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March 26 Facebook Junkies
Are any of you on Facebook? A while back I read an article on Facebook about how it's being used by people in every age group instead of just college kids. After hearing so much about it and how great it is I decided to check it out. The only problem is you can't check out Facebook without creating an account. I didn't want all my personal information on there so I created a made-up secret identity and used it to check out some of the people on there (at least the ones who don't have their setting set to "private"). I found a lot of people I went to school with...some of them were good friends I wouldn't mind making contact with and others were horrible people who I never want to talk to again. I'm not sure I understand the point of Facebook. The article I read stated that it was a tool to keep in contact with all the people in your life. But my question is: If these people are in your life already, why do you have to keep in contact with them on the computer? When you join Facebook you have to contact all of your friends who are on there and form a "friends" list. One of the reasons I made this MSN Space was to have the ability to meet different people around the world, people I never would have met in "real life". But you can't really do that on Facebook--you can look at someone's page but you have to be there "friend" in order to leave a comment...at least that's the way I understand it. And what's the deal with the status bar? On all the profile pages I looked at the status bar didn't convey any important or interesting information. They all said things like "Bob is happy to be home from work" or "Betty is baking a cake". Who gives a shit?! What good does that information do me? It's not like a blog where they can tell a story about their long day at work or why they're baking a cake. Imagine if you got a phone call every time one of your friends performed some little everyday action: "Hi Marge? I'm cleaning the toilet! Just wanted to let you know!" It would get tiresome after a while, wouldn't it? And what's with the "Poke" feature? On the profile page just below your picture there's an option listed that lets you "poke" someone: "Poke Diane", "Poke Carl". It sounds graphically dirty. Does anybody use this? What's it for? What happens when you "Poke" someone? So while anonymously surfing through the different names of people I know (or used to know) I found some people I went to school with who I haven't talked to in twenty years. It was interesting to look through their pictures to see what they look like now, but to be honest, some of them didn't look too good...the years have not been kind. It was fun to see these people again but I don't know what I would say to them now...what do you say to people you haven't seen in twenty years? They're pretty much strangers at that point, aren't they? It seems like there are some people who are on Facebook several times a day, which I can't imagine doing. So if any of you use Facebook I'd be curious to know what you use it for and how often you're on there. And if you're on Facebook and happen to come across my secret identity be sure to give him a "poke". January 26 Taking "Stupid" To A Whole New Level I was reading an article online and saw this picture which made me laugh. This photo was taken at an Anti-Israel rally in New York City. Check out this guy's sign...
How stupid is this dummy? Obviously it's supposed to say "Death to all Jews", but I guess this genius just tried to sound it out. You would think that if you're going to be that passionate with your hatred you would take the time to learn the proper spelling of your sworn enemy's name. Israel should drop a bomb right on this guy's head. The world would be a much better place without stupid people but then I guess we wouldn't have anyone to laugh at.
December 24 Catching Up For The Holidays So the trip to New York for Thanksgiving was very uneventful. In fact, was didn't do anything because everyone was sick. My In-Laws were sick when we got there but they were too stubborn to go see a doctor. (What is it with old people that they refuse to see a doctor no matter how sick they are?) And of course, because they were sick they made my wife get sick, which made them feel guilty enough to finally go to a doctor...turns out they both had bronchitis. So basically I spent two weeks in New York sitting around the house listening to them hack and cough. I didn't want to get sick so I spent most of my time sitting in the back bedroom playing on the computer--I've become a master of several online games. I would have liked to go into the city but I would have felt like a jackass leaving and having fun in the city while everyone else was sick and miserable at home. Luckily I avoided getting sick and my wife got better just before we came back home.
Once we got back to California we resumed work on remodeling our bathroom. Everything has been done for about a month but there was just one problem. They put grout between the tiles and then put a special water sealer on the tiles. But the sealer made the grout dark in some places but it remained light in others, so the brand new grout looks old and dirty. They've been trying to clean in and take the sealer off but in the end I think they're going to have to take the grout out and re-grout the whole bathroom. (Fuck!) It's really frustrating having a new bathroom and not being able to use it. So because this work isn't finished we're still not living at home. We've been staying at my mom's house since September, which is beginning to take it's toll on me. All I want is to move back into my own home. Our lives have been up in the air for the past four months, which is why I haven't been blogging lately...I haven't had time to use our computer.
By the way, I have a question for you guys...does anyone have an Apple lap top? I got one a few months ago but I can't seem to write my blog on it properly. It doesn't let me make paragraphs or change the font size or anything. Everything comes out as one big block of tiny print. If anyone has had this problem let me know if there's any solution.
So Christmas is here and this year I'm pretty much ready for it. Usually we're out hustling around trying to get our shopping done but this year we managed to get everything done in one weekend. I usually get pretty depressed during the holidays but this year I don't feel that as much--maybe it's because we've been so busy with the house that I haven't had time to feel anything.
Anyway, I feel like I've been away for so long that I'm not sure if anyone still comes around here to visit anymore, but I'm going to try to come back full force in the new year. For those of you who do tune in, I hope you all have a great Holiday with the ones you love. Hopefully by January I'll be living at home again and back online.
Merry Christmas!
November 24 The "Star Wars" Challenge Well, we're just about done with our bathroom remodel. However, we won't get a chance to use it yet because we're on our way to New York to spend Thanksgiving with my wife's parents. So that means it's time for another "Sidewalk-Of-Fame" Challenge.
Every time I go on vacation I leave a little challenge here to keep you (and me) entertained. My cyber-friend and fellow Star Wars geek Lola has been suggesting a Star Wars themed challenge, and since she is one of the few people who visit here that isn't in the Sidewalk-of-fame yet, I decided to answer her request. So here is "The Star Wars Challenge". And even though Lola asked for it, that doesn't mean the rest of you can't play along. The first person to leave a comment answering all of the following questions correctly will earn a place in the "Sidewalk-Of-Fame". So good luck, have a great Thanksgiving and I'll see you when I get back.
You can find all of the answers to these questions from watching the original "Star Wars" film.
1. Who does C-3PO claim was his previous owner?
2. According to Obi-Wan, why do Tusken Raiders travel in single-file?
3. What number docking bay does Han Solo say the Millennium Falcon is docked?
4. What is the name of the planet that is destroyed by the Death Star?
5. What's the first thing Princess Leia says to Luke Skywalker?
6. How many Tie Fighters attack the Millennium Falcon just after it escapes the Death Star?
7. How big of a dork do you feel like right now?
October 20 Dead Space It's getting harder and harder to find the time to blog lately and I think my Space is dying a slow and painful death. We're in the middle of our remodeling projects, so I have very little free time right now. My days consist of waking up at 6:00, opening up the house for the work crews at 7:00, overseeing the work, answering any questions and making decisions until about 3:30, then spending the rest of the day shopping for lighting fixtures or any other housewares we still need. By the end of the day I'm running on fumes. But I think we're about half way through with the work. (we're in week six of a proposed nine week project.) So far it's gone surprisingly well, with a few annoying bumps along the way. I spend a majority of the day imagining how great it would be to kick my contractor in the groin. He's a bit of a condesending prick who tends to think he knows more than he actually does. Most of the mess-ups and bumps along the way have been caused by him.
I've been so busy that I totally let my Space anniversary go by with out acknowledging it. I've been doing this for three years now, but I seem to be slowing down...I don't blog as much as I used to or as much as I would like. But surprisingly there are a few of you who still come by on a regular basis to see what's going on in my corner of cyberspace and for that I thank you. I've made some good internet friends over the past three years, people I normally would never have met, and because of those cyber-friendships I'll continue to blog, even though I don't have much to blog about right now. But once the work is all done I'll make a point to come back and catch up with you all...maybe I'll post a few pictures of our new bathroom, depending on if it turns out the way we want it to.
Thanks again to all of you who have been tuning in consistantly over the years--it's good to know that someone is listening whenever I rant, complain or just spout nonsense. September 22 Faces In The Crowd
My last blog entry got me thinking about movies and all the celebrities I've seen in LA over the years. Twelve to fifteen years ago, when I had an apartment up in LA, I would see various celebrities sitting in the same restaurant I was in or out shopping on Melrose Avenue or at the mall. Now, when we go up to LA (which is only a 30 to 40 minute drive) we don't see celebrities so much...not that there's anyone worth seeing. Is it just me or do today's celebrities seem really boring? So just for fun I tried to think of all the famous (and not so famous) people I've seen in public, standing just five feet away from me. Here's the list (in random order) I have so far. I know there's probably more but I just can't think of them right now.
Danny Devito Rhea Pearlman Jodie Foster Julianna Margulies Bruce Hornsby Michael Jackson Pamela Anderson Tommy Lee Tia Carrere Jaclyn Smith Debbie Reynolds Jennifer Garner Samuel L. Jackson Geena Davis Flava Flav Rob Reiner Lloyd Bridges Beau Bridges Jeffery Jones (Mr. Rooney from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") George Michael Kareen Abdul-Jabbar Hilary Swank Alanis Morisette George Foreman John Candy David Spade Luke Perry Linda Hamilton Johnny Knoxville
This list may seem long, but keep in mind that I saw these people over the past fifteen years or so. I wouldn't want you to think that if you come out here on a week's vacation you'll be able to see this many celebrities. Chances are you won't see any (unless, of course, you're a stalker.)
September 08 My Top Ten Movie ListCreating a top ten list of my favorite movies was a lot harder than I thought it would be. If it had been a "top fifteen" list I think I would have been okay. But in narrowing it down to ten I kept going back and forth on different movies, deciding if certain films made the cut, then I would remember other films that I hadn't seen in a while and I would have to start the list over again. So these are my favorite movies. When I'm sitting around flipping channels on the TV, these are the films I will stop and watch for a while, even though I've seen them hundreds of times. Most of these movies are memories from my childhood...I saw them at an early age and they really had an impact on me, giving me an interest in the movie making process. I had always planned to go to film school, but after taking a few classes I ultimately decided against it. (But today, in my opinion, you don't really need to go to film school--anyone who proves themselves halfway competent on YouTube can launch a career in Hollywood.) So these are the films that really captured my imagination. I've tried counting them down from ten to one, but this is really just a rough guide...the order can change depending on my mood.
10. Being There (1979) This is a bit of a weird film, and people usually love it or loathe it. I think it's really cool and different, and Peter Sellers does an amazing job in his final role as a simple-minded gardener who gets mistaken for a deep thinking political figure. With every simple statement he makes, people think he's brilliant (sounds familiar). The film has a slow pace to it but it's still fun to watch. And it's always fun to watch the bloopers that play during the closing credits. If any of you have seen this movie (or are going to see it), let me know what you think of the final shot in the film and what you think it means.
9. Grease (1977) Yes, this is one of my favorite films...and I'm not gay! Back in 1977, we had wanted to see "Star Wars" but it was sold out, and the only other film being shown even remotely kid-friendly was "Grease". Being six years old, I was extremely disappointed that we weren't going to see "Star Wars", but once the movie started I was totally into it, even though the sexual humor went over my head. This movie is fun and very watchable, and it's very well done considering it was the director's first major motion picture.
8.Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971) How great is this movie? Gene Wilder is brilliant as Wonka. I never got to see it on the big screen, and back before there was video tapes and cable TV, they only showed this movies on television about once a year, so it was always a treat to see it as a kid. I remember wanting to try some of the candy the kids ate in that room where everything was edible. I also wanted lickable wallpaper for my room.
7. Back To The Future (1985) This movie has a little bit of everything...there's comedy, a bit of drama, action and suspense. It's a very original idea and they pulled it off very well. The two sequels got a little too silly for my taste, but there's no way they could have recaptured the inventiveness of this first film. After seeing this movie I totally wanted a Delorean, even though I wasn't old enough to drive yet.
6. Jaws (1975) I saw this movie on the big screen when I was about five or six and it totally freaked me out. To this day I can't go into the ocean without that theme song creeping into my head (at which point I have to head back to shore). And before you start thinking I had awful parents for taking me to see Jaws at such a young age, I had wanted to see it...I was strangely intrigued by that famous movie poster of that giant shark closing in on that unsuspecting swimmer. My dad had taken my three older sisters and I to see "101 Dalmatians" and after the movie we noticed that "Jaws" was playing in the next theater and we asked him if we could see a double feature. He was reluctant because we were all so young (if I was six my oldest sister would have been fifteen) but he finally caved and it was the most terrifying two hours of my young life, but I loved it. I think the reason this movie is so scary is because so much of it is left to your imagination. You never actually see the shark until the second half of the movie. Originally they wanted to show the shark attacking people throughout the film, but they couldn't get the mechanical shark to work properlyso they had to improvise. It's scarier not knowing where the shark is under the water, but you know it's there because of the intense music.
5. Blade Runner (1982) This is a strange but gorgeous movie. I had to watch it on tape over and over again over the course of ten years before I could finally figure out everything that was going on. This isn't the type of film that you can really get invested in the characters, but it's really amazing to watch. There are sights and sounds and a feel of every scene in the movie. There are a few different versions of this movie floating around out there. The original theatrical release has Harrison Ford's character's voice-over throughout the movie as well as a "Hollywood" ending tagged on to the end. The newest, director-approved "final" version took out the voice-over and tagged-on ending and added a minor detail. If you've never seen this film I'm not sure which version I would recommend you watch. The film can be confusing without the voice-over but I don't like the little added detail in the new cut...it's very minor but totally unnecessary. But the visuals are incredible either way.
4. The Godfather (1972) In my opinion, no one ever needs to make another mafia movie ever again...they got it right with this one. It's hard to believe that Marlon Brando was only 47 when he made this film.
3. Star Wars (1977) Ah, Star Wars. I saw this when I was six and was totally blown away...what six-year-old wouldn't be? It had everything a kid could ask for--heroes, villains, wizards, robots, pirates and Wookees. Soon I would become obsessed with it. For the most part my childhood was made up of three things: Star Wars, Indiana Jones and The Muppet Show. Without those three I would have had no escaped from the hell that my sisters made of my life while growing up.
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) This movie still kicks ass. Back in 1981, I was ten years old and I had seen the previews and it looked kind of scary, and after seeing "Jaws" I was reluctant to see another intense film. But my sister was going to see it with a friend of hers and they invited me along. I was rarely included in anything my sisters did so I decided to go and I was totally riveted for the full two hours. I remember I had gotten a box of Junior Mints which I had finished just before the movie started, but I kept the empty box in my hands during the film so I could have something to clutch and wring during any intense or scary scenes. At the end of the film I looked down at that cardboard box and it was as limp and worn as tissue paper. This was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. There's no way the sequels could ever live up to it. After seeing "Raiders" for the first time I asked my parents for a bullwhip that Christmas and birthday, but didn't get one because my mom thought they were dangerous and that I would hurt myself. But I didn't give up and kept pestering her for a bullwhip for about a year until she finally caved and let me get a small, six foot whip. Once I had the whip I went in the backyard to try it and immediately whipped myself in the face.
1. Sunset Boulevard (1950) I absolutely love this movie but I can't really explain why. There's just something about it. I think it's all the weird and strange details that are throughout the film. It's a movie about Hollywood successes and failures, and about fame and the lengths people will go to to hang onto that fame. A few years ago my wife and I went to a special screening of "Sunset Boulevard" up in Hollywood, and before the movie they had a short discussion and interview session on stage with some people who had worked on the film, including Nancy Olson (the only member of the cast still living). Once the interviews were over the people on stage sat down in the audience to watch the film, and Nancy Olson sat right next to me. It was sort of hard to concentrate on the movie when one of the main actors was sitting right next to me...I was paying more attention to her than I was to the movie, but it was a pretty cool experience.
So that concludes your lesson in Film Appreciation. I wish I could have included a few others ("Silence Of The Lambs", "Dirty Harry", "American Graffiti") but that was the challenge--to narrow it down to only ten films. So if you haven't seen some of these films, grab some popcorn and give them a try...just don't blame me if you think they suck!
August 29 What's Your Top Ten? I've been too busy to blog lately...I haven't been using the computer much at all for the past few weeks. (If any of you are thinking about remodeling part of your house I strongly advise you to reconsider...It's a major pain in the ass and eats up a lot of your time.) So for lack of time to do any serious blogging, I thought I'd give you a fun little movie challenge to play with...
When it comes to movies, I can probably list about 50 that I would consider my favorites and I'm sure you could do the same. But what if you had to narrow that list down to only ten? What would your top ten favorite movies of all time be? It sounds like it would be easy to do but then certain movies pop into your head and before you know it you have a list of fifteen or twenty and it's hard to narrow it down to those essential ten...you have to start weighing one film against the other then decide which ones make the cut. Do you think you could do it? What ten movies can you watch over and over again and not get tired of them?
Leave a comment listing your top ten favorite movies (those of you who still bother to tune in here) and I'll try to come up with my own top ten and list them in the next post. Have fun with it! I'll try to catch up on some of your Spaces over this weekend...sorry I've been away! August 10 Buzz Buzz Buzz
Last week I accidentally stuck my hand into a yellow jacket nest. For those of you who don't know what yellow jackets are, they're sort of like a cross between a bee and a wasp. And they're angry little bastards that have the ability to sting more than once...I found that out the hard way.
My garage is at the back of my house and it opens up into a narrow alley, which is where the garbage truck comes by once a week and picks up the garbage cans that everyone lines up on either side. I don't know what the garbage collectors are like in you area, but out here the crew doesn't even get out of the truck--there's a big mechanical arm on the side of the truck that reaches out, picks up the trash can and lifts it up and over, dumping the garbage into the truck. There's a house on the opposite side of the alley that's up for sale and doesn't have anybody living in it, so the garbage cans are left in the alley week after week and the garbage truck picks them up over and over again even though they're empty. One of these garbage cans is in a position that makes it hard for me to back out of my garage. I have to sort of make a three point turn to avoid hitting it, so after a few weeks of dodging this trash can I decided to move it up the alley a little so I could back out of the garage on the first try. What I didn't know was that there was a yellow jacket nest just under the rim of the garbage can. There's a lip around the top rim of the can that's about an inch wide and two inches deep, and when I went to pick up this can I unknowingly put my hand right on the nest. As soon as I touched the can I thought I had put my hand on something sharp... it felt like an electric shock and I immediately pulled my hand away. I realized I had hit some kind of hive or nest, and because I had disturbed it, the yellow jackets started to swarm, so I was standing in the alley flailing my arms around and swatting them away. (I later wondered if anyone saw me doing this and, if they didn't see the yellow jackets, what they thought I was doing.) I got stung about five times on my hand and once on my forehead. My hand felt like it was on fire and I ran in the house and ran cold water on it...I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do, but it was the only thing I could think of at the time. Fortunately I didn't have any allergic reaction to it. I was stung by a bee a while back and didn't have any reaction to that one, so I wasn't too worried about the yellow jackets. It just hurt like hell all day. Once the burning sensation went away my fingers were still sensitive--it felt like I had wood splinters in my fingertips so it was hard to use my left hand for a couple of days (and I'm left handed, too). To grab things I could only use my pinky finger against the palm of my hand. After all of that, I still hadn't moved the garbage can. Once I was stung I moved it maybe an inch, so I went back out there a few days later and slowly and carefully pulled it up the alley about six feet. I'd like to exterminate the yellow jackets and get rid of the nest, but I don't know how to go about doing that. I did some research online, and I don't think any kind of bug spray will do the trick. You have to get some kind of special dust and shoot it into one of the openings in the nest...I don't know if I want to spend the money or time to do this, considering it isn't even my garbage can. I might contact the realtor and tell them they have a yellow jacket problem and let them sort it out. So the moral of the story is, don't go messing around with strange garbage cans...you don't know where they've been or what's living in them.
August 01 Save It Or Shred It?
I haven't been around Spaces for the past month because we've been really busy with remodeling plans, choosing and ordering tile and fixtures for the bathroom and getting the house ready for a construction crew. In getting ready, I was cleaning out a closet and found an old box filled with short stories that I wrote when I was in college. (As a creative writing major, you more or less write short stories for four years straight, then they hand you a diploma.) The stories were a big unorganized mess in a box so I spent an afternoon going through it and making sense of everything. I didn't have a laptop when I was going to school (I went to college before laptops were commonplace...I know, I'm old!) I typed all my stories and school papers on an old electric typewriter, so none of my short stories are saved on disc or on any kind of back-up system. The only copies I have of them are all printed out on paper and if anything happened, if there were a fire or a flood, they would all be lost. I have about 20 to 25 short stories and I don't really have time right now to scan them or transcribe them onto the computer so I decided to organize them and put them all in hanging files for now and work on it later. As I was looking through the stories and trying to make sense of everything I started to read some of them, but it was sort of depressing...a lot of them weren't very good. There were some that I didn't even remember writing--I could actually read a story I wrote and have no idea how it was going to end. A lot of these stories were written not because I wanted to write them but because I had a deadline and needed to turn something it at the time. So as I was sorting through these stories and putting them in files I began to wonder "Why am I doing this?". These stories aren't any good and there's no way I would ever try to have them published so why am I keeping them? All of this paper is just taking up space...if I'm never going to do anything with these stories wouldn't it make sense just to throw them all away? Why do I feel compelled to keep them, as if I need some record of my writing history? What do you guys think? Should I save it or shred it? Is it really worth the time to save them all onto disc? This also got me thinking of this blog: do you have a file on your computer where you save your blog entries? I have about three years worth of blogs stored in the archives here but I don't have any of them saved on my computer, so if, for some reason, MSN decides to pull the plug on my Space all of those blog entries would be lost, which isn't really a big deal since I don't write any earth-shattering blogs, but it just got me wondering if any of you save your entries or if you think it's worth doing. July 02 Finally Reaching A Goal A while back I somehow got the thought in my head that I should try to run a 5K race. I had originally started training for it about a year ago (you can read about it here and here) but I always ended up hurting myself. There were various races I could have taken part in but I always pulled a muscle or had gotten a case of shin-splints about a week before the race. So for a while I put the thought out of my mind, but then my personal trainer told me of an upcoming race so I decided to start training again. This time I was injury-free and I finally did something that I thought I'd never do...I actually ran a 5K race!
I only found out about the race about two weeks before it happened, so I started training right away. At first I could only run about half a mile before I started getting tired but then every other day I would run a little more and go a little farther. I got to the point where I could run the race distance on my own (3.1 miles), so I knew I could do it when it came time to actually run the race. The hard part would be waking up in the morning.
The race started at 8:00AM on a Saturday. It's been a while since I've had to wake up that early on a weekend...I think the last time I did it I was about eight years old and I would wake up to watch Saturday morning cartoons until 11:00. Fortunately this race started and ended in my hometown, so it's not like I had to wake up super early and drive a long way just to run a race. I was really tired the morning of the race, and as I ate breakfast I wondered why the hell I was doing it. It would have been really easy to just crawl back into bed but this was a goal I had set for myself so I finished eating and headed for the starting line.
I was surprised at how many people were there. And they seemed to be a really mixed bag of humanity. There were some people who were obviously athletes and I could tell that they've done this many times before, but then there were really thin, emaciated-looking people who didn't look healthy at all and a few heavy-set people who I couldn't picture running a race but they all seemed ready and eager to go. So before the race they make everyone group together just before the start line. I was mashed in the middle of this sea of people waiting for them to start the race. I saw my wife on the sidelines trying to take my picture. I stood on my toes and waved my hand above my head so she could pick me out of the crowd.
The race started and nobody seemed to really move. We were so crowded together that you couldn't really run at first--I sort of had to wait for the people ahead of me to move forward before I could actually start running. I had wanted to run the race in a decent time and I knew that all that forced walking in the beginning was going to work against me. But the crowding effect didn't last too long and soon I was on my way. Some people were passing me by, but that didn't really bother me. Although I did look over my shoulder from time to time to make sure there were some people behind me...I didn't want to finish the race in last place.
The race followed the coastline from start to finish, so I had the ocean at my side the entire time, which thankfully provided a cool breeze as I ran. At various points during the race there were photographers taking pictures of the runners. I didn't know what that was for at the time, but I later found out that they take pictures of the runners then post those pictures on the internet, so if a runner wants a picture of themselves in action they can buy it from that site. So now there's an awful picture of me out on the web. I didn't buy it because it was taken towards the end of the race and I was tired and sweating as I worked my way up an incline in the street. It looks like I'm in a lot of pain in the photo...not really something I'd want in my photo album.
I finished the race in 30 minutes and 49 seconds, which isn't as fast as I had hoped. I had wanted to do it in 25 to 28 minutes, and I think I could have if I hadn't been stuck in the crowd in the beginning. The guy who came in first was some nut who finished the race in about 16 minutes--I think he sprinted the entire way. I came in 229th out of 573 runners, so I was in the middle of the pack, which isn't too bad for a first race. People keep asking me if I'd ever run another race, but I'm not sure. There's another local race coming up in August but I don't know if I'll be up for it...it's going to be hotter than hell out here by then. The only thing that's really keeping me from doing it again is the actual start time of the race...why do they have to start so damn early? I think someone should put on a race that takes place at two in the morning, I'd like to try that. I'm usually an insomniac anyway so I know I'd be up, and I think it would be cool to run through the streets in the middle of the night. So if you know of any nocturnal races being held somewhere, let me know...my blisters are just about healed.
June 24 I Just Had To Share This...
A few weeks ago my wife and I went to Disneyland to celebrate her birthday. After we were there for a few hours we saw this family sitting on a bench. The husband was asleep, dead to the world, with his head hanging uncomfortably to one side. It looked like a bizarre mob-hit and I couldn't resist taking his picture. (Click photo to enlarge.)
How badly do you think his neck and back felt after he woke up? I like how his wife is on her cell phone, totally oblivious to everything around her. Did she even know he was sleeping, and in an uncomfortable position? She didn't even know I was taking their picture. I was afraid she was going to catch me taking a picture of her husband so I held the camera at hip level and clicked away (it took a few tries before I was able to get a good shot). Anyway, I thought this was funny so I just thought I'd share it. June 11 The Results Are In... A couple of months ago, before I took off for New York and Memphis, I posted "The American Graffiti Challenge", where you had to watch the film then answer some obscure questions. Nobody seemed to take much (any) interest in it, which I can understand...if any of you had posted a similar challenge I wouldn't have taken the time to do it either. But a few weeks passed and I finally got a response to the challenge!
Congratulations go to Elizabeth for winning "The American Graffiti Challenge"! Even though she's busy with work, going to school and raising two kids, she somehow found the time to play along with my nonsense, watch the movie and anwser the questions. And even though she didn't get all the answers right (they were pretty obscure questions) she's been inducted into the "Sidewalk-Of-Fame" just for playing along and being a good sport. (I only hope that she didn't watch the movie when she should have been studying.) Check out her answers to the challenge here, then go visit her new Blogspot and congratulate her on her induction to a very prestigious club. May 25 My Favorite Restaurant In America As you walk through downtown Memphis you're constantly tempted by the powerful aroma of bar-be-que in the air. Memphis is a city that prides itself on its BBQ, and you can smell it wherever you go. When we passed through Memphis on our last road trip, we stopped at a place called "Corky's" (I blogged about it briefly here). As we were making plans for this trip we knew we wanted to go back to Corky's but we also heard about another BBQ restaurant while we were watching the Food Network one day.
There's a restaurant called "Rendezvous" that's been around for 60 years, and the Food Network named it the best BBQ in Memphis, so we were really looking forward to eating there...but I guess you can't believe everything you see on TV. When we got to Memphis we saw that the restaurant was located down at the end of a service alley between two buildings, and we never would have found it if our hotel hadn't been directly across the street. "Rendezvous" was sort of grungy, with old pictures and historic Memphis memorabilia plastered all over the walls. I thought we would be in for some no-nonsense, down home BBQ, but when the food arrived we were all disappointed. The meal wasn't terrible, but it was incredibly average. I could have stayed in California and eaten at Chili's and gotten a more satisfying meal. I couldn't believe that the Food Network had talked this place up so much. It was frustrating because after looking forward to it for so long there wasn't any pay-off. It wasn't satifying at all. Even the service was lacking...our waiter hardly acknowledged us, he never really made eye contact. As a customer, you feel like you're in the way, as if they're trying to get you up and out of there as fast as they can so they can get more customers in.
After a disappointing dinner we went back to the hotel and started making plans for the rest of our time in Memphis. We were scheduled to go to Graceland the next day and then later that night I wanted to try to go back to "Corky's". I didn't know if my mom and aunt would be up for eating BBQ two nights in a row but they seemed OK with it, and besides, I didn't know when I would be in Memphis again so I pretty much had to have it. I only hoped I hadn't built up "Corky's" in my mind. I remembered it as being incredibly good and satisfying, but we had been on the road for six hours the last time we were there and I thought maybe we had just been tired and hungry and would have been satisfied with anything. I worried that we would have two crappy BBQ meals in a row. (We also had talked this place up with my mom and aunt so I didn't want it to disappoint.)
"Corky's" was amazing!! It totally lived up to my memories. Baby-back ribs usually come covered with a wet BBQ sauce, but when you order them Memphis style they put a dry rub of various spices on them, and "Corky's" does it the best. The meat falls right off the bone. Our waiter was an older, black man who took the time throughout the meal to talk with us and asked us where we were visiting from. (That's the great thing about the South...everyone is incredibly nice!) At the end of the meal he asked "So what do you think? Is "Corky's the best BBQ in Memphis?"
I told him it was the best I ever had, and that we had gone to "Rendezvous" the night before but we were disappointed even though they wer e considered the best. The waiter frowned and shook his head. "They were the best forty years ago. Ever since then they've been livin' off that reputation. People drive for miles just to get our ribs." I could totally understand that. I told my wife that if we ever had to move to Memphis I would gain two hundred pounds in the first year--I would be eating there everyday.
After dinner I was pretty full, but the waiter came by and asked "Does anybody want to try our banana puddin'?" With his southern accent and the way he said "puddin'" with no letter "G", (it's even printed that way on the menu) I couldn't resist. He brought out a big goblet of pudding with Nilla wafers and we all shared some (although I ate most of it). Is there anything more comforting than pudding? My grandmother used to make it all the time. I'm going to call it "puddin'" from now on, and hope it catches on with other people. It sounds so much better without the "G". Say it out loud right now: Puddin'. I bet you'll want to buy some the next time you're at the store.
After leaving Memphis we took a road trip up to Louisville, Kentucky to visit my sister and her family. It's about a six hour drive, which wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't been so windy. I had to keep a death grip on the wheel the entire time...if I relaxed my grip the winds would push the car out of the lane. So after fighting nature for six hours we finally made it to Louisville and had a nice visit for a few days.
Overall, it was a very successful trip. So if you're ever in Memphis, skip "Rendezvous" (no matter what anyone says) and head straight to "Corky's". Just remember to save room for puddin'.
May 06 Visiting The King When my mother was a teenager she had the opportunity to go see Elvis Presley in concert, but my grandmother didn't let her go (he was considered to racy at the time). After my parents got married my dad always promised my mom to take her to see Elvis one day. For whatever reason that "one day" never came around...Elvis died and my mom never got to see him in concert. In April my mom turned 70, so for her birthday present we decided to take her to Memphis to see Graceland, Elvis' home and burial place. I figured, if she couldn't see him when he was alive I could take her to see him when he was dead.
So my wife and I left New York and flew down to Memphis, Tennessee, where we met up with my mom and aunt who had flown in from Los Angeles. It's hard for me to get a handle on Memphis as a city. I think it's on the verge of a major revitalization, but I can't tell when it's going to happen. Outside our hotel they offer horse-drawn carriage rides. My mom and aunt wanted to try it so we took a nice tour around downtown. The driver pointed out all these beautiful old buildings but a lot of them were empty and needed some work. I asked him if there was a bad part of town and he said "Yeah...everywhere but downtown". I came away with the feeling that Memphis has lost some of it's luster of the past but they're working hard to bring it back. The one part of town that was really buzzing was Beale Street, which has always been famous for it's live music. As you walk down the street you can hear live bands playing in every bar and restaurant. It seemed like a lot of people were just hanging out and drinking, and it made me wonder what the alcoholism rate was in that area.
It was raining the day we visited Graceland, but it cleared up by the afternoon. My mom and aunt really seemed to like it. My wife and I had been there before a few years ago, but it's still an interesting tour and we got to see some things we didn't see the last time. Elvis' house is surprisingly small. There's a separate garage, office and racquetball court which they've converted to showrooms for all of Elvis' gold records, movie costumes and flashy jumpsuits. Elvis' private plane is parked across the street and we even took a walk through that. The whole thing is a self-guided tour...you wear headphones which are connected to a device you wear around your neck, so you can go through the house and plane at your own pace.
Standing in Elvis' backyard you can look over the fence and see the other houses in the neighborhood. I wondered if those houses were there back when Elvis was alive...it would have been weird to grow up in those houses and have Elvis Presley living next door. Elvis is buried off to the side of the house, along with his parents and grandmother. Fans still leave flowers at his grave, and Elvis' birthday and date of death are major events at Graceland, with hardcore fans showing up in the thousands. Fortunately we planned our trip during the off season.
There's a big stone fence surrounding Elvis' property which is covered with signatures from people who have visited Graceland over the years since his death. We brought a black marker and made my mom and aunt sign the wall. My mom was hesitant but I kept saying things like "You're 70 years old and you've never written on a wall...You've got to be able to say you graffitied Elvis' wall". Finally she agreed and signed her inititals. I also had bought some Elvis sunglasses that had big black sideburns attached to the sides and gave them to my mom and aunt. My original plan was for them to wear them all day when we went to Graceland, but for some strange reason they flatly refused. But in the end they were good sports and put the glasses on long enough to let me take their picture in front of Elvis' front gate, then they quickly took them off again. (I'd post the photo here, but they don't know I have this blog and I feel weird about posting pictures of people without their knowledge or permission.) There are a series of Elvis gift shops across the street from Graceland, but you have to be a hardcore fan to want to buy any of it. Most of it is very gaudy and obnoxious. They have everything from oven mitts to bowling balls with Elvis' name and/or picture on it. You can even buy a replica of one of Elvis' jumpsuits if you happen to have a few thousand dollars to spare. But there must be people out there who buy this stuff because there's a whole lot of it being produced. I wonder what these people's houses look like.
There is one more aspect of our Memphis trip that I'd like to touch on, but I'll save that for next time... April 24 Home Again Well, I've made it back safely from my trip. Actually, I've been back for about a week but it's taken a little time to get back in the swing of things. I'm a little tired but I think a good time was had by all. I see that the "American Graffiti" Challenge didn't stir up too much interest but I can understand that...I wouldn't have done it either. But the challenge is still open to anyone who has too much free time on their hands.
The first part of our trip was spent in New York, which was cold and a little rainy. I wish that I could tell you that I did something exciting, but I didn't. Didn't go into the city, didn't see anything interesting...all we did was eat. And eat. Oh, and when we were done eating we ate some more.
Everyone in my wife's family is a major foodie--not to the point of being overweight, but they do like to go out to fancy restaurants and have four or five courses of rich food in mass quantities. I don't know how they do it. I'm really not that into food. There are things I like but in moderation. And I've never been a fan of these pretentious restaurants that have an intentional snooty feel to them. Don't try to impress me, just serve up a decent meal. I prefer "good food" instead of "fine cuisine".
So almost every night we were in New York we would go out to eat. Normally when I eat out I skip the soup, salad and appetizer because if I have that I really won't be hungry for the main course. So when we go out to dinner in New York I just quietly sit there for the first half of the meal while everyone else is eating. Conversation is flowing around the table but I usually miss most of it. My hearing isn't too great (and seems to be getting worse) so the atmospheric noise of the restaurant makes it hard for me to hear what anyone is saying. Everyone is having a good time but I just sit there with a dumb smile on my face.
Going out to eat is a treat, but if you do it every night it stops being special. I also reached the point of not being hungry anymore. I'd wake up in the morning and still be full from dinner the night before, so I'd just have a glass of juice. Eating heavy foods every night has no effect on my In-Laws...they'll wake up the next day and make waffles. Just the smell of food the next morning would make me sick. It got to the point where dinner was the only meal I was eating during the day, only because I really couldn't eat anything else. I must have a really slow metabolism or a wacky digestive system because eating these dinners became a chore.
On our next leg of our trip we were heading to Memphis, and there's a great rib place I had been looking forward to eating at, but mid-way through the New York trip I really didn't want to go there anymore, just because I was so full. My wife was apologetic because she knew I was miserable but she didn't know what to say to make me feel better. "Just eat what you want," she would say, but that was just it: I didn't want to eat anything! And it's not like I could have stayed home while everyone else went out to eat every night...that would have been weird.
So after a week of chowing down on anything and everything we went on to Memphis, Tennessee. More on that next time...
April 01 The "American Graffiti" Challenge Let's see if any of you are willing to play the "American Graffiti" Challenge. I know a lot of you are too busy with everyday life to deal with this, but if you find yourself with a couple of free hours to kill why not pop some popcorn, sit back, relax and give this DVD a try? And even if you don't want to take part in the challenge, at least you will have treated yourself to a pretty good flick. The questions below have to do with minor details in the dialogue, so you'll have to keep your ears open. The first person to leave a comment with all the right answers will earn a place in the ever-growing "Sidewalk-Of-Fame" (Look to the right of your screen for a list of past winners). Good Luck and enjoy the show!
I'm off to New York! See you in a couple of weeks!
1. How much Scholarship money did the Moose Lodge give to Curt (Richard Dreyfuss)?
2. What brand of whiskey does Toad (Charles Martin Smith) try to buy at the liquor store?
3. Why does the cop make Milner (Paul Le Mat) pull over?
4. What is Carol's (Mackenzie Phillips) home address?
5. What song does Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) sing to Laurie (Cindy Williams)?
6. According to Milner (Paul Le Mat), when did Rock and Roll start going down hill?
7. What type of food does the disc jockey offer Curt (Richard Dreyfuss)?
March 26 Ready For Another Challenge? Starting next Tuesday I'll be away from my computer for a couple of weeks. Both my mother and my wife's mother will be turning 70 in April, so we're going to be doing some traveling. First, we're going to New York for a week for my Mother-In-law's birthday. Then we're meeting up with my mom in another state where I'll be treating her to a vacation/mini-road trip. I don't want to say where we're going yet because my mom has been researching our vacation destination online, and if I mention the name of the city we're going to she might accidentally stumble across my blog...can't have that happen! So I'll give you details once I get back.
And since I'm going away that can only mean one thing: it's time for another Challenge! I've been having a hard time coming up with new challenges to entertain you while I'm gone. (Not that I have to post a challenge, but it amuses me. It gives me something to think about while I'm away: "I wonder if anyone has bothered to respond to my pointless crap...") So since I can't come up with any unique challenges, I've decided to settle for movie trivia. But this won't be ordinary movie trivia...it won't be anything you can just look up online to get the answers. If you want to play you're going to have to sit and watch the movie to find the obscure trivia I'm looking for. With the questions in front of you, you should be able to find the answers while you watch the film. The person who answers all the questions correctly will earn a place in the "Sidewalk-Of-Fame".
The movie I've selected is "American Graffiti". People either love this movie or don't care one way or another about it, but I happen to like it and thought some of you might too. So if you want to play along and this film isn't in your home collection, get ready to rent it or add it to your Netflix list and move it to the top of your queue. I'll post the questions next week just before I leave. March 15 Is This Happening To You Too? For the past month or so I've been getting weird E-mails and messages from people who have viewed my MSN profile online...has this been happening to any of you?
I've gotten E-mails from people inviting me to join their friends list, even though I've never heard from them before. Don't you think that's odd? To me, it would be more natural to visit each other's Spaces and leave comments for a while, then decide later if you want to add them as a friend or not. But these people go to the friends list right off the bat. That's sort of like ringing the doorbell at a stranger's house and saying "Hi! Want to be my friend?" It's a little weird. This has happened to me about five times now. I'm all for meeting new people online, but when I try to visit their Space it turns out to be private so I can't see it. What's the deal with that? Why invite someone over and then not let them in? Other times it will be a public Space but there won't be anything there...no blog, no photos...nothing--just an undiscriptive profile square with one of those faceless blue heads instead of an actual picture. I don't get it.
I've also gotten E-mails from young girls who say they saw my profile online and that I look hot and want me to add them to my Instant Messenger. My picture isn't on my profile so I don't know what the hell they're talking about. It makes me think that these E-mails aren't from young girls at all, but that it's some sort of police sting operation where they try to lure older men into contacting young girls on the internet and then bust them for screwing with minors. I haven't responded to any of these E-mails because if I do I'm convinced I'll wind up as part of a story on "Dateline" or something.
So I'm just wondering if this has been happening to any of you or if it's just my dumb luck. In life, I seem to be a magnet for freaks and weirdos...maybe I'm having the same effect on the internet as well.
March 04 My "To Do" List So after we had the house tented for termites our first order of business was to paint the house. The termite inspector suggested we do this to seal the wood so that no new termites could work their way in, and it was about time for the house to be re-painted anyway so the timing was perfect. But as we started looking over the house we realized that a few more things had to be done before they started painting. We made up a "To Do" list and after a while it started to get overwhelming. Here's what's in store for us over the next few months...
Before we paint we have to replace some windows in the front of the house, three in the kitchen and one in the living room. They have a double pane of glass and when it rains water is somehow getting in between the panes of glass. We're not getting water in the house but it's seeping in the walls and causing the plaster to crack and buckle. We've tried fixing this problem in the past but nothing seems to work, so I'm hoping that starting from scratch with a new set of windows will stop the leaks. So after we replace those windows we'll have to plaster around the outside of the windows and fix the damaged walls on the inside, which means we'll have to paint the kitchen and living room as well.
We're also going to get new area rugs in the living room and dining room and put new fabric on the furniture in those rooms as well. You're probably thinking "Why not just buy new furniture?", but that's not an option for us. (This will take some explaining.) We live in my grandmother's old house. After my grandmother died my mom cleaned out the house of everything but the dining room furniture, the sofa and a couple of chairs. My grandmother had bought this stuff back in the thirties. It's Italian made, intricately carved wood...even the legs of the sofa have an elaborate, sculpted look. They're the kind of things you would see on "Antiques Roadshow", where they appraise the furniture for some crazy amount of money. It's old fashioned and not really our style, but it's a family heirloom so we're sort of stuck with it--the furniture came with the house. So over the years the sofa and chairs have been recovered again and again, and now it's our turn to do it. My wife and I have spent hours looking at fabric swatches and different area rugs, trying to find color combinations in both the rugs and fabric that compliment each other. I don't know if you've ever had to do this, but it's a major pain in the ass. With all the options out there your head starts to spin after a while.
Finally there's the bathroom...we're gutting it and remodeling the whole thing. The bathroom has been a disaster for a while. It's been painted and re-wallpapered over the years but the tile has been in there since the mid-seventies, so you can imagine what it looks like. Whenever someone comes over I silently pray that they don't need to use the bathroom. We've been wanting to re-do it for years, but something always comes up that makes us put it off for a little longer. But now there's a pipe in the shower that's been leaking inside the wall and down into the basement, so it's finally time to demolish the whole thing and start over again. It's exciting in a way, but I'm not looking forward to having a construction crew coming in and out of the house. I'm hoping the work doesn't take too long but I know I'm kidding myself.
There are a few more minor jobs that need to be done. The back door needs to be replaced because of termite damage. Also our doorbell doesn't work. If someone comes to the house and rings the doorbell we don't hear anything, so I went to Target and bought a bicycle horn, one of those metal ones with a rubber bulb on the end that you squeeze and in makes an obnoxious "honk-a, honk-a" sound. It always makes the UPS guy laugh whenever he makes a delivery and the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween love it, but it might be time to upgrade to an actual doorbell, unless it turns out to be a major job of re-wiring things, in which case the bicycle horn, although a little cheesy, works just fine.
So that's a lot of work, but considering the house is 75 years old, it's still in pretty good shape...it could be a lot worse. Lately all my free time has been spent meeting with upholsterers, contractors and painters. We got our new rugs and picked out fabric for the furniture, but beyond that no work has been done yet. We'll be out of town at the beginning of April, but I'm hoping to start work once we get back. If any of you have had their bathrooms remodeled lately I'd be curious to hear how long it took them to finish it. I'm hoping it will only take a month or so but I doubt that will happen. Once these guys have some of your money they take as long as they want.
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