LD-Dubs

Well, in the blink of an eye, it was over. Labor Day Weekend was way too short this year. Part of it was due to working on Saturday, which was no fun. Come to think of it, I did a lot that day. The highlight being, seeing all the cool people at Lion's Head. It was especially nice to have Vic back in town for a couple days too. So sad to see you go again, come back soon.

Woke up for church on Sunday, napped in the afternoon, and then played cards at night. Every time I see the Cantonese fool Dave, our upcoming FF matchup gets hyped to a new level. 3 more days until go time... can't wait to see Fred Taylor go down on his first carry.

I don't think I left the townhouse at all on Labor Day itself. Instead, just slept in, watched baseball, read magazines, and listened to music. I wish every day could be more like that. "I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be"

Music from "The Bends" provided quality listening for the day off. Nirvana and Pearl Jam get all the attention, but was there a better band in the 90's than Radiohead? I argue for the latter. Haven't listened to Pablo Honey much, but The Bends and OK Computer were 2 absolutely huge albums released during my high school years, when I started to really listen to music. And now that it's years later, as I've become a post-graduate of college, I find that I'm still gaining more appreciation for songs like "High and Dry" or "Fake Plastic Trees".

Some things learned from the weekend:

- "Real" poker chips cost a lot. Me and P were looking up on the internet to see how much we could get some for, and found that it would cost at least a hundred bucks for about 300 ceramic chips, and even more for clay. It's hard for me to understand why they cost so much, maybe someone has the market for poker chips cornered and they are jacking up the prices. If that is so, the only way I know to get around that is to look in Chinatown or Taiwan.

- Those temporary tattoos are harder to remove than you think. During kids' Sunday School time, we were giving them some of those tattoos that you can soak onto your skin using a wet paper towel. I decided to join in and get one of Linus on my hand. Then when I came home, I tried to wash it off and discovered that it was damn near impossible. I tried again late Sunday night before going to sleep, and it was still impossible, leading me to start worrying. Finally, Monday afternoon I used a lot of dishwashing detergent, rubbed it like mad, and it came off, not without leaving all the skin on my hand red. But it was either that, or show up to work with a Charlie Brown character on my hand. Although I did have a backup plan, which was to put a bandaid over it. I'm glad I didn't have to resort to such homoness though.

- Not charging your Pocket PC for a long time can cause data loss. I guess I should have known this, considering that it gives me a warning message saying as much when the battery is low, but sometimes I'm one of those fools that needs to learn the hard way. So now all the contact info that I got from everyone is gone, along with the few programs that I installed. Oops... But it got me thinking, if that happened to my phone, I would be much more screwed. I don't know anyone's phone number because I never dial it manually.

- The Zaino car polish system is probably the best I have ever used. I had my doubts in the beginning, but now I am really starting to see for myself that the more layers you put on, the deeper the shine and protection. If only it didn't rain so much, and I didn't have to park outside, then I wouldn't have to wash every other week or so. It's getting kind of tiring.

Vhat to do, Vhat to do

I decided not to start Moose today, despite being dared to do so. I think he ended up getting a win, but it wasn't a great outing, so no big deal. The fans of Taipei are on the edge of their seats with the possibility of their first Dizudo League Championship alive with a month left in the season. Now if only those pesky Kansas Whiteys would go away.

I was a little puzzled by the White Sox decision to start Neil Cotts today. Apparently, the plan was to start Buerhle, if they lost last night. Now, I know the goal is to "win series", and it's nice that they locked that up already, but if your good pitcher is ready, why not put him out? Hindsight is 20/20, but you ended up sending a rookie out to get shelled by one of the best teams in the major leagues. That can't be good for his confidence, which means a lot to a young pitcher. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure Buerhle wouldn't have given up 5 runs in the 1st inning, and had he been out there, we might be looking at a Sox sweep of the Skankees in New York. Maybe they just respect Detroit so much more, knowing that we have gotten hardcore owned by the Tigers this year. So it could be that Jerry Manuel is saving his best guys to be geared up for this upcoming series. Hmmm....

Something that sucks - It's possible I will have to come in to work for part of the day on Saturday. Not sure yet, but that would kind of negate Labor Day for me. SWEET

If one of my coworkers didn't mention it today, I wouldn't have known that tonight was the MTV Video Music Awards. I guess I haven't been paying attention to the commercials. The VMA's used to hold a special place in my heart, especially because of Britney. But now I don't seem to be as interested in that stuff. I'm not really a big fan of any of today's hot stars. I didn't even know who Hillary Duff was until very recently, and now she is everywhere. Still, I think I will try to catch some of the show tonight, mostly because Chras Rock is hosting, and I consider him to be one of the funniest people ever.

Speaking of which, a couple days ago I was going through my old files on my computer and I ended up watching a bunch of the videos I used to download. One of which was "No Sex In The Champagne Room" by Chris Rock, his parody of that one video, "Wear Sunscreen". My favorite line is "Why spend the next 20 years in jail because somebody smudged your Puma?"

Wednesday Morning: The Week is Half-Over or Half-Left?

- Labor Day can't get here soon enough. I don't really have plans to go anywhere, but that's maybe a good thing. I think I've said it before, but working a Mon-Fri schedule really makes me appreciate the weekends and holidays that much more. I'm looking forward to lots of sitting around and sleeping. Too bad it will only be 1 extra day off, but I'll take it.

- Yesterday I was at Marshall Fields looking for a gift for my dad's birthday. That Jennifer Lopez song with LL Cool J came on, and then I suddenly noticed that I was walking along to the beat. Whether it was a coincidence or not, I don't know. But the more I tried to change my step to unmatch the beat, it seemed like the more in step I became. I could've sworn that the beat was actually following me. People around me were probably thinking that I was trying to do some sort of retarded dance, speeding up and slowing down and pausing in midair. Oh well.

- I caught up on Real World last night. Whenever CT is involved, the situation is always hilarious. Also, poor Ace. I kind of feel for the guy, except I'm sure he won't have any problem recovering from girl issues. The next episode looks promising, there hasn't been enough Adam drama lately. I miss his songs, they make for quality entertainment.

- With them being in 1st place this late in the season, the "Sox factor" is alive and kicking this year. It's good but brings about tough decisions fantasy-wise, especially as I'm still locked in a tight race there too. A conference with Chras on Sunday afternoon convinced me to bench Clemens against the Sox last night. He ended up getting rocked for the worst start of his season. Hopefully, they didn't shatter his confidence too much and it won't affect his following starts, but I don't think it will. After all, it's Roger Clemens. Now I have another decision on hand. Start Mussina against the Sox tomorrow? Hmmmm....

Movies

Some thoughts on movies I watched over the weekend:

The Medallion - Seriously, one of the most awful movies I have seen in a long time. I don't really know why I decided to watch it, I was never really a big fan of Jackie Chan, and the previews for it looked kind of dumb. But despite going into the theater with low expectations, the movie managed to somehow ____ my expectations. (The ____ represents an antonym for "exceed", which I can't come up with. Try it, I challenge you to find a good antonym for "exceed", I bet you can't either). I knew it wasn't a good sign when that guy from "There's Something About Mary" was one of the main characters (the one who pretended to be a handicapped architect). As the movie dragged on, I stayed hoping that it would get better, but it only got worse. The eventual climax was one of the most awkward on-screen kisses I have ever seen in my life, between Jackie Chan and Claire Forlani. Afterwards, I decided that if I ever meet Jackie Chan in real life, I will give him a kick in the nuts and only then will we be even.

Bowling For Columbine - I originally wanted to see this movie because I thought "Roger and Me" was really good, but after Michael Moore lost my respect with his outburst at the Oscars, my eagerness to watch it significantly waned. But Olivia still wanted to watch it, so we gave it a rental. After all, nothing could be worse than The Medallion experience of the night before.

Anyways, if people haven't heard of Michael Moore, he makes these documentaries by going around with a camera crew and interviewing people, confronting people, and narrating throughout the movie with his own commentary. "Roger and Me" was about the GM layoffs in Flint, Michigan (his hometown), while "Bowling For Columbine" addressed the school shootings at Columbine High School. His style is kind of sarcastic, part "Tom Green", and his movies usually end up being pretty funny in a biting sort of way.

Well, the negative thing about this movie is that it doesn't really have a clear sense of direction or purpose. The main premise was to discuss the reasons for the Columbine tragedy and who was to blame, but it ended up being kind of all over the place. Most of the time it seemed like he was just out to make certain people look bad. So he went after Charlton Heston and the NRA for opposing gun control. He harrassed K-Mart for selling bullets. He criticized the media for hyping up violent crimes and perpetuating a society living in fear. He attacked the US government for getting involved in Bosnia and the Middle East, and targeted Lockheed Martin for its influence as a big defense contractor in the area.

Basically, I got the sense that Michael Moore is one of those guys who is always against the government, large corporations, and powerful organizations. At times it makes him seem cool to a lot of people, because he's on the side of the "little guy". But on the other hand, it does become a tired act when he's just attacking all these establishments for the sake of attacking establishment.

The positive thing about the movie is that it makes you think. Whether or not you agree with his points or his methods is another story, but at least he is bringing a lot of issues to light. So I do recommend this movie to anyone who is interested.

* A side note - I have newfound respect for Hollywood Video. I've always gone to Blockbuster, but now I might have to get a membership at Hollywood after discovering the fact that they give you a dollar credit back if you return the movie within a day. The rental fee is pretty cheap to begin with, and I return movies early most of the time anyways. What an excellent idea, I must say.

Rounders - My latest DVD purchase, $15 at Best Buy. No special features, but that's ok because this movie is definitely a quality classic. I know this because it has recently joined my list of movies that I like to quote a lot, mostly because of John Malkovich (Teddy KGB). It helps that I've been playing more poker lately and we always overuse those quotes when we play. "khanging aghround.... khanging aghround... kid's got allighator blood" "he beaiit me straaiiiight up" "i'll splash the pot whenever the ____ I want"

This movie gets better everytime I watch it, and it also makes me wish I was Johnny Chan. He is my new idol, what a true thug.

Back 2 School

On Saturday, my mom and I drove my sister down to Champaign to help her move into her apartment. The campus looks basically the same, except a bunch of new apartment buildings popped up all over the place. Also, there's some new/different stores on Green Street. Remember when that area used to have a Yen-Ching Buffet and the Co-Ed theater? I already forgot what all of that looked like. Other than driving around and moving stuff for my sis, I didn't have a chance to visit any buildings, like Grainger or the Union, and I didn't check to see if R&R's really turned into a gay bar, as rumored.

I did drive by ISR to see all the students moving in, and it revived memories of me and Anuj packing all our stuff into his little Corolla and caravan-ing down to school with P, Vic, Chras, and Rod that day. I especially remember watching some daring passing maneuvers by P in his van on IL-47, a 2 lane highway. Anyways, I could write more nostalgic stuff about college memories, but this blog has seen too much of that already.

Another thing the trip revived was my doubts about whether or not there is an Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana area. Previously, people had informed me with great confidence that there definitely was, and since they insisted it was true, I just accepted it, even though I had never seen one in 4 years of being at school. Well, when we were down there on Saturday, we ended up having lunch at Hometown Buffet (on Prospect by Outback Steakhouse and across from Meijer). Since the place was so similar to OCB, I started thinking that maybe everyone who told me there was an Old Country Buffet before actually got it mixed up with Hometown Buffet instead.

So this bothered me so much to the point that eventually, I did what any self-respecting nerd would do and just looked it up on the Internet. Google pointed me to Buffet.com or something, where I learned that there were in fact NO locations of Old Country Buffet in the Champaign-Urbana region. However, the kicker is that OCB and HTB are run by the same people so it's pretty much the same thing. Thus in a way, everyone was right and everyone was wrong.

The drive to and from school used to be pretty much a weekly thing for me, one that I must have done close to a hundred times, if not more. I kind of miss driving on the relatively open highway for a couple hours at a time. It's really a relaxing experience, other than the million bugs that die on your windshield, and the occasional possum you run over that gives you a chilling look before the thump comes. One thing I have come to enjoy about the trip is analyzing other people's license plates. On the way back Saturday afternoon, my favorite was "JESUS 85". It made me wonder whether or not there were actually 84 other Jesuses (or is it plural "Jesii"? hmmm...), who wanted that license plate, so this guy ended up getting the 85th. Otherwise, why "85"? I was intrigued.

Well, I guess as all the school people start a new year, us working people simply start a new week. Have a happy Monday everyone.