By Hagbard_Celine on June 19th, 2008 (more posts by author)

I took last night off playing in order to spend some time with my girlfriend.

And by taking time off that means that I played the 12pm 109 on tilt, the 1pm 109 on stars, the 1pm 75 6max on tilt and the 1:30 501r1a on tilt. I built stacks in nearly all of them by allowing horrendous eurodonks to give me their stacks. I then proceeded to bust short of the money in all of them trying to outplay horrendous eurodonks that don't fold. I have this problem sometimes, where I know my edge is coming from my ability to play solid poker and not really leak, but instead get tilted at how bad my table is and just try to run it over and outplay everybody. It usually ends up with me busting in some outrageous fashion.

Anyhow, I ended my day of playing at about 4pm, reviewed my 10r win from last week, and then went for a bike ride to the park where I worked on my jump shot and crossover.

I then showered and took a nap while I waited for the Mrs. to get out of work. The call came in about 9 that she was nearly finished. I swooped over to the restaurant where she works and had a beer while she finished.

We had decided to go see The Happening, M. Night Shyamalan's newest film. I liked The Sixth Sense. I have not liked one of his films since. It is my opinion that he is garbage. However, the previews for this film were good and the film seemed promising.

We walked to the theater, bought our tickets and some popcorn and soda and entered the theater relatively excited for the film.

Oh my god what a completely and utterly horrible film. Apparently the vegetation of Earth has decided that human beings are a threat, and are releasing an airborne toxin that makes humans kill themselves. The plants--yes, those harmless trees bushes and blades of grass--have decided just to target the East Coast of the US as a warning to us to stop our destructive and consumptive ways.

This in and of itself is not a horrible premise for a film. But what horrible execution. The acting was abysmal. The aesthetic was totally unremarkable and at times downright cheesy.

The best part of the film, personally, was an exchange I had with the theaters management:

I had been laughing throughout the film, most likely ruining it for anyone dim enough to be enjoying it. I've only walked out of one other film in my whole life: The Mexican. But about 45 minutes into The Happening I was ready for my second.

"I can't take this anymore," I said to Shannon.

"It's so bad," Shannon laughs.

"I'm going to go see if we can get some free vouchers," I said. "If I get some free passes, would you leave?"

"Sure, I don't care."

All I needed to hear. Bouncing out of my seat, I headed off to the lobby in search of the theater's decider. The lobby was empty, however as i contemplated helping myself to some candy from behind the counter as a gesture for my poor experience, a manager came down the steps.

"May I help you with something?" he asked. The manager was a younger guy, probably in his early 20's, wearing his shirt and tie as you might imagine a 20-year-old would.

"What's your policy on free passes?" I asked. "This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen."

A wide, shit-eating grin stretched across his face. "You wouldn't happen to be in The Happening, would you?"

I burst into laughter, and he reciprocates.

"I saw it the other day and just sat there wishing I had gone to see The Hulk. And I don't want to see the Hulk," he said.

"I've only walked out of one other film in my life, The Mexican," I said. "I mean this is terrible, any way we can get a couple of passes?"

"Well, you've already watched like over half of it," he said as he checked his watch.

"How about you give us one pass; there's two of us," I propose.

"Alright, I can give you one pass."

I thank him and introduce myself. His name is Chris. As he prints out my voucher, we discuss the film, and that the concept itself wasn't bad, but that the execution is just about as bad as you can imagine. Chris ends up printing me one voucher for two passes, so that we can both come back and see a free movie. I thank him and shake his hand. One thing that makes me happy is when a manager of an establishment--be it a theater, restaurant, whatever--does the right thing. He wishes me the best as I head in catch the end of that piece of shit.

"The ending is by far the worst part," he said as he laughed his way back up the steps.

Anyway, the ending was very bad, and Shannon and I left very unsatisfied, but pleased that we had been treated well by the theater. We grabbed some pizza, and then went home.

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Today I am going to GRIND, baby, GRIND! Here's to shipping that 20K+ score!