HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIGERN!!

Topic: G1, Thanksgiving, weddings, random stuff

*I got the new G1 phone that works with Google. I am really digging it and it goes against all those iPhone lovers.


*I went to two weddings in the past two weeks. Both were great and loads of fun with random stuff like photo booths, donut machines and of course free booze :)

*I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate tons. I know I did and even went to Target for some Black Friday shopping ... although I did not get anything and went around 11 am. I did do some shopping on Amazon and got a few cheap dvds unlike those insane people who went at 4 am to Macy's or Wal-Mart or a shooting at Toys R Us.

*I am pretty behind in my tv watching. Oh well. I guess I should be glad because according to a recent study unhappy people watch more tv. Go figure.


*Work has been the craps. (sigh) Oh well I am thankful I have job now.

This movie was rather interesting. When the movie is in the present-tense it's in black and white (dark, sad) and when the main character reflects on the past it is in color (bright, joy).

Cecile is seventeen and vacationing on the French Riviera with her father who is a womanizer. Both characters live in an a-moral, do as you please, world. Then one day Cecile's father has one of his female friends come to visit who does not share these "free-spirit" values. The father becomes enamored with his friend and because she is not so "free-spirited" decides to marry her. Her presence brings in a moral value system of which Cecile has grown up without and rejects. Cecile, determined to live her self-centered life of self-determined values plots to destroy the relationship between her father and his fiancee. Only after her success of destroying this "moral overseer" does she fall into a realm of somewhat meaningless despair.

Brilliant film, and I believe it's based on a novel.

Topic: fire, smoke, sad

*The fires have been the biggest topic this weekend affecting at first only the Santa Barbara and Sylmar areas. Then on Saturday morning, as I was leaving Rowland Heights after getting dim sum with Hedwig, I see a HUGE black cloud over the moutain where the 57 and 60 meet. It is the start of the Yorba Linda fires which then lead to the Brea and Diamond Bar fires. By mid afternoon, the sky was grey and even though it was only 3 pm it looked like it was dusk. At that point, I wondered if the Pasadena Marathon would still go on the next day given the terrible air quality. At around 4 am Sunday morning, two hours before the race was to start, they cancelled the event. I was pretty bummed because of all the training I had been doing but running in air that is filled with ash and smoke did not seem like fun. I feel so bad for the people who lost their homes and I give massive props to all the firefighters who worked so hard these past few days.



*I guess all my training can go towards the 31st LA Chinatown Firecraker run. Who is with me? Go year of the ox!

*The Cure is expanding their LA visit and playing Leno on Dec 11th and Kimmel on Dec. 16th. Fun fun fun :)

*This coming Sunday after a long, long year without 24 we get our Jack Bauer back. 24 Redemption is a prequel that will set up Season 7, which comes back in January. Thank goodness! And on a random note, I think 24 sets up future presidental outcomes. Afterall, the show had two black presidents (David and Wayne Palmer) and in Season 7 we will get a woman president. I can not wait for that actual day to come :)

I have been participating in a weekly journalism workshop at 826LA, and each time I drive there, I notice how much Echo Park is slowly starting to change. There already were the so-called hipster hotspots, such as Masa or the Echo/Echoplex, but now there is going to be a new bookstore called STORIES, a host of more restaurants and an 826 volunteer said the Jensen Rec Center will be converted into a yoga studio. Wow. Total gentrification.

Topic: The Cure, running, work

*Work really sucks right now. I want to leave but given how bad things are in the economy I am stuck. Why are some people so mean and hateful :( Frak!!

*My half marathon run is this Sunday. I hope I can do this in a decent time but it doesn't help that a heat wave is coming through this weekend. Just my luck and my friend backed out of doing it so I have to go solo. (sigh) Oh well.


*Given all this crap news there was a ray of happy. THE CURE is coming back into town!!! Oh happy day oh happy day :) They are playing a mini concert on Last Call with Carson Daly December 12th and the supposed rumor is they might play Kroq's Almost Acoustic Christmas. Happy day!!!!

Topic: Lost, holidays

*I finished Season 1 of Lost and I have to admit it was great. I really enjoyed it even with a few small issues like too many Jack stories and the slow-mo usage. I am starting to like more characters and some characters have changed from what I thought they were like. On to Season 2 for me now.

*The holidays are upon us now and I really get the sense it is going to be a quiet one given the economic situation. It will be better for America to curb on the spending and start doing some saving.

*On a random note, I was reading about Barack Obama on Wikipedia and apparently he went to Occidental College for two years before transferring to Columbia in New York. I just found that funny because I made it in to Occidental but decided to go to UCR. Ha ha.

Topic: Our 44th President

"Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states. We have been and always will be the United States of America." - Obama

I have not blogged recently either, so here are some available DVDs I have sitting at my desk if anyone wants...
Stars Wars: The Clone Wars (animated)
Californication: Season 1
30 Rock: Season 2
Thumbsucker
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Fred Claus
Ping Pong Playa

Topic: Feeling guilty, election stuff, mean people
I read our blog 4 years ago and noticed I blogged alot. That lead me to feeling guilty that I don't blog anymore. I'm sorry :)

So I voted today and there was actually a line at my polling place. There's never a line. I usually just walk right in, vote, and leave. It took about 30 minutes to get through everything. I even heard that some people waited 2 hours to vote. Dang!

I've also heard some disturbing stories, coincidentally had something to do with McCain supporters. I heard of a lady in Michigan who would not give kids who's parents were Obama supporters candy on Halloween. How mean is that? They would ask the parents and whoever said they were Obama supporters, she would turn them away. Psh!

Then I heard on KIIS FM today that some lady was at the polling place with her two sons. She was a little anxious because her sons had to get to school and there were 20 people in front of her. The people in line insisted she go to the front of the line. As she was walking up to the front some lady starts yelling and cussing the woman and her 2 sons out; saying that she didn't want them to go in from of the line and "F-you and your 2 kids, you're probably not even voting for McCain." What IS that?! I swear some people are crazy.

Obama is kicking McCain's ass right now. It'll be interesting to see which Props get passed.

So hello house, the prodigal er, daughter returneth. :)

Topic: election coverage, free stuff, go vote

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

*I might avoid the TV tonight because the amount of massive election coverage will make me sick. However, I am curious to see how the props play out in our state. It is funny to read this blog from the last election when we all found out we had four more years of Bush. Scary stuff man.

*On the plus side all the free stuff we get for voting is nice. I need to get my tall cup of coffee from Starbucks. Sadly there is no Krispy Kreme really near me. Oh well.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Topic: music

*I hope everyone bought the new Cure album 4:13 Dream. It is getting decent reviews; there are some tracks that are much stronger than others. Underneath The Stars is AMAZING and a classic Cure track :) You can stream the whole album on their Myspace page. Love them!!


*I need to find a way to get the new Justin Lo album. He is so cute and a great singer.


*Anyone doing anything interesting or fun for Halloween? Anyone going to dress up? I was thnking of going as a Cure fan ... ha ha.

*Work is making me tired and grumpy :(

Topic: work, hair, Lost

*I think the lay offs at work shook some people up. The economy really is a sad mess now. I guess the 10 plus hours a day I have been pushing at work are worth it just so I can have a job. (sigh).

*For awhile now I have been trying to grow my hair out to donate to Locks of Love after a friend of mine did it. It took awhile and I thought about just hacking it all off once but but I finally got to the 10 inches I needed. It feels odd to have such short hair but I like it. Even if I do look like a Chinese page boy now. Oh well.

*I realized almost EVERYONE I know has watched Lost. I have been pretty against the show for a number of reasons but mainly because of all the hype that surrounded it. I finally decided to give it a go and am plowing slowly through Season 1. It is actually pretty decent though I could do without most of the people on the island. So far my favorite character is Locke. He is awesome.


*Anyone else think SNL's whole presidental stuff is trying to be a poor man Daily Show? Anyone else as tired of the election as I am? Look I live in a blue state ... putting up signs here does nothing cause guess what ... Obama has this state.

Oh but there was this good segment on The World on Friday regarding Chinese voters. Here is a bit of the intro:
"According to a recent survey, one third of Chinese-American voters are still undecided about who to vote for on November 4th. Many of them are older and live in New York and California, states Barack Obama is expected to win easily and where there is little outreach going on by either campaign. So their English-speaking sons and daughters are filling the void and many of them are trying to persuade their parents to vote for Barack Obama. Host Marco Werman speaks with Yan Tai, a reporter in New York for the Chinese-language daily World Journal and Feet in Two Worlds, a project of The Center for New York City Affairs at The New School."

*New Cure album 4:13 Dream this Tuesday ... YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!

Topic: lack of updates

*So I guess the blog has been mini dying in the past few weeks? No more movie reviews or comments or anything. Sorry about all that. I've been trying to do other things beside sit at my computer all day ... I already have to do that at work and work has been getting bad. I haven't really been up to much but watching lots of tv (I love me some True Blood and Life and I can't wait for 24 to come back) and reading (still going through the Sookie Stackhouse books but also trying the Dresden Files now) and running.

*Since the last time I blogged the Dodgers didn't make it to the World Series. The lame Phillies ended up taking it and giving us a beating :( Oh well. The better team won and honestly I'm amazed the Dodgers got as far as they did. Go Tampa Bay Rays!!!


*I saw Sigur Ros who were amazing and the Swell Season(the people from the Once movie) who were so sweet and wonderful, at the Greek earlier this month.


*I went to a wedding of an old, long time ago elementary schoolmate of mine with some other old friends. It was nice but a bit random because I haven't seen the girl in a few years.

*I did AIDS Walk for the first time this past Sunday and it was fun. It was nice to be walking around Melrose and Beverly. I actually got to look at the restaurant and stores I usually whiz by in my car.


*I went to my friend's place after to try out the new Rock Band 2. Oh man that game is sick fun :) They still need to add some Cure and 80's bands on there but still good fun and I made the best character. I'll try to get a picture up so I can show you guys.


*They did a few layoffs at my company today and one of the few people I actually liked and talked to got the slip. I am so, so so very bummed. The economy is going to shite.

Topic: DODDDDGGGEEERRRRSSSS!!

*Dodgers bet the Cubs to head the National League Championship Series in over 20 years. Go Blue!!