thoughts from kent drive

MJ Super Bowl

2012-02-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

The Super Bowl is this weekend. There are various lists across the internet providing the top 10 Super Bowl Halftime shows. I was looking at a couple of them - because that is what you do when you are on the internet - look at other people's lists, and I noticed that Michael Jackson did a halftime show back in 1993.

Not surprisingly, most of the commentary on the show is that MJ reinvented halftime shows and turned them into what they are today - 10 minute over-the-top, no holds barred, spectaculars.

So in preparation for the big game on Sunday, let's breakdown MJ's legendary performance from almost 20 years ago.

0:01 - A countdown. Awesome.

0:03 - James Earl Jones is the intro man - the Morgan Freeman of the 80's and 90's. Was there an official passing of the torch there? Is James Earl Jones dead? Because once Freeman took over, JEJ has fallen off the planet.

0:26 - Cameraman 2 was thrown off by the intro music. Zoomed in too early. Producer: "What the... quick, back to Camera 1. C2, you idiot!"

0:38: Ok, now zoom C2.

0:46: Aw snap! It's MJ on the jumbotron.

0:57: Psyche! No it's not. That was just a stuntdouble. By the way, how did one become an MJ stunt double? Were these the last people to get cut from the backup dance crew?

1:11: Michael emerges.

I wonder how the discussion went with the choreographer during the planning of the show:

C: Ok Michael, so then you will emerge from the stage. There will be sparklers and stuff of course. And then you will hold your pose. How long do you want to hold your pose? 10 seconds? 20? 30 tops?

MJ: I will hold it for at least a minute. After that I will take another minute to move my head and take off my sunglasses.

C: Um, yeah, this isn't a regular concert. We only have 13 minutes for the entire show. Pretty sure we shouldn't dedicate a sixth of the time to you just standing there motionless.

2:08: He's still motionless.

2:24: Apparently not dead.

2:41: Also apparently not that bright outside.

2:43: Cue the electric guitar from the... HOLY HANNAH WHAT IS THAT THING? Best guess is it's an extra from The Lion King. There is no way of knowing though if it's male or female. Impossible to determine.

3:05: The crowd in the foreground is doing the classic Michael Jackson song dance move which is just to sort of jump and or shake your body wildly because as great as MJ songs are, the only way to dance to them is to dance like MJ and since only about 1% of the population can do that, the rest of us are left to just flail our arms and hope nobody is watching. Unfortunately for these people, the U.S. was watching.

3:30: And scene. Quick change, cue the hat and drum beat. Let the hip thrusting begin.

4:25: No matter how many impersonators you will see over the years, no one does it quite like him.

4:55: The Lion King is making its move onto the stage. I'm hoping the song culminates in a King of Pop v. King of the Jungle battle royale. Granted, MJ is a lover not a fighter, so this likely won't happen.

5:22: Go back up dancers.

5:37: "Five, six, seven, and...point to the crowd!"

6:05: I wonder if MJ's nose ever blew off while standing on one of those wind vents. It had to have worried him.

6:20: Some guy wearing one of those fake mustaches with glasses just grabbed a little screen time.

6:25: Black or white? How about male or female? Please settle this.

6:42: The Super Bowl, sponsored by United Way.

8:00: How awesome would it be if MJ ditched the rest of his performance and just got out a football and tried to kick a field goal from the stage? How far do you think it would go? I'm guessing no more than 15 yards. I don't even think it would make it off the stage.

8:20: Not really sure what to say here. MJ is holding what appears to be a magic wand of sorts. He uses it to make children appear. All jokes seem too easy and likely to cross the line quickly. We'll just respect the dead (and molested) and move on.

8:50: Apparently the Nickelodeon Rugrats are also sponsoring the Superbowl. I wonder if Doug and Ren and Stimpy will also be featured.

9:30: I mean, I honestly feel like MJ is a sincere guy and all, just not the choicest words since we know that in a few months he is going to be charged with child molestation.

9:55: Cue the children.

10:01: Was that a boy in lederhosen? Das good.

10:25: Looks like they have children dressed in costumes from all over the world...and also a few adults in solid green Ross sweatshirts. They are pretending to be helpers but really just jockeying for position and trying to get some face time. MJ will not be happy if he's not surrounded entirely by children.

11:09: "Peace bud. Peace."

11:22: Here come the United Way graduates.

12:26: Let's be honest, would I have preferred some sort of Beat It/Smooth Criminal/Bad/The Dog-gone Girl Is Mine Medley. At the same time, it is quite an amazing production. He literally has the entire stadium involved. Scores of people singing and then everyone in the crowd holding up some sort of poster. Pretty impressive. I bet the athletes were jealous they didn't get to participate.

So there you have it. The production that started it all. Your move Madonna.

Russian Schooling

2011-09-21T22:14:00.001-07:00

I read this article in the NY Times the other day. It is a fascinating story about a NY Times correspondent that moved to Russia for a few years. He discusses their decision to put their kids, who don't know any Russian at all, in the Russian school system as opposed to in an international school where they would speak and teach in English.

"But when I became a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, my wife and I decided that we wanted to immerse them in life abroad. No international schools where the instruction is in English. Ours would go to a local one, with real Russians. When we told friends in Brooklyn of our plans, they tended to say things like, Wow, you’re so brave. But we knew what they were really thinking: What are you, crazy?"

I'm pretty sure that I would want to do the same thing with my kids, but I doubt that I would actually be able to go through with it. I think it would be a great experience for my kids to experience living in another country and in another culture and to be fully immersed in that culture. I've met plenty of people who lived in other countries, but hardly knew anything about that country because they spent their few years in that country mostly speaking and associating with English speaking people. Sure, they knew more about the country than I did, but their experience seemed to be vastly different than that of these kids.

I think the key for making something like this work, would be finding the right school. The founder/headmaster of this school and the teachers sound excellent.

"When Bogin [founder] was growing up in the Soviet era, the party used schools to mold loyal Communists. Teachers wove propaganda through the lessons and enforced memorization like drill sergeants. Bogin detested it. “I didn’t want to be a slave,” he told me. “I didn’t want to be a person who is ordered and must obey the orders without any thinking. I didn’t consider myself to be a person who repeats texts without any criticism or thinking or any alternatives.

Just as political dissidents fought the Soviet regime, so, too, did others oppose the educational system. Bogin was one of them. After studying English in college and serving in the army, he decided to become the kind of teacher he craved as a child. At a school in the Moscow suburbs in the late 1980s, he challenged pupils to challenge him — and everyone else...

"When I asked Bogin to explain Shchedrovitsky, he asked a question. “Does 2 + 2 = 4? No! Because two cats plus two sausages is what? Two cats. Two drops of water plus two drops of water? One drop of water.”

From there, the theories became more complex. In practice, though, the philosophy meant that Bogin delighted in barraging children with word problems and puzzles to force them to think broadly. It was the opposite of the rote memorization of the Soviet system."

Love it.

And a great story about one of the teachers:

"At the beginning of the year, the other children treated Danya, Arden and Emmett as curiosities. They occasionally mocked the three for their mangled syntax, though the school cracked down on that. Bogin even devised a ploy for Emmett’s class: one of the school’s English teachers conducted a lesson entirely in English. “This is what every day is like for Emmett,” the teacher explained. One boy was so tormented trying to follow along that he burst into tears."

Brilliant.

Anyways, it's a great read. The kids naturally start off completely lost and discouraged and come home in tears. The parents question whether they should pull them out of school and if they made the right decision. They almost pull them out after one day but decide to stick by the decision and three years later when they are leaving Russia the kids are fluent in Russian and have made great friendships.

Reading this story made me ponder a few things. First of all, it just reminds me of how resilient people, and especially children can be. They clearly struggled and life was really difficult, but they stuck with it and their decision and I think the entire family would agree that they were glad they did.

I think we as a society, or at least as adults, shun or are embarrassed by struggling or failing. Even though it really is part of life. I'm reminded of this with Win. I know it is small and trivial stuff that he does, but it is inspiring to watch him grow. His life is full of struggles and failures at the moment. He spent weeks just trying to pull himself up to a standing position. Even when he does, he still falls over sometimes. He will usually cry for a bit. But once he is better, he tries again. And again. And again until he gets it. And when he does, he is so proud. He spent weeks trying to pull himself up in his crib. When he finally could do it he was so excited it took him a few hours to finally go to sleep. We would put him on his back and he would just flip over and pull himself up and giggle with excitement that he had finally done it.

The other thing this article made me think about was what I mentioned above about how many people, including myself, would actually do what this family did. It made me think about the many immigrants and people that come to the US and what they must be going through. Granted, I have lived in another country and struggled to learn the language and assimilate myself into the culture. But that was all part of the program I signed up for. This family didn't have to do what they did. There were plenty of English-speaking international schools they could have attended.

I guess I just often look at immigrants and think that if they would just learn the language and try to be more American, then life would be easier for them. First of all, I think many are trying and it's just not easy. And second, I'm already pretty sure that if I went to Russia I wouldn't do what this family did and I would likely spend my three years there partially getting involved with the culture, but also spending a lot of time with any English speaking acquaintances I made. I'm pretty sure most Americans would do the same.

Anyways, I'm not trying to get preachy and this isn't some sort of pro-Dream Act or immigrants rights blog post or anything. I don't know if I have a specific point. Just had one of those moments where my perspective was altered a bit and I realized I can't completely fault some people for their behavior because I'm not sure I would do differently if I was in their situation. I know I, and they, would be better off if they did; as demonstrated by this article. I guess I'm still a little too proud and afraid to struggle and fail. I need to better follow Win's example.

Wilco > Black Eyed Peas

2011-09-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

This is just fantastic:

I'm not sure why Jeff Tweedy was performing at this seemingly random venue or why he had prepared a cover of the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," but it's very entertaining. Does he do this often? I'd say I should hang out in local music bars hoping to encounter a similar random performance, but as great as this performance is, I don't think it would be worth the endless hours of "emo/indie/hipster acoustical complaint rock."

You don't have to listen to I Gotta Feeling for more than about 15 seconds before you realize that lyrically and musically there is nothing brilliant about it. After hearing Jeff Tweedy slowly recite the lyrics and hearing how simple and ridiculous they are, it seems unjust that the Rebecca Black girl got creamed and ridiculed by her peers and the media for "her" song while I Gotta Feeling was performed at the Super Bowl without any sort of teenage rioting or backlash.

Enjoyable Read

2011-07-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

This might be the only time I will ever recommend reading a case or refer to a lawsuit as an enjoyable read because lawsuits are almost never enjoyable reads - especially summary judgment motions.

But this case is an exception. You can find it here.

It's a little long, but is highly entertaining, especially if you are into petty high school behavior, the movie Mean Girls, crazy moms living vicariously through their daughters, high school cheerleading stereotypes and/or frivolous lawsuits.

If there wasn't a case caption and cases cited throughout, I would have thought I was reading a script for a proposed Lifetime movie. Granted, I'm sure the quality minds at Lifetime are already drafting up the screenplay for this.

And speaking of citing cases, the case cited on pg. 13 - Hayut v. State University of New York - is incredible. I literally laughed out loud when I read the brief facts from that case that were cited.

Anyways, if you have some free time this is a fun read - even for a non-lawyer. Well, at least the first half is before the case gets too deep in legal analysis. Maybe it's all boring and just entertaining when compared to all other legal rulings out there. Although, I'm pretty sure the opening paragraph and footnote 13 (pg. 24) would be entertaining to most anyone.

Also, I wonder when/if this mom will ever realize she is completely whack. Surely she will appeal this ruling and try and get the Supreme Court to hear her case. But even when they throw out her case and refuse to hear it I'm sure she still won't realize she completely ridiculous and out of control. She will probably feel like there is a nationwide conspiracy to prevent her daughter from making the cheer team. Which there is of course. At least now there is.

Audience Participation

2011-07-06T13:18:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I went to KROQ's Inland Invasion out in lovely Devore, CA. It was one of those all day shows out in the hottest, most remote field the concert organizers could find. I think we saw 10 or 11 bands all put on an hour show each. It was the first time I ever saw Beck or Arcade Fire live. Both were fantastic and as good live as they are in a studio. The opposite of The Bravery who were also there. They only had one hit at the time, that one with the high note which unfortunately their lead singer couldn't actually hit. It was somewhat awkward and embarrassing for him. Ok, a lot embarrassing. Jet played their one song. Garbage was also there. Which made sense given that they were at least 7 years past their peak and almost completely irrelevant at the time. They would have taken the award for Most Random Band to be Playing a Show in 2005 except that Madness also performed. Yes, Madness from "Our House" fame. Garbage couldn't even take the award for Forgotten 90s Band since Live also performed.

Anyways, it was a strange lineup that ended with sets from 311, Beck, Weezer, Oasis and Cake. A quality finish. 311 was surprisingly enjoyable, Beck blew my mind and Weezer was incredibly entertaining. Oasis fell below our expectations, which is sort what we expected, and we didn't make it through all of Cake's set since people in our group were dying.

But I bring all this up because I saw a clip today from a recent U2 concert and it reminded me of something Weezer did at our show. Before they played The Sweater Song, arguably their most famous song, or at least the one that really put them on map, they asked if anyone in the audience knew the guitar part to their song. Naturally, hundreds of hands shot up. Some were probably lying, but most people that raised their hands were likely males that spent the bulk of their teenage years in the 90s and spent countless hours lounging around either alone or with friends and while staring blankly at a wall or TV and plucked out the opening notes to the Sweater Song, and thus likely did know how to play the song.

So Weezer brings up some guy from the audience and they give him a guitar and he starts plucking away and they sing the song. It was wildly entertaining. After wards they gave him the guitar and sent him backstage. I still remember it to this day as one of my favorite concert moments. I was trying to figure out why I like it so much since I like Weezer but don't necessarily love Weezer. But I think I think I enjoyed it for a lot of the same reasons why I love this clip so much: It bridges the gap between the band and the audience. There is something about a member of the audience playing with the band that humanizes the band and brings them to the audience level even though they aren't. Especially not U2. I don't know their complete background, but their current life situation is vastly different than mine. So is Weezers.

But as much as you may feel connected to a band through their music, this for some reason puts it on a different level. If you are watching it you almost feel like you are up there playing with them. Not really of course, but it does bring you on to the same plane as the band.

I also think it's great because I don't think that all bands could do this. I love Muse and they put on a fantastic show, but I don't think something like this would work for them. They have too much of a production and spectacle. It's almost too polished and professional and an amateur would just ruin things. Most bands couldn't do this without ruining their show.

It also helps with bands like U2 and Weezer that have not only been around for so long, but they have so many songs that people are very familiar with where they could do this. Not many bands have songs where many people in audience could play the guitar part. People might know the songs and some die-hards might be able to play the songs, but it wouldn't be as universal as a U2 song. Even someone like Beck, everyone knows the song Loser, but few could actually play it. Can you imagine Beck saying, "Anyone out there a slide guitarist that can come up here and play Loser for us?" Or Arcade Fire saying, "Hey, we want to play Keep the Car Running, any hurdy gurdy players in the audience?... No? Ok, nevermind." Just wouldn't work.

Maybe I'm over-analyzing this. Maybe U2 and Weezer are on the same plane as most fans and they are somewhat "normal people" so they can get away with things like this. Maybe it just comes down to confidence and U2 and Weezer have been doing this so long and mastered their craft so well that they know that no amateur could really ruin their show or set because they can make up for any shortcomings. Maybe the person's guitar is actually unplugged and The Edge is backstage playing and this is all just a hoax.

Or maybe it is all real and there is no need to try and dissect it because awesome doesn't need an explanation.

Also, apparently the guy in this video is blind . Now it has to be staged.

Summer Movies

2011-05-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

Nellie has been requesting a summer movie post. Once upon a time this was an annual event here at Kent Drive. I missed last year and it seemed like the tradition may have died. But like this blog in general, we just aren't ready to kill if off entirely.

So when it comes to movies, summer now starts in April, which is why I'm a little late with this post. Two summer blockbusters have already come out: Fast Five and Thor. I have done my American duty and seen both of them. Fast Five was terrific. Just horribly awesome at so many moments. Lots of ridiculous stunts. A mediocre plot line that felt a lot like Oceans 11. And the greatest ensemble of bad actors ever in a movie. Just fantastically bad. Bill Simmons and Adam Corolla did a podcast breaking down the movie. If you have an hour to kill or need some comedy in your life, give it a listen. I think my favorite line might be Adam Corolla describing Vin Diesel as "Sylvester Stallone if Stallone had been hit over the head with a snow shovel." So spot on. He's Sly Stallone, only a little slower and dumber, if that is possible.

The podcast is here if you want to listen. It's the 4/28 podcast. Speaking of podcasts...

Thor was also good summer fun. Not exactly life changing or anything. But an entertaining shut off your brain summer movie. Had some plot questions and left a little to be desired in some spots. But had decent character development and a good story line.

Anyways, it seems like everything this summer is either a sequel or an action hero/Marvel movie, or both. Here is an interesting article from GQ about why that is. Sort of a sad story for movies in general. Don't get me wrong, summer movies are fun, but there really isn't much creativity or new ideas in the summer movies.

Not really sure how to organize this, so we'll just count them down in order of likelihood I'll be seeing it.

So here we go:

Zookeeper

Sadly, there is actually a decent chance I will see this movie, just not in the theater. When you have 40+ nieces and nephews, movies like this get screened at family gatherings because it fits under the guise of "family fun for all ages." But that's a lie. No respectable family should and does have fun watching this movie, regardless of age. I just showed this trailer to Win and he started crying.

Planet of the Apes

I don't know. Sort of looks good. But also just can't get myself excited to see this. It's a mob movie for me. If I'm swept up in a mob of people wanting to go see it then I'll go, but I definitely won't be instigating that mob.

Pirates 4: Something Something Johnny Depp

This one actually looks decent. The problem is that the previous two were so long and such abominations that I have zero desire to pay money to see this. They were able to make a great movie out of a theme park attraction, then milked it for all they could by giving us 6 hours of roaming and bumbling nothingness.

I think the script looked something like this:

Roam around and pretend like we are after something.

Johnny Deep funny talking.

Action running around with Orlando Bloom. Use swords.

Keira Knightly. Use snaggletooth.

Repeat 5x.

Resolve all "plot lines" by good guys getting the thing they needed but not that other thing they will need in next installment.

And now they think they can redeem themselves by making a quality film and pretend like 2 and 3 never happened and charge us $17 in the meantime? I don't know if that is their actual plan but I'm going to assume it is and I won't stand for it.

Speaking of terrible sequels:

Transformers 3: Dark (Side) of the Moon

Yea for disaster porn. I hope that Pink Floyd is somehow suing Michael Bay and the entire Tranformers Movie Organization (TMO) for that title.

Admittedly, like Pirates, this one does look better than the previous ones. But if the incessant pounding noise (ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bum!) in the preview is any foreshadowing of the in your face unnecessarily loud sounds and images that are bound to dominate the movie, then I think I'll pass.

Harry Potter

Just because this movie follows the previous two, doesn't mean I view it the same. I just don't do Harry Potter. I'm not anti Potter, I just never read the series. I read book one and enjoyed it, just didn't continue with the rest of them. No good reason. Just life and ESPN I guess. I've seen parts of other movies and I was just lost. I didn't see the first half of this one, not sure why I would pay $14 to see the second half. I'm sure it will be good and will literally make a billion dollars. Hopefully in 30 years when they are making the movies again I'll have read the books by then and I can see the second installment.

Winnie the Pooh

When literally the world is seeing Harry Potter on opening weekend, this is where that one other person that didn't read Harry Potter and I will be:

Yes please. Lie to me and tell me you didn't smile and laugh at least 4 or 5 times during that trailer. If that doesn't make you feel happy, I don't know what could.

As I typed that Nellie just said she didn't really like Winnie the Pooh growing up. This is troubling and information I wish I knew prior to making eternal commitments with her. You know what Nellie does love? Target. Actual quote from last week as we walked in the store:

"Target is so great. I just love it. Guys don't love this place as much as women do, huh?"

Me: No response. Just mentally bracing myself for the dent this trip was going to make in our bank account.

I don't know if Target pumps Brad Pitt's musk through their vents or what sort of mind games they pull on women, but they have them locked down.

Cars 2

Ugh Pixar. I sort of hate you for making this movie. I actually don't hate you. I really like you. But I was genuinely bored in Cars and I have little desire to see a sequel. It's just that, after what you pulled in Up and Toy Story 3, I can't help but want to support you with everything you do. I just hope this isn't as boring as the first one. Not that it really matters though. I'll still see it and show up next summer for whatever it is that you will be rolling out.

The Tree of Life

This film was screened last night at Cannes to mixed/poor reviews. I'm still excited to see it. Terrence Malick movies are long and can be slow, but only if you don't know what to expect. Not that I know exactly what to expect with this movie, but it's likely going to be a lot of just dialogue and pondering issues. Which can be good in some moments. Not exactly an ideal summer movie though.

Captain America

Eh. Ok. A buff man with a pistol and no apparent superpowers is coming to fight the Nazis. Not terribly impressed. At least give him a shotgun or a chainsaw as an arm or something. Nope. He's got six bullets and a hubcap. Better use them wisely. I'm gonna bet there are a few times throughout the movie where he uses at least 14-15 rounds before reloading.

X Men

What they never show in the X-Men movies is the X-man or woman that has the advanced brain. They always have planes that are centuries ahead of every one else. Presumably this movie takes place in the 50's with the Cuban Missile Crisis. The X-Men come cruising along to prevent the crisis and they show up in some incredibly advanced plane. It was the same way in the previous movies. The X-Men aren't just freaks of nature, but they are apparently also freaky smart when it comes to building planes. Unfortunately, it seems as though their technology advancements only apply to flying crafts. Can't they apply their superior brain power to other areas? Maybe just invent superior weapons. Might be easier than trying to stop a bunch of rockets with the strong magnet in your hand. Also might get the US government to respect you more.

Larry Crowne

Need to break up all the superhero stuff. How about with some Tom Hanks? Sure, he's usually a good relief. Doesn't necessarily look like the best Tom Hanks movie and hopefully it's not as predictable as the trailer implies. But I'm pretty sure there are worse chick-flicks to have to go to.

Green Lantern

So I wasn't all interested in this movie until I saw the extended trailer from above. Now I'm totally on board. Granted, I sort of have a thing for Ryan Reynolds. I know he annoys a lot of people, but I usually find him pretty entertaining. One of those people that generally plays the same-ish character in each movie. I tend to like his one character, so I'm usually on board.

Super 8

The coach from Friday Night Lights meets Unstoppable with the alternate train crash ending meets Independence Day or maybe even Signs. Aliens are synonymous with summer. This one looks like it will be quality and at least worth the price of admission. I'll grace it with my presence. I know Spielberg will appreciate it.

Cowboys and Aliens

Still not sure what is going on here. We know it's a western and presumably set in that time period. Aliens also seem to attack. And some naked girl keeps on showing up. Not sure if she is an alien or a confused citizen that often forgets her clothes.

Regardless, I like the idea, and the actors. You can't beat James Bond. It's about time he started fighting aliens and not just the Russians in every movie. Plus, it puts Harrison Ford back on a horse, which is really where he belongs. He wasn't on a horse much in the last Indiana Jones movie and you saw how that turned out. Hopefully being on a horse will make this alien encounter bearable. It's directed by Jon Favereau. He did the Iron Man movies, so I feel like this has to be good.

At the same time, it also seems like it has the potential to be sort of lame. Sort of a gamble for the top of this list. But with so few gambles this summer and everyone going for the sure thing and safe bet, I feel like a movie that gambled should be awarded the top spot on this illustrious list. Hopefully it turns out to be a big winner.

The Hobbit

2011-05-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

This is awesome. Watching this made me happy. Not in a giddy sort of way. More of a nostalgic happy. Happy that these people are allowing me to return to a place full of great memories. Just hearing the music reminded me of how great the LOTR movies were. It's amazing how much work goes into these movies. I'm excited to return to the Shire in a couple years.

Doogie Howser

2011-03-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

I have lots of things I have been wanting to post about lately. I'm still working on my Radiohead review for Josh.

But I came across this article on Yahoo today and I love everything about it.

Total real life Doogie Howser, only physics style. Kid starts solving puzzles by age three. Learns algebra, geometry and calculus in two weeks. Graduates high school by the age of 8. He is breezing through college and by age 12 he is questioning Enstein's theories. The physicist Enstein, not the bagel one.

Here is the video from the article:

Jake has Some Questions for Einstein @ Yahoo! Video

Awesome. Such cool stuff.

And of course, here is the original Doogie. Love that blue screen computer and sweet intro music.

Pixar

2011-02-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

I came across this video the other day of a tour of Pixar's studios. It's pretty awesome. They have as incredible of a workplace as I would expect from a masterful movie company.

A few things I enjoyed about it:

1. I love how they try to recreate the experience in person before they try to do it animated. Like bringing in actual dancers in order to study how they move or how they constructed a garbage bin and made the animators climb through it so that they could know what it felt like. Which is brilliant because when they created that scene they were no longer guessing what it would be like but actually recreating their own experience.

2. The attention to detail is mind blowing. I shouldn't be too surprised since they are incredibly thorough and never miss a minor detail. But it was still remarkable to see all the little things they insist on doing which surely improve the overall quality.

3. Finally, the workplace. Is there a cooler place to work? That building is fantastic. The setup is genius with the massive communal area. I think I'm just most impressed by how it caters so much to the employee and fostering a workplace and a community where the ideas can thrive and the employee can really excel.

I love the comment made about how people see the workplace and think that employees might have a hard time staying on task. But they actually have the opposite problem of employees working too much. It's almost the complete opposite of your standard business model or standard workplace. Normally bosses do have to act like parents and make sure employees are always on task, which usually creates a stressful and not very pleasant workplace.

Pixar is debunking the standard workplace model mindset and has managed to create an ideal work environment where their employees enjoy working. Granted, I think the reason they are able to do so is because of their product. It's an extremely high quality product and one which most people could easily support. When you have a quality product, you don't really have to convince your employees that they are doing worthwhile work and that they should enjoy what they are doing. If the product is quality, the employee will want to contribute to it, and if the employee wants to do something, they will "work" harder because it doesn't really come across as work.

One last thing, I think many companies have quality products and have a great work environment, but it's impressive that Pixar is able to do it on such a large scale. I think lots of small start-up companies are able to do what Pixar has done and have a non-traditional work place, but it seems like as companies grow, they eventually go more towards the corporate model and traditional workplace.

Pixar has grown from 30 to 1200 employees yet it still comes across as a small tight-knit unit with only 10 employees where everyone is happy. Granted, I'm basing this entire opinion and observation off their movies and a 5 minute video. But I don't know how one wouldn't like that workplace and I'm pretty sure that getting a job at Pixar is probably pretty difficult, so the observation can't be too far off.

Musical Win

2011-02-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

Winston is here. I'm already dreaming of him as a world class athlete or scholar. Yet, I'm also thinking that he may be destined for music because of the early music connections.

Although his name is Winston, we mostly call him Win. While he was in the womb, Nellie and I went to an Arcade Fire concert. He wasn't named after Win Butler - the lead singer of Arcade Fire - but I will neither confirm nor deny if he lept in the womb when Win Butler took the stage at the start of the concert. It did also happen to be the only concert we went to while she was pregnant.

Beck was also in the running for his name. In the end, I think it's better we went with Win and Arcade Fire. Beck is awesome and has incredible music, but if we named him Beck I would have felt compelled to play Beck songs for him as often as possible. That would be great once he was a little older and I could play any song in the Beck music library; but while he is young I would have wanted to play softer and mellower songs for him. Which pretty much leaves Sea Change as my only option. Sure, it's a great album, but he probably would have grown up extremely depressed and completely sour and pessimistic about love.

Not to say there isn't anything by Beck to play for him. I already played Sunday Morning for him the other day. One of these days I'll learn more lullabys so I can be the one to sing to him. In the meantime, this is as good as any and seemed to keep him happy.

One last musical note (pun intended), I realized just the other day that he was born at 12:51 p.m. I can't believe I didn't make the Strokes connection sooner. He could have come sooner or hung out in the hot tub a little longer before making his appearance. But he knew his daddy was a Strokes fan and would appreciate the 12:51 arrival. It's especially symbolic considering the Strokes recently announced their 2011 concert tour, their first tour since 2006, and also the year of Win's birth. No doubt our first father/son outing will be to their show.

I'm sure there are many more musical connections. I'll keep you updated as they are revealed.

From Bad to Worse

2011-01-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

Bad:

And even worse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOBZmNVgOz0

Do you Moosico?

2011-01-14T14:52:00.001-08:00

Moosico is my friend Dave's music blog. It's pretty great. Sadly, I don't frequent it as much as I should. Dave listens to a ton of music and sorts through all the junk out there to give you the good stuff. Granted, you might consider some of his good stuff junk, but most of it is great.

He recently put together a top 20 songs of 2010. It's a great list. In particular is the song Simple Graces by Delorean. Apparently they are a Basque group. Who doesn't love the Basque? No one. Everyone is a fan of the Basque. Such nice people. We should all move to Bilbao.

Anyways, this Delorean song is just great. I can't get it out of my head. So fun, so smooth and so Friday.

Enjoy and be sure to thank Dave.

The Neverending Story

2010-12-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

From Lindsey.

Just fantastic on so many levels. It's gray and cloudy. You don't really know what's happening. Suddenly things start to clear. And boom. Pure 80's goodness. Maybe the best ever start to a music video.

Please enjoy. I don't know how you couldn't.

Merry Christmas.

Guilty Music Pleasures

2010-12-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

Three posts in three days? This is some sort of record or something. Adam sent me a link this morning to a band called Low. I guess they are mellow and somewhat depressing sounding band. Perfect for any attorney, especially one working late at night. A great way to help get you through drafting exciting discovery responses.

Hearing about his new find made me think of my most recent music enjoyment. I have sort of been out of it lately with music, which is sad because I really do enjoy music. Dave has a great music blog that I don't frequent enough. The only time I really have to listen to music is while I'm driving and I usually spend that time listening to talk radio. Sometimes I'll switch to KROQ or KCRW while I'm driving to get my music fix, but it's mostly me and my sports friends just beating sports topics to death.

However, every once in awhile, about every three months or so, I get sick of the sports friends and I get in one of those moods where I'm driving and the only thing I need is not just music, but some catchy pop/rap/crap music. Must be the eighth grade Kent taking over for a few moments. But he took over the other day and I couldn't resist the urge to head over to KIIS FM and satisfy my needs. I'm not trying to put down catchy, cheesy pop music or KIIS FM or say that I'm above it. The music and station aren't bad per se, they have their time and place, it's just that I rarely find myself in that time or that place where the music is tolerated, much less appreciated. Probably because I don't find myself on a dance floor that much anymore. And because the station overplays the songs like they are getting paid for it. And the songs aren't bad, just not timeless classics that you can listen to over and over for 10 months. Well, 13 year-old Kent probably could have, but 30 year old Kent can't.

Anyways, this is a long way of saying that I heard this song the other day on KIIS and it's pretty awesome. I guess its from the movie Step Up 3D which came out this past summer, which means this song probably came out about that long ago as well. I'm just now hearing it for the first time. I've never seen a Step Up movie. Based upon the clips from the movie in the video I'm pretty sure that I would feel the same about the movies as I do KIIS FM where I mock it and wouldn't voluntarily see it but if somehow I did, I'm sure I would secretly love it because somewhere inside of you there is a part of you saying, "this is awesome."

Enjoy:

Really quick follow up, someone needs to set the next "trend" for rap music videos. Not getting much variation. Fancy cars, throwing money all over because "I gots more than I knows what to do with", sitting in the club with people around you during the verses of the song and standing with your arms waving and people dancing during the chorus. I'm not saying every video needs to be Thriller like quality, but surely there have to be other ideas out there.

E-Books

2010-12-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

I was going to add this to yesterday's post, but then I thought I'd blog about it on a different day and make two posts. Tis the season right?

I'm basically just posting about this because I've had a couple conversations over the past few months about the emergence of e-books and the eventual decline of paper books.

I'm a big fan of paper books. I don't own a kindle or ipad...yet. I'm sure I will someday, and that day will probably be sooner than later. I'm not making any sort of Christmas hints or anything, but just a statement about how the e-readers are taking over. Which is kind of a bummer if you are like me and you like the paper books and you always thought it would be really cool to have a library in your home filled with hardback books. That dream can still happen of course. It's not like actual physical paper books will become extinct, but if you are denying the e-book takeover, it's time to accept defeat and change your Christmas list. Why? Because Google just announced they are joining the e-book marketplace:

Google Opens E-Books Store

And what do we know about Google? Google is life. They are our life and are slowly controlling our lives. And I'd be upset about that except that this is their blog, and they generally make my life easier and I like their products. So I have a hard time complaining about their eventual world domination.

The take over of e-books does make me wonder about libraries and what will become of them. Although libraries, at least on college campuses, are just glorified study halls. Sure they are filled with books, but few students actually read the books as most just use the library as a wall and barrier to block the public from their study flirt session with their significant other. I know this because I was once a college student, but also because I held the prestigious position of library security guard. Few people are actually in the library studying. Most are just socializing and getting their flirt on. What better way to impress a girl than pretend like you are smart and care about studying and invite her with you to the library for a nice quiet evening together?

I digress. Libraries will still exist but I think they will have to take on a new role because the actual books they offer will be used less and less. At first I thought that e-books would really only be available for "newer" books published within the last 10 years and everything in the future. Of course classics would be made available electronically, but there are a lot of books in the library and surely they all wouldn't be available electronically. Most of them are hardly read as it is, so why bother to make them available electronically? Because we are dealing with Google here. The company that wasn't satisfied just providing you with a map of where you were going. They felt it necessary to drive a car covered with cameras along every single street in the world in order to let you know exactly what your destination looks like. So just making only newer or classic books available electronically doesn't really fit with Google's identity. It's all or nothing. I give it 10 years before you see a sign that says: Welcome to the BYU Libarary, powered by Google.

The other big thing will be textbooks. Again, I like the paper books and I think it's easier to read paper books, but I'm also not part of the generation the grew up with the internet and cell phones in elementary school. That generation is used to reading and watching things on a screen, at least more so than I am. Plus, books are heavy. Who wants to lug a 600 page biology book around when you can just store it on your e-reader? I don't. I hate biology.

Anyways, I'm rambling. I know that this post isn't some sort of prophetic statement as people have been predicting the emergence of e-books for quite some time. It's just interesting to see it actually unfolding. And sad to realize that the library in my home dream is dying. Well, sad on one hand. On the other hand, it's actually a good thing. Maybe some day I'll have a home with so many extra bedrooms that I have to fill one with books because I can't come up with anything else to put in it; but in the meantime and while I'm living in a two-bedroom apartment where extra space is a rare commodity, I'm fine giving up the dream.

Oil Spill Video

2010-12-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

I'm stealing this from my friend Jonathan who had it posted on his Google G-chat status. It's bloody brilliant. Enjoy:

Skateistan

2010-11-22T21:32:00.000-08:00

I saw this short documentary the other day on kottke.org. Soon after I saw it, I noticed that Tiffany and Karl posted in on their blogs. So it's been making it's way around the webs. I emailed a former professor and friend of mine about it and had an interesting back and forth about it. Instead of trying to summarize it, I'm just going to post the emails. It is extremely long and I don't really anticipate anyone reading all of it. I'm mainly just posting it because I find it really fascinating and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Since this blog is about my thoughts and my thoughts seem to be consumed about things like this and whether Real Madrid will win El Clasico this weekend against Barcelona. Both equally important things.

Here is the doc:

Here is my first email. I'm rather long-winded and I tend to ramble whereas Prof. Daynes clearly provides short, succinct and thoughtful responses without being wordy.

"I think what fascinates me about this skateboarding in Afghanistan is the way that it demonstrates that teenagers seem to be the same and have the same interests all over the world. I'm making blanket statements of course, but there are certain things/hobbies/interests, like skateboarding, that interest groups of people no matter their location or countries. It may not be skateboarding per se. I saw a documentary at Sundance a few years ago about Palestinian rappers. They were part of a Palestinian subculture that was into rap music. They were inspired by some American rappers and they had started rapping. I don't remember too much of the documentary at the moment, but much like the skateboarders in Afghanistan, they were just a part of some youth minority that had an interest in something that interests a lot of American youth.

The documentary also made me think about a recent Malcolm Gladwell article about Twitter and social networking. I don't know if you read that article. Its here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell

It was interesting and raised some interesting points. I think as a whole I mostly agree with Gladwell in that I think social networking does connect us and help spread ideas, but Twitter doesn't really connects society or people in a way that motivates them to action; or the action that it does produce isn't nearly as effective as the action that personal interaction can and does produce. I'm not entirely sure if that was his main thesis, but that's what I got out of it.

So while I don't think Twitter is really an effective tool for a revolution, I think even Gladwell admits social networking spreads ideas and connects people. With current technology, skateboarders in Afghanistan can watch Tony Hawk videos and stream things like the X Games. They can easily connect with a community of skateboarders all over the world. Much like the boys that rapped could download rap songs and listen to them as they walked to school in Palestine.

I think that I think there is more to these stories that what is presented on it's face. I think it's beyond just a small group of teenagers finding interest in American pop culture or hobbies. For starters, these are two hotly contested parts of the world that definitely have a strong anti-American sentiment in parts or throughout the entire country. Here is a group of youth that are interested in an "American" activity. Granted, they aren't waving an American flag or anything, but the gap between a 15 year old in Kabul, Afghanistan and the 15 year old in Long Beach, CA just shrunk dramatically - through skateboarding and the internet. They may have vastly different backgrounds and nothing else in common, but they have skateboarding. They may not agree on anything else in life, but having at least one common interest does wonders to break down barriers and prejudices.

I'm not pretending to think that skateboarding and rapping can and will resolve the ongoing issues between the US and Afghanistan or Israel/US and Palestine. But can't skateboarding or rapping sort of help bridge that gap? Doesn't it build common ground? Isn't there a connection now with youth in Kabul and those in the US or other parts of the world? And while I realize that peace won't happen because of skateboarding, couldn't it contribute? Doesn't most major change take place through small scale items/events? What if those small scale things were things like this skate school in Afghanistan? Couldn't someone like Tony Hawk have a greater impact on Afghanistan than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? What if skateboarding continues to grow and many youth adore Tony Hawk because of what they watch on facebook or youtube and some of those youth have high ranking parents who arrange for Tony to do summer camps in Kabul? Eventually skateboarding takes off and skate parks are built all over the country. At the very least you have two groups of people that are a part of two countries that are fighting, but those two small groups share an interest unrelated to the fighting. Surely that has to count for something.

Or what if Eminem arranges for a international Arabic rap contest to be held in Palestine. Seems unlikely and difficult for travel arrangements, but through facebook and twitter they could arrange some underground meeting/concert. Suddenly, teens from all over the Arab world are gathered to have a rap duel. I'm sure a lot, if not all would have different views politically or religiously, but as youth things like that aren't as important as rap music. Differences would be set aside for the music and in the end they would walk away having enjoyed their time with each other."

Prof. Daynes response:

"To me the question turns on how important politics (or revolution in the Gladwell case) are in maintaining a good society. If you think they are very important, then you need systems to create the sorts of ties that Gladwell talks about. Those same ties are important in other settings where close connections and sacrifice matter--religion, families, the military, rock bands, etc.

But I think most of our world functions pretty well on superficial connections and similarities. After all, you don't have to be close friends to shop, learn, talk, solve problems, etc. And it is true that sometimes weak ties lead to stronger ones. So in your example, if you got 20 skaters from Long Beach and 20 skaters from Afghanistan together, most would get along OK, a few wouldn't get along at all, and a couple would find that skating was just the first step to a life-long friendship. The challenge comes when those weak ties are stressed by conflict or disagreement. Then what do you rely on to solve the problem. Good will? Friendship? Law? Power?"

My Response:

"I think what fascinates me is how 20 years ago, these connections between kids in Long Beach and Afghanistan could only be realized if they were pen pals or if the groups did an exchange program or something to the other's country. In that situation though, only those that made strong ties (life-long friendship group) in their short time together would continue the interactions. Everyone else would fall by the wayside and lose connection.

Now however, these groups are not only able to be introduced to each other through short videos and documentaries on YouTube, but they can then connect through facebook and other forms of communication. Like you said, some will forget about the other group, some will maintain a mild acquaintance, and some will really pursue their connection and friendship.

I think I'm fascinated by it because this is available to so many people whereas before these connections were only available to those that actually went to the country and found out when they got there that there were people in Afghanistan that like to skateboard just like I do. I realize that I'm one of the last people to be so 'wowed' by social media. Something about this just hit me for some reason. I think it was the realization that two countries that are so far apart politically and ideologically, actually have some (and probably many) things in common, especially at the youth level. I don't think Twitter can start revolutions as argued by Gladwell. At some point you need the human interaction I think. But the social media can at least connect you initially on some levels with vastly different people and let you know that it would be worth your while to purse that human interaction.

I think I was also fascinated by it because of the point you mention at the end of where do these people with weak ties through skateboarding turn when there is conflict? Is skateboarding enough of a tie to settle future differences? Probably not unless the tie was turned into a long term friendship. What do you rely on? War and power I guess. Seems to be the answer at the moment."

His response:

"It is interesting how connections like these change people's sense of identity and the ways they communicate their identities. Twenty years ago not only would they have had to be pen pals, but also their main identities would be national--Afghani and American. Now when these kids get together their main(or at least their first) identities are as skaters. They communicate their identities differently also--through brands and skate tricks rather than through language, flags, etc. It makes me wonder what will be the bases of our identities in the future. Will they remain tied to family, state, job, country, or will they be based on some other thing entirely?"

My Response:

"How important are those identities you mention? In particular I'm wondering about the national/country identity. I agree that I think that these kids don't recognize their nationality as their main identity. I think these other identities (skating) can/will be good in breaking barriers and these identities are probably what distinguishes the younger generation from the present older generation. I don't think that a national identity is that important to an Afghani. I don't know actually. I'm just basing that off of what little I know about Iraqi's or some other middle eastern countries where national identity isn't as big of a deal as other countries, at least not as big of a deal as their family or religious identity. But the American identity, for better or worse, has been such a strong identity for Americans for so long. I wonder if there is any long term negative consequences for losing the American identity. I know that people/studies/whomever always say that the breakdown of the family or fatherless homes leads to people joining gangs; or a loss of a family identity contributes to people joining gangs. If these kids base their identity off of some other thing and it's no longer the traditional family, state, country, will that produce a good result - stronger and unique ties and understanding between people from all parts of the globe? Or a negative result - stronger ties with random people from all over, but no longer a sense of identity with your own neighbors and people community?"

I think that last sentence/question adequately sums up the thoughts on the video. That's the reward for anyone that actually read all of this. You could have found out the main thought that I had/have about this if you would have just skipped to the end. Sorry.

Oh The Places I've Been

2010-10-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

So the 30th birthday is happening. The roaring 20's are forever over. I think I've had a good run.

With most birthdays you can't help but think about the year that was or look back on what happened since your previous birthday. Think about where you are and how you got there. It's something that usually fascinates me.

I'm often curious in people's stories and how they got to the point they are in. Few people are actually born homeless or addicted to drugs. Not every rich person was born into wealth. How did they go to where they are at? A person's life and how they got to where they are is always fascinating to me. I think that is why I wanted to do law. A person's story and how they got into their situation is intriguing and always unique. So it's good I spend most of my time in front of a computer. Quality human interaction.

Anyways, instead of dwell on my story for the 20's and analyze whether I am where I want to be or on track for that life goal I haven't quite set, I thought I would try and chart the many places I have gone during my 20's. Sort of like an abbreviated travel/journal entry. Essentially how I physically got to where I am and the many detours in between.

I didn't include any local travel or travel home for things like Thanksgiving or Christmas. I also didn't include any of the many day trips/flights I take for work.

October 13, 2000: Collado Villalba, Spain

Living in the suburb of Madrid about 40 km to the north. Missionary companion: Kyle Flammer. Living with an Elder Mortensen and Elder Jensen. They were "dead" to say the least. Mortensen was going home the next transfer and Jensen had just been "Dear John'd" 22 months into his mission.

It was cold in Villalba as it was up in the foothills and there were some days when Elder Mortensen wouldn't even take off his sweat pants. He would just put on his slacks over his sweat pants, put on a white shirt and tie and go out and proselyte. He'd come home, take off his slacks and he was all ready for bed. Convenient and comfortable. I think Seinfeld accurately explained his usefulness to society:

April 2001: Talavera de la Reina

Moved there from Villalba.

August 2001: Segovia, Spain

This is where I "lived" until I left Spain. I put lived in quotation marks only because there was quite a bit of traveling those last couple months. Destinations included: Toledo, Caceres, Badajoz, Cuidad Real, Valladolid, Salamanca, Alcala de Henares, Puertollano, Fuenlabrada, Alcazar de San Juan, Avila, and of course, Madrid. I'm probably forgetting some places.

December 2001: Flew back to the United States

January 2002: Provo, UT

The return to the BYU. I lived in Park Plaza apartments with Dave and four other guys. 6 men, 2 bedrooms. Three guys to a bedroom. It was miserable to say the least. One roommate was normal, one was a loose cannon and a breakup away from going on a campus shooting spree, one had turrets and one called himself a "dating machine." You couldn't script a more random and terrible living situation.

April 2002: New Horizon's East

As soon as the semester ended we fled Park Plaza. The new place was a significant upgrade as every guy had his own bedroom. However, the place was old and the sewer downstairs did flood 4-5 times in the two years we lived there. To this day, and especially now that I'm a lawyer, I'm shocked we never did more about it. Sure we complained and they would come out and "fix" the problem, but then it would just happen again 6 months later. We had rights and didn't exercise them as much as we should have.

May 2002: Boise, Idaho

Took a trip to Idaho for a friend's wedding. First, and still only time in Boise. No immediate plans or desire to return.

May 2002: Spain

Went back to Spain with three friends. Madrid to Barcelona to Valencia and then back again to Madrid. Made some stops along the way.

June 2002: Claremont

Moved back to home to work for the summer.

August 2002: Provo

Moved back for school.

October 2002: Logan, UT.

Went to The Howl - a big Halloween party at Utah State University. First and only time in Logan. Again, no immediate plans to return.

February 2003: Jackson Hole, WY and Grand Targhee, ID

Took a snowboarding trip. We stayed in our roommate's grandmother's nursing home guest room. Not sure if you caught that, but we stayed in an old folk's home and it was awesome. Unfortunately, none of the residents joined in on the snowboarding.

May (?) 2003: Havasupai, AZ

First trip to the Garden of Eden (although it doesn't quite look like it from space). On the hike out our friend begged Dave and I to leave her for dead in the canyon. Poor girl didn't have hiking shoes and had blistered feet. She would tell us she was going to die and then would tell us to go on ahead and that she would catch up.

July 2003: San Francisco

Road trip to San Francisco. Maybe one of the more enjoyable road trips ever. We spent about 24 hours in the car and about 18 hours in San Francisco. Good times. Danny Kormylo peed in a plastic bottle and then threw it at our friends who were driving in another car. So that happened.

August 2003: Costa Rica

Family vacation to Costa Rica. Just the parents and three youngest (non-married) siblings went. It pays to be single.

August 2003: Mesa and Tucson Arizona

Flew to Mesa to see about a girl. Visited sister and bro-in-law in Tucson. I bought a U of A t-shirt but never checked the size. It was an XL. I still have it even though I hardly wear it because it's too big. Every time I do I feel like I'm back in 8th grade wearing shirts two sizes too big. But I did buy a sweet Spain jacket on that trip that I still wear to this day. Dave has already claimed it after I die.

February 2004: Las Vegas

Road trip to Vegas.

April 2004: Las Vegas

Another road trip to Vegas. This time for Lindsey's track meet. Stayed at a friend's house. The last night there we were eating at the friend's parent's country club. We wanted to splurge on our last night and order a nice dinner. So we did, fully intending on paying for the meal. Little did we know that you don't pay for the meals, but they are just added on to the member's tab. So we couldn't pay. I think we offered but they of course told us not to worry about it. I think we may have even ordered oysters. Felt kinda bad after that one.

April 2004: Moved to 761 N. University Ave. in Provo

One house, 12 guys. Roommates were much better than the Park Plaza apartment. Still a lot of guys though. Our land(slum)lord was fittingly named Dick.

July (?) 2004: Littleton, CO

Drove to Littleton for a weekend to see about a girl. Never been back to Colorado but I like what I saw. Plus, I hear good things. Nellie and I would move there if we ever left CA.

July 2005: Havasupai, AZ

Second trip to the Garden.

August 2005: Claremont, CA

Graduated from college and moved back in with my parents, because I was cool.

September 2005: Provo, UT

Went back up to Provo for a football game. And because I couldn't get enough of the place.

December 2005: Mesa, AZ

Quick trip to Mesa to check up on a girl. Not the smartest decision. She was still alive. That's pretty much all that was accomplished on that trip.

April 2006: New York City

Flew to New York for same reasons as above. So I was maybe a little desperate and/or stuck in a fog. But I did get to see a Yankees/Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium. That was great. Plus, NYC is always awesome regardless of the company.

July 2006: Honolulu, HI

The first of two free trips paid for by Karl's employer. Literally went there for a weekend. Flew in on Friday and left on Sunday. Not the best way to experience Hawaii for the first time, but can't really complain when it's free. Memorable moment was going to the Polynesian Cultural Center and Karl demanding our money back after the luau because he wasn't impressed with the food or the surroundings.

August 2006: Garden Grove, CA

Moved to the Garbage Grove. Actually not a terrible apartment. Just a random city and location.

December 2006: New York City

The second free trip by Karl's employer. This one was also quick but in NYC. Karl needed a date for his company's Christmas party. Since I was single and always willing to accept free flights, and since Karl doesn't discriminate when it comes to dating or to choosing Christmas party dates, we were a great match. I think Karl ended up hating that job, but I thought it was pretty great.

March 2007: New York City

I was on a New York roll. I just wanted to feel cool so I kept on going back. It was actually another free trip. I guess I was lucky or something. Or just knew how to accept free offers.

May (?) 2007: Yosemite, CA

Climbed half dome with the brothers and father.

May 2007: Huntington Beach, CA

I don't know what it is about me and living with more guys than should be allowed in one space, but our house had 8 guys in it including one living in the garage and living on the roof/balcony. We were less than a block from the ocean. So that was cool. The house was trashed though and always dirty.

August 2007: East coast

The second trip with the parents and the younger siblings. NYC, upstate NY and Washington DC. Great trip. We were spoiled as younger siblings with some of the vacations. Not saying that the vacations with the entire family weren't better or fun in their own right, just not as cool.

November 2007: Seattle, Washington

Thanksgiving at the sister's in Seattle. First time in Seattle, not to be the last. Great place and really fun...to visit.

December 2007: Las Vegas, NV

Nellie invited me to her work Christmas party in Las Vegas. We weren't dating at the time. We spent the night in the same hotel room. One would think this might be inappropriate for a variety of reasons or that a spark or something might occur during our stay together. However, Nellie still wasn't attracted to me and wouldn't touch me with a 10 foot pole. The sexual tension coming from her was one sided to say the least. Which I think actually means there wasn't any tension, more just one-sided frustration.

January 2008: Park City, UT

Sexual tension finally started coming on. Went snowboarding in Utah and went to Sundance. We stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's quaint little cabin. It was actually anything but. The lodging and the food makes you feel like you are staying at a resort. I suggest everyone book a weekend at the Clark Hideaway.

February 2008: Arizona

The first Ragnar. Memorable, but only in retrospect. At the time it was pretty terrible.

March 2008: Gilbert, Arizona

Nellie dragged me back to Arizona to babysit her nieces and nephews for a weekend. We also went to a spring training game. That was back when the Angels still had Vlad and were awesome. I hope we win the Carl Crawford sweepstakes.

May 2008: Long Beach, CA

Moved into the Grandma's old house in Long Beach. The place was in terrible condition when Zach and I first moved in. No fridge. No hot water. No electricity throughout the house. It was essentially a glorified garage. I would say it was ideal conditions for studying for the bar since there weren't many distractions, but I think the conditions were only ideal if you were a squatter.

May 2008: San Francisco, CA

Took a road trip prior to the bar.

August 2008: Las Vegas

Went to Vegas for a bachelor party prior to the wedding. If that picture doesn't look like a bunch of guys that just went wild in Vegas and dominated the city, then I don't know what does. Viva la Bermuda Suite.

August 2008: Kauai, HI

Honeymoon. We honeymooned.

October 2008: Provo, UT

Went back to the Alma Mater for Homecoming. It was snowing in October. We remembered why we chose to live in Orange County.

November 2008: Seattle, WA

Thanksgiving in Seattle. Two years in a row. I think I've spent 7 days in Seattle and it's only rained one day. This whole Seattle is wet and rainy is a bunch of bull. It's always sunny in Seattle.

February 2009: Santa Barbara, CA and San Luis Obispo, CA

April 2009: Santa Barbara, CA

Ragnar part II. Better team, better location, but there were route issues. It was actually pretty easy, well, except for Zach.

April 2009: Vegas

Sister's graduation. Go Rebels.

May 2009: Spain and France

Madrid, Segovia, Burgos, San Sebastian. France: Avignon, Cannes, Paris, Normandy. Also flew in and out of London if that counts. Thanks to everyone who recommended we take this trip. Still one of our better early marriage decisions. In 4 months that trip won't be so easy/nearly impossible. It was the best use of a tax return.

October 2009: Boston, MA and Connecticut

I'd name the city in Connecticut but I think there's only one. Fortunately Nellie's brother happens to live in that city.

December 2009: Yosemite, CA

Holiday trip to Yosemite. Even though I was no longer single, Nellie and I were still invited so it was sort of like another younger siblings vacation. Some traditions die hard.

June 2010: Seal Beach, CA

Moved from the LBC. We are three blocks from the beach. Seal Beach is pretty great.

August 2010: Provo Canyon, UT

West family reunion. Highlight was everyone getting sick on the last day there. Meaning everyone. We had 6 adults and two kids in our van. The night before we came home 5 of the 6 adults were throwing up. I was the fortunate one to not get sick because I'm tough. I consequently became the designated driver for the ride home.

October 13, 2010: Seal Beach to San Jose Airport to Monterrey

There and back before 5 p.m. I guess I included one work trip. It just seemed fitting that it happened on my birthday.

So there it is. Ten years and a bunch of trips. A pretty good list. Surely not as much as some. It pales in comparison to Nellie's list (Jerusalem, China, Peru, all of Europe...), but I'm happy with it. Particularly because I'm optimistic that I'll continue to go places in my 30's. I'll let you know how it goes. Assuming of course this blog still exists in 10 years.

Arcade Fire

2010-10-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Went to the show last night. Got tickets last minute. We debated going and eventually caved on the price and passed it off as an anniversary/birthday gift. But I don't know why we even debated the decision. Well, I do know why, because we are soon adding to the family and cash isn't exactly running over. But as hard of a decision as it may have been to make beforehand, there are zero regrets about it the day after. Which I knew would happen. This is my fourth time seeing the band and the first time seeing them in an indoor venue. I've never been disappointed and the fourth time was just as good if not better than the previous three.

Here's a great review of the show from the OC Register.

It accurately describes some of the issues the band faced all night. I'm sure with some bands or singers it could have completely derailed the show. But it only added to the enjoyment and experience with Arcade Fire. When your band is composed of 8 members and all members play multiple instruments, musical improvisation and adaptation is second nature. when you are the lead singer and your guitar fails, no biggie. Just head over to the piano and play The Suburbs.

Anyways. It was outstanding as always. I want to go to the show again tonight. If for no other reason than to participate in another Wake Up sing and dance-along. One of the more enjoyable of life's experiences.

Smart, Entertaining Reads from People I Know

2010-09-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

I started this morning off the way I usually do by browsing a couple of "my sites." It's a way I ease into the work day. I should probably just go right into work so that I can leave sooner, but I know that once I get going there is no turning back. So I prefer to slowly get going. I think I've always sort of been like that. More of the guy that slowly eases into the pool or the ocean vs. the guy that dives right in to the freezing ocean water.

I digress. This morning in my web roundup I read an entertaining rant by Karl. It's on education. It's very smart, true and somewhat cynical. You should check it out. When I read it, it made me want to email it to an old professor of mine who blogs about education. So I go over to his website and find this little gem about politics in our country. He doesn't usually blog about politics, but what he said is also smart and true. And it made me think, "I know some smart and entertaining people with clever thoughts and ideas, and I like that. I should blog about it and pass this stuff on to my 4 readers." And so I am.

Arcade Fire Brilliance

2010-09-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

I love the Arcade Fire and just about everything they do. After their last album they released the fantastic video featured below. They recently came out with another album, The Suburbs. They have once again upped the ante and the standard of greatness that they themselves have set.

Go to this site: The Wilderness Downtown

Put in your home address or any other address of your choice.

Enjoy. (Note: it can take awhile to load and the pop-ups are part of the experience. I watched it on Firefox and not on Google Chrome so I don't know if it works on Explorer or if I was missing out on much but not using Chrome.)

Maybe I liked it because I actually grew up in a suburb. Or maybe I liked it because I like pretty much anything Arcade Fire does. Or maybe I liked drawing trees and branches and then watching the birds come by later and rest on those branches. Or maybe I liked it because it's just plain cool and awesome.

Here is the Neon Bible video I mentioned:

Music and Movies

2010-08-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Adam, commented that I needed to do another post on this blog. Since I can't afford to lose any of the few remaining followers of this blog, and since he sometimes works 36 hours straight at his job (Yea Big Law!) I thought I would honor his request. Although I have had many random thoughts, here are three music and three movie thoughts:

Music:

1. The other day while driving home I heard Synchronicity II by The Police on the radio. It's an outstanding song. I think Sting actually played the Hollywood Bowl a few months ago. I'm bummed I missed that concert. I wish someone would have invited us to go to it. Regardless, I hadn't heard this song in a long long time. Maybe not the best song ever, but it's got a fantastic chorus and for me it's a forgotten Sting/Police song. I didn't think I could ever have a better experience with that song than when I was driving in the car listening to it on my way home. That was until I went home and looked up the song on YouTube and came across the music video:

Sweet 80's fashion goodness, look at those streamers! Oh how I love dated fashion. Especially on rock stars. In one moment they are the coolest thing on the planet. They know it and everyone treats them as such. Ten years later they are often the brunt of all fashion jokes.

2. Julian Casablancas recently came out with an album. For those unfamiliar with the name, he's the lead singer of The Strokes. I'm a big Strokes fan. The Strokes haven't put out an album for about 5 years now. Since their last album a lot of the individual band members have been putting out solo albums. All of the solo albums have been good, but they have sounded a lot like, well, the Strokes. Which is always puzzling to me. Why bother putting out a solo album unless it's going to be something different than what you are doing with the band? Are they trying to prove they can replicate the band sound without the other members? What is Julian trying to prove with this solo album? That he can produce good music with a guitar player, a bassist and a drummer? Right. We already knew that. You established that when you made awesome albums with the Strokes. Unless they hate each other, why do on their own what they can do better as a group?

Same thing with Brandon Flowers. His new solo song is good, but again, it's pretty much the exact same stuff he was doing with the Killers. What is he trying to prove or accomplish by doing it on his own? Is he trying to send a message to the other band members that he can come up with trendy above average catchy songs with somewhat cliche lyrics on his own? Is he trying to prove to the audience he can do it on his own? I think the band members and all the fans already knew he was the Killers. We didn't need a solo album for him to prove it. Unless you are someone like Jack White where you are in a band with only one other person and you venture off to try other groups with more people that produce different sounds, I don't understand the point in the solo album that has the same sound as the group album.

Here's a link to one Julian song: 11th Dimension

Here's another: Out of the Blue

Here is the Brandon Flower's song:

3. Speaking of Jack White, I saw part of the Under the Great White Northern Lights documentary the other day. I hadn't ever seen it and I only saw a small portion. But I found it to be so great. I think because it confirmed in my head that Jack White is awesome. He's clearly doing music because it is what he absolutely loves. I pretty much already knew it, but in the clip I saw it showed them going around a playing at random bowling alleys or YMCA's or other random local free venues for small groups of people. It essentially showed that it's not just about the money, but also about the love of playing. Not that there is anything wrong with someone just doing it for the money. If someone told me they would pay me to write but I would have to shut down any free blogs that I had, I would instantly say good bye to all my readers here and take the money. I'm that easy. So I don't fault any musician or anyone for doing it because the money and the fame are good. But I think everyone admires and gravitates towards those people that do what they love and love it so much that just doing the activity is reward enough. Yet Jack White isn't like the musician playing the local YMCA in his socks and birkenstocks and telling you that he does it because he loves it. While that guy may love it, chances are he's mainly doing it because his music is crap and no one would ever pay to hear his music. Jack White could, and does have the fame and money. He could only play for sold-out arenas and only play when he's paid. Yet he played these other places for the fun and for the love of it all. Even if you don't like the White Stripes or any of the other "projects" Jack White has done, you have to at least admire him for his love of music and as a musician. I may be misreading the guy and he may be a total dirtbag. You can't entirely judge someone off of a clip in a biased documentary. But the actions seem sincere and it's a snapshot and something that few other musicians with his fame have done.

I couldn't find the exact clip I saw, but here is another clip that shows them playing random free shows throughout the town. So great.

Movies:

I didn't do a movie preview this year. But here are three movies I have seen this summer:

1. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Apparently this movie came out a few years ago. When I told my film-major friend Dave that I had seen it and recommended it to him, he responded like I was the last one on the boat and that told me he saw the movie at its premier at Sundance a few years ago. It was a typical experience where you share something with one of your friends in their "expert" field of knowledge thinking that you might be ahead of them or have something to contribute to their field and they shoot you down as being behind or your info being irrelevant. He really wasn't that smug about it.

But the movie is outstanding. My friend let us borrow it and we came home and watched it. We were both tired and Nellie fell asleep before the opening credits finished but I was glued to the TV. Just a really good show. I know you have to sometimes be in a different mood to watch a documentary, but if you ever are, this one is worth watching.

2. Inception: I liked it. Quite a bit. Not more than the Dark Knight. Not that they are at all similar or related, but since they have the same director, people do compare them. I was just blown away by the idea. So simple on its face: dreams within a dream and being able to manipulate them; yet the movie was actually so complex as they took it to so many different levels and created such a fascinating and brilliant story. Really, I'm no comedian and not that great of a writer, so it's frustrating going to a movie and thinking that I could come up with better jokes or a better script or plot even though I don't have any training or experience. Sort of like how my Mom doesn't like going out to eat if she feels like she could make better food than the restaurant. She's a good cook, not a world class chef by any means, but who wants to pay for something when you could do it as good or better? Sure, sometimes you are tired and just want someone else to make the food just like sometimes you just want to turn off your brain at a movie. But if I'm going to pay the ridiculous movie prices and take the time to see the movie, then I expect it to be something better than what I could come up with in a podcast with Dave. Inception was by no means that type of movie. I could never come up with a story like Inception or conceive of presenting the idea the way they did in the movie. It made me think the whole time. Really, really good movie. Not the best movie of the summer though.

3. Toy Story 3: The crown jewel of the summer... and maybe the history of movies. Granted, I am very biased with the Toy Story franchise. I was blown away and absolutely loved the first one. It doesn't help that they are done by Pixar, the company that never mails it in and always makes each film perfect. So each Toy Story installment just got better and better. I'm not sure what I could say about this movie though. It's pure genius and absolutely fantastic. It was the first time that I cried since Nellie and I got married. I'm going to spoil the movie right here. It was at the end of the movie when Andy was going through the cardboard box and giving the toys to the little girl one by one that my eyes started to well up. I tried to suck back the tears by opening my eyes real big and taking a deep breath and blinking a lot. It sort of worked, but when Andy found Woody in the bottom of the box, I was a goner. I didn't know Woody was down there and when Andy saw him I couldn't keep the tears back. They were streaming down my face. I couldn't control it and I couldn't hide it. There was no point in fighting it. I just had to trust that it was too dark for most people to see me and hope that Nellie was crying more than I was. I don't think she was by the way. I don't know how she could have been, not with my constant stream of tears. Just gushing.

But the movie is funny, incredibly clever and brilliant, unique, an excellent story where you can tell they put tons of thought and brainstorming into it, and just leaves you completely happy and satisfied at the end. It's amazing how they did it. For as sad and emotional as I was, I thoroughly enjoyed how it ended. I can't recommend the movie enough. I wish they would make a new installment every five years for the rest of my life. I wouldn't change a single thing in the movie. I just wish I was like Nellie and I could blame all the tears on being pregnant.

Perdador

2010-05-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday to Saturday Nellie was out of town. I'm a big boy and spent many a years as a single man, so I had no problems living the single life for a couple of days. Work pretty much kept me occupied most of the time. On Saturday around 2 p.m. I hit a dead moment. I had just left a birthday party and I couldn't go home because there was an open house going on and it's painfully awkward to sit there on the couch while people walk through your house trying to decide if they want to buy it. Nellie's flight was supposed to arrive in Long Beach in a couple of hours so it would be somewhat pointless to leave the area because I would just have to turn around and come right back. So I decided to kill the time by doing something I had never done before. I decided to go see a movie by myself.

I realize that this isn't that big of a deal, but I had never done it. I realize that I am 29 and not in Jr. High and so going to a movie is about seeing the movie as opposed to being seen seeing the movie. I also realize that I'm married so if I'm alone at movie people wouldn't look at me and think I'm depressed and dateless as I have a life companion. I guess they would probably just think I was depressed and had marital issues.

Anyways, once I was able to overcome my Jr. High image insecurities, I decided that I would just head to the theater and that I would see the first available movie. Fittingly, I arrived at 2:50 and the next movie playing was at 3 p.m. and it was titled "Losers." It was a funny moment, but also a new low in life, walking up to the movie window at 3 p.m. on a sunny Saturday afternoon and saying, "One for Losers, please." Pretty much the opposite of an "I've made it in life" or "I'm accomplishing things and a productive human being" moment.

There were maybe 20 other people in the theater besides me. Which was actually more than I expected. I didn't actually meet any of the people in the theater, but from observing them I didn't get the impression that these people were "the bright spots" of our nations' future. Granted, half of the people in the theater won't be alive for our nations' near future, but still. I do also realize that I was in the theater with these people and thus one of them. Thus I am lumped in with them on any snarky remarks about them being world beaters.

Anyways, on to the movie thoughts:

A long time ago (probably about 2 years) in a movie studio far away (probably Burbank) I imagine there was a conversation that went something like this:

Movie Exec. 1: Hey, did you hear that movie studio B down the street is making an A-Team movie?

Exec 2: An A-Team movie?

E 1: Yes, you know, the A-Team. That group of renegade ex-soldiers that drive around in a cool van and shoot people and do other awesome stuff.

E 2: Oh right. The A-Team. Dang it. Why didn't we think of that? When does the A-Team movie come out?

E 1: Summer 2010.

E 2: Ok. Well, lets throw together a movie about a bunch of soldiers that are overseas carrying out a mission, but things go wrong and they lose their soldier status but they stick together and become a renegade bunch of guys that go out and exact revenge.

E 1: You mean, like the A-Team?

E 2: Exactly. Only we can't call it the A-Team of course.

E 1: What should we call it?

E 2: I don't know. How about "The Losers."

E 1: Um, sure. That doesn't really make any sense, but whatever. We'll get a script done this week.

E 2: Great. We'll release the movie in April 2010, just before the release of the A-Team. In the meantime, get working on the CHiPS movie as well.

Anyways, the movie isn't that bad, but it's so neutral (not bad or good) that there really isn't a need for a review. The main question I had with Losers when I left the theater was why they left it open for a sequel. I don't think I just spoiled it or anything since it seems like most movies nowadays leave themselves open for a sequel. But it seems a little ambitious, especially if your movie is titled Losers. I want to know how many movies have hinted that they would be doing a sequel, but then the movie bombed a sequel was never made. Granted, Losers hasn't exactly bombed, but it definitely hasn't performed well enough to deserve a sequel. Maybe a straight to DVD sequel. But if that's the case, do you really need to leave the first movie open for a sequel? A movie is better if everything is tied up at the end. You can hint that there are other issues that will come up in the next movie, but at least tie up the current issues you have been dealing with for the past 2 hours. Then again, you don't even have hint at something else. You can just "pull a Jaws" and make something up in the second movie that explains why there is a sequel. "Oh, the shark had a monster baby before you blew it up in the first movie and now the baby wants revenge, which is why we are here in the second movie." If Losers did turn out to be successful, they could have just done the same thing. "Oh, turns out the guy that you killed that you thought was the bad guy, wasn't the bad guy. The bad guy is the evil agent at the citizenship bureau that won't allow you guys to get your citizenship back. Looks like it's time for heads to roll and for us to make this sequel."

Anyways, like I said, Losers actually wasn't that bad. Wasn't phenomenal either. Granted, I think expectations always play a huge roll with movies and I didn't have high expectations for the movie. I was going alone to a movie on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I wasn't exactly in a position to have high expectations. I clearly didn't have much going on thus wasn't in a position to say that the movie was boring and wasting my time.

Milli Vanilli

2010-04-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

Like most people, I went through a Milli Vanilli phase in high school. I did graduate a decade after they were at the peak of their popularity, but "their" music was so dynamite that once I heard it, I was hooked. I had to do a Milli Vanilli skit in high school and we studied their music and moves to try and mimic what they did. We were imitating the imitators. Before I knew it I had their cassette, CD and a copy of all their music videos and I was hooked on the pure goodness that is Rob and Fab - the Brothers of Soul (their words, not mine). The videos are just unintentional comedy at its best. Two grown men in spandex and blazers with shoulder pads doing hip thrusts together. It's pretty unreal.

Anyways, also like most people, the other day I was doing yard work and suddenly a Milli Vanilli song popped in my head. Before I knew it I kept on hearing/singing over and over in my head: "It's a tragedy for me to see the dream is oooOver, and I never will forget the day we met, girl I'm gonna miss you." So smooth. Along with the song I started thinking about the music video for that song, which is also smooth and of course unreal.

In high school and college, I probably watched this video at least 25-30 times. I remember never really understanding the video and not being able to make any sense out of it. Thinking of the song made me want to watch it again to see if I didn't understand it because of my young age or if the video really was nonsense.

So let's try and figure this thing out:

0:01 The video starts out with Rob or Fab, not sure which one, lets call him Milli climbing out of his ship. Apparently he's a sailor. Which is fitting because although I don't know many sailors, he's pretty much what I think of in my head when I think of a sailor.

0:09 We catch a small glimpse of a blonde lady with sweet 80's hair and the other half of the group, Vanilli, doing some painting. Don't quite know what's going on or what to expect, but whenever you have a sailor, a big haired blonde and a painter, you know there will be drama.

0:19 After the intro you get Milli on the side of his boat and he starts "singing." If this scene doesn't make you laugh or immediately make you gasp and get the retarded tingles, then you just aren't enjoying life.

0:28 So the video proceeds and based upon the black and white video, we can gather that Milli and the blonde were close, maybe, just maybe even lovers. We don't know. But we can tell by the way Milli strokes her arm in the lounge chairs on the beach, that he's into her. We aren't sure if she likes him. She seems like she enjoys his company, but you have to wonder with that tank top. If she really liked him and wanted to impress him, would she wear such a hideous thing? Maybe she's testing his dedication.

0:57 Later, the drama continues as we cut to the blonde and Vanilli and they seem to be discussing some interior decorating or looking at paint colors or something. Not exactly sure but we do know is that there is art being discussed. She's wearing her artistic hat and vest and Vanilli has suspenders on - the true mark of an artist.

1:13 Then we hit the greatest moment of the video. You have Milli, the sailor, sitting next to a barn and while dramatically lowering his hands in frustration he "sings", "I just don't know what I should do-ooo." This was the scene that I kept on seeing over and over in my head. It's pure gold.

1:24 We then get into the chorus where we see Milli again next to the barn and trying really hard to pronounce the words he's "singing" and really accentuating that vibrato. He's of course sad that "the dream", whatever it may be, is over and letting us know he's never going to forget the girl, presumably the blonde.

1:39 Cue the dramatic music and the blonde sneaking up Vanilli as a perfect intro for the best line in probably all of music history: "Like a honey bee, you took the best of me." Surely there are worse lines out there, but couple the line with Milli on the boat and it can't be beat.

2:05 Back at the art studio, it's clear that the blonde is tight with Vanilli. Then there are a couple of quick shots of her maybe lying with a man, it's not really clear and before you know what's going on, she's back on the beach walking with Milli. Was she lying with Vanilli? She's clearly into him too. At least we think so. I guess I'm not even sure that it's two different people. They look so similar. Maybe Milli is both the sailor and the artist and Vanilli just sat this video out.

2:18 The video and drama continues with more beach scenes and another solid gold chorus performance by Milli in front of the barn. He's clearly sad the dream is over.

2:58 Now it gets confusing. Blonde girl gets flowers. As she's reading the card, one of them shows up at the office. I think its Vanilli, but I honestly don't know. We haven't been able to get a good shot of Vanilli at this point so he's hard to recognize. But we know Milli is back at the barn, so it must be Vanilli. Blonde throws the flowers into the air to which Vanilli should have said, "Um, I'm an artist and long stem roses are pretty expensive and way out of my budget. Please don't throw them on the ground like that."

3:14 Cue the sax and the art show scene. Everyone is happy. Vanilli is showing his art. Blonde changed out of the tank top. Things seem good. Until we see Milli in his lonely sweater over in the corner. Poor guy. Not sure how he even knew Vanilli or why he's there. Up until now there was never any indication that they knew each other. The do look alike and are both dating the same girl, but that doesn't guarantee they are acquaintances, let alone to the level of being an art show invitee.

3:50 Anyways, the drama builds as a painting is about to be unveiled. Of course not until we get another shot of Milli at the barn. Always enjoyable.

3:58 Onto the big climax and finale: So the painting is of the blonde of course. She likes it, seems happy, then sees Milli sulking in corner just as the words "it's a tragedy for me to see the dream is over" go on in the background. Presumably, this would lead one to believe that the dream between Milli and the blonde is over because Vanilli has clearly won her over with the amazing painting. Painters always get the babes. Then, there is a quick random shot of the blonde in front of some neon sign. Before you know what's going on, it fades and we are back at the art show where the blonde drops the sheet and walks away. We then get a shot of Milli pulling up the anchor to his boat. He's clearly moving on and setting sail, I guess. We also get a shot of the painting burning. And then the video ends with the girl alone at the end of a pier.

WHAT???

Where to begin?

1. Is there just one blonde or two? There's just one right? And she's playing both of them, right?

2. If she is, why didn't she pick one? Was she so torn between the two of them that she couldn't decide or something? I think any girl would struggle deciding between an artist and a sailor. In one situation you live on a boat and in the other you live off food stamps. Enticing.

3. Why burn the painting? Why not sell it? Money heals heartbreaks.

4. What exactly is "the dream"? Is the dream for the the girl to continue to two-time both of them and be with both of them behind the other's back? If so, then sure, that dream is over. It's also a pretty whacked dream, but to each their own.

If the "dream" is to eventually be with the girl, then why is it over? Isn't she single? She didn't pick either guy, but was torn between the two. I would understand it if Milli was saying the dream is over because the girl chose Vanilli the artist. But she doesn't choose either. Shouldn't Milli turn the boat around and go back after her? Pretend he's walking away and make Vanilli think he's given up, and then sneak back in through the back bay and come up on the other side of the dock and try and win her over. She's back in that enticing tank top and clearly looks bored on the dock. Plus, Vanilli just burned his painting. Seems like a good time to swoop back in.

Anyways, there are clearly many unresolved issues. Unfortunately, Rob died a few years ago and the group, well, they were sort of forced to break up and so we have lost all chance for a sequel to shed some light and answer some of these questions. Just one of the many things where you have to go through life and accept the fact that you'll probably never know the answer.

Interviews

2010-03-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

In law school a friend of mine and I talked about how it would be fun to interview for random jobs. The idea was to apply for jobs for which we were unqualified or were completely unrelated to anything on our resume and see if we got an interview for the job. We would become professional interviewers. Not sure how we would make any money, we just wanted to see if we could get the jobs, and then reject them. It was a fun little fantasy to talk about at a time when the economy wasn't in the tank, my friend wasn't out of a job and we could discuss things like making a hobby out of applying and interviewing for jobs in other fields because having an ideal job in our field would be easy and a given.

I was thinking about that conversation because I was randomly thinking the other day about interviews I have had that totally bombed. The thing about interviews is that you only know how you did if you nailed it, or totally bombed. Nailing it is always fun, but bombing is more memorable. Two notable bombs came in law school.

The first one was with the Riverside DA's office. This interview was over in about 6 seconds. This was more or less how it went:

"Hi"

"Hi"

"So, why do you want to work for the Riverside DA?"

"Because I want to live in Indio."

Head cocks, eyes perk, "Really?!"

Now, I admit that a poor way to start off an interview is to make fun of some aspect of your employer. It's like going into a Microsoft interview and saying you want to work for them because you want to be part of a company that produced the Zune. So I'm not really sure what I was expecting in response. I guess I was hoping for some sort of response along the lines of, "Ha, yeah right. Man, I had to do a few months in Indio and it was terrible. What a drag. I feel for you when you have to work out there. Do you like Real Madrid?"

I can't remember exactly what I did say to the "Really?" I probably should have been quick on my feet and said, "Of course. Indio is the greatest." Instead I went with something along the lines of, "Well, no. But I of course would be happy to work there." I shouldn't have said anything and just nodded and walked right out of the interview. Unfortunately the interview lasted another 5 excruciating minutes which were mostly spent proving that Riverside county was awesome, so awesome in fact that I a loser like me wasn't qualified to work out there. I'm pretty sure they threw out my application before I even got out of the interview room.

My other bombed interview also happened to be for a DA job. This one was for Maricopa county in Arizona. I'm not sure why I even applied since I had no intention of working in Arizona or taking the Arizona bar. I think there was a resume drop where you just photocopy your resume 50 times and give it to a bunch of employers. For whatever reason, I got an interview with the Maricopa DA.

The interview was actually fine until the interviewer asked me about something I am proud of that I have accomplished during law school, that isn't school related. He noted that I had gone to BYU and served a mission and thus mentioned that in other interviews, some of "my fellow people" had said they were proud of being able to juggle law school while also being married and raising 3 kids, which is really just a nice way of saying, "I'm happy I made it through first year of law school without getting divorced."

I of course wasn't married at the time and didn't have 3 kids so neglecting my kids while I tried to get good grades wasn't an answer option for me. The problem was that I totally blanked. I couldn't think of anything and went with the winner answer of: "I think my biggest accomplishment was getting up early every morning last semester and making it on time to the courthouse where I was doing an externship." Translation: my biggest accomplishment outside of law school was being able to get out of bed every morning at 6:30 for 4 months straight.

The interviewer just stared at me and said, "Hmph."

Here's the thing though, I've thought a lot about this question and answer and with all the time in the world to think about it, I'm not sure that I have a much better answer. Well, pretty much any answer is better than the one I gave, but I didn't really do anything in law school besides law school. I realize now that I probably should have also been volunteering at the local nursing home or raising kittens for orphans or something. But during school I pretty much just focused on school. I was single so outside of school I was focusing on number 1- me. But I went to school and when I wasn't at school I was studying. If I wasn't studying I was watching TV or working on my Myspace profile. What were other law students doing that they could have said that was any better than my response? In fact, I think that if someone had a good answer, it should have raised a red flag for the interviewer. The person's main focus should have been law school yet they were off focusing on things like raising a family. Is that the type of employee they really want? Someone that is more committed to their family? No way. They should want someone whose biggest accomplishment each day is the fact that he woke up, actually rolled out of bed, showered, and dragged himself to work. Talk about an extremely happy person and a dream employee for any organization.

Avatar

2010-01-25T23:02:00.000-08:00

So Nellie and I went and saw Avatar on Friday night. I realize that we are a little late getting around to it, but I finally saw Titantic for the first time a few months ago so I'm at least getting better with the Cameron blockbusters. Anyways, the movie was surprisingly good. Nellie loved it. When we walked out of the theater she said, "Did you like it? Because I. loved. that. movie. Loved it!" I dont know that I loved it as much as her, but it is a movie about tall, lanky people, which is right up her interest alley. Or so I'm lead to believe.

It is definitely one of the 'shut your brain off and just enjoy the show' type of movies. I would say it's somewhere between Star Trek and Transformers 2. Star Trek is wildly entertaining, but it has a lot of smart humor, great character development and a plot that requires you to actually sort of pay attention. You don't have to think too much, but you can't completely shut your brain off. Still though, they are just aiming to entertain. With Transformers 2 you actually become dumber by going to the movie. It's so stupid and painful that your brain cells actually start committing suicide so that they can be put out of their misery. Avatar was somewhere in the middle. There is good character development. I was definitely sucked in to some of the characters. The plot is pretty predictable. You pretty much know what is going to happen right from the beginning of the movie. There is of course some political commentary. But it's not too bad. It's a running theme throughout the movie. It's there, but it's no so over the top and in your face that it takes away from the movie entirely. Granted, there is one scene or line where they might as well say, "In case you are blind and/or deaf and haven't picked up on our not so subtle political commentary up to this point in the movie, we are going to now write it on a baseball bat and smack you in the face with it to ensure you catch our crafty and subtle message."

Again, it's not a flawless movie, but it doesn't need to be because it's an incredible experience. And it is an experience, not a movie. We saw it on IMAX 3D for a cool $16.50 per person, but it was really worth it. I don't know that I'll ever see it again because I don't think its a "rewatchable" movie. It's not one of those types of movies because again, the brain isn't doing much and it doesn't evoke too much emotion or have brilliant humor. Plus, I don't know that it would be half as good or entertaining if not on IMAX. With all that said though, I wasn't too excited to see the movie and was sort of on the fence about it, but I honestly think that you are missing out on a great experience by passing it up in IMAX 3D. I didn't think I would actually be endorsing it to all my many readers, but I am. It deserves it.

bootie LA

2009-12-19T22:15:00.000-08:00

a couple weeks ago zach, nellie and i met up with dave and his harem and went to bootie la's a very bootie christmas. it was pretty fantastic. dave found these guys a few years ago. they combine the best of all music worlds: techno, mash-ups and christmas music. they played (spun?) all the songs that we already loved, plus some new ones. zach, nellie and i bailed after a couple of hours, but dave stayed most of the night. that guy has some sort of dance energy reserve. he can last hours. of course he did have a harem to entertain, so he couldnt really tire.

anyways, christmas is around the corner and i meant to share these sooner so people could enjoy them throughout the entire holiday season. hopefully you'll still get a kick out of them. whether you love them or you cant believe how ridiculous they are, they are guaranteed to make you smile. they wont make you want to vomit like those kay jewelers commercials. that one with the deaf couple is the worst. nothing against deaf people, but the commercial makes nellie want to vomit.

you can listen to all of the songs at the link above. here are some of my favorites:

'imagine santa' is just a incredible mash-up. maybe the best one ever. two songs that you wouldn't expect to hear together, yet somehow are a perfect blend.

'every christmas you fake' - proof that even p-diddy gets into the christmas cheer.

'are you gonna stop the white x-mas' - just all over the place. christmas chaos. good chaos.

'christmas bop' - this is one from the new album. i really enjoyed this one, but that is probably because i love the song blitzkrieg bop. still, it's a great example of an christmas mash-up. it takes a great song and then just starts throwing bits of many different christmas songs throughout the song. so ridiculous and random, but so fun. i dont know how you can listen to it and not laugh. so great.

i hope you enjoy. merry christmas.

double dipped

2009-12-13T22:20:00.000-08:00

on saturday night nellie and i double dipped and saw two movies. we went to the theater planning on seeing either 'invictus' or 'the blind side.' we struggled with the decision, but ultimately ended up going to see invictus. conveniently, right when we were getting out of invictus, there was a showing of 'the blind side' that had just started. since we didnt have a babysitter or any other obligation to attend to and since it's always better to watch 4 1/2 hours of movies instead of just 2, we decided to go for it.

so both movies were good but i think i actually liked 'the blind side' better. both are amazing stories, but i think that invictus was almost too difficult of a story to tell. there is just so much to the story, that it seems a little to difficult to pull off in 2- 2 1/2 hours. were it any other director besides clint eastwood, i would say maybe it was the director's fault, but if he can't even pull it off, i dont think anyone could. there was just too much to tackle...even for rugby players (zing!).

invictus is about the south african rugby team that helped unite a nation that was in serious turmoil over the recent election of nelson mandela and blacks being afforded all of the same opportunities as white people. i just think that hours alone could have been spent really showing the viewer how bad it was in south africa in the early 90s. the movie does deal with it, but in order to really make the rugby victory meaningful, you really have to be sucked in to what it meant to the country and you need a decent understanding of what the people were going through. maybe other people could have pulled it off, but i didnt really get sucked in emotionally to what was happening and what the people were going through. as such, there just wasn't as many goosebump moments in invictus as i would have anticipated. i was hoping for more moments where i had a lump in my throat and would think, 'sports are just awesome.' and i think that was because there was a lack of connection with the story which is due to all of the many layers. dont get me wrong, it was good, just not amazing. i could be off on this and could have had too high of expectations. but when its clint eastwood, morgan freeman and matt damon, how can you not be expecting greatness?

maybe that's why 'the blind side' was really good. it has sandra bullock so you naturally enter with low expectations. she is cute and fun, but her movies usually aren't very moving and make you want to punch yourself in the face rather than ponder greater things in life. she did great though and was highly entertaining, at last. just the opposite of invictus, i think blind side worked because it was more of a simple story to tell in that they just had to deal with the boy and telling his story. granted, many people could easily botch that simple task, but it's potentially a lot easier to tell the story of a family that helps a homeless high school boy than the story of a country that had it's centuries long race issues resolved by a rugby game. in one, you have to get the viewers up to speed with a country's history in 10 minutes. the other, you just have to get them up to speed with the first 16 years of a boy's life, which is pretty easy in this situation: he's from the projects and his mom is a drug addict. no need to say more, we pretty much get it.

again, both movies are good and worth seeing. both not really sports movies and both are pretty different so it is hard to compare them, but what's the point of this post and seeing both on the same night if you aren't going to compare them? i think an easy way to do it was in the closing credits. in both movies they show you photos of the actual people and players from the stories that were just told. in blind side, i got the goosebumps and the lump in my throat. i felt more connected to the story and so it made it more touching to see the actual people. not that invictus isn't touching and powerful, but not much connection. no lumps at the end of invictus. and the lumps never lie.

tragic and mind-boggling

2009-12-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

just a disclaimer, not that all of my posts are funny and/or light-hearted, but this one isn't. although it is short. i've been thinking about it since i heard about it on the radio the other day.

here is a news story of a family of 4 that was killed in a car crash over thanksgiving weekend. the family was heading back to their home after having spent the thanksgiving holiday in hawaii. tragic and sad. they haven't confirmed that the 19 year-old driver was drunk, but his license had previously been suspended for a year because of a prior drunk driving accident. the driver later died at the hospital.

and, if you didn't think the story could get worse, you underestimated society:

here is a related story of a man and a woman who just days after the family died, broke into the family's house, stole all their items and fled in the family's van. opportunity knocks right? fortunately they were caught. but what has to happen in your life to get you to the point where after hearing about a family of four being killed in an auto accident, the first thing you think about is that their home is now vacant and should be easy to rob? at least these people help keep josh employed.

such a bummer

2009-12-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

this whole story sort of bums me out and it really shouldn't. i shouldn't be fooled by athletes or celebrities or expect too much out of them. i think this one is a bummer because you always want to be able to relate to an athlete or celebrity. sometimes you just cant. for instance, i cant relate to derek jeter at all. he's a shortstop on the biggest baseball team of all time. as sure as the seasons will change, you can expect him to bounce from one supermodel girlfriend to another on a quarterly basis. he and i dont have much in common. not that i have much in common with tiger woods. he's the first billionaire athlete. he's a killer on the golf course. all sporting greats are. jordan, ali, tiger, even kobe bryant. its not enough to beat you, they have to dominate you and rip your heart out. the passion, the drive to win, the work ethic, stopping at nothing to be the best: not the greatest personality traits by any means, but it is pretty admirable. part of me, and i think part of most people, wish they had that passion and could channel it towards some endeavor. few do. but almost all of them are successful in one way or another.

but even though he and i aren't the same in that regard, tiger still seemed like he was 'a normal guy.' i liked him because i felt i could relate to him (i still like him, just bummed about his decisions). he grew up in cypress, right here in southern california. i lived in the neighboring city of garbage grove. he doesnt come from money. he's not some country club boy. despite all his money, he and his wife didnt have a nanny. they insisted on raising their kids. it appeared as though off the course, he was a normal guy and for whatever reason, it made me like him more. it's like george clooney. i've always liked him and the movies he did. after i read this article awhile ago, i was smitten (it's long, but a good read). these guys dont have lives like you and i, but you always hope they do. which is why it's nice to hear about tiger raising his own kids or read about george clooney crawling in the attic, and always a bummer when you are let down. i know they arent role models. i get that. most of them let you know pretty early on that you dont want your kids to grow up to become like them. that's just the thing though, there are so few that make you even believe that they might be a decent person and role model. just a bummer when yet another doesn't pan out.

WWII IN HD

2009-11-16T22:02:00.001-08:00

nellie and i watched a few episodes of history channel's WWII IN HD tonight. it's excellent. really, really well done. much better than that ken burns WWII documentary that came out a couple years ago. i guess that they, whoever 'they' are, found color WWII footage and they turned it into a mini-series. for those that arent counting, WWII ended 64 years ago. how is it that they are finding stuff like this just now? i understand if its letters like in 'letters from Iwo Jima' that were buried on remote islands in the south pacific. but how are piles of color film footage just now being found? are there just boxes of stuff lying around the library of congress or somewhere and people don't know what is inside of them? some summer intern just has to sort through everything. 'hey, i found these boxes we might want to save. i guess its actual film footage from WWII. you know, WWII. anyways, the footage is in color. its kinda cool.'

well, whatever the reason it was 'lost' for so long it doesn't really matter because they have made very interesting and compelling stories out of the footage that was available. on the website it says that its a 5 night event. i dont know when it started, but i know it continues tomorrow night (tuesday the 17th). im sure there will be constant re-runs as well. it's pretty intense and not exactly light material. maybe everyone already knew about the series and was already watching it, but i still wanted to give it a plug because they are definitely worth recording and watching.

anyways, it puts me in a somber mood just thinking about it. we only watched 2 of the episodes tonight because we could only take so much of young boys fighting and dying for their country. it's amazing what those people went through. so to not be entirely somber in this post, here are a couple of stop-motion videos. what do they have to do with WWII? absolutely nothing. at least not yet. give it a few decades and they'll find stop-motion WWII footage. but we saw a kindle commercial tonight that was in stop motion and nellie mentioned how it seems to be all the rage these days. maybe it's been a fad for awhile and im behind and just now noticing it, but it is used quite a bit. i think the first time i recall seeing it was in a music video that dave showed nellie and i a few months ago. i'd like to think that im ahead of things and not behind the fads, so im sure that once i saw this video, then things really took off for the stop-motion industry(?). the other video is one that i also saw a couple months ago shortly after seeing the first one.

sorry for being so random with the two topics. just watch WWII IN HD. or dont. i dont care. it's your patriotism funeral.

fighting the couch

2009-11-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

nellie and i were chatting today and she was telling me about how she can't eat lunch on the couch because when she does, she end up taking a longer lunch than anticipated. it made me think about this commercial by reebok. the commercial isn't new and most people have probably already seen it, but i think it's brilliant. granted, if my couch was attacking me like that, i would be scrambling for my life too. but i think it perfectly captures the difficulty to escape the couch. it really does take that sort of effort sometimes. it's so easy to get sucked in and stay on the couch. 9 times out of 10, i feel better about leaving the couch and doing something, even when i am tired or not in the mood to leave. there are those few times when lying on the couch really is better than getting up and getting out. but most of the time, if i escape the couch, i do feel better about myself.

i should also mention, that nellie by no means lies around on the couch all day. she exercises much more than i do. im happy if i exercise twice a week. she tries to exercise at least four to five times a week and usually does it. in fact, she is heading out to go running with a friend right now. yes, its 3:15 on a friday. why do we want to find another job again?

and sorry to the four people that follow this blog that i haven't been posting much lately. i think about posting and have things i would like to post about, just haven't done it. but that's not because i dont appreciate my four followers. i hope you understand that. thinking about posting has to be good for something. thoughts do speak louder or at least as loud as actions right? that sounds like the type of statement you would get from someone sitting on a couch. maybe that's why i like the commercial so much.

my virgin Virgin experience

2009-10-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

on monday i had the opportunity to fly on virgin america for the first time. nellie flew virgin atlantic one time to europe and she has nothing but rave reviews for the airline. dave has constantly said how great virgin america is and that its the best airline. quite frankly, it was a fantastic experience. i honestly dont know how other airlines stay in business.

a couple weeks ago nellie and i flew to boston. we had some delta vouchers we had to use so we picked boston as our destination. we had a great time. delta was terrible though. if you ever want to get a delta voucher, just book a flight with delta the day before you need to actually go. i guarantee that they will be asking customers to be bumped from the flight in exchange for free flight vouchers. our round trip flight included 4 legs (two to get there and two for the way back - more on this in a second). before each leg, the announcers were on the PA system asking people if they would be willing to go on a later flight in exchange for free vouchers. they overbook every flight. i honestly think its their way of doing business.

one of the biggest drawbacks with delta is that its nearly impossible to book a direct flight unless you are flying from LAX to ontario. even with that flight, they will still probably layover in long beach or burbank. its such a pain when it only takes 5 hours to fly across the country but it ends up taking you 12 hours because of the layovers and delays.

virgin has only direct flights. one might argue that its because they only offer flights between 9 or 10 cities. and that might be true, but those are also the cities that you would want to go to. when nellie and i were trying to decide on our weekend destination, we thought of new york, boston and chicago - places where people want to go. maybe virgin doesn't fly to little rock or des moines, but im not interested in going to those places, ever.

so lets compare the two experiences:

check in:

virgin: as you walk up to check in, you hear music. not normal airport jazz, but house music. techno and electronica music. you think it must be some euro blasting his ipod near you but then you realize that its coming from a boom box at the check in counter. but not like a boom box that someone plugged in, an actual boom box that is built into the counter. as in, the people that make the big decisions at VA decided that it was important that all their customers are greeted with some up beat dance music. pretty hip.

delta: you are immediately asked if you would like to go on a different flight for a free voucher to fly their airline overcrowded airline again. if you decline, you are pushed along so they can ask the next customer.

plane impressions:

virgin: its hard to paint an accurate picture of a VA plane. i knew what to expect, but i was still pretty amazed. black leather seats. black. clean interior. dim lights throughout the cabin. and more techno music. its like you are walking into a party. you might think that this isn't your type of scene or maybe not the conditions you would like to fly in, but it really creates a great and happy mood throughout the cabin.

delta: old leather. crowded. everyone is stuffing their bags into the bin, except that there is no room because the flight is overbooked so now the stewardesses are checking on people's carry on bags. no better feeling that doing your best to avoid checking on your bag only to then realize it will have to be checked on because the airline is way overcrowded. you would be dying for techno music right now.

flight attendants:

virgin: they wear comfortable black pants, white shirts, like long sleeve t-shirts, and these cool zip up sweater/jackets/pull overs. very modern apparel. not unprofessional, but comfortable. looks like something people enjoy wearing. which is the coolest part about VA. instead of being traditional like every other airline, they decided to get rid of tradition and think about what people want on an airline and out of a flight experience.

delta: traditional. normal. uncomfortable pants. button up shirts with some thing around their neck that looks like they thought it was a tie so they tied it like one, only it was really a bandanna or something, so its just a large flowy thing coming out of their neck.

entertainment:

virgin: free direct tv. free on demand movies. free wifi. again, free wifi. on board. you get free internet. free music. free food (snacks). drinks of course.

delta: one drink. one snack. one. you hear? on our flight from detroit to LA nellie asked for another bag of pretzels and she was denied. flat out shut down. for a bag of freakin pretzels.

nellie: 'um, can i have another bag of pretzels?'

attendant: 'no. sorry.'

ok then.

cost:

the yesterday i got an email about how a bunch of the major airlines were slashing their prices and offering cheap flights - like $100 one way from LA to NY. good deals. but it made me curious about these 'deals.' so i went online and checked the email to verify that it was in fact true and that i could actually book a flight with united or delta or some other massive airline for roughly $100 one way across the country. and the deal was legit.

then i went onto VA and checked flights for the same time period to see how they compared. no special deals, no special discounts advertised. it was just their normal rate, at it was the same price as delta and united were offering. roughly $100 to get across the country. i was checking for flights in january so it would have been booking well far in advance. still though, their 'normal' price is the same as these great deals.

anyways, i couldnt have been happier with my virgin experience (had to include one). check it out next time you fly. you wont be disappointed.

and for anyone that has made it this far, im including a chat dave and i had the other day on gmail about my VA flight. a random moments where even though you are only communicating through a computer screen, you are still somehow right on the same page with the person. also shows how quick and clever dave is. sometimes i can hang with him, but not always. one of these days someone will discover that his brain is capable of way more than soundtrack videos.

12:34 PM Dave: k bone
sommdawg
6 minutes
12:40 PM me: daveeeed
12:41 PM Dave: yo
how was out of the office time yesterday?
12:43 PM me: amazing
i flew virgin america for the first time
12:44 PM how are you doing?
12:46 PM Dave: where did you go?
12:49 PM me: SF
well, redwood city, but flew into SF
12:50 PM Dave: sweet
isn't it a lovely airline?
12:51 PM i got my Virgin America visa card yesterday
me: nice
they were advertising them on the plane
12:52 PM Dave: i can't wait to start earning points towards a free flight on Virgin America with my new Virgin America Visa Platinum card!
12:55 PM me: a new Virgin America Visa Platinum card?! I had no idea they had one. Does it have good benefits and rewards?
12:56 PM Dave: Excellent, Kent, excellent!!
I get 3 points for every dollar spent on a Virgin America flight or in-flight services, and 1 point per dollar for all other purchase. And with free flights starting as low as 10,000 points, I'll be flying free by Easter!!!
12:57 PM Plus I get 2500 free points just for signing up, and up 2500 additional points for balance transfers during the first six month (all of which carry a super low 0% APR for the first six months)!
12:58 PM me: no way
no way
i dont believe it.
Dave: Believe it, kent, believe it!
and you're pre-approved
probably.
!!!
12:59 PM me: i already fly VA anyways, and now you are telling me that they will give me free rewards and flights just for flying with the airline that i love most?
1:00 PM what's next? are you going to tell me that sheep fly and that wasps mate with flowers? [audience laughter]
Dave: And with interest rates on credit cards skyrocketing in excess of 30% since the economic collapse, the 14.9% APR on the Virgin America Visa Platinum card is just one more reason to love the the Virgin America Platinum Card - The Greatest Thing Ever Made (TM)
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!
1:01 PM me: I'm waiting for my stupid internet to load so that I can sign up online right now. If only my internet provider was as reliable and friendly as Virgin America.
1:02 PM Dave: If only, Kent, if only!
1:03 PM me: haha. right. well, with VA having free WiFi on the plane and with all the flying I'll be doing with my new VA Platinum card, I won't even need internet in my home!
1:04 PM Dave: You won't need anything kent!
Sell your house! Leave your wife! VA is the only woman you'll ever need.
She'll take you places you've never been.
1:05 PM And when you take Virgin, every time feels like the first time!

Scioscia

2009-10-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

Why did you take out Lackey? Why did you take out Weaver? Why do you ever put in Fuentes? Why not make Santana or someone else your closer in the postseason?

I know you guys won tonight, but you have made some poor coaching decisions in the postseason. Mainly, that you ever bother putting Fuentes on mound. I am a huge supporter and have been since you came to the team. You are usually brilliant in the regular season, but if your offense wasn't a whole lot better this season than previous years, you wouldn't be flying to the Bronx tonight. Your team does actually have the pieces to pull off wins. Put the puzzle together already.

brilliant

2009-10-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

how do you get people to exercise and be healthy? like everything, make it more appealing and entertaining than its alternative. i want to go to there.

quick hits

2009-10-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

1. two posts ago i told everyone to go see the new ricky gervais movie, 'the invention of lying.' then, in my last post i ranted about people being offended and that they shouldnt be unless they have grounds to be or 'standing.' (btw, i realize the post has a lot of holes and inconsistencies. it was more of a ramble instead of a well thought out rant. oh well). well apparently, as mentioned by paige in the comments, early reviews indicate that the movie has quite a bit of religious commentary. i told all my readers, who i think are mostly religious, though i dont know, to see a movie that pokes at religion, something that they all have standing to be offended with. not sure what you call that. unintentional?

2. something i have watched and so i do feel comfortable promoting it, is the tv show 'community.' its on nbc. not better than 30 rock, but way better than the office. the office is boring. the jokes are hardly inspired. they are running off of past popularity. not sure if they are even trying anymore or if they just dont have it. 'community' does have it though. good timing. clever jokes that actually make you laugh. community is like the young player that just broke into the big leagues and is trying to stay on the team and show everyone that he is good and deserves to be there. he has talent, but more importantly, he really tries hard. unlike the seasoned veteran the office that is just there to pick up the check. speaking of sports and young players:

3. im sure most people have already seen this but i thought it was still worth posting. msnbc has picked it up which means most media outlets have already mentioned it. but for all those people that come here for their news or sports updates, here it is. a pretty cool video.

offended

2009-09-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

so i think we as a society get offended too easily. i think its a little out of control. people that aren't even offended just say they are because its the 'in' thing or they think they are supposed to be offended so they pretend they are. i know this isnt always the case, but people cant be offended nearly as often as they say they are, right?

so the other night the angels won their division and clinched a playoff birth. we were actually fortunate enough to go to the game. it was pretty awesome to see it. anyways, after the game, in typical pro-sports fashion, the angels celebrated by dumping champagne and beer on each other in the locker room. a little premature since they are going to lose to the red sox in a couple weeks anyways. but why not enjoy the moment right?

anyways, i think most people remember that earlier this season, one of the angel players, nick adenhart was killed by a drunk driver after a game. he was a promising young prospect and he had actually pitched a solid outing the night he died. really tragic. well, during the celebration, some of the angel players grabbed nick's jersey and held it as they celebrated. later on in the evening, the team even went out to the outfield wall to touch the memorial that was set up for him. but i guess the celebration has caused some heated discussion around these parts. some people think its wrong and are offended by the celebration because the players were dumping champagne and other alcoholic beverages on the jersey of the player that was killed by a drunk driver.

so i have some thoughts on people that are even offended by it. lame. go home.

second. i have to agree with jim rome on the subject of people being offended. he was talking about this story and mentioned that you cant tell someone that they arent offended or that something isnt offensive (even though i just did, but its justified later). and i do more or less agree with that statement. if you think something is offensive but i dont, doesnt mean that it isnt offensive or that you cant be offended by it. he used the example of the washington redskins. their mascot has been a topic of controversy and discussion for a long time. many people, most of them native americans, are offended by the mascot. other people say that its not offensive and that its just part of the history and part of the team. i have a problem with using the argument that its not offensive. it just doesnt work. you can say its part of the history, but you cant say its not offensive because it clearly is to some people.

so im fine with people being offended and i feel that you cant say to someone that something is or isnt offensive to them. but i also feel that people have to have 'standing' to be offended. in law, someone has to have standing to bring their case to court. basically, if someone wants to challenge a law, they have to prove that they are the ones being injured by the law and thus should be the ones to challenge it. no need to dive too much into legal stuff, but i sort of feel like it should be the same way with people being offended. you have to have some grounds to be offended. i realize this isnt always the case. if you are standing around with a bunch of white people and someone uses a derogatory word to describe an an african american, just because no one in the circle is african american doesnt mean they cant be offended by the language.

but take this incident with the angels celebration. who is offended and upset by this? is it nick adenhart's parents or family? if so, great. be offended. its your son and his tragic accident that they are supposedly mocking or treading lightly. i think you are completely misinterpreting the situation, but whatever, you CAN be offended. everyone else, quit being offended just because you think you should be. it doesnt concern or affect you, you just want to stir the pot and cause some controversy and discussion.

im probably taking this too far, but i do think that all of the speculation about being offended has just left us as a society in a bad situation. no one knows what to say or how to act sometimes and a lot of it is due to people that have no reason or standing to be offended, acting like they are offended by someone's words or actions. people that should be offended probably arent, but we assume they are because some loser assumed he should be offended and so he acted like it. thus, everyone is as confused as they are reading that last sentence and paragraph.

this is going on too long. not sure if anyone is even still reading. i just had to put in my two cents.

briefly, on the angel's playoff hopes: there are none. im as big a fan as most, but i see no reason why this year will be any different than any other year. we can win, but if we lose one of the first two games at home to the red sox we wont win the series. we are incapable of winning at fenway in the postseason. its a fact. red sox are banged up, but they do have better starting pitching than we do. however, our hitting is better than before. something that could decide the series: jason varitek. he's old and teams are stealing bases on him like crazy. he cant throw anyone out for the life of him. if we get on base, you know we are running all series long.

still though, i hate to be negative, but they have better starting pitching, which always wins in the postseason. they have the postseason experience. they dont have the mindset like we do. they have papelbon, we have fuentes. i hate papelbon more than any other player but id rather have him in the 9th over fuentes. in the last four times we have faced them in the post season we have won 1 game, they have won 12. i hope they win. i cant stand the sox. i hope they prove me wrong that this season isnt like all the others. seeing is believing.

less than 2 weeks away

2009-09-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

only two more weeks until 'the invention of lying' hits the theaters. this is the latest ricky gervais project. if you read this blog then you probably know me and if you know me, then you know im a huge fan of ricky. his last movie, 'ghost town' was easily one of the best movies of last year. unfortunately few people saw it. but you would be hard pressed to find anyone that didnt like it. if someone didnt like it then there is no point in continuing to try and maintain a relationship with that person. i know that is harsh, but to not like that movie is the same as not enjoying comedy. why would you want to associate with someone that doesnt like comedy and is depressed all day? you wouldnt. so dont.

anyways, i dont want to hype up the movie too much and make people have too high of expectations, but at the same time, i would rather over-hype the movie and get people to go than not talk about it and have more people miss out on a fantastic movie, just like what happened with 'ghost town.' usually ive seen a movie before i pitch it so i am going out on a limb by selling this before i have 'screened it.' but im feeling pretty confident that this is a surefire bet. maybe not the greatest movie of all time, but worth the price of admission. seriously though, everything he does is brilliant. hopefully he comes through again with this movie.

anyways, for those perhaps unfamiliar with him and for those that love him and want to see some great stuff and get pumped for the movie: here are two clips from his appearances on the last two emmy award shows. they are just so funny. worth watching. after that is the 'invention of lying trailer.' after that, just for fun is his opening for his 'politics' stand up show. it does have some strong language, but its in british so for some reason it doesnt sound as bad or come across as strong as when someone says it in american. sort of like when someone swears in spanish. bad, but not as bad as swearing in english. enjoy. and go see the movie on oct. 2.

ignorance is bliss

2009-09-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

with some things in life its just better when you are ignorant. i think that one of those things is a knowledge of germs. i think that little kids just have it better in this life because they dont have a concept of or really think about germs. granted, some basic knowledge is probably important, but i can see why they can and do make people go crazy. i wouldnt classify myself as a 'germ freak,' but i'm definitely aware. in a way though i cant really help it. i saw a tv 'primetime special' about germs in the bathroom. i guess i could have turned the channel but i stuck it out, and now im scarred. did you know that the dirtiest places, or most germ filled places in the bathroom are the floor and the faucet handle? the floor makes sense because its a floor. you wouldnt think the sink faucet handle until you realize that everyone touches the faucet before washing their hands and after taking care of business. so there. enjoy the knowledge that just does more damage than good. enjoy washing your hands and then looking at the dirty faucet handle and turning it off with your wrist for the rest of your life. the door handle, the notoriously 'dirty' place in the bathroom, is actually not so dirty. its one of the cleaner places since so many people use towels to grab the handle and in a way wipe off the door handle every time they open it.

so this past weekend, our whole family got together and my mom rented one of those big bounce tanks (it even had spiderman like the picture above) for all of the nieces and nephews to play in throughout the day. it was a huge hit. however, it did smell like hepatitis. im not exactly sure what hepatitis smells like, but just think of the ball rooms at chuck 'e cheese's. the one's where there is a two year old playing in them with his diaper half off. a nice combination of dirty kids and urine. anyways, i suggested that we wipe it down with some clorox. we did, and it smelled better, who knows if it actually mattered. but the 'problem' with cleaning it, is that none of the little kids cared. its a 'problem' because now that the weekend is over, i have a cold, but i dont think any of the kids do.

so i have a couple of (probably bogus) theories that i have adopted in life. i dont know that i live by them as much as i just use them as when convenient. for instance, one of my 'theories' is that its better to not use lip balm, or body lotion, or conditioner etc. because when you do, your body just creates a dependency on these items. you see, your skin naturally produces oils so that it doesn't dry out. by using things like lotion, your skin stops naturally taking care of itself since it relies on the lotion. its sort of like with drugs. your body creates a dependency on drugs and other areas of the body start shutting down and relying exclusively on the drugs or the outside substances. now i realize that this theory is completely baseless and false. im basically just lazy and dont want to use these items. i have no good reason for not wanting to use them, so i just make up theories that support my decisions. it is also a fun conversation piece.

person: 'do you have any chapstick?'

me: 'no. my body doesnt need those types of things. leave me alone lower lifeform.'

they are also fun theories to have when you are married to a woman whose father is a dermatologist and three of her brothers are also dermatologists. i think this may be the reason nellie just laughs and is speechless whenever i tell her i dont need to use any of these items. its either that or the logic and argument is so good that she's just stumped and doesnt have a reply.

another theory i have that relates to all of this is that being sick is all mental. usually referring to things like colds and flus. ill tell nellie that she isnt really sick and that its just mental. im such a caring husband. i dont think she had any idea how sympathetic of a guy she was marrying. so again, i know that this theory is also false and baseless, but sometimes i wonder if the thinking about germs and worry about them can actually cause us to get sick. if it supposedly can work where thinking you arent sick can help you get over your illness, then naturally worrying about germs or getting sick can also cause you to get sick more often. i realize that the theory isnt true, therefore there can be no logical opposite. however, my weekend does support my theory (not terribly surprising since i put a spin on most things when necessary to make them support the theory): the kids didnt care about germs. they laughed, and cried a lot in the bounce tank, and probably licked it or fell on it with their mouths open. they were so happy to play in the bounce tank that there was no time to think about meaningless things like germs and getting sick. so they didnt.

meanwhile, i, the fatherless uncle, worried about the well-being of my nieces and nephews playing in the hepatitis bounce tank and insisted that we clean it. i worried about them getting sick and it made me get sick. thus, ignorance is bliss because you dont get sick. non-ignorance, or knowledge is sadness since it results in sickness. yes, its a airtight theory. i should be a doctor. with this type of sound logic, im clearly a successful lawyer.

sports fever

2009-09-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

so i said in another post that march is the best sports month of the year. and i think i stick by that statement/post. march madness is an incredibly exciting time and european soccer and the champions league soccer really gets exciting in march. but fall is such a magical sports time. the baseball season is coming to a close. its always exciting especially when the angels are in the playoffs. normally i would say that as long as we dont run into the red sox then we have a chance, but i dont think anyone could beat the yankees this year. they have better pitching and probably a better offense. the angels offense is better than previous years, but i still dont see how we can get past the yankees. regardless, playoff baseball is just fantastic. last year before we had cable, i would drag nellie out to restaurants with tv's each night so that we could watch the games. im sure we spent more money on food than what a cable bill would have cost. watching games on the couch isnt nearly as memorable as sitting on bar stools at lucille's in long beach though.

another great part about fall is the start of european futbol. matt and i are flirting with doing a soccer podcast. why? because its fun to 'play' radio dj and we have nothing better to do with our lives. we have actually recorded two podcasts, but we haven't put them up on itunes. part of that is due to the fact that we dont have a name for our podcast. last season we practically spoke each week on the phone about the happening in euro soccer. i also found myself having conversations with various friends each week about soccer, so we figured we should record the conversations and pretend that people care to listen to them.

im not sure who reads this blog, so i dont know if any futbol fans even read this. real madrid had a typical start. lots of offensive fire power, no defense. they won their opener 3-2. still vulnerable in the back. granted, they dont have pepe 'the back scratcher.' they also are missing sergio ramos who is out with injury. they are two key parts to the defense, but you cant win with just offense. hopefully xabi and lass solidify the midfield and keep things under control.

the epl is exciting. man u had a cheap win against arsenal. man u is vulnerable this year, not quite as much as liverpool, but i wouldnt bet on them over arsenal or chelsea right now. granted, its far too early to make too many predictions. im telling you, this futbol stuff is exciting.

but speaking of exciting, a little on the pigskin and the start of the football season. i guess i dont have too much to say but i was thinking about boise state v. oregon on thursday night to kick off the season and it got me excited. there is of course the cougs. last year the expectations were off the charts, which made us ripe for big disappointment, which is what happened. 'quest for perfection'? really? who thought of that. i understand the desire for an undefeated season, but to put that on all your t-shirts, you are just setting yourself up for a let down. anyways, i think that expectations are toned down this year. i dont know how they cant be when you open against oklahoma and the returning heisman trophy winner. no matter the result of that game, i think its a great game to start the season. there is a chance we could catch them by surprise and pull of an unbelievable upset, which i dont think we could do later in the season. if we do beat them, that would be a huge confident booster. but if we lose, i think it will help keep our expectations in check and remind us that we arent invincible. in years past we start off well and beat chumps like utah state or wyoming in september and early october, but then november rolls around and we fall apart. id rather take an early loss to oklahoma if it meant we then went on to win the rest of our games.

nellie is just as excited as i am. she cant wait for football on mondays and thursdays and saturdays, more futbol on saturdays (and sometimes late on sundays) and baseball on the days in between. as it is she is making cookies to celebrate sportscenter being on right now. she said its for mutual tomorrow night, but she jumped off the couch so quickly when sportscenter started that i know she was just bursting with excitement for the hour of sports coverage. its only september 1st and she can hardly contain herself. its gonna be a great fall.

accomplishments and crankiness

2009-08-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

so i have three sort of random, but sort of connected thoughts that have gone through my mind today.

so first of all, i realize that i get cranky when i'm idle, or better said, slothful. idle is fine, but when im just being lazy and not accomplishing anything, then i can sometimes get in a foul mood. take this morning for example. i had every intention of getting up and working on our backyard. i had been planning and thinking about it all week. i slept in a bit and when i got out of bed i had a bowl of cereal. the english premiere league started today (more on this in another post) and so i sat down to eat breakfast and watch a game. one thing turns into another and suddenly im still in my underwear watching tv and now its 11. the morning is pretty much wasted. i still need to go to home depot and buy some stuff for the backyard. nellie then asks if when we go to home depot, if we can stop off at costco, which is literally next door (well, as 'next door' as you can get when dealing with massive warehouses. they share the same giant parking lot). but her bringing up going to costco got me a little bothered and cranky. and i realize that i was cranky for two reasons.

the first reason is because i was just sort of mad at myself and just in a bad mood because i wasnt accomplishing anything. ive realized that there is a connection between accomplishing things and happiness or feeling good about life. even at work, which i dont particularly love, i find that the worst days are the days where i dont accomplish much. and that is partly because i cant help but think in the back of my head how screwed i am for not billing a bunch of hours that day. but its also because its as though my brain or body hasn't been challenged or stimulated or anything and it just leaves me upset and a little depressed. i dont enjoy the type of law that i do, but doing it and accomplishing something, makes me feel better than not doing it. doing something i dont enjoy makes me happier than not doing something i dont enjoy. its sort of strange how that works.

(granted, i think that can only take you so far and perhaps happiness is the wrong word to use. because i wouldnt say on productive days that im happy, well i am happy, but its more of a feeling of satisfaction.)

the second reason i got a little cranky at the idea of going to costco is because i dont enjoy grocery shopping. costco is sort of different and i think i was decently behaved while we were there, but if there is something that brings out the male pms in me, its grocery shopping. and i dont know why. i feel bad that nellie has to put up with me. my friend dave reid warned me before i got married about 'going to target.' he told me that he loathes target since he got married because target trips last hours and girls buy so much random stuff and 'junk,' and it all costs a ton. from a guy's point of view you walk in empty handed and walk out $200 poorer. a girl will argue that youre not poorer because 'look at all the stuff we got.' but thats a moot point with guys and not a good argument. from a guy's perspective, everything in the bags besides the toilet paper you probably didnt need to buy, so you are $200 poorer because you exchanged that money for things you dont need. even the toilet paper probably isnt needed since there are still kleenex in the house.

anyways, target is bad, but i really struggle at the grocery store. probably because its very different from when i was single. when i was single i lived off of cereal for breakfast and late night snacks, pb & j for lunch with some cookies or something, and pasta roni for dinner. a delicacy that i have introduced nellie to since being married. sometimes, if i was being healthy, i would buy a couple of apples. thats it though. that was essentially my diet. if something was lacking, i made up for it with fast food. shopping was cheap, and overall pretty unhealthy. granted, i broke the bank by eating out, but whatever.

now that we are married, it feels like we frequent the grocery store once a week (realistically probably once every other week), and it kills me. i dont know why. i realize nellie is just taking care of me. she plans meals and always buys fresh fruit and vegetables. she is always talking about 'leafy greens' and can tell you the last date and time that she had her leafy greens and whether its been too long since we had them. im sure these are all good things and my body (and bowels) are better for it, but it means that we arent in and out of the grocery store in 10 minutes and the bill is 5 times as much as when i was single. its not entirely like a target trip because i know that i will be using the things we bought, but it takes so long to buy the stuff and we go through it so quickly and i know that we will be back blowing more money on it in just a couple weeks. its just too much for me to handle and i get cranky. i slouch over the cart and whine and ask when we will be done and stomp my feet when nellie says we still have to get buttermilk for a recipe she wants to try. i knock stuff off the shelves onto the ground and kick it and run over it with the cart. then when we get to the register i ask her if we really need everything. she asks if im going to be like this every time we go shopping. i tell her yes and remind her that she doesnt have to invite me. im a pill. one year in and she still loves me. i think so at least.

anyways, those first two things dont exactly relate to this last thing, but sort of, plus i didnt want to do another post. nellie and i saw 'julie and julia' tonight. we wanted to see 'the paper heart' but it was sold out. so nellie gave me the options of 'julie and julia' or 'the time travelers wife.' i tried to fake an injury and tell her that something was in my eye and that we better just go home, but it was to no avail.

honestly though, the movie wasnt that bad. good actually. here is why meryl streep has been nominated for like 18 academy awards: because she, like johnny depp or other great actors, convinces you that the character they are playing on screen is exactly how they would be if you met them on the street in real life. they are that convincing. with other actors you know how they would be in real life because they play the same character or act the same in every movie.

that aside, the movie is good and a well told story about food and accomplishing things. our wedding photographer saw it and discussed on her blog the many things the movie made her think about. one of which was asking the question: 'am i living up to my full potential.' its interesting because nellie and i felt the same way after and talked how the movie, in an interesting way, is inspiring.

not that its any sort of revolutionary or new concept, but im reading a book right now that talks about the reciprocal connection between happiness and success. essentially, studies show that happy people are more successful people, in many areas of life. also, studies show that success, in many areas, not just work, makes people happy, which of course in turn, leads to more success, and then more happiness etc. etc. the movie was cool because it was just two, seemingly ordinary women, finding something they love and doing it. and what is great, they both gained success out of it. not necessary of course, but a nice added bonus.

anyways, i wish i had something or some point that i was making to tie everything together, but not really. just sort of throwing thoughts out there. i realize that i feel better when i'm accomplishing things. nothing new. i really think i could accomplish more or at least do more things i love. ideally those things will bring success, although im not sure yet how podcasting can or will make me any money. but hey, if i love doing it and its some sort of accomplishment, then it brings happiness, which is all that really matters. as long as nellie doesnt drag me into the grocery story anymore, then i think ill have life all figured out.

quote of the day

2009-08-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

'if at first you dont succeed, redefine what you did as success.'

-stephen colbert

the most interesting man

2009-07-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

so it seems that many commercials have their tag line or their 'mascot' or trademark or something. usually if it works or is 'catchy' then they just beat it into the ground - think taco bell chihuahua. when a company does that, i normally get so sick of the mascot or idea, that i grow to hate it, even if i thought it was brilliant when it first debuted. i think everyone loved the taco bell dog the first time they saw him, 75 commercials later and you wished he was never born.

sometimes though, no matter what they do with their mascot, you cant get enough of it. i got sick of the geico cavemen, but i cant get enough of the geico wad of money with the eyeballs. i have no idea what it even means. i get of course that it represents the money you could be saving with geico, but why it has eyes and there is techno music whenever anyone looks at it doesnt make sense, but i think its brilliant and im a fan.

as i was driving home yesterday i heard yet another commercial on the radio for the dos equis 'most interesting man in the world.' im sure most people are familiar with these commercials. not quite sure why im such a fan of the dos equis guy/commercials, but they are fantastic. im sure many people hear the commercials and think they are so lame, but i think they are pretty great. it just has some voice that is talking about the most interesting man in the world and giving some random characteristics or commentaries about his life. then the man comes along and says, 'i dont always drink beer, but when i do, i prefer dos equis...stay thirsty my friends.' well, unfortunately i dont drink beer, but i love your commercials and if i did, i would drink dos equis for you, my friend.

here was the commercial i heard yesterday along with a couple of their tv ads. the first and last one are great. that second to last one killed me though for some reason. so stupid, yet so funny.

He once buried a time capsule full of things that haven't happened yet.

He has been pronounced dead 7 times...make that 8.

His bear hugs are actually hugs he gives to bears.

He can't be bought, but his beard clippings have been know to show up on auction.

He has never lost a sock.

If he disagrees with you, it is because you are wrong.

in some commercials he also provides his opinion on some subjects. this one is for nellie. his response is priceless.

He'd never initiate a conversation about the weather, even in a typhoon.

When it is raining, it is because he is sad.

Even his parrot's advice is insightful.

If there were an interesting gland, his would be larger than most men's entire lower intestines.

His shirts never wrinkle.

He is left-handed. And right-handed.

Even if he forgets to put postage on his mail, it gets there.

friday afternoon song?

2009-07-09T20:45:00.001-07:00

so i realize that the blog has been a little music heavy lately. but i wanted to share another new favorite song. sorry it immediately starts playing. i couldnt find a video or anything. ill take it down once i make another post. nellie introduced me to this song and band. im around her quite a bit so its easy for her to share this stuff with me. the song is called 'happy as can be' by 'cut off your hands.' they are an aussie group. anyways, its just a great, addicting song. it gets going quick and never really slows down. nothing incredibly brilliant about the song, just a fun song. so if that beck song perfectly captured a sunday morning, both in name and feel, then i guess this song would be friday afternoon. just got off work and just all around happy to be done with work and off to the weekend. you might have plans, might not, doesnt matter, work is in the rear view mirror, the steering wheel is your drum set, its a friday and life is great.

on another quick music side note, jack white's next side project is out. the band is called 'dead weather.' dave axelgard says that they are good. i havnt heard it, but jack white is really a brilliant musician and anything he does is worth hearing.

the memorial

2009-07-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

so nellie and i were fortunate enough to go to the michael jackson memorial yesterday. nellie got tickets through her verizon connection - mike vega. he's the same guy that got us tickets to the spice girls reunion tour. he also once got us tickets to a clippers/76ers game. needless to say, he hooks us up with all the hot events. two of those were actually pretty hot tickets. the clippers would have been a hot ticket had it been any other team not named the clippers.

anyways, the memorial was rather amazing. i think i might have been picking it apart a little too much when i was talking to my mom about it last night. but nellie said it best when she said, 'he's michael jackson. what were you expecting? as though anything could really live up his legacy.' which is so true. one of the speakers at the memorial said that he was the greatest entertainer of all time. nellie and i thought about that statement for about 2 seconds before we completely agreed. so you have the greatest entertainer of all time that is literally worshiped in many countries around the globe, but yet the last 15-20 years of his life were incredibly shady and all around odd sometimes, and you have to have a memorial for him. plus, given the fact that he's a worldwide celebrity, there has to be some sort of public memorial. im sure it would have been easiest for the family to just have a private burial with family and friends that knew him best. but you cant do that with michael jackson. yet it wasnt a tribute concert. apparently that is coming later and im sure it will be the big stage massive explosion production and will probably be really good. but there had to be music. no music at an mj memorial would be like no one giggling at ricky gervais' funeral. but you cant exactly sing or dance to 'beat it' or 'bad' or 'black or white' at a funeral. just wouldnt be fitting. and because it was a memorial, there were speakers like a normal funeral, only the world was invited to this one. so all things considered and taking into account all of those factors (greatest entertainer; strange, strange ending; incredible musician, but this is a memorial; want it to be somewhat personal and intimate, yet the world is on the guest list) i think they did a good job.

anyways, here are my thoughts on what we saw:

speakers:

kobe bryant and magic johnson:

kobe was fine. short and simple. which was good, since it didnt really make much sense why he was there. maybe he thought it was the other mj - michael jordan-that died? (5 minutes for that one?) i guess he was friends with singer mj and they did speak often, but lots of people did. im sure kobe wouldnt have been there had the memorial not been in his house and were he not the biggest basketball player on the planet at the moment. im sure ac green or vlade divac were both friends with mj back in their laker days, but yet they werent asked to speak. not that it matters, kobe kept it short and simple and did well.

magic was great. he told a great story about going to mj's house and when he got there mj's chef asked what magic would like to eat and he said grilled chicken. first of all, how cool would that be to go to a house that has a live in chef and when they ask if you would like anything to eat, you could say anything in the world and they would whip it up for you? i dont know what i would ask for, but it would be pretty cool. anyways, magic said that he and mj ended up sitting on the floor and talking and eating kfc. kfc! he said he thought it was the coolest thing that mj liked kfc. pretty great story.

smokey robinson and a producer from motown records.

nellie really liked both of these guys. i did too. smokey robinson seems incredibly normal and down to earth. both just talked about knowing young michael and how amazing it was to hear a 10 year old boy sing with such passion, especially when he couldnt relate to the lyrics of the song (leaving a girl, losing your love etc.).

queen latifa was great. she also seems completely normal and down to earth. i dont know what it is about her, but she just seems very 'real.' maybe im off with that, but i enjoyed her remarks.

brooke shields.

she was actually my favorite. nellie didnt like her remarks as much as others. i liked the personal stories she told. it made the memorial touching or made it seem real. i had no idea she and mj were such good and longtime friends. but she shared many personal stories about them hanging out as kids and teenagers. just normal stuff and normal stories that everyone could relate to. granted they were on a different scale. she told a story about how they were up one night before a wedding and just laughing and being mischievous, normal stuff that you do growing up. the only difference was that it was elizabeth taylor's wedding as opposed to your cousin who lives in ogden, utah. but it was cool to hear about how even though we all know him as the larger than life legend, he did have a side that you and i can relate to. i also think i liked her remarks because i feel like its the little random moments in life that live on past death. we all have them with many people and its those moments that are unique and you remember and that make it so hard when the person is gone. you cant really relate with the person speaking on the exact moment per se, but you can relate to having also shared random moments with close friends.

others:

rev. al sharpton. its no wonder he has made good money with speaking. he has a gift. lots of flowery language and plenty of goose bump moments. by the end, he had the crowd cheering. really, really impressive. only because in the moment, you are completely sucked in because the speaking was so exciting. granted, flowery, hollow words only get you so far and only leave you on a high for so long. its like the mission conference where you see clips from rudy or top gun and you are all pumped, only to lose that high 5 steps after you leave the conference.

he spoke a lot about michael and his impact on the color barrier (i know. surprising that he spoke about the color barrier of all topics). it made me think about about it more. he clearly demonstrated the ability to break the color barrier by going from black to white (5 more minutes). but the rev. made it sound like michael was the first black musician to come out of motown or be in people's homes. im sure the supremes and the temptations did more for breaking the color barrier than mj. not to downplay any impact mj may have had. those groups never reached a worldwide status as large as mj. but i view mj as more like a tiger woods. not the first african american golfer, so he didnt 'break' the color barrier, but what he has done in his field and his domination of it, has far surpassed what any other african american did. not sure if that analogy works. lets move on to the worst speaker:

some random congresswoman from houston. this lady was terrible. it was clear that although she was giving remarks about michael, she was just there to try and elevate herself. she had no real reason to be up there other than a government representative. she should have acknowledged that and sat down. instead she went off on how 'in this great country, you are innocent until proven guilty!' people then cheered, which was just lame because she doesnt really care about that, she just wanted to be a crowd pleaser. im not saying he's guilty, but our system was made by people and people are imperfect. its not flawless. the remark had nothing to do with anything else she was rambling about. she was just trying to get the crowd to remember her. thanks for your lame self promotion. now go back to texas and work on seceding from the union.

the music:

john mayer and stevie wonder.

both were great. i need to say that upfront. i enjoyed both quite a bit while they were happening. if i could have changed one thing, i think it would have been to have stevie do an all instrumental piece instead of john mayer and have john mayer sing with his song. stevie's song was good, but his intro where he was just playing the piano and not singing was really great. i would have liked for him to just continue playing. and there was nothing wrong with john mayer's solo, but i think he should have added words. again, both were great.

jermaine jackson and usher

do you know what i learned today? jermaine's son is named jermajesty. jermajesty! i only wish i was creative to come up with that name. nellie always complains that i never like any of the boys names she suggests (like skye. yes you read that correctly). well, jermajesty is one that i think we can both agree is a great name for our first son. its the next baby name fad, like brooklyn or cash.

anyways, i liked jermaine's song, didnt really care for him singing it. i felt the same way about usher. but at the same time, i liked that the songs werent polished and were flawed. sure, i probably would have rather seen usher do a 'billie jean' tribute and light up the stage. that boy can dance. but it was nice that the songs were 'real.' they werent pre-recorded like most concerts these days. the singing wasnt flawless. usher cried. im not sure if jermaine sang the right notes. but its ok. it just shows they are human. its nice seeing these people showed their human side at an event that reminds everyone that they too are human and merely mortal.

mariah carey and some dude

i guess mariah carey gave some apology today for her performance. but none was needed. it probably wasnt her best performance ever. but she wasnt performing in front of paying customers. it was just nice hearing someone with her talent sing a michael jackson classic, even if it wasnt perfect.

jennifer hudson

so i have been giving everyone a pass as though they couldnt have pulled off a flawless performance, yet jennifer hudson just crushed it. not sure that she needed the interpretive dancers. i had to go to the bathroom so bad and i was about to get up to go but then i heard the intro to the free willy song. a personal favorite. but man, what a set of pipes. of course if anyone could come through in that type of situation it was her. didnt she sing the national anthem at the super bowl only a couple months after her mom and other family members were shot in their home? isnt she also 8 months pregnant right now? good night this girl is impossible to keep down.

this video doesnt really do it justice. nellie brought up a good point about how things sound so much better live. when its echoing through the arena and the bass is really pumping, it really just blows through you and makes the hair on your back stand up the entire time.

so this is getting rather long. the memorial ended with a producer selling everyone on michael jackson and mourning that his company just lost out on millions. the final two songs were of course mj classics.

overall it was fantastic. when i said i always wanted to go to a michael jackson concert i never envisioned it would be this one. it wasnt a perfect production like i would have expected from an actual michael jackson concert. but he wasnt a perfect person. he was human that lived an extraordinary life. not sure how you memorialize such a person. probably by celebrating his life with some perfect moments, some flawed moments, and leaving with an overall feeling that we were lucky to have him, and even luckier that we got to experience it live.

long live the king

2009-06-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

so my friend lindsey wrote me today and said she was looking forward to my michael jackson tribute post. she, as well as most close friends and family should know, i am a big fan. i recently wrote that i would pay more money to see him live and would like to see him over any other group or performer. but, im not quite sure what to say about his passing. so much has been said or will be said. people will just throw out their thoughts and opinions all weekend long. i have had many wandering thoughts. bill simmons, a sportswriter for espn said it well in an email exchange he had with his friend that "Before he went off the deep end, Jackson was definitely one of those rare, "I specifically remember moments of my life that he was involved in" celebrities." and its so true. i had one of those moments.

for me it was the spring/summer of 1999. i had just finished my freshman year of college. i was still living in provo and just working and taking some classes while waiting to go on the mission. i was living with my older brother, but he was in the process of rekindling a relationship with the girl that he would eventually marry. they had dated once before and were starting to hang out again. in typical fashion though they were pulling the, 'we arent dating again we just hang out 12 hours a day together and disappear without telling anyone where we are.' not that they need to tell anyone. they were adults. but we all have had friends like that or been in that situation and done it ourselves.

'hey, where's matt?'

'not sure, he was just here. did he leave?'

'i dont know. i didnt hear him say he was going anywhere, nor did i hear him leave, but i cant find him.'

12 hours later: 'oh, hey matt, welcome back from where ever it was you just were for the past day.'

back to michael. so i was dating a girl named sharman (yes, that was her name and she was from utah). she was a huge michael jackson fan. she was a cougarette and a dancer and could pop and lock like michael unlike anyone ive ever seen. she was actually working on a cruise ship for the summer, but i knew that she really liked michael jackson so i decided to make a mix tape for her. but not a mix tape like cassette tape, like a vhs mix tape. this was before the days of youtube and easy internet video access. so i went out and rented michael jackson music videos and did what any good mormon, boy scout would do. i hooked up a couple of vcr's at my sister lark's house and started pirating copies of my favorite music videos. i had pretty much set up a residence at lark's house. she and her roommates were michael fans. one roommate, jill, was actually reading a biography about him. lark was a dance major and a full-fledged fan of michael and his music. it was just the cosmos coming together. a long time fan. a budding dance major that liked his music and really appreciated his dancing. and myself, the recent convert just starting to learn of the brilliance that is michael jackson - especially when on stage.

but i remember in particular one afternoon, i was at lark's place, i dont think anyone was there but me. i was just hanging out, doing my thing - illegally pirating some michael jackson videos. i remember just sitting there on the edge of the coffee table just a couple feet in front of the tv and staring and watching smooth criminal and just being in awe of literally how smooth and effortlessly michael waltzed across a floor (jump to 6:35 in the video below). im as stiff as a board on the dance floor. i try and i enjoy dancing. but if there is anything i am not when im dancing, its smooth and fluid. and for whatever reason i clearly remember that moment and will always remember the summer of 99 as the michael jackson conversion summer. nothing necessarily amazing or special. but i had ive been a fan ever since and really had an appreciation for his music and especially dancing.

so that summer was probably my michael jackson moment, besides of course captain EO moments once a year at disneyland growing up. i always thought the guy was weird and sort of a creep until i got to know the michael jackson i missed in the 80s, and i was hooked ever since. not that he wasnt weird or didnt have issues, but unfortunately i heard more about the strange michael before i ever really got to know the better michael.

so unfortunately there was that other side. i am looking forward to when books are released about michael. im sure a lot will pour out right away, but hopefully at some point someone will write one that tells his story and the author isnt just in it for the money. the man clearly was a piece of work. i wasnt going to talk about it because its not fun to dwell on the other half of his life. but i do have some thoughts on it. nellie said yesterday that in a way she was glad he died. because he seemed so troubled and lonely that now he gets to escape all of those problems. and i think its so true. he was about to do his tour and i know that i, and i think everyone hoped that somehow it would be a resurrection of that old michael jackson that completely blew you away at some point in your life. but i think that was extremely wishful thinking. who knows, maybe he would have made a grand comeback and reverted back to being the greatest thing ever. but i dont think that was possible. he probably could have performed. heaven knows he could perform. and im sure it was something he could never lose no matter how much of his brain he had lost. but we are all so much of a product of our life experiences. look, i hardly know anything about his life. but he was 5 when he was started lead singing for the jackson 5. 5 years old! at 5 years old he became an entertainer. at 11 they had a number 1 hit. again, at 11 years old he had already been a performer for 6 years and was lead singing for a hit group. 11! then of course there are all sorts of stories of family abuse and other nasty stuff. those problems alone mess people up for life. couple it with being the biggest thing the world has ever known and you will for sure end up a head case. its funny how i, and probably many other people, dream sometimes of being famous (like a famous football star for real madrid), but i wonder how much other people, like michael jackson, maybe just dreamed of being normal. he was never really a part of society. at 5 he started performing and he was soon thereafter a superstar. so the only part of his life that you and i would call normal or could relate to are his first 5 years. if that. i wonder if he would have given it all up for a simple life with a working dad and a stay at home mom and some brothers and sisters that never went on to become famous.

so not to get too religious in the post. but again, these are my wandering thoughts during this whole thing. one of the coolest things about being religious and believing in something beyond this life, is the belief that there is something better beyond this life and that you can leave things here. at some point you can be relieved of everything and it will get sorted out later. and maybe not always in a good way. it wont be chocolate chip cookies and milk for everyone. i pirated movies in my day (i have since gone out and bought michael jackson music video dvd's so that sort of makes up for it, right? plus vhs, was about 2 years shy of becoming completely obsolete and worthless so that should factor into it as well - its those types of sound arguments that im sure will help me one day in court). but there is great power and comfort in that hope of something better and things getting sorted out. so did michael jackson molest children? theres a really good chance. nothing technically proven in court, but lots of bad evidence that makes it seem like he did. was he himself molested? not sure. abused? definitely. does that justify any of his wrongdoings? absolutely not. does it some how factor in to everything? i would think, but i dont know. but i dont have to sort it out. but i know michael was clearly troubled and had a lot of demons and that he doesnt have to deal with everything while someone sorts everything out.

i'm sad he died. i really wished to see him perform live. it really was a life dream of mine. i hoped that it was possible. but ill admit, sometimes it was hard being a fan. he would just do so many strange things that i wanted to overlook, but just couldnt. he would do things and people would ask if i really liked that weirdo. id have to try and explain that i did, but he was strange, but he was so great back in the day. so as bummed that i am that he's gone, i think the glory years were long gone and never coming back anyways. if there is anything good from this, its that whatever demons and crazy issues he was dealing with and carrying he no longer has to deal with. it also means that we no longer have to deal with remembering him that way. his troubled side will linger for awhile, but eventually we will just remember the great, and let someone else deal with the bad. which is sort of how it should be with everyone. but especially someone that was immortalized by the world over, unlike anything we will probably ever see again. long live the king, of pop.

holga photos

2009-06-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

17-Year-Old Thinks She's Getting Into Photography

June 8, 2009 | The Onion Issue 45•24

EUGENE, OR—After wasting an afternoon taking pictures of a broken tricycle, moss on trees, and the shadow of a wrought-iron fence, Churchill Alternative High School senior Jessica Ivers falsely informed family and friends Saturday that she was getting into photography. "I love the way real film looks," said Ivers, who has owned the old single-lens reflex 35 millimeter camera for exactly one week, and named as her favorite photographers "probably Diane Arbus" and the French guy who took the picture of the boy with the wine bottle. "I'm really fascinated by textures, and I think I'll be able to get some good shots of my grandma's hands this weekend." Sources close to Ivers expect the camera to join her clarinet and yoga mat under her bed once she pays $14.85 to develop the roll of clumsy, overexposed images.

so i'm not getting into photography, but i do find it interesting. dont worry, i didnt go out and buy an expensive camera with a big lens and im not about therefore call myself a photographer and start asking you to refer your friends so that i can do their weddings even though i have no experience or training beyond reading the instruction manual for my expensive camera. not remotely.

but nellie and i do own a holga camera. two actually. my friend bought me one a couple years ago and they are pretty cool. nellie brought one to europe and i'm glad she did. so i like the holga because you never know what you are going to get. its not digital and requires film so you cant immediately see how the picture turned out. you also have to advance the film manually and you have to try and line up each picture correctly(?). not sure how to explain that. there is no automatic advancement that puts the slide in the right position. so sometimes your pictures overlap if you dont line it up exactly, which almost always happens because there is no way to know if its lined up correctly. also, if you forget to wind it, then it will just take pictures on top of each other. it also has an old school button which literally just opens up the shutter. so depending on how long you hold down the button will determine how much light comes in to each picture. i dont know if its for that reason or another, but the colors usually get blown out.

so as you can tell, the pictures are pretty unpredictable as to how they will come out. again, im not getting into photography. im not about to start selling these photos (unless of course you wanted to buy them), but i did think some were worth posting.

so this and the last one might be my favorite. i think its mainly because of the colors. nothing is really going on in the photo. the coastline is of course great, but the holga doesnt really give you much detail and its not as good as any digital camera. but the colors are fascinating. i feel like it has a colors and a feel that people would try and mimic with a photo editing program. its dull and feels like the photo could have been taken in the 1970s. except that if it was taken in the 70s, there is no way the blue in the ocean would be as bright and vibrant. its almost as though it captures the colors in their purest and best form. not entirely, but the sand is very brown and dull. it wasnt that dull of course, it was lighter sand, just like the ocean wasnt that blue, although it was lighter than the pacific ocean and was pretty blue. somehow the one is dulled down and the other blown out and they create a great contrast. believe me, not all turn out like this, most are just a mess, but sometimes you get something interesting, like this one.

this one is great only because the grass turned out yellow. why? i dont know. it wasnt yellow. it was some of the greenest and nicest grass ive ever been on. yet for some reason it comes out yellow. maybe because the film wasnt wound properly and so there was more light exposed on the picture when the next picture was taken. not sure. someone with a tiny bit of photography knowledge probably knows. this one also shows what happens when you dont wind the film properly and two photos overlap.

this one is actually four pictures combined. nellie forgot to wind the film after each photo so she ended up taking four pictures on top of each other. completely done by accident, but it made the field look fuller and it just looks really cool.

so i really like these two because it shows you the impact of the sun. pretty much the same photo, one just towards the sun and the other not. but the contrast and impact of the sun is awesome. but the one towards the sun doesnt get blown out and the whole image doesnt go bright yellow where you cant see anything. instead the colors just come out and explode. whereas the other one is dull but strong colors. again, it has a sort of faded, ancient feel to it or almost feels like its out of a scene from a horror film where they blur the screen and fade the colors.

nellie really likes this one. its just a random photo. this is our attempt at being 'artsy' with our photography, yet unoriginal. like taking photos of the texture of your grandma's hands, or a picture of your friends in front of that totally cool building downtown that is like old looking with the paint chipping off.

so nellie took this one. its just a random street in madrid. i like how the street and buildings are brown and look faded, yet there are random colors throughout, like the green tree, a strip of blue sky, and the random red shirt. again, its a fun camera because its so unpredictable. im sure many photographers know how to 'use' them so that their photos turn our how they want or how they expect. we dont really know what we are doing. which is actually better for us since it keeps our expectations low and makes it that much better when we get an interesting photo because we have no idea why it turned out but others didnt. sometimes its nice having things be unpredictable.

here a couple others: the temple and then a picture on omaha beach looking up at the hills and cliffs that the allied forces had to climb.

sunday morning

2009-06-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

i just found this song on facebook. i immediately fell in love with it. its just utterly fantastic. picture a lazy sunday morning. one where you dont have to get up and run off to church right away or anywhere else. you just wake up, sit on the side of the bed. stagger down the hall. maybe plop down on the couch and stare at the wall for a few minutes. maybe get some cereal. maybe get the paper. maybe not. it doesnt really matter. its a sunday morning. you are just waking up and slowly welcoming the new day. the song so perfectly captures a sunday morning that it sort of blows my mind. please enjoy. (and josh, this is the second post in one day, i hope you appreciate it. plus its a beck related post - a tribute to the concert we went to. good times.)

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico 'Sunday Morning' from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

quick plug for 'up'

2009-06-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

i just wanted to give a quick plug for 'up.' the new pixar movie. in my movie post i campaigned a little for 'star trek' because it's a great show and worth seeing. 'up' deserves it's own plug as well. nellie had been wanting to see this movie for awhile so we saw it soon after it came out and it completely delivered. everyone should see this movie. its pixar at its finest. they always put out an excellent product. even their 'boring' movies like 'cars' are still excellent compared to so many other movies that come out each year.

'up' isnt life changing. its not a 'blockbuster.' its not action and adventure like star trek. it doesnt have a plot that will 'blow you away.' but its so enjoyable that no one should pass on seeing it and they should make an effort to see it. it will make you happy that there are people in hollywood that dedicate themselves to making excellent movies like 'up.' the really impressive part and why the movie is outstanding is the subtle brilliance that underlies entire movie. the fantastic characters. the great comedy and the way they capture so many wonderful things about life. the fact that in 5 minutes at the beginning of the movie they can tell a character's life story and completely attach you to the character and make you care about him - something other movies cant accomplish in 120 minutes. plus its in 3d. but 'good' 3d. its not in your face 3d where they are just doing obnoxious things the whole time. nothing comes flying out of the screen at you. they just add depth to the movie. again, subtle brilliance.

look, i dont want to over elevate people's expectations with this movie, although even if i did, i still dont think people would be disappointed. but it deserves a plug and its only a matter of weeks before this movie is pushed aside by other big summer movies, none of which will be better. they might have things or elements that you like better, but overall quality can only be matched, not surpassed, at least not until toy story 3 next summer.

tweeterpated

2009-06-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

so i dont really 'get' twitter. my friend was asking me about it the other day. i joined so that i could investigate it to try and figure out why its all the rage, but i im not quite on board. it seems like quite the fad. like the pager. and like the pager or crystal pepsi, i dont think it will last long. i could be wrong. whether or not it stays, it is lame.

so i admit, that last sentence is a little hypocritical. its coming from a guy that has jumped on many internet fads, all of which were or are perceived as lame, and many of which faded into oblivion. i have a myspace account. a facebook account. even a (gulp) ldslinkup account.

like many internet fads, twitter has a good concept. its just getting out of control. myspace was great because creating your own internet web page is difficult. so they facilitated it for everyone and gave everyone the opportunity to have their own web space. you could decorate it and change it how you liked. the problem was when 40 year old men with mustaches started to realize that myspace was a great way to meet 14 year old girls. it also turned sour when girls began to realize that myspace was a perfect way to bring out the inner prostitute that they all apparently had inside of them. who knew right? no one until myspace. they decorated their pages with all their scandalous photos which usually involved hundreds of photos of the person standing in some lame bar holding a beer bottle. so original.

facebook has a great concept. despite getting out of control, i think it has more staying power than myspace because older people are even jumping on board. plus, you cant go crazy and 'pimp' out your pages like myspace. the purists will tell you that it was better when you could only connect with people in your network. each school was its own network and you could only connect with those people in your network, or at your school. it was more personal. now its not so personal unless you consider connecting with your parent's friends 'personal.' i dont know if facebook inspired twitter. i doubt it, but on facebook you can update your 'status.' tell all the people what you are doing or what you are thinking or if something made you 'lol'. i've never really gotten into this feature, which is maybe why i havnt grasped twitter.

here's the thing, i understand the concept of twitter and why it can be useful. its like mini updates on peoples' lives. i understand that for some people it can be extremely useful. many sports writers and news organizations have twitter accounts, which makes sense. when they 'break' news they can update their twitter account. its a great way for these people to tell their audience something important or something interesting. they have information worth sending to people and worth distributing.

the problem that has occurred is that people that arent important or interesting, or have nothing worth distributing, are insisting on updating us about their lives. they are grabbing a hold of twitter and going crazy with it. which i think is what makes it appear ridiculous. its not just that people are doing meaningless stuff, but they are then telling everyone about it. even if im your husband i dont need constant updates on your life. sorry nellie but its true. i dont. not that you twitter, but if you did, i probably wouldnt follow it.

the other problem is that it seems like twitter is all about getting people to 'follow you on twitter.' its not so much about updating people about your life because you want them to know what you are doing, but moreso you tweet because you want people to want to know what you are doing. its like some sort of popularity contest, like having friends on myspace. you have to get lots of followers and fill them with meaningless junk as often as you can so that they will check back in often. if they check back in often, then they care about what you are doing. if they care about what you are doing, then they like you. if they like you, then your life has meaning and you are somebody important. if you are important, then you are cool, or something else equally great.

so that was probably a little extreme. i know that not everyone is on twitter for that reason. but the problem still remains that people dont have anything to say, but still provide updates. here is how my weekend would have gone on twitter:

friday, 8:02 p.m. 'the wife just found a 'souplantation' 15% off coupon in the mail! aw yeah. date night extravaganza 2009 is about to go down!

friday, 9:07 p.m. 'souplantation was as consistent as always. my bowels hate me but the wife is super happy. always important. gonna cuddle up with her now for an awesome flick at home.'

friday, 10:45 p.m. dang, this movie is pretty good. man movies are great sometimes. shoot, im missing some of the plot because im twittering during a movie. its more important that you know that im watching a movie and care and respond that im watching a movie than me actually watch it. life events dont matter as much as you knowing what my life events are.

friday 11:17 p.m. the wife totally fell asleep during the movie. should i leave her alone or tickle her foot until she wakes up? tweet me back and let me know what i should do. whatever you tell me to do, ill do. your opinion and loyal following is more important than me continuing to direct my own life.

saturday 12:36 p.m. just cut down a tree in the front yard with my dad. he's like paul bunyan because he cut it down and im big blue because i had to haul everything into the back. plus, im yoked like an ox. yard work with dad is the best.

saturday 5:07 p.m. cruising out to the inland empire with the wife. and yes im twittering while driving. yo, hit me up if you going to be in the i.e. this evening.

saturday 10:27 p.m. just chillaxin in the hot tub with the wife, zach attack and d-ax. nothing like a hot tub. do you like hot tubs?

sunday 2:09 p.m. d-ax and i just put a serious beat down on super mario bros. 3. d-ax did most of the work, he's the true champion here, but i contributed and took out my share of goombas.

sunday 6:01 p.m. lil z just graduated from loma linda. im so proud. i always knew he could do it. he's the bestest. that's not a word. lol. im funny sometimes right? right? please say yes.

pretty exciting right? not really. just tiring. the weekend was a lot of fun, but besides my mom and a couple of other family members, i dont know that anyone would really care. even if my mom did care, i dont think she would want an hourly update.

so i cant fault you for following twitter or getting involved with it. we all want attention. i started a podcast for pete's sake. i mock people that twitter and the attention they seek by blogging about it and putting it online for people to read in hopes that its interesting and grabs their attention. its not that i dont enjoy attention. i am human after all. and im not saying im better than internet fads. ive admitted i was sucked into others. but i didnt jump on the pager train when it went on a short ride in the 90s, i dont think ill buy a ticket this time either.

awkward family photos

2009-06-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

many people have put this on their blog and/or emailed it to me, so there is a good chance that you have already seen it. but i came across it again today and spent way too long looking at the pictures. the site is very addicting. either because the pictures are just so ridiculous that you cant help but stare and laugh, or because the photo looks a little too similar to a photo you have taken in the past. granted, not nearly as awkward, but we all were in high school once. so enjoy, if you havnt already. and if you have, its probably time to go back:

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

also, another site i get stuck on for far too long. i think i love onion articles because they are often so short and sometimes so spot on or capture a person's thinking so well. in this case, teengers:

Mom Really Funny Today

KENSINGTON, MD—Local teens James Ripley, 17, and David Ripley, 14, expressed surprise today when their mother, 47-year-old Cynthia Ripley legitimately made them laugh on several occasions within a 24-hour span. "I didn't know Mom could be funny." said James, who described his mother's usual attempts at humor as "not funny." "When she was on the phone with Aunt Linda [Generro], she was making all these hilarious 'I'm crazy' faces, and when Dad dropped the remote she was like 'smooth move, George Clooney.' She was really funny." The matriarch's comedic run will reportedly end during dinner, when she picks up the salad tongs and pretends to play them like a guitar.

futbol recap

2009-06-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

so nellie and i recently went to spain and france. we were fortunate enough to go to a real madrid. the only downside was that win or lose, real madrid was going to finish second for the season. they couldnt catch leaders, barcelona, and the third place team couldnt catch them. nonetheless, they still played the starters, which i was happy about, they just didnt have too much to play for. but i did walk away with a few thoughts/observations.

the players.

soccer players are short. its never been a sport dominated by 'big men' like football or basketball. i knew this, yet was still surprised to see these players in person. when they are on tv, you cant really tell how tall or short they are. plus, when they are all pretty much the same size, you cant really tell that they are all 5'9 or 5'10. plus, they are all pretty thin. not terribly thin, just fit and not too bulky. something that you can also see on tv, but in person you realize these guys arent intimidating like basketball players. those players all look 'average' on tv until you realize that john stockton who looks like a midget on the court was actually 6'0 and all the other players are at least 6'5.

speaking of players. at the end of the first half, iker casillas (the real madrid goal keeper) took off his gloves and threw them into the stands. then on his way to the tunnel he took off his jersey and threw it to the girl 5 seats away from us. same row, just 5 seats to the left. i couldnt believe it. as he was jogging over i had my arms outstretched and was yelling 'iker! iker!' but he didnt choose me. i dont know what i would have done if he threw it to me. probably squeezed it so hard that the sweat would have run all over my body and wept tears of joy like a little child. seriously though, how awesome would that have been? i wish i knew that he was going to come so close to us. i would have made nellie take off her ring and be the one screaming his name. surely it would have increased our odds of getting the jersey.

the game.

the game is so fast. everyone is so fast. the ball moves fast and everyone is so quick. it was like the speed of an indoor soccer game, only on a field 120 yards long. again, i felt like this was something that tv hides. either because when two fast people are running side by side, it blurs how fast they are really going, or you just cant really grasp it until they are running past you. whatever the reason, these players move fast and are so skilled. its much faster than i expected.

the fans and the stadium.

so there are lots of cool things that just made it a different sporting experience. a cultural experience even. one great thing is that i dont think they sell food inside the stadium. they might, im not quite sure. we walked in and out of the same tunnel, but we didnt see anyone selling any food. so there were tons of food vendors outside the stadium selling all sorts of snacks and food. people just walking in with all sorts of great items, and its totally fine. no crazy security or owners upset that if people bring in food that means they wont buy the $15 hot dog inside the stadium.

the coolest part was at halftime when literally everyone pulled out a bocadillo and started eating. a halftime dinner. just some bread, meat and cheese. no sauce or anything. you dont need it when your bread is fresh, your meat is freshly sliced off of the leg of the pig right when you buy it, and your cheese is strong. seriously though, nellie and i felt out of place not eating a sandwich at halftime. everyone whipped out the sandwich that they were allowed to bring in, and just calmly ate while pondering the events of the first half.

no instant replay. i thought there would have been, because it just seems normal, but there isnt. if you missed a play or a goal, you wont see it until you get home. not that it matters though because everyone is watching. its not like there are breaks or anything. you cant leave until halftime. you go to a sporting event and everyone is there to watch the game. crazy huh? some fans were even sitting alone. they were my favorite. again, just there to see their favorite team play.

so there are two final things that i really wish we would adopt at sporting events in the u.s. the first one is whistling. people dont boo their team, they whistle. and its great. there is always debate about whether fans should boo their team or any players. espn people always elevate themselves above everyone and say something lame like they would never boo a player because its just wrong or not classy because its not like you could do any better.

but that is what is so great about whistling. its like mock cheering. there is something different about whistling as opposed to booing. it just feels different. its more of a 'you dont deserve our cheers so we wont give them to you, and its not so much that we are going to boo you, but you are just playing poor and we expect more out of you, mainly because we love you, but also because we know you can play better and should play better and we want to see it. shame on you.' whistling is really very fitting and should be adopted.

nothing really beats the chanting and singing fans though. no p.a. system at the game. not like there is really a moment to play music though as the play is continuous. but you dont need it when you have fans that cheer and sing the entire time. one of these clips is of the game but you can hear in the background the constant cheering of fans. the other video actually shows the fans cheering. they did this cheer over and over for about 10 minutes. i cant quite understand it. ive looked for it online, but i havnt found it. either way, its just great that they stand around a sing all game. so fun.

movie time

2009-05-19T19:47:00.001-07:00

so i wasnt going to do a summer movie post because it requires some effort, which i clearly dont put into this blog. but the summer movie preview post is such a rich tradition here at kent drive that i didnt want it to end. plus, faithful reader josh baron commented that he wanted more posts on the blog and since i only have about 3 readers left, i have to listen to their requests if i want to keep thrm. so without further ado, summer movies:

what ive already seen:

star trek.

before the comment from sr. baron i was already thinking about posting about star trek. its a fabulous movie. critics loved it and with good reason. ive mentioned it before that i dont always follow what the critics like, but if 95% of all the critics that saw a movie gave it positive reviews, then its safe to assume youll at least get your money's worth. im no 'trekky.' never liked the show, but they sure did make this star trek hip and cool. and since that is what i am, i liked the movie. really though. this movie is everything you hope out of a summer blockbuster. not flawless, but very entertaining and very well done. just see it.

the brothers bloom.

were it not for roommate dave i would have never known this movie even existed. i dont know if its going to get a wide release, but it opened last weekend in select theaters in new york and l.a. dave said it would be great and it was. im glad we went. he gave a great recap about the movie on his blog (blog plug). dave also happens to be the guy that is the co-host of our popular, critically acclaimed podcast (podcast plug). i really enjoyed it. it had so many random funny moments. plus it was just a good story and a very rich ending.

for the kids:

up.

oh pixar. you are so brilliant. even when you arent considered brilliant its just because people dont pause to ponder what you have done and realize the subtle brilliance. an old man attaches balloons to his house and it floats away but when it does he didnt realize there was a chubby cub scout on his porch. who thinks of this stuff? nellie has been talking about seeing this movie for about a year now, so im pretty sure we will go.

based on kids stuff, only probably not for the kids:

transformers and GI joe.

im sure ill see both of these movies. probably with a bunch of dudes. we will talk about how great life was before we had to worry about life. we will reminisce about duke, flint, snake eyes, bazooka, star scream, optimus prime and every other thing that made being a child in the 80s better than being an adult in the 2000s. unfortunately for both of these movies, im pretty sure the reminiscing will be better than the actual movie. probably because the plots wont be anything better than what we could have or did make up while playing with the action figures when we were 10.

other blockbusters:

terminator.

last terminator movie i saw was T2. i guess there was a T3, but i had completely forgotten about it. this movie has christian bale in it. i like him so i might go see it. remember that 'batman' movie he was in last summer? remember how awesome it was? that was the highlight of my summer. well, besides getting married of course (love you nellie). seriously though, if i hadn't gotten married, it would totally have been number 1 on the list. i spent all summer studying for one test. i took one break in the month of july and that was to see that movie, which might have added to the greatness of the movie. you could have put me in an eddie murphy or adam sandler movie and i would have waslked out praising it like it was 'casablanca,' 'ben hur' or even 'toy story.'

angels and demons.

i havnt read the book so id rather not see this yet. not sure if ill ever get around to the book so i very well may never see the movie. even once i do though, im sure ill just be disappointed with the movie just like everyone else that loves a book but still goes into a movie with ridiculously high expectations that for the first time ever the movie will be as good as the book. if steven speilberg and jurrasic park couldnt pull it off, i dont think anyone ever will.

except for maybe this one:

where the wild things are.

so i honestly dont know what to make of this movie. some people are very excited about it. personally i think the 'wild things' sort of look like this guy from the muppet movies, who i was always afraid of as a little kid. i guess his name is 'sweetums.' i only remember him running around and screaming and chasing people, which is sort of what this movie looks like.

im sure ill go see it though for two reasons. 1. ill see pretty much any movie that uses an arcade fire song in the trailer. especially a b-side version of 'wake up.' great trailer song = decent movie at least (sound logic right?)

2. the director is spike jonze. a white dude that spells his last name with a 'z.' i dont know what movies he's done, but he's directed two of arguably the best music videos of all time. weezer's buddy holly and the ever famous beastie boys 'sabotage' video. thats a good enough resume to see what he can do on the big screen.

ok, so im running out of steam on this post and there is a ton im missing. so ill just rattle them off:

harry potter: i never see them. why start now?

dance flick: isnt it sad that some people are unemployed in this country while others are employed to make junk like this? and they are employed because unemployed support the junk by seeing it.

land of the lost: does actually look funny. im pretty sure we will get around to seeing it at some point.

night at the museum: first one was surprisingly good because i wasnt expecting much. this time im ready for it and expecting mediocrity so im skeptical it will deliver. plus, its called 'battle at the smithsonian.' the least they could have done was put it overseas. i dont know why, but somehow it would be better in europe. 'duel at the lourve.' or 'pandemonium at the prado.' or 'vengeance at the vatican.' admit it, you would rather see any one of those than the smithsonian.

the proposal: nellie told me last night she is excited to see this movie. im a huge ryan reynolds fan. the movie looks terribly predictable but hopefully he will have a couple of moments that make it so i feel like i only lost $9 by seeing it and not $10.

500 days of summer: another dave axelgard suggestion. looks great. probably better than the proposal.

and finally:

year one.

at first i wasnt that excited about this movie. any time any former cast member from 'arrested development' does anything, im intrigued and always want to support them in their endeavors by giving $10 to the movie studio that produced their movie as though it will in some way bring arrested development back to tv. it wont, but at least i have 30 rock now. anyways, i was intrigued because this has george michael bluth, or michael cera. but then i saw the preview and i thought it looked really funny. i dont always like jack black, but sometimes he can be really entertaining. this looks like an enjoyable summer movie. funny, but probably not brilliant funny. entertaining, but not moving. just shut off your brain and enjoy life for a couple hours because its the summer and that is how you are supposed to live life, even when you are no longer 10.

sorry its a shorter movie preview post than normal. it just needs to be long enough and entertaining enough to keep josh faithful. hopefully it is.

extras

2009-04-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

so the other night nellie and i finished the tv series 'extras.' its the second series created by ricky gervais, the same guy that created 'the office.' similar to 'the office,' 'extras' consists of only two seasons and one 2 hour christmas special. seasons in england however are only 6 episodes. so really its just 12 total episodes and one 2 hour special.

so the 2 hour special revolves around the ricky gervais character and that he wants to move on to bigger and better projects but he's not big enough to get quality roles and he turns down most of the other offers that come through the door. at one point he is talking to his agent and asking why he's not getting any roles. his agent basically tells him that he needs to decide what he wants. he wants to be super famous, yet he also wants to have credibility and respect, which his agent tells him is something that few people in this business have ever achieved and that he (ricky gervais' character) will never be one of those people that achieves both. he eventually decides that he wants fame and fortune.

so i dont know if the show in any way has any sort of similarities to what ricky gervais actually faced in his own life, but in a way it seemed like it. both of the series he created were very popular (hence the american spin off) and didnt need to end after two seasons, but ricky gervais wanted to move on to other projects. he totally could have milked them for tons of money (as it turns out he has made a ton of money anyways from his projects). but i admire him quite a bit for walking away to try something else even though what he had created was doing extremely well. he wasnt making the shows for the fame and fortune as much as to satisfy his own personal interests and desires. so many other shows just go on and on because 'they can' even though they arent producing a good product anymore. i would argue the american office is in this boat. my brother and i were talking about that the other night. i was finally converted to it a couple seasons ago, but its just lacking inspiration and brilliance now. the problem is that they have no motivation to be brilliant. they have created a fan base where no matter what they did, their loyal following would stick around for at least another 5 seasons, and they know it. compared to a show like '30 rock,' 'the office' is hardly putting out an impressive product week after week. 30 rock is on par with 'arrested development' and 'seinfeld' brilliance. two other shows that exited at the right time. granted, 'arrested development's' exit wasnt by choice, but its that premature exit that creates such a lasting impact. seinfeld's exit was voluntary, but they were at the peak of popularity which made their exit feel premature.

anyways, i could go on and on. ive never seen 'lost,' but i think it could have benefited by lasting only a couple of seasons. 'prison break' should have lasted just one season. just break out of the prison and be done with it. people would still be talking about that awesome 'prison break' show that was only around for one season but it was 'so coool.' as it is, they tried to milk it and it got canceled. the 'band of brothers' series was a fantastic series because you got to know the characters, followed them through an incredible experience, and then they were out of your lives forever. if they would have had a 'band of brothers - the post war years,' i would have for sure watched it, but it would have completely ruined the series. it just ended and i was longing for more, which is why i will always love the show. same thing with 'extras.' once it finished, nellie mentioned how it was a great ending. i agreed. a fantastic ending to a fantastic show. we sat there on the couch and i wished there was more, but knew full well that as much as i hated to admit it, it was better this way.

its a chicken! in the parking lot!

2009-03-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

so today at work, there was a chicken in the parking lot. you know, one of those birds that lays eggs that you eat that are filled with protein. youve seen one probably eight hundred times. not that big of a deal. unless of course you work in a law office. although our building is in newport beach, its situated right next to an equestrian community. its a really random spot where everyone in the community has to own or does own horses. in typical newport beach fashion, the owners of the community made our office tint and 'fog' the windows on one side of the building so that the sun wouldnt reflect off the building into the horses eyes, AND so that the horses wouldnt get spooked by people looking out of their offices at the horses. as though we have nothing better to do than stare at horses all day. we actually do, but it would be somewhat distracting seeing them outside your window wondering how much better it would be to be out riding one rather than working on discovery requests. i think they fogged the windows as a result of the attorneys not the horses. which makes sense given the response today when a chicken flew over the wall into the parking lot. one attorney came down the hallway to let everyone know about the exciting news. when i looked out the window to check it out, i saw a paralegal down there taking a picture of it with the camera on his phone. id explore all of the many potential commentaries available, but i just dont think this is the time or the forum.

anyways, the experience really did remind me of the 'arrested development' episode 'bringing up buster.' at the beginning of the episode lucille is talking to michael on the phone and finds out that everyone is hanging out and 'corn balling' without buster. meanwhile in the background buster is swatting a broom all over the house because a bird flew in the house. when lucille yells at him for knocking over the chandelier with the broom, buster is super giddy and responds, 'mom! its a bird! in the kitchen!'

anyways, like everything in that blessed show, its a great moment and it was all too familiar today. unfortunately i couldnt find the actual clip of buster trying to swat the bird with a broom, but i did find a fantastic clip at the very end of that same episode. enjoy.

music and sports

2009-03-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

so michael jackson is bankrupt and going on tour again. there is plenty of discussion about how a guy like him even goes bankrupt with all the money he has made, but that can be for another time. but awhile ago nellie and i were talking about concerts and discussing:

1. what concert would you want to go to more than anything? and

2. how much would you spend on that concert before you even questioned the purchase?

for the second question we are talking about good seats. not necessarily pit tickets, but definitely not nose bleeds. a seat where you would be very happy sitting. not pit, but maybe first section after the pit or something like that.

anyways, when we had the discussion and even now, i think that at the top of my list was michael jackson. granted, when i think of michael jackson concerts i think of late 80s or early 90s concerts that i see on dvd. im sure it would be very different now. but i still think it tops my list. how much? probably $250 before i really questioned it. i know. thats a lot of money. but remember, these are good seats. i guess things always change when you are married because its no longer $250, but $500 for the pair, so quite a bit more. but seriously, the king of pop. and in case youve never seen clips from a michael jackson concert, here is one:

im not sure what that is from. it says its from korea, but its similar to a performance he did at the mtv video music awards in 1995. either way, its pretty incredible. his long dramatic pauses are a little over the top, but what about michael isnt over the top? as nellie says, 'it looks like he's floating when he's dancing.' so true. too bad that man on stage is long gone and even that man on stage is a long way gone from who he once was back in the 80s. either way, he still dominates and no one puts on a production like he does. he's my first choice.

after michael, its tough. ive never seen u2. they are also iconic. ive heard amazing things about them in concert. id pay quite a bit for good seats. nellie says depeche mode are great. ive never loved them. id like to see them in concert, not sure that i would pay much more than $75 though.

i think the two right below michael would be led zeppelin and paul mccartney. im a huge beatles fan and to see one of the original beatles performing beatles songs live, would be awesome. as long as he didnt do any of his solo stuff i think it would be just a fantastic performance. not quite a production like what michael would do, but a very satisfying concert. and zeppelin. that would just be awesome. i might even put them above paul mccartney. only because i think they would have a better show. paul mccartney is bigger or more of a legend i think so i dont think you could ever pass on the opportunity to see him play a show. but how hard would zeppelin rock? to be in a stadium full of people with zeppelin walking out playing immigrant song?

it would be hard to top that. gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. so zeppelin tickets i think i would pay $200 before really debating the purchase and id probably put mccartney at $150-175. i know paul mccartney is playing at coachella in april or may, but again, this is the price for good seats. there are thousands at coachella and you have to sit through hours in the heat, which takes away from the experience.

so those are my top 3. 1. king of pop. 2. zeppelin. 3. mccartney. with u2 being 4th. they are probably the only realistic one at this point. your list?

btw, speaking of mccartney and the beatles, have you seen this? awesome. awesome. awesome. nellie and i own a wii. we thought about buying rock band or guitar hero for christmas. im glad we didnt. 1. it would have been stolen. but 2, we would have missed the beatles version. could there be a more fun version? i honestly dont think so. september couldnt come soon enough. for our anniversary ill give nellie the online pre-order confirmation number. im such a romantic. she's so lucky.

ok, most people can leave now. you dont have to, but i have a few sports thoughts and i think it bores most readers, but i must vent.

look, i dont ask for much in this world, but i have two sports related requests. the best time in sports in upon us. march. which means march madness and champions league knock out rounds. technically they start in february, but whatever. i think the only other better time in sports is college football bowl season.

first of all, is that the biggest logo or what? and thats the 'small' version. its just a demonstration of my love for the team and hopefully helps you understand how much it hurts when they lose. so the champions league hasnt been excellent in a long time if you are a real madrid fan. a 5-0 aggregate loss to liverpool! shoot me now. they are a good team, but we were just embarrassed. and anyone that saw the game knows that it could have been 7-0 tonight if it werent for iker casillas being brilliant as always. he's so amazing. if we ever lose him i dont know that we would ever win a game. we were completely outmatched tonight. just looked poor, like we didnt belong on the same field. maybe the pk was a bad call or the torres goal shouldnt have counted because he pulled on pepe, but even if we did get those calls, we still would have been beat. we were completely dominated.

so this is the 4th or 5th season in a row when we have bowed out in the round of 16. and perhaps you could say we should just be grateful to get to the round of 16 or even the champions league each year. no we shouldnt. not with our payroll and legacy. we have more champions league trophies than any other club. we arent built to compete. we are made to win. but we havnt been winning. at all. and its frustrating. ever since the greatest goal ever, we have struggled. a couple of league titles, but nothing to show for it in the champions league. when we get on the stage with the great clubs we collapse. speaking of the greatest goal ever, here it is (btw, i chose this one on purpose not just for the great announcer, but its also great because they must have been broadcasting to submarines or something because they bust out with morse code after the goal):

so here is my quick analysis of the team. thanks to goltv, ive been able to watch a few games lately. robben has to go. he's not a team player, hes exactly what we dont need right now. he is a legit ball hog and whines all the time. the team plays better without him. there are stats to back this up, but i dont care to search for them right now. we have plenty of talent, we just need chemistry and he does nothing but mess it up. im sure we will pursue ronaldo like crazy in the offseason, i hope he doesnt mess things up either.

get rid of cannavaro and put sergio ramos in the middle with pepe. get rid of heinze, he's no good. diarra is excellent. a masterful defensive midfielder. put marcelo on the outside midfield. he's exactly what you want and expect out of a brazilian. short, quick, great skill, and just plays his heart out every time he's near the ball. also sort of runs like he's a little crazy, which is fun to watch. our midfield is fine. guti hates the club and is leaving, but we have plenty of reserves. gago is a great addition as well.

raul is old but still picks up scraps. not sure if he should start anymore, but hes still the team leader. i do really like huntelear though. i like him because he's a workhorse. lots of passion. really loves the game.

anyway, all i want is improvement. i want a respectable showing on the european stage. i want to continue on past the round of 16. i dont think its asking for much. not with all the resources we have.

the other thing i ask for, which i dont think is too much, is for the cougs to win one game in march madness. i went with the old logo because i still think i like it more, and it wasnt since the days of the old logo that they actually won a march madness tournament game. but i dont think thats asking too much for them to do it again. ive never seen it happen and i would like to. this year they are projected as an 8 or 9 seed. i dont even care if they get clobbered in the next round. if they are an 8 or 9 they would play a number 1 seed in the next round and for sure get clobbered. its the greatest tournament in all of sports. it so exciting. i look forward to it each year. i love watching the games and ill watch them regardless. i adopted kansas a few years ago because of a roommate and its fun to have a vested interest in a team even if you have no legitimate ties to the team besides the guy that slept down the hall from me was from that state. but it adds to the excitement. how much greater would that excitement be if it was my alma mater? my cougs. it would be awesome. really, its not too much to ask.

we podcast, do you?

2009-03-04T17:33:00.000-08:00

when i was in 6th grade or so i had a 'gotcha' t-shirt that had a picture an elderly couple and a caption that read, 'we surf, do you?' well, i dont surf. if i was cool, i would surf. i have surfed, but not enough or consistently enough to say that i surf. since i dont surf, i podcast (makes sense right?). we podcast. dave and i. we started a podcast. is it good? well, no. probably not. we just discuss awkward things that happen in our lives. we had the idea one day and so we started doing it. we have recorded three, but only two are up on itunes. we have had some struggles with our editor (dave) going on strike (being busy at work) and refusing to put them up. but i just thought i would just let people know. much like when i started this blog, im hesitant to really tell people. i want people to read the blog and enjoy it, like i want them to listen to the podcast. but we really do it because we find it fun and entertaining. this isnt an attempt to start a career in podcasting, like the blog wasnt an attempt to start a career in writing. i enjoy writing and its cool to have a forum where you can put it out there for everyone to read, even though only a few do actually read it. podcasting is the same way i suppose. we publish it so that its 'real' and more than just a phone conversation between dave and i, but we really just do it for our enjoyment. and because nellie totally digs it. she loves being married to a podcaster.

anyways, enough trying to justify it or explain my way out of it. i should just own it. im a dork. we're dorks. we podcast. if you care to listen, its up on itunes. open up itunes. on the left part of itunes, click on itunes store. once it opens, click on 'podcasts' on the left. you can then search for it. its called '5 minutes of silence.' you can also search 'dave and kent' and it will come up. the second 'episode' is better than the first. not that the second one is brilliant or anything. just better in my opinion. granted i dont guarantee anything brilliant or that you will even enjoy it. youll probably be bored out of your mind or think its really lame, which is fine. it wasnt meant for you anyways.

videos

2009-03-03T19:01:00.001-08:00

so i havnt blogged in over a month. life has been busy. but it always is, so thats not really a good excuse. its not that i dont want to blog, its just that it often times requires more time than i have to commit to it. i still have thoughts, just no time to write them down. so ive resolved to do shorter posts. which im sure the reader appreciates. not that i have any idea as to who frequents this blog besides my loyal commenter/sister paige (she always makes sure each post has at least one comment, and its appreciated). but unless the writing is brilliant, i think im the only person that really gets enjoyment out of the writing, whereas the reader is undoubtedly bored after 1 paragraph of no pictures. no offense. im actually basing this off of the fact that i usually get bored with long posts on other blogs. so ill try and appease to the masses in this one last ditch effort to keep this blog alive.

anyways, here are 3 random videos ive stumbled across during the past couple months that i thought were worth sharing. the first one is courtesy of dave reid. just a funny random video. the second was found on someone else's blog. id name it but id rather not admit that i looked at the person's blog nor do i want to encourage traffic to the blog. the third one i found on dave axelgard's blog. potentially offensive. but also pretty funny (i love the wheelie). plus, anytime you combine the 'white stripes' with mormons, im sold. the video does ring true to a certain degree. not quite in the way portrayed in the video though. usually the women arent attractive at all and/or are 13.

random music thoughts

2009-02-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

1. i dont like linkin park. i never have. i cant think of one song that i like. most of them i find to be annoying. im sure they 'speak to' many troubled teens and other angry people, but i have yet to hear a song that i enjoy or can even really tolerate. for whatever reason, i dont enjoy any of their music. there arent that many successful bands out there where i dont at least like one of their songs. if it wasnt for the 'zephyr' song, i would probably feel the same about red hot chili peppers. they might be a little different in that its not that i dont like any of their songs, but i only mildly like their one song (pick one - not the zephyr song though) and since that song sounds like every other song on every album, i dont really like their stuff.

2. achtung baby is the best u2 album. this may not even be debated as that statement may already be the consensus and it might be something that everyone agrees upon and i just dont know it. but i was in the gym the other day and there were 3 songs on nellie's ipod from this album and it reminded me how great the album is. joshua tree might have the best 1-2-3 punch of any album. the first three tracks of joshua tree are: 1. where the streets have no name; 2. still havnt found what im looking for; and 3. with or without you. a pretty solid and impressive beginning. hard to beat. but top to bottom, i dont know that you can beat achtung baby. here is the list of songs:

#	Title	Length
1.	"Zoo Station"	4:36
2.	"Even Better Than the Real Thing"	3:41
3.	"One"	4:36
4.	"Until the End of the World"	4:39
5.	"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"	5:16
6.	"So Cruel"	5:49
7.	"The Fly"	4:29
8.	"Mysterious Ways"	4:04
9.	"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World"	3:53
10.	"Ultraviolet (Light My Way)"	5:31
11.	"Acrobat"	4:30
12.	"Love Is Blindness"	4:23
55:23

you may not even recognize all those songs (acrobat?), but im telling you, if you havnt ever listened to that album from start to finish, you are missing out on some fantastic music. other u2 albums are great. im not even a huge u2 fan. i was turned off by them when living in utah where they are as close as mormons will get to worshiping a graven image or idol. mormons adopted u2 as their own like bono adopted africa.

but i just did a quick look at their discography and songs on their albums and its amazing all of the many great songs they have done. you could discuss their albums for hours and im sure somewhere people probably are right now, especially since they have a new album coming out next month. as far as im concerned though, there is nothing to debate as achtung baby takes the prize. hands down.

3. its amazing how sometimes music or a song can immediately take you back to a time and/or place in your life. while driving to work the other morning i heard coldplay's 'viva la vida' on the radio and i immediately felt like i was back in june of last year. i was honestly swept away to the point that you could have told me while i was listening to the music and driving that it was june 2008 and i would have believed you because everything just came rushing back. which is only concerning because i wasnt in june of 08, but actually driving 65 along the 405 freeway and probably endangering people because i was in a daze.

but in june i was in the middle of bar prep. i was pretty much living alone in a shell of our house in long beach. i didnt have hot water, or a fridge or electricity throughout the house, just one outlet in the front room. i essentially lived alone. zach sort of lived there for about a month but as mentioned, the house didnt have much to offer so he avoided it when possible. plus, he and every other american hates cold showers so it was all the more reason to leave.

anyways, every morning i had a muffin, banana and a vitamin water. no fridge, no cereal. for lunch i would eat a peanut butter and honey (not jam because you have to refrigerate it) sandwich along with some nutty bars, spicy cheeze-its (both of which i cant eat anymore), some cookies and some carmel flavored rice cakes. for dinner i would get something on the way home from studying or just eat a can of the campbell's thick and chunky soup. i did have a microwave so i could heat that up and dip bread in it and eat it as i watched an 'around the horn' episode online before going to bed. wake up. repeat.

i had recently received my new laptop. my other one crashed and so i lost all my music. i had my ipod but it had already 'maxed out' on the computers that you could hook it up to, so i wasnt able to put any of those songs on my computer. which was probably better since it would have just been distracting during bar study. but i remember hearing viva la vida for the first time and i really loved it and so i went and downloaded it on to my itunes. not the whole album, just that one song. the entire time i was bar studying, my computer only had that one song on it. i didnt play it too often or overkill it. but sometimes while in the library i would just take a break from studying and listen to that song while checking email or surfing the net. i was usually all alone in a study room all day just eating my lunch and reciting outlines to myself, so it was nice to have music every once in awhile.

which is what is so funny about the song. at the time i used it as my escape from studying. it helped me relax for a few minutes and forget about the bar. now, whenever i hear it, it takes me right back to the study room in the library or the dark home in long beach, the exact places it helped me escape only a few months ago. which is actually fine because life wasnt as bad as i may have painted it. life was great. spain won the euro cup that summer, which was fantastic. i guess i was also engaged that summer too. i never saw my fiancee but she planned a great wedding and showed up on the wedding day, so that all turned out great. and i ended up passing the bar. no bitter memories at all.

anyways, im not sure why i share all of that. i guess because that experience made me think of other songs that instantly take me to some point in life or remind me of something. i realized there are tons of songs, from chris brown to yanni, that i will always associate with something or some place in my life. which is kind of cool. its neat to think of the profound impact music can and does have and the places it can take your brain. provided of course that the place you go is somewhere you want to be, and not the chapman school of law library.

give it a chance

2009-01-27T11:18:00.000-08:00

i was going to add this on to the other post, but the other one was getting a little long and i know that it probably wasnt intriguing enough to keep people's attention, so i figured i would just make another post instead of just tacking it on at the end. but you know what could have saved no chance harvey? some bollywood dancing. check out the closing credits from 'slumdog millionaire.' (sorry, i couldnt post the video, but its worth watching). im not sure if they do this at the end of every bollywood movie, but i think hollywood should definitely implement this. how awesome would that be if at the end of every movie, all the cast gets together and does some choreographed dancing? if at the end of no chance harvey, dustin hoffman and emma thompson got together at a subway station and danced to abba's 'take a chance on me' or katy perry's 'hot 'n cold' then i would have been out buying everyone tickets to go see this movie. a little bit of choreographed dancing by old and/or awkward people that cant dance would provide quality entertainment and really save a lot of box office bombs. or it might even be surprising because unexpected people might have great moves. like what if clint eastwood was a surprisingly good 'pop and lock' dancer. you just never know. but you know that if you heard he was and that he was doing it at the end of the movie, you would sit through anything to see it. give it a chance, hollywood.

no chance harvey

2009-01-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

nellie and i went and saw 'last chance harvey' on saturday night. it was only 1 hour 32 minutes long. which was about 45 minutes too long. it felt like it was 3 hours. that was probably due to the fact that i really had to go to the bathroom for most of it, but regardless, it never got good enough to the point that i forgot that my bladder was filled with sprite from that mediocre restaurant they call 'el torito.'

so this movie isn't a 'romantic comedy,' but merely a 'romantic movie.' there was little to no comedy for it to ever be put into a genre with comedy in the title. but you couldnt really term it just a drama because it wasnt drama, it was just boring. nellie really wanted to see it and even she couldnt find too much praise for it.

it has an 'all star' cast, but it wasnt enough to make the movie work. you have to love emma thompson. she is really incredible. she can always just start crying right there on screen and make you think she actually is sad about whats going on. i guess i shouldnt be too impressed though now that i live with a woman and i realize how easy and often tears can come. (that makes me sound like some abusive husband. honestly, im not. most of the time i havnt even done anything to make the tears come. im just standing there. i havnt even talked or said a word and im left speechless because there are tears, yet nothing has happened. but then suddenly they are gone and everything is back to normal and we are all happy. but why the tears then? not sure. not sure where they came from or where they went so quickly. just completely different wiring.)

the next problem with the cast was the lack of supporting characters. everyone knows that in romantic comedy (if that is what this is) that you have to have awesome supporting actors that lighten the mood and make you happy and provide a break from the love story drama. well, there werent any supporting actors in this movie. there was one girl that was alright and you could tell that it was her role to be that comedic relief and entertainment, but she was only ok. plus, she was rarely on screen and her character wasnt anything amazing or brilliant, it was only 'relief' because the rest of the movie was so slow and dull and just dragged.

and that was mainly because of this guy: dustin hoffman. who was i think playing the same guy he was in 'the graduate,' only now its 30 years later. he finished college. didnt want to work. carried on an affair with some neighbor. finally decided to get a job, or leave the neighbor because she was 40 years his senior and scary looking. went out and fulfilled his 'passion' by writing music, but never quite made it in the industry and ended up writing commercials. finally got married, but was a bad father and husband (probably because he spent so many years before he got married bucking the trend of responsibility by not working and carrying on the affair). now, for whatever reason we are supposed to care about this guy and that he has a happy life. no way. he's a loser. he is probably a nice guy, since he really isnt the same character he played in the graduate. but you would think he was because he still talks as slow...as...he...ever...has. he also still, well, you know, he, uh, well, he pauses...a lot, and um, well, you know, he uh, still sort of bumbles his words, just like he um, did in that one movie, you know, the uh, the uh (throat clear), the uh graduate. where he never really seemed to know what he wanted and was so insecure about stuff and so confused. just make a decision harvey or say something. but its hard to make a decision or profess your interest in someone when you know, you uh, have options over here and then over there and there are places to go here and then over there and uh, it just gets hard you know. yes, you know. well, hopefully you know. (its really hard to mimick someone speaking in writing. if you ever watch the movie, youll notice how slow and how long it takes him to get out each line).

anyways, there were probably other reasons this movie failed. maybe because no one really cares when two 60 year olds fall in love. not that im not happy for them, and i know that old people do exist and maybe even find love later in life, but its never exciting or something you want to watch, even when the story is fictional. its like 'the notebook' when the old couple starts making out. sick. i know it happens. thats great. i hope to make out with my wife when im sixty. but im sure no one would want to watch. and i dont care to show them. they dont make out in this movie. they dont get to that point. they just get to know each other and end it by letting you know that there is a chance they might get together and something might happen. an uneventful ending for an uneventful show. no chance, harvey.

Lyon striker Fred to return to Brazil with Flu

2009-01-16T08:51:00.001-08:00

its been a long time since i have blogged and this isnt exactly how i anticipated getting back into writing and posting. life has been busy and hectic and just not much time lately. but i read this headline on espnsoccernet after reading about real madrid's president resigning (another post altogether, its been a rough season) and wanted to share it, but not sure how or with whom. yea for the blogosphere. i put it out there and 'share' it and someone anonomously comes along and reads it and without any sort of human interaction, we enjoy it together. no wonder its called a lone a dreary world.

so first of all, i just love fred. he's always been one of my favorite brazilian players. not so much because of his style of play as much as his name. one name, like many brazilian players. only its not brazilian at all. its fred. pele, ronaldo, robinho, kaka (also a funny one), and fred. anyways, i just also thought it was the strangest headline. i wondered why he couldnt be treated in france. surely france is a better place to receive treatment than brazil. maybe france didnt like the idea of having a brazilian with the flu in their country. doubtful. but if you have the flu, it seems like flying all the way across the world would only make you feel worse. and how long does the flu last? a week? 10 days? youre going to fly home for a week and fly back when you feel better? its gotta be a cover up. nope. just a misleading headline (or it lets a guy know he doesnt know his brazilian clubs very well).

"Fluminense will sign Lyon forward Fred in the summer, according to the Brazilian club's president.

Roberto Horcades admitted his side would like to take the former Cruzeiro striker this month but had been priced out of an early move.

"Fluminese sent a letter to Lyon expressing our interest in him after the player finishes his contract there," said Horcades.

"Before that it is not possible as the cancellation of his contract would cost five million euros.

"Alexandre (Faria, football manager) and Fred have already sealed the agreement in Natal."

movies

2008-12-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

so i just finished that last post, but nellie is still photoshopping our christmas card, so ill keep on writing. a bunch of movies are coming out in time for christmas, along with all of the oscar hopefuls, so here are some quick thoughts:

before i get anywhere though, ghost town comes out on video on dec. 28th. everything about this movie has been strange and upsetting. it didnt do well in the box office even though its hands down the funniest movie of the year and possibly the funniest movie ever. not sure why they are releasing the dvd on the 28th. perfect timing. it will come out during that week after christmas when people are shopping like crazy and everyone is thinking about a great dvd they can by a loved one. regardless of the poor timing, do yourself a favor and go out and buy it. its the best movie you havnt seen. dont even rent it. its worth the $20.

another quick movie comment. rotten tomatoes created a list of its 25 best christmas movies. there were a couple problems with the list. somehow 'its a wonderful life' wasnt number 1. i dont know how thats possible. i know its cliche to say that is the best christmas movie, but it really is. nellie by the way doesnt like that movie. i just found that out the other day. thats necessary pre marriage info that one needs. not that it would have been a deal breaker, but it was really a struggle for me when i found out.

but my other complaint with the movie, besides die hard being number 3 on the list (which makes no sense to me. what makes you think more of christmas than die hard and gremlins - also on the list) was the fact that 'love actually' wasnt on the list. thats another fantastic movie. one of the best feel good movies. everything works out for everybody. its almost over the top in the way it all works out, but its so feel good that you dont mind at all. find that one on a cable channel and tivo it. its great.

holiday stuff:

valkyrie: in commenting about how he wasnt going to go see this movie, my friend dave mentioned how the previews and the design look a lot like the oceans 11 movies. and its true. they have that red line that travels through some gray background, and they make it look all hip. which is fine and understandable. assassinating hitler is really hip. i bet it was totally the thing to do back in the day. but what about that eye patch? when was the last time anyone not a pirate successfully pulled off the eye patch? i know that they are trying to base this off the true story, but we all know that everything in the movie wont be exactly how it went. couldnt this have been a part that they altered from the original story? i havnt seen it, but is the eye patch that integral to the story? surely they cant take themselves seriously with that thing, so i dont know how i can.

not sure if we will see it. probably wont take nellie to go see it, but if the family is going over the holidays, then i would go. otherwise, i doubt it.

marley and me: you know who likes animal movies? ron. that was always a running joke in our house growing up. whenever my dad went to rent a video, we always had to make sure someone went with him, otherwise he would come home with some movie that starred, or co-starred an animal. lets be honest though, who doesnt love a good animal movie? nellie loves them. thats why she's getting the beethoven trilogy for christmas. along with ed.

same as above on seeing this one. i actually wouldnt mind it, but wont go unless its some holiday family outing.

yes man and seven pounds: ive seen the trailers for both of these movies and one movie i feel like i know already what happens and the other i have no idea what is even going on; and i dont think thats a good thing for either one.

yes man: not entirely sure. jim carrey always says no and is negative. starts saying yes. realizes that he enjoys it and really 'starts living life.' it probably gets out of control. he hurts people somehow. in the end there is some moral about saying yes to more things and enjoying life. i dont know. this movie probably isnt terrible and probably has some funny moments, i dont see how this one couldnt wait until dvd though.

seven pounds: um. not sure what the heck is going on. will smith trying to be dramatic and the movie trying to be deeper than it really is. maybe its powerful and heartfelt, but it cant be a good sign when they wont tell you anything about the story and critics havnt been very kind in their reviews. i enjoy a lot of what will smith does, but i think ill pass.

the spirit: i thought from the previews that this would for sure be rated r. somehow its not though and its only pg-13. looks visually stimulating and thats about it. i cant see myself seeing this unless many people tell me its great and that i need to go, which i also cant see happening.

oscar stuff:

benjamin button: nellie and i will go see this one. nellie has wanted to ever since she saw the trailer. it does look great. seems like a great story. plus it has such a nice, inspirational soundtrack. watch the preview. youll be humming the music to yourself and fantasizing that you are as cool as brad pitt and that you too are riding on some motorcycle in the middle of somewhere really cool on your way to do something even cooler. i know im not the only one that does this. nellie does it too. she told me. im pretty sure though that in her fantasy, brad is also on the bike. thats not true. its eric bana. she loves that chump.

gran torino: i hope im like clint eastwood when i grow up. i hope i find something that i love and that the older i get the more dominant and good at it i get. the guy is pushing at least 110, yet he still cranks out movies. but he doesnt need to make stuff to establish himself, nor to try to impress his friends. he's already won tons of oscars. he just seems to love it and he's good at it, so he continues to make stuff. unlike seven pounds, i know there is more to this story than what i see in the previews. its clint eastwood so he's for sure tapping into some heavier topics and issues with the movie. he always does, i dont know what they are, but you know it will be thought provoking. he could take 'house bunny' and somehow find a way to discuss some societal issue.

the other rad thing about clint, he does the music for all his movies. rad. who knew such an old dude had such a good ear? i heard that he, like lavell edwards, has perfect pitch.

the wrestler: the sports guy did an article about this show. everything he writes is better than anything i could ever write, especially when he is discussing pop culture and movies. critics are loving this show and it looks like a really interesting story about a terribly messed up 'sport.'

another rated r movie and a bunch of others: revolutionary road, the reader, frost/nixon, slumdog millionaire. they are all getting lots of 'buzz.' ive only heard things about the last two.i guess i shouldnt lump them all together since they are vastly different. everyone raves about slumdog and frost/nixon looks like a legitimately interesting story that i would like to see. im sure the other ones are good as well. they just look like movies that people in hollywood make for other people in hollywood or oscar people and really its only the oscar people that enjoy them. not that its bad to make a movie for your peers, but they definitely seem more like they are geared or made to try and win awards than win over audiences or the masses. not that thats a bad thing necessarily. sometimes when movies are made to try and please the masses then you come up with stuff like this.

doubt: the only reason its not lumped with the other ones is because its rated pg-13. no idea what its about. some catholic priest and he doubts something. or he knows someone that doubts something. there is a nun involved so maybe she is the one that doubts something. or maybe she doubts that he doubts something. or they both doubt the other ones knows they doubt, but they also doubt that as well, leaving room for more doubt. chances of seeing it: doubtful (it actually doesnt look bad. i am pretty intrigued. like phillip seymour hoffman, but i just cant see us actually going to the theaters and watching this show).

rsvp

2008-12-18T16:53:00.001-08:00

so society struggles with rsvp'ing. thats probably too much of a blanket statement and generalization. but i think people really do have a problem with it. i feel i can say that because im one of those people and i have a problem with rsvp'ing. but in the past few months i have had a few occasions where i needed people to rsvp and they didnt. and it was somewhat frustrating. yet just last week i realized i did the exact same thing that people do to me when i didnt rsvp. well, i did, but super late. my friends were throwing a birthday party and i was sent an invitation a week in advance and i knew right when i got the invitation email that nellie and i couldnt go. we already had plans that we couldnt get out of that night and we just werent going to be able to go. i knew that as i was reading the email. i could have immediately responded and said that we couldnt go. instead, i waited until the afternoon before the party to rsvp. better late than never i guess. but pretty much worthless at that point. which made me think about rsvp'ing and why people dont.

assumption: you know what they say about assuming things. thats right. somehow it both turns us into donkeys. granted, many times, assumptions with rsvp'ing are valid. like my family assuming that they dont need to rsvp to our wedding. they didnt, it was a valid assumption. i knew they had bought plane flights from seattle or just that they were coming and i could assume they were going to come so we should buy them a plate for the luncheon. but tons of other people didnt rsvp. we had no idea how many people were actually going to show up.

a good rsvp'er is ryan darby. its as though he has planned many events in his day. he'll always respond. we invited him to run a race with us in april, fully knowing that his wife is due to have a baby within a week of the race. we knew he couldnt run, but we still wanted to invite him to let him know that we wished he could run. anyways, of the 10 or so people we sent the email to, he was the only one to respond. the only one.

anyways, there are other reasons people dont rsvp, but while writing this i started getting bored. im realizing that this is probably one of those things that you think about while at work or while waiting for people to rsvp to some sort of event you are trying to put together, but when you place your thoughts onto paper, or a blog, it turns out to be pretty boring and lame thoughts to actually share with other people. really not that important or interesting. so one day, if we are ever stranded on a desert island or on a road trip and we have exhausted all other conversation topics, i suppose we can resume this one. of course, if it ever gets that bad, maybe we should just pull over for snacks, or start swimming instead.

pilgrims and indians

2008-12-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

i know that thanksgiving has already passed and that we are steamrolling into christmas, but i still wanted to quickly post this. i already showed this to most of my family and im sure other people have already seen this, but its worth a few quick thoughts. this particularly hit home not just because i grew up in claremont, but i went to condit elementary school and participated in this tradition. the two elementary schools are on the same street about a mile away from each other. i cant exactly remember what i dressed up as. i think i was a pilgrim because i feel like i remember 'hosting' the meal and i dont remember walking to the other elementary school. im sure my sister lark would remember, because we were two years apart, so whatever she was, i would have been the same. anyways, there are 6 kids in my family, we all went to condit elementary and thus we all participated in this tradition. pretty cool and also pretty typical of this issue to occur in claremont. its a great and safe community, perfect for growing up. but it is a university town, home to 5 small, liberal arts schools, so you have a lot of nonsense going on as well. anyways, here is the article, with some of my thoughts after:

"For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won't be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

Parents in this quiet university town are sharply divided over what these construction-paper symbols represent: A simple child's depiction of the traditional (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal? Or a cartoonish stereotype that would never be allowed of other racial, ethnic or religious groups?

"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history." 1

Raheja, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote the letter upon hearing of a four-decade district tradition, where kindergartners at Condit and Mountain View elementary schools take annual turns dressing up and visiting the other school for a Thanksgiving feast. This year, the Mountain View children would have dressed as Native Americans and walked to Condit, whose students would have dressed as Pilgrims.

Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without "dehumanizing" her daughter's ancestry.

"There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype," she said. 2

Last week, rumors began to circulate on both campuses that the district was planning to cancel the event, and infuriated parents argued over the matter at a heated school board meeting Thursday. District Supt. David Cash announced at the end of the meeting that the two schools had tentatively decided to hold the event without the costumes, and sent a memo to parents Friday confirming the decision.

Cash and the principals of Condit and Mountain View did not respond to interview requests.

But many parents, who are convinced the decision was made before the board meeting, accused administrators of bowing to political correctness.

Kathleen Lucas, a Condit parent who is of Choctaw heritage, said her son -- now a first-grader -- still wears the vest and feathered headband he made last year to celebrate the holiday.

"My son was so proud," she said. "In his eyes, he thinks that's what it looks like to be Indian."

Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is "using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas," Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. "I'm not a professor and I'm not a historian, but I can put the dots together." 3

The debate is far from over. Some parents plan to send their children to school in costume Tuesday -- doubting that administrators will force them to take them off. The following day, some plan to keep their children home, costing the district attendance funds to punish them for modifying the event.

"She's not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear," said Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View. "We're tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It's not right." 4

But others hoped that tempers would calm over the long holiday weekend, and the community could come together to have a fruitful discussion about Thanksgiving and its meaning.

"Its always a good thing to think about, critically, how we teach kids, even from very young ages, the message we want them to learn, and the respect for the diversity of the American experiences," said Jennifer Tilton, an assistant professor of race and ethnic studies at the University of Redlands and a Claremont parent who opposes the costumes." 5

1. ok, the first reaction to this quote is that this lady is just ridiculous and her quote is asinine. but ill try and understand the comparison. all involved groups abusing another group. the pilgrims or settler eventually did abuse the indians in various ways for centuries. i dont think any american would ever deny that. just like no american would ever deny how bad slavery was. the nazis and jews, well, thats in a league of its own, but still, it was a group abusing another group, by mass execution.

now, i dont think its worth really getting into, but its hard comparing history because while 'history repeats itself,' history is also never the same. you can compare these groups yet at the same time they are so different its not worth comparing. the way the nazis viewed the jews is the result of the brainwashing of a psychologically sick group of dictators. slavery on the american continent is a result of centuries of groups feeling a sense of superiority over another group for whatever reason. doesn't mean its alright, but its been done throughout all of history. sadly, it just extended to the american continent. pilgrims or settlers and indians was unlike anything else in all of history. literally like alien encounters. there are various reasons the two groups clashed with each other.

look, one can make historical comparisons all day long, but just as easily find differences. so while there may be the comparison that all of these groups abused the other groups and that makes it bad to dress children up like the groups; there is also the extreme difference that before any of that started, and unlike the other groups, these two groups lived peaceably with one another. no one is talking about celebrating when one group tried to destroy another group or celebrating that, rather its an extremely unique moment in history when two groups as alien and as foreign to each other as the world has ever known, got together and helped each other survive.

2. so it appears that this is more of the issue then: the costumes. at least thats what the parent seems to indicate. as i recal, the costumes involve construction paper headbands and feathers and maybe a vest made from a brown paper bag. i know that they didnt have construction paper back in the 1600's, and im not trying to be an ignorant american, but didnt indians sort of dress like that? seriously though. did they not wear headbands? with feathers? maybe a vest made of some sort of animal skin? honestly, if im off, id like to know. i dont think its proper to mock any group of people, but i dont think paper bag vest made by a kindergartener is so completely off as a representation of clothing that the indians actually wore. and im being serious. these kids are 5. they dont have much at their disposal.

are people upset that we are remembering them/stereotyping them as people that wear feathers and walk around in a loin cloth? if so, no one is saying that you do it now, just that your ancestors at one point did. if thats their beef then thats just lame. get over it. i mean, im a mormon. people will forever think i have 8 wives. people will always comment about it. you have to hope and assume they know we still dont have many wives. if they do, then you just look at them and get upset that they breathe the same oxygen as you because they are an idiot.

3. this lady is awesome. i dont know her. but you can tell she was just livid about this situation. she's the type of mother that gets so upset about the situation that she makes her child dress up as an indian and then she puts on her own pocohantus outfit to upset the demonstrators even more. the only real upsetting part is that she's probably like 43 and her body shouldnt be allowed anywhere near pocohantus mini-dresses.

4. see 3. especially mini-dress part.

5. i dont really have anything new to say here. again, i think im just missing something here. i dont understand if the issue is the costumes or upset about thanksgiving. if its the costumes, are they really that off? if its upset about thanksgiving or the message these kids are getting at a young age, i dont really understand what harmful message they could be getting this young. they are 5, so all they get out of it is that the pilgrims and indians ate one time together. it was a big feast that included turkey and rice crispy treats for dessert. and then they all got to play on the playground together.

economy solution (?)

2008-12-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

the other day i rode the elevator with a random stranger. for whatever reason he started spouting off to me about the economy. no 'hello's' or anything, just 'hi im a total stranger and now im going to start talking to you as though we are longtime friends about a random subject.' anyways, he told me that there was yet another bailout that was happening and that the government should just give every citizen $1,000,000 instead of bailing out all of these businesses. ive received some email forwards that have proposed this same theory, so this man wasnt the first person to present this idea. now im no economist, but i just dont think it would work. it sounds like a great idea to all of us commoners and in an ideal world it could work. you and i, and other responsible adults would probably be wise and prudent with our $1,000,000. i know i would pay off all my student loans (pay back debt to the government), we would probably buy a house and pay for all of it or a huge portion of it (and not default on our loan and help the housing market), we would probably make a fun purchase, like a new car (and thus help the economy) and then we would invest a large portion as well (thus helping stocks and other areas that currently could use some investors).

anyways, like i said, im no economist so i dont even know if every person that received $1,000,000 spent it prudently, if it would even save all the failing businesses. you would think it would since people could pay off their houses and invest in the economy. but the bottom line is that we all arent prudent and reasonable, in fact, most arent. and when the man was telling me about 'his idea,' it made me think of a clip from the chappelle show, which perfectly explains what would really happen if the masses were given a huge chunk of money. (note: this clip does come from the chappelle show, therefore the language and content isnt entirely family friendly)

Dave Chappelle-Reparations For Slavery | Funny Jokes at JibJab

random stuff

2008-11-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

4 thoughts

1. photographers. i dont know what it is about people and thinking that because they bought an expensive camera they are suddenly a photographer. maybe its people in their 20s and trying to figure out what they want to do with their life or something, but just because you have an expensive camera doesnt mean that im impressed with your work or at all consider you a photographer. it is a 'cool hobby' or job and i dont mind you having an interest in photography. but we all could take photos of our friends in front of some random building and then go to the computer and distort the background and blow out the colors so they look hip and 'artsy.'

2. movies. bond is coming out soon. ron is a big bond fan. he would always want to go see them. they are pretty good movies, but the last one was awesome. the bond franchise has done a good job with the recent ones, just like batman. he is a human again. i liked pierce brosnan as bond, but the last ones were ridiculous - casting denise richards didnt help. but now, at least in the last one, bond does things that are 'believable.' i know 'batman' isnt exactly believable, but its at least has a realistic feel, unlike spiderman or x men that arent realistic and they arent trying to be. anyways, the bond looks rad. even nellie is excited.

the other movie that looks great is 'australia.' its the newest baz lahrmann film. say what you want about 'romeo and juliet' and 'moulin rouge,' but they were both 'visually stimulating' and extremely creative. he's more than just a guy that 'liked film and so he bought an expensive camera and decided to shoot a movie.' i think he actually has talent and true creativity. maybe im hyping up the movie too much. but the previews look great, the cast looks legit, its about world war 2 (everyone's favorite war) and the director is creative. im intrigued. we're intrigued. we will go.

3. beck. oh beck. i love you so. i want to name my first born after you. we saw him on monday night at 'club nokia.' its a small intimate 2000 person venue next to the nokia theatre. it was actually a great venue. it just opened. beck was actually the first person to play there. but the venue was clean and great.

but i dont really know what to say about beck. i LOVE his music so im a little partial to anything he does. but he's just a true musician. words cant really describe seeing him, just like words cant really describe when you see any musician that is really talented and they are just putting on a great show. you can tell he's up there and he is just sort of jamming and almost being selfish about the music. he's putting on a show, but he's also just experimenting with his music. playing and singing songs in different keys. remixing his own songs. if youve been to one of these shows then you know how it is. you have someone or a group that loves their music and loves performing and doesnt really do shows for the fans as much as just for the love of playing the music. sounds corny. i cant really explain it. if you dont understand then go see beck. he's so good. and a musical genius. if you dont believe me, see his show. sometime between his acoustic set and his rapping and beat boxing and his random dancer coming out during the encore youll be sold and amazed and so happy you are at the show. i love him.

4. siestas. so i started thinking about this the other day when i was at work struggling to stay awake at 3 in the afternoon. it might be a messed up schedule to us americans. but thats because we never do what is natural or what our bodies need. like how we eat fast food and work 15-18 hours a day. but i realized that im most alert every day in the morning when i get to work and then at the end of the day before its time to go home. but at that point i really want to go home and i dont care to be at work anymore. im sick of it even though im alert and i could be really productive. unlike those after lunch hours when im fighting sleep and i cant focus. which is a bad combination. it just leads to me being unsatisfied that i cant focus and then being unhappy that im working, which leads me to then question my chosen job and career and ultimately my existence. ok, its usually not that extreme. but i usually cant focus and the last place i want to be is at work.

which is why the siesta is brilliant. these people realized that they werent being effective at their jobs so they said, 'screw it. why fight it? im going home to take a nap, hang out with my family, and then ill come back and finish this when im more alert.' its a brilliant schedule. it will of course never work here where you spend your whole day working. no time for naps. plus, it could never work unless you work 5 minutes from your house. otherwise your whole break is spent commuting. which is no fun.

so it wont work here. which is a bummer because it would be so great and conducive to my natural desires. not that its always a good thing to give into those desires. sometimes though its good to follow the spanish. just people listening to their bodies. too bad these people also have a negative population growth rate so its only a matter of years until they are an extinct species. que vayan con dios.

love 'the onion'

2008-11-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."

just brilliant. they put the best spin on everything, and usually find a way to offend someone or everyone in the process. not that it matters. they dont take themselves seriously, so why should we?

symphony

2008-11-02T23:29:00.000-08:00

so nellie and i hit up the symphony on saturday night. because thats how we roll. b and d (nellie's parents - bob and donna) hooked us up with some tickets and we made an appearance - it actually was just an appearance - we didnt get there until after intermission. nellie wanted to visit with her sisters and i was glued to the tv watching the texas v. texas tech game. did you see that game?! oh man what a finish. i love college football. its like a symphony...

actually, thats not why im blogging about it. although im sure there are plenty of easy and cheesy parallels that one could make between the two. but i really enjoyed the symphony. and not just because i was only there for 45 minutes, although that might have helped. but i think that i have finally reached an age where i actually do enjoy it. i dont LOVE it. its not my ideal night out or concert. nellie and i are going to a beck concert next monday (tickets are totally cheap btw - like $2o on stubhub) and i am way more excited about that show. but the symphony wasnt bad at all.

so as i was sitting amongst the cultured class and drinking my fine wine, i was thinking about why i was enjoying the music. i have always been somewhat familiar with classical music. my mom is a fantastic pianist and music was always a part of our home. we could only study to classical music growing up and during law school the only music i could listen to while studying was classical music, everything else was too distracting. but i never really loved classical music. and i still dont. its great in its time and place, just not my first choice. but i think i can finally appreciate it.

i think the older you get the more you can appreciate and understand how difficult it is to do certain things and seeing or hearing someone do one of those things well, is always entertaining to some degree. and i think that is what happened on saturday night. normally i enjoy classical music as a background to some other task or maybe if im trying to sleep, but never as a main event. but now, i understand how hard it is to be good at playing an instrument. there is so much time that is put into it. i cannot pick up one of those instruments and do what they are doing. it would take me years and years to get to where they are, and i still might fall short. and i think i may have realized or known that before or when i was younger, but i never really appreciated it. and the same idea goes for the whole symphony. just looking at everyone do their own part and then combining everything to create the great sound, is really remarkable. i realized before it wasnt easy, but i dont think i ever really appreciated how hard it was. its like a football game. if everyone doesnt do their individual parts, the plays dont work. if the linemen dont block and pick up the blitz, and if the wide receivers dont run their correct routes, and if the quarterback doesnt make a perfect throw to the sidelines, then the receiver cant catch the ball and score the winning touchdown with 1 second to go and beat the number 1 team in the nation. just amazing.

sorry, i didnt want to make the cheesy comparison, but that game was so good. in any event, the symphony was a good time. i dont know that ill be a season ticket holder any time soon, but i was glad we went. i just think that as you get older, you fail at things and you realize how hard something is, and also you succeed and become good at something and you realize how hard it was to get to the point where you are good at it (unless you are dave axelgard and youre the best at everything). but thats ok because it really helps us be able to appreciate so many things in life. i guess thats why we are supposed to share our talents. because some of us just have it, and others of us dont. and those of us that dont have it, sometimes like to hear what youve got. especially when its free and you are done sharing before we can get bored and stop appreciating your talent.

prop 8

2008-10-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

so the election is in about a week and ill be happy for it to be over. im not so interested with the presidential election as i am about prop 8. i support prop 8 and am going to vote 'yes' on prop 8. im tired though of the opposition. not that i havent been vocal or an open supporter of prop 8. but i havent attacked the other side. not that i mind or am not used to opposition or even a little bit of persecution when it comes to my beliefs. im mormon. its synonymous with religious persecution. ok. not entirely. but i do believe that a 14 year old talked with god. i also believe he translated a golden bible. and it only gets stranger from there. i spent 2 years in spain talking to people about my religion. im plenty used to people not agreeing with my beliefs and sometimes telling me i was crazy for what i believed. which is fine. you dont have to agree with me, but it would be nice if people at least accepted that i might believe something different than what they do. and im not saying that everyone in favor of 'no' on 8 doesnt accept my viewpoint. not at all. im sure most do accept that i, and others can and do have an opposing viewpoint on an issue. that its conceivable that i, and others might actually have different beliefs on an issue. but there are always small minorities that have voices like majorities.

i think the whole thing has gotten a little out of hand. for instance, the school system is right at the center of some of it. look, i realize that its not part of california school curriculum to teach about marriage. but that doesnt mean they cant. just because they dont have to teach about it, doesnt mean they cant if they dont want to. at the same time, come on, its homosexuality. its commonplace in america today. whether or not this proposition passes, homosexuality will be taught in schools. maybe it wont be taught that two people of the same gender can marry, but do you honestly think that this day in age any child is going to go through a sex-ed class in school and that the teacher wont at least discuss homosexuality? and even if that teacher doesnt, your child will be taught plenty about homosexuality and sex on the playground and everywhere else. its as though children are only taught things at school. but in reality, most of a child's street education comes from friends and many other places. you get a sex ed class in school and that will comprise 25% of the sex education your child gets outside the home. the rest will come from somewhere else. i still remember the day magic johnson got aids. why? because it was the first time i ever heard about or learned about aids. my friends and i spent all day at school talking about aids. did any of us really know much about it? nope. but we spent the whole day teaching each other about it. so this is all just more of an indicator to me, that its increasingly important to make sure that my future children are taught many things in the home. am i going to home school them? never. i dont want them to be awkward. but i do want my children getting married in a mormon temple. im guessing that isnt being taught in the schools. just like i assume history classes wont be devoting as much attention to joseph smith as i would like. no matter what happens with this proposition, if i want my children to have a certain background or upbringing, a lot of it will have to be taught in the home.

anyways, im rambling. and maybe im off completely on that and on this entire issue. maybe im not. basically, its become a massive and heated mess. people are trying to redefine marriage. sorry. i cant. if it was another issue about gay rights or privileges, then i might be able to have a different viewpoint. i believe that marriage is between man and a woman. thats correct. its a belief. im basing my political viewpoint on a belief. im not the first to do it. probably wont be the last. i understand that other people may think that its a right of theirs to marry someone of the same gender. hopefully they will understand that i have a belief and im sticking to it.

anyways, its just unfortunate that its become such an issue and if there ever was a point where a middle ground could have been reached, its long gone now. 'equality of rights.' if only it were that easy. one side wants a right and i want to exercise my right of religion. here, they happen to conflict. im sorry if my religion or beliefs are upsetting to you. what do you want me to do? im not going to change them. not an option. so i guess we just have to remain on opposite sides of the issue with my viewpoints/beliefs sometimes being mocked or ridiculed. its fine. its not the first time. surely wont be the last. a break would be nice though.

happiest place on earth...and in hell

2008-10-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

so last night nellie and i went to disneyland. we try to limit our 'happiness' to 2 rides each time we go to disneyland. we try to do two different rides so that we will get through them all by the time our season passes expire in february. last night we did a repeat of space mountain, but we did get to two new rides: 'mr. toads wild ride' and 'pinocchio.'

so i dont know what exactly mr. toads wild ride is based on, but its a messed up ride. i thought it was based on the story 'the wind and the willows.' i dont really remember that story that well, but i remember seeing the cartoon when i was younger. all i really remember was that there was a toad and he got himself in to troubles and at the end he somehow escapes from rats or weasels. im not exactly sure. not that it really matters though because the ride is completely ridiculous and makes no sense.

in most of those storybook rides, there are voices or someone sort of narrarating as you go through the ride. there are no voices on mr. toads, so you are left to interpret the story on your own. you start by going in and out of a library. then through some sort of alley where there are weasels on the ceiling. then you weave around and head through the streets of london. you almost get into about 4 car accidents and there are explosives all over the place. at one point there is a bartender selling beer. later, you find yourself weaving around some fountain and before you know it, some random judge is reaching over his bench and pointing a finger, presumably signaling that you are being sentenced, and your sentence is through the next door. what is through the next door? hell. it gets hot. literally a temperature increase. there is fire all over. the room is full of a large devil and many small devils that are laughing and screaming all over the place. at least there is a happy ending right around the corner. oh wait, no there's not, when you leave that room, there are fake explosives and then the ride is over (btw, if you want to see it, there is a fair/poor youtube video of it).

so technically, the ride ends in hell. which is fine by nellie and i. we are comfortable there and are able to laugh at the experience. but what about the children? nellie and i as adults couldnt even understand what was going on. but at least we were able to laugh about it and walk away unscathed and realize its just disney being crazy like they were with the pink elephants in dumbo. but a child? they just sit there silently, wide-eyed staring at all the craziness, soaking it all in. here is what they gather from that. there are scary, cigar smoking weasels in some city called london. stuff blows up for no reason. beer is good. and anytime an old person points a finger at me it means i have to go to the hot room with the scary, red-faced, horned man with all of his scary, pointy tailed rodents. no wonder children hate going to their grandparents house. and its all at the happiest place on earth. (note to reader: this in no way is some sort of blog post about how disneyland should shut down that ride. not at all. im not crying here and pleading for the children. i dont have any, so frankly i dont care about them...thats not entirely true. but im really not that worried about them and their response to this ride. if it were my kids, id let them go on. well, for sure if it was a niece or a nephew id let them go. im the worst uncle.)

we then went on pinocchio. also traumatizing for children. but at least in this one there are voices that are somewhat narrating and letting you know whats going on with the story. which is good because children are turning into donkeys so somebody better be telling these little kids what the heck is going on. going through hell is bad enough without being told why, but turning into a donkey without knowing the reason is worse. anyways, the reason i bring up pinocchio is because rottentomatoes.com had it rated as the number 3 animated film of all time - number 1 being 'toy story 2.' i love the toy story movies. its amazing that a sequel is supposedly better than the original. i dont dispute it. the original is number 4 on the list. both are just so good though. they make me happy. and so do their rides at disneyland.

so at first i was surprised by pinocchio being so high on the list, but then while going on the ride, i realized that its actually a pretty powerful and amazing story with lots of great themes. you have the always loyal conscience in jimmy cricket. never leaves pinocchio's side. always there and always trying to help him out; temptations from the real world; lying of course; second chances; of course there is the whole traumatizing part about the boys turning into donkeys. and it is really freaky, but its also very powerful imagery of these boys getting caught up in temptations and then vile habits and addictions to the point where they are no longer able to choose for themselves and they are literally bound and taken captive and into slavery by this lifestyle; pinocchio narrowly escapes because his always faithful conscience barely bails him out; he gets in more trouble, but ultimately saves his father/creator that always loved him and never gave up on him.

its a pretty remarkable tale. it all made sense to me and i realized how great of a story it is when i was on the ride. granted, seeing it so high on the list the day before made me wonder what other people saw in the show and then the ride reminded me of the many powerful themes from the story. but again, just like 'mr. toads,' im an adult and im thinking and processing the themes of the story and the ride. im getting a completely different experience than the children. the children are just sitting wide-eyed thinking that they are going to hell and if they somehow escape that, they will just be turned into a donkey anyways. such a happy place.

cheese dome update

2008-10-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

since this post seemed to be such a hit amongst readers, i thought id give a quick update on everyone's favorite wedding gift. turns out that we did receive one. nellie's cousin nikki bought us one. she bought it back in july but wasnt able to make it to the wedding so we didnt get it until sometime in september.

so i was thrilled to receive it of course. i have wanted one for quite sometime and since one hasnt been effectively used since 1962, i was excited to put ours to use. it performed beautifully. it helped mold our cheese faster than if we had just left it out on the counter. i left it out all day and when nellie and i got home from work our house stunk like moldy cheese.

nellie: gross. the house stinks. why did you leave the cheese out?

me: what are you talking about? i left it in the cheese dome.

nellie: right. but you arent supposed to leave it out.

me: so we put it in the cheese dome in the fridge?

nellie: well, no. you leave it out, just not all day.

me: oh. right. just during parties and holidays.

nellie: exactly.

such a useful gift.

one other update really quick on the pancake warmer:

we have church at 8 am. i know, its just absurd. i dont know how families with young children pull it off. wait, yes i do. they dont. they miss the first half of sacrament meeting. nellie and i barely make it there. usually thats because nellie doesnt want to get dressed in the morning and is kicking and screaming when im trying to put her shoes on. (thats not true. shes great at getting dressed. wouldnt that be terrible if it was true though? marriage nightmare #43. sandwiched right in between your wife getting emotional and breaking down once a month for no reason and her nitpicking you on bathroom etiquette.)

anyways, because of early church, we usually dont have time for breakfast and when we get home we are hungry, but its only 11 am so we are still in sort of a breakfast food mood. so we have been making waffles almost every sunday after church. we have had them for about 4-5 straight sundays. its a good little tradition. but do you know how many times nellie has busted out the pancake warmer? thats right - zero. granted, i know these are waffles and not pancakes, and the warmer does call for pancakes. but i believe the real reason is because nellie forgot that the thing even exists. why? because no rational human being ever thinks to use a pancake warmer. and you know what? nellie is rational. shes not #43 from above.

so in theory these items are a great idea, but in reality, you are just hungry and you plop the extra waffles on a plate and you start eating without thinking of anywhere to store the waffles. why would you? a plate gets the job done just fine and anything else would be absurd. unfortunately, you cant make money off the real world. which is why these registry people are so evil. in the real world you put your extra waffles on a plate. but you already suckered her into buying 12 plates for her family of 2, so you cant sell her another plate. so you create the pancake warmer. they know women will see something and envision themselves using it and buy it, but then get home and never find a purpose for it or forget they own it. but in the meantime at least it they will have a happy husband who gets to look at the items every day and wonder what sorts of other 'useful in theory' purchases are in store in for him.

lost angels of anaheim

2008-10-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

every once in awhile ill blog about sports for the reading pleasure of no one. i think about sports constantly and follow them religiously. nellie is beginning to realize this. there is always something going on. college football goes from the end of august to january. by then, college basketball is underway with march madness approaching. during that time, the euro soccer leagues are going on and they are usually finishing in april and may and help fill in the gap until baseball season is underway for the rest of the summer.

anyways, im no sports writer or critic. but i am a fan and the angels are on my thoughts, so ill throw in my two cents in case anyone cares. which im sure no one does. but yes, i am an angels fan. and i think a true one at that. ron took us to angels games when we were young because he didnt want to deal with la traffic and crowds at dodger stadium. now that im older, i realize how ridiculous both of those are and i would do the same thing too with my children. in the meantime though, i started following the angels ever since 1986. i wasnt always the best fan. when the nation fell out of baseball, i did too. but i do feel secure claiming my fanhood all the way back to 86, maybe 87.

now that i have established myself, ill vent. we lost again to the red sox. its completely ridiculous. i hate the red sox. as do many angels fans by now. and like many fans, i hate the so called 'red sox nation.' perhaps its just jealousy because the red sox are so well represented in every part of the country. go to an angels game and youll hear just about as many cheers for the red sox as you will the angels. which is frustrating. look, you didnt win a world series for 80-some-odd-years. we all rooted for you to win it back in 2004. you pulled it off and broke 'the curse.' before you were lovable losers (see: chicago cubs), now you are the trendy bandwagon team with obnoxious fans and a payroll similar to that of your new york counterparts. so own it. my team wanted to be the dodgers and take over la so we admitted it and added it to our name. you probably wont admit it, but since you are becoming like your east coast counterparts, we'll just call you the boston red sox of new york, because that is what you have become.

that was ridiculous rambling that didnt really make sense. the frustrating part about the series was that the angels lost the series. boston didnt win it. we were the better team and played poorly. my friend chris gave a rundown of his thoughts on some players on the team. i actually disagree with him on a few of the players. but here's my thoughts:

garret anderson: you were great. an angel legend. thanks for the memories. youre washed up. here's the door.

vlad: i didnt think he had a terrible series. better than past series. he was patient at the plate. didnt have an incredible power series, but did do great at getting on base. of course, i love the guy. he's the equivalent of raul on real madrid. he can do no wrong.

howie kendrick: i used to be high on this guy because i was buying into the hype that he was an amazing young talent and the future of the franchise etc. but i thing im off the bandwagon now. i dont think its possible to have a worse series than howie kendrick. its not just that he did poorly, he looked utterly lost and had zero confidence the entire time. amazing young talent rises to the occassion and lives for their first playoff experience. he's always hurt during the season and no one with a 'bright future' like they say he has, would commit so many errors in the playoffs and swing like theyve never seen a baseball before. he's nothing special. we have been waiting for his 'emmergence' for a couple of years now and if he was truly a star he would have stepped up by now and for sure at least once during the series instead of being a liability the whole time. he's a decent player and thats all. he's not filling any big shoes any time soon, if ever.

starting pitching: chris didnt seem to think we have a number 2 guy, but i think santana was solid this year. he did have a shaky start in the playoffs when he gave up 5 runs in the first inning, but then he shut the red sox out for the next 7 innings. i think he's legit. our rotation isnt bad. one of the best in baseball. our three starters for the playoffs: lackey, santana and saunders i think match up as well or better than any other team out there. it was the poor hitting and defense that did us in. not the starting pitching.

scot shields: yes. there is just one 't' on his name. chris is anti-scot. i like the guy. perhaps he was the losing pitcher in the deciding game 4, and it may seem like he has lost games for us a lot, but he's as good of a set up guy as there is out there. he can throw forever. legend has it that in a college game he threw 260 pitches. for anyone not familiar with baseball, thats ridiculous. 100 pitches is about average for pitchers these days. 130 is a ton. 260 is nearly criminal unless you have a rubber arm. if you watched game 3, were you sweating more when shields was pitching or when k-rod was pitching?

which is my next guy: k-rod. let him go. he wants a ton of money and he's not worth it. if scoscia had ANY confidence in k-rod at all, he would have brought him in to pitch to the red sox in the 9th of game 4. if k-rod was really that lights out and shields wasnt and scoscia knew it, he would have brought k-rod in to ensure the angels get another at bat in the 10th inning. he didnt. he knew that his chances were as good with shields than with k-rod. plus, k-rod is a wuss. he will only pitch one inning a game. just 3 outs. its not like he would come in and pitch the 9th and then the 10th if there was one. so scoscia had to stick with shields. whats more valuable, a guy that will pitch forever if you ask him or someone that will only do 1 inning max? plus, it usually takes him an hour and 3 walks to get those 3 outs. i dont need that. he wants 10 million a year, let the mariners or some desperate team give it to him. i hope we dont.

last guy: mark texeira. again, chris says we have to get him. so does my nephew and bro-in-law. im not so sold. he's good. great defensive skills. he played really well in the post season. im not saying hes bad, i just dont know what we want from him. we always wanted a BIG bat to help out vlad, and he's not that. he's got a good bat, but be honest. vlad is on par with david ortiz and manny ramirez. at least in his prime. is a vlad/texeira combo nearly as intimidating as the ortiz/manny combo was a few years ago? not remotely. texeira is good, but he wont punish you. which is what manny and ortiz did. if you refused to pitch to manny or were afraid and you walked him, ortiz would punish you because you had to pitch to one of them. if you tried to pitch to manny, then he would punish you. again, texeira is good, but i dont think he's worth breaking the bank. maybe im wrong. i just think that for the money he will want, plus the money k-rod will want, the angels could get a super star that is more intimidating than vlad. thats not their style though. they'll pursue what they have and try and keep texeira.

anyways, those are my ramblings. if you made it this far, you must really love the angels or be my wife because im even getting tired of typing this.

hawaii aloha

2008-09-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

the strokes have a b-side called 'hawaii aloha.' its a great song. being a 'b side' its not well known, but its got a great 'hawaii feel' to it. another great song which i just heard the other day is 'gamma ray' by beck. its from his 'modern guilt' album. its got a great surf rock/beach boys feel to it. i love beck. he played the hollywood bowl last week and we really wanted to go, but tickets were ridiculously expensive. when i become rich, im not spending my money on cars or big houses. im spending it on traveling and pit tickets to concerts of all my favorite bands. the 'and' in there means that they are a combined purchase. so ill be seeing beck in the pit in some random venue in tokyo before then heading over to catch radiohead the following weekend in the pit in prague.

anyways, thats the future travel plans. now for recent stuff. im not sure that anyone even cares, but i said there would be a three part series with the marriage stuff so i have to make this post so i can move on with other random stuff. so we did hawaii for the honeymoon. it was fantastic. nellie keeps on saying that she wishes we were still on our honeymoon. im pretty sure thats because she doesnt want to go work in the morning though.

so i tried to keep it a secret from nellie where we were going. i did that because i thought it would be a fun surprise, and so that i could keep annoying people from telling me all the things we had to do in hawaii. the ironic thing is that i did tell a few people and some of them gave me advice on things to do and most all of them were spot on with their recommendations. it was as though they had been there before and done these things and tried them out for us. since i dont really know what to say about the trip, ill just be a hypocrite and the guy i tried to avoid and list some recommendations/thoughts on stuff:

1. tandem surfing in waikiki. i remember my friend jason wallace (wally) telling me when he was in hawaii he did some tandem surfing. so we tried it and we actually got up and rode a wave. it was awesome. we were out there for an hour and only caught 2 waves. that part isnt impressive, but we were totally surfing...on the same board...with nellie on my shoulders...while i was hanging five. i know. only five. not that impressive. but ten is hard.

2. the pineapple room. my friend karl suggested this place. nellie and i loved it. the edamame is fantastic. so good. its in the mall, literally inside the macy's. literally. like head to the third floor of the macy's and its in the men's department between the shoes and the boys section or something random like that. you cant access it from anywhere else besides through the macy's. so strange. i dont know who chose the location, but surely he was fired. i dont know what he was thinking. 'hey look, the macy's is closing down their belts and accessories area, why dont we build our restaurant there. perfect.'

3. kayaking in kauai. eh. not the worst activity we did. certainly not the best. it was river kayaking and then a hike to a waterfall which was only ok and not that impressive. kayaking is fun so if you want to do it, then you should.

4. zip-lining. this was the worst activity we did. terribly overpriced and so lame. i did this in costa rica and it was awesome. they pretty much just give you a harness and a beer and send you on your way. if the line snaps and you fall and die, what do they care? they already got your $30. in costa rica you zip line on about 15 lines with the longest one being 300 yards over a valley. you are 40 feet over the tree line. its amazing. hawaii was 4x that amount and there were only 5 'runs.' but 2 of the lines you did twice and one was 'simulated repelling.' it was horrific. it was your classic example of a wildly overpriced activity completely geared towards sucker american tourists who they know are willing to pay because hey, its our honeymoon. other zip lines there may be better, i dont know. if it has 5 lines and ends at a rope swing waterfall, stay away. its a waste.

speaking of the rope swing, that also enticed me. such a sucker. i had big dreams of riding some zip line and dropping off into some pool near a waterfall. im sure pocohantus was also there now that i think about it. anyways, when we got to this rope swing, there were tons of people there that just trespassed onto the private property and took advantage of the free rope swing. which is what you should do if you go to hawaii.

6. shipwreck beach at the hayatt resort. this place is great for a few reasons. 1. the beach is actually great. actual waves and no rip current that will kill you immediately (like so many other beaches advertise). 2. there is a great rock to jump off of. supposedly its the same rock that harrison ford and anne heche (or their stunt doubles) jumped off of in the movie '6 days and 7 nights.' (go to 1:30 in the preview and you can see it.) nellie and i didnt need stunt doubles. it was a great time. although there is no documented evidence of nellie actually jumping off the rock, so who knows if she actually did. the other great part are the pools at the hyatt. all the big resorts are right next to public beaches and their pools are right next to the ocean. they have no idea actually is a guest and who isnt so you can just walk onto the property and swim in their pools and hang out in their hot tubs. which was excellent and highly recommended.

7. the helicopter ride. i actually do recommend this. i say actually not because it is expensive, but because it made me incredibly sick. nellie too. it took us awhile to recover. afterwards we drove to the nearest mini-mart and got a sprite and saltine crackers and sat huddled over on a dirty bench staring at the ground for awhile until we recovered...which was many hours later. we were with 2 german guys that didnt get sick at all so im sure most dont. it just hit us pretty bad, yet i still recommend it.

anyways, those are the ramblings. there is plenty more i could say. we did tons of activities (nodding my head and hi-fiving my bros right now). no literally we did a bunch of great outdoor activities and ate out plenty. if you are ever going let me know. ive got tons of great advice im happy to give, i just dont care what you have to say/recommend.

ghost town

2008-09-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

i just wanted to really quick give a plug for this movie. not that i have a large audience for this blog, but i didnt know how else to really give a plug for it. i was planning on seeing it, but then my friend zach saw it and raved about it, so we went last night. its great. so here a few reasons why you should go this weekend:

1. it probably wont be in theaters next weekend. sadly, its a great movie that, like other quality movies, isnt making much money. it came out last weekend, critics loved it, but somehow 'tyler perry's the family that preys together' and other cinema vomit makes more money. its well thought out and has quality, but maybe not big named actors in it, so it doesnt do as well as lame movies with crap plots and junk actors. bummer.

2. the actors are really actually great though.

a. ricky gervais. if you havnt seen him then you have to go. he is the inspiration behind 'the office.' it started in england and he created it. so what you see on nbc every thursday is a knock off of his creation and brilliance, so dont give steve carrell too much credit (although he does do a good job and has done well at making the character his own), he's just trying to be what ricky gervais was/created. if you look in the credits of the office youll see that he produced it.

b. greg kinnear. who doesnt love this guy?

c. tia leoni. also fantastic. she's great. she's a 40 year old that is totally hot but seems like a normal woman and not a celebrity (can i say that now that im married? i dont really know if i can make comments like that anymore. i guess ill find out tonight... love you nellie).

3. the movie perfectly captures the comedy that ricky gervais created and/or perfected. so entertaining. nellie had never seen him before and she and i were both laughing hard at so many parts. he's created a really funny character.

4. its just a flat out good movie. good story. not too predictable. youll be happy you went and wont be upset you spent $11.50 getting in. look, its a weekend, youre probably going to the movies anyways, just go to it. all the other junk will be there for you next weekend.

5. the previews we saw were fantastic. the new bond movie looks amazing. 'australia' looks really, really good. something else. and that other one too. they both looked good at the time even though i dont remember what they were.