DOWN WITH PANTS!

Today my week and a half vacation came to an end.

After being laid off last Wednesday my prospects felt bleak. My hopes waned. Christmas felt like it was ruined. My unemployment benefits were up in the air. There were no good jobs listed anywhere. College basketball was the only thing that could cheer me up.

Luckily, Craigslist came through and I found one promising job listing. I then half-heartedly applied for a couple more jobs to get up to my state mandated three job contacts for the week. With only one real iron in the fire it felt like I could possibly go well into the new year without a job.

But that one Craigslist listing paid out. I had an interview on Wednesday, another interview this morning, and was then offered the position this afternoon. The process was quick, easy and I came out smelling like a rose with a job that will pay me more money with a more stable company with great benefits. I'm still a little shocked at how things turned out.

I always somehow land on my feet despite myself. Things always work out for the best. I'm never sure how it happens, but it does and I couldn't be more thankful for the really good luck that always manages to follow the bad luck in my life.

HOLY SHIT! Would Peter Jackson please just take it easy on everybody. He has totally blown every other movie straight out of the water with King Kong. It was such an incredible movie that words do not do it justice. So get your ass down to the theater - If you are in or around LA, I highly recommend seeing it at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, that's where we saw it tonight - and get ready to have your world rocked. And don't feel weird about cheering along, everybody in the theater during our showing did.

After we saw the best movie ever made (seriously, I think it is a possibility) we went to the DWP Light Festival at Griffith Park. I'm very flattered by all of the attention from the City of Los Angeles, I guess my little blog has come a long way. What's that? Department of Water and Power? What do they have to do with anything?

I have always wanted to be an advice columnist. I don't know why. I just really want to help people. It is my calling to do good and now I offer my services to you, my faithful reader. I care, I really do, and I swear that I will give you good, helpful advice that I think we all can learn something from.

So please, if you need some advice, fill out the form below and hit "Ask It" and I will gladly do my best to give you the help you so sorely need. And if you want to remain anonymous, that's fine. You don't have to fill out the whole form. Just give me some kind of snappy name like Dan Savage always has.

UPDATE: Come on people, drop me a question or two. It doesn't have to be groundbreaking stuff here. It doesn't have to be a serious problem or anything. Just fill out the form quickly on your way through (blog explosioners, it won't take more than 30 seconds, I swear). I just need some questions to work with here. By the way, it's an email form. Your question will be emailed straight to me and not posted directly on the site or anything.

Over on the right hand side of Down With Pants! underneath the blogroll is my new tenant for Blog Explosion's Rent My Blog. Miss Ann Thrope has a very nice blog that you should check out real quick, plus she is paying me good credits to be a part of the Down With Pants! experience so hopefully she will get her money's worth. If not Miss Ann, I am really sorry.

Now that I am unemployed I have the opportunity to watch the greatest game show of all time, The Price Is Right, featuring what should be the oldest man on the face of the earth, Bob Barker. I haven't watched The Price Is Right in years so I am having to get used to the inflated prices of the prizes. I remember when $6,000 was a high bid for a showcase.

Today's show featured a blue-eyed, blonde haired young man by the name of Aryan who won himself a car. Aryan? As in aryan race or aryan nation? This sounds like a word that should be avoided at all costs especially if you are naming your whiter-than-white baby boy.

Just like the swastika the name Aryan has another, more noble, Eastern religious meaning but was unjustly used by the Nazis. But that still doesn't make it ok as a baby name. You don't hear the last name Hitler anymore and maybe you shouldn't hear the first name Aryan anymore.

Unless the kids name is Aryan Hitler. That's a double negative and they cancel each other out.

So congratulations Aryan Hitler on your big win on The Price Is Right! You will look sharp driving the streets of Sandpoint, Idaho in that little number.

On Wednesday morning I got laid off from my job. Great! Two weeks before Christmas and my income source has dried up and I haven't bought shit. I have been in a serious funk since then. Depressed and bored isn't a good combination at all. But I found the one thing that can really cheer me up in no time at all. A college basketball tripleheader!

That's right, this morning I left Ventura at 9:30 AM to go to the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim to see the Washington Huskies take on the New Mexico Lobos at noon, UCLA versus Nevada at 2:30 and then a quick jaunt up to Westchester to see Loyola Marymount face USC at 7:00. I just got back at 10:45.

Seeing this Huskies team beat the Lobos 81-71 in the first game of the John Wooden Classic cheered me up right away, even though they didn't play great. New Mexico had a great shot to knock them off cutting a huge deficit to one point with eleven minutes left but Hans Gasser, of all people, got them out of their funk.

I can't believe what I am about to say, but I think it is possible that this years Husky team could potentially be a better, more complete team than last years squad. They don't have an explosive, exciting player like Nate Robinson and their backcourt is inexperienced and that showed this afternoon, but every other position is improved and more balanced. I am psyched to see them later in the season at USC and UCLA.

The UCLA/Nevada game was exciting for the first half but got out of control late and turned out to be kind of a yawner with UCLA winning 67-56 in the final game of the Wooden Classic. But the game was worth it if only to give John Wooden a standing ovation late in the game. For a big college hoops fan like me, even though I don't care for UCLA, seeing John Wooden in person was an honor.

But the game of the day was saved for last. It was homecoming at Loyola Marymount and it seemed like the entire student body showed up drunk and rowdy. Gersten Pavilion, which is kind of a dump - but a very lovable dump, was electric with crosstown big-wig rival USC in the gym.

USC led the game by as many as 15 but the Lions buckled down defensively and the USC lead was only two with 11 seconds left and the Lions with the ball. Wes Wardrop curled past a screen and had a wide open look at a three pointer, a shot he couldn't pass up no matter if you were playing for the tie or not, and just barely missed giving USC the 71-69 victory. USC was lead by Gabe Pruitt's 36 points. How USC is 5-2 is beyond me. Just wait until conference play, they are going to have a rough time.

Screw not having a job. It's college basketball season! The most wonderful time of the year. Or is that Christmas? Noooo, it's college basketball season for sure. How can I be depressed at a time like this?

Everybody knows Dookie. Everybody knows "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)". Everybody has heard the hell out of American Idiot this year. But for my money, the best album that Green Day has made to this date is their 2000 release Warning, an album that does an amazing job of mixing punk rock with stripped down melodies a la the Beatles and the best lyrics they have written.

This album was overlooked by many simply because it didn't have a good radio single. "Warning" is a great song, but it doesn't have a solid radio hook that could attract the masses. The album's first single and most popular song was "Minority", lyrically an immature sounding song that doesn't fit on such a mature themed album.

But the lack of singles oriented songs are what make this album great. All the songs deal with complex issues of growing into full-on adulthood and the optimism and pessimism that goes along with that growth. All of the songs sound youthful and playful but mature and strong and work perfectly with the subject matter to paint a picture of the growth that they are experiencing. .

I think that this album hit home with me because it was that same growth that I myself was experiencing at the time. No song necessarily spoke to my situation directly, it just sounded like my situation. Your mid-20's are a weird time. You feel very young, but are expected to start being an adult. That is what this album sounds like to me and is why it remains one of my favorites to this day.

The second podcast from Down With Pants! is now available. Just like the first one, it features about an hours worth of fun and exciting music that I think you will enjoy all hosted by me, Brandon himself. All you have to do is add the following URL into your favorite podcasting thingy and give it a listen...

http://www.switchpod.com/users/downwithpants/feed.xml

The good news is that this time I was able to get it to appear as one file rather than broken into two. The bad news is that the sound quality is still a little shitty. I'm not particularly happy with Audacity yet, but hopefully I will figure it out and make it sound better soon.

To address the complaint by Ted that he wanted to see the names of the songs as they were playing I went ahead and created a playlist for the show. But you have to click here to check it out.

Please let me know what you think. Your feedback is always welcomed here at Down With Pants! so feedback away. Thanks!

Continuing on with sacrilege and blasphemy week here at Down With Pants! I bring to you yet another installment of Guys I Might Go Gay For.

Now, I know what you are saying. Yuck! Pat Robertson and Benny Hinn? I'm with you. They are about the worst two men in the world to go gay for. These two douchebags might be the worst candidates for gay sex ever. Hell, they might be the worst candidates for straight sex ever. How anybody could ever touch them is a mystery to me.

But they both believe that gays are going straight to Hell. It is because of that belief that I might be willing to take one for the team and, if their beliefs are correct, keep them out of Heaven. I might be going to Hell too, but at least I would take them down with me.

Although I think that God would understand. He might not have wanted them in Heaven in the first place but couldn't quite find the loophole to send them down to Hell. I might be greeted in Heaven as a hero. Wouldn't that be great!