I've survived the week, yay! So I've been researching cars alot lately. I still think the Acura RSX Type S is the best car. It would be a very fun car to have, but reality is starting to set in. At $24K, the price of the car is definitely affordable for what you get. It's a great sporty car, but for that reason, it would double my insurance. I'm not sure I want to take that hit every month. So then I was thinking I should check out the Accord Coupes again because I liked those except I thought the back looked big. But I checked out the 2004 models and they look alot better than the 2003. So now I'm thinking about Accords again. Even if I got the EX V6, the insurance would be cheaper than the Acura, but it would still be more than I pay now. However, the cost of the EX V6 is more than I want to spend (almost $27K). I would get the LX V6, but I want a manual and it doesn't come in manual, so I would have to settle for the LX. The good news about the LX is it is a bit cheaper plus the insurance would be much more affordable since the car is not considered a sporty vehicle. It's alot more powerful than my Civic, but it's also heavier. I think a test drive is in order. I could also imagine getting the regular RSX. It wouldn't have the whiz bang features, but when I think about it, would I really take advantage of the whiz bang features? The regular RSX has 160 hp just like the Accord LX, but the RSX is lighter. I think a test drive is in order. The Type S has 200 hp. It's definitely a performance vehicle. I think it would be really cool to have tight shifting and quick acceleration, but since I don't drive over 100 mph, I don't know how useful that kind of engine would be for me. No matter what car I choose, it will be far better than my Civic so that may be all I need. Oh, and of course the color will be black.

Some people have told me that they can't imagine me driving any other car besides my red Civic. It was a good car, but there were always a couple things I never liked about it. My car has a big butt. It looks cool from the front, but I never liked the back. The car is also manual everything. Manual windows, manual locks, no power steering, no cruise control, and manual mirror adjustment, etc. The only manual thing I like is manual transmission. I learned how to drive stick on that car. The car also has NO CLOCK...AGAIN! There's no armrest that you can store cool stuff inside like CDs or your sunglasses so my glove box is packed to the rim. It's like a jack-in-the-box when I open it. The ladies always complain that there is no mirror on the passenger side visor. (Probably the hugest sin of all, ha ha!) I always liked the car's quick pick up and my next car must definitely have this as well. The engine is only 100 hp, but it's so light, that's really all it needs. I like that I could store alot of stuff in it when I put the seats down. I could store every thing I own in that car (though not all at one time of course). That's very convenient for moving. The interior held up really well, probably because 95% of the time only I was in the car, but even my seat held up pretty good. Anyways, kudos to Honda for building such great cars. I think I'm going to buy Hondas for life.

Anyways, today is my last day of work before vacation. It kinda feels like the last day of school before Christmas break. You're there, but you don't really get any work done. The day totally drags even though you're taking a half day. Tonight I'm watching the last installment of the greatest trilogy ever made. Yes, better than Star Wars. Especially since Star Wars has been cheapened lately by the recent prequels. Most trilogies usually have one (cough, cough, Matrix) or two (ahem, Indiana Jones) good movies, but there is always one you don't like as much as the others or one that just plain stinks. Lord of the Rings will not disappoint. Every film is excellent. It's hard to tell which one I like better because they are so dynamic yet contain all the things that I like. I also know it will be good if everyone I've talked to has seen it twice already. I still can't wait for the extended version. That's the real movie as far as I'm concerned.

Today was a good day. I didn't get robbed, kill any animals, or suffer further damage to my vehicle. The variety of responses I've gotten concerning the events of the past two days is pretty funny. The most common one concerning the dog was, "Where? On the freeway?". I guess because citizens of L.A. spend many of their waking hours on the freeway, they have come to this conclusion. However, I think if I had encountered this dog on the freeway, it would have had a much better chance since I rarely get up to 40mph on the freeway. The response from my male friends indicates my experience is pure comedy. The response from my female friends has been total compassion. One friend of mine (possibly more) forwarded my story to all his friends. Who knows how much of the world has read my story at this point. I wonder if it will ever come back my way. I wonder how the story will change as it passes through so many people's email inboxes.

Today, I was having lunch with one of my coworkers. After I told him my story, he said he talked to a man a couple weeks ago in the same area (it was right near work). He had a dog and he said he takes it there cuz it likes to chase the rabbits. "Was it a man with a beard?", I asked. Yes. "Was it a brown medium sized dog?", I asked. Yes. Man, that was probably the same guy. My friend laughed. There is definitely a fine line between comedy and tragedy. People will never see it the way I did (at least the men won't). I suppose it is a funny story if you don't think about the people involved specifically. Sad.

Anyways, I've been thinking that instead of fixing my old car, maybe I should just buy a new one. My car is 10 years old. It has 175,000 miles on it. For years people have been telling me to buy a new car. I thought it was silly to buy a new car when I just paid off a car that works just fine. Well, I've been driving payment free for about 5 years now. The paint is worn a bit. There a couple dents and a few scratches (thanks to other people who don't respect my property). The engine rattles quite alot and has for a while. In fact, that probably means I'm about due to pay for a huge repair. The alarm really doesn't work that well. I stopped using it 5 years ago. The alarm kept going off randomly. I figure it was more likely to encourage people to vandalize my car than to protect it from theft. There is no point in buying a new alarm. The cost of an alarm is worth 4 or 5 more stereos. I'm supposed to get a new timing belt every 90,000 miles, so I'm due for that very soon. That's expensive, but if you ignore it and it breaks, it will cost even more. I'll probably have to buy new tires sometime this year. I'm due for a new battery. It still has its original transmission. Those days have got to be numbered. The panel on the outside of the passenger door is coming off. And now I need a new stereo and I need to fix the bumper, wheel well, and the right light. It seems it would be wiser to invest all this money into a down payment for a new car instead. Another good reason to buy is the interest rates are low so I could get a pretty good loan. Also if I buy in January, I can get a better deal on the '03 models as they try to clear them out. The only problem with that is you have less selection. I'm pretty set on what I want to get. I'll have to see how my insurance rates will change though. At least the new car tax law was repealed. In retrospect, Hondas are great cars. The engine survived most of the fixtures. That's how it should be. I just no longer feel like it is secure. Not that any car is really secure, but everyone I know who has ever had their car broken into was because they didn't have an alarm or their alarm wasn't set. My car has only been broken into twice. The first time caused me to get an alarm. The second time caused me to get a new car, ha ha. Alarms are standard these days anyway. Two times in 10 years isn't bad especially if you live in L.A.

Anyways, now a different topic. Today is Trilogy Tuesday. What is Trilogy Tuesday, you ask? Well, Trilogy Tuesday was your opportunity to see the extended Fellowship of the Ring, extended Two Towers, and the theatrical release of Return of the King all in one sitting at your local theater. For me personally, this did not have huge appeal. Sitting through one of those films is a journey. I can't imagine watching the whole thing in one sitting. I think if you do this, you will age a whole year in one day. The total screen time is about 10 1/2 hours. I wonder how many intermissions there will be. Do they give you time to go get food somewhere at meal times? I think the experience would not be unlike a transatlantic flight. Sitting down for over 10 hours is not my idea of a good time. I think that would be a cool thing to do for an overnight party in the comfort of someone's home, but not at some theater. Anyways, others disagree since the event sold out the day tickets went on sale (at least at all the theaters around here).

I finished my Christmas shopping today. I'm convinced that Best Buy in Westwood is the best place to go. No crowds at all. I waited in a line of about 2 people. Once the students are gone, the whole town is empty. I still need to buy some other items for my trip like an umbrella and gloves (two things I've never really needed in Southern California). I leave this Saturday. I hope I can make it without further damage to my car.

Unfortunately, today wasn't any better. I had nearly arrived to work driving on the street with warehouses on both sides when I see a rabbit come out of no where running right towards me. It then darted across the street cuz it saw me coming. Note to self: When you see an insignificant animal running towards your car, slow down anyways. The rabbit was being chased by a dog that belonged to one of the people who worked at the warehouse. I didn't even have a chance to hit the brakes. I hit that dog at 40mph. I was so stunned by what happened it took me about 200 yards before I stopped. I reversed back to the scene. By then the owner was there. He was obviously in distress and very upset. All I could say was that I was sorry and it came out of nowhere, I had no chance to stop. He said, "Help me put her in the car." I was surprised that the dog was still alive. I helped the man put the dog in the car. I knew this dog wouldn't survive. The man was determined though so I did what I could to help. Once the dog was placed in the car, he began to give the dog CPR. All I could say was, "Sir, I'm very sorry. I had a dog die the same way." The man looked at me. He was obviously in shock. There was blood on his face from the dog. He said he was going to take her to a vet even though she will probably die. I looked in the car before he closed the door. The dog was already dead. Before he drove off, the man said, "I know it wasn't your fault and I'm really sorry about your car." That's when I noticed that my car had a bit of damage from this accident. The right headlight was hanging out. The bumper was all scratched from the dog's collar. And that hard plastic that is inside the wheel well was torn out. I wedged the light back into the car. It seemed secure even though some of the clips had broken. Surprisingly the light and blinker still worked.

I arrived at work pretty shaken up. I don't feel any guilt about what happened. I know it was only an accident. I don't feel compelled to buy this man a new dog. I think the repairs on my car will be more so I think I will call it even. I never thought to get his information anyways. I just hope he didn't get into a car accident trying to find a vet. Even though I don't feel guilty, I do feel pretty rotten. My car is thrashed inside and out now. I got wires hanging out of my dash and stuff missing from the outside. At least this may justify my deductible for my insurance claim. I feel really sorry for the man. He reacted to that dog as if it were his only friend. I understand that some people get really attached to their pets. My first dog died the exact same way when I was 10 or 11 years old. We also took her to the vet, but she died later.

I don't believe in luck. I believe every event is providential. God knows everything that is going to happen to me no matter how insignificant it may be. He knew my entire life before the foundation of the world. I am not angry about these events. I am a bit frustrated though. I hope the rest of the week turns out better. I'm looking forward to vacation more than ever. Then when I get back, I'll fix all this mess. In the meantime, I need to call my insurance company...again.

Today I saw The Last Samurai. It's a pretty good movie. I definitely recommend it. I decided to watch it in the valley near church because it's cheaper and the crowds are less. Well, that's the last time I'll go there. Upon coming out of the theater, I noticed my brand new car stereo was stolen. Many thoughts come to mind when you realize you've been robbed. The first one was that I'm in the wrong car cuz why would anyone want to steal my radio? The second thought was a little more rational, I've been robbed? The third thought was, how was I robbed? It was definitely the work of a pro. There was no physical damage done to the car itself and I was positive the doors were locked. There are only a couple scratches on the dash that are hardly noticeable from when they ripped it out of my car. I'm thankful nothing else was taken. I had $100 pair of sunglasses in the glove compartment that were still there. It was professional and quick. They wanted only one thing, got it, and left. I can't help but be concerned about how easy it was for them to get in my car. I had one of those removeable face plates, but I only take it off when I park my car for the night. I thought that would be the least secure place. I guess I was wrong. I guess the theater was a good place to steal stereos even though it was in a good area. It was a huge movie theater parking lot. There was no security on duty there. There were no other stores for shopping so people are in the parking lot at specific times. You could see someone park there and know they won't be back for a couple hours. The parking lot is so big that no one from the theater could see anything. So I filed a police report and let my insurance company know. I doubt I'll file a claim though since the deductible is probably more than getting another stereo. At least the speakers I bought weren't stolen as well. So it looks like that's another $120-150 I'm going to be spending. I figure I won't do anything about it until after I get back from Europe. Why risk having it stolen again while my car is sitting in my garage for two weeks? Well, I'm thankful that I still have the car and the loss was minimal. This could have been alot worse. I'm still annoyed though. Argh.

One more day and then all the UCLA students go home, yay! Westwood will be like a normal place to live for a brief yet cherished time. I'll be missing most of it since I'll be going on vacation as well, but at least for that one week I'm here, I will enjoy it. I can't get too fed up with the crowds here. Nobody made me live in Westwood. It was the best opportunity to save money. I'm definitely not considering another year here when my lease expires in August though. Until then I must still tolerate the daily peel out at the intersection outside my window, the monthly car accident that occurs outside at the same intersection due to too much guts and not enough skill, and of course the noises from the drunken mob that passes by every weekend. I know that one day I won't be able to imagine how I endured these conditions for so long. I'll say to myself, "I can't believe I lived like that!". Ha ha.

I was thinking of my previous post. I still agree with what I said, but having said that, I must say that the song "It's Not Unusual" is quite catchy. But maybe that's because I first heard it in the film Mars Attacks!. It's like a 25 year old song, sheesh!

There were lasagnas at Ralph's tonight. Woohoo! I stocked up.

Oh yeah, one of the things I am constantly challenged by I was reminded of today when I saw Tom Jones on The Tonight Show. What is the allure of Tom Jones? He can't dance. He can't really sing. He doesn't seem to be a good looking man. Yet he's had this huge successful singing career for the past 30 years. (???)

I've missed writing in my blog. I haven't been faithful to it lately. I have been sick for quite a while so usually I'm too tired after work. I used to have lots of free time at work to blog, but the new job has proven to be busier. I'm thankful that things are busier at work. My managers keep checking on me to see if I have enough to do. I keep telling them no, ha ha. They keep giving me these one day jobs and then are surprised that I complete them in one day. (???) They seem kinda jumpy that I might quit any minute or something like that. Anyways, busy work is still better than no work. I'm confident things will still get better. We shall see.

This weekend I finally met our church's minister of music, Clayton Erb, face to face. He came up to a group of us after church and asked us to move the piano for him. It's quite a large piano, but we had alot of guys. Clayton is very detailed about moving the piano. "Move it one foot this way, now 2 feet back, ok now 2 more inches to the right..." Ha ha! I kid you not. After that he asked me and two of my friends to help him move music stands. He is quite a character. I had a feeling he could talk to us all day. He had lots of interesting stories about our church. He's been the minister of music for 25-30 years. I forget exactly.

I've been planning for my trip to Europe this Christmas. I'm definitely excited to be going "home". I've also been checking out all the things online that I want to see. I hope I don't exhaust myself. You want to make the most of every day while you're there. I will be seeing three cities while I'm there which are London, Paris, and Normandy. London is my favorite city in Europe. Paris is my second. I've never been to Normandy, but I'm looking forward to it.

Yesterday, I went to the grocery store. The strike is really becoming a problem for consumers now. The store is half full with stock. One of the things I must survive on is Stouffer's lasagna (ah, the bachelor's secret), but they have been out for a month. I may be good at improvising, but not when it comes to food. I bought some chicken pot pies, but they aren't nearly as good as the lasagna. I hope this strike ends soon.

On the way to the grocery store, I noticed they were having the Return of the King world premiere in Westwood. Why do they call it a world premiere when they have world premieres in other parts of the world? Shouldn't it be a U.S. premiere? Of course they do another one in New York, so maybe it should just be a west coast premiere. I've only went star gazing once at one of these premieres. It was for Batman and Robin and I only did it so I could see Arnold Schwarzenegger. So I saw all these other stars too like George Clooney, Danny DeVito, and Lou Ferrigno (you know, the Hulk!). It was cool to do once for an experience, but I never wanted to do it again. I had to wait there almost all day to see those people. So not worth it. Anyways, yesterday's premiere was the first time I was a little bit interested in checking out, but I resisted. I'd rather acknowledge the movie than the actors. One time there was a premiere for this crappy horror movie called House on Haunted Hill. I was just walking around in Westwood with a couple of friends when it was happening. I guess they didn't have a very good turnout because this lady asked me if I wanted to go into the premiere and watch the movie. I said, sure why not, just cuz I've never been to a world premiere before, even if it was a lame movie. She scribbles this illegible thing on a scrap of paper and told me to give it to the large bouncer at the door. It came to mind that this was just a crazy lady and that guy was going to throw me out once I showed him that piece of paper. But he let me in. It was so weird. So I went in and I got free popcorn and soda and everything. They reserved the best seats for the people involved with making the movie, but my seat wasn't too bad. Then after about a half hour, my friend wanted to leave. I wasn't really enjoying the movie either, so all those people that worked on that movie saw me and my friends walk right out through the exit door. Ha ha. Oh well, at least I got some free snacks.

Played around some more with my new camera. I wish I didn't have to work all day so I could go around and take pictures instead, ha ha. I would bring my camera to work, but I'm not allowed (that whole national security thing). Anyways, now that I've joined the digital club, I feel like I can do more stuff online. One thing I hated about taking pictures on film was you had to be sparing with the pictures you took and if you wanted your pictures as soon as you were done, you had to either make sure you had used all the film up at the end or just take the hit and get a partial roll developed. Then you had to wait for the pictures to be developed while fearing that the photo place might lose or ruin your pictures. Then you had to dig through that bin hoping no one else walked off with your pictures. Then finally, you get your pictures and you have to spend a ton of money for getting them developed especially if you got doubles. Every time I go on a trip, I end up spending about $80-$100 on developing pictures. And after all that, you have to scan them so you can put them online and show them to your friends. Also you are bummed because some of those "great" pictures you thought you had turned out really crappy. My film camera took terrible night photos. They always turned out so grainy. But the most heart breaking photo I ever took was of London Bridge. My camera case was partially covering the lens so when I got the picture, half of it was black, doh!!! Well, I will remedy that this time around since I'm taking a small excursion to London when I visit my family in France this Christmas. Oh, and film just isn't as sharp as digital nor is the color as good. After you have your pictures, you have to spend all that painstaking time to scan each one to share with others. Another plus for digital is storage. I'm not really the scrapbook type of guy and all my photos are sitting in a box. That box is full. Just think how many CDs of photos would fit in that box. I can add a caption to the digital photo, too. Yep, this digital camera will pay for itself very soon.

Anyways, being the engineer that I am, I've been trying to learn as much as I can about my camera by testing its limits. I've been taking pictures in the dark, in the light, different resolutions, different compressions, etc. One funny quirk about taking digital photos of people is you don't want high resolution with low compression. Nobody wants to see the veins in your eyeballs. You can make the most beautiful people look so ugly that way, ha ha.

My camera also makes movies. They are pretty good videos at 15 fps, but the limit is only 3 minutes per video. I don't think I'll make too many of these on my trip though. They are such memory hogs. But who knows, I'm with Nate Roth, sometimes you just got to have audio. Oh, but my camera can do audio annotations on the still pictures as well, yay! The other cool thing about the camera is I can upload sound effects for the different functions. So you can have the conventional shutter sound when you take a picture or how about a wolf howling or Strong Bad saying "oh holy crap!". The possibilities are endless.

Anyways, I'm thinking about getting some online storage so I can share the pictures I take. Maybe I'll pay Blogger the monthly so I can put pictures with my blogs. I'll have to think about it for a bit. One of my favorite sites for online photos is A Day in the Life. There are featured photographers every week from all over the world. I would volunteer, but there have been so many L.A. photographers featured already. The site is not being updated until the holidays are over, but check out the archive.

Wow, no blogging for a whole week...and I'm still sick, argh! Well, let's give a quick recap of the Thanksgiving weekend.

Wednesday...after a slow day at work before the holiday weekend, I had dinner with my aunt and uncle and her family in OC. My uncle just recently came back from Paris and showed me some pictures of my family and other stuff. (I have less than 20 days before I leave for Paris, woohoo!) I also got to see my youngest cousin, Cameron, who is 2 years old. I am the oldest of our generation. I've never really felt close to any of my cousins primarily because they are all still children, ha ha.

Thursday...went to the Hays family's house for Thanksgiving who have pretty much adopted me for all holidays I don't go home for. The funny thing about Thanksgiving is it is a major pig out holiday, but I don't have the appetite like I did when I was in high school. I eat more than normal for one meal and then I'm not hungry for the rest of the day which means I actually eat the least on Thanksgiving out of all the days of the year. Still, it was a good meal. I sure don't eat that well very often.

Friday...went to the big sale at Best Buy to see if there were any good deals. The cool thing about Best Buy in Westwood is nobody is there during the holidays so the huge sale goes pretty much unnoticed. There was plenty of parking and plenty of room to walk around in the store. I didn't mind that at all. I was already planning on buying a digital camera. I knew it would cut a huge chink in my cash flow. Unfortunately, the sale didn't help me on the camera, but I did get a 256 MB memory card for it for half price. I got a Canon Elph S400. It's a really good camera. Then I went to Simi Valley to hang out with my friends, Dave and Esther. I took some pictures of the fire damage all over the hills with my new camera. This camera takes excellent pictures. I'm definitely satisfied with my purchase. We saw the movie, The Haunted Mansion. I wanted it to do well, but it was pretty mediocre. Dave said it was the worst movie of all time. I wouldn't say that, it's just forgettable in my opinion. It's not nearly as good as Pirates of the Carribean. I did enjoy the nods to the ride, but the plot was not very deep nor interesting. It seemed like this would have been a better TV movie than a theatrical release. I wonder what's going to happen to Eddie Murphy. He's made alot of stinkers lately.

Saturday...Giovanni asked me if I could help one of his friends move in Santa Clarita. I figured I've had plenty of time on the weekend to relax and have fun and the sacrifice would be no different to anyone else helping. I'd sure would want the help if it were me. So I decided to help. It's always nice to meet a member of our enormous church outside of our fellowship group anyways. This guy was a man from Italy by the name of Adamo. He is a hair stylist and chef and actually cuts John MacArthur's hair. We had alot of hands, but it was a hard day. We made three trips in a fairly good sized U-haul truck. The last trip was the hardest where we had to move about 20 very large potted plants. Adamo grows his own ingredients for his spaghetti sauce. It took about 8 hours to do all the moving. I felt sicker after that. I got home at 7pm and fell asleep right away. I woke up for church the next morning. 12 hours!!! I felt alot better though.

Throughout the weekend I watched the mega-documentary of The Two Towers DVD. It's 6 hours long. Although it's an epic, I enjoyed it very much. I can't wait for the next movie. It's too bad it's going to be another year before the Return of the King extended DVD comes out. Then all of this trilogy craziness will be over. Just watching the sheer complexity involved in making any of these LOTR movies is enough for me to never want to make a movie. It's way easier just to be an actor. But even they had alot of trouble because of the makeup and prosthetics they had to wear and also the injuries they sustained while working. I like all the little stories they tell about certain things in the filming process or how they came up with a certain idea or what things happened by accident. It makes me wonder about all the other movies that were made that probably have stories just as good, but never made it to a DVD. This movie was definitely made with DVDs in mind. That's why the content is so good.