Ranting...

2009-02-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

Hello, blog, my old friend. Since the last time we talked, we elected our first half-black president, I turned 26, "the list" now has 76 items on it, and Arizona was in the Super Bowl. Who would have thought that?!? With work, the website, and more Facebook time, there has been a lack of posts here. But today, I'm bringing the back the annual post of predicting the Academy Award winners.

Small films litter the nominations this year headlined by the wonderful feature "Slumdog Millionaire." This story of an Indian villager who answers questions on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" based on his own life story was easily the best picture of the year. So with best picture, directing, and writing locked up, who else do I think will win tonite? Let's look...

Best Picture - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director - Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor - Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (Don't be surprised if Sean Penn steals this.)
Best Actress - Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress - Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Adapted Screenplay - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Original Screenplay - Milk
Best Animated Feature - WALL-E
Best Art Direction - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Cinematography - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Costume Design - The Duchess (The Academy loves period pieces.)
Best Documentary Feature - Man on Wire
Best Documentary Short Subject - The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
Best Editing - Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture films usually win Best Editing.)
Best Foreign Language Film - Waltz with Bashir (If not this, then The Class.)
Best Makeup - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Musical Score - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Song - "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire
Best Short Film (Animated) - Presto
Best Short Film (Live Action) - Toyland
Best Sound Editing - The Dark Knight (This category loves action films so Iron Man could win too.)
Best Sound Mixing - The Dark Knight (Plus, there are no musicals this year.)
Best Visual Effects - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (They made Brad Pitt an old man!)

2008-10-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Election Day is rapidly approaching, so if you've received your absentee ballot, just go ahead, vote, and mail it in.

As good friends know, I'm center-right like the country is and John McCain is a natural pick for me. In these trying times, the country needs a steady hand to lead after tumultuous times, not someone who needs on-the-job training. You can have all the aides in the world advising you, but in the end, it's the president's decision and his alone. Even Bill Clinton needed two years as president before he became effective. With 8 years at the state level and a couple of years in the United States Senate, Barack Obama has a limited amount of experience to fall back on and make a decision, the tiniest of which will affect millions of Americans.

I don't agree with everything John McCain has done or promises he will do. During the primaries, the thing that worried me about him was his temper. You can tell he's been showing restraint, but if he was free to speak out in this campaign, you would see a very different John McCain.

Also, he could have chosen a better VP than Sarah Palin. McCain has a history of skin cancer and if it recurs, it puts Palin as the leader of the country, a scary proposition. The thing that allays my fear is that she has more executive experience than McCain, Obama, and Joe Biden combined and that being in the #2 spot will allow her to have on-the-job training, the thing Obama should have first.

McCain's health care proposals sound a little fishy to me, as he's offering a $5,000 tax credit while also taxing employer health plans. And, a try-everything energy policy is great but heavy reliance on nuclear power plants that won't be online until after McCain is out of office isn't the answer.

However, in the most important issues of the day, I'm more in line with McCain's policies. Sunday was the 41st anniversary of when he was shot down in Vietnam, and from that day forward, that has influenced his policies on protecting this country. As a Republican, he doesn't believe in the kind of income redistribution that Obama believes in and focuses on not raising taxes for anybody and promoting policies that create jobs and takes people out of welfare. And as someone who has taken on his own party in order to promote campaign finance reform, immigration reform, and earmark reform, he has the opportunity to promote just enough change to get this country back on the right track.

McCain was right in saying that we should not be scared of an Obama presidency. If that day comes (now becoming more and more likely), we should embrace it with open arms and speak with one voice on how to move this country forward. Obama is one of those once-in-a-lifetime figures that promises to transcend the status quo and govern effectively and efficiently. I just wish he had more experience because the office of the presidency should cap your career in politics, not something to start your career. However, what I am scared about is the prospect of a unified government which promises to turn this country to the left with Nancy Pelosi leading the House with 20-30 more votes this time around and Harry Reid leading a possible supermajority in the Senate.

If there's a silver lining to this outcome, the last time Democrats held the White House, the House, and Senate was after Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. Two years later, Republicans controlled the House and Senate.

In any case, no matter your opinion, November 4 is Election Day. Please make sure to vote.

2008-09-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've been back for two weeks but here it is...the trip report from Boston.

Any red-eye flight is never fun and the San Jose-Boston trip was no exception. To add insult to injury, US Airways started to charge for everything. Among them, they added a charge of $2 for water and soda. So there I was in my middle seat, cramped for hours just waiting for the plane to land.

We got in a hour early. I went to Enterprise for my rental car. Good price but they gave me a PT cruiser. Has anyone actually driven these things? Oh my, it's a piece of crap! It seriously took 60 seconds to go from 0-60. It was pathetic. It did however get me to where I was going, which was a road trip through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut and back.

First stop was a half hour south of Boston to Mansfield/Foxboro. Foxboro is home to the New England Patriots. Mansfield has the Comcast Center, which was the venue for the Radiohead concert that night. There seemed to be a buzz going through the Pats' part of town (I subsequently found out they had signed John Lynch that day). Next to the stadium, a new mall is opening up called Patriot Place. Inside was a new luxury theatre. We didn't pay the extra $10/ticket for the luxury part but from what I could tell, we could be looking at the future. A grand piano thats plays in the lobby. Sit-down restaurants up front. Luxury seats and at-your-seat food service. We saw Tropic Thunder, which was an excellent movie.

There wasn't much in terms of restaurants in the area, so we ate at two local chains. Both places seem to serve popcorn as an appetizer. Is that a New England thing? The first place also was a little peculiar. The menu offers entrees with a potato and vegetable. My sister asked for rice and broccoli. To which the waiter replied, "usually rice is your vegetable...what kind of potato do you want?"

The Radiohead concert was excellent (especially compared to the imperfect one they gave at Outside Lands). 25 songs, old and new were sung. The last part seemed to contain most of the slow songs Radiohead has performed but that didn't stop the drunk guy next to us from loudly singing along.

The next day, we headed further south. My brother's flight was delayed so we had to stick around the airport. There was a huge freeway sign that read MALL, so naturally we went there. Upon arrival, there was a Wal-Mart and a large building that used to be a mall. Inside it, the most popular place in there was a DMV renewal station.

We got out right away. I picked up my brother and we headed to Mystic, Connecticut, made famous by the Julia Roberts movie Mystic Pizza. Yelp didn't like their pizza so we didn't try it, but I wish we could have spent more time in the city. Instead we headed to Abbott's Lobster. It's a lobster place that's only open during the summer and they steam lobsters from 1 pound to 10 if you can believe it. They crack it for you to enjoy and it was mighty tasty.

Next was Foxwoods, the largest casino in America. It used to be the largest in the world but Macau is starting to build larger ones. Imagine a forest and then a group of trees was replaced by a casino. That's how the scenery is there. It's actually 4 separate casinos under one roof but they still took my money just the same. $100 at the blackjack table gone in less than 20 minutes...5 minutes of that from the dealer shuffling the 6 decks. In a weird reversal, I won $150 at the slots, so it was a net win. Inside were some great restaurants including a Craftsteak from Chef Tom from Top Chef, a David Burke steakhouse, where we got some sliders, and a Junior's Cheesecake, straight from Brooklyn.

Time to head back to Boston. Upon our arrival, we ate at the Top of the Hub. The Prudential Building is the second tallest building in Boston and on top is a restaurant with great views of the city. Our table looked toward Cambridge. Also, it just so happened that a lightning storm was going on, giving us great views of that.

The next day was Chinatown and a tour of the city. The Chinatown here is actually pretty good. Not as touristy as New York, not as small as D.C.'s, it seemed like a smaller version of the great one in San Francisco. Decent dim sum too. Afterwards was the Boston Duck Tour. What they call ducks are WWII vehicles that could go on land and in the sea.

Sunday was a transition day as we moved to a new hotel, the Intercontinental, one of the newest hotels in Boston. The sign on the door says that the room should cost $999/night. The website said $349/night. I got it for $149/night. Thank you Hotwire! Boy was it upscale. The staff were extra friendly. You turned on an electronic sign to signify do not disturb. The shower head was so strong, you could have fallen like Kramer did when he installed his black-market shower head on Seinfeld.

We ventured that night to Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market and to the North End. Faneuil Hall is a major historical landmark now turned into a shopping marketplace. It also holds a Cheers bar. If I understood this correctly, the TV show based their bar on the Cheers Beacon Hall location and the Faneuil Hall location based their bar on the TV show. Yeah, confusing. The North End has a large concentration of Italians. We ate at Giacomo's, highly recommended by many including Rachael Ray. A few peculiar things about the place...it only seats 30-40 people. Cash only. And you must stand in line. But boy is the food good. We sat at the bar area facing the kitchen. A little hot to sit there but with lobster, clams, mussels, and pasta for $18, I'm happy. Also had a cannoli from Mike's Pastry. Yummy.

Monday we ventured back to the Back Bay for the Fenway Park Tour. For $12, you get to see the park for much cheaper than going to a game. The only disappointing part of the tour was not getting to go on the field. Apparently, people were stealing the dirt and grass (LAME!). My sister then discovered Newbury Street (Chanel! Betsey Johnson! Burberry!). You get the idea. I fled to Borders.

Dinner that night was at the Omni Parker House, the birthplace of the Boston Cream Pie. Extra good and pretty cheap as it was one of the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week.

Our last day was a visit to Harvard and MIT. The Samuel Adams tour was supposed to cap the trip but they were sold out when we got there.

One last story...I was sitting in the middle seat because of my sister. She slept a lot on this trip and on the trip to Vegas for a layover before Boston, she rested her head on another passenger's shoulder, which scared her half to death. So I said, you get the window from now on. On the return trip, she's sleeping but her head's moving around everywhere. Finally, her head dropped and hit square on the window and she woke up. I couldn't help but laugh really loudly.

And that was my journey.

2008-08-04T21:29:00.001-07:00

Great quote from Overheard in the Office. I know a couple of co-workers who could be on this site.

Heated caller: So let me understand this: if I die, I get $100,000?

CSS rep: No. If you pass, your beneficiary will receive $100,000.

Heated caller: But it is my money. I am paying the premium for it. I should be able to get my money. Why can't I have my money?!

CSS rep: Because you will be dead, ma'am.

Heated caller: That's ridiculous. I want to speak with a manager.

2008-07-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

Everything you have heard about The Dark Knight is true. Come watch the great performance by Heath Ledger but stay for Christopher Nolan's great story and direction. It keeps you riveted for a lengthy 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Next Wednesday, July 30, The Cheesecake Factory is offering its cheesecake slices for $1.50 per slice.

2008-06-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

Oh, what a day.

So here was the plan. I'd fly to LA to see the new Simpsons ride at Universal Studios on Sunday. On Monday, Vegas. Tuesday...back home.

But Sunday...man, just bad luck all day long.

It started very early. 2 am to be exact. My sister's been a car accident. Idiot. Ran into a stone wall and totalled the car. She wasn't hurt (in fact, it seems like she forgot that it even happened). But by the time I picked her up and brought her back, it was time for me to get on a flight to LA.

9 am. We're making our final approach into LAX. The pilot comes on: "those of you on the left-hand side of the plane will see smoke coming from a building. That's Universal Studios."

Hmmm, that's where I wanted to go today. Steves picks me up and we go to his workplace (Code Monkeys on G4) to check the news. The park opens at noon. Ok, let's go. We get there. The park is still closed. In the end, it wouldn't open at all that day.

So we head down to UCSD to see Alex and have dinner. There are some great garlic fries to be eaten down there. Steves drops me back at my hotel so that I can rest up for the early morning flight to Vegas. I'm waiting at the elevator with a guy who had just checked in. We get in the elevator and I ask what floor. He replies 6. That's where I am. We walk out and we both head for the same room! They double-booked the room! My stuff is already in there so this room was mine, but man, what if I got there a minute too late?

The rest of the trip was better. Some quick hits:

It was weird to see two Amish couples flying in an airplane.

Lawry's the Prime Rib place is the original prime rib place, as our waitress insisted, not the rumored "Prime Rib House" (sic) in San Francisco.

I won $120 at the tables.

I'll be back in LA in a couple of weeks.

2008-05-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

Indy Jones 4. Ok, I could ignore the LED countdown clock in the year 1957. I can look past surviving a nuclear blast in a "Punky Brewster" lead-lined refrigerator. And sure, Indy could be the know-it-all that Nic Cage was in "National Treasure". As we move along through the film, it's actually pretty good...lots of action, good characters...but that ending??? Oh my. That pretty much ruined the film right there.

2008-05-15T23:38:00.001-07:00

Just watch the whole thing...

2008-05-04T23:28:00.000-07:00

It took a very long time into Sunday night, but finally the San Jose Sharks succumbed to the 3-0 hole they dug themselves in and lost to the Dallas Stars 2-1 in quadruple overtime and ultimately lost the series 4-2.

Many questions can be asked as to why this happened. Were they overconfident after getting points in 20 of their last 22 games? Is San Jose's relaxed nature not ideal for a playoff atmosphere? Is Ron Wilson the right coach to lead them into the playoffs?

If we learned anything from this series, the Sharks need somebody who can be aggressive, score, and lead. The team has plenty of people who can do one, maybe two of these things, but not all three. They only need to look across the ice for the ideal person in this series, Brendan Morrow.

Where do we go from here? We're probably not going to re-sign Brian Campbell unless he comes back at a discount. These playoffs prove he's not worth the $5-6 million he's probably going to command in free agency this offseason. He was very shaky in the defensive zone and his offensive prowess wasn't enough to offset it.

Keep Brian Boucher. He was more than competent and would give Nabokov more rest during the season.

Finally, keep Ron Wilson. He knows what he's doing and probably no one else is available who is as good as him.

Dallas...congratulations. If history is correct however, you're not going to win the Stanley Cup. No team who has defeated the Sharks in the playoffs has ever gone on to win the Stanley Cup.

2008-04-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

Crap, where have I been?

March Madness is pretty much done, which means my basketball site is done for another year. It sure took up a lot of time this year, but that's what happens when it attracts 350,000 hits in 5 months. Two newspapers wrote about it including South Carolina's largest newspaper The State (that's how the guy introduced himself) and the Palm Beach Post plus it was mentioned in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, CBS Sports and others.

Dith Pran was a survivor of the genocide in Cambodia and his story was dramatized in "The Killing Fields". When we watched it high school, classmates said I looked just like the actor who portrayed him. One even drew it in my yearbook. Now Pran has passed on. RIP

Finally, this should bring back some memories.

2008-02-24T00:35:00.000-08:00

The 2008 Academy Awards - Predictions

It's that time of year again to predict the Oscar winners. Here we go...

Best Picture - No Country for Old Men

Personally, I enjoyed Juno more, was more fascinated with Michael Clayton, in awe of the performance by Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood and liked the storytelling of Atonement. No Country for Old Men however works on so many levels, it pretty much is a complete movie.

Best Director - Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Actress - Julie Christie, Away from Her

Best Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Best Supporting Actress - Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best Original Screenplay - Juno by Diablo Cody

Best Adapted Screenplay - No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen

Best Animated Feature - Ratatouille

Best Documentary Feature - No End in Sight

Best Documentary Short Subject - Salim Baba

Best Foreign Language Film - 12

Best Cinematography - There Will Be Blood

Best Editing - No Country for Old Men

Best Art Direction - Atonement

Best Costume Design - La Vie en Rose

Best Makeup - La Vie en Rose

Best Original Score - Dario Marianelli, Atonement

Best Original Song - Falling Slowly, Once

Best Sound Mixing - No Country for Old Men

Best Sound Editing - Transformers

Best Visual Effects - Transformers

Best Animated Short Film - Madame Tutli-Putli

Best Live Action Short Film - At Night

2008-01-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

Please remember to go vote February 5. As a Republican, I can only vote for Republican candidates in this election and for this primary, the field could have been better. But of the men left, John McCain is probably the best choice to uphold conservative values and have a chance to win in November.

My heart says vote for Mitt Romney. He's a businessman. He co-founded Bain Capital and was CEO of Bain and Company, one of the best consulting firms around. He saved the Winter Olympics in Utah. However, he seems to be one of those guys who tells you what you want to hear rather than what he believes in. He's the Republican Party's own John Kerry and we'll be killed in November if he's nominated.

Rudy Giuliani is best known for keeping New York City in order after 9/11. If that man was running for President, he would have an excellent shot at winning. However, we got Giuliani, pre-9/11, whom New Yorkers never truly embraced with his divisive policies on race, the homeless, and education. Watching him on the campaign trail, it doesn't seem like he's taking it too seriously...always reaching for the next joke or one-liner. When he does take it seriously, he relies upon 9/11. His strategy in the primaries have certainly not helped. By ignoring Iowa, New Hampshire, and other states, he needed to be the front-runner in the national polls to ensure victory in the later, bigger states such as Florida, California, and New York. Now, he is trailing and has no momentum.

The beneficiary of Giuliani's decline? McCain. He's got national security down pat. He's said the right things about the economy, though it is not his strong suit. He is portrayed as a truthful man which can be good and bad at the same time. There are questions surrounding his health. After all, if inaugurated, he would be 71, the oldest ever. There are also questions about his loyalty. Whenever he doesn't get his way, he runs to the Democratic side, siding with Joe Lieberman on climate change, Russ Feingold on campaign reform, and others. However, in this time of war, McCain is the one Reublican candidate who can ensure we can stay on top of national security while bringing about enough change to reunite a country so badly divided after a less-than-stellar Bush presidency.

Briefly, on the Democratic side, I wouldn't mind an Obama presidency but I couldn't stand a Clinton presdiency. The prospect of a Billary White House would seem to be a wrong move in a country desperate for a fresh start.

2008-01-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

Hope everybody had a great start to the new year. Christmas was good. I got a Slingbox, which allows me to waste even more time at work. Oh yeah! Work. I'm full time on my $36 million contract after transferring all my previous workload to the two newbies. The temp I interviewed became a permanent employee, but the more I get to know her, the less I'm impressed with her in terms of...what do you call it?...intelligence.

The Oscar nominations are out which means Oscar predictions will start up soon. Of the best picture noms, I've watched Juno and No Country for Old Men. Michael Clayton is coming out on DVD in a couple of weeks. That just leaves Atonement and There Will Be Blood.

2007-12-25T00:17:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all. Also, a special thanks to all those who came to my birthday meals. I ate at Elephant Bar, Benihana, and Maggiano's in two days and I'm still standing. I think I need a drink.

2007-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving folks. Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday, the food, and the football. I got back from Hawaii last weekend and it was just great. Perfect weather. Great food. What more could you ask for?

This trip has been in the making for months. The kids bought the parents tickets to Hawaii about six months ago. Since then, they made a trip to Seattle all by themselves and while they enjoyed themselves, they expressed their dismay about how they would have been happier if we joined them. So the decision was made to surprise them in Hawaii. So everybody except Chris went and we surprised them outside their hotel. The look was priceless but the camera angles were bad so we never got a good picture.

The first day was the traditional luau. I got pulled onstage to dance with hula girls. Sure, it was a surprise but was I complaining? Nope. In subsequent days, there was Pearl Harbor, North Shore, shave ice at Matsumoto's, shrimp at Giovanni's, and tons of shopping for Nancy. She couldn't decide between a Dior necklace or Dior wallet, so what does she do? Get them both, obviously.

In fact, the only unpleasantness was the trip home where the flight back was delayed for almost 4 hours, which meant we couldn't get to Oakland until 2:15 am. And if you know my parents, you know their opinion of Oakland even if it is just at the airport.

All in all, these few days away from work were welcome. As some of you know, I'm in month 2 of my 4-month hellish period at work where two veterans are on medical leave and replaced by two newbies while at the same time I'm trying to take over a new, more complicated contract. Luckily, I'm thankful the newbies are performing extremely well (obviously because of my great teaching skills :) The roadblocks seem to be IT in its fumbling of the reports we use to do our jobs and a reorganization at work that has given us mixed messages to start out the new year but seems to be getting better.

2007-10-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

2007-10-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

Don't worry...I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. It's just been busy. Really busy. Really really busy.

There have been some nice weekend trips. One to Lake Tahoe, one to Reno, and one this past weekend to Vegas. Tahoe was an end-of-summer trip before school started again. This was with Hai, Claire, Alex, Ngan, and Paul. Kayaking was involved and of course, when we're faced with a large body of water, somebody's bound to fall in and that was Alex and Paul this time around. In Reno, it was my third time getting to the rib cookoff and this year was probably the best one of the three. Nice and cool and we saw Superbad. It was a good comedy but I think they could've gone over the top and it would've been so much better.

The last trip was to Vegas where we were celebrating my sister's 21st birthday. And she made the most of it, hitting 3 clubs in 2 nights: Tao, Pure and Jet. I of course go for the gambling and food. Food was good, the gambling was not. I've never won in Vegas. The last trip I took in July was the only time that I did. All the winnings I got from the previous Tahoe and Reno trips? All wiped away on this Vegas trip. At one point, the dealer didn't pay me after he busted and when I called him out on it, he said, "well, I was getting used to not giving you any money." As for the buffets, $15 for the brunch buffet at Paris is a pretty good value, but while the Wynn has an excellent buffet, is it worth the $38? Nope.

We stayed at the Planet Hollywood hotel, still pretty much a construction zone with the Miracle Mile shops still being upgraded and condos going up next door. But if you remember a couple of years ago when I was there last, you'll recall that a gorilla mask from Congo was the centerpiece of the hotel room. This time? A spider from Arachnophobia. Oh, and it was cold there, first time I've complained about that. 68 degrees to be exact.

In the middle of all this? Work. I've been reassigned to do actual work as I'm in charge of a $35 million project. If only I could swing a small percentage of that towards me. The problem about this reassignment? I still have my old job to do, I'm gonna take over for my co-worker who's going on maternity leave and I've gotta spend time training my replacements. Yes, replacements. Apparently, it takes two people to do my job. Hard to believe.

2007-09-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

2007-08-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

Reorganization is taking place in my department and it looks like I'm getting the short end of the stick. One of the divisions in our company wanted to have its own business analyst all for themselves, which is great until we found out our current boss was taking the job.

At our company, business analysts come in two flavors: products and projects. A product business analyst handles financials for jobs that are selling pre-made units (that's me!). A project business analyst handles financials for development jobs. Products used to be the backbone of the company in the '90s but nowadays, it is development that is making the money. As a result, we've gotten to the point where all the business analysts are going to be under one manager, which is a nice idea except that there are now 11 of us with 3 more about to be hired spread across 3 different sites throughout the country. Not an easy job.

My new manager is nice enough, but when I saw her in the hallway, her first question to me was "You're not going to quit, are you?"

Who knows? All I know is with the products BA manager gone and my fellow co-worker going on maternity leave, I'm left holding the ball for everything. Everything. Who's my backup? A part-time business analyst going back to full-time and a temp that my new manager, former manager and I get to hire. No worries, I'll put him, her, or it through the ringer. (We joked it could be one of those Japanese robots that gets hired...after all, I've told you what I do everyday, right?)

2007-08-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

I'm back from DC! Ok, that was a week and a half ago. I'm still recovering from the heat. 100 degree humid weather just sucks, especially when you're roaming through the city by foot. In two and a half days in DC and 1 in Baltimore, we managed to visit Union Station, the National Zoo, the National Cathedral, Georgetown, the Washington Monument, the Natural History Museum, the National Air & Space Museum, the Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery, Chinatown, the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the White House, Camden Yards, and Lexington Market.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency near the Capitol which on the inside looks pretty nice but when you walk outside, it's like a whole different world out there. A homeless shelter is nearby. The fire station is across the street. Not the first place I had in mind to stay at but when it's at a 75% discount from regular prices, you made do with what you have. Of course, this wasn't as bad as the streets of Baltimore, which looked a lot less inviting unless you are near the ballpark.

The tour of the Capitol was much better than the White House. It's guided first of all plus if you go through your representative in Congress, you get a little bit of a local tour as well. Much more history and you get to see where things get done. The White House is just a walking tour filled with a lot of pictures and, in our case, rooms closed due to renovation.

Sure the budget was limited, but we still made it to some great restaurants. It was Restaurant Week in DC, but we were only here on the first day of it, so we didn't take full advantage of the prix fixe menus. Straight from the airport and hotel, we headed to the Cap City Brewing Co, which had some pretty good beer. The next day featured Clyde's of Georgetown, visited by Rachael Ray in a $40 a day episode, and Old Ebbitt Grill, apparently a Washington institution. Then there was Fogo de Chao, the Brazilian steakhouse where they bring around 10-15 different meats continuously until you say stop. Even for lunch, this was really good. Chicken, lamb, beef, pork, and it really didn't stop until you turned your card over. Finally, there was Chinatown, which was smaller than I thought it would be. In Baltimore, I had a crabcake at Faidley's, which was much better than anything I've had on the West Coast.

All in all, a very nice trip with first class air travel to and from.

2007-08-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

I'm writing to you live from Washington D.C. as I'm on vacation for the next few days. After flying to Chicago in coach a month ago and flying to D.C. in first class, I don't have to tell you which was the better flying experience.

This weekend, The Bourne Ultimatum and Hot Rod were released and the two have decidedly different critical opinions. Bourne is a great, great film. If you hadn't seen the last two films in the series for a while, like me, you might get a little lost when catching up with the story. But when you see Jason beat up 6 guys buy himself, you'll get right back into the game as we figure out his origins.

Andy Samberg and his writing crew just might be the greatest 5-minute writing team there is today. But that doesn't mean Hot Rod, at a lengthy 80 minutes, is a great film. It's not. Not by a longshot. It reminds me a lot of Napoleon Dynamite, a pointless exercise that has nevertheless received a cult following. I mean, come on, who does Andy think he is in this film after going through all those stunts unscathed? Homer Simpson?

2007-07-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

The Smashing Pumpkins were great for 2 hours with half of the original band and three newbies rockin' the Fillmore with songs old and new. Billy took time out to sing a song he wrote that day. And the crowd generally had a good time. That was until the show stretched to 2.5 hours. With a half hour jam session that dragged on and on and one song in the encore, it wasn't the ending I would've envisioned, but going up to see them was still well worth it.

Also worth it was the Simpsons movie. My only quibble with it was that most, if not all, of the funny jokes were already seen in the trailers and the promo clips, defusing the buzz that surrounded the movie. Great seeing them on the big screen though.

2007-07-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

According to simpsonizeme.com, this is what I'd look like as a Simpsons character. Not Asian at all, but the program's still pretty cool and I am Simpsons yellow.

Two music notes:

I've listened to the Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist CD all week in the car. I really like the first half...pure Pumpkins, songs you can listen to over and over again. Tarantula's great, 7 Shades of Black and That's the Way My Love Is are awesome. The last half is kinda iffy. Not a big fan of United States or Pomp and Circumstances but Neverlost has its moments. Maybe seeing them live will make me a fan of these songs. That's next Tuesday, the 24th.

Garbage is out with a best-of CD along with a new single. That comes out tomorrow.

2007-07-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Without spoiling too much, lemme say that "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is a bit underwhelming. The storyline revolving around Dolores Umbridge goes on far too long to keep me interested while the ending, the only worthwhile part to watch, feels rushed. I've liked the series' turn to darkness, especially in "The Prisoner of Azkaban" but there is too much of it here in the literal and figurative sense that you're being pounded with the same message over and over again...Lord Voldemort is coming. Yes, we heard you the first time. All in all, it's worth watching to see the further development of Harry Potter, but don't expect to be entertained with fancy spells and fast Quidditch matches.

2007-07-05T04:14:00.000-07:00

The rest of the few pics I have are on Flickr.

After Transformers let out at 10:30 pm Monday, I had 6 hours before I had to leave for my flight to Chicago. Unless you try to stay awake the whole time, one should not try this. I was dead tired walking onto the plane. I don't know how I made it, but I'm glad I did.

Airport security was tight but caused me no problems, with the exception of my checked bag being "randomly chosen" for inspections for all 3 legs of my trip. The plain black bag must have scared the shit out of them. O'Hare was actually the best airport with no lines to speak of. Walked in and wondered what to do with all the time I set aside.

In a preview of things to come at Jon's wedding, the San Jose-Chicago leg of the trip was spent with about 60 Christians headed to Illinois for vacation. Once that seatbelt light turned off, the whole plane seemed to rise in unison to socialize. It got so bad, the pilots needed to turn the light back on. However, 4 short hours later, I'm there. Well, gotta wait another 3 hours on a bus to Madison to see Jeanette, so 7 short hours later, I'm there. Boy, it was muggy. Highs in the 80s and pretty humid. I'd rather have Vegas' 118 degrees than this.

As you might expect, people move to a different beat up in the Midwest. Madison's big tourist spots are the capitol and the nearby lake. And that's about it. The wind at that lake was crazy. As the capital of the state and a college town, things were rather empty for the summer recess since everybody was on vacation. The few people left were drinking beer. Whether it is quality brews or Pabst Blue Ribbon, beer was being consumed in large quantities. The beer did make "Black Snake Moan" a little bit more bearable, but still it's just an okay movie. Every scene with Justin Timberlake is a laugh riot since he has to cry in every scene he's in.

After a few minutes of depression in the morning (the light in Jeanette's bathroom was so bright, you could see where my future bald spot will be), it was off to Chicago with Jeanette, Hai and Andrew. The day was modeled after Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Okay, there wasn't a Ferrari but a Chevy Cavalier. No French food but there were French Fries at McDonalds. The game was with the White Sox instead of the Cubbies. No Art Institute or parade but we did listen to "Twist and Shout" in the car. Sears Tower was good. It's amazing what you can see 103 stories up. Wrigley Field had that classic look I remember watching on TV. And the Orioles beat the White Sox, which only happened because I was there, right?

The 4th of July in Chicago probably showcases the best of the city because after the fireworks display at the baseball game, you walk out with a great view of the entire city skyline ablaze in more fireworks. It was a great sight. What wasn't a great sight? Two drunk guys coming up to me to compliment my Office shirt, the third such encounter that day. But this particular one concluded with a pat on the back and a slap on the ass, so I'll file that one under weird.

Thursday meant a flight to Vegas to meet up with my brother among other people. We stayed at the Westin Casaurina, a nice, out-there hotel that never got too crowded, especially in the casino, making for a pleasant experience. Since I'm still writing this, I was not involved in the shooting at the New York New York casino. I stayed up until 4 gambling on slots and blackjack. Blackjack I was in for $120 and was down to $10 before a rally got me back up to $250 before retreating to $170, making for a $50 win.

I'd never played blackjack with my brother but this is his strategy, which I had never seen used before. If the dealer is showing a 6 or less, more often than not, he's going to bust. So if my brother also had 11 or less, he would double his bet every time, essentially betting on the dealer to bust. It sounds crazy but it worked for him all night.

I got back late Friday night just to wake up on 7/7/7 for Jon's wedding. The ceremony was at 10 so I needed to leave by 7 to get to Placerville and to pick up Hai and Claire along the way. I had my GPS with me, but if you know those things, they'll steer you toward the shortest route, not necessarily the best route. So the GPS had us going up steep inclines and declines and on dirt and rocky roads. Not the best of drives especially when 10 miles down, it's all pavement to the bride's parents' house where the ceremony was taking place.

It was a nice and simple wedding that ended with Jon and Rosemary walking down the aisle to the theme from "Star Wars". And that was pretty much my weekend. It was the drive back from Sacramento where fatigue really hit me. Apparently, I dozed off on 101 around Tully since a car swerved behind me when I slowed to 40. At least I was driving straight. In any case, that woke me up enough to get me home, so that on Sunday, I rested.

2007-07-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

First off, the Smashing Pumpkins' new CD is being streamed on AOL.

"Transformers" first and foremost aspires to satisfy people who thought highly of it years ago. The screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are becoming veterans at it with Mission: Impossible under their belt and Star Trek in the near future. And for the fans, they should be satisfied by the rock'em, sock'em nature of machines that are more than meets the eye doing battle. But the movie as a whole is a disappointment and it's mostly because of the "primitive" humans as Megatron describes them. After a thrilling opening scene to demonstrate the power of the Decepticons, the film degenerates into a bunch of eBay jokes and awkward one-liners by Shia LeBeouf to gain the affection of the admittedly attractive Megan Fox. Soon, the aliens are fully introduced and finally the movie has some cohesiveness, highlighted by Optimus Prime rallying the troops. But treating humans as though they could be equals in the fight between Autobots and Decepticons is absurd. It contributes heavily toward the muddled final 30 minutes until the situation is resolved and we're left wondering what just happened.

Wild fact of the night: Darius McCrary, Eddie Winslow himself from "Family Matters", voices Jazz.

A little sleep and I'll be on a flight from SJC starting at 6:30 am. I'll update by Wednesday night at the latest...I think.

2007-06-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

There's a lot to like about "Live Free or Die Hard". After all, before there was Jack Bauer, there was John McClane doing anything and everything to stop the bad guys using only his fists and guns from the people he killed. In this movie, it's no different. The movie starts out as a version of one of his earlier films "16 Blocks". He's gotta escort a hacker to Washington D.C. for interrogation after there's a breach in the FBI computer system. But when the country around them turns into chaos and hired henchmen target this hacker, John McClane goes into, well, John McClane mode. What results is a 130 minute action adventure that doesn't seem boring at all. Some of the stuff that occurs in the film is a bit far-fetched, okay, very far-fetched, but if you don't let that bother you, you're in for a great ride.

This is probably the last post until my vacation starts next week, depending if I'm able to watch Transformers on Monday. I'm gonna try to blog my trip as best as I can with stops in Chicago, Las Vegas and Sacramento.

2007-06-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

A pair of electronics purchases highlights this weekend. I'm writing this blog on my new hp dv6000t notebook which came in this week and it's a vast improvement over the old Toshiba. This one features Windows Vista which isn't as bad as people say it is. I do find it weird that there is a difference between being logged in as an administrator and being logged in with administrator privileges. Also, the glossy finish produces plenty of fingerprint smudges but I don't mind that.

My parents went ahead to buy a new TV that's long overdue. Where it'll fit in the house still eludes me but I'm sure they'll find room for the Panasonic 58" plasma somewhere in the family room. The only thing that sucks is the wait from Comcast to get HD hooked up on the TV. The guy said the first available day they can come out is July 3, when I'll be on a plane to Chicago, which also means my first chance to catch it will be July 8, the day after the day of perfection apparently.

Downside to the TV? My parents insist on watching all of their thuy nga dvd's all over again, now with an upconvert DVD player.

2007-06-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

Watched The Police last night and it was pretty awesome. They played all the great hits and came out for 3 encores. I stood 6 rows from the stage but while I had a clear view of them, I still watched them from the giant screen right in front of me. Sting was showing his age but still came off as cool. Stewart came with a ball of energy and was probably the best one of the three. He always had that look where he's staring down at death and he'd come get him if he didn't hit the drums right. On the other end, Andy had that look where he was trying to remember the words and chords to each of the songs. But he had a great solo in the first encore.

Two movies you should definitely see are Pan's Labyrinth and Ocean's Thirteen. I wrote off Pan's during Oscar season thinking it was just another visual movie with not that much plot to go along with it but I was pleasantly surprised. Ocean isn't as good as the first but much better than the messy second one. The problem with this one is that Eleven pulled you into lots of different directions before finally explaining how they did it. Thirteen is more straight-forward but I liked the whole concept of the film plus having Al Pacino doesn't hurt.

2007-06-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

One of my high school teachers always sought to set students' expectations low so that when we did well, we'd feel so much better about ourselves. Maybe that's what the producers of Pirates of the Caribbean were thinking when they made the last two films of the series. Part 2 was just so bad and boring, I fell asleep. And I snore too so the sold-out crowd was probably none too happy. Fast forward to Part III, At World's End, and you know what, it ain't that bad. Maybe it's because the second one was dismal, they had nowhere to go but up. Or it could be it was genuinely good. Nah, that's not it.

The movie was still pulled in too many directions by characters who each had their own agenda to follow. At least putting everyone in the same general area for the last half of the film helped everything gel together for one final action-filled battle.

It was a few months overdue, but I finally bought my new laptop over the weekend. Kinda. I settled on a hp dv6000t from Costco online. It has the Core 2 Duo chip, which supposedly has some kind of high-pitched noise if the power settings are turned on in a certain way so hopefully my new system will have that problem fixed. It should be here in a week.

The Sharks lost again. Better luck next year. But the small factoid I discovered years ago lives on. No team that has beaten the Sharks in the playoffs has won the Stanley Cup. The Red Wings were eliminated by what looks like the final champion Anaheim.

2007-05-20T03:16:00.000-07:00

Excuse me while I try to knock out this insomnia I have at 3 am in the morning.

TPTB at work just gave me a raise so large, the CFO had to approve it. Even so, I figure July alone will wipe out that money so every little bit helps. At my review last year, my boss pretty much called me a dweeb (his initial thought about me upon our first meeting). This year's was equally puzzling. He said he was glad my old boss chose me since if it were up to him, he was torn between me and another guy, but ultimately he would have chosen the other guy. Man, I'm just feeling the love.

Also at work, they are really, really picky about their parking spaces. I had just dropped off a co-worker at the auto mechanic and was heading back. It was almost closing time on Friday so I figure I'd park, run in, grab my stuff, and head out. The parking lot was pretty much deserted so I parked in the space closest to the sidewalk, a visitors parking spot. As I'm walking back from my office, a facilities guy was looking at me funny while I get in and drive away. Imagine my surprise when I show up Monday morning. A company-wide memo was issued informing us that the visitors parking spots were for visitors only. Seriously?

If you've never had to deal with AT&T/SBC outsourced tech support, consider yourself lucky. The Internet was down at the house and after checking out the router and modem settings, I figure it was their problem. So I call and check to see if there's a network status or something. The outsourced Indian guy I got to talk to had a cold so I could tell it was tough for him to keep his faux American accent going throughout the conversation. But listening to him, I don't think he knew what he was talking about. All I wanted to know was whether or not there's an outage in my area. So he asked me what state I lived in.

--California.
--Where?
--California, C-A...
--Thank you, sir.

So he goes straight to troubleshooting. Whoa there, I know everything's fine on my end.

--Do you have a router?...What kind of modem do you have?...What are the colors of the cords in the back?

The colors of the cords? What difference does that make? When I told him they were all beige, he was just utterly confused, either because he didn't expect that they were all one color or that he didn't know what beige was. I played dumb like this for a good 15 minutes before he finally gave up.

--What state do you live in, sir?

Didn't I just answer that? I thought I said California.

--Ok, California, what time is it over there?

What, no clocks? He proceeds to ask me this 4 times before he finally tells me there's an outage and to try again in an hour before pretty much hanging up on me.

Finally, to wrap up, we have the movies. Awfully slow out there in the movie world. Talked about Spider-Man 3 already, but I must say I had a much better time at Blades of Glory a few weeks earlier. Funny man that Will Ferrell is. On the Netflix front, Volver was mixed but it's always nice to see Penelope Cruz, Notes on a Scandal was interesting (I'm hoping that a certain someone at work doesn't turn into Judi Dench's character), The Pursuit of Happyness was good but the real guy looks nothing like Will Smith, Rocky Balboa was whiny in the first half and didn't pick up until the training began, Man of the Year wasn't as bad as people made it out to be, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj was as bad as people made it out to be, Kate Winslet made The Holiday passable even with the presence of Cameron Diaz, and while Cars is still quality stuff, Pixar has made better movies.

2007-05-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Smashing Pumpkins! Playing at the Fillmore from July 22 - August 1 if anybody's interested. Man, July is going to be one busy month.

2007-05-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

If anyone wants to get me this XBox 360, it'd be very appreciated. Quick, there are only 100 of them out there.

2007-05-06T19:21:00.000-07:00

While billed as an action movie, director Sam Raimi and the screenwriters were obsessed with teasing the love story between MJ and Peter. Yes, it is necessary to tell, but it soon came to the point where I was indifferent to what happened to them. Yet, one look at Spider-Man shooting webs at buildings and flying right past them will have you hooked.

That's what I wrote here 3 years ago following the release of Spider-Man 2. The third installment suffers from the same problem of trying to balance a love story with the action elements. However, this time around, the audience loses. The indifference lingers as Peter and MJ's relationship is complicated by an amnesiac Harry and a new girl in Bryce Dallas Howard (who looks stunning by the way...in all her other movies, she's been really plain). With two villains to focus on (Venom and the Sandman), their on-screen presence is fairly limited as we follow Peter Parker and his road into darkness, portraying some sort of Jared Leto/Chris Gaines hybrid. What remains is an up-and-down picture trying to tell multiple stories of multiple characters and not doing a very good job of it. As a result, its usual pillars are weakened; the action scenes and fights are more cartoonish and not particularly convincing and the humor at times seems forced. At 140 minutes, your time may be better spent waiting for this DVD to come out.

2007-05-03T13:21:00.000-07:00

Best attempt at a dunk, ever. With a trampoline no less.

2007-04-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sounds like I'll have to plan another L.A. trip next year...

NBC Universal's theme park division is looking to make some serious "d'oh," pacting with News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox TV to launch a major ride tied to "The Simpsons."

As-yet-untitled attraction will be built at both Universal Studios Hollywood and the Universal Orlando Resort; online reports had said the ride would be limited to Orlando. Both parks are set to open the ride -- which will utilize motion simulator technology -- in spring 2008.

Deal also includes provisions that will allow characters from "The Simpsons" to be integrated into the larger Universal theme park brand. Actors dressed like "Simpsons" characters will start roaming the grounds of both parks, while stores devoted to selling "Simpsons"-themed souvenirs will pop up.

Ride deal marks the second time in as many months that NBC U and News Corp. have teamed up; companies are preparing to launch a viral video portal this summer.

"Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and exec producer James L. Brooks collaborated with U's ride design team on the concept, which will let parkgoers travel through a "Simpsons"-ized version of a theme park, as envisioned by Krusty the Clown.

"The ride is designed to duplicate the Simpsons home-viewing experience, only at high speed and with lots of screaming," Groening said.

"The Simpsons" ride is replacing another Hollywood-themed attraction, the long-running "Back to the Future: The Ride." Universal Hollywood will shutter the latter ride after Labor Day; Orlando's version closed at the end of March.

U isn't providing much info about the specifics of the ride, saying only that "guests will be rocketed along with the Simpson family on a hysterical, almost unimaginable adventure. They'll experience a side of Springfield previously unexplored as they enjoy the new ride's interpretation of the thrill rides, dark rides and 'live' shows that make up a new fantasy amusement park dreamed up by" Krusty.

U said the ride will feature a number of Simpsons characters, with voices supplied by the thesps heard on the series.

Universal Parks & Resorts chairman-CEO Tom Williams said "The Simpsons" ride is a good "complement to our brand of entertainment."

Florida Today, which first reported news of the "Simpsons" ride on April 5, said the attraction is part of $120 million in upgrades U plans to its Orlando resort in the coming year.

Universal isn't saying how much it paid 20th for the right to use "The Simpsons" brand, but a recent SEC filing obtained by Florida Today hints that a big chunk of the company's capital expenditures in 2007 and 2008 would be reserved for "intellectual property rights" related to new attractions.

In addition to the "Simpsons" ride, insiders said U is expected to announce at least one or two other film/TV-themed attractions this year.

From Variety

2007-04-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so remind me next time to pay extra attention to all those Asian English majors out there. Apparently, they're either your best friend or they need major help before you turn into target practice.

2007-04-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

Observations from this weekend:

--I was in SoCal this week to visit friends as Hai needed to attend a panel in the IE. Coming along for the ride were Claire, Jenny, Alex, Steve for a couple of days and Akshay on the last day. For a change, it was actually cloudy most of the weekend, so it wasn't really beach weather.

--Some of these pictures above are from me and others are from Alex and Claire. You could probably find more at their sites.

--American Eagle must be very efficient. They were always on-time for the round-trip but they charged for pretty much everything. The cashews are $2! To add injury to insult, they're always found at the end of the terminal so they're a good 15 minutes away from the security checkpoints. In Orange County, they're actually based out of a portable outside. Outside! You gotta go up and down 4 flights of stairs between the terminal and the plane.

--I sat in Hai's little panel discussion on the poems of Emily Dickinson. The other people on the panel didn't really contribute too much. One freely admitted she poorly analyzed her thesis while another was a little more concerned about the animations on her power-point presentation. Even the panel leader made up the word scannation.

--Steve's bachelor pad is pretty sweet. The star of the show has to be the voice-activated dimmer switch. Yell out computer: low and you get a dimly lit room to set the mood. Apparently, it's only $20 if you want one. We also visited his workplace which was the set of Saul of the Mole Men, finishing up its run on Adult Swim. Okay, so the set is one room with a green-screen, but still.

--Hollywood and Highland is actually a much smaller place than you see on TV. This intersection is home to Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars call home), and the El Capitan Theatre (where Jimmy Kimmel does his show). Once there, we found one of those R2-D2 mailboxes people were talking about. Pretty cool.

--Any weekend with me is usually about the food and there was no shortage of that. There was the steak at Gaucho Grill, a good Argentinean steak house, the seafood at the chain Joe's Crab Shack, a bowl of bun bo hue, and of course, the Angus Third Pounder at McDonalds. I didn't take any food pictures...Claire took care of that. The yogurt shop Pinkberry is good, but I don't think it's worth it to stand in some of the lines this place is notorious for.

--Yes, when you're driving with me, I'm gonna drive like an old man. I'm sorry but that's how I'm going to get you from point A to point B.

--Our time with Steves ended with a nice stroll on the beach. With our cell phone lights. In the midst of jumping around, Steves lost his keys, so here it was at 8:00 in the pitch black that we were combing the beach. Lucky for us, Jenny found them or else we would have been there forever.

--Our ulterior motive for being down there was to tour the colleges. Hai and Jenny are choosing from a few and so we visited Riverside, Irvine, and UCSD. Riverside is just how I remembered it. Way back when my brother went there, I never wanted to stay. So cross this one off the list. Irvine is big and quiet with plenty of Asians walking around, if you find people walking around. Even with the scholarships these two schools offered me in 2000, I still chose Berkeley. That's why of the three, UCSD seemed to be the best. Nice campus, plenty of people and parking. During our short time with Akshay, he gave us the grand tour from his Civic. And he knows a lot about the campus...one class left til graduation and his 7 year journey to a degree will be over. I think he's been waiting for me to hit it big.

--So today, here I am at work. Coming back, I got a few messages from IT stating that they should be able to fix the problem I was having with some software yesterday. Funny, I wasn't at work yesterday. Yep, these are my co-workers.

--The rest of my pictures can be found at Flickr.

2007-04-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

Before we get to today's post, let's look at this fine apartment in New York City. As written in New York Magazine, this is fairly new at 5 years old without any renovations and located right next to Central Park. Asking price? Just a cool $989,000. That's with a discount since its location at Manhattan Avenue hasn't been embraced by home buyers as of yet. So get it while it's...cool.

My co-worker just can't catch a break. Before I took my present job, she had just returned from a stint on the DL, dealing with a bulging disc in her back. She returned when I started but left a month later after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. During this time, her daughter was charged with DUI and hit-and-run as she hit a motorcyclist, killing him. To deal with that, she needed to sell her home to pay for legal fees and move to the Central Valley while still commuting to Sunnyvale. On a happier note, she got married for a third time but her sibling was dealing with a divorce, so she took care of two more children. Just last month, her daughter was found guilty of two misdemeanors, which sounds bad but it could've been much, much worse. However, just a week later, her car was broken into.

Which brings us to today. She was the victim of a hit-and-run when a Ford Expedition ran into her car from behind. What the driver of the Ford didn't know was that his front license plate was part of the wreckage left behind, allowing police to find his house and charge him. She and her kids in the car are fine, but still, my co-worker's car is totaled in yet another odd chapter in her life.

2007-03-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I work in Silicon Valley for a high-tech defense communications firm but that doesn't mean management caught up with that trend. They are decidedly old-school. Case in point: my boss doesn't use a computer. Everything's printed for him by his secretary including all the reports and emails sent to him. He's in Hawaii this week for the 20-year bash. (Cool perk: those who have been with the company for 20 years get an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii. 15 gets you to Vegas.) The big monthly division meeting is also this week so we all assumed he would skip that along with a few other top managers. Imagine my surprise when my immediate boss requested that I get my reports done a few hours earlier today. Why? I need to FedEx overnight my reports to Hawaii so that he could have them before the meeting. It's only 8 reports totaling 150 pages, but still. It's also just my luck that I jammed all 3 copiers in the high-speed copy center. So much for technology.

Catching up with the movies I've seen since the last time I talked about this: 300 is a pretty good war movie but with some pretty big flaws. Moving the story between the battlefield and Sparta was a good idea but the story at home paled in comparison to the glory being won by the Spartan men. Did everything need to be in slow motion? Good thing they didn't have the actors speak in slow-motion. Can you really kill that many people with no armor, barely any injury to themselves, and no blood splattered from their victims? If you're gonna focus on the number 300, maybe they should've had a counter in the corner of the screen to keep track of the number of soldiers left. I could go on and on, but if you take it for what it is, it's darn entertaining.

On the DVD front, Running with Scissors was booorrring. Trust the Man was just boring. The Prestige was good but not as good as The Illusionist which was excellent. Edward Norton will always elevate a film. Ok, maybe not Death to Smoochy. This Film is Not Yet Rated is an eye-opening film about how the MPAA works in rating films. Definitely an educational experience.

Finally, Zach Galifianakis' new DVD is out, so check it out.

2007-03-15T00:50:00.000-07:00

This is an oldie, but a goodie. Man, look at this horse...oh wait, I'm being told this is a butterfly.

2007-03-06T14:54:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to remind everybody that the Mega Millions jackpot is up to $370 million. Interesting fact though on today's Mercury News. The odds of winning Mega Millions is about 175,000,000 to 1. The odds of becoming a billionaire is 7.5 million to 1.

Who woulda thought that?

2007-02-28T13:35:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Hai and Steves. Steves' is actually tomorrow but hey, I'm consolidating posts.

The count for correct Oscar predictions this year was 14, which is a personal worst, but from what I hear, was actually pretty good this year.

2007-02-24T01:49:00.000-08:00

700 posts later and now there's a new layout. I didn't want to change but this upgrade Blogger had forced my hand (it didn't have the old layout among the options).

It's Oscar weekend and now it's time for the final predictions. (The rest of them are on the sidebar. Based on the past, I'm usually good for 15.) I wholeheartedly believe The Departed should win for best picture and best director. With Dreamgirls out of the way by virtue of not being nominated, the frontrunners seem to be Babel and The Departed with Little Miss Sunshine being the leading darkhorse. Letters from Iwo Jima and The Queen (3.5 stars) were certainly good, but reached out to niche audiences. Little Miss Sunshine is hurt by the fact that it's mainly a comedy, and when was the last time a comedy won for best picture? I'd be happy if it won, but it doesn't look to be in the cards. I wouldn't be happy if Babel won. Babel (3 stars) to me seems like a poor man's Crash from last year. The Japanese storyline was a stretch and did not fit in, leaving Babel to be three-fourths of a movie. That leaves The Departed, best picture of the year. Will the Academy voters listen? We'll see Sunday.

On a side note, I did see The Last King of Scotland (3 stars) last night. That's one powerful feature and Forest Whitaker deserves that best actor award.

2007-02-24T01:09:00.000-08:00

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16770525.htm

A federal jury has acquitted a man of charges stemming from a bizarre murder plot involving a booby-trapped toy dog, which exploded and killed a college student in South San Jose six years ago.

After three days of deliberations, the jury in U.S. District Court concluded that David Lin, 39, was not guilty of conspiring to mail an explosive device with intent to injure or kill. His defense attorney argued that he mailed a package as a favor for a friend but did not know it contained a bomb.

He still faces prosecution in two unrelated cases involving alleged credit card fraud. Lin, who has been in jail for more than five years in the bombing case, is scheduled to be released tonight on a $5,000 bond.

Patrick Hsu, an 18-year-old college student, was killed by the explosion at his parents' home in early 2001. Authorities say Lin had mailed the toy on behalf of another man, Anthony Chang, who was briefly married to Hsu's sister.

Chang is also charged in the case but he is a fugitive, currently believed to be living in Venezuela. Testimony showed that Chang assembled the bomb in Nevada and then asked Lin to mail it to the Hsu home from a post office in Milpitas. Authorities say Chang was angry at his former wife and wanted revenge against her family.

Earlier this week, defense attorney Daniel Blank argued in court that Lin had mailed the toy for Chang as a favor, without knowing that it was booby-trapped.

But prosecutor Jane Shoemaker told jurors that Lin had to know what Chang had planned. A prosecution witness testified that Chang had recounted conversations in which Chang told Lin the package contained a bomb.

When the package arrived at the victim's home, Hsu's father opened it and then put it aside. A few weeks later, Patrick Hsu, a freshman at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was home for the weekend when he picked up the toy and inserted batteries -- triggering an explosion that shattered windows and killed him instantly.

2007-02-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the silence. Lots of stuff going on. New boss to deal with (doing this work isn't what I signed up for...). Illness in the family (strokes are a messy business). So lemme just say happy new year to all and the Oscars are this Sunday so I'll finish with my movie stuff later.

2007-02-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl sucked, didn't it? Game, commercials, etc. There's just not much to say. It wasn't memorable.

Completely unrelated to the case at hand, the judge in Patrick's case described below was hit by a light-rail car! Somebody has it out for him.

Oscar nominations are out, so pretty soon, I'll come out with some predictions for them as the big day nears. I've given up hope on watching Blood Diamond...that'll have to wait until it comes out on DVD in March, so the last Oscar-related movie I'll see will probably be The Last King of Scotland, hopefully this weekend.

The Police reunite on The Grammys this Sunday and Billy Corgan announced a new Smashing Pumpkins album will be coming out in July. Can't wait, especially since anything is better than that Zwan crap.

Finally, my favorite show for the past couple of years has been The Office, so if you're not watching, you're missing out. Here's a long clip of some of its best scenes.

2007-01-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16570774.htm

It has been nearly six years since a bizarre murder plot tore apart the Hsu family of San Jose. On a February weekend visit home from college in 2001, 18-year-old Patrick Hsu noticed an odd toy robot dog that had been mailed in a box weeks earlier. His father had opened the box, then set the contraption aside when he noticed it needed batteries to function. Later, Patrick Hsu placed batteries in the robot -- triggering a hidden bombing device that killed him. This week, one of the alleged participants in a scheme targeting Hsu's family goes on trial in federal court in San Jose after years of legal sparring. David Lin, a Milpitas engineer accused of shipping the robot dog in the mail, faces life in prison if convicted of killing Hsu. But the central figure in a case that has spawned an episode on ``America's Most Wanted'' will be nowhere near the courtroom. Anthony Chang, a Las Vegas man charged with masterminding the plot as an act of vengeance against his estranged wife, remains a fugitive who is thought to be living in Venezuela and outside the reach of U.S. authorities, court records show. Chang's role will still be front and center in the trial, however. Lin's lawyers make it clear that they will argue Lin had no idea what was in the fatal package and was an unwitting dupe in Chang's plan to harm someone in the family of Wendy Hsu, his estranged wife and Patrick Hsu's sister. Lawyers picked a jury last week and will make their opening statements to the panel today.

``The only issue is, did David Lin know what was in the package or not,'' said Daniel Blank, Lin's lawyer. ``He didn't. They are going to say he did.''

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Shoemaker, the lead prosecutor in the case, declined to comment. In court papers, the government says there is ample evidence that Chang told Lin what was in the package and that he followed instructions to mail the robot dog to the Hsu's San Jose home. In one recent document, prosecutors outlined an exchange between Chang and a former girlfriend who is on the government's witness list.

``Chang told his then-girlfriend that the defendant knew there was a bomb in the package and that he had instructed the defendant how to handle the package to avoid leaving fingerprints on it,'' prosecutors wrote.

Patrick Hsu, a freshman at the University of California-Santa Barbara, was away at college when the package was mailed to his home. Prosecutors say that Chang hatched the plot over his rocky relationship with Wendy Hsu, and made threats against her and her family before the fatal incident. Police first linked Lin to the robot bomb when the package was traced to a Milpitas post office. Court papers show they also questioned Chang at various times, and he claimed he didn't send the package but ``may have provided information to others that caused the bombing to occur.'' As the investigation was unfolding, Chang quit his job at the Primadonna Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and skipped the country, days before he was formally charged. Lin's lawyers say the government botched the case, ignoring evidence that Chang was preparing to leave while they focused on Lin's role in the crime.

``He filed a change of address form, and they still didn't arrest him,'' said Blank, an assistant federal public defender.

Chang apparently has not been hard to find -- defense investigators found him in Venezuela. But Venezuela does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and government officials declined to comment on the effort to return Chang for prosecution. Chang is a Venezuelan citizen, making it even more difficult to secure his extradition, according to lawyers familiar with the case. Meanwhile, Lin is on the hook for the killing. Until last year, federal prosecutors were pursuing the death penalty against him, but Lin's lawyers persuaded the Bush administration to drop that part of the case. Chen Hsu, Patrick's father, did not respond to an interview request. But he has told the Mercury News in past interviews that his son was popular, an Oak Grove High School graduate whose death rocked the family.

``How could this happen?'' Hsu said days after the incident. ``No one can handle this.''

The trial is expected to take four to six weeks in U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte's courtroom.

2007-01-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

It was quite a weekend. My mom's Lexus was hit in the parking lot on Friday. I was getting conflicting reports on the severity of the damage. My sister claimed it was just a small bump. My mom said it was more like a foot wide. The picture's up so see for yourself. Looking at it, I'm just not sure how it happened because the eyewitness said the car in question, a large SUV, was parked in the stall next to the Lexus and did the damage as she was leaving. I would understand if the car backed into the bumper but not if the car was next to my mom's. I'd know, I've done it.

Just to balance out the bad news, I've posted Kelli from Christmas with her new dog from babystyle. Poor Hello Kitty in the background. I didn't get to see her this weekend since I was with friends on Saturday. With Datman and Paul, we were to meet Hai and Claire in Alameda for sushi. Things didn't go exactly as planned. We made it but they didn't. Westbound 80 was closed due to a multicar accident. A car eastbound went out of control and jumped the center divider. This had to be tough because the westbound lanes are elevated above the westbound lanes. In any case, the endgame was a trip to Cache Creek where I managed to get a free drink. I paid for my $6.25 drink with a $10 bill. The waitress gave me back $13. Realizing her mistake, she puts down the original $10 bill, took back the two fives she gave me and left, leaving me with my $10 bill.

Those who went can answer me this: there were 2 trays of ribs left, right? When I opened my trunk, all that was left was the potato salad.

More random questions: Why is UPS using a song by the Postal Service. And where did McDonald's dig up Ben Seaver to do a commercial?

Since last I wrote, I've seen 3 great films that are worthy of Oscar nominations (announced tomorrow at 5:30 am). Children of Men imagines the world where no one is under the age of 18 and women can't give birth. When a pregnant woman suddenly appears, it's up to Clive Owen to transport her safely to an independent group that will (hopefully) raise the child and give civilization another chance. Otherwise, she'll fall in the hands of the government (too busy with controlling society) or to activists who will use the baby to lead a rebellion. It's a simple movie filled with thought-provoking questions and reflections on where our own society may one day lead. The handheld scenes following the two out of the internment camp is just edge-of-your seat stuff.

Little Children is a character film that works on so many levels. Admittedly, some of the material may shock and awe, but the multitude of stories are very interesting and engrossing from an unhappy Kate Winslet having an affair with a fellow unhappy father (seriously, who cheats on Jennifer Connelly?), to Jackie Earle Haley's creepy sex offender role and the actual little children themselves. Then there was Letters from Iwo Jima, a technically well-done piece of filmmaking from Clint Eastwood. He supremely portrays the honor of the Japanese as they fought a losing battle to hold the island of Iwo Jima based on a few letters found in the caves where they held out for 5 days under American fire. Through a proud General who had lived among Americans to a simple baker who wanted to be home, these stories, along with Flags of Our Fathers, show us the humanizing qualities of both sides, a departure from American war films of the same period.

2007-01-13T02:32:00.000-08:00

There's still plenty of movies to watch before 2006 is wrapped up but here is the annual summary for the movies I've seen so far. The count is currently 35. Movies I hope to see follow.

4 stars
The Departed
Children of Men

3.5 stars
V for Vendetta
Stranger than Fiction
Little Miss Sunshine
Little Children
United 93
Letters from Iwo Jima

3 stars
Casino Royale
The Devil Wears Prada
The Da Vinci Code
Jet Li's Fearless
Lucky Number Slevin
Snakes on a Plane
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

2.5 stars
The Break-Up
Fast Food Nation
Friends with Money
The Guardian
Inside Man
School for Scoundrels
Scoop
The Sentinel

2 stars
Clerks 2
Deja Vu
The Last Kiss
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Superman Returns

1.5 stars
The Good Shepherd
Miami Vice
Mission Impossible III
X-Men 3

1 star
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Scary Movie 4

0.5 star
Firewall

0 stars
Date Movie

A partial list of what's left to see from 2006:

The Queen
Letters from Iwo Jima
Babel
Little Children
Volver
Blood Diamond
Curse of the Golden Flower
Rocky Balboa

The Illusionist
This Film is Not Yet Rated
World Trade Center
The Black Dahlia
Thank You For Smoking
Sketches of Frank Gehry
Sherrybaby
Trust the Man

2006-12-28T02:04:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. I realize it's the 27th but hey, better late than never. Hopefully yours was a happy and healthy one. Mine was happy but certainly not healthy. More on that later. Birthday plans were about as good as to be expected, which is great considering the 3 other birthdays and Christmas all within 7 days, the fact that some people don't want to interact with certain other people, and when people come up with the lamest of excuses to get out of it or reschedule. Hence, the busy week that probably led to my downfall Christmas Day. Anyways, thanks to all those who could attend.

I did get an employee bonus this year, which was surprising because of the timing. From what I hear, it usually doesn't come out as late as it did. So this unexpected bonus (much, much higher than last year) goes straight to savings, which means for now, I'm only $300 + whatever Christmas is costing me before paying off the car. After that, that money's going to that Roth IRA and those mutual funds I have.

The driving gods haven't been smiling at me lately ever since I eyed down a CHP officer last Saturday before Christmas. I was going 80 on 280 when I see a CHP cruiser tailing me. Not wanting to attract attention by braking, I simply let my foot off the gas while he passes. Then we stare at each other for what seems like 5 miles until he finally does pass. From then on, weird things have been happening. Veteran riders of my car will attest that these are normal occurrences caused by dangerous driving on my part but I assure you it's not. Two incidents of people cutting me off. Two incidents of people trying to merge when I'm right next to them. The second one is the funny one. The guy is braking at a green light and I'm trying to figure out why. We're the only two cars on the road on this empty street in Hayward. As I'm passing him in the middle of the intersection, he suddenly swerves into my lane, causing me to swerve! Why the hell would he do that? Then there's the guy who couldn't successfully handle a 4-way stop (not my boss, who probably can, but chose not to on the way to my birthday lunch) and today's wind-filled adventure up the peninsula to San Francisco. At least today I was driving the heavy Accord and not the light as a toothpick Mazda.

Probably the only movie to report on is "The Good Shepherd" starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie and directed by Robert DeNiro. Coming in, I was expecting something exciting. After all, the commercials did say that it detailed the birth of the CIA in what was the Godfather of CIA movies. Instead, it might be the Godfather III of CIA movies, if that. It hurts even more to think that I sat through 3 hours of that. The technical aspects of the plot are fascinating to watch, such as the deciphering of the video and the execution of certain missions ordered, but the bulk of the story deals mainly with Damon's character, and it's tough to craft an interesting story about him because he's a secretive, uninteresting guy, which is good for the CIA, but not for the screen. It's quite obvious the film was much better when he was dealing with the people (like the scene with Joe Pesci) than with fellow spies. The real waste however is the attractive Jolie, who seems to be stuck as a pouting Stepford wife and nothing more.

And it brings us to today with me sick since Christmas afternoon. The fever has passed but the effects still remain. Go Bears, beat A&M. And if you haven't seen JT in this SNL digital short, you're missing out. It's the best one since Natalie Portman's. See you on the flip side of the year.

2006-12-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

It may have been Jon's birthday last week, but he was the one giving out the presents...well, just one present. He proposed to Rosemary and she accepted with a wedding date scheduled for July. Congrats!

Whoever had Jon in the pool for first guy to get married in the group wins.

2006-12-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

So long to Bill Amend. He draws the excellent Fox Trot comics in the paper. He's reducing his workload to weekly comics instead of daily. :(

So I was reserving for my birthday dinner and I asked the nice lady if there were any tables for 6-8 pm on any day of the weekend. Imagine my surprise when she said the answer was no. Apparently, the only times available were 5 and 9:30 for all 3 days. She said people have been booking her place since July. July! It's the f---in Macaroni Grill for crying out loud. You would have thought a 3-star chef was cooking there.

2006-11-29T10:32:00.000-08:00

My boss: Can you send me a copy of the B&P numbers for this fiscal year? I forgot the name of the report but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Me: Yeah, you mean the B&P report.

2006-11-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

Oh boy, was that a debacle of a game. Cal football looked as disappointing as that Aerosmith concert I went to a few weeks ago at the Shoreline. It's gonna take a miracle now for the Golden Bears to reach the Rose Bowl, but the slim hopes are still there. Otherwise, it's a matchup in San Diego with Texas or Texas A&M or Nebraska.

You won't be able to notice this by reading, but believe me, this post is gonna take awhile to write. I have just been stuffed from this week's feast of feasts. And it seems every party I went to had pumpkin cheesecake, which is like the kiss of death in my book. It's so good.

Speaking of good, good films are slowly making their way back to the cinema and at obscene prices too! Mercado's admission price is now $10.25.

Many comedic actors have tried and failed to make the transition to dramatic work, but Will Ferrell of all people might be able to make it happen when you consider his work in "Stranger than Fiction". Gone is the frat boy image he has cultivated to perfection and in comes a fairly complex character as he tries to figure out whose voice it is that is describing every facet of his life including his imminent death. It's a great film to watch.

Almost at the same level is "Casino Royale" which mixes in the old with the new. The story is old (it's from the first story by Ian Fleming), but it's been made anew to fit with the modern times including the recent editions' confusing plot lines. If you need a simple plot summary, here it is. Bond needs to win a poker game. Much has been made about the choice of the new Bond, Daniel Craig. I think he's got the action thing down, as evidenced by the Crouching Tiger-like beginning and all the other fighting involved. He still needs to work on the charm that made the other Bonds so successful. Otherwise, the franchise's move to a back-to-basics movie was a good one. Thumbs up.

"Fast Food Nation" was a great book detailing the enormous success of the fast food industry from the restaurants all the way down to meat plants. Now, in cinematic form, its story is told as a dramatization instead of a documentary (like "Super Size Me" was). As a result, the lessons may hit closer to home but I couldn't have cared less. In all honesty, I think it would've worked better as a documentary. At the very least, they could've expanded on Greg Kinnear's character as a marketing executive investigating the meat-packing plant. His role seems to be done halfway through the film while we get to follow Amber's dull story about becoming an environmentalist. The interesting but predictable storyline goes to Wilmer Valderama and his wife, the girl from Maria Full of Grace.

"Deja Vu" is one of those films where if you don't think about it, it's a pretty good crime thriller. But once you get bogged down by the science, you'll quickly see how preposterous the film becomes. The machine itself is ridiculous but even when there seems to be limitations, the writers always seem to have something to get them out of a jam and that's no fun. In the end, Denzel Washington makes the film with his cool demeanor and his ability to take a movie to the next level, no matter how bad the script is.

2006-11-18T00:37:00.000-08:00

Quite simply...Go Bears...beat SC.

A win and the Bears can go to their first Rose Bowl since 1959.

2006-11-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

For the first time in 12 years, the Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives and with a little bit of luck, they could regain control of the Senate, something they haven't seen since early in the Bush presidency. If all the Senate seats were up for grabs, like the House seats were, we'd be talking about a Democratic landslide tonight, but instead we're in for a long night as Senate results from Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Montana keep trickling in. Democrats need 3 out of 4 races to gain control, something unthinkable just a few weeks ago, especially in Virginia where Sen. George Allen expected to coast in his race for re-election. But calling somebody Macaca seemed to begin his downfall and Jim Webb took swift advantage of this and Allen's loyalty to an unpopular president.

Pertaining to the House races, Republicans liked to say that local issues will dictate how the elections would go instead of the national furor against the war. Boy were they sorely mistaken. Exit polls consistently said that people were unhappy with the war, unhappy with the president, and we need a change. As the party in power, Republicans had to have been bracing for a loss, but probably not the 30 seat loss NBC is projecting. Of course, the Mark Foley sex scandal didn't help in the final days of the campaign, especially when it looked as if the Republicans had turned a corner. However, even with this new power, it's currently unclear what the Democrats will do with it. Their campaign, as it was in 2004, was based on promising not to do things the Bush way. Democrats failed then to produce a plan of their own and as a result, failed to win the White House. This year, Democrats won with the same strategy but still haven't put forth any idea on how things will change. On Iraq, do we pull out? Can't do that. Add troops? Very unpopular. Increase Iraqi troops? Well, Bush is already doing that. On the economy, can't raise taxes. Unemployment is at 4.4%, which is pretty low. The economy is still growing, albeit slowly.

Here in California, we're immune to the national picture. In fact, we've gone against the tide. Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected overwhelmingly as Governor and Republicans are actually leading in a few statewide offices after suffering a Democratic sweep 4 years ago.

Finally in the city of San Jose, Chuck Reed holds his lead for mayor, and rightfully so. He seems better suited to rebuild the foundation of the city before he can hand over the reins of the office to somebody who can be a visionary.

2006-10-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Election Day is coming up in less than two weeks and this is what's on my mind about it.

It doesn't seem that long ago, but three years have passed since Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California. Nobody in their right mind wanted him in office but in essence, we didn't have much of a choice. As I wrote back then, Gray Davis was the absolute wrong option at the time and the other candidates to replace him were either part of the Davis administration or were on the other end of the ideological scale. After a shaky start, Schwarzenegger has performed as well, if not better, than anyone could have imagined. You don't have to look much further than the legislative session in the past year, one in which the Legislature got more done than in any other in recent memory. Much to the dismay of the Republicans he represents, Schwarzenegger got it done with a lot of Democratic help, showing he is as bipartisan as you can get. To get things done, which would be more plausible...Arnold working with Democrats or Phil Angelides working with Republicans? Even in the best of times, Davis could not work with Republicans, resulting in a lack of results and notoriously late budgets. Angelides figures to have similar results. As treasurer, Angelides has proven he can work competently for the state, but a dynamic leader he is not. As a result, while a vote for Angelides is not necessarily a vote to move backward, a vote for Schwarzenegger is most definitely a vote to move forward.

In the race for San Jose mayor, Chuck Reed surprisingly won the primary election over Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez on the strength of potential honesty and accountability after Mayor Ron Gonzales' indictments were handed down by the grand jury. Months later, little has changed with the exception of recent revelations about Reed using public money for club memberships and whatnot. While not illegal, it doesn't look that good. But it pales in comparison to the deteriorating trust the people have with the city government. Reed would more closely represent the fresh start San Jose needs than Chavez. Reed's campaign focuses on tackling the problems we have from within while building coalitions with the council since Reed himself is considered an outsider on the council. Chavez has better ideas and vision for what San Jose should look like down the road, but a foundation of trust and good financial standing needs to be built first and Reed would be a better choice to accomplish such a task.

Those were the big ones. Briefly:

Dianne Feinstein and Zoe Lofgren deserve re-election to the Senate and House respectively. Not only have they represented their constituents admirably, a shift in power in Congress would elevate these women's power within Congress which would be great for the area. Just to note, Democrats need 15 House seats and 6 Senate seats to regain power. The House changeover looks more and more like a lock, no matter what Bush and the Republicans would like to believe, while the Senate looks like a tossup. We could be looking at the early rise of Bush's lame-duck presidency, which could be a good thing since the only thing that can save Bush is some kind of shake-up that's out of his control.

The statewide offices are up for grabs. I'd vote for McClintock (Lt. Governor), McPherson (Secretary of State), Strickland (Controller), Lockyer (Treasurer), Brown (Attorney General), and Poizner (Insurance Commissioner).

State propositions:

Yes: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 84, 86
No: 83, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90

So please vote November 7.

2006-10-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

Excuse me while I vomit...no, it's not because of you. I literally am sick. Well, was sick now. I had a stomach ache on Tuesday, but it didn't bother me so I went through my day eating a chicken sandwich for lunch and an enchilada for dinner. Little did I realize I would be seeing those meals again at around 5 am the next morning. Ugh, I haven't felt that way in years. After that episode, I realized I had reports due the next day and while it would have been fun to see somebody else try to do it, I thought it'd be easier to just do it myself. So against the pleas of Steve, Leslie, Jennifer, and countless others to go home, I finished my work before collapsing on the floor of my office for a little 5 minute nap. The nap helped since quite honestly, I felt a little drowsy trying to navigate through rush-hour traffic. Hopefully, I didn't make anyone sick, but if I did, apologies in advance.

I'm better now and it's all thanks to the meds. Maybe it's because all these pills taste like sugar now. Tylenol, Imodium, etc. all sugar. Better not be a placebo.

Oddly, now that this sickness has passed, I'm getting hiccups at random times during the day. I haven't had hiccups in years either. What's next? Chicken pox?

Sooner or later, I'll post my usual election preview. The simple summary right now? With less than 3 weeks to go, Republicans will be none too happy when they see power over the House and possibly the Senate vanish right before their very eyes.

2006-10-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

A long time fixture in the Bay Area, Century Theatres is no more. The company agreed to be acquired by Cinemark Theatres. No word on what this means for the dominant player in cinema in these parts, but hopefully they can continue the quality moviegoing experience we've come to expect at a cheaper price than AMC.

In a weird side note, whoever wrote the Wikipedia article on the Century Theatres claims the domes were sold back to Syufy Enterprises, the parent company of Century. It's really the only place to fully enjoy the big screen experience and I hope they don't close down.

What is closing down? Say no more to Tower Records. RIP.

2006-10-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

First a note...while this was a family trip, originally this trip was supposed to be an extra day so when I was doing my planning, I put in some time to hang out with friends. That all dried up when work and family plans pushed things to Friday and into a very tight schedule. Stuff had to be sacrificed including my free time and Nancy's side trip to Beverly Hills.

Gee, Steves, didn't know you wanted to go to Disneyland. When I begin to plan my cross-country trip for next summer, I'll let you know. Speaking of Disneyland, boy what a place. It only gets better with age. In fact, most of the disappointing items were actually the new things. Pirates of the Caribbean is certainly very nice-looking but it's really boring. The newly remodeled Tomorrowland is back under construction with a new Finding Nemo submarine voyage and a new monorail coming soon. That left the new classics to leave us entertained. Space Mountain and Splash Mountain were as good as I remembered. Haunted Mansion, with its Nightmare Before Christmas theme, was entertaining. Indiana Jones still feels fresh (Star Tours isn't but I still like it and it doesn't look as aged as the Star Trek ride is in Vegas). All in all, a very nice time. And it took the whole day.

Miscellaneous notes: Unbeknownst to us, it was Gay Day at Disneyland. Man, the gay community was out in force that day...all around there were red t-shirts signifying their presence. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

All Nancy wanted was a picture with Mickey and Minnie. Apparently, they're separated so they have two houses and two photo shoots...Mickey indoors and Minnie outdoors. At 1:00, we found Minnie but the line was being shut down so missed opportunity #1. We instead went to see Mickey but he had an hour long line we had to wait through. When we were getting out, Minnie was there again, but again the line was being shut down. Missed opportunity #2. Finally, at around 6, we spotted her in costume (Halloween theme throughout the park) and Nancy got in line. When she got to the front, Minnie's reps said she had to leave. Dissed 3 times. What a rat.

Fastpasses are a god-send. Take advantage whenever you can.

The fireworks show was great...even better than the last time when I was directly underneath the show.

There's a large hole in the middle of the day and that was reserved for a screening of "The Departed". Based on the Asian film "Infernal Affairs", something I vaguely remember watching a few years ago, it is by far the best film so far in 2006. While it's directed by Martin Scorsese, it doesn't have the feel of a Scorsese film, especially compared with the last films he's directed like "The Aviator" and "Gangs of New York", both coincidentally starring Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio is recruited to infiltrate a gang syndicate led by Jack Nicholson who also has a mole of his own in the police force. That mole, Matt Damon, and DiCaprio must keep their identities a secret from the other and those around them or else face certain death.

The sheer acting talent is already accomplished enough and yet, everyone turns it on an extra level to produce something extraordinary and the twists and turns will keep you guessing until the bitter end. The most underrated of the cast seems to be Mark Wahlberg, who is very entertaining in the film. Go watch this movie...you won't be disappointed.

2006-10-06T23:55:00.000-07:00

Live from L.A., it's me. It's a more shortened trip than I envisioned, but nonetheless I'm here for a couple of days for the sister Nancy who turned 20 this week. Traffic wasn't too bad until we passed Six Flags than it was a nice 20 mph trip all the way to the hotel in Fullerton. The thing I hate about driving on the 5 is the fact that everybody wants to speed. I'm going a respectable 80 and may go up to 90ish when conditions warrant but when cars are passing me even then, people are just going way too fast.

At night was a trip to Dolce, an Italian restaurant partially owned by celebrities Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson. My co-worker will recognize the name of Mike Boogie from that Big Brother show. Apparently, he was one of the master planners of the restaurant. It was either this or Medieval Times and my sister wanted to go classy. It was good, but it probably wasn't worth the price. $150 for the three of us plus tip. I had the seafood risotto and it wasn't half bad...tasted a little cheesy for some reason but seafood's a plus in my book all the time and there was plenty of it. And you can't mess up tiramisu, especially at a place named sweet in Italian.

More to come tomorrow. I'm headed off to Disneyland for the first time in ten years.

2006-10-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Before tonight's entertainment, a word to my new neighbors in the house behind ours. Welcome to the neighborhood. However, please be advised that noise really does travel. Two weekends ago, the pressure hose was going at 7:00 am on a Saturday. This past Saturday, the lawn mower was going at 8 am. There's also the mariachi music blasting at various times during the day. Yep, funtimes. Can I go to sleep yet?

Anyway, saw this on the Soup over the weekend. Not only are the Japanese trying to teach you English, it's also part aerobics and part-tactics toward dealing with an attacker. Let's watch.

2006-09-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

"School for Scoundrels" opens this weekend starring Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jon Heder. Therefore I had my doubts since even though I like the kind of comedy Napoleon Dynamite performed, I didn't like the movie at all. Luckily, the execution in Scoundrels is better in my opinion. Billy Bob Thornton runs a school to make losers into winners and the first half is filled with hilarious physical gags and some nice wordplay. The second half is a bit of a letdown but all in all, it's a very entertaining film.

Also opening is "The Guardian" representing Ashton Kutcher's foray into the action/drama genre. Kutcher is the hotshot at a school training coast guard rescuers with Kevin Costner as the head instructor. Costner is great but Kutcher is hit and miss. He's very good at the goofy and arrogant parts of his role but the heavily dramatic scenes are really bad. The best part of the film is the amount of respect given to the Coast Guard, the part of the military usually overlooked, and the authenticity of the related scenes.

In Netflix world, Lucky Number Slevin and United 93 gets a thumbs up, Friends with Money and Poseidon get a mixed review, and Scary Movie 4 is so bad, I had to fast forward the last half of the film.

Happy Birthday to Jennifer and Steve, both celebrating birthdays Thursday, and Nancy's is next Wednesday. I know I'm missing one, but my list has also gone missing.

2006-09-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

I think this is the closest I'll be to being on a poker TV show. (Click to enlarge...it still may not help.)

2006-09-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

Off the cutting room floor:

I had dinner with my brother at Hungry Hunter the other day and over there, they've got tableside salad service. They ask what kind of toppings you want on your salad. So my brother's up and he starts, "lettuce, tomato..." and I'm like, hello, it's a salad. Of course it'll have lettuce. So as we're waiting for our entrees, I'm looking around the room. There are two floors and we were seated on the second floor. Lots of minorities around us. Mexicans, blacks, Asians, all represented. Except for the white people, which for some reason, were all seated on the first floor. Things that make you go hmmm.

Every time I go to the Silver Legacy in Reno, I always make it a point (multiple times in fact) to make fun of this guy (http://www.silverlegacy.com/dining/victorian.aspx). Not only does he look goofy with his smile, and his arms extended to showcase the massive amount of food, it's just fun to mimic.

Sitting in traffic, I found a license plate with the same prefix as mine but his last 3 digits were 840 and mine is 836. And we both had Mazda 3's. Freaky.

In Berkeley, 3 people were charged with putting marijuana into cookies and serving them to a bunch of college kids in a co-op. After being characterized as suppliers, the defense attorneys vigourously defended these students not as suppliers but as bakers. Yeah, right.

After Steve Irwin's untimely death, it's been reported that 10 stingrays have been killed since then. You heard right folks, we've declared war on the stingrays. We just need President Bush's backing and Congress' approval, two things that should come swiftly since they like war.

Speaking of President Bush, a film has been made depicting his assassination in 2007. The filmmakers, in using President Bush instead of a fictional president, had hoped they would portray the horror that comes from the assassination of a president. It sure does because it shows Dick Cheney taking over the presidency. Now that would be horrific on any scale.

I was listening to the Raiders game on the way home Monday so it was on that station when I turned on the car this morning. They were reading the news when a story about vandalism came up. The newsreader goes: "That punk, Vincent...whoops, I shouldn't have said that."

I know Cal football, coming off a loss to Tennessee and a win against Minnesota, is angling to squeeze any penny it can, but this is getting ridiculous. Hours after the win, they were selling t-shirts that announced the final score and the teams involved. Seriously? A lopsided win over a mediocre team gets a t-shirt. You might've thought we'd won the Rose Bowl. What's on the site now? Get your t-shirt commemorating the upcoming battle between the Golden Bears and Arizona State, a matchup between two run-of-the-mill Pac-10 teams!

Happy belated birthdays go out to Datman, Trang, and Peter and if I don't have time in the future, Christy and Leslie will also be celebrating.

2006-09-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

The kids are responsible for all the wars in the world.

Ok, maybe not, but they've been really grinding my gears for the past few days.

School started for most children this past week and all that means is more and more traffic for poor folks like me. Commutes for me have taken a good 25-30 minutes on most days...just a quick trip on 85 then up De Anza to work. This week...nooooo. If traffic on 85 starts before 87, then I'd take 87...sure, there's plenty of traffic, but it's only 4 miles...I can take it because 280 is usually free and clear. But 280 was pretty busy today. This necessitates a move to Stevens Creek (Valley Fair) up Scott or San Tomas to Central which is right outside my workplace. Result? 55 minute commute today. Looking forward to tomorrow! Ugh.

I was at Safeway yesterday, and remember on The Simpsons when Bart sold his soul to Milhouse. Bart went to the Kwik-E-Mart but the doors wouldn't open? Happened to me. Why? Some kid was standing right in front of the door. Out of the way!

Reno was good. I made back what I lost in Vegas a few weeks ago. The first day there, we were witness to the Rib Eating Contest where eventual winner Joey Chestnut (2nd to Kobayashi in the Hot Dog eating contest) ran through a little less than 3 trays of ribs in 12 minutes. A tray has 3 racks. That about 4.5 lbs of rib meat. The record is about 8, so he has a long way to go. On our way home, traffic was at a standstill in Auburn. While we're stuck there, some teen driver puts his gears in reverse and goes backwards down the exit lane to hit the side streets. Sure enough, plenty of people are following his example. It moved us up but still, that's illegal, right?

Finally, kids must be running the show at MGM considering the number of old sequels they're going to produce for TV. On the good side, WarGames finally gets a sequel. On the iffy side, Legally Blonde 3 is being made without Reese Witherspoon. Then there's just the bad...Species 4...Into the Blue 2 (only good if we can see more of Jessica Alba this time)...and finally The Cutting Edge 3. Did they even see number 2???

2006-08-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

This time tomorrow, I'll be in Reno and will be there for a few days. I'm going to the rib cookoff again, but this time, they are hosting an official IFOC eating competition to see who can eat the most ribs in 12 minutes. Whew, that's going to be gross and mesmerizing.

I saw Snakes on a Plane last week. While there's plenty wrong with it, there's oh so much right with it. It's stupid fun and that's just great for the summer.

2006-08-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

First off, those of you reading this before 5 pm local time Wednesday have an opportunity to get a free brownie square courtesy of Domino's Pizza. Brownies at Domino's? Yeah, I'm a little skeptical too, which means you should go get one and taste it for me. Offer's good from 3-5 pm.

A solemn farewell to some veteran cast members at SNL. They didn't have their one of their best seasons ever last year, but the people that made it worth watching are leaving. Budget cuts and new opportunities are to blame. Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch were already leaving due to their new show "30 Rock". Among those leaving according to a source talking to the LA Times include Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz, and Kenan Thompson. Even Darrell Hammond might be leaving. Plus Amy Poehler won't be doing Weekend Update solo...she hands the reins of the segment to second-year player...damn, even I don't recognize his name. So we might be in for a bad season at SNL, possibly just as bad as '95.

My Tivo's been running hella slow lately. It seems to stem from the new update that added a KidZone feature to the box. But now running through the guide or even getting to the recorded programs are a chore. Luckily, Tivo Desktop got an upgrade, and that seems way better than before.

The Wizard (Rain Man but with little kids) came out on DVD yesterday to much fanfare by me and me alone. Was it chock full with special features? Hell no. Just the movie itself...the simple tale of a boy who races with his brother cross-country (ok, from Utah to LA with a pit stop in Reno, but their little kids! Seems like cross-country) to the video game championship "Video Armageddon" where they play fellow gamers for $50,000. But since the only copy I have was recorded from TV on NBC, the DVD is an upgrade. Really, the movie shaped my childhood along with many others. What else? Star Trek and Star Wars are obvious, as are The Karate Kid, Trading Places and Coming to America, but there are some far more obscure. Spaceballs, a movie in which I can name almost every line as they came along. Three Amigos and Clue, two movies which were very funny even if the critics didn't think so. Over the Top, with Sylvester Stallone in a remake of Kramer vs. Kramer, but with arm wrestling. Bloodsport, with Jean-Claude Van Damme at his finest as he competes in an underground kumate. No Retreat, No Surrender Part II because the whole thing was very pointless. Didn't list Part I since that one was halfway decent. Plus, there's Tremors, the great cult classic about underground Graboids. It spawned 3 less than zero sequels, but there's always the original to fall back.

Yes, a very troubling childhood when it comes to films. And that was just a partial list! That's what happens when your parents own a video store.

2006-08-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

2006-08-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

Left-handers rejoice! Left-handed men with some college education make an average 15% more than similarly educated right-handed men. It's even better for those with college degrees...they make a whopping 26% more. Why? Scientists don't have a clue. "We do not have a theory that reconciles all of these findings." We're just better than them I guess.

Also, according to vault.com, 32% of office workers claim to have an office spouse, someone with whom they spend a lot of time with but never have a romantic relationship with. That number seems awfully low to me, but hey that's just me being overly observant.

2006-08-11T03:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back. I was in Vegas for the first part of last week to catch the World Series of Poker among other things. My brother took a separate flight out of SFO and I took the flight out of San Jose. He was supposed to get in 15 minutes earlier than I was, but while my flight was 10 minutes early, his was 90 minutes late. So I watched the same 5-minute commercial in baggage claim multiple times waiting for the plane to land. The slot machines standing next to me didn't really entice me that much.

We stayed at the Aladdin, which is transforming into the Planet Hollywood Hotel. So each of the rooms had a middle eastern theme which clashed with prints of Hollywood movies. Our room had posters of 12 Monkeys, Gone with the Wind, and Basic Instinct 2 (???). But the weirdest part of the room was the prop of a gorilla mask from the movie Congo, which came out in the 1990's. So while 5 out of the 6 people in our party enjoyed having the mask, only one person did not and as a result, was not part of the picture above.

Not much to be said about the food. The Bellagio buffet was worse than last time. Maybe it was because it was a weekday and not a weekend. Might as well have gone out with the lunch crew at work...Jenn called about lunch and I guess I neglected to tell her I was in Vegas. Whoops...sorry! However, the Mirage buffet was just as good as I remembered. This weekend 9 years ago was the first time the family went to Vegas and my grandparents came along. They'd been there before and told us all about it. My grandpa is a man of few words but when the topic of dinner came up, he said we're going to the Mirage buffet. We said fine. We were standing in line when suddenly my grandpa said, "over here...prime rib #1." He said that quite a few times and that line stuck with us, because honestly, it was pretty good. Today, the prime rib is still just as good, plus they remodeled the place.

Lost about $60 gambling. Not too bad, considering it takes less than a few hours to make it back by working. The last blackjack dealer I had actually grew up in Sunnyvale, living on Fair Oaks and El Camino. So we talked about that while she was taking my bankroll $10-20 at a time. I did manage to make $3 on video poker in the airport before my plane departed. At the WSOP, saw a lot of poker celebrities. Phil Hellmuth Jr., Robert Varkonyi, Joe Hachem, Johnny Chan, Jennifer Harman among others. Minh Ly seemed to be following us...we saw him in 3 separate locations during our stay. They played down to 27. We were there when 32 and 31 were knocked out. Don't know if the camera angles were good but we were right behind the guy who was knocked out in 32nd, so look out for me on TV! Only disappointing part of the trip was that I didn't have time for Star Trek: The Experience. Last rumor from a few months ago was that it was slated to close. The Hilton folks deny it, but last year, it was starting to look a bit old. At the very least, it needs an expensive makeover. I'm relieved that I made it out of the airport before all the drama in the UK. Remember, no liquids...if you do have liquid explosives, please make sure you have it with your checked baggage and not your carry-on bags. =)

Random question...if you order nachos with various toppings like beans and beef, etc. but no cheese, are they still considered nachos? I would think they'd be just plain tortilla chips with various toppings.

Nancy had a second interview at Applied Materials but she was eventually rejected. Better luck tomorrow. It's a good experience for her. I think she has a vastly different picture of the real world than the rest of us do.

At work, we went to Marie Callender's for lunch on Friday. First thing I noticed was that they don't serve Boston Cream pie anymore. What the f---? That was my favorite. Is it some kind of secret item now? Then we were seated and waiting when this out-of-town gentleman walked in and was offered a booth. He sat down and then the booth caved in, sending him to the floor while making a really huge scene. Not wanting to stare, I looked the other direction while he was yelling at the waiter. All of us played it cool except for JaSondra, who could keep it under control for all of 2 seconds, even saying "don't laugh" right before she burst out laughing.

On Saturday, it was my cousin Sarah's birthday and it was a princess theme. They had costumes and stuff for the little ones, but for my niece, they gave her a wig. Oh, to have hair, since she still barely has any.

Yesterday was the company picnic in Santa Cruz. I kinda overslept but I still managed to get there before 10. No traffic that way. Even saw Hi-Mey there, who didn't tell me he knew one of the employees' daughters. After killing in air hockey, it was time to eat. At the end of the meal, I was taking a big bite of ice cream when Ginny called out my name. I had won a raffle prize and cheers went into the air. That's pretty rare...calling my name and cheers at the same time. I figured out I won free laser tag, something that was already free a couple of hours earlier...big whoop. Saw a few ppl there including Steve and his girlfriend. Seems nice enough and acts like me in that she's pretty quiet. Not much has changed since I was there last (6...7 years ago?). The best is always the haunted house because you'll always have one kid crying his eyes out not wanting to hop onto the car. Today's kid was a doozy. He held onto the bars outside the haunted house really tight while screaming until his face turned red. It took about 3 relatives to pry him off and out into the open.

Funtimes.

2006-08-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Jeanette! May this one be the best one yet.

In a few hours, I'll be on board a flight to Vegas to catch the last remnants of the World Series of Poker. When we planned this thing, there was supposed to be 300 people left and it'd be whittled to 27 by the time I left. At last count, there were just 160 people left, the combination of lousy play and a rush to cash out after the money bubble burst. But I'm sure there's plenty of other things to do there. I heard there's this thing called gambling...you put an amount of money on a table and you may or may not get more money back. Sounds like fun.

Caught Little Miss Sunshine the other night. The backstories of the family aren't too interesting but it builds up to what can only be described as an interesting journey from New Mexico to California to attend a kids' beauty pageant. The interaction of all the family members in one VW van makes it worth watching right up to the disturbing yet hilarious ending.

2006-08-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Citizen Kane it is not, but "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" shakes off a rough beginning to be a consistently entertaining film. Will Ferrell is Ricky Bobby, a pit crew member who gets his chance to lead the team when its driver suddenly quits. Soon, Bobby is winning every race and is enjoying the limelight with his best friend Cal (John C. Reilly) and his new wife Carley (Leslie Bibb). New competition from a gay Frenchman (Sasha Baron Cohen) and a devastating crash leaves Bobby psychologically unable to compete. His life is in shambles as Cal has gone on to marry Carley, the team has fired him, and he's forced to move back home to his mother as a pizza delivery guy. It takes his father and others to motivate him to go back into racing.

The first 30 minutes seems to suffer from lengthy scenes that could be shortened. But once Bobby's life is in the pits, the movie starts to find its groove with plenty of laughs and some good lines. Director Adam McKay balances the comedic lives of Ricky Bobby and company with the authenticity of NASCAR racing to great results. But the amazing part is that pretty much every character has something to laugh about starting with Ferrell and Reilly but even going down to Michael Clarke Duncan, Gary Cole, and the kids. It's something to see for yourself.

2006-07-30T02:44:00.000-07:00

Watched Miami Vice Thursday. The story leaves much to desire but Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx are perfect in their roles. As an added bonus, Michael Mann is at the helm and he's great at filming gunplay (anyone watch Heat?). He doesn't disappoint here.

Scoop is Woody Allen's latest creation and after reaching a creative high with "Match Point", he digs back to the depths of his recently bad comic creations like "Hollywood Ending" and "Anything Else". Scoop does have some entertaining lines to laugh about but Allen's usual schtick gets old pretty quickly. Scarlett Johansson doesn't have her beauty to fall back on like she did in "Match Point" and instead her character seems to be parodying Allen at times. And Hugh Jackman adds nothing to his character as the romantic lead and possible Tarot Card Killer.

Mark your calendar! The Wizard, another one of those '80s movies I grew up on, is coming out on DVD August 22. Follow 3 kids as they journey from Utah to Los Angeles to a video game competition. Starring Fred Savage and Christian Slater.

2006-07-23T02:35:00.000-07:00

2006-07-23T02:30:00.000-07:00

Ak sent this in.

2006-07-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get myself psyched for my niece's birthday, but it's hard to when that sun is already up and it already seems like 100 degrees at 10 am. Kelli's birthday isn't actually until next Friday but...no, I don't know why they didn't have the party next Saturday. All I know is, I'm pretty much headed back to work...the party's at a park in Sunnyvale, not too far away.

Waiting for this party to get started, I'm watching VH1's World Series of Pop Culture on the Tivo, my guilty pleasure at the moment and the best new show of the summer (stop, that's not saying much). I was trying to think who would be a part of my team if I ever became a part of the show. Within the family, David would probably be best. He's a much more active cinephile than I'll ever be, with his DVD collection pushing 3 full bookshelves. And the key is he's older than me. He was more recognizant of the '80s, which is the oldest the questions seem to be. That would probably count out my friends, most of whom are strong within the categories, but I would seem equal to them and to form a team, you need people who will compensate for your weaknesses. So when I need old people, I'll just look to work since you know, all those people I work with are old. Whoops, I mean older...yeah. Jennifer's the best pick, especially with the music. Steve and JaSondra are good too, but sorry Mitch, no sports questions nor anything during the time when radio was king.

2006-07-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

Watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend tonite. It suffers from some cheesy dialogue but otherwise comes out funnier than most movies that have come out of the chute. It's a fun satire to watch, especially after watching the mildly dull Superman Returns. While Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson are the stars, the real shiner is Anna Faris, who sheds the dumb roles she's been getting lately. One criticism would be the lack of Rainn Wilson and Wanda Sykes, who are funny with their limited roles.

Other movies in theatres:

No story. Tired act. Keira Knightley dressed as a man? These are not the aspects we've come to expect out of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie but that's where we are and it is horrible. Superman Returns is entertaining yet underwheming. These characters are no match for those from the Christopher Reeve era. In contrast, the strength of the Devil Wears Prada comes from its characters, most especially the ones played by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. Anne Hathaway? Ehh, but it's still a strong movie. The Da Vinci Code is a great mystery/treasure hunt as long as you haven't read the book. Those of you that did read the book may still like it but will most likely be disappointed. M:i:III is just one long Alias episode, and not even a good Alias episode. X-Men III? Don't get me started on how bad this crap was.

Just to get through the Netflix films, I'll steal Siskel & Ebert's thumbs up and thumbs down.

Two thumbs up: Transamerica, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Dreamer, Prime, Syriana

Mixed: A Good Woman, Two for the Money, The New World, The Producers, The Family Stone, Pride and Prejudice, Shopgirl

Two thumbs down: Date Movie, Firewall, Rumor Has It, An Unfinished Life

2006-07-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hey you K-Fed haters out there...now beat the crap out of him.

http://www.dragongamez.com/kfed.htm

Let's go O's! Baltimore beat Oakland 5-3, probably disappointing Leslie, but she's stressed out as it is so she may not care as much.

Man, it's been hot lately. The poor thermometer in the sidebar read 102 today. Last week, I escaped the heat by heading to Sacto (but it followed). This week, my shade was in the form of the cabinets and TV's I was moving out of my grandparents' house. Yeah, not too fun. Before my mom left for Japan and the Philippines, she told my grandmother she wanted one of the cabinets we were moving, and she obliged. I honestly have no idea what she wants with it. It took 3 people to move it (so it ain't going upstairs) and the garage is full. Might as well break it and blame it on an accident.

Stopped by Shoreline today to buy the tix for Comedy Jam with Russell Peters, Carlos Mencia, Gabriel Iglesias, Ralphie May, Bill Burr, and others. On the way, there was a line of fire trucks looking over a dry hill. No water pouring...just a lot of staring. Then I looked at what they were "protecting". It was one of the Google buildings.

Got free tix for Miami Vice for next Thursday. So that's next on the big list. I'll catch up on the short movie reviews soon. Seems there are 20 to write about.

Correction: My Super Ex-Girlfriend will be next up this Thursday.

2006-07-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Al Gore didn't invent the Internet. But I'm pretty sure at the very least he understood how it worked. Contrast this to Ted Stevens, the Senate President Pro Tempore (3rd in line in the presidential line of succession) and in charge of the committee overseeing net commerce. Apparently, the Internet is a series of tubes.

Transcipt courtesy of Wired

There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.

But this service is now going to go through the internet and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.

Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?

I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.

So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this internet to communicate and we aren't using it for commercial purposes.

We aren't earning anything by going on that internet. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discriminate against those people.

The regulatory approach is wrong. Your approach is regulatory in the sense that it says "No one can charge anyone for massively invading this world of the internet". No, I'm not finished. I want people to understand my position, I'm not going to take a lot of time.

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Now we have a separate Department of Defense internet now, did you know that?

Do you know why?

Because they have to have theirs delivered immediately. They can't afford getting delayed by other people.

Now I think these people are arguing whether they should be able to dump all that stuff on the internet ought to consider if they should develop a system themselves.

Maybe there is a place for a commercial net but it's not using what consumers use every day.

It's not using the messaging service that is essential to small businesses, to our operation of families.

The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a violation of net neutrality that hits you and me.

2006-07-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

My 10 day, 1,100 mile journey began Friday, June 30. The night before, I watched The Devil Wears Prada. With the exception of Simon Baker's character and the fact that Anne Hathaway's character is still pretty dumb in the end, the film is pretty strong with great performances by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. Maybe too accurate as well. Nancy was naming designers for me before they were announced on screen.

It was a bittersweet day as we had a goodbye lunch for my former office neighbor who was laid off. She's unhappy to go but she knew something was coming and she found a job right away so best of luck to her. I left work that night early to head over to the Mountain Winery to see Fiona Apple in concert. Painfully shy in public, Fiona obviously was having a little fun out there after admitting to having a crying fit the night before. But like she was at Coldplay a few months ago, she had trouble hitting some of her notes, the result of a busy tour schedule with this being her third Bay Area visit since last November. Nevertheless, it's always a good time with Fiona singing.

(Total so far: about 80 miles)

The next day was my Grandpa's 80th birthday. All of his kids were there including the ones from Los Angeles and Philadelphia. The preparation was intense as I had to get up early to pick up stuff with my aunt. It also involved two round trips to Morgan Hill. All in all, a very fun time. My cousin started a new job in San Mateo at Smith Barney this week so congrats. And he just graduated a month ago. Later that night, I headed up to see Superman Returns at the Metreon in IMAX 3D. Watching it in Imax is good enough but the 3D underwhelmed me. Maybe my eyes are defective. As for the movie, it's a bit underwhelming but it still entertains. Brandon Routh doesn't have the charisma Christopher Reeve had and Kate Bosworth seems to be invincible since she suffers no injuries throughout the film.

(Total so far: about 250 miles)

Sunday and Monday were mellow days. I was still reeling from the fact that Brazil had lost in the World Cup. How could they??? And to France??? It almost defied logic. Had dinner with my aunt and the family on Sunday, visited Burlingame and Millbrae on Monday and played poker with the guys on Monday night. We finished up the poker and food at 3 am and I started on my way back on Capitol when I see this car behind me following me. It's followed me for at least 2 miles...what gives? I'm getting close to home, passing Safeway. Usually, I'd turn left at Branham but instead I went straight. Still following. Cut through Hayes School. Still following. Going through the neighborhood on my way home. Finally, I turn left and he keeps going straight. How weird I thought. I pull in and get out only to see the car coming from the other way! So I pretty much ran inside and could only wonder what they did to my car. (Luckily, nothing but some random ppl did TP the house down the street. Wasn't me...honest :)

(Total so far: about 375 miles)

Tuesday was Independence Day. We're going to recapture the cities and blow the aliens out of the sky. Oh wait, that's the movie. In real life, my sister and I went to my brother's house in Pacifica to start a bonfire on the beach. My sister really wanted fireworks and so we obliged. Man was that a mistake. All around us, people obviously came prepared, shooting off cannons into the air while we had dinky ones that went up 5 feet into the air. But watching everyone else's was cool but we stayed kinda late and I was one of the lucky few to have work the next day. Wanting to get home quickly but well aware the cops prolly had an increased presence for the holiday, I tried to stick in the 70s. There were times the speedometer ran into the 90s but I dialed it back when I realized it. On one of those few times, a car cut me off going 100+. Having the road rage I have, I tried to follow him, but I noticed a car moving just as fast following behind. It was a CHP car without its siren lights on. The guy going 100 exited and so did the CHP car. Don't know what happened next but hopefully he got one fat ticket.

(Total so far: about 500 miles)

The next 3 days consisted of work, work, work. Ok, about one day was actual work but I did have to show up for all 3 days. I came back to realize ppl are just dropping dead. 4 co-workers had family members die in the past week and another found out her neighbor passed on.

Hey, would it sound better if I were named Phil? (I don't think so.)

Friday night, went to the city to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. And I did something I rarely do. I fell asleep during the movie. Oh my was this boring. So they spent 150 minutes looking for a key and a chest??? You could tell they were saving their best stuff for the final installment and all this stuff was fluff. Absolutely no point whatsoever. Even the beauty of Keira Knightley couldn't keep me from falling asleep. I made it through and got back at around 2 am.

(Total so far: about 750 miles)

Wake up! I don't wanna to. It's 6:30 and shut up. But no. I promised to see the guys in Sacto for a little rafting and BBQ madness. So there I was in the driver's seat yet again. Had to pick up Datman and Alex, two ppl who believe 80 mph is not fast enough. I'm usually a good driver but in front of these two, I was for some reason not at my best. I didn't yield to a guy U-turning (all the ppl I saw were turning left and this one guy decides to make a U) but the worst was running over a concrete parking divider. But hey, even with rattled nerves, they're still alive. Though if you hear the story from them, you would have thought I nearly killed them at every turn. The rafting was okay. We got through it much quicker than last time and it wasn't as uncomfortable. That would come later that night. With temperatures reaching 100 during the day, Hai's apartment was just as hot all through the night. The fan and limited A/C didn't help. After getting about 4 hours of sleep the night before, I consider it lucky to get the 5 hours I did. I would find out the next morning that it was too lucky. Apparently, I snore pretty loudly. After staying in hotel rooms and friends' houses, I've never been told that before. The only snoring stories I hear about involve my dad or brother, who are notorious for their snoring. But me??? No way. It's the truth though and now I have to live with it. Good thing I sleep right through it ;)

Thanks Hai and Claire for hosting this weekend.

Now I'm back, awaiting to go back to work tomorrow. This week is actually pretty busy. Packages to update and whatnot. So pretty soon, I'll go snore...I mean sleep.

(Total miles: 1100)

2006-06-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

What if in 2000, during the whole presidential election crisis, Bill Clinton acted before the Supreme Court did and issued an order declaring Al Gore the winner in Florida and the election? Everyone would scream bloody murder. (Well, they did anyway, but that's not the point.) The point being is that's happened on a smaller scale in Berkeley.

I keep track of the old university once in a while and this caught my eye. The student government, ASUC, has always been a ridiculous organization, pissing away money every chance they get and holding long meetings to discuss pretty much nothing. Yet every spring, it manages attract 100 or so people to run for office, spouting off grand ideas to improve student life. After 4 years, I hadn't seen much except tons of flyers in the trash. This year, the dominant party of the last few years, Student Action, swept the executive offices but its party leader and the candidates were charged with obstruction of justice and perjury and stripped of their wins by the Judicial Council.

In his haste to settle the matter, the outgoing president, a member of Student Action, issued an executive order declaring the Student Action candidates the winners of their respective offices and that they assume their positions immediately.

Of course the entire thing smells fishy. It's probably illegal and it most likely will get worse before it gets better.

Side note: you didn't have time to hang out with us, but still I'll wish you a happy b-day Ak.

2006-06-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hey ya. Travel plans this summer haven't gone my way. Korea + the Philippines required too much of a commitment. And the planning for New York and Baltimore wasn't quite there. So I've got to settle for smaller trips in the area. So if you're in Vegas the first week of August, Reno the last week of August, or L.A. the first week of October, lemme know since that's where I'll be.

Work experienced a few layoffs last week (6-10 out of 600 plus a couple of retirements ain't bad) but don't worry, my job wasn't affected. I'm still able to surf the Internet 8 hours a day and get paid for it. The overall health of the company is actually pretty good, but there's a bunch of people not doing much and real measurable work to do isn't coming in for another few months.

Went go-karting for the first time in years. But let's put it this way, I'll stick with regular cars for the time being. Thanks Di for the time out.

Fiona Apple this Friday and it's my grandpa's 80th birthday this weekend. Happy Birthday!

Finally, does this really count as TV? Maury Povich interviews a waitress who is terrified of pickles. Pickles!

2006-06-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

One thing not reflected in these pictures is the location of the thermostat. Even the Facilities Department doesn't have a clue. They pointed me to one was down the hall, but it was busted. My solution? I lowered the thermostat on all the ones I could find. Now everything seems to be the right temperature. As for my co-workers: yeah, right.

My office is nothing impressive. Look...desk, computer, corkboard, chair, and tons of papers.

The Simpsons are there. So is Stewie. No window to stare out though. Gotta go around the corner for that.

2006-06-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Taylor Hicks and Snoop Dogg sang "Gin and Juice" together in Alabama. PLEASE! Make it stop!

Happy belated Father's Day to everyone. My 3-year-old cousin was so excited about this day that she ran up to her mom and wished her a happy Father's day even though Dad was right next to her.

Nestle is buying Jenny Craig. Watch out for that next diet fad: chocolate diets.

2006-06-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

As Alex likes to point out, I am a registered Republican in a district where Dems outnumber Reps 2-1. But judging by the reaction of poll workers last week on Election Day, you'd think I was the only one. The lady asked my name to look up and when she pointed to the word REP to the person giving out the ballot, she whispered to her, "I guess I can't say that anymore today."

The boss of one of my co-workers proudly proclaimed he was able to delete columns on an Excel spreadsheet. Baby steps...

My parents are back from Vietnam with t-shirts galore. My dad actually went back to work last Friday. There, he found out the company asked for 3 volunteers to move to Fremont to work there (they're in San Jose now). Well, they got two volunteers. So management had to choose the other one and it was my dad since he was out-of-town and wasn't able to decline.

2006-06-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday is Election Day so those registered to vote should go out and do so. The ballot for this primary election doesn't look all too interesting but it sets the stage for the big November battles that'll be played out.

The Democrats were hurt when neither Rob Reiner nor Warren Beatty would run for governor to challenge the star power of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead, Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly are vying for the nomination. If you look at the issues, these two have more in common than they do different. That's why after some background ads on themselves, they went directly to attack ads on each other's backgrounds (Angelides and his real estate background or Westly with his ties to business and Schwarzenegger) instead of criticizing the other on their stances on the issues. I can't vote in this race, but I'm leaning toward Westly, a former Silicon Valley exec at eBay who would be able to grow California and its economy. However, a vote for either will certainly embrace the values of the Democratic Party in its fight against Arnold, which will be tough.

The state only has two ballot propositions this time which is weird since that's an awfully low number. The first is a library bond which should be allowed to pass. The second is preschool education for all 4-year-olds. It's a nice idea, but its execution is bad. It taxes the rich, which is a very volatile source of revenue, especially in this state. Preschool programs already exist for most of the lower-income families this proposal is designed to reach. And it requires these pre-school teachers to get a Bachelor's degree, which is absurd and a waste of resources when regular schools are running out of qualified teachers.

Turning local toward the San Jose mayor's race...if the winner receives 50%+1 of the vote, he or she would be elected mayor. However, with 5 prominent front-runners and 5 others running, this race is more likely headed to a runoff with the top two facing off in November. The city has been rocked by scandal, back-room deals and some financial mismanagement in recent years, which is why all candidates are calling for open government and accountability. A vote for Cindy Chavez would be a vote of confidence for the Ron Gonzales' administration, which by all accounts has not been a stellar one. A smaller percentage of San Joseans approve of the job Gonzales is doing than Americans do of George W. Bush. With Chavez' fingerprints all over the council's actions in the last few years and her insistence to continue with these policies, this really can't continue. Chuck Reed has a lot of good ideas and is considering himself to be the only honest, open, and ethical candidate who will not be influenced by anyone. That's well-intentioned but on the issues, he's usually the one who goes against the council and if you can't work with the council, then nothing can get done. Michael Mulcahy certainly looks the part of a politician and he is an outsider, but a complete outsider would not be advisable. His previous experience in the city is limited and the Mercury News notes his lack of reaching out to different parts of the community. As a result, either of the Davids would be a wise choice to run in the runoff in November with me leaning toward Pandori due to his experience during the good (at least comparatively) years on the council and his clear plan to rebuild San Jose from within through a revitalization of the parks and fiscal responsibility. It doesn't hurt that he went to Cal. Cortese is currently a councilman who would be able to work with this council while calling for open practices in the city and focusing on neighborhoods.

2006-06-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what category this story would go under...it's just too odd.

A woman who fell in love with a snake has married the reptile at a traditional Hindu wedding celebrated by 2,000 guests in India's Orissa state, reports said. Bimbala Das wore a silk saree for the ceremony Wednesday at Atala village near the Orissa state capital Bhubaneswar. Priests chanted mantras to seal the union, but the snake failed to come out of a nearby ant hill where it lives, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said on Friday. A brass replica snake stood in for the hesitant groom. "Though snakes cannot speak nor understand, we communicate in a peculiar way," Das, 30, told the agency. "Whenever I put milk near the ant hill where the cobra lives, it always comes out to drink. "I always get to see it every time I go near the ant hill. It has never harmed me," she added. Villagers welcomed the wedding in the belief it would bring good fortune and laid on a feast for the big day. Snakes and particularly the King Cobra are venerated in India as religious symbols worn by Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. Das, from a lower caste, converted to the animal-loving vegetarian Vaishnav sect whose local elders gave her permission to marry the cobra, the world's largest venomous snake that can grow up to five metres. "I am happy," said her mother Dyuti Bhoi, who has two other daughters and two sons to marry off. "Bimbala was ill," Bhoi told local OTV channel. "We had no money to treat her. Then she started offering milk to the snake ... she was cured. That made her fall in love." Das has moved into a hut built close to the ant hill since the wedding. Earlier this year, a tribal girl was married off to a dog on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Link

2006-05-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everybody for coming out to the two BBQ's. I've finished off the last of the hamburgers and the salads, but the hot dogs will stay in the freezer and the watermelon uncut. As for the wraps, I just don't know.

I was driving behind a car yesterday that was for sale. Ford Escort for $1500. Everything in excellent condition the sign read. Too bad the brake lights don't work. Almost hit it.

This week, my computer was fixed. Just about nobody wanted to fix the hinges on my laptop, and if they did, it would cost in excess of $200. So I found this shop just across the expressway that said they'd do it for $100 flat (no hourly fees). So the guy couldn't get to it til the end of the day. No problem I said, I'll just get it at the end of my workday. 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00. I'm getting restless. Finally, it's done and I get a call at 8:30 saying it's done. By this time, I'm at home. When I went to pick it up, he explains: "yeah, I've got repairs in here that take 45 minutes and I'm charging them $150. Yours took 4 hours and I'll still charge you a $100. "

Sucker.

Spoiler for X-Men 3 if you haven't watched it yet. I think I've figured out how the filmmakers redeemed themselves for making such a bad movie. Magneto moving the chess piece and someone identifying himself as Professor Xavier could only mean that the filmmakers were saying "yeah, we screwed up, so when number 4 rolls out, forget this 3rd one ever happened."

Looking for that special late summer trip? The Cal Alumni Association is offering a trip to North Korea the week before Labor Day! Don't everyone jump at the chance all at once.

2006-05-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

I may or may not elaborate more on this later but lemme just say right now that the X-Men 3 movie flat out sucks.

2006-05-23T17:26:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to this blog. It turns 4. Time for its annual review. Learned anything? (Nope.) Laughed at anything? (Nope.) Embarrassed you know the guy who writes this? (Most definitely.)

I finally figured out the name of the game show I was thinking about a couple of years ago. On "I'm Telling", siblings would have to answer questions about each other. The team with the most correct answers would go to earn prizes based upon what they think the other would choose. Matching 10 would let them get all 20 prizes.

Look away if you didn't watch the 24 finale. Out of all the things that were so implausible this season, could someone explain how the Chinese could have kidnapped Jack Bauer, beat him up, brought him to a ship and was far clear from the port in less than 10 minutes? It couldn't be helicopter, right? The agents securing the place should've heard it.

Supposedly, I'm having a BBQ this Saturday, so if you're reading this and I know who you are and you're gonna be in the area, lemme know if you wanna come and what you're bringing.

2006-05-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

The Sharks were just eliminated from the playoffs. Great season, disappointing end. Now I get to pull this fact out like I do every year the Sharks are eliminated. No team that has defeated the Sharks in the playoffs has gone on to win the Stanley Cup that year. So well-done Oilers, but you'll most likely lose in one of the next two rounds.

2006-05-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

At my annual review, my boss said he was glad he didn't hire a dweeb. Umm, that's good, right?

The Sharks are getting desperate now. They've lost 3 in a row and now they try to break the streak in Edmonton in Game 6. There will be a lot of second-guessing as to how the Sharks let this series slip away if they lose. Chief among them: sticking with Toskala in net. Putting him in tonite is the correct move even after giving up 12 goals in 2 games, but they should've given Nabokov more game time down the stretch to be ready to step in. As it stands, he is simply not in game shape to just step in and win the next two games. Otherwise, the team needs to stay focused and play a full 60 minutes. Within the last two losses, there were flashes of their former glory, but they were few and far between.

Did you know you can watch 10 episodes of Head of the Class on AOL's In2TV? What a treat.

2006-05-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

I watched M:i:III the other day and was disappointed. It certainly looked great but the story was ill-conceived. Not enough Philip Seymour Hoffman. More masks. But the worst part was its striking similarity to Alias, one of my favorite shows (about to have its series finale in a couple of weeks). It's no coincidence that both were helmed by J.J. Abrams. The L.A. Times chronicled some of the instances in a recent article.

The "Let's Skip the Intros and Just Cut to the Mayhem" Moment
"Alias": The first scenes of the pilot find spy Sydney Bristow (Garner) bloodied and bound to a chair in a dark, ominous room, where she is menaced by a mysterious villain. How she got into this pickle is related in flashbacks later in the episode.
"M:i:III": The first scene of the film finds spy Ethan Hunt (Cruise) bloodied and bound to a chair in a dark, ominous room, where he is menaced by a mysterious villain. How he got into this pickle is related in flashbacks later in the film.

The "Spies Like Excellent Health Benefits" Moment
"Alias": Sydney's fiancé is a doctor who has no idea she is a spy.
"M:i:III": Ethan's fiancée is a nurse who has no idea he is a spy.

The "Spies Have Boring Cover Stories" Moment
"Alias": Sydney tells her friends she works for a bank.
"M:i:III": Ethan tells friends he works for the traffic department.

The "Spies Should Get Caller ID" Moment
"Alias" : Sydney gets a call at home from "Joey's Pizza," which is spy agency code for "Your Country Needs You to Get to Work."
"M:i:III": Ethan gets a call at home from "Ready Travel Resort Services," which is spy agency code for "Your Country Needs You to Get to Work."

The "OK, What Is My Mission and No, I Don't Want a Big Gulp" Moment
"Alias": Sydney first meets her operations handler Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan) at a convenience store, where they both pretend to shop for Twinkies while discussing the mission. Sydney declines Michael's offer for a Slushee.
"M:i:III": Ethan meets his operations manager, John Musgrave (Billy Crudup), at a convenience store, where they both pretend to hunt for Twinkies while discussing the mission. Ethan advises Musgrave to get the "900-ounce Slurpee.

"The "Hit Me With Your Best Adrenalin Shot" Moment
"Alias": Sydney rescues a barely conscious Vaughn from bad guys, reviving him with an Adrenalin shot to the heart.
"M:i:III": Ethan rescues a barely conscious fellow agent, Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell), from bad guys, reviving her with an Adrenalin shot to the heart.

The "I Look More Needy if I'm on a Roof" Moment
"Alias": Sydney, not wanting to give her real mission away, summons her friend, reporter Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper), to a rooftop and asks for help, telling him, "You just have to trust me."
"M:i:III": Ethan, not wanting to give his real mission away, summons his fiancée to the rooftop, asks for help, begging her to "trust me."

The "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time" Moment
"Alias": Bad guys plant an explosive device in Will's head.
"M:i:III:" Bad guys plant an explosive device in Ethan's head (and one in Lindsey's too).

The "Head Fu" Moment
"Alias": When the bound Sydney's torturer gets a little too close to her face, she head-butts him, manages to fight out of her restraints and knocks him unconscious.
"M:i:III": When the bound Ethan's adversary gets too close to him, he bites him, manages to fight out of his restraints and knocks him unconscious.

The "Spies Pay No Attention to Dress Codes" Moment
"Alias": Sydney attends a black-tie event in a foreign country in a form-fitting red dress.
"M:i:III": One of Ethan's accomplices, Zhen (Maggie Q), attends a black-tie event in a foreign country in a form-fitting red dress.

The "Slow Talking Techno-Nerds Need Not Apply" Moment
"Alias": Marshall (Kevin Weisman) is a fast-talking nerd who helps Sydney carry out assignments.
"M:i:III": Benji (Simon Pegg) is a fast-talking computer nerd who helps Ethan carry out assignments.

2006-05-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

I was at Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals last night at the arena and quite honestly, it was pandemonium out there. Noise level getting to 113 decibels. Every person in the building transfixed at the black disc sliding across the white ice. The Oilers failing to score on a 5 on 3 powerplay where 2 of the 3 didn't have a stick. Joe Thornton scoring his first goal of this playoffs. And most importantly, the Sharks winning, earning a 2-0 series lead with 5 more games to play to knock out Edmonton.

2006-05-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

On this Monday last year, I started my job. And look! They haven't fired me yet! Don't know why.

I had 2 missed calls on my cell and I didn't recognize the number. So I didn't bother returning the call. This person then called for a third time so I answered it. It was from a girl named Sheila and asked whether some job was filled. My words to her were, "No, I'm sorry, you've got the wrong number." Apparently, she only heard the "No, I'm sorry" part cuz she quickly gave me a f--- you and hung up. Yep, future workforce of America, folks.

My brother let me know that Steven Seagal will be performing at the Fillmore in June. Yes, the Steven Seagal. He's a musician too. Man, this guy can do everything. Quite possibly, the power of music is spreading. Just look at this review on Amazon...best piece of fiction I've read lately.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009SQ520/sr=8-2/qid=1146164508/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-9806166-2937460?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Dear Mr. Seagal,

Tuesday, February 12th, was a pretty average day for me. I woke up, brushed my teeth, had my morning glass of mayonnaise, put on my beret, tossed my scarf over my shoulder, heaved a heavy sigh and ventured out into the cold. The suspension on my electric scooter sagged deeply, not unlike my longing heart. While the vanity bumper sticker that Mother had bought me proclaimed "A smile a day keeps the doctor away", I was a very, very lonely 42 year old man. I was morbidly obese and quite frankly, I didn't have the most pleasant odour about me. I was lucky if even that kid with the club foot that everyone chased after school would wave to me when I passed.

Doing the rounds of my paper route, I rode by my local music store. I heard Something about Lollipops emanating from the speaker. I heard the low and shrill sound and it immediately began soothing my jangled nerves. Little did I know that this little piece of plastic, with the wondroous words and lyrics of Steven Seagal burned onto it for all of eternity with a laser, was soon to change my life.

I immediately got out of my scooter, ran into the store, took a few minutes to try to catch my breath. Finally I was able to gasp out to the clerk: "That Cd. That voice of the angels. I need to have it now". I bought several copies in case I became hungry on the way home. I rushed home, changed into my athletic gear and utility belt and immediately began doing pushups. It was like I was a man possesed. I didn't know it at the time, but this CD harnessed the work ethic, the martial arts prowess and, above all, the stunning handsomness and fashion sense of Steven Seagal into one small package. All that I had to do was press play and I was transformed into the essence of Casey Ryback, ex-navy seal, counter-terrorist expert and environmental mercenary.

To the sounds of Mr. Seagal I was able to shed my weight and began taking daily showers. I now entertain several women per week, sometimes even several per day. I am making over $5000 a week stuffing envelopes from home. My life has become full of many smiles a day, and I look forward to each day with more anticipation than the last. I owe it all to the inspiring and electrifying work being done each and every day by Steven Seagal.

Thank you, Steven Seagal.

Your friend in arms,
Kevin Keast, Toronto, Ontario

2006-04-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

Aww, look at Kelli expressing her approval in front of her grandparents.

In other news, I've completed my jury service for the year. Luckily, I didn't have to be on the jury...I don't think I would've been too comfortable with the subject matter.

And the Smashing Pumpkins are coming together again to make another album. Can't wait.

2006-04-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117941815?categoryid=10&cs=1&s=h&p=0

and

http://www.trektoday.com/news/210406_01.shtml

J.J. Abrams is becoming the next Gene Roddenberry.

Paramount is breathing life into its "Star Trek" franchise by setting "Mission: Impossible III" helmer J.J. Abrams to produce and direct the 11th "Trek" feature, aiming for a 2008 release.

Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, Abrams' producing team from "Lost," also will produce the yet-to-be-titled feature.

Project, to be penned by Abrams and "MI3" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto OrciRoberto Orci, will center on the early days of seminal "Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission.

Deal reflects Par's bullishness on "MI3," which launches worldwide next weekend, and underlines the goal of Paramount chief Brad Grey and prexy Gail Berman to re-energize the pipeline via high-profile tentpoles while revitalizing the Par brand with top-tier talent such as Abrams.

"MI3" is the first pic to be released that's been greenlit by Grey.

"Star Trek" has been Hollywood's most durable performer other than James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series.

Decision to relaunch "Star Trek" comes less than a year after UPN pulled the plug on "Star Trek: Enterprise""Star Trek: Enterprise" amid dismal ratings following a four-season run and four years after "Star Trek: Nemesis""Star Trek: Nemesis" turned in the worst performance of the 10 films with $43 million domestic.

Original series created by Roddenberry launched in 1966 on NBC and ended in 1969.

During the following decade, the original 78 episodes of "Trek" became staples in syndication and helped mobilize the fan base along with conventions, books and merchandise. Paramount released "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979 and saw domestic grosses hit $82 million. The next three films grossed a combined $263 million domestically, so Paramount started the second TV series, "The Next Generation," in 1987, with Rick Berman and Roddenberry co-exec producing.

Under Sherry Lansing's tenure, Rick Berman had been teamed several years ago with Jordan Kerner and Kerry McCluggage to develop an 11th feature set in the early days of Starfleet Academy.

2006-04-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Sentinel is a solid action film woven from a familiar cloth. There's a lot of little things to quibble about throughout the entire film, from scenes seemingly edited in without any dialogue as to why they're in there to the plot holes and the uncharacteristic actions of all the people involved. But all in all, we're kept at attention with Douglas' craftiness and ability to keep getting the job done, Jack Bauer being Jack Bauer, and Eva Longoria just being on-screen. You know the most outrageous thing? Sledge Hammer is President! Who woulda thunk it?

As for other movies seen, Inside Man is also pretty good but it doesn't leave you with a good taste in your mouth. There's more to be told but it doesn't deliver, leaving us hanging.

Walk the Line is as good as everybody says, but it's not good as the other recent award-winner involving a music legend, Ray. Derailed gets derailed due to its characters being so dumb. Fun with Dick and Jane can get fun at times, but most of the time it falls flat and its jokes on real-life events go nowhere. I don't understand the appeal of Brokeback Mountain. It's a fine story but nothing earth-shattering except for the fact that they were two gay cowboys. The Constant Gardener appeals the further Ralph Fiennes delves into the world of pharmaceuticals to find out what his murdered wife was following. I didn't know what to expect out of A History of Violence, but I was pleasantly surprised. Finally, Capote was a very interesting film and character study and Philip Seymour Hoffman really did deserve his Oscar.