The Edison Museum, once a bustling factory
Today is but a darkened, cobweb covered hive of industry
The tallest, widest and most famous haunted mansion in New Jersey

Lyrics:The Edison Museum

I am so looking forward to college football. Technically college football has already started. Of course the game I am looking forward to hasn't. That would be Oregon State vs. Eastern Washington. It should be an easy win for the Beavers, but I will be nervous none the less.

We each are in charge of celebrating one other office member's birthday throughout the year. This year my victim was Karen. Karen doesn't like to celebrate her birthday. I'll have none of that. In fact, I think my favorite part of this was the sign that read "Please shout 'Happy Birthday Karen!' when you pass by this cubicle." Karen didn't know the sign was there, and tons of people kept passing by wishing her a happy birthday throughout the day. Once she figured it out, she said she would kill me. Heheh. (Oh yeah - her favorite colors are yellow and orange. She has vowed to leave it up as long as possible.)

Honestly, I ran out of time - otherwise, it would have been even more thorough:

Plain View #50 - 8/23/06

Bank Robbery

Promises

Kittens (you'd think we'd have a real link, but a google search will get you some cute pics)

subscribe
to this podcast!

I could never sleep my way to the top
'Cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up
And since my options had been whittled away
I struck a bargain with my radio DJ
I said I'd like this song to be number one
He said 'I'd really really like to help you my son'
And then I knew that I would have him to thank
Because he asked me how much I had in the bank

Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal

This interview is a few weeks old, but I didn't see it until today.

It's nice to hear Snyder's thoughts on Watchmen. It makes me think that he just might make a good adaptation. Here are a couple of his better insights:

I just don't think that Hollywood, in general, has any idea what "Watchmen" is. They think it's a superhero movie. They think it's "Fantastic Four," and guys, it really isn't. Basically, they thought they were making "The Champ" and they got frickin' "Fight Club," you know what I mean? That's the difference. That's how hard it is. The problem is that if everyone thinks they're getting a superhero movie, what they're going to get is like something that really makes them examine the entire genre.

Since I've been involved with it, [writer] Alex [Tse] came on, the Hayter script still exists, but I think honestly for me, Alex's take and Hayter's take, they're both versions of "Watchmen" but for me, they're not it. No one's cracked it...I feel that what happens in the script form is that everyone tries to figure out "how do I get this guy over here?" and "this guy over there?" They're just trying to get the mystery, the story, to work, where my concern is the other stuff, the philosophy of it.

On Monday I started my new job in a new school district. I make it a point not to say bad things about previous employers, but there’s nothing wrong with bragging about an employer I like. Here are some things I have been delighted to find in my new school just in the last three days:

Administration and faculty who are excited to have me in their school
Numerous mentors and colleagues who are eager to help a new teacher
Educators who base their teaching methods on current educational research
Supervisors who encourage academic freedom
A school building in which students move freely between classes and the library
Librarians who consider a full and busy library to be a good thing
Students who like their classes and take an active interest in their own education

This school makes me love teaching again.

Seeing Sean Connery in a Hitchcock film is a definite plus for me! Here, Connery plays Mark Rutland, a man who seems to have fallen in love with a habitual thief, only he doesn't find out about her bad habits until he's already in love. Instead of running away, his character adds to the creepiness in the film, but I'm not going to spoil the plot for everyone. Let's just say he's perfectly balanced between seeming a normal, loving man, and a sort of sick man w.

Rutland's love interest, Marnie, is played by Tippi Hedren. Marnie has a lot of psychological issues stemming back to a childhood memory that reappears in her dreams and causes a lot of her odd behaviorisms, including her kleptomania. My favorite of these is that she reacts horribly to the color red and thunderstorms. The photo above is of one of my favorite scenes, in which Rutland just beings to piece together Marnie's psychological problems. Hedren plays the role ably enough, although her regressions to her childhood are a bit difficult to believe.

I didn't care much for Louise Latham's performance as Marnie's mother. I understand she was supposed to be grumpy and harboring a terrible secret, but I thought it was extremely over-pronounced.

Okay, one thing I need to rant about is that the score to this movie is completely plagiarized! The main theme that repeats over and over is note for note the same as another movie's score, but I'm having trouble remembering which one. I think it might be Rebel Without a Cause, but not one of the main themes. Man! I'm going to have to figure this out. I know I've heard it before, and even the rhythm is the same! At any rate, it's stolen goods, most likely, because I'm pretty sure it's from a movie made pre-1964.

The rest of the film was good, albeit a bit slow. For a while I was frustrated because I didn't know where it was headed and it felt like it was meandering. But I enjoyed that it was a bit different than the typical Hitchcock plot, and thought it was fun to see Sean Connnery in one of Hitchcock's movies.

Youth culture killed my dog
And I don't think it's fair

Youth Culture Killed My Dog

Its tuesday. That is the greatest revelation that you will get out of me today.

I finally sent off my stuff to school. Hopefully, I get in. I think I should.

In other news, both Churches I teach at may be switching to the same curriculum. That is neat, and should make things easier for me.

Its tuesday. That is the greatest revelation that you will get out of me today.

I finally sent off my stuff to school. Hopefully, I get in. I think I should.

In other news, both Churches I teach at may be switching to the same curriculum. That is neat, and should make things easier for me.

Filmwad - Movie news, trailers, galleries and box office! First pics of Megatron

First off, I am pretty excited for the new Transformers movie. Life-size Autobots and Decepticons fighting it out will be awesome. But what is going on with the character designs? I'm sort of worried about Megatron. This robot does look really cool. But it looks nothing like the Megatron I, and many others, knew and loved to hate.

I do understand the need for a redesign. Even when I was a kid I didn't understand how Megatron went from giant robot to a little gun that another giant robot could hold in his hand. That is pretty darn weak if you ask me. But come on, an alien jet? Why not something in the vein of the real Megatron? Why not a big tank or a giant gun or laser or something? Maybe a missile launcher? I dunno. Yes, it will probably be cool. But this is the freaking Transformers here, not just any fighting robots. I hope they remember that.

, bitches.

Hats off to the new age hairstyle made of bones
Hats off to the use of hats as megaphones
Speak softly, drive a Sherman tank
Laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank

Rhythm Section Want Ad

Check out the new Weird Al video:

You can download the song for free here, just disable pop-ups for the site.

CNN.com - Rep. Harris: Church-state separation 'a lie' - Aug 28, 2006

Thanks to Brendon for tipping me off about this one. I'm speechless.

Sorry to the people who posted about wanting to hang out in the comments on this blog. When I say call, I mean call! Since I stare at a computer screen 8ish hours a day Monday through Friday, I prefer not to stare at one when I'm on my weekend. I almost never check email or my blog on the weekends. So I saw all your stuff about hanging out this morning. Sorry I missed hanging out with you! I still managed to have a good weekend anyway:

Friday Ric and I just chilled around home, I think. I can't remember. We probably watched Arrested Development.

Saturday, after the usual workout-sleep-laundry routine, Ric and I drove down to Laguna Niguel to have dinner at Colin and Liz's home. They go all out for pretty much all of their meals, plus they're pretty eclectic, so we were treated to nachos, bruschetta, salad, carrots, couscous, and sesame-ginger chicken with mushrooms and bell peppers. It was all extremely tasty. We settled in and watched Ong-Bak: The Thai warrior, which was a lot of fun. When we got home, Ric and I finished watching both seasons of Arrested Development, just in time for the release of season 3 on Tuesday. We didn't even plan it that way, but it worked out nicely.

Sunday after church I just hung out watching tv and napping. We ended up spending the evening with our neighbors, Jenny and Brad. They're cool. We rented An Unfinished Life and ate freshly baked cookies. Good times.

It was a relaxing, low-key weekend. Could have been crazier and more adventure-filled if some people had CALLED! :)

Blog on Rails: index

So Danny cranked out another new blog engine. Pretty darn cool. Maybe someday I will have time to hone my skills and together we could achieve my dream of running brendoman.com on our own software. I know b2e does just about everything we want it to do, but there's just something so cool about using something you made yourself. Keep up the great work Danny.

Why did you grow a beard?
Why did you grow a beard?
I can't leave you alone for five minutes
What the Christ?
What the devil?
Why did you grow a beard?
Why did you grow a beard?
Is there nowhere in the world for a no goodnik
Is there nowhere in the
Freedom-loving
Sister-hugging
Screaming, yelling

Why Did You Grow A Beard?

I've been at my new job for about a month now, so I thought it was about time for an update. I am working for a company called Trinity Transport. They're a transportation intermediary, or a trucking brokerage. You can find out more about them at their web site, but here's all you really need to know: When a company wants to move some freight, instead of calling a carrier directly they can call a broker. The broker arranges for a carrier and makes sure the load gets moved. Of course, they charge a bit more to the shipper than they pay to the carrier, but they handle all of the headaches. That's basically what the company does.

Trinity has offices and salesmen around the country, but the headquarters is in Delaware. I spent my first week on the job in Delaware. I went through the company orientation and sat down with the other programmers to learn about the projects we're working on. I was there over a weekend, so I spent a day in Washington DC. And I spent a day at the beach, which is about 40 miles from where I was working. Here are pictures from those trips.

I'm working on a product called TTI ShipDirect. You can't see anything there without a login and password, but it's a price comparison site for less than truckload shipments. It's written in PHP with a PostgreSQL database, but the company is starting to use Ruby on Rails for new projects, so I've been learning that, too. I made this little program in just a few hours. Feel free to poke around, create an account, add posts and add comments. The comment form uses AJAX, which is especially easy to do in Ruby on Rails.

While I was in Delaware, they gave me a laptop to get started. But now that I've got settled at my Kansas City office, I have a brand new Mac Mini with a 20" wide-screen monitor. I'm using Synergy to share the mouse and keyboard with both computers. And I'm using Textmate to edit code on the Mac.

I'm having lots of fun at the new job, and apparently I left the bank just in time. It was robbed at gunpoint last week, which had never happened in the bank's 70-year history. If I hadn't quit, I would have been covering the window that got robbed over lunch time.

Neil Gaiman - Neil Gaiman's Journal: my table in pictures

Neil Gaiman shows off the new Absolute Sandman, which comes out in November. This book looks gorgeous. Now I know why I've been holding out on collecting the trades. Amazon has it for only $63 with shipping, which isn't a bad deal at all. I'm excited.

game_over.mov (video/quicktime Object)

In case you haven't seen this yet, this is quite an amazing piece of stop motion animation that involves classic games and food items. They're all really cool but I would have to say the Frogger part is my favorite.

I already know the ending it's
The part that makes your face implode
I don't know what makes your face implode
But that's the way the movie ends

Experimental Film

This surreal event actually occurred about 2 weeks ago, but in my laziness I am just now getting around to writing about it. We (Lucas, his mom, and myself) were driving back to our apartment in my car. For about 2 miles, a cop car had been behind me, so of course I was watching my speed. When the road become 2 lanes, the cop got in the other lane and I breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until he slowed down, got back in my lane behind me, turned on his siren and lights, got on his megaphone and said, "Turn left here and pull over!" That sense of relief was out the window. I pulled over, but was confused because I knew I hadn't been speeding. I thought maybe my taillight was out, or why else would he have pulled me over? So, he comes up to the window, peers in the window and says, "Do you know (so and so)?" I said no, I had never heard of him. He says, "How about (so and so)?" Again, no. Then he looks in the backseat and sees Lucas, sprawled out because he had just had ACL surgery the day before. He asks, "Who's that in the backseat?" I replied, "That is my husband, Lucas." I then introduced my mother-in-law, who was sitting in the front seat holding a tray full of vegetables. The cop looked very confused, took my driver's license and went back to his car while we pondered what in the world was going on.


When he returned, he dropped a few more names to see if I knew them, then gave me the news that my license plate is associated with a gangster who is a wanted felon for assault. I believe the words "bad dude" were used to describe him. The cop stated that when he ran my plates, he was getting ready to call in backup. That must have been before he was confronted with a guy on crutches, a woman with deadly vegetables, and a 5'2" amazon. The cop's best guess was that the "bad dude" was using my plate numbers and his advice was that I get new plates to avoid being pulled over every time a cop was behind me. After two weeks of conscientiously avoiding black and white cars, I now have new plates. But I do miss being a gangsta. Being a "speech therapist" pales in comparison in terms of cool sounding jobs.

~Kelly

Since Luis did it, I have to as well. Check out my Felsteed:

Unfortunately my character's head was turned so you can't see how awesome he is. I made it to level 44 today. Since I've been on a little sabbatical from Disneyland (a story which I will tell very soon, just not quite yet) I've had quite a bit of time to do things like play WoW, go for long walks, read books, and do other things that don't cost money (well, WoW sort of costs money, but I already spent it). I don't think I'm working tomorrow either, so I'll get to go to the concert we are putting on in Cypress. If anyone is interested, some good bands are playing. Get the details here. Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend.

Turning to drugs to help you sleep
Will only lead to sleep
And sleeping is a gateway drug
To being awake

Wearing a Raincoat

The Eraser by Thom Yorke

Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón's comic book adaptation of the government's official report on the September 11 terrorist attacks is available online at Slate. They don't have the whole thing up yet, but they will eventually.

I haven't yet had the chance to read it, but the publicity I read about it previously said the authors take advantage of the graphic medium to effectively represent simultaneous events. It's nice to see people exploring the overlooked potential of informative comics.

Okay, so I forgot to mention how much I love Mini's promotional stuff. I already own my car, so it's not like they have to advertise to me, but they do. They send emails, packages, and all sorts of fun stuff my way, just because I bought a Mini.

The most recent package was a book with a secret compartment that held a decoder, a decryptor, and a pair of red-shaded glasses. They said to log in to the Mini owner website to find out more. I go online and it says to check out one of several recent magazine issues for a secret message. I'm game. So I open up a magazine with a Mini ad placed in it, only for the owners (and a message to non-owners that there's a secret message that isn't for them). The decoded message instructs me to go to a certain website, which looks like some weird sort of insect-rights website. But when you click the links, it all has to do with Minis. One in particular leads to information about a Mini road trip, designed to have several Minis driving through 19 states. Man! Wish I had time to join them, although by the time I got around to decoding all of this stuff, the trip was already begun.

Anyway, the site about the trip even had stuff like interchangeable bumper stickers to print out when you change stats on the road trip. All of this detail, just for people who already spent their money on the cars. That's what I like about this company. They want their owners to have fun and remember why they bought the fun cars in the first place, and they're actually interested in keeping up a relationship with the owners once the car has been purchased. That just floors me.

I can't wait to get more of the secret messages and see if there are any events that I can participate in the future!

I got up at dawn today to take the Mini down to Irvine for its anual service and to get the clock fixed. I don't know how people make that drive every day to work. It made me appreciate my husband even more.

Anyway, I got to sit in the lounge for three hours waiting for it all to get done. In three hours, all they got done was the oil and filter service and a car wash, as well as discovering that they needed to order a part for the clock. So I'll have to go back in a week or two. While sitting in the lounge, I discovered a few things: BMW drivers are a diverse and odd bunch, the floor at the dealership gets mopped once every two hours, I can't stand whoever that chick is that's on with Regis these days (and as an extension to that, I hate morning news and entertainment shows on networks), Lionel Richie needs to just stop everything he's doing and retire, and it's scary when the service employees can't find the key to your car when you're 30 miles from home.

I saw a rockin' Mini while I was there, though, with a custom red, black, and yellow paint job. Looks better than it sounds.

Anyway, all of my car service is completely free, so I can't complain about waiting around in a lounge with free coffee, muffins, and a good book to read while getting time off work. I'll be experiencing that again in a couple of weeks, and yet again in 2500 miles (however long it takes me to accomplish that!).

This weekend is free and clear for hanging out, to those of you I haven't seen in a while.. Give us a ring!

Shadow of a Doubt has easily been added to the list of my favorite Hitchcock movies. This movie has all of the right elements, combined quite perfectly to make a disturbing yet enjoyable movie.

In this story, a girl named Charlie (Teresa Wright) claims to have a telepathic connection to her Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten), after whom she is named. Just when she is about to telegram and ask him to visit her family, he sends word that he will be arriving shortly. When he comes to stay with them for a while, the whole family is incredibly delighted. It isn't long until Charlie decides (telepathically) that her Uncle Charlie has a secret, and she plans to uncover it, not knowing that it's quite a terrible secret.

There are so many great things about this movie, I don't even know where to begin. It's chock full of great stuff. For one, there is the altar-ego effect of creepy Uncle Charlie and the innocent, young Charlie. They are often each featured in identical screen shots, and while they are the opposite of each other, they are also so closely connected that they each be what the other has the potential to be or become. Uncle Charlie could have been a good man, and young Charlie has the potential (as she learns more and is soon making threats to her uncle) to become as bad as he.

Another thing that's quite noticeable is the use of stairs in this movie. We see them in all of Hitchcock's films, but in this one there are many notable uses of them. They are used constantly to show us the power struggles between the Charlies, and they are quite effective, especially once Uncle Charlie uses them as a way to hurt his niece later in the film. The movie still I used above is my favorite one from the movie.

One of my favorite aspects of the film is the tension built by the fact that it doesn't reveal what Uncle Charlie is hiding until over an hour into the story. Young Charlie puts all of the pieces together and has a dramatic revelation scene in the library, in which the framing and lighting are extremely effective.

Not to be forgotten, the Newton family consist of a very funny bookworm little sister, a mother who is a bit ditsy but always busy in keeping her household in order, and a father who has evening chats with a fellow crime-investigation-novel-reader about how they could get away with the perfect crime. Speaking of which, this movie had so many little ideas or elements that the storyline could have branched off into; they added to the overall mysterious mood of the film while also making me, as an audience member, even more puzzled about how I thought it would all turn out. The crime talk between the father and his friend could have sent Uncle Charlie in a rage or inspired a specialized killing. The introduction of a young widow near the beginning of the film could have led to Uncle Charlie's desire to kill her. It all kept me guessing, and I enjoyed that immensely.

With themes of telepathic connections, alter-egos, the fragile image of the perfect American family and society, and much much more, Shadow of a Doubt is one that kept me fascinated the entire time, either trying to understand the psychology of Uncle Charlie, laughing at the quirks of the rest of the family, or even falling for the quickly-developed love story between Charlie and a government agent. Joseph Cotten is one of the creepiest villains yet for me, and Teresa Wright was the perfect choice for a character whose emotions are all over the place, even though she is always grounded by her uprightness. Loved it!

Improv Everywhere sent 225 people to a Home Depot in NYC where they were walking in slow motion, and in the middle of shopping everyone stopped. Hilarity ensued.

Here's a (mothafuckin') montage:

thx 2 digg

Most with cones for seeds, most with needles for leaves
C is for conifers, my kind of trees
Larch, junipers and fir, spruce, cedars and pines
C is for conifers, more than five hundred kinds

C Is For Conifers

This traveler's tale involves the wrongly-accused man who goes on a mission to hunt down the people who started the fire he has been blamed for, only to find that it's a lot more complicated than he first expected - a ring of saboteurs who are traitors to the United States.

I love the opening to this movie. Hitchcock always knew how to use black and white to his best ability, and the image of smoke from the fire spreading through the plant is a perfect example of that. It is such a simple yet incredibly creepy image. The actual fire-fighting scene is perfectly terrifying as well.

Our hero is quickly driven to hide himself and hunt down the right evil-doers, and is immediately on the road. We go from a hitchhiked ride with a trucker to a Fugitive-like jump from a bridge into the river to a Frankenstein-inspired encounter with a blind man to a bizarre encounter with a friendly train of circus freaks to a lonely desert hideout to a ball to a precarious (and famous) ending at the Statue of Liberty. Along the way he picks up a girl who can't decide if she thinks he's innocent or guilty, but she leans toward guilty most of the time.

I felt a slight disconnect due to the rapid and extremely random change of locale, but I actually liked this film. There are a lot of sincere moments in which the characters reflect on morality and the general ethics of Americans. I admired the ironic nature in the film, which, on one hand, focuses on how people should trust others more often and be kind to our fellow man, but on the other, focuses on how our fellow man (who often looks quite kind and innocent) can also be our enemies.

The ring of spies/saboteurs is an effective one here. They are sufficiently frightening in their friendly yet ominous presence. I very much enjoyed the scene where the protagonists are dancing in a room filled with enemies and people who won't believe them when they try to expose the dangerous saboteurs.

There's lot of striking imagery in this one, the most famous and memorable being the final showdown on the Statue of Liberty's torch. I had seen this ending several times by accident, so I was glad to finally see the story that leads up to it. Gotta love it!

Man so I write a blog. Usually when I write a blog I don't think about it all too much. Which is what I am doing now. I may have a couple this weekend, becuase I have to share some interesting satire that I hope I thought up.

boop boop boop beeep beeep boop

THIS JUST IN!!!

I am really looking forward to football this year. I am not so much a professional football fan, but a high school and college football fan. I have two little brothers who play football for the same high school I went to. It is nice to see them follow in the footsteps that me and older brothers set.

I love Oregon State football. I look at their schedule and it keeps getting better and better. Of course I see them finishing anywhere between fourth and seventh and going to a Bowl Game. I know, they are probably not going to knock off USC, but it should be a winning season for the Mighty Beavers.

Now for something I hope you really enjoy.

I found that winamp has XM radio stations. I like the alternative station called Ethel.

I also really like the song "Into the Ocean" by Blue October.

Umm....I don't have much more to say, but it has been a week since I blogged.

At once I awoke to a futuristic world
There were flying cars and gigantic metal bugs
I'd grown a beard; it was long and white
But I knew that the girl would be coming very soon
For though everything had changed, there was still that clock
And it still said four of two

Four Of Two

This was an interesting Hitchcock movie in that it was full of suspense, but deviates from his typical type of story. The plot follows a French intelligence agent who gets thrown into America's involvement with the Cold War. He takes on a small mission as a favor and soon finds himself in Cuba as the missile crisis is coming to a head.

I have to admit that this one moves at a slower pace than others, and besides missing an element of murder-mystery, I can't recall there being much of a sense of humor to it. That seemed odd to me, for a Hitchcock selection. I also had difficulty in liking our protagonist. He is set up as a family man who seems to have a good relationship with his wife, but after all of the time spent establishing this by showing us scenes in his home or with his family, we find that he's more like a James Bond type of guy, who has a hot Cuban mistress. I also wasn't sure whether to root for or against him for a while.

Forgetting about all of those little issues, there are a lot of great-looking scenes in this movie.
I know my movie still (above) is a spoiler, but we all knew she was gonna die, and I loved the way the the woman's dress melted onto the floor like a pool of blood when she was shot. Another image that stood out was the pieta-posed scene with a couple who had been captured by the Russians, who had been starved and tortured. Very effective posing and makeup - I was thoroughly creeped out. There were others, but they escape me right now.

I also liked the spy aspect of the movie. The opening sequence was the most tense and effective one, in which a Russian family is aided by the American government in escaping Russia. They stroll the streets, try to lose their followers by slipping behind moving buses, and wander through a store, all in complete silence. Loved that sequence, as well as the urgent scene in which they make their escape. The Bond-esque gadgets and maneuvers are very entertaining as well, especially the scene where the florist poses as a magazine reporter and expertly steals information right in the Russians' hotel room.

Overall, there were several elements of the movie I admired, although the movie wasn't as effective as it could have been in certain areas. It almost felt like it was a bit too long, and so the ending felt way too abrupt in comparison with the rest of the film. I still enjoyed it quite a bit though.

Anyway, I'm glad I got this one through TiVo, because Netflix listed the wait for it to be "very long". Another one checked off my list!

Chris and I teamed up and bought Dead Rising yesterday. We were super lucky to find a used copy that was actually pretty much brand new. Since I have a Gamestop card we ended up saving a total of $10 off the price of a new copy. This game is awesome. The weapons are tons of fun. It's pretty darn hard and the save system leaves quite a bit to be desired, but the game itself is a blast. It also looks super good on our HD projector. If you're not scared of zombies or zombie gore, check out the trailer:

Pretty neat, huh? I'm digging it.

ThinkProgress has a very interesting comparison of current anti-Hispanic rhetoric with statements about immigrants from 150-200 years ago. They highlight quotes by Pat Buchanan, but his statements merely reflect a broader view I have heard from others: that Hispanic immigrants are somehow less willing to assimilate into American culture than our own European ancestors.

Such arguments reveal a dificient understanding of American history. As ThinkProgress shows, American "nativists" showed every bit as much paranoia about the Germans and Irish back then as people do about Hispanics today.

Where the Italians wanted to be part of our family, millions of Mexicans are determined to retain their language and loyalty to Mexico. They prefer to remain outsiders. They do not wish to assimilate and the nation no longer demands that they do so. [Buchanan, p. 28, 2006]

VERSUS

Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Languages or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion. [Benjamin Franklin, 1751]

Mexican-Americans can now become citizens of Mexico again. The whole idea is to create this giant fifth column in the United States which can leverage the American government in elections and pressure them to do what is in the interest of the nation of Mexico. [Buchanan, 8/22/06]

VERSUS

[A] set of citizens, German and Irish, wanted to get the Constitution of the U. S. into their own hands and sell it to a foreign power. [Theme of an American Nativist Party rally, 1844]

When Sleepy Bones says he's feeling tired
Lazy Head wants to rest
When Lazy Head says it's "number one"
Sleepy Bones says it's "best"
When Lazy Head uses imagination
Sleepy Bones daydreams
Sleepy Bones says, "It's not what it looks like"
And Lazy Head says, "It's not what it seems"

Lazyhead And Sleepybones

I don't know if it was a cultural thing I said, but man, the phrase "the system" can be a trigger for an emotional outburst!

This man was being told that there was a block on his registration until he met with a certain department. I was explaining it to him and he obviously was confused and not happy about the hold-up on his registration. So then I say I can't do anything because the system won't let me, and he STOMPS his foot and exclaims, "The System - FIRST, Humans - LAST!"

Meh.

This was on Ebert and Roeper's list of the best movies of the year so far, but I prefer to disagree. I think they're just glad Michael Keaton finally made a decent, albeit just "okay", movie.

This one's about a playwright as he goes through the day leading up to his play's opening. The day falls on the same day as game 6 in the World Series, and his beloved Red Sox (I don't "do" baseball - is that how you spell it?) and the success or failures in his own life seems, for him, to somehow hinge on whether or not the team wins. Robert Downey Jr. plays an play critic who has the potential to make or break the playwright's career.

Keaton is decent, Downey Jr.'s character is terribly written but played to the best possible effect, and the only other notable thing is that Bebe Neuwirth makes an appearance basically to show off that she still has a hot body. She serves no other purpose.

This one was slow and the script tries to be better than it is, but fails. The constant pieces of commentary from a radio traffic who philosophizes about traffic are bland, even considering how much of the playwright's day is spent in a taxi (about 8-9 of them if I remember right).

The movie had a lot more potential than what came out, and I was disappointed.

I had no time to post yesterday since I did an 11-hour day to take care of the needy people in the registration line. I call them needy because they are basically doing online registration in a line because they feel that they need assistance or because they haven't realized that "assisted online registration" is really a room full of computers with a few people around to answer one's questions. Obviously there were some people who HAD to wait until we had the line due to circumstances like academic probation or being a student who was accepted within the last week or so. Anyway. I'll be in the line again today until 7.

Our weekend was fun. Ric and I joined forces with Colin, Liz, and Kristen, and we all headed out with grandiose ideas of food in our minds.. and ended up at Islands because all the other places were so busy. We got to see the Andersons' pretty photos from Kenya (as opposed to the album Colin showed us last Sunday, which was of all the creepy medical conditions he encountered on his medical missions trip). Then we all headed back to our place and reminisced about the people we all knew in college. It's funny when you hang out with people who hung out with a different crowd, because sometimes they have completely different perspectives of people you always thought were normal. I never knew how many creepy stories of people could come out with just five people reminiscing! And in case none of you have hung out with Liz while she's pregnant, you really should. She's hilarious. She calls herself preg-tarded because pregnancy is seriously messing with her hormones in an extreme way. It makes her a mess, but she often says a lot of really funny stuff.

Saturday I got up to work out with Ruth. We were proud of ourselves for actually working out five times last week. Good thing, too, because there have been too many bad-for-me snacks around work lately. After that I had to go to my parents' house to wait for some delivery guys to bring the media cabinet that matches our bedroom set. We bought it even though we don't have room for it in our place, because some of the items from that set at the Pottery Barn are starting to be discontinued. So we're storing it in my old bedroom until we get someplace bigger to stay. I was so tired, so I slept until they got there, made sure it was stuck in my room in good condition, and then went back home to sleep for a few more hours.

After some laundry in the afternoon, Ric, Erika, and I took out my sister, Jenny, to celebrate her 30th birthday. I wish we could say we were terribly adventurous, but we just didn't have time to plan something extravagant. Ric only stayed for dinner, which we had at a Thai place in Fullerton. The girls all drove to Camelot, hoping to go on the go-carts while Jenny and Erika still had wine/cocktail buzzes. Much to our dismay, we got there and realized that the entire funland area of Camelot had been mowed down. There are no batting cages, there is no maze, there are no go-carts, and there is no roller skating. Nothing! Man! So we headed to the bowling alley nearby only to find that the cosmic bowling of today consists of really loud, really horrible music. We thought if we tried another place it might have better music, but it wasn't. So, after striking out three times, we just went to the Cheescake factory for dessert. Their cakes are too rich for me, but we had a nice time.

Sunday I did church by myself and then spent the afternoon watching tv and movies. Ric and I ran a few errands, had some coffee at Starbucks, and spent the rest of the night watching Arrested Development. It was a nice, mellow day, which is what I needed before Registration began.

Wow, I had the most horrible night ever at Disneyland. I got yelled at, I nearly got attacked, and much more. I can't exactly go into it quite yet. But to give you an idea of what it was like, I'll tell you that I'm going in with Chris on Thursday to see about getting a job at his security company. It pays the same, offers benefits, and guaranteed hours. There's also advancement opportunities. And I won't have to deal with the b.s. I deal with on a daily basis. So yeah, things are kind of stressful right now.

Marmalade's from Scotland
Rugs from Pakistan
Mexico has jumping beans
And cars are from Japan
Clowns are from the circus
Barking comes from dogs
Eggs come from a chicken
And log cabins come from logs

Where Do They Make Balloons?

Yesterday my church’s pastor gave a sermon that began with the passage in Genesis 3 where the serpent tempts Adam and Eve into eating the fruit forbidden by God. My pastor emphasized the dishonesty of the tempter, but I noticed something I hadn’t considered before: at no time does the snake actually tell a lie. He says, "You will not surely die...For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." And that’s exactly what happened. When Adam and Eve eat the fruit, instead of dying, they lose their childish innocence, and realize they are naked. Yet there’s no doubt they were deceived. It’s just that the serpent used a very cunning partial truth to do so.

This idea that people can be deceptive without lying came back to me today when I read this item at ThinkProgress: Bush Now Says What He Wouldn’t Say Before War: Iraq Had 'Nothing' To Do With 9/11.

After admitting that Iraq had nothing to do with terrorist attacks on America, President Bush said, "Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq." That’s true, technically speaking. Nobody in his administration actually said those words. They didn’t have to, when they could achieve the same effect by making vaguely worded comparisons between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. As a result, in 2003, 87% of Americans believed there was some relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and 22% believed Iraq was directly involved in the attacks, according to this study.

On a more personal level, I’ve observed an alarming level degree of misinformation amongst my students. In my high school classes, anytime the war in Iraq comes up, one of my students says something like, "They attacked us first." At this point, I stop the discussion and ask the class, "Who attacked us on 9/11?" The first answer I always get is Iraq.

This idea was not dreamed up by my students and millions of other Americans; it is the result of a deliberate effort by the Bush administration to connect Iraq with Al Qaeda in the buildup to war. The fact that they avoided making a literal claim about Saddam Hussein’s involvement in the September 11 attacks doesn’t make them any less deceitful.

But we decided long ago
We'd build a time machine and go
How 'bout another first kiss, kiss, kiss, yeah
I want another first kiss

First Kiss

But even when it's out of sight, the sun shines night and day.

Why Does The Sun Shine?

John said to John, I think we make a left at the light
There should be a big crinkle, assuming this map is right
John looked over and he said, hey, no it's not
It's a crumpled up wrapper from the fast food that we got

They Got Lost

Plain View #49 - 8/12/06

Second verse.

Bush (and one more)

VBS Rocks

Maly hapkido

Family photo (our photographer)

subscribe
to this podcast!

Plain View #48 - 8/12/06

Another 2-parter. Gosh we talk long sometimes. Is there too much arguing in this one? I cut quite a bit of it out.

Shopgirl

Matt's Hollywood Confessions

Walt Bodine's movie people

Last Comic Standing (this is the arguing bit) - Josh, Ty, John

Who Wants to be a Superhero?

subscribe
to this podcast!