be house/dogsitting for friends and I don't really feel comfortable writing on other people's equipment.  Hell, I barely get motivated to do it on my own equipment.  Then next weekend, not only will it be my birthday but I'll also be attending the Glass City Con here in Toledo, which I may be covering for FAN as well.  Then the weekend after that, I'll be heading to Cleveland with a few members of the V1kM crew as they'll be filming scenes for The Avengers there.  They're actually having a casting call too so we may end up in the movie, even if it just as random extras for a crowd scene.  Still, either way it should be fun.  But after that, things should be settled down and hopefully I'll have some podcasts ready to go at least.  That's it for now, gotta go watch a dog.

PS - RIP Random Hero

A Podcast That Isn't Mine But I'm On It So There

Sorry about the lack of podcasts lately.  Usually the only chance I have to record are weekends and though I could have recorded one, I was having a depression pity-party and didn't feel like doing much of anything.  And this weekend I probably won't have a chance to record a podcast since I will be away visiting family at home.  But (un)luckily for you, you won't remain podcast-less tonight as I made a guest appearance on the Steve Wherry Comedy Podcast, which was recorded last night.

Here ya go, bastids.

So...that's it.  I'm lazy.

Sarcasmatron Audio Time Go #3 - Skanxxx

Podcastamania is runnin' wild!  Whatchu gonna do?!?  Umm...how about listen to them, maybe?  Just a suggestion.  Anyway, it's been a little crazy with the podcasts lately.  Not only have I recorded two within a week but I also made a guest appearance on another one.  First of all, here's the topics of discussion for Episizzode Number Three:

Sarcasmatron Audio Time Go! Episode #2 - Almighty Thorgasmatron

'Sup?  Episode #2 of the podcast all up in the hizzy...or something.  I still sound like crap, but now I sound even worse because I recorded this while not feeling well.  I tried to cut this down a bit more to prevent rambling but that didn't quite work.  I still rambled and it's only maybe like 5 minutes shorter.  I talk about a lot less this time.  My topics this time have been reduced to:

Sarcasmatron Audio Time Go Episode #1 - The Macho Man Appreciation Station

Well, it took a little while but here it is: my first podcast.  I probably could have had this up a few days ago but I procrastinated a bit.  All I really had to do was edit in some music and upload it, a process that should only take about a few hours, but I stretched it out over the course of a few days.  Yeah, I'm lazy.  As you'll figure out pretty quickly, I've never really done this on my own before so PLEASE leave some sort of feedback as to how I can make this better.  I realize it's kinda all over the place and I do stumble on my words quite a bit so I need to know what I can do to not suck.  Anyway, the topics for my first episode:

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.

It's been about a year and a half (give or take a few months) since I've started this blog.  And though I haven't exactly tried my hardest (especially late), I've still been kinda disappointed in my efforts of becoming a T-List semi-star Internet critics.  I mean, I figured I'd at least be invited to one of The Cinema Snob's coke parties or an orgy at TGWTG's headquarters.  Just kidding.  But seriously, I started this blog to get noticed and to have a voice.  I know there's an audience out there that thinks this sort of inane rambling about nerdy shit is funny, but I still haven't found it.  I've gotten a decent amount of hits but as far as I know, they're all from people I tell to read my stuff, which I don't like doing.  Considering a good 90% of the feedback I've gotten from people have either come from a friend who is currently in Basic Training and a friend who is traveling across the UK, it's hard to tell if I'm doing anything right, wrong or even remotely interesting and readable.  So I've been thinking a bit about what to do to help rejuvenate my interest in writing my own damn blog and getting my name out in the world.  As a great man once said "Enough is enough, and it's time for a change."  And if you'll read on, it looks like I have plenty.

The Wrestlemania Podcast Experiment Plus Some Wrestling News

As I mentioned before, Wrestlemania 27 was two weeks ago and I decided, with a bunch of the V1kM crew, that we would watch it and riff on it in podcast-form.  This was nothing more than a hair-brained experiment, mostly because I don't really know if there's an audience that would want to listen to a bunch of nerds (some well-versed in wrestling, some not so much) talk about a 4-hour show they're watching that the people listening to can't even see.  But hey, I guess it was worth a shot.  To make it easier on you, the listener, I broke up the almost 4 hour recording into 5 easier-to-digest chunks, ranging from about 30-50 minutes each.  But the recording itself isn't perfect.  Far from it, actually.  For starters, our buddy Will had the recording equipment but his tire unfortunately blew out on the way, so he didn't really make it until an hour and a half in.  Luckily, he brought our stand-up comedian friend Jake with him, plus when Wrestlemania ended, there was a replay afterward so we just watched what they missed out on.  So the podcast as a whole is kinda out of order.  And as par for the course when it comes to V1kM podcasts, we get severely off track most of the time.  In all honestly, Wrestlemania was just OK.  I'd consider myself the biggest professional wrestling fan out of the group and I repeatedly lost interest throughout the show.

Great sex, a perfect nap, or an amazing cup of coffee? Which 1 would you choose to have every day for the rest of your life?

I sleep too much as it is and I don't really like coffee, so...

Ask me anything. No, seriously, anything.

My Blockbuster Closing Haul and the Insane Videogame Backlog

I haven't had the chance to write about it lately but, for any long time followers of the blog, I love me some video store closings...as sad as that may sound when you factor in the people losing their jobs.  It's been over a year since the Blockbuster near my apartment closed down, and since then, there's been a few other store closings.  A few days ago, I was alerted that not one, but two, Blockbusters were closing down, leaving just one brick-and-mortar store (as far as I know) in the great city of Toledo.  So I've made a few stops in between the two and here's what I managed to snag.

Mini-Random Movie Roundup and Wrestlemania 27 Predictions

Ok, so I'm still struggling to get that article I had planned down on paper.  I don't know why it's so hard for me to sit down and write something that's 75% in my head already.  I guess I just need that 25% to come together.  Anyway, I have a stack of movies that's accumulated over the past month or so that I haven't talked about.  Honestly, I haven't even watched all that many movies.  With Wrestlemania coming up (more on that later), I've been watching quite a bit of wrestling, especially now that WWE has put up some of their DVDs on Netflix Instant Steaming.  And now I'm watching Sealab 2021, though I think I'm gonna stop before Season 4 because, let's face it, Season 4 sucked.  Nevertheless, I did get in a bit of actual movie watching so, what the hell, it's Random Movie Roundup time!

Random Stuff and Shameless Plugs

It may seem like I haven't been doing a whole hell of a lot, judging by the recent inactivity of this blog...and you'd be totally right!  I have an article in the works, I swear, but for some reason getting the stuff out of my head and down onto the page is kinda hard, even though I have most of it in my head.  I guess right now, I don't really want to sit down and write.  But I am doing a lot of sitting down and doing other things.

Sarcasmatron @ The Movies: The Lost Episode - Iron Monkey 2

For those of you who visit Sarcasmatron regularly (all 5 of you), you may have noticed I haven't put up a shitty movie podcast with my friends and I for the past few months.  Actually, we did record one in January but nothing ever really came of it for a multitude of reasons.  First of all, I wasn't even involved in the recording, with the exception of supplying the movie.  Yup, I'm not even on record for this one.  You see, I was on some medication at the time that made me very sleepy for some reason (as if I needed to sleep MORE).  So I took the medication, went over to Gabe's to record it, ate some BBQ and could not stay awake.  So, knowing my friends, I left the recording in their capable hands.  And Chase, who supplied the recording equipment, didn't get the mp3 file to me until late February/early March.  But considering the frequency I check my email, I didn't get it until a week or so ago.  Seriously, I'm listening to it as I'm typing up this intro and this is honestly the first time I've listened to it.  So with the exception of Chase, and everyone else recording though I doubt they remember all they said, you're all listening to this about the same time I am.  But so far, it's pretty fun.  Anyway, I kinda figured that after so long, the recording would be lost into the ether or buried into a time capsule for future generations to unearth.  But considering how many people read this site now (all 5 of you), I doubt there'll be much more in the future so I might as well just release this now.

Sarcasmatron's 2010 In Movies: The Top 10 (Part 2 - #5-#1)

Please put on your Real3D Glasses................................................now.

Sarcasmatron's 2010 In Movies: The Top 10 (Part 1 - #10-#6)

I guess it's kinda convenient that I do a Top 10 list considering I only saw 10 movies last year.  But still, that's a good 5 or 6 more movies than I normally see at the theaters, at least.  So really, this isn't a "Best Of" considering all the stuff I missed (see the last blog post for my opinions on some of those movies), but really ranking what I saw from worst to best.  Luckily, I've seen more bad than good, so let's start off with what I consider the Most Disappointing Movie of 2010.

Sarcasmatron's 2010 In Movies: The Stuff I Missed

As I've talked to people online, I've found it odd that I've heard so many people say that 2010 was one of the worst years for movies in recent memory.  However, to me, 2010 was probably the best year for movies.  Normally, I go to the theaters maybe once or twice a year, three times tops.  But this year, not only do I have enough movies to fill a Top 10 list (which will be coming soon) but I also have a list of notable movies that I missed out on.  You see, I'm not a professional critic, no matter how much I'd like to be one.  Can you imagine complaining about crap you hate...and actually getting PAID for it?  But no, I have to spend my own money, of which I don't have much, and therefore I have to be much more judicious in what I see.  In some cases, it works out in my favor.  As much as I'd like to see how bad The Last Airbender really was for myself, I don't want to actually waste money on it.  But in other cases, there are movies that I genuinely want to see but missed out on just because I didn't want to see them badly enough or was just plain broke.

Sarcasmatron's 2010 In Music: The Top 10 (Part 2 - #5-#1)

Hey guys, surprisingly enough, I haven't died.  I figured I'd give you a bit of an update of what I've been doing the past month or so that I haven't updated Sarcasmatron before charging right back into finishing up the Top 10.  Basically, all I've been doing is laying in bed and puking my guts out.  I'm not 100% sure what I got but it was basically the flu.  Although I never had a fever or anything like that, I pretty much alternated between puking and having dizzying headaches and that was enough to lay me out for a good couple weeks.  I didn't go to work (though I tried a few times and would start throwing up within an hour or two) and I didn't have the strength to do anything but lay in bed.  And believe me, when you don't have the strength to freakin' sit in front of a computer and update a blog, you know it's bad.  I tend to avoid care due to my lack of insurance and my general distrust of doctors, especially since I usually only get sick for a day or two at a time.  But after a few weeks, I finally had to suck it up and get some blood work done at the ghetto cheap-ass clinic near my apartment that deals primarily with methadone addiction.  The blood work didn't show much, basically that I had an infection but nothing serious enough to go to the hospital, or even require medicine.  There was a little red flag raised at the Billirubin levels in my liver but if there was anything wrong with my liver, there would have been 5 or 6 other things that would've come up.  So basically I just had to wait it out.  And once I finally started feeling good enough to go to work and do things again, we got totally butt-blasted with snow last week.  We were supposed to get a blizzard and people were already calling it Snowpocalypse 2011 but while we got a shit-ton of snow, I was a bit disappointed.  Nevertheless, it was still enough for me to seclude my paranoid-driving self and stay in bed.

It sucks because for the past month or so, I've literally done nothing but lay in bed and watch movies.  Save for watching the Royal Rumble a couple weeks ago with a friend (which ended up being pretty awesome BTW), I haven't seen my friends in all this time.  I've been meaning to join up in some of their gaming sessions again but I'm still pretty disinterested and all this laying in bed doing nothing somehow hasn't given me any good character ideas.  Except for the times I've gone to work, it feels like I've been cut off from civilization.  Hell, I didn't even go to work today, not because I'm not feeling good but because business has been really slow and despite me being out for the past few weeks and getting backed up on some work, there's really no reason for me to be there right now.  So I'm going to be scraping by in the money department, which will in turn cause me to stay secluded in my apartment even more.  I haven't even played any video games since I don't want to be a dick and take my roommates' XBox 360 into my room.  I've been meaning to do another playthrough of Fable III since I went straight through the story the first time and did little to no side missions.  And I'm still not all that far into Fallout New Vegas either. 

So instead, I've been watching a ton of movies.  I thought about doing a Random Movie Roundup but with all the stuff I've watched over the course of this past month, but there's so much that I'm not even going to bother.  First off, I went through Netflix and started watching a ton of TV shows, finishing off all the available episodes of Mythbusters I haven't seen yet.  I moved onto American Pickers but I couldn't watch a whole season of two guys driving through the Midwest in a van going through piles of old people's crap without feeling wholly depressed about the situation.  So then I watched the Robocop trilogy, which then resulted in me going into an 80's movie kick with stuff like Escape From New York, The Running Man and Howard The Duck.  Then that turned into 80's wrestling where I watched a bunch of Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage matches.  Then I got tired of watching movies so I listened to a bunch of commentaries.  That way, I could lay in bed and just listen instead of wearing myself out with the act of actually having my eyes open and paying attention to plot.  And that brings me up to the current point, where I just finished going through Seasons 1-3 of The Venture Bros. backwards (meaning from Season 3 down to 1) with commentary, which then urged me to find and watch Season 4.5 that I missed at the end of last year.  The whole thing reminded me that The Venture Bros. is indeed the best show on television today.  Sorry, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.  Though I will say that Always Sunny is the best live-action show with Community running a close second.  Beyond that, I still don't watch much TV so I can't really comment on anything else

Anyway, enough with my rambling, it's time to finish up this Top 10.  Forgive me if the remaining list seems a bit rushed.  Honestly, I just want to get this done.  Who the hell does Best of 2010 articles in February?  And since I still have to go through my list of movies, it could be going on into March at this rate.

The Living Dead...

To any and all that actually still read my blog, I must apologize for this lengthy hiatus.  I've been very sick over the past week and haven't been able to update.  Once I'm feeling up to it enough, I will return and finish up my Best Of 2010 lists, and probably follow it up with a Random Movie Roundup of all the movies I've been watching while I've been laid out.  Of course, while the list is pretty decent, it could've been much larger considering how many episodes of Mythbusters, Bizarre Foods and American Pickers I watched instead.  Hope you all are feeling better than I have.

Sarcasmatron's 2010 In Music: The Top 10 (Part 1 - #10-#6)

To any longtime Sarcasmatron readers (as if there are any), already know this isn't going to be a typical Best Of 2010 list.  It's not so much a "Best Of" as it is albums of what I managed to get a hold of.  I tried to shine the spotlight on those I may have missed out on but this is the list that, for better or worse, I was able to accumulate through my own meager means.  So let's get this thing started:

Sarcasmatron's 2010 In Music Prelude: The Stuff I Missed Out On

It's that time of year again.  The time of year where we look upon the previous 364 days and wonder what exactly we wasted our time on...I mean fondly look back at the things that entertained us.  Yeah, that's it.  I wish I could have a massive list upwards to 40-50 titles but I'm only one man with a very limited budget.  So obviously there's going to be A LOT of things that I might enjoy that slipped through the cracks.  And since I like to believe that I have a wide range of what I do, or at least could, enjoy, the list of things that I missed out on actually ended up being quite varied.  So here we go...

My Top 10 List Of Albums I Didn't Get In 2010