Ahmadinewhackjobs

Earlier this week the Iranian president visisted the campus of Columbia university. It's hard to believe that an Ivy League campus would welcome a delusional foreign dictator, especially one who is so bent against American interests. At the same time, I guess it's not considering the times we live in. There were the typical responses to the furor stirred up by his presence by liberal morons, e.g. we invited him to expose his insanity to the world, or in the interest of academic debate, but that's completely ridiculous. Why would you even give an audience to someone so far off base? One university dean even went so far as to say that if Hitler were alive, of course he would invite him to speak. How can people not understand how awful and just plain stupid that is?

Anyway, some interesting reading. These are short articles, and frankly, I'm disappointed that more of you don't follow the links to these articles that I post. This is really important stuff people! It's worth knowing and exploring more fully. In any case, here is an article by Michelle Malkin, and here is another by Victor Davis Hanson. Malkin is a great conservative voice, and Hanson is probably one of the most intelligent conservative thinkers. Both provide great insight into the issue.

Humor Is Funny

I like the extent that some people will go to make a joke. For example, this video that was passed on to me yesterday:



And then I had dinner with some friends Sunday night and among them was Nick. He and some other dorks we knew at BYU are living in Huntington Beach and they created this website to publicize a funny guy game, SmashPong.

I love hyperbole as humor. I was just having lunch at In-N-Out and there was a long wait of course. Then I overheard some guys seated nearby who were older, that looked very professional judging by their attire and over the speaker the worker blurts out, "order #39!" To which one of the men responds with, "39!? I'm like order 14,000! Great!" Just made me laugh. Something else that Greg and I used to do was grossly understate everything. For example:

Greg: Oh yeah, I'm going to be making a ton of money this summer. I'm really stoked about it.
Me: Oh yeah, like how much? like 1...maybe even 2 dollars an hour?
Greg: No better. More like 50-75 cents as a base, and then commission on top of that.

It sounds kind of dumb, but I promise you, it's really funny if the person you're doing with is committed to being completely ridiculous in his/her responses to you.

As a sidenote, I'm reading the most interesting book in the whole world, Progress Paradox. It's so up my alley, but the premise basically is that the author writes about how life in almost every respect is better than it ever has been, but people actually feel worse than previous generations. So interesting. One of these days I'll post some of the stuff that he mentions.

TV Is Back

I am feeling ambivalent with the return of the TV season. On one hand, I love the shows, but on the other...I hate being tied up. I even have tivo and the people I watch with all seem to have tivo too, but it still cuts into time which, lately, I just can't seem to find enough of. It started on Monday with:

I actually wanted to catch Journeyman afterwards, but I forgot that I was feeling that and didn't bother recording it. Heroes, however, did not disappoint. So it begins again with the very first episode - tons of questions, and so many new plotlines. I love it. I'm trying to limit myself to just two nights a week. Next up is Must See TV Thursdays with Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock. If you dirtbags don't watch 30 Rock and keep it on the air, I will punch every single one of you in the stomach. It is high-larious. I wonder how the Office will do with Pam and Jim finally going out. Part of the intrigue is the chase, even for the audience. I feel like these shows that kind of thrive on the romance between two people, who, for various cannot get together seem to lose their punch once they actually get together. Or, in order to keep things interesting, they go through tons of trials and ultimately break-up, and in the end you don't really want that either. So hopefully it maintains its lofty standard. Is Karen not going to be back? I kind of loved Karen. I think all guys did. She was hot and cool, but I feel like a lot of girls don't like her just because she's not Pam. Anyway...enough about The Office.

And, as I'm sure you've been dying to talk about, the Raiders finally won on Sunday. McCown got hurt enough that he was taken out of the game and Culpepper came in and managed the game enough to secure a win for the Silver and Black. He was good, but not spectacular, which is fine. We just need someone who isn’t going to spoil potential wins, e.g. week 1 vs. the Lions, and week 2 vs. the Broncos. The Angels won the AL West on Sunday and the wonderful Caitlin managed to secure us tickets for Game 2 of the Divisional Series against whomever it is that we get paired up with. Are you proud of me? Greg gave me the best and most simple explanation for usage of ‘who’ and ‘whom’. Just ask the question, who(m) is the subject? He is, or him, or whatever the case may be. Now another question…is ‘may’ and ‘be’ always paired up together when juxtaposed? like in that last sentence. I feel like not always, but I’m not sure about that.

The other night I had dinner over at Amy’s and she had a friend over, Ranya. She was recently transplanted from England and her accent is SO thick. I love it. I felt like every time she was talking like it was a joke, or we were in a movie or something because it was just so English. And she referred to the Queen’s English, as “proper English,” not like British or any other way you would think of labeling English English. So maybe I should ask her since she speaks proper English and I seem to be unfamiliar with the rules of my own first language.

Jena 6

I'm a little late to this story, but because I just posted last week about Donovan McNabb's comments about football and race I thought I'd visit another racial hot topic. For a good analysis you can read this article that gives a pretty thorough treatise of the different elements, as well as tells a complete story about the incidents in question. This article is commentary from one of this nation's most thoughtful conservatives, Thomas Sowell. Both authors are black, which gives good perspective on the issues at hand.

Obviously tensions are high in Louisiana. The south really just seems like a throwback to a different world and time when it comes to race relations, among other things. I've never visited there, but that is the sentiment I get from reading about these kinds of stories and from what I've heard from other people. My only comments on this issue goes back to what I had mentioned last week about Dr. Drew's thoughts on parenting, "bring the consequences to bear." It should have been resolved when the white kids hanged the nooses on the 'white tree,' but at the same time it should also be noted that the Jena 6 should not be absolved of their wrongdoing because some other kids were idiots. There is no justification for beating a kid unconscious, and then stomping on him, no matter what the circumstances are. It is irresponsible to demand freedom for the Jena 6 just because nothing happened to the kids who hanged the nooses. Sowell notes a drastic, and potentially catastropic, consequence to circumventing the criminal justice system.

Muse At The Verizon

This video is from when they played in Austin, but the stage is the same and basically the same show. You guys have no idea how utterly amazing this show was. I mean seriously, top 3 of my favorite concerts of all time. The thing is about this kind of concert too is that it's so different than all of the other stuff that I attend.

We were back in adventure mode with no tickets before pulling up to the venue. We walked up and found a dude offering tickets for $60 a piece. This felt steep given that the face value was $32. To tell you the truth, we didn't ask as many people as we probably should have about if they had any extra tickets to sell. However, he did have good seats and being that our group was 4, it was going to be hard anyway to find someone getting rid of that many tickets all together. So we paid it, but knowing what I know now, I would have paid double that. The seats were really, really good and the show was mind-blowing.

Upon entering the venue I pulled out the contents of my pockets. The woman checking what I had in my pockets poked at my hand and asked what 'that' was. Thinking she was referring to the pen I always have on hand because that was a problem before at another show, I was like, that's a pen. But then I noticed she was pointing at my keys, more specifically, to the vial of consecrated olive oil. All of the sudden I felt way self-conscious because I tried just telling her it was a vial, then she wanted more specifics, so I finally told her exactly what it was. I don't know why, but it just felt really funny. I guess I was just embarrassed to be put on the spot, but cool at the same time to think how unusal that must sound to someone not in the church, that I hold the priesthood and can bless the sick. Anyway...

The opening band was Juliette Lewis and the Licks, who sucked more than licked. You might recognize her from such films as Starsky and Hutch - she plays Vince Vaughn's girlfriend. Yeah...their music was weird and had nothing catchy or interesting about any of it, but it was funny to see a movie star in a band with her weird vocals and stage presence. Props to her though for even pursuing that avenue, even if I didn't care at all for the crap they produced. On to the main event...

Muse opened with Knights of Cydonia. Awesome. I can't remember the next one, but then Hysteria came on and I just couldn't believe how freakin' good they were in show. Those first 3 or 4 songs were just unreal. So much energy and they were just so cool. They would do a spotlight on Matthew Bellamy as he would do solos. He had on a red suit and he just had such a cool presence. I love when the lead singer carries with him the most energy and a ton of charisma. It was just so cool. There aren't enough words to describe just how good they were. They sounded great, but I think what I dug on the most that you won't get anywhere else is just hearing them rock out and build upon the original song. It had such a raw sound to it with their heavily distorted guitars. It was just so awesome. Great visual effects. Everything about it was so good.

I had heard they were really good live, but was not at all prepared for just how amazing they would be. And I'm not completely in love with all of their music, but even the stuff that I don't necessarily love, I thought was SO GOOD live. It was a really cool experience. Toward the end of the show he was playing and during one solo he just kicked over a big speaker. You see that on TV or something like that and it just looks silly, but with all that energy it just felt like so natural to see him do that and all I could think to myself was, "hell yeah, kick some more stuff!" The whole night was so cool. We didn't even have to deal with the rain that was forecast for the evening. And I had some great company, just good times all around. I couldn't have been more pleased about the evening. I have literally thought several times since the show, "was it really as good as I remember it?" It certainly was.

Lecture Of A Lifetime

This is probably one of the coolest things I've come across in some time. This is the Wall Street Video of the story, and then you can actually read the article here, or watch the full lecture here. The lecture is by Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie-Melon who has terminal pancreatic cancer. It is poignant. Just a great story and message that deserves at least a little of your time.

Ladies And Gentlemen, Demetri

Dave turned me onto him a while ago...I just felt like posting this. I don't have time for a real post because I'll be visiting some properties today, so here you go.

Haiku For Breakfast Love

Warm sausage goodness;
Buttery, flakiness feeds.
Empty stomach, gone.

You know what the worst part about this is? As I was doing a ridiculous internet search at work to find an image of a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit from Jack in the Box, I found the nutritional information for it and it has 55 grams of fat and 740 calories. DAMMIT! So I could either have 4 snickers bars for breakfast, or a Western Bacon Cheeseburger and it would be about the same as having this breakfast sandwish…but it’s so dang good.

More Thinking Out Loud

How is the new layout working out for everyone? Is everything visible? Does it look alright? I’ve been looking at other templates and was going to make a change for a while, but then I started playing around with the html editor and this is all I really wanted anyway. I think I might be changing some of the colors and stuff. Lately for posting jobs I’ve been picking up a little on basic html code and it’s been fun. I actually would like to learn how to build web pages sometime. Any tips on where or how to start learning? Anyways…

I didn’t mention anything about our game the other night because it really wasn’t exciting. We won, but we should have killed them. When you’re playing in a B-league with older dudes, you feel like you should be racking on the other teams like 10-0 every game. But last night at the church was SO MUCH fun, for me at least. My team just had perfect chemistry the whole time. It’s funny how certain things like this give me so much pleasure. I can’t tell you how much I just love when my team is on, or when I’m just on and we score sweet goals and all it is is just kicking a ball at a trash can inside of the church with my friends. Or how great it feels to crank on that whiffle ball and see it hit the beachfront properties and I get a point for a home run because my ball passed an arbitrary line that we drew in the sand. I really dig on that stuff though, it’s kinda funny.

I think the phrase,”nut up,” is funny. You figure it out.

Have you heard all the fuss about Donovan McNabb? He made some comments about how it’s harder for black quarterbacks in the NFL. I know I’m not black so what I say doesn’t have much relevance to that topic, but I think it’s contrived. Okay…so I don’t know what it’s like to be made so conscious of my race every single day, but I think a lot of it is self-inflicted. The more you talk about your blackness, the more people will notice it and the more divisions it creates. I think it was Morgan Freeman who made a similar point about how we will never get over racial inequality so long as we keep on talking about the things that divide us, such as color. I think celebrating diversity and heritage is great, but often it seems to come at the expense of unity and harmony. And no matter how he said his comments, Donovan still comes off as whiny because he’s even bringing it up. That’s how it appears at least to a person who isn’t in a similar position, i.e. me.

There was something else I wanted to mention, but I can’t think of it now. I still really love those pirate jokes. I thought more people would be excited about that. I really hope you’re all doing well. I don’t know where that came from, but I really feel it. I’m intensely interested in your success and it’s so cool to hear about your promotions, good grades, and the like. Sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Anyway, that’s it for now.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Well...another reason to love the fall - it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Who was the genius who decided to spread this one around because he/she has got to really feel good about getting everyone on board with this one. What may have just been a joke 10 years ago is something that I now look forward to, as long as I'm reminded of it. For anyone else who's interested, yesterday was Chilean Independence Day. And September 11th in Chile is when they mourn Pinochet's atrocities and decide to wreck the city. No joke. We were allowed to proselyte or even go outside on September 11th...anyways...to celebrate talk like a pirate day, I'm including some good old fashioned pirate humor, because ye know how a surly pirate always likes a good laugh! Yarrrrr!!!

One of my favorite things about these jokes is doing it in a pirate's voice...

Do you know where my buccaneers are? On the side of me buccan-head! Yarrrrrrr!

What does a dyslexic pirate say? RRRRRRRAAAAAAA!!!

What does a retarded pirate say? NNNNNNYYYYYYAAAAA!!!!

Long ago, when sailing ships ruled the waves, a captain and his crew were in danger of being boarded by a pirate ship. As the crew became frantic, the captain bellowed to his First Mate, "Bring me my red shirt!". The First Mate quickly retrieved the captain's red shirt, which the captain put on and lead the crew to battle the pirate boarding party. Although some casualties occurred among the crew, the pirates were repelled.

Later that day, the lookout screamed that there were two pirate vessels sending boarding parties. The crew cowered in fear, but the captain calm as ever bellowed, "Bring me my red shirt!". The battle was on, and once again the Captain and his crew repelled both boarding parties, although this time more casualties occurred.

Weary from the battles, the men sat around on deck that night recounting the day's occurrences when an ensign looked to the Captain and asked, "Sir, why did you call for your red shirt before the battle?". The Captain, giving the ensign a look that only a captain can give, exhorted, "If I am wounded in battle, the red shirt does not show the wound and thus, you men will continue to fight unafraid". The men sat in silence marveling at the courage of such a man.
As dawn came the next morning, the lookout screamed that there were pirate ships, 10 of them, all with boarding parties on their way. The men became silent and looked to their Captain for his usual command. The Captain, calm as ever, bellowed, "Bring me my brown pants!!

What's really a pirate's favorite letter?P! Because it's an Rrrrr, but it's missing a leg!

I think this one is my favorite and I'll tell you why...when you read this, read it like it's in family guy and you have a couple of dudes dressed up as pirates, but rather than talking in pirate voices, they're just normal dudes...so Family Guy, and it's a good one too:

A pirate walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. What happened, you look terrible!"

"What do you mean?" the pirate replies, "I'm fine.

"The bartender says, "But what about that wooden leg? You didn't have that before."

"Well," says the pirate, "We were in a battle at sea and a cannon ball hit my leg but the surgeon fixed me up, and I'm fine, really."

"Yeah," says the bartender, "But what about that hook? Last time I saw you, you had both hands."

"Well," says the pirate, "We were in another battle and we boarded the enemy ship. I was in a sword fight and my hand was cut off but the surgeon fixed me up with this hook, and I feel great, really."

"Oh," says the bartender, "What about that eye patch? Last time you were in here you had both eyes."

"Well," says the pirate, "One day when we were at sea, some birds were flying over the ship. I looked up, and one of them shat in my eye."

"So?" replied the bartender, "what happened? You couldn't have lost an eye just from some bird shit!"

"Well," says the pirate, "I really wasn't used to the hook yet."

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day Everyone! YAAARRRRR!!!!

King of Kong

This is our protagonist, Steve Wiebe, the King of Kong. Yup, I saw the documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters last night at the University theater. I posted about this sometime ago and included the trailer, so I won’t bother reposting that. I really enjoyed this movie though. I’m not usually one to watch documentaries in the theater, but this one looked really funny and it was fun. NERDIEST guys ever. You have a hero and definitely a villain. The people who put together the film did a really good job of painting a picture of how seriously these guys take these things and the humor is based just on the juxtaposition of the various characters you have in the story. I think that’s what makes it so cool is that the people involved are so real and so quirky. It really is entertaining though and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is close enough to go and catch the movie.

I wanted to write about a couple of things so I guess I’ll just tack in onto this post. Something interesting I heard on Love Line the other night with Dr. Drew. They were talking about raising kids and the guy who was guest hosting asked him what he would do if he caught his kids doing drugs, or if he found out that his kid had driven home drunk. And without hesitation Drew responded that he would call the cops on his children, and in the other case if the kid had arrived home safely, he would convince that child to go back out driving and then call the police on him. He said that his job as a parent is to, “bring the consequences to bear.” This is a guy that deals with people with really messed up lives and I thought that was interesting to hear from his perspective. Bring the consequences to bear. So often you find so many parents who do the opposite of that, they ‘protect’ their kids from their own mistakes. I even read recently about a grandfather who accepted blame for his grandson’s 3 DUI crash, but this time he killed two people so now he’s going to jail.

The Raiders loss on Sunday was especially heart-breaking. But it was a step forward, I think. And you know what got me most excited? Seeing Jamarcus on the sideline, FINALLY.

One more thing…I noticed this at lunch yesterday and I do it all the time, but I wanted to bring this up for any guys who might come across this post. So I’m eating by myself at Souplantation and I’m looking at most of the guys in the restaurant and I was actually sizing them up, deciding whether or not I could take that particular person in a fight. I do this all the time, but only consciously realized what I was doing yesterday as I decided that I could beat up just about every person in the restaurant. Do you ever do that? Am I alone on this? I had been thinking about other things most of the time, but then I was looking at a particular group of guys about my age and I sized up every single one of them. I’m not big, but I have decent strength for my size, above average agility, and kind of tough. It made me laugh. I also decided I need more variety with my friends. I only seem to have white friends. I need a couple black friends, a Hispanic/latino friend, and a friend who swears all the time. I think swearing is funny.

Another one more thing…why is every movie that I want to see in the theaters rated-R? Is it in honor of international talk like a pirate day tomorrow? Yes, it’s real. I hate it. Well…I should be getting back to work. Later…

3 Shows In 24 Hours

Above is the music video for Strung Out's song Analog. It comes without the little intro on the CD, but it's alright. I wanted to post a live clip, but then when I was looking online they only have really low-quality stuff and it looks lame. It just looks dumb out of context and none of the energy is present watching a video that is there when you're actually at the show. It's completely different. I think concerts are the funnest thing in the world. It's just such a funny dynamic and energy to the whole thing.

I, of course, was exhausted post-race. I laid down on my bed, but I couldn't even take a nap. Aaron really wanted to go to this show and we had been talking about it for a good month or so now, so I didn't want to poop out. I was looking on Craig's list to try and find something that would get us floor tickets for a decent price. I called a few, but none of them were very good deals and they sold before I could decide not to purchase them. And then it happened.

Adventure mode.

Thank goodness for adventure mode. It was like a switch that turned on in me. I had been texting with Aaron debating whether or not I wanted to go. I know I tried explaining it before, but I think it's most akin to the scene in Tommy Boy where Chris Farley is talking to David Spade after he got the waitress to turn the grill back on and get him some buffalo wings. It's like that. You just kind of decide, oh the hell with it, I got a frozen pizza back in the car so what do I care if she says yes or no? I'm going to be fine one way or another so let's just go for it. So I texted Aaron and told him, 'screw it, let's just drive down to the arena and if we can't get tickets then we'll just catch a movie or something.' It's not like we were going to be missing out on anything else anyway. And he was totally game and so with no plan other than just showing up and finding some kid to buy tickets from, we went.

Within about 5 minutes of arriving to the Long Beach Arena we found a person selling tickets for below face value and we were in. Floor seats were sold out and went for $25 a piece originally; we got two at the show just as it was starting for $20 each. The lesson is this - you can ALWAYS find tickets at the venue. Why? Because there is always some person or people who bail the day of or the night before. I've done this several times to events that were sold out. One was a broadway play at the OCPAC that was sold out, Jack Johnson at the height of his popularity in Hollywood, Rufio, and now this one. I think there are one or two others. In spite of this prior experience, it still makes me nervous because you always feel like it just shouldn't be that easy. The trick is this, you just start asking everyone you see if they have extra tickets and you commit to yourself that you won't pay above face value for the tickets. You just have to be willing to talk to every person you see. The downside is that it feels kind of funny, but the upside is that you can get into ANY show. I'm sure of it. You just have to be there as it's starting and you have to be okay with talking to every stranger you see. That's it.

The show was great. There were a couple of screamer bands and then Strung Out came on. They are easily my favorite live. Aaron and I moved for the front before they got on and then when the first beat dropped there was a crazy rush to the stage that sent everyone lurching forward. Before it started I was kind of marveling to myself about how odd it was that so many young girls were up at the front by the stage. Then the crazy pushing began and they realized that they didn't belong there and things were back to normal, at least for Strung Out. I just love them to death. So fun. Lagwagon was also good, but I guess I haven't been listening to them as much because I couldn't recognize several of the songs that played and didn't know the words to the ones that I did recognize. Each of them have totally different feels to the way they play. Lagwagon is more fun and tell jokes; Strung Out is just straight up punk music with really raw energy.

Rise Against also was playing, but I just don't really know their stuff and they're too much of a screamer band for me. I wonder how many people think Strung Out is like that for them...It feels completely different to me at least. We caught a couple of songs from them, but nothing that I really knew and then we bailed. I had a ton of fun on my man-date. I was so beat by the time the night was over, but was so glad just to be out and able to take advantage of a fun weekend. I've been so busy the last couple weeks it feels like, but I've really been able to enjoy myself and that has been great.

Ran, Hit Remix

I did the Nike run yesterday with Dave, Caitlin, Mike, and a friend of Dave's from his ward, Matt. Mike served as Aaron's proxy because Aaron was testing for Costa Mesa Fire people.

Anyway...I ran the 5 miles in about 40 minutes, which isn't terrible. Considering I haven't even run a 5-miler in awhile, and then I haven't even been able to get out and run in the last couple of weeks, I felt alright about that time. Plus we partook of the musical stylings of Naughty By Nature, Sugarhill Gang, and Dawn Robinson of En Vogue along the route so maybe I could have knocked off another minute or two. Sir Mix-A-Lot was beckoning around the last turn churning out his greatest hit Baby Got Back, and even yelling out that he had donuts, beer, and weed and that we should stop running and gain weight with him, but I had to press on that last mile. Although the weed was hard to turn down.

I'm telling you, these races are really fun. They have such a cool energy about them, and then by the time you finish the race it doesn't even feel like you ran for as long or as far as you did. Thanks to Matt, I think he and I practically sprinted that last mile to try and make the 40 minutes because our pace was pretty slow the first part of the race. I totally didn't want to run as fast as he was, but I also didn't want to be left behind like a loser. It also helped bolster my self-esteem passing so many people in the end because we started out with the people on 10-11 minute mile paces. But I especially love this race because you come down into the Coliseum and are on the actual grass of the stadium, you get to run up and out of the steps. It's just all really cool. It's really fun. What was the most fun though was the post-race MC Hammer concert that followed.

Hammer was awesome. My favorite was yelling out stuff to Hammer because for every song he performed, he had some kind of silly intro. It was really funny. I kept yelling out, "Hammer, please don't hurt 'em," but I don't think anyone there realized that phrase is the title of his first record. And I couldn't really tell if he was all that serious or not because he was laughing a good amount about some of the things he'd say. And they would be things from his songs, like when a person was getting up on stage he said, "oh it's alright, he do what he wanna do, say what he wanna say, playa." So awesome.

And why are black people so dang cool? They can say, and dress, and do so many things that no one from any other race could ever get away with. I don't really have any specific examples, but I think you know what I'm talking about. My favorite song was probably 2 Legit 2 Quit. For that one, he started by yelling WE ARE! a couple of times and then did the hand gestures. When he performed it, he yell out "put it up there!" And of course, what the Reverand Hammer says, the people do.

For one of the songs, Hammer asked all West Coast Players who can Cha Cha to come up on stage with him and dance. If you'll click to enlarge on the picture at the right, you'll be able to see our buddy Kent Sommer with the sunglasses just to the right of Hammer. I think Kent and I are living parallel lives because this next week he is planning on going to Muse, and so am I. But adhering to male standard practice, I don't want to start asking him out.

And I'll close with this lovely candid of us outside of the Coliseum. Is that not a whole host of the most delicious man-meat you will ever feast your eyes upon? I challenge you to find better! I think if Greg comes across this post that picture will make him more sorry than anything else that I could have mentioned, that he wasn't able to run it. Peace everyone.

Taste Of Newport

That was my Friday evening. I just love the atmosphere that we have here in Southern California. There was an outdoor market type setup and an assortment of restaurants and vendors were there to entice my tastebuds. I didn't end up having a whole lot, but the tri-tip sandwich and Maggie Moo's ice cream that I did have were great. However, the main attraction wasn't the food.
Yup, Gods of Rock Huey Lewis and the News graced Orange County with their presence. My favorite was hearing the heart-beat-like-percussions that open up the song Heart Of Rock And Roll that beckoned me to partake of their tasty licks, and I'm talking music hear people (pun-intended). They also played such classics as Power Of Love, I Want A New Drug, and Hip To Be Square. The one song that I wanted to hear the most, If This Is It, never came on while we were there. My date and I had had enough of the HL & The News. To be honest, I feel like I was a pretty boring date. I just started last week with the normal 40 hour work week and to be honest, it really has been taking its toll on me. She was a good sport, but I felt like I wasn't much for energy that evening, so my apologies. But the food was good and it was cool starting off my weekend with Huey.

Another Headline...

I saw this on the MSN homepage:

Inmates rage after being shorted on dinner sausage

You're task is to come up with the best follow up line to that headline. I'll go first:

That's funny because you'd think with all the dessert sausage that it wouldn't be a big problem. ZING! Now you go.

First Impressions

You know what’s funny? The stuff that people disclose in interviews. Some people don’t say enough, and others just volunteer too much. For example, yesterday I had an interview with a girl and I asked her the accomplishment that she was most proud of, either personally or professionally. She decided to disclose having a kid at 14 years old, then another at 15. And then she talked about all the tattoos she has and how she thinks she might be able to cover them up. I know this is in direct contrast with what I talked about yesterday or the day before, but there are some things that you just don’t have to bring up, or should even bother to. I think the context is very important which was the case with the other gentleman, but try and avoid bringing up addictions, past arrests, illegitimate children at a really young age, and the like.

It’s always surprising to me how much I have to dumb down rules and policies of the company…it’s that whole least common denominator and having to direct your language at the dumbest person in the organization. Sometimes in orientation when I’m telling people about the company and what it expects of them, they look at me like who would ever even think of doing that sort of thing. And it’s because there are some people like the ones who don’t understand normal social conventions and think that when I ask about accomplishments they’re proud of, they need to talk about the worst things that they have ever done. First impressions people! You only have 15 minutes to impress me, or whomever it is that you’re trying to impress with your interview or statements of intent, DON”T BLOW IT! Geez…

Whatever

I wanted to post before I went to work because today I'm determined to not be a lazy sack of crap and be dinking around on the internet all day at work...so I'm trying not to post at work. With that said...I can't really think of a title yet.

Experience I hope to never have again - going to a jail to serve a restraining order. Is jail ever a place you want to go to? I think the answer is no. I've been to visit another person before and then it was to see this corksoaker and serve him the order and I just hate the feeling. You either go because someone you care about is in there, or someone you hate is in there and you have to deal with that person. It was kind of gratifying to see the guy behind bars though. He looked terrible and he was very obviously ashamed to have to see me.

We didn't get to go jet-skiing on Saturday because it went from an affordable $75 an hour to $115 an hour, plus we were chipping in for the 4th guy because it was his birthday so it was going to end up being about $150. Somehow...in my mind when I thought I would be dishing out $120 for the event that didn't seem like a bad idea, but the change in price woke us up to how expensive it really is to do this thing that lasts about an hour. But that's the thing with some of this stuff that is really awesome; maybe it doesn't last that long, but the memory is forever and you'll have a million conversations reliving the event. I vote for Medieval Times now as a replacement event, but no one took me seriously. I think it would be fun, would be more affordable, and wives could come along and have fun too. Takers? Everytime I mentioned it they all looked at me like I was an idiot.

That same day we decided to take advantage of the time together and play whiffleball again, which I LOVE. So fun. But while trying to find a place that sold the stuff because we didn't come prepared to play, we saw a dad wearing BYU paraphenalia, as well as his children. One of the kids didn't have a shirt on and was concerned (he was probably about 5). And then his dad says, "you don't need a shirt, you're a freaking stud." We all thought it was high-larious. Is that funny for the first time hearer of the story? Not sure...but it was great.

I interviewed a guy yesterday and he was formerly an alcoholic and drug addict. It amazes me how honest these kind of people can be when it comes to their past. And open. I just can't imagine having such a serious problem and telling someone about it and looking them in the eye and know that it is what it is and you just can't tuck it away in some corner. Does that make sense? And I've spoken with a few people and the ones who have actually confronted and overcome their demons are always the same - very open, and talk about it unflinchingly. I think it's a sign of penitence and it just amazes me. I think it's remarkable and I have the utmost respect for someone who has confronted something so traumatic and overcome that trial, even if it was their own doing.

That's what I was thinking about the last couple days. I want to do an 9/11 post. Have you guys actually read anything about General Petraeus' report on Iraq earlier in the week? I wonder what spin you've heard. Anyway...That name would work perfectly for a Rock Me Amadeus email to Ralph, Caitlin. I feel like they've had to use that already...

My Thoughts As I Screen Resumes

I’ve been posting ads for the jobs that we have available in our company and it really is ridiculous how many people want to be an administrative assistant. I have 8 postings up right now for different jobs that we have available and I’m getting about 50 resumes a day right now that I have to sort through. You ever hear that people usually take about 30 seconds to 1 minute to look over your resume? I would say that might even be an exaggeration. When I first heard that I thought it had to be too short, but now that I have to screen them and try and find the best applicants I try and go through them as quickly as I possibly can because I have so much other crap to do now. I HATE when people have long-winded resumes.

But I digress…it’s about 2:1 to the amount of people that apply for admin asst. positions. This has always been the case in my experience. And it’s not just limited to women, but to men. EVERYONE wants these jobs. I think it has to do with the idea that people think it’s something where all you have to do is file a few things, write a few emails, put in your time and then you can go home. I guess you just don’t realize how competitive it really is for these kinds of jobs.

Unless you are an engineering, computer science, or some sort of business major, if you’re making more than 35k a year out of school you are the exception. I thought that was crazy at first, but seeing the amount of applicants that I do with the background that they have, a lot of these people who you think should be getting more money are applying for our $12-15 an hour jobs. Isn’t that crazy? I guess for social science and liberal arts people it comes down to the fact that we’re not really actually trained with any marketable skills. Sure…critical analysis and writing are important, but not exclusive to our fields, or at least not in short supply. So if you’re thinking of graduating in sociology or anthropology just to graduate…you might want to reconsider what actual skills and experience you are bringing to the marketplace because the real world might not want to pay you what you think you deserve.

Ahhh...Sports

So last night we started an outdoor soccer league. It is a 7v7 B league and Dave and I are playing with a bunch of dudes that we knew growing up. And you know those older guys who take their insignificant grown-up sports way too seriously? I am now one of those guys. You know…the guys who were high school superstars, but didn’t really do much beyond that time period. The kind who live in the glory days? Yup, me.

It was AWESOME. I can’t tell you how much fun it is to make things competitive and form teams and work against guys you don’t know. When I first heard about this league, I thought we would walk all over every team, but some of these guys aren’t bad. And of course, there are still the guys who are playing that are like 60 years old, but they’re not all terrible. Anyway, we were dominating this team, I mean we were really working them over, but as it turns out sometimes in soccer you just can’t always put the ball in the net. They had a couple of counters and managed to get 2 goals. It made me mad and we were looking tired. Of the 40 minutes, they led for about the first 37 ½ minutes. Then we scored a goal…and then another…and another. We won 3-2. In the grand scheme of things, this game means absolutely nothing, but I just loved it. It was so fun to rack on them and steal that win. I would have preferred to not take so long to get it in gear, but it felt so good to storm back and get that win.

You know what else I love? Competition. I’m like a different person when it comes to playing competitively, especially against guys that I don’t know. I’ll say and do things that I wouldn’t EVER do to anyone that I know, or that in any other setting I wouldn’t even think of doing. For example, I would never full-throated yell in someone’s face telling them to, “shut the hell up” or that “you’re a freakin pussy.” I would never ever say those things in any other setting. Or on a 50-50 ball I ran full-speed right through a guy that probably had a good 4-6 inches on me and put him on the ground, only to wish that I could step on him as well. It’s so fun though…Dave, you gotta know how much I wanted to have the post-game analysis, maybe with a little pizza pipeline afterwards…

Beautiful Day

So I was kind of complaining to a friend the other day. I was just kind of feeling some anxiety over feeling a lot of uncertainty in my life. I think it had just been building up for a bit and I think I just reached my boiling point. She was pretty good about keeping me grounded (thanks, by the way). Something that helped me to get myself back to earth was reading something on NRO, of course. I won't link to the article, but I will cut and paste the portion that helped put things in perspective for me:

Want to close with something from Peter Kirsanow, a frequent contributor to NRO. But first I have to take you back a bit. In one of these columns, I was talking about Richard Pipes, the esteemed historian of Russia (and teenage refugee from Poland). In his memoirs, Vixi, Pipes wrote,

The main effect of the Holocaust on my psyche was to make me delight in every day of life that has been granted to me, for I was saved from certain death. I felt and feel to this day that I have been spared not to waste my life on self-indulgence or self-aggrandizement but to spread a moral message by showing, using examples from history, how evil ideas lead to evil consequences. Since scholars have written enough on the Holocaust, I thought it my mission to demonstrate this truth using the example of communism. Furthermore, I felt and feel that to defy Hitler, I have a duty to lead a full and happy life . . .

Pipes added, “I admit to having little patience with the psychological problems of free people, especially if they involve a ‘search for identity’ or some other form of self-seeking.”

My comment (of course) was, “Amen, amen, and amen again.”

And Peter sent the following note:

Loved the Pipes quote. I suspect it reflects a sentiment shared by most who’ve fled a totalitarian regime. When I was a kid, I sometimes complained about some task or spot of misfortune, as we all do. And my father — who survived being buried alive in a Nazi prison camp and twice escaped NKVD detention (the second time permanently) — would simply say, “Beautiful day.” Put me in my place right quick. Like Pipes, he had “little patience with the psychological problems of free people.” He was just terminally giddy about being in America.

Me again. Just realized what day it is. I'll be posting something appropriate to the day....