Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve, I went to the Eiffel Tower with my dad. Taking the subway there was pretty packed, but not nearly as packed as any bus ride in Belarus. We picked a spot by the river and waited for about a half hour until midnight. I got some cool photos of the Eiffel Tower. I'll never forget the words of my tour guide when first seeing the Eiffel Tower in 2001. "During the day, it's just a stack of wrought iron metal, but at night, it's magic!" Ha ha. Anyways, I was looking forward to the countdown cuz the French word for "one" is a real nasal sounding "oh" and I wanted to hear a half million people say "oh!" at once. No luck though cuz I guess the French don't count down. The lights on the Eiffel Tower just started flickering and everyone started cheering and setting off their fireworks. Then after about 20 minutes, all the lights in the Eiffel Tower just turned off which was something I've never seen. I'm not sure if that's just so the crowd will disperse or if they just blew a fuse or something. Anyways, the crowd still had a lot of party left in them so we took the opportunity to catch the subway back before the rest of the people decided to go home. It was a good idea since we got home rather quick. Anyways, it was a great night to end my stay in Paris. I leave tomorrow morning to go back home. I've been gone so long I feel like I've been gone for months. I think it will feel all too soon by the time I get back though. Happy New Year!

I took alot of pictures in Honfleur. The interesting thing about Honfleur is that it's one of the towns that wasn't bombed in WWII so it has some really old buildings. This one building was from 1600 and it really looked it too. I took alot of pictures of the streets and alleys cuz you just don't see anything like it in the U.S. I bet people thought I was really weird doing that. It's probably such an ordinary thing for the people there, but to us that alley is like twice the age of our country.

Then on the way home we stopped at this big supermarket. They are kinda rare cuz they carry everything kind of like a Costco but nothing is in bulk and it's the size of a regular supermarket in the U.S. This kind of thing is rare in Europe especially France. Anyways, it was really funny cuz the store had like an emcee or something. He had this really glittery jacket and a microphone and I guess he was just imforming everyone of sales and stuff. I wanted to take a picture of him, but I didn't cuz the store was really crowded and I didn't want to draw attention to myself. It was so strange though like it was a supermarket game show or something.

Today I went to Notre Dame and did what I tried to do the last two times I was here which was go up in the bell tower. It's always been closed. This time of year is way crowded in Paris. It may be even more than in the summer. Anyways, the line took about 2 hours cuz they let only small group of people up at a time. Under 18 was free so my brother got in for free, but somehow there was some miscommunication and I got in free too even though I was showing the guy money and tried to pay. He just waved me on. I don't know, but thanks! So I saved 6 Euros there. It's an endless spiral of steps. It was kinda weird since it really isn't that high. I was feeling the burn. Anyways, I got some cool pictures of the city and it was also another neat perspective of the cathedral that I hadn't seen before. It was also cool to see the bell. I didn't see Quasimoto anywhere so I had to take his place in some photos. Tomorrow I'm going to a small coastal town called Honfleur.

Today I went to the Montparnasse district. I think it's a district, I'm not sure what else to call it. It's called Montparnasse. Anyways, that's a very non-touristy part of Paris. That's where the Montparnasse Tower is located which is the 2nd tallest tower in Europe. I didn't take a picture of it though cuz it was only 56 stories and it looked pretty ordinary. The French hate it. It's kind of ugly I guess. I hear it will be getting a face lift. Anyways, I went to two museums today. I went to the Rodin (pronounced Roh-dan) museum. He was a sculptor from the late 19th and early 20th century. He's probably best known for his sculptures, The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. He was going to make The Gates of Heaven as well, but he died before he could do it. I wonder why he did the Hell gates first. Anyways, don't open those gates! I probably never would have heard of The Thinker except for the countless times I saw it in Looney Toons cartoons which was my main interest for seeing it in person. Sorry to disappoint you all. I'm not that big an art lover. The second museum was the Bourdelle (sp?) museum who was a student of Rodin. I actually went to that museum first. This one is definitely off the beaten path, but he has some pretty cool sculptures. Some are really huge. An interesting similarity between both artists was they would make smaller sculptures of what they desired to make and then they made them progressively bigger until they made one that was the size they wanted so the museums had a couple of some of the sculptures but just different sizes. There were a few Thinkers at the Rodin museum. Anyways, if you want to check out what Paris life is really like without tourists, go to Montparnasse, but don't expect to get any help in English. They have some more reasonably priced restaurants there. I had a pretty good lunch for 10 Euros. The Bourdelle museum is in Montparnasse. Rodin is not exactly in Montparnasse but is in walking distance from it. It's next to the Invalides where Napoleon is entombed.

I went to the Louvre today. This was my 4th time to the Louvre and I still haven't seen everything. This time I looked at ancient Persian, Babylonian, and Mesopotamian stuff. I saw a pillar from Darius' temple. That's right, THE King Darius from the book of Daniel. That was pretty cool. The Louvre only had one, but there were about 70 of these in the temple. It was really impressive. I don't know if any others survived since the Louvre only had one, but maybe there are others in other museums. I don't know. Then I also saw these enormous carvings from ancient Persia. They basically just have big pieces of the wall from the temple and set them up against the wall in the Louvre. I'm kinda curious as to how the French got these things and what is left of where they found it.

I also saw the Code of Hammurabi which is the first written law discovered. Too bad the plaque was in French so I couldn't really read what the translation was of the laws. The huge tablet was written in cuneiform which looks really complex. I also saw some other tablets that were written in cuneiform that were really detailed for being chiseled in stone. Anyways, it all looked really complex. Who says early man was primitive?

I also saw an old part of the Louvre that had rooms decorated back to Napoleon III. It was exquisite and ornate fo sho! Anyways, I'll post pictures when I get back.

Adventures in Italy

There was no easily accessible internet access in Bardonecchia unfortunately so now I have to dump all my stories down at once. It was a really good time. Anyways, I finally remembered the name of where I was going for snowboarding. If Bardonecchia doesn't sound familiar now, it will be in 2006 as it will be the site of the snowboarding events for the 2006 Winter Olympics. The main portion of the games will be in Torino which is about 90km away. Anyways, the first adventure was our trip by train there.

Most of the trip was pretty smooth. It was one of those cool bullet trains (we totally need these in the U.S.) so the trip only took about 4 hours. Anyways, we got to our stop, but for some strange reason the conductor wouldn't let us off. Traveling on trains in Europe, you got to be ready to jump off cuz you only have about a minute or so. Anyways, lame conductor doesn't realize we want to get off so we can't get off cuz he's in the way then the train starts moving again. So now we're going onward into the unknown, next stop Torino. By now, lame conductor has figured out he goofed, but oh well, you're in Italy so it's your problem kinda deal. Thanks alot. So we're assured that there are many trains that can take us back. Meanwhile while we're waiting by the door to get off at the next stop (we're getting off no matter what this time), my mom faints. That only added to the complexity. So we get off at Torino, find out that the train station is closed, there are no more trains back to Bardonecchia, and the only people around are people who are spending the night. So the only option is taxi to get back except there are no taxis and no guarantee that we'll find a taxi that will want to drive us 90km. The train station wasn't in the best part of town either. Anyways, we saw a hotel nearby and went there to see if they could get a cab for us. The lady at the hotel was very nice and got us there own driver which was a pretty nice man and he drove a really nice Mercedes. Needless to say, the ride to our hotel was comfortable, but very expensive (250 Euros!), but we got there and I was thankful for that.

Snowboarding in the Alps was pretty fun but only because snowboarding is really fun. I have to say it sounds alot more exotic than it really is. I still think Mammoth is the best place I've ever gone. It wasn't their best season and alot of the runs were closed. But the views were pretty good and I got alot of good pictures. The Alps make awesome scenery for snowboarding. You would think for a place that is going to host all the snowboarding competitions for the Winter Olympics would have snowboard friendly perks like chair lifts and benches. Well, Bardonecchia is definitely not ready in that respect. All the lifts to the top of the mountain are those button lifts that are basically those spring loaded little things you grab and sit on while you get pulled up the mountain. It's not bad if you're on skis, but on a snowboard you're turned sideways so instead of your weight resting on the seat, it's constantly pulling against your inner thigh. Not comfortable! Also not so easy to balance either and the incline was like 60 degrees angles in some parts! So the first couple days on this thing were a bit rough. The drag method works well though I find. This is where you lose your balance and instead of letting go, you just spin onto your back and get dragged up the mountain the rest of the way. I was pretty proud of this until I found out my brother, Micah, had fallen early on and got dragged up the mountain for nearly 15 minutes. I can't believe he hung on that long, ha ha.

Anyways, I forgot to mention that the reason we were on this trip was this was an annual ski trip with my parents church. So I spent alot of time snowboarding with the head pastor because he was a snowboarder as well and we were about at the same level. Anyways, one time we saw a ski school going down one of the closed slopes and so the head pastor, Brian, is like, "hey, how come they can go on those and not us, forget that, we're going!". So we get to the top and I get my binding on while one of the guys that work there is yelling at us for going down a closed slope. We just kinda shrug our shoulders and say, "do you speak English??" Heh heh. It finally came in handy not speaking the language. Then as we go down, I think to myself, I'm following the head pastor of my parent's church down a closed run, ha ha. That's the Italian way though. Rules are just guidelines so for the rest of the week we just determined that "closed" meant "optional". Those runs were really good too. I have no idea why they were closed, but it didn't stop us. Suck on that Italians! So we mainly did closed runs after that cuz they were better and less crowded, too. Funny thing was later on that day, Brian lost his pass. (The passes have our name and picture on them.) By the time we got to the hotel, the owner had his pass waiting for him saying someone had dropped it off saying that "they were very familiar with the people from our group". How creepy, so we think there was some sort of ski mafia or something and we definitely stood out since we didn't seem to follow any of the rules. The other rule we broke often was buckling our bindings on the lift. There were no benches to sit on at the top and Brian showed me it was way simpler to just be buckled in and come off and then just go right down the slope. So we got yelled at for that too, ha ha. It seems that when skiing in Italy, you get yelled at for something once, after that, it's your own fault if you get hurt. I also noticed a lack of "SLOW" signs where runs converged. Safety is definitely not priority in Italy. Ski at your own risk! Ha ha. Anyways, so I guess we were known as the Americans on the slopes that didn't follow any rules.

So my last story occurred yesterday. As I was getting out of one of my bindings so I could get on the lift, I see this flash as all of a sudden my legs are knocked out from under me and I get knocked on my back. I sit up and there is this little tiny girl in my lap who says, "sorry". Then we get up and one of her skis are missing. I have this though that maybe the missing ski is impaled into my back and I just haven't realized it yet because of the shock, but I guess she hit my brother first cuz the ski was with him. Man, she must have been hauling to hit my brother first and then knock me over. She couldn't have weighed more than 50 pounds.

Anyways, so that's a compressed version of the events that week. So snowboarding in the Alps was cool, but it's not like it's better than any place in the U.S. It sounds exotic, but the experience is really the same. I can't believe my body held out for 6 days of snowboarding. My legs aren't sore at all, but from the waste up I'm pretty sore. I definitely got better this week. I can't wait to try out my skills on the California slopes again.

Yesterday, I didn't do very much. I just went shopping with my mom. Going to a mall in Paris is a lot like going to a mall in Beverly Hills. There's just a bunch of French clothing stores everywhere you look.

Today, we leave for Italy for some snowboarding in the Alps. We're taking a train which will take us to our destination in about 4 hours. I forget the name of the city, but it starts with a B and it's in the north part of Italy. So for the next week, it won't matter a bit that I don't speak French, ha ha.

Bon jour! Just arrived in Paris this afternoon. What did I do today? Just tried to stay awake. I think I slept maybe 2 hours on the plane. When we came in for a landing we were about 200 feet from the ground and then all of a sudden, we just shoot back up into the air to about 4000 feet. Then the pilot came on and said everything is fine and that we were just being rerouted. If we were that close to the runway and got "rerouted", I think it's more than likely that something was on the runway and that's when the tower realized it. Reroute probably really meant "whoops, pull up, pull up!". Anyways, I got here safe.

I totally have the hardest time with jet lag. It usually takes me about a week to get used to it. The best way to get over it is to tough it out. So I made it until about 4pm until I just passed out on the couch for about 4 hours. You're probably wondering why I just didn't go somewhere. Well, I'd pass out no matter what. Last year, I fought my jet lag in London. I fell asleep on the bus once and another time on the subway. Anyways, tomorrow I'm doing stuff. Au revoir!

The Skit DVD FAQ

Wow, so I didn't think I would get such a big response on the "frequently asked questions". Anyways, I was thinking that I would save the answers for the DVD, but then I was thinking I'd give my blog readers an extra something by answering them now. Besides I don't know if I'll be able to use them all. It depends how much space I have so I didn't want to diss anyone. So here are the responses:

1. Is it cool? Or is it awesome? If yes, is it very yes?
A: It is definitely awesome. It's not very yes, but very plethora which is better in my opinion.

2. If Goofy and Pluto are both dogs, why is it that Goofy can walk on his hind legs and he can talk, and Pluto can't? Why is it that Mickey OWNS Pluto as a pet, but he doens't own Goofy? How is this fair to Pluto?
A: I would have to say this is the same reason why those American movies that take place in a foreign country yet all the actors possess different accents and none of those accents are from the country they are supposed to be in. Mickey owns Pluto probably because he's an indentured servant or something. That makes it fair, right? Perhaps Pluto walks on all fours out of humility?

3. Why do we have armpit hair?
A: Hair is a mysterious phenomenon. Why is it the hair on my head will grow indefinitely, but the hair on my legs only grows a certain length and then knows when to stop?

4. Who has been the best villain of all the skits?
A: Invisible Mute Man by far. On stage, he is obviously nothing cuz how can any actor play him? You can't see him and you can't hear him, yet he is so notorious. He stole the Internet and then he stole Christmas twice and then he stole love once, too. Clearly the most crafty and elusive villain of all the skits.

5. What is your favorite skit of all time?
A: Ha ha, funny thing when I ask people this question, they always tell me it was the one we did previously probably because they can't remember any of the other ones. I guess I'm no exception here either. My favorite one ever is the last one I did for GOC, Nerds in Love 2: Dance Trance Revolution which is on the DVD. A close second would be the roommate skit I did with Rojas, Hieu, and Antoine where at the end we wore Zorro masks and danced to Milli Vanilli in unison (that one didn't make the DVD unfortunately).

6. Where do you get your inspiration from?
A: I'm not really sure, but I think it has alot to do with watching alot of television and not taking myself very seriously. Usually, I come up with ideas from stuff that has really happened to me and then I just exaggerate it a whole lot. Like the Pirate Roommate skit came up when I was stressing over finding another roommate in college. Or like any nerd skit where I pretty much get the dialogue from listening to ridiculous conversations at work and then I just try to imagine what an outsider would think of this conversation and then I make it more ridiculous. I've always had a big imagination...maybe too big, ha ha.

7. What do you think God thinks of your skits?
A: Dude, I think about this all the time. I would hope He thinks they are funny. I imagine God has a great sense of humor. Laughter sure isn't sin and we sure didn't make it up on our own so I'm sure God loves to laugh. Although I don't have any clear Scripture references to back me up, but just look at most of the animals in Australia. Anyways, I ended skit team once because I felt it wasn't the best use of my time for ministry. I then started on it again when I was told I didn't have to do them every week. I think they were a ministry asset to the Bible study because it made the night more fun, but I don't think there is really a place for skits on a Sunday morning. The Foundry wanted me to do skits and videos, but I felt it wasn't the best use of my time since I wanted to learn other areas of ministry. You never read about anyone in the Bible who ministered through skits or entertainment. I think it's primarily an American cultural influence so I put skits in the same category as any cultural aspect of the church.

8. What is the best prop you've ever worked with and why?
A: Oh definitely the fake hand. You'll see it alot in the DVD. It's my favorite cuz it was such a good prank toy. I would bring it to Bible study a few times and try to shake people's hands with it. It totally freaked them out. I'd also work it so someone would slam the hand in the door or something or I'd bend the fingers backwards when some was trying to talk to me. I would just listen to them intently and then just start bending each finger back one by one to see if they would notice. Oh man! Good times! The funny thing was it was a left hand and about half the size of my real hand so some people caught it when I tried to shake hands. Anyways, I don't do it anymore. It's still tempting, but I figure I better leave it behind if people are ever going to consider me an adult.

9. Which skit makes you wish real life were actually like the one portrayed in the skit?
A: Probably the Pirate Roommate skit. Can you imagine how interesting life would be if you had a pirate roommate? Ha ha, ok but seriously, I think most of the skits are pretty much dreamlike or nightmarish versions of real life. Probably the Time Travel skit. I always wanted a time machine.

10. Ever thought of making a movie version of any of the skits, like an Asian Brady Bunch Reunion Movie? Ever thought of making a promo trailer to appease the restless masses? Ever thought about who you would like to play you if they ever made a skit about the Skitguru story?
A: I did attempt to make a Asian Brady Bunch sequel skit, but all the best material was used in the first one. It never got beyond a brainstorming session. I can't take too much credit for Asian Brady Bunch since Rojas wrote it, but I did write like three lines in there somewhere. I can't remember what they were though. I'm sure it's possible I'll do more videos. I have a computer good enough for editing now and Harrison has a good camera. It's amazing I had gotten anything on video considering I had neither of these in college. Actually, I always wanted to make Flash cartoons of some of the skits and then sell merchandise for them like Homestar Runner, but again no time and I'm not an artist and I can't take 100% credit for the skits. I got help from lots of people.

I thought about trailers all the time. I definitely wanted to make one for Signs of the Apocalypse since there was so much interest in the project. I didn't have enough time though and the project itself was daunting enough.

I guess if anyone made a movie about me, it would have to be an actor considerably younger than I am cuz it would take that long for me to be that interesting to make a movie about, ha ha.

Still Waiting for the Skit DVD?

I'm still working on it. Actually, I'm still waiting too. I'm trying to get that last skit I did. I think it's worth the wait to have it on there plus it's probably the last skit I'll ever do. Anyways, that mixed with too many trips to North Dakota has left little time for the Skit DVD. Be assured, it will come. I also still need to get the labels done for the discs as well as the box art done. Ooooh, sounds so cool, huh? Well, the box will be much like the skits...low budget and silly. I'm also working on a FAQ for the Skit DVD. I think it would be really funny, but so far I've only made up questions that no one has asked. If you have a good (or better yet silly) question, let me know and I'll put it on the DVD. Actually, Harrison has done most of the work on the DVD. I just provided the content and some creative input. So instead of "I", I should be saying "Harrison". Harrison is threatening to just deliver now, but I'm holding him back. On this DVD, "never before seen footage" is going to mean something cool!

UCLA vs. USC

Doh!

Computer Buyer's Guide

Yesterday I bought a computer. For those of you who don't know, I'm pretty computer savvy, but not nearly as savvy as I was in high school. People always ask me what kind of computer they should buy. For years I've always given advice to people that I've never followed myself. I always recommended a package deal WITH support at some major retail outlet like Dell or Best Buy or CompUSA while I have always gone to the small town shop somewhere far and custom built mine after researching every little individual part. Well, that's what I did for my last computer and over the last 5 or 6 years I've observed that computers have changed quite alot. I also realized that I probably paid too much for my last computer. Even though it had lasted me this long I probably paid double what it was worth because it was the newest technology at the time (most of which I never took advantage of). I've always been a sucker for the fastest best everything as if I could actually tell the difference. Well not this time. Last night I went to Best Buy after looking at the various computer models they had online.

I would have to say that the process took longer than it took to buy my car. Computers may be mainstream, but they are no easier for people to buy than 10-15 years ago. I was getting confused even with the knowledge I had. I had been out of the loop for a couple years. Evidently there is a new kind of video card out there called PCI Express that is twice as fast as the fastest AGP, but cuz it was PCI I kept thinking it was old technology until I read up on it a little bit. Once I figured out what hardware specs I wanted for my PC, I began to do the price comparisons. Some just didn't make sense at all. They are really pushing this Media Center thing for the PC, but if you have no plans to make your PC replace your entertainment center in the living room, there is no point for it, and from what I hear the software isn't that great yet. If you think you're going to do it down the road, it's more likely your computer will be too old for the streamlined features they will have developed by then. You'll need a new computer to do it anyway so my philosophy is "don't buy it unless you plan to use it right now". You can save about $600 by ignoring the top tier and looking at the computers right below it (which were the top tier about 6 months ago). Another thing to look for is what parts are upgradeable and which parts you're stuck with. Stuff like the hard drive and video adapter are easily changed so why not cut corners on the base system that includes cheaper versions of these. Their value in the system is next to nothing. Some systems come with a cool graphics card for quite a bit more, or you can save the money and buy the computer with the integrated graphics card and then pick out the graphics card you want separately which is what I did. Also buying a system that comes with a small hard drive could save you quite a bit and its still probably more storage then you will ever need unless you plan to work with lots of video. You can always add more hard drive space later, too. The last is memory which is kinda insignificant in my opinion. You will probably never need to upgrade your RAM because by the time that more RAM is going to come in handy, it will be time for a new computer anyways so don't bother with the upgraded RAM. I lucked out here on my system and I ended up getting alot of RAM anyway, but 512MB is good enough if you're wondering. I finally narrowed it down to two Gateway models. One was $800 and one was $950. Both had pretty much the same specs (3.0 GHz Pentium 4, 1GB PC3200 RAM, 800 MHz front side bus (whatever that is), and integrated video adapter, blah blah blah). It seemed like the only difference between the two was the hard drive. The cheaper one had a 160 GB hard drive and the costlier one had a 200 GB hard drive. I only get 40 GB more for $150! I can get another 160 GB for that much just buying a second hard drive separately if I wanted. So I took a close look at the specs of each one and I couldn't believe it, the ONLY difference was the hard drive! So I got the cheaper one, and then I bought a sweet video card (ATI Radeon X700) for $200 making a pretty awesome system for about $1000. It can play the most CPU intensive games and do video editing, pretty much anything you want. It also came with a DVD burner which I really didn't need, but it came standard.

But the store won't give it up without a fight, there are other things to consider (so they say). You're going to want software with that, right? Here is where buying from a retailer is better over building one yourself. The operating system comes with it which will save you $100-200 right off. Oh, but what about Microsoft Office? That's pretty expensive (about $350). Well, I think I used Word a handful of times on my last computer and I never used Excel, so I guess I don't really need it. Then they try to stick you with the fear factor. Do you have anti-virus software or Adware? No, and I don't want it. This is where being computer savvy has its privileges. If there is a software related problem, I'll be able to fix it. Plus you can do virus scans for free on the internet and if for some reason I can't, I can always go buy anti-virus software when I actually get a virus. And the best way to avoid the need for adware is not to download all those silly free applications from the internet. What about internet access? AOL is offering 3 free months with purchase of a computer. I have DSL, nuff said. That ends that discussion. Then they try to stick you with the 3 year warranty. If anything this only provides you with warm fuzzies and convenience. I usually recommend warranties for people who can't fix their own computer. Something isn't working, you take it back to the store and they figure it out while all the time and money you spent was the effort in getting to the store. But would a car mechanic take his car to another mechanic? Certainly not! The truth is about electronics is if they are going to go bad, they go bad in the first couple weeks. If they make it that long, they'll last for 10 years at least (much longer than you'll want your computer). So if you turn on your computer and smoke pours out the back (which happened to my last new computer), it's completely covered under the manufacturer's warranty which is usually 1 year. So they weren't going to get me on the warranty either (another $200 savings).

They tried one last trick. They saw that I was buying a video card for the system. They said if I installed it myself, I void my warranty. That is just so ridiculous even if it is true. If anything, you just void free Best Buy service on it for 90 days or something like that. The manufacturer's warranty is still good. Besides, what's to stop me from taking the card out of the computer and taking it back to the store? There was no sticker on the computer that said, "by breaking this seal you void your warranty" which means Gateway would honor their warranty even if Best Buy wouldn't. It's pretty silly to think I would not be allowed to open my own computer.

So if you're interested in a quality computer for a good price, I recommend the Gateway 503GR (the bigger hard drive one is the 505GR, but just buy a bigger hard drive separately for a better value). If you're really serious about buying though, I think the price is only good until December 4. I'm kinda disappointed that Best Buy pushes the sales so hard now. They used to advertise to come to their store so you won't get hassled. I know cuz I used to work there. It's kinda funny to think those sales people trying to bully me. Man, they don't know who they're dealing with, moo ha ha! So don't get bullied by those guys. They may have some knowledge, but their interests are not your own. It was kinda funny actually going up to the counter and saying what computer I wanted like I was ordering a hamburger at McDonald's. "I'll take this video card and a Gateway 503GR...to go please." The guy was kinda stunned like no one had ever just ordered a computer by name. I guess they are used to telling what computer the person should buy after a consultation. The guy was so stunned, he was stammering through his checklist of other stuff (mentioned earlier) that I had to buy before getting a computer. "No, I just want those two things, thanks."

So during this whole ordeal, I kept thinking about how this was so much more difficult than buying a car which was strange since a car costs so much more. Here are 8 reasons why buying a computer is harder than buying a car:

1. The car dealer has only a few models to choose from and even if they look the same, they can explain the differences quite easily and it makes sense.
2. Usually a more expensive car is clearly better for alot of reasons while 2 computers can be sitting right next to each other in the store very similar in every way yet one is $600 more than the other.
3. You don't need a consultation to buy a car while it seems every person who wants to buy a computer is expected to go through a consultation.
4. When you buy a car, you get free drinks.
5. When you buy a car, people see it as a nice car for many years. When you buy a computer, people see it as a nice computer for about 3 months.
6. Cars don't need anti-virus or adware software or a firewall (not yet anyway).
7. You don't have to worry about buying a really fast car so that it will still run at the speed limit a few years down the road.
8. No matter what decade you buy a car, they pretty much all work the same way, while with every new computer it seems you have to learn the latest version of Windows all over again.

How funny, 10 years ago, I would never have owned a Gateway computer. The times sure have changed.

The Sky is Falling

Here's some interesting news. Ok, you're probably wondering how that is relevant. Well, it so happens that particular satellite was being used by my project so now we got no links. It couldn't have happened at a worse time since we had our demo to the customer this week. We're working around the problem and hope to have some kind of demo still, but I just wanted to highlight some funny responses my coworkers have had to this problem. It seems not everyone has a grasp on the frailty of technology...

Coworker: Something's wrong.
Me: Yeah, the satellite went down.
Coworker: When will it be back up?
Me: Never, it's like down...in the ocean.
Coworker: So it'll be back up in a couple days?
Me: No.
Coworker: So when will it work again?
Me: I don't know.
Coworker: So what should we do then?
Me: Standby.

Or this one...
Coworker: So is that something they can fix?
Me: (thinking of something witty to say...and then failing) No.

Granted I'm pretty tall, but usually if I drop something electronic, it may or may not still work. If I climb a tree and drop something electronic, it probably won't work anymore. Now, if something falls from space, even if it didn't burn up into little bits, the fact that it fell from space into water can't be good. I'm pretty sure it won't work. I guess people didn't realize that happens to satellites from time to time so it didn't register when I told them. They thought it was still up there just not working or something. You could say those people just didn't realize the "gravity" of the situation. Ha ha, oh I crack myself up.

Strong Bad Shirt Mystery Addendum

Also special thanks to Eric Hershberger for the shirt. Homestar only told me it was Cynthia...sorry. Looks like no anonymity was intended, but that the special instructions that went with the order were ignored, ha ha. Well, it all worked itself out and this way was probably more fun.

Broomball

Last Friday, I tried broomball for the first time. If you don't know what this game is, it is kind of like hockey except your stick is a little different than a hockey stick and you don't wear skates and you can have alot more people involved and you don't use a puck but a ball instead. Anyways, we played on the ice at the local ice rink. We had a pretty good time. I was sad we only got to play for an hour, but I was pretty worn out so it was probably a good thing. I had a couple pretty good spills without getting hurt. I got tenderized pretty good though. Well, I might as well get softened up for snowboarding anyways.

Back in North Dakota

So working with the Air Force, I've noticed a few things. But there is this one thing that is totally bugging me that I know that my brother, Jake, can answer really quickly. These guys always ask me if I'm "clear" or "secure". I have no idea what it means to be "clear" or "secure" unless it means my level of acne or my mental state. What condition would cause me not to be "clear" or "secure"? If I have a gun, does that make me not secure, or dare I say, insecure? If I have malicious plans, does that make me not clear? Just wondering. Anyways, I just say "yes?" and they let me in. I must have a very innocent face. I'd make a good con artist if I wasn't a Christian, ha ha. Eh, ok, maybe not.

So I found the secret T-shirt giver. I emailed the Homestar Runner store asking who the person was that made the order and gave them the tracking number. I didn't think they would reply since I received the order without any trouble so their part of the deal was done. Anyways, not a secret admirer like some people thought, ha ha, just some appreciation for my computer skills. Anyways, since I made a big deal about the mystery, I feel obligated to bring it to a conclusion. So thank you, Cynthia Hershberger, for the shirt. My other one was getting old so now I have a fresh one!

Me and my coworker have been observing a trend in human behavior when we go to lunch. I'm curious if any of you have noticed this same phenomenon. I'll try to describe it as best as I can. You know those situations where the line goes out the door and if there are double doors, one is closed and one is propped open. And the people standing in line are obviously going out the door that is open. Now the thing I observe is that 9 times out of 10, people would rather squeeze in the open space left between the line and the closed door rather than just open the other door and walk out with ease. I actually see strangers who would rather brush up against other people rather than just make for themselves a clear path by opening a door. Another coworker has said, "Maybe they don't open the door because they think it's locked." I don't think so because the few that actually do, open it with the utmost certainty that it will open. He also tried to defend these people by saying, "Maybe it's intentional. Maybe the person in line is really attractive." I didn't bother to thank him for the complement since it's happened to me quite a few times which is how I noticed this in the first place. Besides I see it happening to all sorts of people regardless of gender so physical appeal isn't the reason either, ha ha. The conclusion we've made is that Americans are lazy and would rather not use their hands if they don't have to even if it means rubbing their whole body against a stranger to exit. Has anyone seen this? Or worse, have any of you done this?

So still no news on who sent me the Strong Bad shirt. Here's a picture of it. What's even more odd is that anyone who knows me knows I already have this shirt and I wear it quite often. Not that it's bad that I now have another one cuz now I have a spare when the other one gets too old.

Harrison thought it might have been some computer glitch and they shipped me another one from my previous order. Couldn't happen. The previous order was a big order that we split 3 ways and it was a couple years ago. The last order wasn't even shipped to my address, but to Harrison. I've lived at my new address for less than 3 months and I haven't made any online purchase anywhere with the new address. This was deliberate.

The only clue I have to finding this person is an invoice tracking number. Too bad the Homestar Runner site doesn't have any search capability. You pretty much have to email them and they probably won't be very interested in my question since I received the package so there's no problem on their side.

So when I got home this weekend, I received a package from Homestar Runner. I opened it to find that someone had ordered me a shirt in my size of Strong Bad. This is a really cool shirt, but I have no idea who sent it. Anybody know? Thanks whoever you are!

On the way home from ND on Friday, I had to stop in Minneapolis as usual to take the 2nd leg of my flight home. To my surprise, boarding the plane and seeing in first class was none other than Henry Winkler, aka Fonzie. So instead of playing it off like he's just another person in first class, I accidentally stare at him like an idiot. Then he kind of gives me the nod like "I know you know who I am, let's not make a scene" and I wished I could give a nod like "I know you know that I know who you are, but have you ever been in the presence of a skitguru?". Anyways, I walked past him thinking, "he was in the Waterboy, and now he's right here!"

Oh and last weekend I saw Will Ferrell at the gym again. He wears those full on spandex pants like one of his characters would wear. I'm sure he's been in the presence of many skitgurus, but too bad not many are on SNL. He was probably the last one in my opinion.

Amy is right. My mom's comment to my Bret Michaels post is blogworthy. I remember Shane played the drums and he played pretty well, but I had no idea he ran with Poison. Crazy.

"Remember Dad's friends the Stanley's and their son Shane? We used to go to their place on that mountain in Malibu Hills. Anyway,Shane played drums for Poison sometimes. When we were at Shane's wedding reception a few years back, I spent quite some time talking with Poison's manager. Bret wasn't at the reception cuz he was in rehab. The manager kept asking if Bret should come take a look at our house when it was up for sale. I kept assuring him that Bret would not like it."

I keep forgetting to tell you guys about this. Every time I drive to the base in Minot, ND, I pass this bar. And there is this sign in big fluorescent letters posted out front for everyone to see that is driving by:

8:00 PM NOVEMBER 15
BRET MICHAELS
THE LEAD SINGER OF POISON!

Man, on November 15, Minot is going to be put on the map! If I'm here on November 15, it's almost tempting to check out just to understand...why?

The Craziest Hook Shot

So after Bible study on Fridays, we always play basketball since there is a hoop in the warehouse where we meet. Anyways, we never really play a game of basketball. We normally just play knockout and then when that fizzles out we just take random shots. So as usual, I do something where I'm totally oblivious that I've gained an audience by doing some silly thing. I stand at the 3 point line and try to make a shot by hooking the ball underneath my leg. So sometimes it got close, but it didn't go in. After about 20 minutes, I figure I'd better stop, but everyone was watching and kept passing me the ball. Then after 40 minutes, I would get more cheers, my leg was getting sore, and I started sweating so much I could hardly see. This was really strenuous! Soon I started thinking that no one would let me leave until I made it. So many times it almost went in and bounced out. But finally I got it and man, it was like Boston winning the World Series. I almost got tackled, ha ha. It only took an hour. :p

Fall Festival

If you look on last year's blog for Halloween, I talked about churches that do carnivals as an alternative to Halloween. My new church had such an event. We had lots of fun. It was probably the first time I dressed up since I was in junior high. I wore the ever-famous Cape of Grape and this sparkly green helmet. People liked it but wondered what I was. I told people I was an eccentric stuntman. (It seemed logical to me.) People liked the helmet more, but I thought the cape was way cooler. How can you diss the Cape of Grape??? Anyways, the whole church showed up to help and it was really cool to see the church serve together for one thing. It felt like being a part of a really big family which was what I was looking for in a new church. I'm really happy with the church I found. I sure couldn't have found this by my own merit. God has truly blessed me.

We also ran one of the booths which was pretty active compared to the other booths. It was reminiscent of American Gladiators Powerball, but instead of really buff guys, you had just normal sized adults vs. the kids. So the first round, we totally tired ourselves out running around like lunatics trying to block kids from putting balls in baskets. It was good that the kids got tired too though, but they kept wanting to play. It didn't matter to them that they all won a ticket whether their team won or lost. They kept wanting to play. It was so cool. It was a great night of fun. I was quite exhausted that night.

Election Day

I hope you voted today. Some of my coworkers couldn't vote cuz we're stuck in North Dakota right now. I was in the same boat since I moved recently, I only had time to register, but not get an absentee ballot. But then my coworker told me I could vote early if I did electronic voting at the library. The last day was last Friday so I went after work last Thursday and did it. I was really impressed that my coworker shared that bit of info with me because he knew how I was going to vote and he didn't necessarily agree with me. If he hadn't told me that, I wouldn't have been able to vote in the election. Now that I voted electronically, I will not vote any way differently. It was fairly quick and it's about time it's this way since we're in the 21st century. After the election in 2000, I'm surprised that the entire voting process is not electronic yet. I think the chads have been done away with for good though.

Anyways, it's pretty late in the day and the race looks pretty close. When Bush was first elected, I thought it was a miracle. I also believed it would take a miracle for him to be re-elected being as conservative as he is. It could happen. It's interesting watching the different news stations and watch how they spin their candidate that they want to win. I remember during the last election we checked in on the votes and we yelled and screamed like we were watching a football game. Only a presidential election would cause people to stare at a map of the U.S. for so long with no changes, ha ha. Anyways, I notice all the news stations are alot more cautious in making predictions. It's crazy how close this is.

More North Dakota Stuff

People often say, "look how many red states there are and look how many blue states there are" citing that there are way more red states than blue states. Being someone who is in the middle of all these red states right now, I can tell you there are not that many people here. Area doesn't count as popularity. There is a whole lot of space here and the people are few and far between.

Today I drove through the smallest town I ever seen. Not that there are no smaller towns. This one I was surprised had a population of 1000, but if I blinked I could totally have missed it. If you ever are in need of a new tractor, I think I found the hot spot for buying one here in North Dakota.

Anyways, I haven't had much time to blog. It's too bad cuz I've had alot I've wanted to write and then I forget it cuz this travel keeps me so busy. I should be in town next week so I'll have more to write then.

Last week I went to North Dakota again. No tickets this time, woohoo! Anyways, I've been pretty busy so I haven't had much time to blog. I'll put this quick one up though to tide you over until next time. Last Monday, when I was going through security at the airport, I was wearing these huge boots that were required for my work. They were fiberglass toe instead of steel toe cuz in really cold areas the steel can freeze your foot. So the security guy tells me, "You might want to take those off." And I said, "There's no metal in them." And he said, "Ok, let's give it a try." I knew if I was wrong then I would have to be taken to the side for extra screening but I had plenty of time anyways and I really didn't want to take those boots off. Anyways, I walked through and sure enough not hint of metal. The security guy says, "Son of a gun, it worked!" Anyways, I was feeling pretty cool that I fooled the security guy and then I had this scary thought. So I'm wearing these boots with a fiberglass toe, a substance hard enough to replace a steel toe and the metal detectors didn't catch it cuz they aren't made out of metal. Then I thought, what other kinds of things could be made out of fiberglass that can be taken through screening. Why can't you use fiberglass to make a knife? or a gun? Well on that note, I'm flying again tomorrow, ha ha.

So Amy's blog about the accident reminded me of one I witnessed a couple years ago. I was on my way to work driving on the 405. It was a pretty normal drive, the flow of the traffic was about 70 mph. I was in the #2 lane and there was this guy on a motorcycle in the fast lane (#1) ahead of me. He must have hit an oil slick or something cuz his bike shimmied really weird and then it went sideways and he just fell over it. His bike skidded off ahead of him while he just tumbled on the freeway. You never know what you'll do in these kinds of situations. The first two thoughts that came to my mind were 1) this can't be really happening and 2) does anyone else on the freeway notice this is happening or is it just me? My eyes were fixated on the guy so I didn't look anywhere else. I was amazed that our deceleration took a very long time although I wasn't sure how long it was, but we must have gone 200 yards before stopping. I can't remember if I was yelling or just thinking really loud, "stop skidding!". I remember praying too. The guy was wearing a helmet and had a pretty tough leather jacket on. He was pretty much spinning like a top on his back which probably kept him from breaking every bone in his arms and legs.

He came to a stop in front of the car next to me. I don't think my mouth could have been open any wider. And I watched this guy slowly stagger to his feet and WALK over to the center divider. I couldn't believe he was ok! Then this huge Hummer pulls in front of us (like I was going to hit the guy or something, I was already stopped, sheesh!) By then there were like 10 people talking to the guy. He was really shaken up and pretty bruised, but he looked like he was going to be alright. It was so amazing! Then I called 911 which I think was the first time I've ever called it. And man, let me tell you, I was no help at all. I couldn't remember where I was on the freeway or even what freeway I was driving on. All I could say was, "a man just bailed on his motorcycle on the freeway!" and then I can't remember what she asked, but I do remember all my responses were "I don't know". And finally she says, "Is it on the 405 near the airport?" And I said, "yeah" and I thought, "how did she know that?". So then I'm thinking rationally again and I realize that people were probably calling as soon as the guy tumbled. I was too busy trying not to run over the guy. Anyways, I wanted to pull over and help the guy, but there was such a crowd of people there already, I couldn't imagine what help I could offer, and I was just blocking traffic so I decided to keep driving. It was pretty amazing what I had just seen, but I never saw any mention of it on the news or in the newspaper. I wonder how many amazing things happen that nobody really knows about except the people who were there.

So you always wonder what kind of person you would be in the event of an emergency. From this experience, I learned I'm the guy that has to be shaken back into reality to be of some use, ha ha.

My new small group at LCC is challenging us with memorizing verses. I think the easiest ones to memorize are the ones you pick yourself. Here's mine for this week:

Psalm 119:9-11

9How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.

I'm not very good with memorizing verses, but I don't think it's due to a bad memory. If I can remember like 200 episodes of the Simpsons and all the dialogue from Monty Python's Holy Grail, then why can't I memorize some short passages from the Bible? It's a discipline.

I'm kinda hooked on the picture thing. I wonder what the limit on space is? Pictures in blogs are fun for those times when you want to read a blog, but you don't want to read alot.


Guess which one is my brother?

People often ask me if I'm the funny one in the family. I think we all have good senses of humor, but my brother, Micah, is the funniest person I know. He's been making me laugh his whole life.

Last weekend I went to an outdoor wedding. A lady played this song on a keyboard and had her sheet music just sitting there shaking in the wind. Wouldn't you know it just as she finishes the intro and the vocalist is about to begin, the sheet music falls down and now she has to go by memory. Luckily the music didn't blow away, so someone in the front row was able to set it up again fairly quick, but the damage was done. The music was a bit off and so was the vocalist. They both seemed to try to find each other in the song. Sometimes the music was ahead and sometimes the vocalist was ahead. The wedding was really low key though so I don't think it really mattered that much to the couple getting married. I think they were just happy to finally be at their wedding day. I still can't get that song out of my head though.

I don't know about you, but at a lot of weddings, I get these refrigerator magnets with a picture of the couple on them with the date of the wedding. Over some time, we collect quite a few of these (sometimes multiples of the same couple since my roommates get one too). So I'm staring at these magnets on our fridge and realize, "these people do not have a picture of me on their fridge", and I don't talk to them nearly enough to warrant having them on mine. So the solution is not to take theirs down, but to make a magnet of me and my roommates (or just me) and give it to them to put on their fridge. I figure some of these people owe me a couple years of display time at this point. Ha ha. Can you imagine, what would people think when they see 3 guys on a magnet? What would the date be? Or if I just made one of me, I could have a cool pose like the one in my profile pic, and the date could be my birthday or something. Yeah, watch out you married couples, I'm gonna be on your fridge soon! You owe me!

Happy anniversary to my blog! Well, it was actually a couple days ago. Anyways, since you guys seem to like weird French stuff so much. Here's a big thumb. This is near La Defense near downtown Paris.


A very large thumb. It's hard to see, but I'm giving a "thumbs up" as well.


It even has a finger print, or should I say a thumb print?

Anyways, thanks to those that looked at my profile. Sorry if you expected to read more. I never know what to put on those things. I have so many pictures I want to use for my profile. Anyways, since I'm on the Paris Museum of Modern "Art" subject for my profile, I'll share some others. I don't put nearly enough photos on my blog. So I'll start putting more up just cuz they are silly and fun.


If you were trapped in one of those "color by number" coloring books, it would look something like this.



Yes, an actual exhibit. And to think, without this art, I would have been less cultured.

I went to Utah today. One thing I just don't understand is every single time I get on a plane, I cannot stay conscious. I'm usually out even before the plane takes off. I'm not sure why because I get plenty of sleep. It's not just a sleepy kind of tired either. It's a crazy groggy kind of tired. This is my theory...they are pumping pure oxygen in the plane for everyone to breathe. It affects me more because I live in L.A. and I'm used to breathing dirty air all the time. So then my brain is sensing this pure air and it's processing it and saying, "what is this foreign gas, it must be poisonous, turn off everything", ha ha. What an engineery explanation, ha ha! I'm cracking myself up here.

Anyways, I'm not crazy about travel, but at least when I travel I have stuff to do. The last two weeks sure didn't account for very much work. Some people think that's like the best job, but I think it's really boring and not very worthwhile at all. All this travel is getting to me, but I don't want to leave the project cuz I know there isn't much else to do at the office. I'm really in the best place I can be so I'm just going to make the best of it.

Anyways, since I was pretty bored at work the last couple days, I've been reading other people's blogs. Most of them are Xanga blogs and they are all people I know mostly, but probably not that well. So while I read their blogs I'm wondering if it's like spying or something. Like if a guy reads a girl's blog, she would probably think that was kinda creepy. But if a guy read another guy's blog, he probably wouldn't care. And if a girl read a guy's blog, that would be awesome. And then depending on how well you know the person, you could always just comment on their site and then they know you read their blog. But if you don't know the person that well, and then you post a comment, that would probably make the person think, "how freaky". Anyways, what do you do with that info you learn about the person on their blog, do you pretend you don't know it? Ha ha. On the flip side, you could say that if you put it on the internet, you should expect for anyone to read it so in that case would anyone care? I don't think everyone thinks that when they blog though. Thoughts anyone? Anyways, I know there are some people reading this blog and have been silent either because they know me but not that well or they haven't talked to me in a long time or they just don't know me and found this blog on one of their random searches. Anyways, I hardly consider this blog private so drop a line. I'm always flattered that people take the time to read my blog.

Finally added a picture up there and if you click on it, you can see my way detailed profile. The picture is from the Paris Museum of Modern Art. It's a very strange place, but one of the few places that were open on New Years' Day.

This past week, my boss calls me and asks what's been going on. I say, um, nothing is going on. Nothing has happened since I've been here (in L.A.). He says, yeah I figured that. (???) Then he says, I should have told you to take some time off or something. I jump on that, "Can I take Friday off then?"

Friday

It's my day off. People ask me what I did with my day off. Why is everyone so surprised that I did nothing? I ran a couple errands and just chilled. The rest of the weekend was busy.

Saturday

I went to UCLA vs. SDSU at the Rose Bowl with Rojas. I usually see about one every season. I'm not much of a sports fan, but going with Rojas makes it more fun cuz he's so live or die by it. It was a pretty good game.

Sunday

I joined my church's set up ministry. Since we meet at a high school, the church has to be set up every morning before service. The first time I went was because they needed volunteers from each Bible study to help out so I volunteered. But I saw that they really needed help every week and it was really no problem for me to be there at 8:30. They always say, "Thanks for coming SO early." Ha ha. When I went to Grace, we started that early every Sunday. It felt weird starting church at 10:30, so now I feel better about coming early to help. Anyways, this week, the youth pastor, Gavin, comes and gets me and Chane for help. None of the other youth leaders were able to make it so he needed us for their scheduled breakfast event. So we helped drive the junior high and high schoolers to the nearby burger joint.

Hanging out with the kids was alot of fun. All the guys ordered fries and a coke for their breakfast, ha ha. And one of the high school girls was like, "I don't know what to order, tell me what to order." I was tempted to say, fries and a coke, but I didn't. Anyways, I wasn't sure which group of kids Gavin wanted me to sit with so he motioned me and Chane to sit with the high school girls, and Gavin hung out with all the guys. You would think this would be somewhat of an uncomfortable situation, but this is not the first time this has happened to me. Being in Belarus for two trips and have nothing but high school girls to teach made this experience pretty normal. Ha ha. They would tell us all these funny things. "This boy when his friends are not around, he can be really nice and stuff, but when his friends are there, he's soooo immature." Ha ha. I wish I could remember more of what was said, but I can't. Gavin is still hoping the youth group with get a junior high girl to balance the junior highers out. I think that will change everything, but I doubt it will make it easier, ha ha.

Our church meets in the cafeteria of the school. At least I'm pretty sure it's the cafeteria, but there aren't any tables there. Anyways, this week the school had put up some milk ads that were a bit distracting. I would say they are only distracting because of the cool and hip image they are trying to give milk so that kids can say, "wow, milk is so cool, I'm going to drink that instead of coke!" Anyways, judge for yourself, these were the three in our church: 1 2 3 I really don't need to make fun of these with my own commentary. Just read the captions for yourself. These are funny by themselves, but imagine seeing these in your church sanctuary only adds to the humor. I guess we lucked out cuz on the website, I found some worse ones. So I'm glad we didn't have this one or this one or even this one. You can see the rest of them here. They are all pretty silly. Man, who would of thought milk could be so cool?

Empty Does Not Mean Available

Last night I got home kinda late and was surprised to see a strange car in my parking space. The first thought to come to mind is "hey, some jerk parked in my space". Then the second thought seeps in, "Oh, maybe somebody is visiting one of my roommates and he said it was ok for them to park there." So I walk in and Chane is by himself. "Do you know who is in our spot?" His reply, "I have no idea whose car that is." So I revert back to my first thought again, "jerk!". So then another thought seeps in and it's like, "well, maybe it was some emergency that I would be sensitive to had I known, maybe I just caught them during that little window of time they needed to put there car somewhere". Anyways, it stinks for Harrison cuz it means he doesn't have a spot when he gets home from work. So I call him and give him the heads up. I felt it was too late to bother the manager about it so we take care of this problem ourselves. We decide we're going to box him in, heh heh. I write a firm note:

"This is not your parking spot! --#118"

Now jerk knows where to come when he wants to leave. By then Harrison got home and parked his car right in front jerk's so he can't leave. It's really not so mean of us to do that considering Harrison doesn't have a place to park now and the most convenient spot is to block this other guy. Anyways, I'm trying to rationalize the nerve of someone to just take the liberty of parking in someone's spot and not even care about the inconvenience they are causing others. Not to mention, we pay extra money for those spots. Then I was trying to imagine how this person will react when they find they are being inconvenienced by not being able to leave when they want to. Oh, the irony! Basically, I just wanted this person to never think of doing it again and it was pretty harmless to get that point across. He comes by, we let him loose, no harm, no foul. Jerk feels silly and never does it again. Anyways, it was getting pretty late and I'm starting to think that jerk isn't going to leave tonight. Either he decides he's staying the night cuz he doesn't want to bother ticked people at a late hour or he just has the audacity to take our spot for the whole night and who cares what we have to say about it. It didn't sit well with me either way. No emergency is worth that inconsideration. I think of my first thought again. Still in the back of my mind, there must be a good reason for this.

The next morning, Harrison has to leave early so he takes off so the car is no longer blocked so the guy may never have known of our little lesson. Then I go to the garage to leave for work a couple hours later and I notice the car is still there. However, now is a good time to bother the manager about it so I go find him. He and the construction guys are working on the building renovation so he's outside working on the building. The owner happens to be there too. So I tell him someone's parked in our spot. He starts asking all the construction guys and I say, "No since last night." One of the construction guys says, "You should key is car up and down really good." and the owner chimes in "Or use the tab from a beer can." Ha ha, "thanks for the tip," I said. So they go down with me to the garage and they laugh at the note I left. Maybe they laughed cuz of its simplicity or its lack of profanity. I'm not really sure. They just said, "yeah, that sums it up right there." Wow, these guys really wanted retribution for me, ha ha. I was telling them that we just boxed him in and parked anyways, but it was still annoying. Then the manager says, "Hey, I'll just move my car and box him in." Ha ha. It was so funny to see all these guys want to stick it to him.

Then the owner says, "I'm going to have these big fat stickers made up for all the tenants. You put them on the window and it takes like 2 hours of scrubbing to get it off." He seemed quite resolved to do this as if it were the last straw. Then he says, "I can't wait to stick it to the first guy that does this." Then the manager recognizes the car and remembers that this is the son of the couple that used to have this spot before we moved in and he probably didn't know. So the manager goes up to tell him to move his car. Meanwhile I'm still listening to the owner, "Ok, this one was probably a legitimate misunderstanding, but some people just do it and they don't care who they inconvenience and that's why I'm going to get those stickers made up and give them to all the tenants." I can only imagine feuds starting up at the complex over this kind of thing, ha ha. The manager comes back and it turns out it was a misunderstanding. He said he woke the kid up and he was all groggy and stuff. His parents were out of town so there was no way for him to know. So he said he'd be right down to move the car. So the manager takes off the note and hands it to me and says, "Save this for the next one." Ha ha. The funny thing was the guy never saw my note nor did he know his car was ever boxed in. He was told to move and he did it. Things probably turned out for the best. I guess I know better now than to cross the manager and owner of our building, ha ha. Those guys really like to stick it to people.

Anyways, I'm not sure if that was a blogworthy story or not. I had a few laughs this morning over it. Hope you enjoyed it.

You're Retiring When?

I got this call today at work from Smith & Barney. They wanted to help me with my retirement and asked when I was planning on retiring. I said, "Um, like, 40 years?". I get somewhat of a chuckled response. "Ok, sorry to bother you," he says. Ha ha. This is not the only time this has happened to me. I can only assume this is from some time in my past when I had to fill out some survey to download software or something and thought it would be really fun if I checked the age 65+ box. When the guy was trying to hang up, I should have said, "Oh don't hang up, I DO need help! I only have 40 years left. I'm so glad you called and just in time too!" Yeah, it wasn't his fault, so I didn't give him a hard time.

Star Wars DVD

How can I be an engineer and not talk about Star Wars this week? Anyways, I bought the DVD box set yesterday and watched a little of it. When I first got a DVD player, the very first DVD I wanted was Star Wars thinking that would be a timeless piece of my collection that would never get old. Didn't exist yet, so I bought Zorro instead, ha ha. Anyways, I think the documentaries are the most fascinating cuz that's where you hear the cool stories and learn how they did things. You also can watch the old TV spots and trailers which are way cheesy. The best TV spot is called "Forbidden Love" and it says something like "a boy and a girl in love in a romantic love story that reaches the stars" or something really weird like that, but it's showing Luke and Leia. So I guess Lucas didn't really come up with the brother/sister plot until later. I thought it was funny in retrospect they called the TV Spot "Forbidden Love" on the DVD. Forbidden love indeed. Well, Lucas made changes for his special edition and he made even more changes for the DVD release to make the movies more in line with the new movies. I watched Empire Strikes Back yesterday and some of the major changes I noticed were:

- Teramura Morrison (who played Jango Fett) is now the voice of Boba Fett. That makes sense since Boba is a clone of Jango.
- The scene where Darth Vader talks to the hologram of the Emperor has been changed. Ian McDiarmid, who plays Palpatine/Darth Sidious/Emperor, has replaced whoever they used for that scene. There is also extra dialogue about the son of Anakin Skywalker being the one responsible for destroying the Death Star which is a really weird conversation since they both know who Anakin Skywalker is and one of them just happens to be that person and they are talking about him in the 3rd person to preserve the shocking reveal to Luke later on I suppose. I can understand changing the hologram image to be more consistent, but I think the extra dialogue just insults my intelligence.

They touched up the visual effects too. No complaints there. Anyways, I'm not one of those hardcore fanboys that is so upset over the changes. I really don't care. Lucas makes the movie the way he wants. It's his story and his money and he can do whatever he wants with it. There are probably more changes, but I hadn't seen the movie in a long time so I couldn't really tell. I'm sure you can find out on the internet somewhere. I'm sure someone has listed every tiny detail on how the glory of Star Wars has been defiled by the changes, ha ha.

Star Wars Stories

Since I'm on the subject, I might as well reminisce a little bit. I've actually seen all the original Star Wars movies in the theater although the first one I saw as a re-release in the early 80's. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mom, but this is how I remember these Star Wars events in my life:

The year is 1980. I'm 5 years old. My mom tells me we're going to see Empire Strikes Back tonight which I'm totally excited about. Then while I'm watching TV, I fall asleep. I wake up later. It's dark. I run downstairs and the babysitter is there. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! So my parents went and saw the movie without me. I couldn't believe it! So then my mom tells me she'll take me to see it another time. That "another time" was like two or three months later. There were only like 5 people in the theater. No doubt my mom didn't want to deal with the crowds again. Who can blame her for that? Well, except me, I guess, ha ha. Anyways, my mom let me sit near the front and she didn't want to sit there so she sat near the back. So when Luke got his hand cut off, I ran back there so fast, ha ha. That was so scary and I watch it now and it looks so cheesy, ha ha!

I remember at that age going to the movies alot with my parents. And there were always these huge crowds and I thought it was just normal to wait a long time before going into a movie. And then inside, I could never see anything cuz people's heads were in the way. I remember that was so frustrating. But who's laughing now, shorties??? Ha ha, j/k.

In the United States, someone blogs every 3 seconds...this is one of them.

Ha ha, ok that's not a real fact, but I just wanted to pay homage to Strong Bad.

Retreat Stuff

I suppose I've waited long enough to write about this. So I won't talk about everything that was talked about at the retreat, but mainly just the stuff that stuck with me. There was this great message on forgiveness. The text was Luke 17:1-10. Upon first reading this passage, it doesn't seem like all of it is talking about the same thing, but let's look closer.

So verses 1-4 are basically saying, people are going to do rotten things to you and you must forgive them. Many times we have struggles in our lives where a person will offend us so many times where we're just like, "that's it, no more!" and we feel a sort of bitterness towards that person from then on. It's easy to justify it in our minds, but the Bible says forgive them anyway. Even if they sin against us 7 times in a day, we are to forgive them. So when the disciples hear this, obviously they struggle with the concept and they say, oh this is so hard, this is beyond my capability, "increase our faith." Sometimes I've asked God for this where there is just a trial too difficult that I say, "I'm not ready to deal with this in the way You want me to, increase my faith, so I can obey You!"

Then Jesus responds to the apostles in verse 6. He basically says if you had the teeny tiniest bit of faith, you would have the power to rip this huge tree out of the ground and have it planted in the sea just by saying so. That tree would obey you. So the disciples are probably wincing when they hear that because Jesus is saying, you already have all the faith you need to accomplish what I have asked you to do. So that's one punch, now here comes the uppercut in verses 7-10. So imagine you're a servant and you've been working all day out in the field for your master. It's hot, you're all dirty, and you're really tired, and above all, you're hungry, and when you've finished working outside, the master asks you to cook his meal and after you have finished with that, then you can cook your own. And you do that because you're a servant. Your master isn't going to respond too kindly if you say, "but I've been doing all this work and I'm tired and hungry too. I need what is due to me." What good are you as a servant if you're not going to do what's expected of you?

Likewise, we are servants of God and must do what He asks. Sometimes it is hard or inconvenient for us, but His expectation of us is to obey regardless and so we must forgive others out of obedience. If that's not enough for you, just think how many times you have asked God to forgive you for the same thing and yet He always does. He is willing to forgive you as soon as you ask. Can you imagine what it would be like if God said, "I'm sick of you constantly apologizing for the same thing over and over. Haven't you learned by now? Perhaps my salvation should go to someone more deserving than you." Aren't you glad our God is so gracious and patient that He can forgive all of our sin? We should extend that same grace and patience to others if we are to be His people. Check out this parable.

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Another thing that stuck with me at the retreat was just a small simple yet very visual and convicting analogy. We are to guard our hearts like it contains a valuable treasure. The Bible often refers to the heart yet it's not talking about that beating muscle in your body. The heart is everything that is you that isn't physical. By nature our heart is wicked and wants to serve the self so how do we keep our desires pure? The heart can only be influenced by what you put into it. And the only way to get input is through the 5 senses. Think of your heart as a city and there are 5 gates into this city. It is useless to protect 2 or 3 gates and forget the rest because enemies will get inside. Clearly some gates are more crucial than others. You're probably wondering, how does my sense of smell cause me to sin? Yet if the power of smell didn't influence us, then why is there such a huge market for perfumes and cologne? As Christians we often look at things and characterize them as being not that bad and so we let our guard down. But Jack Hughes (the speaker) made the best analogy and said, "Would you drink from a 5 gallon bucket of the purest water if someone had put a teaspoon of manure in it?" Of course you wouldn't. That's gross! Yet how often do we do that?

Look at Prov. 4:23. What does that mean? It means guard your heart because everything that comes from your heart will influence your life and project that life to others. If you fill your mind with garbage, you will only have garbage to offer to others. Don't you know, Christian, that what you speak of shows what's in your heart? "From the heart, so the mouth speaks."

There is this cool book written by John Bunyan called The Holy War. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my list. John Bunyan is probably best known for his book, Pilgrim's Progress. His writing style is pretty straight forward. You don't have to read too deeply into his symbolism to see what he's saying. If there is a character who represents cowardly people, he just names him Coward and stuff like that. Anyways, The Holy War is about a town called Mansoul and how there were five impenetrable gates that protected it: Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate, and Feel-gate. Sound familiar? Anyways, there was an enemy and his name was Diabolus and he wanted to take the town for himself and dwell there. Well, his plan wasn't to destroy the gates because that would be too hard, but if he could convince the people inside to open them, then he could take the town. Well, his plan succeeds and the rest of the book is about getting him and his riff-raff out of the town. Sounds like a cool story to me.

Guard your hearts! See you next time.

Reflections on North Dakota

This is my first week in North Dakota for work. Actually, this is my first time in North Dakota ever. After getting off the second plane to get here, I started on my 100 mile drive to the city where my hotel is which brings me to the suckiest part of this trip. The speed limit is 70 on the dark highway with not much in between, well not much except for the short strip of 45 mph speed limit with the cop that hangs out waiting for people like me that don't know the road. Yeah, I got nailed. Getting a speeding ticket going 62 in a 45 zone is not good. Especially when it says on the back of the ticket that it earns me 3 points on my driving record. I've had no points on my record for my entire driving career and now I have 3. I wonder what that's going to do to my insurance. At least the fine was only $19. $19!!! Can you believe it? And I got three points! I'm trying not to think about it. Who knows, maybe North Dakota is so backwards that California will never find out. I doubt it.

Alright, so North Dakota hasn't been too kind so far, but at least the weather has been good. I know that won't last so I'm thankful for that. North Dakota reminds me alot of Smallville except I have yet to see a girl as pretty as Lana. The city of Minot is all about farming. If the Air Force base wasn't here, there wouldn't be a town here. Here are some strange things I've noticed around North Dakota:

- Ozzy Osbourne's song "Ironman" was playing in the Applebee's restaurant.
- People have the name of the dealership their car was bought at stenciled right on the paint of the car. Why do they do that? And why don't people take it off when they buy it?
- For a place so remote and hick, it is suprising at first to pick up radio stations in French, then I remember that I'm spitting distance from Canada.
- Nobody but white people everywhere you look (except on the base).
- My speeding ticket was only $19!

I still plan on talking about the retreat, but probably when I get home.

I'm in L.A. this week (at least so far) which means I don't have any work to do so I'm kinda bored. I had a pretty awesome weekend. I went to the Foundry retreat with Grace Community Church. It was my last hurrah with them. At first, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go or not. I felt pretty good about going to the new church and I felt like doing something with the old church would just keep me in church limbo or something. Anyways, there was no backing out since I signed up for the "drama" competition. I'll talk some more about the retreat later, but now I just want to talk about skits...

Why not talk about skits. That's the name on this site of course. I don't know if I've ever posted about the name, Skitguru, but if I have it was long enough for me to forget, so you probably did too. Skitguru is somewhat of a name and somewhat of a title. It's a really cool name because it doesn't really sound like some other nickname for one. The other reason is I didn't come up with it myself, but it was given to me by my skit team at UCLA. No fancy ceremony or anything like that, just one day they started calling me Skitguru and it stuck. Skit team was one of the greatest things I ever had the honor of being a part of. I never laughed so hard in my life and so I will carry it with me in some form or another. Currently, it will reside here and on my IM and on the Yahoo account I never use except for photos, ha ha.

Anyways, this retreat was the 4th Foundry retreat. The last three retreats had prop skit competitions where it would be 4 teams vs. the champions, who were me and my roommate, Chris. This time, Chris was in Guatemala for a missions trip so I had to replace him. Luckily, Russ had joined the Foundry so my protege from UCLA skit team will be my partner to battle the contenders in the "drama" competition. So I put drama in quotes because it seems the three teams had a different interpretation of what that meant and so as a result you got three very different performances. The first was more of a Stomp style performance where three angst driven guys drummed on ironing boards. It was pretty cool. The second was a very serious drama and pretty much was a small Bible study lesson in skit form. The third was us. Now when I see the word "drama", I just think skit, so I did what I know and that's comedy. So our skit actually had two parts, a prologue and then the story. The prologue was me and a video of Chris in Guatemala. I was talking to him "via satellite". It didn't work out so then Russ comes on stage to bail me out. That ends the prologue and then we do an entirely different skit which was called "Time Travel Through Foundry History...And Beyond!". First we traveled to the ever popular 70s and then we wound it too far back and ended up in a time before creation and just floated in the void for a bit. Then we went back to the present where I took a rest cuz I swallowed too much void and Russ proceded onward into the future and talked to the old version of myself. It was a fun skit. It was kind of a rewrite of a skit we did at UCLA. Neither of us really had time to come up with a decent idea, but that one did get the laughs, and we won that round.

The finals were a props skit against our pastor, Kurt, and daytime Emmy award winner, Chad Brannon. It was actually pretty intimidating. Kurt is a really funny guy and Chad's got the star power. So I'm against pastor power and star power for a props skit. Here was the list of props:

2 little plungers
4 long foam cylinders
2 visors
2 thingies you put on the handles of tricycles that kind of look like pom poms
1 Monster Disc, kinda like a huge frisbee but it's basically cloth covering a ring
2 Nerf looking bombs
1 deflated handball that looked like a baseball

So how do you make a funny skit out of that stuff? It's not easy. Especially since many of the items were in the 3 previous props skits I've done. I have to top myself and win which is the dilemma of every retreat it seems. At first we were going to do a James Bond type skit, but then Russ had the golden idea of the Olympics. So each of us played off being an announcer and displaying the events. Because it seems like so many silly events get added to the Olympics as time goes on, our Olympics took place in the year 2050, and we showed coverage of 9 events starting at somewhat silly to completely ridiculous. Here are the events:

1. Weightlifting
2. Human Rowing
3. Walrus Wrestling
4. 400m Plutonium Relay
5. Men's Pom Pom
6. Helicopter Hurdles
7. Blind Pole Vault Relay
8. Javelin Fencing
9. Over Age 80 Men's Marathon

It was quite a silly skit and proved to be much better than the other skit we did the day before. In fact, it was probably one of the best skits I've ever done. There were tears in the audience. It was a great abs workout for some. Ha ha! I love skits. It was recorded, so I hopefully will be able to get it and put it on the Skit DVD (coming soon). We won by the way.

Funny thing about skits is I love them and I hate them. I always get major nerves right before I have to go in front of all those people. Then once it's started I feel alot better. I'm not really nervous about whether people will like it or not or whether I will be funny. I'm more worried that I will forget a line or totally freeze up there. The first skit I had alot more nerves than the second skit. Maybe cuz I was already used to it by that time or maybe cuz I just thought the second one was so funny. I never really think about how I'm doing this silly men's pom pom routine in front of 180 people. I just think that this is the part I'm playing at this part in the skit. Kinda weird, I can't explain it. Such is the mystery of Skitguru.

The pics are up! Check them out here.

The Adventures in Utah Series Continues...

So when I got my rental car, I forget all the Utah radio stations that I programmed the last time I was here so I just go through and select a bunch. What's weird is two stations are repeated which I just don't understand. As far as I know, everyone has access to the same frequencies I do. Why does a radio station broadcast on two frequencies??? Anyways, cuz I'm zipping through trying to add them to the presets, sometimes I add the same station on two presets. Anyways, I couldn't find a station quickly enough so I just picked one at random that was clear before I parked the car. When we went to eat, one of the ladies I work with was in my car and she says, "I see you picked one of the only good radio stations that we have." I thought, hmm, thanks. Later on when I was driving alone, I cranked it up and it was a total hip hop/R&B station. Ha ha. Not that I don't like that music or anything, but I just don't think people see me as being a fan of that type of music. Can you just imagine me cruising and listening to Beyonce? Ha ha! Well, someone does now, ha ha.

Today after work, I went to Antelope Island again. This time I had my digital camera and a little more time so me and my coworker planned on climbing the tallest peak of Antelope Island. It didn't look that hard. I was so wrong! It didn't look big because Antelope Island is huge and it just didn't look big from that far away. It's kind of like when you're in Vegas and you see the Stratosphere, and you think you can just walk there really quickly even though you're a mile away, but it's soooo big that it looks close even though it's far. That is how I describe Frary Peak of Antelope Island. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Anyways, the rules of the island say that trails close after 8pm. If you're on the trail still after 8, you can get cited. So we got there at 5pm. I thought we could just run up there quick and take some cool photos and then come back in plenty of time. Well, after walking for about 45 minutes, the peak was still the same size. After an hour and a half, it was still pretty much the same size. Anyways, we almost made it to the top, but it got pretty rocky and precarious which was also something we didn't expect. I got some awesome photos though. Then while we were very extremely near and close to the top, I notice the sun is about to go down and we have about 30 minutes to get back. So it took me like two and a half hours to get up the hill and I plan to get back in 30 minutes? Yes. So I just bolt down the mountain. Sometimes I'm in control and other times just flailing completely out of control. All the while, I'm concerned that I haven't actually ran a long distance in quite a long time AND I'm wearing Vans so I feel like the bottom of my feet are being constantly banged by hammers. Anyways, we got back in 50 minutes and no ticket, woohoo! The pictures will be online in a few days. Anyways, I'm way sore now. I can only move my feet in one direction. Like I can press down on a pedal, but I have to lift my leg to get it off the pedal, ha ha.

I'm still adjusting to the new apartment. Not that the apartment is difficult to adjust to, it's that some of the things they said they would fix aren't fixed yet. The most annoying is probably the closet where I need to put most of my stuff. How can I feel moved in if all my stuff is still in the room in boxes? The other most annoying thing is the electrical. Ok, tell me if you've ever encountered anything that isn't like this. Typically, you have a light switch hooked up to one outlet in the room. Well, our apartment has one light switch hooked up to both outlets on a wall in each room. This is really annoying because first, it's not the best wall for the light and second, I have more than just lights to plug in and I would rather they not be controlled by light switches (i.e. computer being the most sensitive). Can you imagine using your computer and then your roommate casually switches off the lights as he goes to bed, and oops, my computer too? That's gotta be good for the hard drive. You could always tape the light switch so nobody uses it, but then we can't use any of our light switches for lights! Anyways, I put in the work request with 12 items on it. Hopefully, we'll get all of our requests fixed. The manager is pretty good. I don't think he's lazy. I just think he's preoccupied with renovating the building. Every morning I get woken up by hammers banging on the other side of the wall. I don't mind too much cuz I need to get up anyways, but it's still kind of a shock in the morning. This morning I opened my front door and there was a plastic sheet taped to the door frame on the otherside. I guess they thought I left for work already, ha ha. It was like when they covered the house in plastic in that movie, E.T. Anyways, I had to carefully peel myself an opening so I could get out of my apartment and then try and put it back as best as I could.

On my way home from work today, I noticed that this was one of those evenings where the sunset would be exceptionally awesome. So I quickly drove home and got my camera before heading over to the beach. I always wanted to do stuff like this, but when I lived in Westwood, the moment would be gone before I could even get my camera. Now my home is on the way to the beach so I was there taking pictures within a half hour. August sunsets are probably the best in the entire year for the Los Angeles beaches. I remember seeing some good ones this time last year. I can't really say how the sunsets are in the winter time. I'm usually still at work until dark. I'm willing to go out on a limb on my August claim though. Check them out here. If there any you would like in hi-res for your desktop or something, let me know the code number you want and I'll email it to you. Each one is about 1 or 2 MB. I'm still working on my photography skills. The hardest thing about these photos was taking a perfectly horizontal picture. This is really hard to do without a tripod and especially when you have a perfectly flat horizon. I got it pretty good in most of the photos. Other ones, the colors were too good to discard. A couple pics are a little grainy. I was messing around with too many settings I think. I think auto everything works best. I also discovered that 2200x1700 resolution is not as clear as 1600x1200 either because I didn't have enough light or I didn't have a tripod or probably both. I don't know, anybody have tips for a Canon S400? Oh, one cool thing to note about the pictures is the sun may look like it's behind the clouds in some of the pictures, but all the pictures were taken after the sun had completely set. It's a mystery.

Moving Day Is Over, Sorting Days Have Begun

The move went over pretty smoothly. I got all my junk to the new place. The new place is coming together really nice. This is easily the nicest apartment I've ever had. It actually looks like a home and not a dorm room. I bought a lot of furniture for the living room only cuz it was too cheap to pass up. In my previous apartment, the only thing I owned in the living room were the TV, lamp, and clock. Now the living room is pretty much all my stuff...couches, coffee table, endtable, and the entertainment center. I keep wondering, how did our place look so good all of a sudden? The building is also being renovated on the outside. Originally, we planned on finding an ugly building with the a nice inside. I figured, who cares about the outside, I will hardly ever see that part, so why should I pay for it? All that matters is the place across the street looks nice, cuz that's what you see when you look out the window or leave the place, ha ha. But now they are ripping off the pink wood siding and replacing it with stucco, so the building will actually look pretty good when their done. I'm glad we got the ugly building rent rate. We will also have a backyard when renovation is complete.

So now all the stuff is at the new place, but I still need to sort out all this random stuff and throw away the stuff I don't need. Last time I moved I threw away alot of stuff, but I was surprised just after two years how much more stuff I need to consider throwing away. It's a weird feeling to see all your possessions piled together in one space. Most of this stuff I forgot I had, but I kept it because someone gave it to me or I thought I might need it. I can think of keeping something that someone gave me, but if I thought I needed something and I forgot I had it and I've kept it all these years and never used it, do I really need it? Probably not. Electronics are the worst for this. They still work fine, but they are so old, their use is no longer needed. Who needs an MP3 player with 32MB of RAM? You can hold one CD in there at ok quality I think. It works perfectly fine, but I'll never use it again especially when I'm looking to get an iPod. Or will I ever play a cassette tape again? Do I really need to play things on my tape recorder anymore? I don't think I have in 10 years. I hate to throw away stuff that works, but I sure don't want to be lugging it around either.

I enjoyed visiting a new church alot. I think I'll fit in pretty good there even though I'm one of maybe 3 white people that go there. For some reason I'm more comfortable around Asian people than white people. It's probably cuz of all that time I spent at UCLA, ha ha.