Portola Hotel & Spa

Portola Hotel & Spa must be really expensive considering it is one block away from everything in Monterey, California, United States of America.

Comfortable?

Photographed on 30 July 2024.  Monterey, California was so effing cold that even bird needed to stay warm.

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Shirtless Hugh Jackman!!!

There was no plot, and I didn't want it to have a plot.  The more they explained how they brought Wolverine back, the more boring the movie would've been.  No plot = Fun!  The songs matched to whatever was on the screen at that moment.  The acting was great.

A lot of cameos poked fun at the studio executives that couldn't get shows produced.

This movie was basically a fan service to everyone that wanted to see Deadpool fighting Wolverine; to see Wolverine putting on his mask; and to see Wolverine's shirt blown off for no reason.  I very much appreciated everyone's hard work in this movie.

Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

The only way to get Math Teacher to see a romantic comedy movie was to have the story set in 1960s space race at NASA.

It was a cute movie.  I didn't see Channing Tatum as a smart NASA scientist, but he pulled it off.  Scarlett Johansson and Woody Harrelson stole the show.  The gay director was hilarious.

There were some over-dramatic scenes that could've been cut, but overall, this was a good movie to spend a Saturday afternoon with.

The broken American public services

Part I – Federal

Social Security Administration

    My father applied for social security benefits in November 2023 and was approved in July 2024.  My mother applied in January 2024 and was denied in June 2024.

    Why do we "apply" and complete a five-page questionnaire? The employers deduct the benefits from our paychecks and report them to the government. We pay taxes every year. Don't they have our records somewhere? Shouldn't we call Social Security Administration and say, "I'm retired. Give me my money back."

    And six months to process an application? What if I die in that six-month period? Well, sucks to be me!

United States Postal Service

    The post office nearest to me suddenly had a sign up saying "Closed Indefinitely." Nobody knew why. Did they process the mail already dropped in there? Did they distribute the mail? Nobody knew.

Part II – State

Department of Motor Vehicles

    My driver license expired. I went to DMV to apply. Did not receive it after a month. Called DMV and was told, "Post office returned your driver license to DMV. You'll need to go to DMV to apply for a new one." Went to post office to ask why and was told, "We'll never return something like that." So, who was lying?

    Went to DMV to apply; waited another month; did not receive it. Called DMV and was told, "Post office returned your driver license to DMV. You'll need to go to DMV to apply for a new one." Went to post office to ask why and was told, "We'll never return something like that." So, who was lying?

    Went to DMV to apply; waited another month; finally received it. Each time I went to DMV, it was two-hour wait. I wasted six hours of my life because people did not want to do their job and lied.

Part III – Local

Waste Management (trash collection company)

    Called Waste Management to request new trash bins. Never received them. The first nine times the excuses the customer service provided was, "We don't have new bins right now. Operational issue. We were busy so we didn't make it to your location."

    Called the 10th time. The customer service said, "The dispatcher noted in the system that you didn't put the old trash bins out there so we didn't swap out the new ones." Math Teacher was incredulous with this excuse. He put the old bins outside to wait for the new ones. Motherfucking liars! So the customer service made another request for me to receive new trash bins.

    Didn’t receive them. Called the 11th time. The customer service hung up on me.

    Called the 12th time. I was transferred three times before I was finally able to scream, "Do not transfer me again! You fucking service. I want my trash bins!" The customer service had the gall to tell me, "You can feel that way and scream all you want. You'll get your new trash bins eventually."

    Waste Management fucked and bribed the local government to be the only trash company in town. Their attitude was, "So what are you gonna do? Get someone else to collect your trash? HA!"

    People say don't be rude to the customer service. But, I called twelve times; waited hours on the phone; I was lied to; I was hung up; I was transferred. After all that, I still did not have new trash bins.

    Two days later Waste Management finally brought trash bins to my door and called me to tell me they were at my door.  However, they didn't bring new trash bins.  The truck driver explained nobody got new bins unless the old ones were completely damaged (i.e. wheels fallen off).  He showed me the dirty, dingy trash bins on the truck; they looked worse than.my current ones.  So, I kept my current bins.

    Why didn't they say so on the website, "Nobody gets new trash bins.  Keeping them nice and clean is customer's responsibility."  Two sentences; was that too much work?  It could have saved hours of my time, and the poor customer service didn't need to hear my screaming.

    Or Waste Management purposely showed me dirty bins so they did not have to give me new ones, because I yelled at the customer service.  Either way, Waste Management won.  I wanted new trash bins; they didn't have to give them to me.

Part IV – The Failures

    The incompetence of US government and its public services permeate throughout. No one wants to do their jobs. They will lie to my face, and I cannot do anything about it. They collect taxes from me, but I don't have social security, post office, driver license, and trash.

San Andreas (2015)

I'm not a big disaster movie fan, but I enjoyed this.  The Rock's movies are always solid entertainment.

Math Teacher enjoyed it more than me.  So this is his review.  In the beginning the girl should've died.  At the end the girl should've died or at least sustained some brain damage.  However, it was expected in this type of movie people defied laws of nature and gravity.  Anyway, everything else was exaggerated but still truthful.  All the disastrous events happened before, during, and after an earthquake.  🌟🌟🌟

Apocalypto (2006)

I was not expecting much of this movie.  The title looked ok; I didn't even know how to pronounce the name.  The description on the DVD box was ok.  In the first ten minutes I was like, Did I need to read subtitle the entire time?

It turned out to be a great movie.  I'm not judging who was wrong and who was right; that was for people in the future.  I'm simply understanding the culture a little bit more.  Nobody wanted to see their villages pillaged, their women raped, and their children abandoned.  When big important people did enough bad things, the little people wouldn't want to help when the Spanish showed up.

I was warned of blood, gory, and violence.  I didn't think so.  This movie wasn't any more bloody than, say, John Wick shot someone's brain out.  In fact, a lot of gory scenes in Apocalypto were kind of blurred in the background, or quick cuts, or implied.  🌟🌟🌟🌟

Bad Boys (1995), Bad Boys II (2003), Bad Boys for Life (2020)

I'm surprised to learn that all three movies were made so far apart, but the bromance between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence did not fade over time.  They both had great charisma and chemistry.  Their bantering was enjoyable.

While Fast & Furious franchise defied physics, Bad Boys franchise defied biology.  Will Smith got shot three times in his chest and completely healed in six months.  Armando was shot in the heart, but he immediately was able to stand and help Will Smith.  On the other hand, some people got shot once through the neck and shoulder and died.  Plot armor!  I still love this franchise.