Lousy mongrels

So I hit a deer on the way home from work last night.

It was snowing pretty good as I turned off the highway onto parkland drive (my road home) I saw two deer in the ditch, so I was on ALERT and slowed down even more, but a few km's up the road one of the fuckers popped out of nowhere (you know how people always say that and sometimes you wonder what they mean? well, trust me, it really did) and ran across from left to right.

I hit the brakes and slowed down enough to not smash into it dead center (and seriously it was THAT close), but I clipped it (or more than clipped it, hard to say) more toward the passenger side which sent me fishtailing a bit, but due to my supreme skills (AND NOKIANS™), I sorted that out before ending up in a ditch myself.

What's odd is that I kept going, kind of in shock, but eventually my brain kicked in and I was all "hey, I should pull over and get a damage report!"

So I did. It was hard to see, but I saw enough to just say "fuck" but also know that it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Seriously. I've heard/seen so many terrible stories about what those things can do, so I'm grateful enough that I had enough of a chance to avoid a great deal of it. For myself and also for the car. The hood isn't mangled at all.

I was going to rant and rave about modern cars and how shitty the plastic bumpers are, but truly, hitting a deer at what, 60KM an hour, and seeing that isn't too bad. Maybe it's tougher than most or maybe it caused the deer to just BOUNCE out of the way, but man. Am I glad it wasn't worse/no airbag exploded in my face.

The real bad part is knowing that something like that still costs at least 2 grand to fix... and on a Volkswagen...I don't even want to know how much. I've known people who bumped into curbs and had to replace the whole front end because of it.

Eventually I went to the cop shop to get one of those accident stickers because you ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE ONE OF THOSE for insurance purposes before anyone will even give you an estimate, which is absurd, but I'll not get into that.

The woman there was kind of dumb and pissy and treated me like I was obviously lying about something, but I'll not get into that either.

What's done is done and it was a shitty day, I'll call/stop by my insurance place tomorrow and see what is what. My mom says hitting a deer is something they often cover with little arguing/rates rising, but we'll see.

Now I sit here wondering what I could have/should have done differently and that's really annoying as well. I think I did alright all things considered. My dad once tried to avoid a deer and ended up in a ditch smashing through a farmer's fence posts which did more damage than any deer probably would have done, so there's no real good way out of it.

Same goes with swerving into the other lane. Not really a good idea, not on an icy road and not when you're focused on a deer and not traffic coming in the other direction.


A few pics:

not as bad as one might think, but also kind of bad when you look at it more closely, cause anything cracked is obviously going to get ripped off anyway, so it may as well be busted up

bottom bit cracked, under the headlight cracked

Black bit smashed up some.

Also: best part was the sound. I watch rally racing sometimes and the sound it made was exactly like what you hear when those dudes crash.

Watch The Pacific

I'm certain I wrote a little post about The Pacific when it first started to air, because I watched the first episode and waited patiently so I could just buy the box set and soak in all the awesomeness at once.

It came out a couple weeks ago and I finally got a chance to start watching it and now it's over and my mind is blown.

If you've ever seen "Band of brothers" you know what to expect. It's more of that, but set in the pacific theater of war.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and the rest of the guys responsible for Band of Brothers are probably some of the most talented people ever because this mini series is (in my opinion) just as good.


So many times was I amazed at the cinematorgraphy and editing. Quite unbelievable. Throw in the awesome writing and it truly is one of the most emotional things you could think of. Every episode seemed to take a lot out of me because (by all accounts) it's a pretty accurate depiction of such events and my mind can't help but reel at the things these guys went though.

I cannot even begin to imagine. I don't think anybody really can.

There's also the times you just sit there and shake your head at what humanity was (and obviously still is) capable of. Sickening...which is what makes this so goddamn appealing and powerful.

I sincerely hope that the same team of writers/producers gets to tackle another aspect of the war for another mini series. This stuff is on a whole other level compared to ANYTHING else on television.

I'd be all for something from the Soviet perspective, or even German, but I don't know if that'd ever fly with most people.

Part of me also wants to see a take on the Vietnam war. Now THAT, would be bonkers.

Anyway, buy this. Watch this.

free things

Year end reward from Club Nintendo:

COOL.

PS. I'm such a dork that the box is almost as cool as the statue to me.

awe

If you've got 15 minutes to spare I suggest watching this:



It doesn't have the best editing in the world, but it's a pretty fucking awesome video/speech. I suggest everyone watch it once whether or not you agree with the message. I thought it was brilliant.

the last two minutes are just a music video of sorts that you can skip if you want, because really, fuck the Arcade Fire.