The OC

So I finally watched the series finale of the OC.

Its funny, there was a lot of time (and hard drive space, 32 gigs) invested in a really bad teenage soap opera.

Season 1 was bad, season 2 got worse, season 3 was just ridiculously boring, season 4 was like watching a dying mongoose on the road, eating a snake, but the snake has swallowed part of the mongoose...and you just don't know how to help but to watch and see how it pans out.
(I didn't watch the last half of season 3 or the first quarter of season 4).

There were good memories of watching the first season though. Of downloading epsiodes we missed and cramming into a bunk bed to watch them on the laptop with John...or the rushing home to watch it as an apartment...

Until Kevin decided the OC was way too ridiculous at the end of the first season. We then went from closet apartment OC watchers to just closet OC watchers.

The Adam Brody/Peter Gallagher conversations were pretty entertaining usually. That was the redeeming quality of the show. Rest In Syndication, "The OC".

I've spent more time in Orange County since the show first aired. Of course that is probably more due to Jess than the show... but oh well.

Good riddance February. The Sharks went a crappy 5-8 and got outscored 35-49. The lowly Kings went 4-6 in the month. The Kings even outscored their opponents, 33-27 and still ended up with a losing record. How funny.

I've decided that...

I'd like to give So. Cal a twirl. I mean really, my Las Vegas time has been decent. The ability to visit people in different directions is great. The...the... ok, that was really the only benefit. Oh yeah and no state income tax. God Bless gambling.

So people, look for a job. I'm still contemplating other locations. But overall, I think So. Cal deserves to be given a chance.

I think I'll visit UT two more times. Once to give the golf course at Thanksgiving Point one more twirl and to give that bowl in American Fork canyon another twirl. Too bad I can't do both in one visit.

Tentative UT trip dates: April 19-22.

I think after my AZ visit. I'll have seen enough of AZ.

Really though, the Sharks and A's games in So. Cal is really what I'm looking forward to. Before I hopefully migrate back to my home "state" of Northern California.

Because the two really should be two separate identities.

Cheesecake Factory

So David the Mexican came down from P-Town to house sit while I was in CA.

He was going to head back, but we went to the Cheesecake Factory instead.

I know it's not the greatest picture. But I wanted to limit the amount of drool you would have put on your keyboards.

A Photo Dump From the California Trip

Getting married at the beach. How fun.


Pre-skate. Yay for hockey.



Rays galore. Who wants to pet a sting ray? I do.



I like the ocean. God knows that, thats why 5 of my 6 areas on the mission were coastal towns.



The Walt Disney Concert Hall It's a neat building, I liked it, I thought it would have been a bit more happy though. Like Cinderella's castle or something.

But this building looks better downtown than a huge castle. I'd like to go inside it and take a look around.

April 5-8th. The first Angels and A's series in Anaheim. Maybe I could catch a game and wander more of the coast then.

California Really Is A Great State

Best part of living in Las Vegas is the fact the beach is only four hours away. About a month ago, I made my friend, Jess (who's probably one of the coolest females, I know) take Saturday off, so we could go to a Kings game.

Before the game we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was alright. But when you grow up going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, every other aquarium is a step up above the local Petsmart.

There was a Mr. Potatohead toy in the tank with an octopus. Apparently it was Octopus: 1, Mr. Potatohead: 0. Mr. Potatohead's eye balls were on one side of the tank, his body on the other side.

There were rays galore, thousands of families and no one got Steve Irwin'ed. So thats a good thing.

Then we ate at Boston's. Eck. Never go to Boston's.



This was the view from my seat. If you look at the post, two posts down. I showed screen caps of the seat viewer for the hockey game. It is a very similar view. Good job Staples Center Marketing Team. It was like advertised.

I got to see former Shark, Scott Thornton, he picked up an assist in a pretty entertaining game. The new NHL is interesting. They really are nit-picky on the penalties and since everyone changed teams due to the salary cap, its hard to know who's where.



Jess knows the A/V guy for the Staples Center. So um, he sent the camera man down not once, not twice but thrice. Finally on the third time, there was a break in the play. So look who's on a bajillion inch screen in front of 18,000 people, Jess and I. Usually they change cameras to show different people, nope. It was like 30-seconds of face time on the big screen. Sad.

Besides the unnecessary 30 seconds of fame. It was a really entertaining game. I was sitting next to two Avs fans. The Kings were kicking butt in the 1st, then the Avs were kicking butt in the 2nd. Then late in the 3rd. The two guys next to me would shout, "Lets go Avs" followed by a, "Avalanche suck!" by the Kings fans in the sections around us. It was rather entertaining. Those LA fans, despite been fans of a crappy hockey team this year, are pretty good sports.

Since I was affiliated with neither team and since I was sitting pretty much 12 rows back of the goal. I wanted to see a shootout.

The Kings tie the game, short-handed, with 3.6 seconds left. Much to the surprise of
the 12,000 or so people left in the arena. Then after 5 minutes of sloppy overtime I got my wish, a shoot-out.

They did their best to make it dramatic too, in the end. The Kings won the shootout, 4-3, and got two points for their valiant effort for the evening.

(It's funny, two years ago, Greg, Kevin, Tim and I went to a Dodgers/Rockies game in Denver. Apparently I like the whole LA/Denver sporting events when they aren't Bay Area teams. Both games ended in extra time and the LA teams won both)


So we go back down to South Orange County. Jess is happy that the Kings won. I was happy I didn't blow all that money on a crappy hockey game. Next morning Jess goes off to work and I do what I always do on a California trip, wander the coast.

I ate breakfast at place called, "The Cottage" in Laguna Beach. It was good, not quite as good as "Coyote Grill" but good enough.

Then I walked out to the beach and found some tidepools. After some wandering all I found were a bunch of hermit crabs, some fish, 1 crab, a bunch of shellfish and a bunch of anemones.

After a long while of being Anti-Southern CA. I've accepted the Orange County and San Diego are pretty nice. If I had enough money, I'd move out there in a heart beat. I still really don't like LA, but really, who does? At least with Angels, Ducks and Kings' games, I'd see plenty of the Sharks and A's. I'd get to see more of Jess, John and Lee Elle and I'd be out of the crappy desert and all the sand (into sand and salt water...salt water is fun and makes sand acceptable) and blah blah blah.

Dogs, Baseball and Post #200

So I walk into the first house of the day. There are four dogs. Dogs like to bark. Sometimes they put their dirty paws on you. So you just go with the flow they get pet, you get covered in dog hair. It's win-win. Well today it was win-lose. One of the Shi Tzu bit me. The little bastard.

Now he didn't draw blood. But it's like a huge mosquito bite. It kinda hurt too. The whole teeth grazing skin. The teeth won. The lady was like, "thats never happen before".

So you know what that means. It's a racist dog. Now you'll say dogs are color-blind. So how can it be racist? John's dog was racist. This dog bit me, a non-white person.

Now you're going to say, aren't Shi Tzus like Asian dogs. Yes, they are. It could hate asians.

So the whole time in the house I kept my distance from a Shi Tzu. A Shi Tzu. The reason was, I didn't want to drop kick him/her into the neighbor's yard.

After that, I went to get some lunch. So I went to Pei Wei. Now I know why the Chinese eat/ate dog. Shi Tzu's can be racist. The dog bites you, you bite back. That could be a Confucius quote in a fortune cookie.

Pei Wei in Las Vegas really does an excellent job of hiring. Both Pei Weis I've been to in Las Vegas have had at least one ridiculously attractive young lady working there.

After lunch, I had some time to kill, so I went to Borders. I picked up Moneyball and started reading it. I didn't know Billy Beane was such a gifted high school athlete. I'm done with the preface and the first couple pages of the first chapter.





I'm off to CA tomorrow. If I start looking like Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf, someone please send money. I don't get health insurance. The dog has all his/her shots and it just nicked me so I should be fine. But if I start posting pictures and I have facial hair. Please help.

I'll be reading Moneyball Sunday morning on the beach. It should be grand. Probably will just be cold. I don't care though, that just means it's hoody-weather. woot.

The Baseball Tickets Came Today

This is a "ballpark" idea of where I'll be

Feb 24: Avs at Kings



Section 115, Row 12, Seat 5 or 6

Mar 18: LAA at OAK @ Phoenix Municipal Stadium



Section 18, Row 7, Seat 5 or 6

One More Week Til March

I watched 'The Prestige' today. It was well done. Well deserving of it's IMDB ranking as a top 250 movie.

I also watched Monday's episodes of 'Heroes' and 'How I met Your Mother'. Heroes is really a well done show.

It's nice to get caught up on my pop-culture a little bit.

Off to CA Saturday morning. I also purchased my spring training game ticket.

I've been entertaining the notion of getting a cat. Mainly because I don't want to walk a dog and deal with the whole bathroom issue that can occur with a dog and living quarters that are void of a doggy door.

Like any good fake wife, Jess questioned my decision.

J: what do you want it for
K: to make awesome cat videos and put it on youtube
J: lol dont make cat videos omg
J: youre gonna be a weird cat guy lol
J: if you ever go anywhere you'll need a babysitter
K: the youtube comment was a joke
K: geez jess hahahahaha
J: lol you so would do it don't lie
K: lol you don't know me
J: YOU WOULD!
K: you dont know my situation
J: you make your own family xmas cards
J: youre not that far off from cat video

The prospects (since I'd have to buy like food and stuff for it) aren't good. But it could be entertaining.

Such as... a grainy video with Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos' Paper Kitten Nightmare and Say Anything's Yellow Cat (slash) Red Cat as a soundtrack...TOTALLY AWESOME.

No More NBA All-Star Weekend

So this is what I've heard on the radio and on local News websites.

There were 403 arrests during the NBA all-star Weekend (Thursday-early monday morning) in Las Vegas On top of the 200 or so normal arrests a day (200 seems like a lot, but since there are like 750,000 people that live in the valley and on average there are 750,000 people visiting Vegas a week, thats not as bad as I would have thought).

There were also 4 shootings at NBA All-Star Events.

I drove down Las Vegas Blvd today a-ok during rush hour without silly people blocking intersections.

Apparently a couple 24-hour restaurants closed their doors because patrons were just plain jerks.

Southwest had so many people flying out of town at the end. That they backed up the whole airport.

The Satan's City blog in the blog roll goes into more depth.

Speaking of All-Stars, when is the last time a white American played in a NBA all-Star game?

Target and the boat show

So I had some time to kill in between jobs. So I went to a Target to see if it was like the one in Orem and had some fast food in the front. It didn't. So semi-starved I wandered around.

Now I really do hate wandering around. Because I end up wanting to spend money. Once David (who didn't come up this weekend, Chris bailed so the CD Tour part deux can't really work without the C) wanted to go buy some pants for church and asked if I wanted to come. I was just sitting there watching TV and was like sure. Well to make a long story short I ended up with bags and he ended up empty handed.

So obviously I came out of Target with some stuff.

-The Ataris-Welcome the Night- So Kris Roe hasn't really done anything as artist for a while. I thought he was dead or just producing music or something. I forgot Welcome the Night was coming out today. The Ataris are like the 90s version of Bayside, they couldn't write a bad song if they tried. Welcome the Night is a turn from pop-punk to more emo. It's interesting.

-Babel- So apparently this is the 3rd part of a trilogy. It looked interesting and was on sale (b/c this also came out today) so I bought it. We'll see how it pans out.

-The Prestige- also came out today and was on sale. I bought this for 4 reasons; Scarlet Johansson is it, to continue growing my Christian Bale collection of movies, the preview was interesting when I saw it last summer and Greg would bust a load talking about how great the movie is.

I wanted to buy The Departed too, but that came out last week and so was not on sale.

There were also a load of Playstation 3s sitting on the shelf and no Nintendo Wiis. Sad. I want to wait and get one when they have different colored wiis.

The last job was cleaning a carpet for the Boat Show. It was the easiest $680 I've ever made a huge,just one 2700 sq foot carpet. Only took 2 hours and change to clean. It was for a dealership that sold Seadoos and Malibus.

If I was a kid that loved water skiing or wakeboarding. I would have felt like a kid in a candy store. I know nothing on the subject though and didn't care.

There was one boat though, it was BAMF. I don't know what version of the wakesetter model it was but it was pretty sweet. It had CD player controls on the side of the boat, it had a trailer that looked like it would kick all the other trailers' asses at the boat dock. Site

Thats hot

Ok so maybe not.

So Britney goes all crazy and shaves her head...then finds a wig.

Why doesn't she just become a Scientologist? Is she too crazy for Tom Cruise and the aliens?

Alisa Isn't Dead just 'Lost'.

She's just still in New Mexico, which apparently only has enough power to power one block of houses at at time. So thats why it took so long to get an E-mail. Morale of the story: Don't move to NM if you want to keep in touch with anyone in the other 49 states and I guess the days of playing on the slide and fireman's pole in her parents' house are long gone.

So this is a post on someone's blog explaining why 'Lost' is lost. It makes since. I didn't know about "The Lost Experience" either. Site

Stupid show.

Want to know what isn't a stupid show? 'Heroes'. Sure it took a topic thats been overplayed in the movies. People with mutant powers. Bleh. Dang you Marvel and DC Comics for selling the rights of every story line to willing producers.

Heroes is a show good enough that I've kept up with the season. None of this '24' business where it took me like 2 months to watch the first season four years after it aired and seasons 2-5 are still wrapped and sitting in the DVD chest.

Shh, Daddy's trying to watch his programs.

So I'm finally caught up on this season's TV shows. Well the ones I've watching.

Heroes- which has been quite entertaining.
Scrubs- It's had its moments.
How I Met Your Mother- Its not as good as the first season
My name is Earl- Not as entertaining.
The Office- eh.
The OC- There's only one more episode left foooooorever.. I guess I did skip out on the 2nd half of the 3rd season and the first 1/4 of this season. but oh well.

So yeah, the only TV show I'd be disappointed to miss is Heroes and Scrubs. Everything else is just kinda fluff.

But the Sharks are sucking, I've been applying to jobs in all kinds of cities and we'll see how that pans out.

I also should change my profile and the time setting on this blog... The mountain time zone on all the posts is really throwing me off.

Table Hockey on Real Ice

Sweet.

I almost want to move to the frozen north to try this.

01.16.03 A Walk Down Memory Lane

So I was talking to Irene today. Then I mentioned that I remembered a whole lot, like when I took her little sister out on a date. She didn't remember that I dressed up and so I was like in my head, "I can show you"

Well it took a bit more effort than I thought. So I'm going to show it off on here. Because it took 5 minutes and so I might as well get my time's worth out of it.

So Irene's 18-year-old sister comes to visit her for a week or so in P-Town. Well she probably spent more time with her friends than her (which sounds bad, but Larrie totally monopolized her time, I just took her out one night).

So it's the beginning of the week and some of my people and some of Irene's people were playing that game where you tell your team what it is and they have to guess it, then you pass the thingie that tells you what the word is to the next person. Then it eventually beeps and the guy who's holding the thingie's team doesn't get a point.

Well Irene's sister was sitting next to me and she'd hit. It was like a constant barrage of back hands for no reason (well i'd make semi-inappropriate comments). After a while it was annoying. My people and I go back to my home and tell the other people about the evening and how I kept getting hit by some new random girl for no reason.

Jacob was like yeah, "she hated kirk." Well I was set to change that attitude. So I got to work. I was charming. I was sweet. I was funny. I brought up how much fun a Kaakun date was.

Well one evening she grease-penned all over our window that she'd love to be lucky enough to experience a Kaakun date.

So I suited up. But I didn't want to wear a suit all night. So I wore Jacob's suit coat and Nathan's suit pants over my regular clothes (I don't remember how close the colors were, but it didn't matter b/c Arcadia apartments are poorly lit). Made my apperance, then stripped. Nathan was kind enough to take a picture of my back side. If I had some meat on there it would be called a butt.

I made these pictures smaller, b/c while having a fun personality, I'm not the prettiest thing to look at. Plus the colors seem a bit dull. But then I remembered Nathan used his camera to take the pictures and it was a cheap camera. So I would look a lot better if the natural color of...my facial features...were not faded, maybe it's the Draper Walgreens' fault, them and their crappy film processing)

The date actually was a lot of fun. About 5 mins into it I was worried about taking a Mormon out that was a good 3 years younger than me and from Idaho might be awkward at times...

It turned out good though. It's probably one of my favorite first dates.

Disclaimer: I don't know the date in this post's title off the top of my head and it's not penned in a hope diary or chest of some sorts. Its on the back of my picture of the graffiti'ed window.

If you got some time go check out Rebecca's blog. Her Valentine Day ranting(its been a week long rant actually) is particularly hilarious and she's the only person on the blog roll that posts something on a regular basis and it's like 52x better than my posts.



Currently Listening to: Straylight Run-
With God on Our Side

Work and the Radio

Since I sit in a truck with no CD player. I listen to the radio, AREA 108 doesn't make me want to smash an upholstery wand into my genitals. So I listen to that.

It's not a good radio station, it's bearable.

After 6 months, I've decided I want to win something. Because I gave up the Xango perks, I need something, anything. Even if I don't want the prize, I'll try to win. Because I'll just give it away and gloat that I won something (They are actually giving away stuff that I wouldn't mind having too, like The Producers' show tickets).

But this weekend they are doing a Taking Back Sunday thing. They play 3 Taking Back Sunday songs in a row, caller 8 gets their "new" CD and a chance to be flown to 3 cities to see 3 TBS shows.

Now I don't hate TBS. 'Tell All Your Friends' is probably one of my top 10 favorite CDs. It's just that after John Nolan left the band, 'Where You Want To Be' and 'Louder Now' just really are ok CDs. So I just kinda like TBS.

Denver, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. You fly in, watch the show, sleep in the hotel room they provide, wake up, fly to the next city and repeat. It would be a neat little trip, if it was Brand New or Saves the Day, TBS not so much.

I saw TBS in Salt Lake in 02 and then drove down here to Vegas to see them in 04. The first show rocked, the last show kinda sucked. Stupid radio and marketing got TBS to be a bigger name and it turned into a 16-year-old girl scream-fest.

Anyways, I heard 3 TBS songs this morning and called in. I tried once and failed. It's sad.

Even if I won, I'd probably would have skipped out of the Salt Lake and Vegas shows and wander... b/c thats really just too much TBS.



Currently listening to: Taking Back Sunday-
...Slow Dance on the Inside

NBA All-Star Weekend

G0 AWAY!!!

So Las Vegas always has some sort of convention or something going on. Every week I've been here there have been all sorts of people from fashion to porn to technology to midgets to whatever.

But the thing is, they always seem to be up near the convention center north of the Strip. So unless a job is right there. I can easily avoid it.

The NBA folks decided to take over the southern part of the strip. The New York New York Statue of Liberty is wearing a basketball jersey. The MGM Grand Lion is wearing a basketball jersey. Huge Adidas posters are slapped on the sides of huge hotels. Pay $300 a night to stay at the Mandalay Bay and you might have a nice view looking out of Dwayne Wade's eye ball or T-Mobile Sidekick or something.

Really the MGM folks are milking this for all it's worth, I wish I was getting part of the dough.

There are millions of people strolling the strip probably and there are a few people that wander south of the strip. It looks like a rap music video, just with uglier people. It's kinda funny. I want to run them over in my Zero Rez truck (This rant does not express the views of Zero Rez, LLC)

People are blocking intersections, getting in accidents, etc etc etc. GO AWAY NBA.

David couldn't find anyone to drive him out here. So the CD Vegas Tour part deux has been put on hold for the time being. Which is good, because I want to avoid all the NBA crap this weekend and running over some girl in booty shorts is probably really going just jack up my car, with all that junk they carry in the trunk.




Currently listen to: Chingy-Dem Jeans

Peter Forsberg

So Peter is a Nashville Predator now. I like it better when he was out in the Eastern Conference, on a team that was out of the playoffs in Nov.

The Sharks play Nashville one more time. Forsberg has 35 points in 31 career games against the Sharks.

Of course the sharks have been sucking it up for the last little bit. Struggling against the lowly blues. Then getting blown out of the water by the pre-Forsberg Predators.

Barry Zito apparently still carries an Oakland A's bag, Jamie Walker walked into the Baltimore clubhouse with a Tigers' bag. I'm glad their old stinky equipment bags have sentimental value.

I want a Banana Bunker

http://www.bananabunker.com/

Thats just funny.

It looks like a vacuum cleaner attachment or...

yeah...

So you know how there are days where work wasn't even worth getting up? Today was one of those days. I cleaned a house then was talking to the guy about oil. He used to work in the oil industry. We had a good laugh how people complain how the oil industry is bad and blah blah blah. People don't like the oil companies, but they don't want to give up the freedom that a car gives them. A bike is a pretty "green" mode of transit.

Well we were standing in the street soaking in that lovely Las Vegas winter and talking about oil. I left and didn't quite close the back door to the truck. Yep somewhere between Summerlin and South Las Vegas, I lost a $200 fan and a $250 sprayer. At least the $3000 air duct machine stayed in the truck. So yeah today I lost like $400 by going to work. Yeah I didn't clean jack crap today. If I would have just stayed home at least I would have been at $0 gained/lost for the day.

Happy post V-Day.

Goals galore on V Day

So I've decided I don't have enough hockey on this blog. So I through a link to somebody's Alex Ovechkin video. Yeah he's a cocky bastard. But thats because he's good.

thats just sick

the announcer is pretty funny

"An extraordinary goal by an extraordinary player that will send these people into their dreams tonight thinking heavenly things..."

Think any American announcer would ever say that about any of the major 4 sports?

thats funny

Upromise? More like Upromise nothing.com

So the nep is like 7 months old (and change).



I was talking to Jess on the 2nd and brought up how well my Upromise account is doing. 7 months and I've earned 19 cents.

Jess: I have like 25 dollars haha
Kirk: lol, poor nephew better go to a community college
Jess: its really going to help with the college tuition
Kirk: lol i can give him a #2 pencil
Jess: lol so if we get married he'll get 25.19 from us

Of course by then I'll probably have like 9 dollars...

In 2024 that will probably pay for a soda. Don't worry buddy. Uncle Kaakun has your first soda at school comped! But Jess has only been working on her upromise account for like 4 years. Apparently she buys stuff that Upromise actually cares about. If I can close the deal, the nephew can get like a spiral notebook and a mousepad to go along with my soda.

March

I asked for some days off today.

3/10, 3/16 and 3/17.

So I'm all set to play with Irene, Larrie and Rachel in Vegas. Which probably just will consist of eating...and I have no idea.

But I'm off to Spring Training. These are the games going on while I'm over there in AZ.

Phoenix Municipal Stadium
5999 East Van Buren
Phoenix, AZ 85008

3/16 v ARI
3/17 v MIL
or a split squad game 3/18 V LAA.

I don't know what I'll end up going to. I'd really like to go to two of the games... but who knows what David might throw my way. I'll probably try to track Kevin down and say hi, or something.

There is nothing going on show-wise down there. The Flogging Molly is playing Saturday in Mesa.

Arizona though. Never thought I'd ever want to go to AZ, even with Spring Training (since ST just consists of MLB players playing 2-3 innings then some combination of High A to AAA ballplayers finishing off the game). Of course I went to UT... AZ is probably like Vegas, just with more Mexicans...and cheaper housing and probably just as crappy drivers.

pointless milestones, interesting websites and places to go

So this is what I've accomplished since the last post.

The I-Tunes music library has broken the 40 gig mark (its at 40.75 gig to be precise). Thats 19.4 days worth of music people. I can play a song and not hear it again for almost three weeks.

The lil 200SX has hit 75,000 miles. Yay for trips to neighboring states. It's really nothing for a car that is eight-years-old. I still want a '08 Altima in a year and half...

Toyota is making a sweet hybrid sports car though. It's suppose to cost like 35k. It's suppose to go all fast. It looks all exotic. Maybe too exotic for my taste as a primary mode of transport. But take a look, if you want. Site

So apparently rape is pretty bad in prison. Which is why I'd never want to go. If my heist went bad and the cops showed up, I'd run and get shot hopefully in the back of the head. Knowing my luck, i'd probably be shot in the leg and sent off to prison. So I guess I should just be a model citizen and not commit crimes or plan heists that can go bad.

Instead of making prison safer for prisoners, why don't we tell everyone that you'll be butt-raped in prison so much that you don't even mind it anymore. Maybe that will lower the crime rates. Maybe, if not, it will give those reality shows plenty of new police chase footage. Site

David and his buddy Chris are coming out to Vegas probably this weekend. The CD tour was so much fun that they wanted a CD Tour deux, the next month. Then it's off to CA for some beach-sitting and watching the Kings probably lose to the Av's.

Then Irene, Larrie and Rachel are coming out to like eat cheese cake and In-N-Out in March. Then the weekend after that, I'm going off to Arizona to watch some Spring Training and... burn in the heat of Arizona. I posted a diary on Athletics Nation to see what there was to do in Arizona. It pretty much was shop or drink. Site I'm stoked.

There are some rumors that the A's will be the Silicon Valley A's of Fremont. Now thats just ridiculous. I don't want to be sitting in Cisco Field, and then hear, "and now here are yooooour Silicon Valley A's ooooooof Fremont!!!!"

That would be like the Jazz moving to Provo and being called the Bubble Jazz of Provo.

Silly Silly.

I realize that the ...of Fremont is a given. Since the stadium is in Fremont and Fremont wants some recognition for it. I also realize that the Giants are going to cry if they are called the San Jose A's of Fremont. Since they own the territory rights to San Jo. The A's would probably try to stick it to them and call them the San Jose A's...

Hopefully it will just stay the Oakland A's of Fremont. And maybe they can just slip it under Fremont's nose and call them just the Oakland A's, 90% of the time.

Oh and downing two-40 oz slurpees in one day is a bad idea.

I pet an Emu

I've eaten Emu before. It tasted like chicken. If chickens were allowed to run around free and get all gamey and chewy. So yeah. I'd probably rather just eat chicken than emu.

So in the middle of Las Vegas, where the mormons laid the street plan down (it's all squared off, those boring mormons).

Well rich people came in and built bug ole houses on top of those pioneer homes, but they were nice enough to keep the street names. There lives a doctor and I cleaned his carpets. This doctor likes cutting up hearts and fixing them and saving animals from being eaten. I don't know if he doesn't like eating animals. He eats the eggs from the chickens... or at least he takes the eggs. I didn't ask if he actually ate them. But yeah he saves animals that are going to get eaten.

So there was a mama and son goat (I didn't know people ate goat), an emu (I guess 5 of them didn't make it), a couple of turkey, a decent handful of chickens and...thats it I think. It's one of the few areas in the city zoned out for animals too. So it does no good tattling to the county. He also had a pool bigger than my apt... it was sweet. Don't worry the animals don't swim in it.

So the doctor was like, do you want to pet an Emu. I was like sure, you don't want me to clean your slate, so I have nothing better to do.

It's weird.

when you have 2 goats, some turkeys, some more chickens and an emu. It makes for a lot of crap. its amazing how you can step in crap from 4 different species in like three steps, then I pet an emu.

A Phoenix, Jesus and Kobe Japan Mission...

So I have a mission again.

http://www.mission.net/japan/kobe/news.php?nID=3878

I apparently also have my own ward...

It's nice to have a mission again. People were pretty happy to get Jesus back three days after he died. I don't know what the phoenix was before or how long the whole process takes. But yeah, a phoenix. sweet. I get my mission back 6 years later.

Not that going to the Hiroshima mission was bad. It's not like I will ever claim I was a Hiroshima missionary...I was in Kobe mission areas til my last 5 weeks and that was just a sweet little vacation (I worked more than any other missionary that gets transferred someone for his last month, b/c it was a sweet deal, You have to pay out of your pocket to go back to the mission home, being on the far edge of the mission would have been expensive, like half of my monthly money).

hooray i guess.

(I wikipediaed it, the old phoenix ignites, burns up, then becomes a young phoenix, I thought I knew that before. hm)

I want to be an athlete's agent

So pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a week. Starting Pitchers got paid a decent amount of money this year to move to a new city. (In order of career win percentage)

Name, years in the majors, Win %, ERA, salary

Daisuke Matsuzaka 8 yrs,.643, 2.95 ERA, 9 mil/yr (Japan stats, plus if you figure the Red Sox paid $51.1 mil just to talk to him. The Sox are really paying like 17/mil a year)
Barry Zito 7 yrs,.618, 3.55 ERA, 18 mil/yr
Jason Schmidt 12 yrs,.585, 3.91 ERA, 15 mil/yr
Gil Meche 6 yrs, .556, 4.65 ERA, 11 mil/yr
Adam Eaton 7 yrs, .545, 4.40 ERA, 8 mil/yr
Jason Marquis 7 yrs, .519, 4.55 ERA, 7 mil/yr
Jeff Suppan 12 yrs,.512, 4.60 ERA, 10 mil/yr
Ted Lilly 8 yrs, .504, 4.60 ERA, 10 mil/yr
Miguel Batista 12 yrs, .463, 4.46 ERA, 8 mil/yr

Now there are some really swell guys on that list. Barry Zito put together a charity to help out troops' families. Ted Lilly and Jason Schmidt did well in the Bay Area. Daisuke Matsuzaka throws something called a gyroball (how can you not like a guy who throws something called a gyroball?). You can't fault them for taking the money. Heck if someone wanted me so much they would increase my pay by anywhere from 33-300%, I'm not going to say no. I just think it would be fun to have a piece of the pie. Is there some sort of vocational school you can go to and become an agent?

Add up some stats, print them out on fancy paper, throw it in a plastic cover. Call up a bunch of general managers and send them the stats on your player. Yes my client will win a couple more games than he loses a year and will pitch about 160-219 innings a year. 24 million for 3-years, deal! I'll take my five percent and go buy more business cards, plastic covers and a mansion in San Diego.

Johan Santana must be licking his chops with his .716 win percentage and 3.20 ERA. He's a free agent at the of this year.

Interesting

Hiroshima, the pictures they didn't want us to see.

The funny thing is the blogger titled it "Pictures they didn't want us to see" but he took some off of wikipedia.org and a lot of the pictures (or at least similar pictures) are at the museum in Hiroshima.

The only positive part about my mission get closed was I really did get to see a lot more of Japan than I would have just staying in the Kobe mission. I saw Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka and Nara (though it was really only a train ride to Nara and back)as a Kobe missionary.

Then I got to see Hiroshima and a train ride through Okayama (along the JR line, it was like 14 freaking hours, from Maizuru to Hiroshima, we even left the mission for like 30 mins or so, because the mission home didn't think splurging on some shinkansen tickets from Osaka to Hiroshima was worth it, at least I was with Elder Spiller from Fukuchiyama to Okayama, Aussie are a fun bunch).

The hypocenter was in my last area and 50+ years later, the citizens of Hiroshima are a little bit different than other Japanese citizens (at least what I thought). Everyone saw ghosts, normal people saw ghosts, crazy people saw ghosts, drunk people saw ghosts. It was different. No one else mentioned ghosts to me the first 20 months in Japan. Then that last month, it happened it every week.\

It's also interesting to talk to people that were kids when the bomb was dropped. Some are pretty angry, I guess I can't really blame them.

But the Peace Park and the museum are really interesting places to spend sometime. It really makes me think that maybe I should be off "teaching" English in Japan and having a fun ole time. Especially since I don't even get health insurance. At least I could go get in touch with my "roots" and have a damn good time doing it. I miss onsens.

Bayside and Chicago Basketball

So I downloaded the New 'Bayside' CD. I'm excited for it. Bayside has always put together decent music despite the setbacks they've faced. Yay for Long Island hardcore.

ESPN: Thomas slammed after saying contest about money

I don't know why this is such a big deal. The NBA is the only major sport that has no names compete in their festivities. MLB has all-stars in the homerun derby. The NHL has all-stars in their skills competition. The NBA trots out a bunch of 2nd and 3rd year athletes that aren't playing in the all star game.

If the league and players don't care to display the "best" of the best in the skills competition, why can't the people they trot out there be in it for a quick buck.

Disappointment and Dreams

So...I had a 6 AM phone interview for a summer internship in New York. Well turns out they only want students. Sad, I explained since I had a degree that covered a broad amount of stuff and minimal work experience. I figured it would be a way to get my foot in the door. No dice.

Well having a 6 AM phone interview wrecks havoc on your sleep schedule. I kept dreaming that I over slept and missed the interview and would wake up every two hours or so (I guess in hindsight, it wouldn't really matter). I also was at Roman Gardens at one point. It was strange being back in the fishbowl. There was some sort of talent show going on. All the instruments and props were kept in our apt (probably because we didn't talk to anyone in the ward, people would just figure it was a utility closet or something, James knew more people than the four of us combined... and James didn't even live there). There were good times there... we kept each other entertained and there were some fond memories with the limited people that were lucky enough to know the residence of 213 (I think that was our apt number, oh well it was like three years ago).

Dustin

So, I bought Dustin Kensrue's solo album last week while in Provo, because he hasn't written a bad Thrice CD yet and I needed to kill time til lunch. I knew it was going to be different. I didn't know how much, so I've given it a week to sink in and now I can figure out what I think of the album.

Dustin has dabbled with Bible stories in songs before. 'Weight of Glory' was a 'Vheissu' B-side, Dustin wrote lyrics from the point of view from a Pharisee. It was an interesting song. Maybe a bit religious but you couldn't really tell unless you read the lyrics (or knew what a Pharisee was).

The album single was "released" on his myspace site last year and could be thrown on an EFY CD (It has a Peter Brienholt-esque beginning). It seems to be inspired by the Prodical Son and is completely void of any screaming or Teppei's guitar solos. All I can think is it's an EFY song, thats actually kinda good.

The album was very folky. 'Pistol' starts out with a harmonica. Dustin sounds like Johnny Cash on 'Blood and Wine'. All I can really say is, it's different. It doesn't bring a new element to folk or anything (besides the fact that a "hardcore" frontman made a folk cd, at least it wasn't over-hyped like every Bright Eyes CD), it's just a good different. Thats all I can come up with after a week. That it's a "good different". Way to go Dustin. I can't wait for the new Thrice CD. A four disc album influenced by the elements. It should be a dandy.

Super Bowl

The best thing about the Super Bowl.

So that kinda met the hype. The Bears, not so much. Poor Bears. Poor Chicago-ites. At least they have the White Sox. As long as Jenk can find the strike zone. They're a decent team.

Theres like 10 minutes left in the game. So they might come back.

At least an African-American coach will win the Super Bowl. This is a memorable day in Civil Rights. Now only if a white guy can be a starter in the NBA all-star game. Then we can truly celebrate...


I still think the Stanley Cup is the coolest trophy of the major sports. Getting to hold a trophy held be the other greats of years' past. Instead of a silver football. or a gold basketball. or a trophy with a bunch of flags on it.


Drat. Saves the Day and Say Anything is in Salt Lake 4.19.07. The next day is followed by Mae and Sherwood... Looks like I'm going back to Utah in April.

Super Bowl

So the first quarter is almost over and I'm a bit bored with it (and I turned it on late). I guess it was good for special teams and defense, maybe... The commercials haven't even been that great.

I think they can get rid of the media week. It is just really really unnecessary.

Move aside Panda Express

So I have issues with Panda Express. I don't really care for it. So I guess I only really have one issue with them. But thats nothing now. I have a new nemesis. Pick Up Stix.

Both don't use MSG (Ellie inserts knee slapper MSG joke...now). But Panda Express manages to somehow have some sort of flavor to their food. Pick up stix in the flavor category, not so much.

I was sorely disappointed in everything. Even their fortune cookies suck. The fortune I got was "The year of the boar is better than the year of the bore". yawn. The house chicken was blah. The fried rice was blah. Maybe it was just the day.


Compare to Pick Up stix, Panda Express is like Pei Wei. (There is a Pei Wei down here, which had ridiculously attractive women working there, Pei Wei kicks butt).

I finally came across a copy of "Little Miss Sunshine" in the Hollywood Video previously viewed bin. It's a nifty movie. I've always enjoyed TV shows/movies that developed the characters well enough that you care about what happens to them through out the series/movie.

So my printer acted up right before I was leaving for Provo. I didn't care, I just pulled the plug and left. Now I took a look at the HP website to figure out what the problem was, I found what I was looking for, the solution, wasn't so helpful.

Solution

1. Turn the printer off.

2. Turn the printer on.

3. If the error reappears, the printer may need service. Service your product.

Thanks HP. I'm stuck at step 1. The problem is the printer won't turn off. The last problem I had with a HP printer occured when the "low ink" indicator for like 6 months. They sent me a "new" (newly refurbished) printer and I had a new ink cartridge and was off on my way. Well that cartridge ran out about a month ago, I bought a new one and now the printer is on the fritz. Karma is a biatch.

So. Cal Tour

Feb 24-25

So I'm going to a hockey game. I wanted to see the Sharks...but that doesn't work into the schedule so well. So I have to see the Avs and Kings... I don't know who to cheer for. Because cheering for a So. Cal professional sports team is pretty much like...well just plain wrong. But they'll be so far out of the playoff hunt by then, how can you not cheer for the bumbling kings? They had a Japanese goalie for a while, before signing Sean Burke because they finally realized that having a Japanese born goalie is just perposterious (thats him above).


I really wanted to see them play the Ducks. But everyone and their mother is going to the Ducks/Kings games.

I've been wanting to go to a hockey game with Jess for like four years. Seriously, how often do you find a chick that has decent taste in music and willing to watch hockey?!?!?!

Happy Ground Hogs day. Did the groundhog see his shadow? I hope he did (or whatever it is for 6 more weeks of winter). The weather has been great out here. A tad bit chilly in the morning and evening, but at high noon, its sweet. The desert is a-ok in Feb (at least in Vegas).

My life is like ground hog's day its the same crap every day. Wake up, bowl of cereal, work, come home, watch tv/eat/Internet, sleep. Repeat.

Heroes v. 24

So I've been waiting for the Nielsen ratings for the week where the new season of "24" premiered. That was the first night that both "24" and "Heroes" were on.

I was curious what the general public would go for.
NBC's "Heroes" triumphs over Fox's "24"

Now the shows are similar. They are both hour-long shows. Jack Bauer has died and come back. Claire Bennett has healed herself on numerous occasions. Apparently you can't kill either one. There are also better than anything else on TV right now (I guess, I've only watched one episode of 24 so far, but thats because I have a pile of four seasons of DVDs still shrinkwrapped in the movie chest).

Way to go Heroes, you beat a pretty mighty opponent in "24" at least for the first week.

So I was cleaning a house and there was a set of frames featuring the Mrs of the house doing a very George Costanza soft porn photo shoot (I cant remember the season or the episode number).

How vain do you have to be to take half naked photos of yourself, then frame it and hang it in your room?

Sad story of the week: I was in the MOA killing time. There was a painting by a guy that died in an ice skating accident at the age of 27. That was sad. I hope he didn't stab himself with his toe pick or something silly like that.