Scott's Amazing Adventures

Our House Progress

2009-11-07T16:56:00.001-08:00

These were taken today!

Happy Halloween!!

2009-11-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

Travis Barker is UH-mazing

2009-09-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

So we went to the Blink-182 show last night and it was amazing and I'll post more on it later, but you must see this video. This was the finale/encore and it showed just how awesome Travis Barker is. Anyways, watch this: (I think it cut off the edge on some browsers, so if so, here's the link to youtube: Travis Barker clip)

(I didn't get the whole thing cause I had limited memory, but this almost seems like a complete clip, and it's taped by me as best I could, enjoy)

Some New Pics of the House

2009-09-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Amanda and Me in our happenstance matching outfits this past Sunday. Followed by various pictures of the progress of our house. Enjoy!

God Loves, Man Kills (An X-Men Story)

2009-09-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is one of those books that I think everyone should read. X-Men has been a series that has often addressed the question of prejudice and hate towards minorities (in the case of the X-Men, the minority is the mutant). This was a graphic novel published solely as such; it was never a serial X-Men story and was published as one complete story without trying to be placed into the X-Men continuity. At the same time that it's a stand alone story it also ties what came before it together into one idea while having a big influence on where the X-Men storylines would go to in the future. That being said, you don't have to know the stories that came before this and you don't need to read anything after reading this to get more of the story; it is its own story that someone unfamiliar with the X-Men could pickup and read. It was originally published in 1982 and the issues it addresses and questions it raises are still relevant today.

The story follows the beginning of a genocide of mutants, lead by a fanatical religious leader William Stryker. Stryker is leading a fanatic group of people who kill, without sympathy, anyone who is a mutant because they are not human. After we see a brutal killing in the opening panels, Magneto, leader of a mutant resistance group in the regular comic series, decides it is best to join forces with his nemesis, Charles Xavier and the X-Men, in order to stop the burgeoning holocaust. After Stryker kidnaps two of the X-Men and Xavier for nefarious reasons, the rest of the team follows Magento to stop his bandwagon's momentum in its tracks by any means necessary.

The graphic novel by itself is powerful without the amazing story by Chris Claremont and superb art of Brent Anderson that seems to be the forerunner to an art style of comic-artist Alex Ross. The one series of images that could easily shake anyone is the picture of Xavier being crucified on the roof of one of the World Trade Center towers by his own students, or the murder and lynching of two young children for being mutants.

If anything you will recognize some of the elements of the story as it was the source material used by Bryan Singer for his movie X2.

This graphic novel is not only a read, but a 100% buy and treasure it often type book. It will surely be read again by me.

Ryan Reynolds

2009-08-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Ryan Reynolds has got some great movie deals going right now...

in 2011

Ryan Reynolds will have the lead role in both of the following:

-The Green Lantern as Hal Jordan, aka The Green Lantern (by DC Comics)

AND in the same year he will be...

-Deadpool (by Marvel Comics)

Both movies are slated for release in 2011, GL is already in Pre-production and Deadpool has been announced. It's just funny to me that he will be playing two major characters in each of the big comic-book universes so I had to share.

Comic-Con, the aftermath (or, how to pay for next years tickets or collectibles)

2009-08-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

Well as anyone who read my Comic-Con posts knows or has talked to me, Amanda and I got a lot of free stuff at Comic-Con and had a blast. But as time passed and I read the various free comic-books that I got I decided to see how much some o

f this stuff was worth and found that I had a couple pretty valuable items. So of course I did what any sensible person would: I listed them on ebay right away.

So upon doing so I had a grand ol' time for seven days as I watched people bid up my free comics. Here are the results:

Invincible Iron Man #1 Movie Cast Variant signed by author Matt Fraction

ratio 1:100 (this means that for every 100 normal covers printed there was only one of these printed)

Winning bid: $49.99

Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #1 Sketch Variant (exclusive to Comic-Con)

Winning bid: $45.50

Uncanny X-Men #510 Campbell Sketch Variant (exclusive to Comic-Con)

Winning Bid: $76.25

Amanda and I got these all throughout our time at Comic-Con this year and we had a blast!! This was just a nice little added bonus at the end. We got other variant covers as well but these were the only ones worth anything significant and therefore the only ones that I sold.

Other thing I forgot:

The very first night of Comic-Con I searched out and found Todd Lockwood, the artist that has done all the new cover art for all the new Drizzt novels. He is an awesome fantasy artist and I stumbled upon his booth last year after I had spent all my money. So this year I made it a point to go to him first thing and get the artwork that I wanted and get it signed. So that was really cool.

Here is one of the paintings I got. It's from a Drizzt book called The Orc King.

Here's another sample (below) of one of the covers he did for a recent Drizzt book called The Pirate King (the second one in the series). And the other painting I got is one called The Ghost King and is the third in this series of books (it's a trilogy).

House Update

2009-08-19T23:50:00.000-07:00

So our house is progressing nicely. They bumped up the completion date more than a month to December 8th (it used to be Jan. 15th) so we should expect to move in around the 14th of December, just in time for Christmas! Anyways here are some pics of the progress, I grouped like angles together so you can see the progress. Enjoy!!

The first set is the view of the lot coming from the garage...

The Backyard...

Here's the front door

Comic Books

2009-08-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

Here's my shelf now that Comic-Con is over

Comic-Con, Day 4 (The Last Day)

2009-08-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 26

This day was a sad day, cause it was the last. But we lived it up and got a couple last minute deals and some more free stuff. It was another great day and lots of fun. We only went to one panel and half of the one before it to get good seats...

11-11:30am The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd

I still have no idea what this was, but I won all six seasons of it on CD from a raffle that they had. So I'll have to check it out...

11:30-12:30pm Spotlight on David Petersen

This was a pretty cool panel . For those who don't know who this is or don't even read comics, this is the comic for you!! David Petersen writes a comic called Mouse Guard. Not only does he write it, but he does the pencils (draws it) and does the colors. He also started on his own without a publisher and is a self-made success. Something that doesn't happen often in comics. Apart from that, his story is one that can be enjoyed by all. An awesome story with some great art! It is one that I'll read to my kids (when I have them). Great panel and we got a cool print of the new story line that he'll be starting next year. I got a poster signed by him and so did Amanda, we both got our print for the new story line signed, and I got his new book signed (last year I got his first book signed). Plus I got some little statuettes of the characters from the first book! Here are the links to book 1 and book 2.

Some other cool things happened that day, like we went by the DC booth to see what was going on and we ran into this guy:

For those who don't know who this is, this is Geoff Johns, I mentioned him in my post the other day about Blackest Night, he's the writer of it and has been writing Green Lantern for four years now. He has done a lot of good stuff and is an amazing writer. Anyways, like I said, we were just walking through the DC booth and there he was, not at a table or anything, just standing around with a fan or two. So I got this picture with him and had him sign one of the Superman comics he wrote that I happened to be carrying 'cause I bought it that day. How cool?!

Sidenote: For anyone who enjoys a good read, some of the best writers today are in comics...

Later on that day we went to the DC booth and Amanda and I both got free Black Lantern rings! Anyways, that's all I can remember about Sunday. And i'm pretty sure that that covers most of it. Amanda and I had such a good time. She bought her first graphic novel and wants to do the whole thing again next year. I do too of course so we look forward to that. Love'd it.

Comic-Con, Day 3

2009-08-12T23:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 25

Happy Birthday to me! This was a good day, heck it was my b-day...and boy was it a good one.

This was a pretty good day, with some fun panels, some more free stuff, and many cool people to boot (like the guys from Mythbusters in the picture)

So first things first, we got there in the morning and just enjoyed the exhibition hall. We wandered around to see what we hadn't yet, we played Lego Rockband (yes there is a Lego Rockband coming out this Holiday season!! and yes we got to play it) and got free Lego Rockband lanyards and T-Shirts for playing, and we just had a good time. I had already spent all my money so I didn't have to worry about that little portion of CC, so the free stuff was calling my name.

12-1pm Comic Strip Syndication

This was a fun little panel where we got to see Stephan Pastis, Richard Thompson (Cul De Sac), and Keith Knight (The K Chronicles). They talked about issues in newspapers right now, comic strip syndication, and answered questions from the audience. This one wasn't as packed as Pastis' spotlight, but it was still interesting for me (although I don't think Amanda enjoyed this one).

2:15-3:15pm DC: Green Lantern: Blackest Night

This was a really cool panel. Featuring Geoff Johns (current writer of Green Lantern), Pat Gleason (who's currently working on Green Lantern Corps), and others. For those who don't know, Blackest Night is here is a brief synopsis: "Throughout the decades, death has plagued the DC Universe and taken the lives of heroes and villains alike. But to what end? As the War of Light rages on, the prophecy of the Blackest Night descends upon us, with Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps at the center of it all...The dead rise across the DC Universe, bringing terror and darkness with them. What are the Black Lanterns? What do they want? Will Earth's greatest heroes survive long enough to find out – or will they join the Black Lantern Corps?"

So basically, any dead character in the DC Universe right now can come back as a Black Lantern and the story should be really interesting. Anywho, I'm following the story issue by issue; and

that's the first time I have ever done that (I usually just read the final story after it comes out in HC or TPB form) but this one is worth it.

Oh, one more thing...Whilst in the panel, Geoff Johns had the crowd stand up (mind you this room seats 2,000 and while not 100% full, it was more than 75% full) and he swore us to the Green Lantern Oath!! How awesome! Plus, a room full of some 1,500 people who all knew the oath was pretty cool too, oh my what a nerd I am.

3:30-4:30 Spotlight on Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, need I say more? The only disappointing thing about this panel was that his assistant guy kept talking and talking, geez, we were there to see Bradbury not that schmuck. His biographer was also there, and he knew that so he kept the focus on Bradbury. Anywho, now that I've vented, the panel was great. It was just fun to hear him speak and hear his passion for life and hear where some of his ideas came from. Oh yeah, earlier in the day when we were wandering around sight-seeing, we saw Bradbury being wheeled through one part of the convention center right next to us!! That's what one of the pictures below is (thanks Amanda for spotting him go right past us).

That was the last panel we went to on Saturday, and we just enjoyed the venue a bit more. While there, we also got a signed picture of George Lazenby (actor who played James Bond for one film) and that was awesome though I didn't think to take a picture of him.

After we left Comic-Con, we went out to eat for my b-day dinner. We chose Outback Steak House (always awesome!) and here are the pics from that, one is of a side that I got which was amazing (it was crab stuffed shrimp and I liked it more than my steak!):

Raging Planet - Lightning (Discovery Chanel)

2009-08-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

I just watched this really cool series on Discovery and I really enjoyed it. Here are two clips about how lightning is formed...

There weren't any embed functions so here are the links. It's worth watching so click away!

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/raging-planet-making-lighting.html

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/raging-planet-lightning/index.html

Fall Out Boy

2009-08-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

What A Catch, Donnie

Fall Out Boy - New Music - More Music Videos

Comic-Con, Day 2

2009-08-08T01:57:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 24

Friday was a really good day for Comic-Con, heck they were all really good days! But anyways,

Friday was the day when I blew most of the funds appropriated by Amanda for Comic-Con. She had been saving for me for many months so that I would have a fun birthday. So thanks Amanda, you are a wonderful wife and I loved my birthday!

Free stuff!!

First thing we did on Friday morning was go straight to the Random House booth and wait around for 40 minutes to get a free copy of the Eragon/Eldest Omnibus and instead of getting two copies Amanda got an advance copy of The Maze Runner by James Dashner (It doesn't get released in stores until October 6, 2009). It wasn't too bad of a wait either because we were first in "line," although the guy at the booth didn't want a line 'cause that would be unfair to those who showed up at 10:00am when the giveaway was scheduled for. Anyways, he was actually a cool guy from Random House Publishing and it was fun to talk to him about books (and he personally knows R.A. Salvatore, cool). While we were waiting they had some other cool books so Amanda bought a book called The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. So we got those and on we go to...

10:30-11:30am Coraline DVD

This was a really cool panel. Amanda and I both enjoyed the movie Coraline and just before leaving for CC we had ordered the DVD and the book from Amazon. So this was a must-go-to panel for us. Plus the legendary Neil Gaiman (author of Coraline) was in attendance as well as Teri Hatcher (who did the voices of all three of Coraline's mothers), Keith David (voice of the cat) and the director Henry Selick (also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach) who were joined by some of the animators and people involved in production. This was a fun panel and it was interesting to hear from both of the creative genius' of Gaiman and Selick and hear from Hatcher about doing three different versions of one character. Great panel. Oh, and side note: if you have seen or when you see Coraline, doesn't Coraline's Other Father remind you of dad (Mark)?

Buy, Buy, Buy

So after that panel we had some time to really hit the exhibition hall and get all the stuff that costs money! Overall I bought 18 Graphic Novels, but on Friday I only got 16-17 of them. That plus the three other books we got at Random House meant on heavy backpack for me, but it was worth it.

1:15-1:45 Spartacus

This panel actually started at 12:45 but we just dropped in early to give my back a break and wait for the next one. Spartacus is a 13 episode miniseries/show coming out on Starz that will push the TV limits both for gore and nudity. So not much interest. But we ended up getting a voucher for a ton of free stuff!

2-3 Marvel: Cup 'o Joe

This panel was with Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada and was a lot of Q&A and some new announcements for Marvel. The biggest announcement here was that Marvel had recently purchased the rights to Marvel Man from his creators estate and that a Marvel Man series should be starting up next year. It was a nice panel and gave us a break. In between this panel and the next we ran to the opposite end of the convention center and back to get our free Spartacus goodie bag.

3:30-4 Spotlight on Kevin J. Anderson

This was another halfsy drop-in to get good seats. Anderson is actually a pretty good author so it was a fun little panel with a small group to listen in on. And at the end everyone got free paperback copies of The Last Days of Krypton, sweet! Oh, and during the panel I snuck up to the front to get prime seating for the next panel and ended up sitting next to Anderson's typist.

4-5 Spotlight on Stephan Pastis

This was one of the best panels of the entire week!! Stephan Pastis is the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. Pastis was hilarious and this was such an entertaining person to listen to. The other funny thing is that the room was less than half full for Anderson, but by the time Pastis had set up his presentation and got comfortable, the room had run out of seats and people were standing in the back!

Anyways, Pastis gave a presentation chronicalling his road to Syndication and the growth of the strip. He then read some of his favorite crocs strips, then read some controversial strips and letters people wrote to their newspapers to complaing about some of the most ridiculous things. Also, apparently an entire country (I believe it was Turkey) hates Pastis for a name he used for a Llama in one of the strips.

The other funny thing was that Pearls often makes fun of other strips (for those who don't read it) and he talked a bit about those and read some of the strips. When he talked about his relationship with The Family Circus he read various strips from his clashes with Circus and then mentioned that he was friends both creators of the strip: Bill Keane (father) and Jeff Keane (son), and that they

were really good sports about Pastis' treatment of their strip. At this point he mentioned that Jeff was probably even there and asked if Jeff would stand up. Pastis recounts what happened like this:

"And to prove my point, I scanned the audience for Jeff.

"'Jeff?' I asked, hoping he had come. 'Are you here somewhere? Jeff? Jeff?'

"And slowly someone I couldn't see rose from the back of the audience.

"'SCREW YOU!!!' the person yelled.

"The person being Jeff Keane.

"My good friend."

You can read the entire account from Pastis here in his blog post entitled "And Now a Few Words From the Creator of One of the World's Most Beloved Family Comics" Hilarious panel, and I must say that he did the crocs voice exactly how I imagine them to be and how I read them.

Right after the panel we went down to the exhibition hall where Pastis was signing and got him to autograph one of our books. He drew a croc head in my book, how cool. Also, I got his Comic-Con name tag so I had him autograph that too!

I don't remember what happened after that...I think we just wandered around to see what else was going on a maybe bought a thing or two more. What a great day!

F-Minus, by Tony Carrillo

2009-08-06T01:06:00.001-07:00

F-Minus by Tony Carrillo

Comic-Con, Day 1

2009-08-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 23

Thursday was a fun day and it's the day that my brother-in-law Cameron came along with us for his first Comic-Con. Here's a breakdown of the events that we went to:

11-12:30 Disney 3D Panel
This was a pretty good panel. Like so good that it was in the biggest room at the SDCC and I waited in line 2.5 hours to get in to see it while Amanda was getting a big free bag and Cameron was getting his badge to get in. Fun stuff, eh? Anyways, this was where we saw:
-various clips from A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey (no, he wasn't there) but Robert Zemekis was (he's the director) and it was really fun to see the clips.
-Alice in Wonderland was great. We saw the preview before anyone else (although it was on Yahoo! by the end of the day) and Tim Burton was there to talk about the movie and at the end...Tim Burton said that his imaginary friend was there and that if he concentrated hard enough, then he might appear...so when he did, Johnny Depp walked onto the stage. That was pretty cool and the room (which sat 6,500 people) went crazy. It was a lot of fun and the movie looks amazing!! I can't wait for it. Watch the trailer here.
-the last part was new scenes from Tron: Legacy and some cool collectabiles that came along with it. There were various cast and crew members from the movie.
2-3 Sony Animation
This was a cool panel which we were very excited to go to. It was the Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs panel and had the two directors of the film, Anna Faris, and (drumroll) Andy Samberg! The movie looks really good and Andy and Anna were hilarious. This was a really fun panel and we really enjoyed it. Here's a clip...taped by me...

4:30-5:30 Halo Franchise: What's Next?
This was highly anticipated by Cameron, and highly disappointing to all! The purpose of this wholle panel was to announce that Halo will be mage into an Anime series of seven short films. They didn't directly announce it, they just kind of showed a clip and inferred what they were doing without ever directly saying it. As soon as people realized what was going on there was a max exodus from the room, including us. The Halo games were all about high quality graphics and a violent shooter with a compelling story. They then came out with books and graphic novels to enhance the story and fill in gaps, but they were true to form. Then this? A highly simplified anime cartoon where the characters and monster-horde aliens don't look anything like the ones from the game? Really? It looked soooo stupid. Here's the clip that they showed if you have time to waste.

In between all this fun we wandered around the exhibition hall, Cameron played Halo 3:ODST (which hasn't been released yet) and he won the group that he was playing against (pretty impressive considering we were at a nerd-fest and the booth was crowded). We had a lot of fun but I think that Cameron was dissappointed 1) because of Halo and 2) because he couldn't find the comic book he was looking for. Overall a great day though.

Comic-Con, Preview Night

2009-07-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

PREVIEW NIGHT, Wednesday July 22

So preview night is a big event on Wednesday night that you only get to go to if you have the pass for the entire Comic-Con event, which we did. So we got to go to preview night which is exactly what is sounds like. We watched two entire episodes of new TV shows coming out this fall and then we went down to the exhibition hall to check out where stuff is and what there was to see.

"Human Target" -- This is a new show coming out in January that is based on a DC comic book about a man who is contracted to find out who is trying to kill his clients. He literally does this by becoming the target himself or using the client as bait to draw out the hitman. It was a really cool show and we enjoyed episode 1. Come January it will be a show that Amanda and I will watch.

"V" -- Some have already heard about this show or seen the preview for it. It is a remake of an 80's TV show and the premise is that aliens show up (V is for "visitors") in the name of peace. They say that they are trying to get home and need water and minerals and are willing to share their technological advances as a trade mechanism to get them. Not everything is what it seems though and by the end of episode 1 you get a feel of where the lines are going to be drawn. Definitely a GREAT TV show and I will be tuning in weekly to catch the latest. The creator makes the viewer sincerely care about what's going to happen and you get caught up in the story as it progresses. Loved it!

After watching these previews they had episode 1 for a new TV show that's ripping off the Twilight series, naturally many people walked out before the episode started, including us. So we went down to the exhibition hall and checked out what would be going on throughout the week. We still missed some of the stuff that happened (like getting a free R.A. Salvatore book from TOR, sad) but all-in-all I'd say we did pretty well throughout the week and extremely enjoyed ourselves. Preview night is also when we got 3 free District-9 shirts.

Total counts of free stuff (throughout the week)
-T-shirts: 15!
-Books: 3 (Eragon/Eldest Omnibus; The Maze Runner [which doesn't come out until October, we have the entire book, thanks Random House]; and The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson)
-Radio show CD's: 9 total, the entire 6 seasons of The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd, which I have no idea what it is, but I plan on listening and enjoying the seasons so they got a new fan.
-TPB's (Trade Paperbacks): 2 (not very good ones, but hey, they were free)
-Comics: who the heck knows! we got so many free comics that I don't know how many.
-Posters: see answer for comics
-Tribble's: 2 (you know, the furry balls from the original Star Trek? We got some!)
-Hand Puppets: 2 (from Adult Swim, in the form of Snakes)
-Transformers Seat Cushions: 2
-Star Trek "Live Long & Prosper" foam fingers: 1

Anything else I remember will be added but that's the bulk of the free stuff.

More to come!!!

Comic-Con update

2009-07-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

I still have slow internet, so the pics will be few. But in short, we saw a lot of cool people...I bought 13 graphic novels, Amanda bought a book, and so far we have received 7 free t-shirts, 3 free books, a bunch of posters, and I bought some Todd Lockwood art...

Comic-Con

2009-07-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

Quick update, the internet's slow here but here's some cool teaser stuff...

House Update/Off to Comic-Con

2009-07-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the progress on the Townhouse and we're off to Comic-Con today!

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

2009-07-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bradbury did it again with this amazing dark fantasy mystery book. I thought that Fahrenheit 451 was my favorite book he wrote, until I was about 30 pages into this one. The prose is beautiful and this will definitely be an oft read book in my collection.
View all my reviews >>

BIg News...

2009-07-04T22:46:00.001-07:00

So Amanda and I have been house shopping on and off for a little over a year now. We started with one of the big auctions out at the Riverside Convention Center, then we would sometimes stop by model homes just to dream, and then a couple weeks ago we met up with two different real estate and saw 15 houses. Every time it was the same thing: the house we liked and wanted either was overpriced with lots of repairs to be done, or we would call to see if we could make an offer and it had "just gone into" Escrow with someone else.

So by one of the houses we went to look at, KB homes was building some new townhouses and Amanda and her dad went to go look at them. She really liked them (I hadn't seen them yet), and so when I got home from work, we went online to see what other builders were building in the area. William Lyon Homes was building a couple new townhouse constructions in the area (they had 3 or 4 in the IE). So we Amanda went again with her Dad while I was at work to check out prices and floor plans and what-not. We found an awesome Townhouse in North Fontana that we really liked and started to think about it and go back various times to show different parents. Each time we went back with different people, we found something that we liked that we hadn't seen before; the place just kept getting better and better!! So needless to say, we were actively involved with the Rep there at the models, asked lots of questions, got pre-qualified, and all that jazz.

So today they released the next phase (that we were interested in, the prior phases were all sold out), we got the call with the pricing and we got first pick of which building and which lot we wanted! There was one person ahead of us on the list but they let us pick first. So we picked this beautiful lot that backed up to the single-family-homes behind the Townhouse complex, and guess what?! It's one of three plans with a backyard in place of the planned courtyard, how awesome! So the backyard is 25 ft deep from the backdoor to the wall, and is almost as wide as the entire building; sweet!

The plan we will be getting (barring any unforeseen events) is the biggest plan as well at 1,711 sq. ft., two stories, three bedrooms, two and a half baths, attached two car garage, and backyard! We like that the floor plan pulls the bedrooms away from the shared wall so that the laundry, stairs, bathrooms and closets are mostly what is shared with the neighbors. Also, right now the lot is just dirt so we'll be posting on the progress of our new place as it's built. Because its new, we also get to pick out all the upgrades that we want (like granite counter-tops, or darker stained cabinets, et al). Here's the address if you want to google.maps it:

14975 South Highland Avenue
Fontana, CA 92336

Also, if anyone is looking to buy this is a great deal!! Let us know...
The floor plans are as follows:

A Little Light-Heartedness

2009-06-30T01:27:00.001-07:00

(Click the picture if you can't read to enlarge the image)

2009-06-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

Shaun of the Dead

2009-06-11T02:19:00.001-07:00

This is one of the best scenes of this movie. Though the delay diminishes the thumping of the old zombie in-time with the beat of the song, this is my favorite part of the movie.

New Job

2009-05-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Finally, it has happened. I got my first accounting job.

Let me go back. Last Thursday, I had an interview with the County of San Bernardino, in the first 30 seconds to 1 minute of the interview, the interviewer said: "Your grades and resume look great, so do you want the job?" I was not expecting this in a first interview so I asked for time to think about it. We went through the rest of the interview and he said he'd call on Wednesday.

This internship was my second choice, so almost immediately after the interview I called my friend Clemente at the firm that I want to work for, Vicenti Lloyd Stutzman, LLP (or VLS). Within an hour of calling Clemente, the person who had done my first interview at VLS back in October called me directly, and set up an interview for the very next day (Friday).

Friday came (the next day, but boy was I anxious), and the interview was first thing in the morning at VLS before I had to be at work. It went great! I was there for about an hour and a half and met with one of the partners and one of the seniors. After the interview the senior gave me a firm tour and I got to meet some of the other staff, and see a couple of my friends who worked there. Clemente and another employee I know there both came out and talked to me before the interview to help calm the nerves as well.

Because of the offer on the table from the County, VLS was great and had organized this interview for the internship just for me. They said they would contact me early this week with their answer.

So yesterday, another one of the partners called me up and made me an offer for the internship position this summer that would start on July 13th. Obviously I accepted, and so will be beginning my dream job at my the firm I wanted to all along! You can't even believe how ecstatic I was. What a great feeling. Then today, even though it was a great opportunity, I had to decline the offer officially from the County (and I don't think many people have the opportunity to decline job offers in this market).

Needless to say, this has been a great past couple of days with everything falling into place perfectly. I can only thank my Heavenly Father for these many blessings.

The Hero With A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

2009-05-18T23:18:00.001-07:00

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a great book. Campbell gives an in-depth study of mythology and its overlying theme of the infamous "hero's journey." I really enjoyed reading this text and learning more about world mythology and how it all ties together.

Here are some excerpts from the text of things I liked:

-"...every failure to cope with a life situation must be laid, in the end, to a restriction of consciousness. Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late" (p. 101)

-"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man" (p. 21)

-"It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation" (p. 1)

-"What pleases the deity is virtue and sincerity, not any number of material offerings" (p. 181, quote from Tomobe-no-Yasutaka, Shinto-Gobusho)

-"Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed...When a civilization begins to reinterpret its mythology in this way, the life goes out of it, temples become museums, and the link between the two perspectives is dissolved" (p. 213).

-"It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse" (p. 337)

-"And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal...not in the bright moments of his tribe's victories, but in the silences of his personal despair" (p. 337)

View all my reviews.

Star Trek

2009-05-10T23:18:00.000-07:00

The new Star Trek movie rocked!! Amanda and I really enjoyed it and, even though some the promos made it seem like it was kind of straying from the original, I thought it stayed pretty true to form and had excellent casting...

DEADPOOL

2009-05-07T01:01:00.001-07:00

It's official: there will be a Deadpool movie!! Woohoo!

Article

WOLVERINE!!! And there after...

2009-05-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

So last Friday Amanda and I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine and it was stellar!! What a great movie! Anyways, I can't really say enough other than that I loved it. There were some changes to the basic story line from the comics, but I guess you can expect that from a movie. So if you haven't seen it yet, than go see it now!!

Now what's next for Hugh Jackman?? Well, if you have seen the movie I really hope that you stayed until after all the credits to see the extra clip at the end, and if you did than you'll know what's coming: There will obviously be a sequel to Wolverine and (SPOILER ALERT) ...

...it is to be set in Japan, and will focus on the samurai/Yakuza storyline of the comics, wherein Wolverine trains in the way of the samurai in order to control his feral nature, and falls in love with Mariko Yashida, heir to the Yakuza family.

(UNSPOILER ALERT)

But that's not all! To read more about Hugh Jackman's plans for other movie projects and a Broadway musical called Houdini that was based on music by Danny Elfman, read this.

Early Glimpe at Marvel's Upcoming Series

2009-05-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men
"The Dark Avengers take on the Uncanny X-Men! Kicking off the 6-part crossover event, rising star Matt Fraction (UNCANNY X-MEN, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN) is joined by X-artist supreme Marc Silvestri (X-MEN: MESSIAH COMPLEX, CIVIL WAR: THE INITIATIVE ONE-SHOT) to bring you a story that shakes the foundations of the Marvel Universe. When mutant riots break out in San Francisco, Norman Osborn declares martial law and sends the Dark Avengers in to quell the riots and take down the X-Men. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Don't miss the first Avengers/X-Men crossover in over 15 years!"

http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.7908

In Stores: June 24, 2009

Ray Bradbury

2009-05-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture.
Just get people to stop reading them."
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Pride and Prejudice...and Zombies!

2009-05-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:
The Classic Regency Romance - Now With Ulraviolent Zombie Mayham!
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahme-Smith

Seth Grahme-Smith takes Jane Austen's text and *modifies* it to be a zombie plot, compare the opening sentences of the two novels:

...Zombies: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

Original: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Amanda and I read through the first page of both texts, and while I don't think I would read this Zombie book, the idea of modifying a Jane Austen book to be a Zombie book I found extremely entertaining and had to share this find with others.

Fantasy Art

2009-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is some great stuff...by artist Kekai Kotaki. Check out his website or blog, and my source for these was this blog.

X-MEN, the 90's Animated Series

2009-04-30T21:52:00.001-07:00

Here it is

AT LAST!! I have been waiting for this since the invention of the DVD! Disney bought the rights it seems (or inherited them, I don't believe that they originally owned it) and for the first time ever(!) the classic 90's animated series is coming to DVD! These first two volumes put the first 33 episodes (of the entire 76) on DVD and volume 3 has been rumored to be in the works.

I really can't describe how long I've been waiting for this. I even wrote Fox years ago to find out if they had any plans for it, they said they didn't have the rights (I wrote them cause the cartoon was on Fox) and they told me who had the rights. So I wrote them and they said there were no plans to put in on DVD any time soon. So here we are and on April 28, 2009 IT CAME OUT! So hopefully I'll get it soon...

Oh! the childhood memories! I have always enjoyed sleeping-in, and it was on on Saturday mornings at 10am, which meant I got to watch the best cartoon ever, AND I got to sleep in. Jodi would always watch with me as well. And thus began my induction into nerd-dom and comics. Now I can relive it, oh joy! Maybe for Father's Day...

The Lord of the Rings

2009-04-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing copy of Lord of the Rings. It's the 50th Anniversary edition, and contains the trilogy leather bound in one volume, with gilded page edges and a ribbon placemarker, a beautiful slipcover, some fold out maps and some copies of Tolkien's own drawings!! Definitely worth it... That's why it now finds itself on my shelf...

No books?

2009-04-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

No books? No books indeed!
By freedom of thought and speech I plead!

Would you remove boy's awe at stars and moon?
Or squirming bugs and shadowed goons?

Would you banish a girl from doll play and dress-up time?
Or girlie flicks and princess' whine?

Would you block the dreams of young entrepreneur?
Or block the harvest of farmer's manure?

Poor indeed we are without books, with commerce blocked and food restricted,
With dreams destroyed and all delight afflicted.

I would sooner give you a spell against money, that all your delights become for naught,
Than give you a spell to block the author's plot

I would sooner give you a spell against Sun and Moon,
than become the source of the writer's boon.

No books? No books indeed!
By freedom of thought and speech to thee I plead!

New Camera

2009-04-19T01:51:00.001-07:00

Well, Amanda and I had to get a new camera. And I really mean that we had to! Over the years I have been using a great camera that has been through much, but as of late, has been less-than-reliable on picture quality.

In my very first area on my mission (after being in the country for about 1 or 2 months) I met a wonderful member who was going to be married to a member in the US and move there with him. They were both older and he was a widower and they had met online through one of those LDS dating sites. Anyways, I ask where he's from and she said California, so after getting more details it turns out that this brother lived in Rancho Cucamonga and was in Ken Kirtley's ward!! To make a long story short, they agrees to bring me a Christmas package when he came down, and I sent some stuff back with them for my family. One of the things in the package was my digital camera. The point of this story was to give you an idea of the age of this camera. This puts me receiving it around Dec. 2004.
(Here's the old camera):

Now more than four years of use (almost half of which was in company of a Missionary, so a lot of use), it has started to get old. It was a Canon PowerShot A75 and had 3.2 mega pixels.

So I have a Citi credit card that gets me great rewards which I can redeem through this thing called the ThankYou network. It's great and I have got some great stuff because of this rewards program. One of the most recent ones was 3x$50 Best Buy gift cards that we were going to use to buy Rock Band 2. Well when I got those cards, and we started looking for RB2, nowhere had it, and I mean nowhere! Within a 60 mile radius, we found one store (a Wal-Mart that had just received a shipment) that had a couple RB2's. The store was located in Riverside (about 30 minutes away) and Amanda, being the loving wife she is, went with me around 9:30-10pm at night to get one of these few RB2's. Obviously, we had left over gift cards for Best Buy now.

Then right after that, our camera started making funny pictures (there is a old vs. new at the bottom of this post) that were purple, grainy, and/or blurry. But this didn't always happen, just sometimes, and slowly got more frequent. Than, in our recent trip to Las Vegas (post on that coming soon!), every time we turned it on it was acting up and I had to shake it around to get the right picture quality. So even though we were going to wait 'till Amanda's b-day, we decided tonight to get a camera. We had already picked out the one that we wanted and just had to decide on color. Here is what we got:

It's a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS and is 12.1 mega pixels. We just got the battery charged but are excited to have a reliable, functional, and improved camera to play with and document our lives.

Old vs. New (please ignore the mess, we are in the middle of laundry):

For another example of the old disfunctionality see here.

Anyways, we love our new camera and can't wait to use it!

I'm On A Boat

2009-04-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

"Now who should I take?...Akiva...aaaandd...T-Pain"

Sometimes Andy Samberg really strikes gold with his Digital Short's on SNL. And the best part is...Now you can buy it on iTunes!! 19 tracks, and 8 videos for $11.99, I think it was worth it. Some of the tracks aren't so good (the ones without Andy), but it has things like D*** in A Box and Lazy Sunday, plus of course the above entitled track to "I'm on a Boat."

Defiance

2009-04-14T23:52:00.001-07:00

Defiance: The Bielski Partisans by Nechama Tec

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
A truly great book and amazing true story! I really enjoyed this book and am glad I read it. It shows the courage of a people in a horrible situation and the story of the Bielski brothers and how they saved over 1,000 Jews during WWII in Belorussia. I can't really express words to pay tribute to there marvelous people. Here's some excerpts...

-"Tuvia was not interested in military glory. To live, to keep his people alive, to bring more Jews into the Otriad, these were his goals." (p. 109)

-"As a commander of a forest community dedicated to the preservation of life, Tuvia Bielski gave to the Jewish people many precious gifts: hopes, dreams, and their very lives." (p. 296)

View all my reviews.

Comics for the Day

2009-04-14T02:50:00.001-07:00

Comics for the Day

2009-04-14T02:48:00.000-07:00

Political Cartoon

2009-04-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hedge Funds

2009-04-12T03:55:00.000-07:00

(click on the image to blow it up and make it legible)
This Dilbert comic pretty much sums up what happened with Hedge funds as they relate to our market crash. I wouldn't be surprised to see much less Hedge funding, or even see Hedge funds disappear completely when all's said and done.

Messenger, Shot

2009-04-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

Messenger, Shot from the economist.com

One important rule is: if you want accurate information on the economy, go to an economist! The problem with many rules that Congress passes is that 1) they are not economists 2) they pass rulings on the economy & 3) they are influenced by what's right for themselves (from lobbyists), not what's right for the economy and the people. Yes I am making assumptions about all Congress based on a majority of Congress, I'm sure there are a few nice souls in there...somewhere.

This has been something talked about for a while now, but Congress finally succeeded at bullying and bruising an Independent standard-setter, the FASB (or Financial Accounting Standards Board) into making rule changes so that Bankers could use their infinite wisdom to place whatever value they wish on their assets and not what said assets are ACTUALLY worth on the market!

As the writer of the above mentioned article states: "IN PUBLIC, bankers have been blaming themselves for their troubles. Behind the scenes, they have been taking aim at someone else: the accounting standard-setters. Their rules, moan the banks, have forced them to report enormous losses, and it’s just not fair. These rules say they must value some assets at the price a third party would pay, not the price managers and regulators would like them to fetch. Unfortunately, banks’ lobbying now seems to be working... the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised."

The changes enhance what one lobbying group politely calls “the use of judgment by management”.

So let me get this right: The banks made horrible decisions on who they would lend to, didn't verify any information provided by the recipient of the Loan, and then when their whole lending scheme collapsed on their heads and caused bank closure and recession, it's not nefarious lending practices that caused it but a rule that requires that they record foreclosed assets on their books for what the market is willing to pay for them?? Yeah, "the use of judgment by managers" is great, I can't wait until they use their infinite wisdom to re-valuate the toxic assets on their books! The banks being able to re-inflate their burst housing bubble is definitely the way to solve the economies problems.

No, no, don't take responsibility for shoddy lending practices, don't fix maladjusted banking regulations on lending practices, instead, we should change the rule that requires banks to be honest in how they report and valuate assets in their financial statements!

I think I'm done with my gripe, if you read this all, I hope this act of Congress upsets you somewhat...

Fun Classes

2009-04-07T23:06:00.000-07:00

So this quarter I have some leeway in my schedule for a fun class of my choosing. At the same time, the English Department at my school was offering a Fantasy Literature class! How could I pass up this opportunity?! Anyways, this quarter should be a lot of fun. Not only do I get to take a fun Fantasy class, but I also have a mythology and symbolism class for a Humanities requirement. Plus two accounting classes, and a Public Admin class to top everything off and I'm that much closer to graduation! Here's the lists of books I have to read this quarter for my classes:

Fantasy Literature
1. The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris (read for free here)
2. The King of Elfland's Daughter, Lord Dunsany
3. Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
4. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
5. Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake
6. Biting the Sun, Tanith Lee
7. Lords and Ladies, Terry Pratchett
8. The Etched City, K.J. Bishop
9. Dreams Underfoot, Charles de Lint

Myth, Metaphor, and Symbolism
1. The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell
2. The Epic of Gilgamesh
3. The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone; Sophocles
4. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, Daniel Quinn

Pearls Before Swine

2009-04-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

I just can't get enough of this comic, it is so hilarious...

Alice in Wonderland

2009-03-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have yet to hear the exciting news, Tim Burton is currently filming his live-action version/interpretation of Alice in Wonderland!! It is set for release in Spring 2010 and should be awesome. Johnny Depp has been cast as the Mad Hatter and the main actress playing Alice is an unknown name Mia something. Here's a preliminary picture from the set...

Scott Adams - The Creator of Dilbert

2009-03-11T00:45:00.000-07:00

"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?"
— Scott Adams
"Life is half delicious yogurt, half crap, and your job is to keep the plastic spoon in the yogurt."
— Scott Adams
"The best things in life are silly."
— Scott Adams

Happily Ever After

2009-03-11T00:37:00.000-07:00

Public Enemies

2009-03-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

In theaters July 1, 2009!! The preview for this movie finally came out and it looks great. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale are brought together by director Michael Mann (director and writer of such films as The Last of the Mohicans, Collateral, Heat, & Ali) to tell the story of John Dillinger. Definitely a movie to see this year...
Watch the Trailer here!

V-Day, 2009 with the Zeeba Eata's

2009-02-19T16:35:00.000-08:00

Well, Valentine's came and went, and we had a great day. We both worked in the morning/afternoon, not part of the V-Day but still very important, and then we had to get ready to go out for dinner. It was about this time (5pm roughly) while at Amanda's parents in Fontana (easier to get ready there after work then to drive all the way home to San B then back to Fontana for food), that Amanda realized that she forgot her outfit! So off to Target for a last minute V-Day outfit/present for Amanda. Then after we were all ready and whatnot, we went out for a nice Evening at Logan's Rhodehouse...
After that, we went and walked arounf Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga...
Where we had a lot of fun. We looked at the Puppy store, though we can't really aford a puppy right now, we went through a few places and kind of as an afterthought, we went into Gap. I went straight for the sale rack and one of the first things I pulled out was a pair of Olive green/brown flat-front pants that were unknowingly made for me by someone in Sri-Lanka. They were only $8.99 and the were a 31/32 size, which meant perfect length and waist size for me!! So Amanda and I both got new outfits (rather, collectively she got the new top, and I got the new bottom, but whatever).

Then after Victoria Gardens started to close up, we headed on home for a fun night of ROCK BAND II! We love it and are addicted. Our Band name is the Zeeba Eata's, in tribute to the amazingly funny Stephan Pastis comic-strip Pearls Before Swine. Eventually, we exchanged our gifts (which we picked out ourselves but pretended like we didn't know what we were getting) and went to sleep. It was a long day, but a lot of fun. Here's the loot:Amanda got: pearl earings mounted in white gold studs and the first book in the Spiderwick ChroniclesScott got: Star Wars: Jango Fett, Open Season; Wolverine: Origins; and Books 1 & 2 of Abarat by Clive Barker (with illustrations by the author)

Valentine's Day is a Coming

2009-02-12T01:23:00.000-08:00

V-Day is here almost upon us and Amanda and I are excited cause WE are getting a new toy, plus whatever "surprises" we have planned for each other. But here is what we got together...and we can't wait to form a band:

Maybe after V-Day I'll put some pics here of our stuff and our Band (name yet to be released).

I'm Not the Only One...Stephen King Thinks So Too!

2009-02-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

Recently Nicole did a blog post about her general dislike for the Twilight series and it caused a minor raucous with some of her readers, but I'm hear to tell everyone that it's not just us!

Recently USA Weekend writer Lorrie Lynch did an interview with Stephen King for an American Icons story she was working on (the full King interview will be the cover story for the March 6-8 issue of USA Weekend). In the course of the interview they got into a discussion of popular authors vs. the academic elite, a subject he has strong opinions about, and she asked him if his mainstream success over the past 35 years paved the way for the massive careers of Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and Twilight author Stephanie Meyer. King doesn't know how much of an influence he had on Meyer, but he does know that Rowling read his stuff when she was younger.

Here's what King said: "I think that has some kind of formative influence the same way reading Richard Matheson had an influence on me," King explains. "People always say to me, 'Well, what about H.P. Lovecraft?' And the thing was, you read Lovecraft when you were a kid but I never felt that he was speaking my language. It was chillier than my heart was, and when Matheson started to write about ordinary people and stuff, that was something that I wanted to do. I said, 'This is the way to do it. He’s showing the way.' I think that I serve that purpose for some writers, and that’s a good thing. Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. ... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

Thanks Stephen King for validating what others have said. It sure is different coming from a renowned writer than from an inexperienced blogger! BUT, all you Meyers fans out there keep reading, he went on to explain why he believes she has been successful and gives some valid points, with examples, of why her books have been a success...

Then King recalls that when his mom was alive, she read all the Erle Stanley Gardner books, the Perry Mason mysteries, obsessively when he was growing up. "He was a terrible writer, too, but he was very successful," King says. "Somebody who’s a terrific writer who’s been very, very successful is Jodi Picoult. You’ve got Dean Koontz, who can write like hell. And then sometimes he’s just awful. It varies. James Patterson is a terrible writer but he’s very very successful. People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet."

So yeah Meyers "can't worth a darn" but girls still read it cause it's like a chick flick.

Now for the shout-out to my lovely wife. She has been working a substitute job in the High School district this week where she has lots of extra time, so she brought Twilight and has been reading a lot (something she doesn't do often). For example, she read 70 pages in one day! But all the same, she recognizes the same thing that King said: She can't write worth a darn! But Amanda likes the story so she still gobbles it up. She just gets frustrated when there is a whole chapter of Bella and Edward (?) asking each other questions that are irrelevant to the story line. And I get to hear both sides from her, but mostly it's positive stuff about the story. Love you Amanda and I'm glad that you're reading

One thing Meyer's fans must realize is this: She sucks, but it's a great story concept that she came up with. I'll admit it's a great idea. But like many others, I too say that she needs some writing classes and a better editor.

January 2009, the New Year Begins

2009-02-02T22:07:00.000-08:00

Well the New Year has started, and it's already 1/12th done!! This month was a fun one, heck, life is fun! But here are some photo recaps from the month.

JANUARY 16, 2009

My Disneyland pass expired on the 17th and we aren't going to renew them this year, so it was our last hurrah! Here are the pics...
This is me climbing a big Lego block, now I know how those little dude's feel...
We were trying to take a self-shot and a nice couple came and took this for us, Yay!

Amanda doesn't like this picture cause her eye is squinty, but I took this while riding The Matterhorn and she has the wind in her eyes so whatever.
What's wrong with this picture?
Enjoying Space Mountain!! We walked into the park and made a b-line (why is it called that by the way?) for this ride, LOVE IT! We went on this, then Matterhorn, and then we just walked around, perusing the shops and enjoying our time together. What a fun day.

JANUARY 26, 2009

This was the day when a crazy Thunder & Lightning/Hail storm hit our area at about 2am (yep, I'm out taking pictures at that time in that weather cause I love these kinds of things)
Getting ready to brave the stormHere's our parking lot...This is the other side of the cars in the above picture
This is behind my POV in the last pictureAnd to finish it up, this is what your sweater will look like if you go play in the hail at 2am in the morning. I thought it looked cool so I took a picture.

Well, it's been a good month and though times are crazy, I'm optimistic about the New Year! I hope everyone else's is going great too!

What Does It Mean To You...

2009-01-27T12:58:00.001-08:00

To be White?

I am taking a Race and Racism class in which we watched a movie called The Color of Fear. It was an interesting video where someone got a bunch of different ethnic groups together to discuss their prejudices and experiences with Racism. At one point in the video someone pointed out that the White guy had no culture and told him to "get ethnic!" So it brought the discussion to be "What does it mean to be white?"

The white people in the video didn't really answer, so the next class meeting we got into a very thoughtful, meaningful, and honest discussion (in a class of over 300 people) about what it means to be white and how other ethnic groups see us. Many people questioned why we have no particular culture, traditions, or language maintenance from our ancestors, and as a result of the discussion I reached the following thought (and shared it with the class):

I don't carry the traditions of my ancestors (British, Finnish, Dutch, etc.) because...well I'm mostly of English descent (?) and come from colonizers who came here to purposefully abandon England. They didn't want English traditions, they didn't want a queen, they didn't want the oppression of the Catholic Church/Anglo-Saxon Church, they didn't want to be English! They became Americans, they became settlers and colonists and the identifying factor then became which Colony (and later which State) you were from. As for my other ethnic descents, I believe they came here seeking better lives, seeking the American dream, and as part of that over time their cultures and traditions were lost as they sought success and acceptance here. My immigrant ancestors are many generations back and something was lost through those generations, whereas some other ethnic groups or people's personal experiences don't have that generation gap to lose traditions and languages.

What it means for me to be White is to be a mix of many different countries and cultures, to be an American, to eat Mexican food one night and Indian food the next, to have Vietnamese neighbors, Mexican neighbors, Black neighbors (I say black because not all blacks are from Africa, or identify with being from Africa as one Haitian student in my class pointed out), etc., my culture is one of strong immediate family, Sunday dinners, and thrift store shopping.

Just as with all purported "races," my experience is an individual one, not a group one. I'm sure that what it means for me to be white is very different than what it means for a southerner to be white, or a Russian, or a French, or and Italian, or a Englishman, or and Irish, etc. There really is no "Race," we are all the human race and just have different personal experiences that shape who we are. I don't deny grave injustices done against those of different color based solely on the fact that they are different than the oppressor, whether currently or in the past, I just deny the idea of Race, or that we are different races. Different ethnic groups, skin colors, or different citizens of different countries yes, but inherently a different Race? nope.

So for you, what does it mean to be white? or whatever you are? What does it mean to be you? Comments are desired but if all I achieve is some introspection on your part, that's ok too.

The Interview With The Vampire, by Anne Rice

2009-01-24T17:39:00.000-08:00

Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a great book. Anne Rice paints a world that you step into as you read Louis' "narrative" of his life. As Louis told his story I felt like some invisible companion to his life, so vivid was Rice's descriptive power through him. The only thing negative I have to say about this book is that the word "preternatural" is overused, but given the subject-matter of the book I let it slide. Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

Here's a little excerpt of Louis' reflections on life that I enjoyed:

-"...brooding would have been to me the most terrible waste; but rather I looked around me at all the mortals that I knew and saw all life as precious, condemning all fruitless and passion and guilt that would let it slip through the fingers like sand.

View all my reviews.

Obama must not watch the news...

2009-01-19T01:31:00.001-08:00

THIS IS RETARDED so now that our new year and new President is off to a new start, I believe it's time to start saving more.

NEWS FLASH Obama!!! WE ARE IN AN ECONOMIC CRISIS.

Ok, for those who didn't read the article from the link above, Obama inauguration is estimated to cost $150 million! By comparison, George W. Bush was given a hard time for the $42.3 million cost of his inauguration .... but that number, as Media Matters points out, did not include security.

So again, now that he is off to "saving our country" from it's economic woes, we had all better hunker down because this does not bode well for me or you...

Sunday at Mom's

2009-01-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

Most every Sunday we go over to my parent's house for Sunday dinner. It is always a lot of fun and we are almost always joined by Robby, Jodi, and Aidan. This Sunday we were surprised and pleased to find out that Nicole and her kids, and G-ma and G-pa Fiet had joined us for family dinner. This video illustrates the spectator sport of the evening (not a usual event, but fun all the same)...

Bond, James Bond

2009-01-12T00:40:00.000-08:00

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
LOVED IT!! I have always been a James Bond fan and an avid reader, but for some reason I have never joined those two hobbies until now. Fleming's writing does not disappoint and it is easy to see why the movie franchise is so successful and lasting. Fleming is a brilliant writer and I loved every word used in this book. This isn't just aficionado bias either, if this was the first introduction to James Bond I ever had, I would still be hooked! He paints a beautiful literary picture for you that enables one you to really see the story he is telling you. Without further words to describe this event, let me show an excerpt of, what I consider to be, the most apt description of an explosion on paper...

"...Suddenly a few feet away the entire plate-glass window shivered into confetti. The blast of a terrific explosion, very near, hit them so that they were rocked back in their chairs. There was an instant of silence. Some objects pattered down on to the pavement outside. Bottles slowly toppled off the shelves behind the bar. Then there were screams and a stampede for the door."

then from another character's POV (Bond's incidentally): "Then with a blinding flash of white light there was the ear-splitting crack of a monstrous explosion and Bond, despite the protection of the tree-trunk, was slammed down to the pavement by a solid bolt of hot air which dented his cheeks and stomach as if they had been made of paper. He lay, gazing up at the sun, while the air (or so it seemed to him) went on twanging with the explosion as if someone had hit the bass register of a piano with a sledge hammer."

Beautiful language.

And it only took me two days...

View all my reviews.

2008

2009-01-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

OUR LIFE
Well, now I see the importance of keeping a journal...
1. Amanda got her Associates degree from Chaffey College! Congrats Amanda!
2. I received some great contacts with the CEO and CFO of the bank I work at, which panned out to nothing in the end, maybe it will go somewhere this year, or be helpful in the future...
3. We got a new couch in April
4. Dad (mine) graduated from Cal Poly with his Art Degree and we got to go to his Senior Show
5. I received a scholarship for school
6. Amanda turned 21 years old!!
7. I turned 23 years old!
8. I attended my first ComicCon with brothers-in-law and Amanda (what a noble act of wife-dom)
9. Amanda and I completed our FIRST year of marriage!! Woo hoo!!
10. Amanda had her weird hospital stint and became the 9th wonder of the world
11. I met my favorite author R.A. Salvatore at a book signing event of his in Pasadena
12. Amanda and I went to the Getty for the first time and loved it
13. Amanda and I went on an amazing cruise of the Mexican Riviera
14. We finished of the year with a great Holiday break filled with fun and family

BEST MOVIE (that I saw in a theater)
I had some indecision on this one (between the first three), but

1. Quantum of Solace
2. The Dark Knight
3. Iron Man
4. Wanted
5. Valkyrie

Other great flicks: The Incredible Hulk, Prince Caspian, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Australia, Cloverfield, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Traitor

WORST MOVIE (and worst seen in theaters maybe ever)
No trouble here, definitely "In The Name of the King"

BEST BOOKS READ THIS YEAR

-Non-Fiction:
1. Night, by Elie Wiesel
2. The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

-Fiction
1. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

-Espionage-Thriller:
1. Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum
2. Point of Impact, by Stephen hunter

-Fantasy Series
1. A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin (book 1 "A Game of Thrones")

TV SHOWS WE WATCHED (this is pretty much all we watched)

1. The Office
2. 30 Rock
3. Survivor
4. Heroes
5. House
6. Lost, season 1
7. Firefly

2009 Preview Revised

2009-01-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

It seems that there are even more new movies coming out than I put out the first time. So here are some new additions to the list, followed by the original list...Also, HERE is a slideshow of 2009's most anticipated movies

4/24/2009 - The Soloist (info)
7/1/2009 - Public Enemies (info) Johnny Depp as gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale as the gov't agent pursuing him
7/24/2009 - Funny People, has Adam Sandler...that's about all I know
8/21/2009 - Inglorious Bastards (info) A Quentin Tarantino film with Brad Pitt and Mike Myers about Nazi occupied France
10/2/2009 - Shutter Island/Ashecliff (info) Martin Scorsese directs Leonardo DiCaprio for the fourth time in a thriller about U.S. Marshalls pursuing a female escaped convict.
10/16/2009 - Where the Wild Things Are (info)
10/16/2009 - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (info) directed by Terry Gilliam, and starring Heath Ledger, Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrell
11/6/2009 - A Christmas Carol (info) Jim Carrey plays Scrooge and all of the ghosts in a digital 3D motion-capture movie from director Robert Zemeckis (creator of Polar Express)
11/6/2009 - The Wolfman (info) I don't know about this, but basically a remake of the classic (I guess) with Benicio Del Toro as the Wolfman
11/20/2009 - Sherlock Holmes (info) Robert Downey, Jr as Holmes, Jude Law as Watson and Rachel McAdams
11/28/2009 - The Lovely Bones (info) Peter Jackson's newest film starring Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz
12/18/2009 - Avatar (info) James Cameron directs this 3D sci-fi action epic that features ground-breaking, eye-popping special effects
12/25/2009 - The Princess and the Frog (info) a new hand-drawn Disney film, this is here cause Amanda will drag me to see it...

and Nottingham doesn't have a release date, but I talked about it in my last post...

Most Notable of the following is the movie 9, check it out here

1/9/2009 - Bride Wars (link)
1/23/2009 - Inkheart (link)
1/28/2009 - Blessed is the Match (link)
2/6/2009 - Coraline (link)
2/20/2009 - Fired Up (link)

2/27/2009 - Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
first I've heard of it was making this list but Kristin Kreuk is playing Chun-Li, here are two pages where you can check out the movie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter:_The_Legend_of_Chun-Li
http://streetfightermovie.net/

New Addition

2009-01-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

Well, a couple posts ago I put out a awaited movie's of 2009 blog, and I must amend it with this entry. It's just a little blurb, but this sounds great to me.

NOTTINGHAM

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are teaming up again (they did Gladiator, Body of Lies, and American Gangster together) to make a new take on Robin Hood with a movie of this title for release in 2009. The twist: Crowe is playing both Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham! To find out why, go here. Sounds like great news to me!

Putting the "Science" Back in Science Fiction

2008-12-31T03:00:00.000-08:00

So last night Amanda and I finally saw The Day the Earth Stood Still and we thoroughly enjoyed it (though I might have a little more, I definitely must give her dad credit for weening her on Star Trek and 50's sci-fi classics). I heard mixed reviews on it, and yes I know it didn't stick to the 1951 story exactly, but what did surprise me was that it stuck to the way 50's Sci-Fi was made, and then beefed it up a bit.

Let me explain myself. 1950's Science Fiction used to be exactly what it says it the title and would show through in the movies. Their would always be the scientist-hero in the story, and some form of government/military always did stupid stuff with Science winning out in the end. Also, their would be some portion of the film where said scientist would get to explain real scientific principles. The Day the Earth Stood Still stuck to this winning formula.

John Cleese and Jennifer Connelly play said hero-scientists who end up saving the world while politicians and military over-react and worry about protecting themselves. The movie opens with a micro-biological discussion led by Jennifer Connelly on organisms that are able to live on one of the moons of Jupiter (?) Then there is a medical surgery scene that seemed pretty real to the actual practice, the "As scientists we cannot do what you are asking us to" bit, and the Klaatu (alien played by Keanu Reeves, perfect casting) helps a scientist (Dr. Barnhardt by Cleese) solve an equation scene...and I loved it all!!

On top of having these types of scenes that don't happen in Sci-fi a lot these days, the creators of this new edition added in some cool explosions, a better protector-robot version of GORT, a way cooler spaceship for Klaatu, and all the great special effects to go along with those that new-age Sci-Fi can provide.

The Day the Earth Stood Still blends the old and new of Sci-Fi beautifully and provides a good message about protecting the planet without getting too preachy or self-righteous (there is no "ooh, our spaceship is 'green'" crap, just "take care of your planet or die"). Just an all-around fun movie and a fun remake of the original.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T23:06:00.001-08:00

Welcome to our humble apartment. We love Christmas and had to decorate our little piece of home...
Here is Christmas central...
Pajama 's ?! for Christmas eve?! Who would've thought! Plus we're wearing the pj's that Amanda's Mom got us for Christmas Eve too!! So two pairs of PJ's...The fierce present unwrapper!! (if you look close, you will see that the pj's that mom-in-law got me are DC Comics Pj's, NICE!!)MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

2009 Preview

2008-12-23T22:10:00.000-08:00

So 2009 look likes it's going to be an amazing year, movie-wise. My last blog already showcased what will most likely be my favorite movie for 2009, but here are some other great films scheduled for release in 2009. MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a happy New Year!! Woo hooo...
(source)

Most Notable of the following is the movie 9, check it out here

1/9/2009 - Bride Wars (link)
1/23/2009 - Inkheart (link)
1/28/2009 - Blessed is the Match (link)
2/6/2009 - Coraline (link)
2/20/2009 - Fired Up (link)

3/6/2009 - Watchmen (link)
3/13/2009 - Race to Witch Mountain (link)
3/20/2009 - Knowing (link)
3/27/2009 - Monsters vs. Aliens (Dreamworks) (link)
4/3/2009 - The Ugly Truth (link)
4/17/2009 - State of Play (link)
5/1/2009 - X-Men Origins: Wolverine (link)
5/8/2009 - Star Trek (link)
5/15/2009 - Angels & Demons (link)
5/22/2009 - Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (link)
5/22/2009 - Terminator: Salvation (link)
5/29/2009 - Up (link) (Pixar/Disney)
6/5/2009 - Land of the Lost (link) (starring Will Ferrell, who knows?)
6/12/2009 - The Proposal (link)
6/26/2009 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
7/10/2009 - 2012 (link)
7/17/2009 - Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince (link)
8/7/2009 - GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra
9/9/2009 - 9 (Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov,
dir. of Wanted; this looks way interesting) (link)
9/18/2009 - The Informant

Other Mentionables:

-The Elfstones of Shannara!!! Rights to the Shannara series have been optioned to Warner Brothers studios until 2010. Elfstones is the first planned movie and even has a director names: Mike Newell (known for such films as: Four Weddings & A Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Mona Lisa Smile, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). It was supposed to start filming this year and finish production in 2009, though what's going on with it now, I could not find out. (link) (link)

-Witchblade. The comic/anime series has a live movie planned for 2009 release. The director working on it is Michael Rymer (Queen of the Damned, and various episodes of Battlestar Gallactica)

- Metal Gear Solid. This has been rumored to be in production for release in 2009, but no apparent progress is being made, we'll see if it comes out or not... (link)

-

X-Men Origins - Wolverine!!

2008-12-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

This movie looks amazing!!! I haven't been so excited about a movie trailer in a long time, but it looks like this movie DEFINITELY will NOT disappoint!! Just watch and let the excitement ensue...

40 Inspirational Movies in 2 Minutes

2008-12-17T00:45:00.001-08:00

Fun...

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes @ Yahoo! Video

Orson Scott Card ... Is Pissing Me Off!

2008-12-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of getting sick of Orson Scott Card. On his blog he has an article where he refers to himself as "Uncle Orson" and he reviews everything (hence "Uncle Orson Review Everything"). I used to enjoy reading it but it's just kind of ridiculous how he has such a high ego that he thinks it certifies him to comment on everything, and to do so as a supposed Uncle. His book writing has really been below par, his reviews are un-researched and annoying, and he himself is very pretentious.

NEWEST ENDER BOOKS
This upset attitude stems from my recent readings into the Ender-verse. Card wrote an amazing book in Ender's Game, followed by some great sequels in the same thread: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant. I have also heard that his Alvin Maker series is pretty outstanding. But his most recent work is just going off his old stuff and is not done very well.

He wrote a book called "War of Gifts." It is supposed to be a short-story of Christmas in Battle School. I had heard of it but wasn't really interested and thus never read it. That was until I went on my cruise and found it in the Cruise Ship Library (yeah they had a Library with a very decent selection). I picked it up and TRIED to read it. Emphasis on tried. It was terrible. It starts off with some character we have never heard of in Battle School who is very uninteresting. That's a great way to start a book sub-labeled "An Ender Story" right? It was terrible and I'm glad I never wasted any money on it.

"Ender in Exile" is Card's newest effort to make extra money on old work. It seems that he is out of ideas and decided to do a book version of a Directors Cut DVD. You know the DVD's where they have all kind of behind-the-scenes and deleted or extended scenes? That's basically what this book is. It's like left over notes and side stories that Card had left over from Ender's Game. It's supposed to be a "Direct Sequel to Ender's Game" but really most of the story takes place during the last few chapters of Ender's Game (he doesn't even get to the Shakespeare Colony until about 2/3's of the way through the book!). It's a collection of deleted scenes and random short stories, some of which seem irrelevant.

So why did "Ender in Exile" get made? My guess is he needed or wanted some more money. He's not writing new stories, he's just riding the wave of the old ones. What has he lately worked on? The two afore mentioned books, and comic-book adaptions of his old works (the Alvin Maker series, the Ender's Game series, the Ender's Shadow series, etc.). I enjoy the comic-book adaptions, but come on! Why hasn't he written anything credible lately? He's too busy writing a...

Stupid Blog
Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. The thing that really pissed me off was his review of Quantum of Solace the latest Bond flick. His review said that it was surprisingly good "only because the filmmakers had seen the Bourne movies and decided that Bond should be reborn as Bourne, only British." and "The trouble is that while stealing from the Bourne plotlines, the filmmakers also thought they should make Quantum of Solace look like the Bourne movies, too."

The "stolen plotline," as he puts it, is that the agency has turned against Bond and he's a rogue agent. Well, that isn't the first time this has happened in the Bond franchise. Then the worst was the accusation that "the filmmakers also thought they should make [it] look like the Bourne movies, too." DO YOUR HOMEWORK CARD!!!

He also said: "Worse yet, the movie began with so many action sequences and so little explanation of what was going on that we never quite got to the point of caring how the action bits came out." Well, if you had seen Casino Royale, you would have known exactly what was going on you retard!! He explicitly stated in the blog how he had never seen Casino Royale, then doesn't get it when Quantum starts off right where the last movie left off, Literally! Quantum of Solace takes place ONE HOUR after Casino Royale. The movie was supposed to start how it did, or else it wouldn't make sense. If Card wasn't such a pompous jerk he would know that (again do your homework if your going to spout off, Card).

Here's a list of some key people who worked on BOTH films and might be inclined to BE THEMSELVES and produce the same type of work! Imagine that: a director of photography who shoots things the same ways!
- Shaun O'Dell, director of photography on Quantum, and directory of photography on Ultimatum
- John Gamble, worked on Camera Focus on Quantum and worked as a Focus Puller on The Bourne Ultimatum
- Marc Atheford, same jobs...
- Dean Morrish, loader on Quantum, and camera loader on Ultimatum
- John Bowman, video playback on Quantum, and video assist on Ultimatum
- Stephen Nakamura, colorist on Quantum, and digital film colorist on Ultimatum
- George Richmond, camera operator on Quantum, and B camera operator on Ultimatum
- J. Patrick Daily, gocam operator on Quantum, and stunt performer on Ultimatum
- Richard G Pearson, editor on both Quantum and The Bourne Supremacy
- Terry Madden, assistant director (2nd unit) for Quantum, and 1st assistant director for Ultimatum
- Terrence Madden (same?), 2nd assistant director for both Quantum and Ultimatum
- Gary Powell, stunt coordinator for both Quantum and Ultimatum
- Rob Inch, assistant stunt coordinator for Quantum and stunt performer for Ultimatum
- Rowley Irlam, same jobs as previous
- Nicola Short, stunt coordinator's assistant for both Quantum and Ultimatum

Mormon, Mormon Rap! Do The Mor-Mor-Mormon Rap!!

2008-12-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

"Hey brothers and sisters, listen to me! I'm talking to you religiously..."

Ahh yes, this brings back memories. I remember dancing around to this thinking it was the coolest thing when I was a wee-little one. Anyways, enjoy!

Yummy Midnight Snack

2008-12-10T00:36:00.000-08:00

So I was really hungry this evening and decided that I wanted a sandwich. So we went to the Grocery Store and spent way too much money, but I got my yummy sandwich:
So here is what is in my sandwich (in order of assembly):
-Sourdough Bread
-Mayonnaise
-Mozzarella Cheese
-Smoked Turkey lunch meat
-Tomato
-Feta Cheese
-More lunch meat
-More Feta Cheese
-Salt (cause I forgot to put it on the Tomato, I added it on top last)
What a great snack!

Here's the sad part of the evening:
That is the second picture of the sandwich. My camera has been freaking out lately and this is what it does. How sad...oh well, I've had it for a little over four years, so it has definitely been a great camera.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

You Couldn't Hear a Dumptruck Driving Through a Nitro-Glycerin Plant

2008-12-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

The Fresh Prince of Gotham

2008-12-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

This is pretty entertaining... The Fresh Prince of Gotham

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Book Tag

2008-12-02T22:32:00.000-08:00

Now here is a tag worth doing, one based on books!! Enjoy! (I got this from my friend from ward's blog).

1. Total Number of Books I've Owned:
I'll have to go do a quick count.....and it came in currently at 425 (with an estimated 30 books in storage...)

2. Last Book I Bought
Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

3. Last Book I Read
Purple Cow by Seth Godin (a good book on marketing and making a unique and remarkable product).

4. Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me

1. Homeland by R.A. Salvatore (this was the book that got me into the Fantasy Fiction genre and Salvatore remains my favorite author to this day, thank you Salvatore for countless hours and hours of enjoyment)

2. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (This one makes the list because it was the first novel that I read in sixth grade. Before that I read the Goosebumps series which was the series to read when I was young and that's why they're here as an honorary mention. My influential sixth grade teacher found I had a sophomore in High School reading level and encouraged me to read something at my level, thus Jurassic Park. The same was my favorite movie at the time and is still a timeless movie. The movie, on VHS, is still the best and most memorable present I have ever received from my Grandpa and Grandma Fiet. One last side note, thank you Nicole for using a sharpie on the book to block out all the foul words for this sixth grade reader. Thanks Crichton, RIP).

3. Scriptures. Those are a given and they are definitely the most influential on me as a person and are a continual guide to my life.

4. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (I think I read this in 8th ? grade and I include it because it was one of the only required reading books throughout my education that I enjoyed. I have heard more than one author say that they didn't enjoy reading in middle/high school because they either give you stupid books, or books that you aren't ready for yet. Apart from this book, everything I read in school that I enjoyed, I chose myself. Plus, Bradbury has become one of my latest favorite authors as I discover more and more of his genius as a writer. He truly is a literary genius and an artist of words)

5. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (My first enjoyable classic. Need I say more? Dumas is a brilliant writer and I discovered him in my first semester of college. Dumas has since inspired me to break out of my Fantasy/Sci-Fi shell and read other types of writing and other classics).

Now I'm supposed to tag....do it if you enjoyed it...

Puerto Vallarta - Zipline Adventure

2008-11-29T20:17:00.000-08:00

Well, we just got back from our cruise and here are the pictures from our Zip-Line Adventure in Puerto Vallarta. The cruise was amazing and we had such a good time. Puerto Vallarta was such a fun port and beautiful city. This Zip-Line thing was amazing as well and definitely the best part of our trip. To start the trip of we rode a speed boat for 15-20 minutes down the coast to a small village. Along the way we saw whales and stopped to check 'em out. Upon arriving at the village we boarded some big Mercedes SUV's which we rode in the back of. We then arrived at the base camp, donned our equipment, and that is where our pictures begin (for this post).
Here we are waiting to begin the treck.
We had to ride mules up to the first Zip-Line, and this is us waiting to be assigned a mule.Here (above) is Amanda and her mule, and below is me and my mule.The following is a series of pictures of the first Zip-line...
After the first Zip, we did a series of nine more Lines which varied in length and drop. One even plummeted us into a deep pool where we were submerged to our chests.

The next series is of our first rapel. It was against a waterfall and a lot of fun. Plus we got these sweet pics!
This one is Amanda and her brother Cameron This is the second rapel. It was a free-fall drop from the platform you can see in the pictures. I didn't get any pictures on this one because I did it too fast for the photographer.
This was the second to last Zip-Line, and was a dual one where we could race. Amanda raced her brother Cameron, and I raced Amanda's brother Travis. We both lost... :(And here we are mid-adventure, after splashing down the waterfall rapel. Travis on the left, then Cameron, Amanda and Myself.
This was an amazing trip and this is just part of it. We still need to develop the pictures we took on our disposable waterproof cameras that have the boat ride and stuff. All-in-all we did 10 Zip-Lines and 2 rapels and had amazing fun. If anyone ever has an opportunity to do something like this, DO IT, it is so much fun and worth the money.

Bon Voyage

2008-11-21T22:04:00.000-08:00

Later folks, I'll be gone for the next week on a wonderful cruise to Mexico, enjoy your lives in normalhood while I am being pampered! Mwahahahahahaha! Anyways, you can expect a nice post with pics and whatnots when we return.

Into The Wild

2008-11-18T00:23:00.000-08:00

At some points in this life, you realize some truths that just are. Whether through stimulation by outside influences or by introspective forces, these moments come and we should cherish them.

One of the major eye-opening points for me was my mission. So many things that I took for granted in my everyday life, so many things I had never thought about, so many of these salient truths waiting to be discovered were there waiting for me in Ecuador. The simplicity of life, the humility of the people, and their complete happiness with what little they had been given in life, really illustrated for me what happiness is.

I've been home for 2 1/4 years now and some of those lessons, though learned and internalized are not so poignantly placed in my mind. Which brings me to the above named movie (based on a book, which was based on the true story), Into The Wild.

The young man is about my age and graduates college and decides to experience what such writers as Henry D. Thoreau and Jack London wrote about as they found themselves in the solitude of this great earth. I'm not here to post about the story behind it (you can watch/read that on your own) but the truths behind it. The main character Chris is looking for happiness which he did not have at home. He travels and interacts with people across the nation all on a quest to go North, to Alaska. (SPOILER ALERT) When he finally gets there, he thinks he's happy until stranded alone on a river that grew much bigger than what it was in winter. He eats the wrong plant and just before dying realizes the one great truth behind happiness:

"Happiness is only real when shared"

He had found it on the road with the people he had met and befriended, he had found it through human interaction. Happiness doesn't come from things, or money, or whatever else, it comes from those we love and care about, from those precious moments when we are at ease with those we love.

There is so much good in this world, we just need to get people to look at it another way. We need to get out of our cocoons and be the kind caring people we are meant to be but sometimes forget we are.

I love landscapes, sunsets, the beauty of nature. How often do you take a moment to savor a sunset? To share a sweet tender moment with those you love? To share happiness? This is what we should pursue in life. In closing here are some good quotes that express some of the ideas of the movie:

-"You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only...from human relationships. God has placed it all around us...and all you have to do is reach for it." (Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild)

- "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." (Henry David Thoreau)

- "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify." (Henry David Thoreau)

- "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." (Henry David Thoreau)

- "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." (Henry David Thoreau)

- "The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." (Jack London)

The Getty

2008-11-13T00:38:00.000-08:00

I love art, so does Amanda, so for Veteran's Day, I had both school and work off and Amanda got work off for the day, so we went and had some fun. Our day was filled with breakfast at Casa Jimenez, a quick trip to the new Used Bookstore right next to Casa J, after which we headed off for the main event of the day The Getty in LA. We stayed there and enjoyed the beauty for a few hours then headed back to Ontario to hit up Re-Mart (great deals) and Mervyn's (crappy store, no wonder they went bankrupt), after which we got dinner at Applebee's, dessert from Handel's Ice Cream, and a nice movie to cuddle up to afterwards. What a great day. Here are a few images from what we saw...

Us outside the Getty in the middle of our trip

This is the top of a waterfall that overlooks the beautiful gardens there, I like this shot (and had to stand on top of a water rim to get it)

"Van Tromp, Going About to Please His Masters"
A beautiful landscape by Joseph William Turner, 1844, Oil on Canvas
"Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning"
By Claude Monet, 1891, Oil on Canvas
"The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light"
By Claude Monet, 1894, Oil on Canvas

"The Bridge Over Water Lily Pond"
By Claude Monet,

"Bust of Winter"
By Paul Heermann, 1700-1733, Marble
"An Old Man in Military Costume"
By Rembrandt Harmensz, van Rijn
"Moonlit Landscape With a View a View of the New Amstel River and Castle Kostverloren"
By Aert van der Neer, 1647, Oil on Panel

"A Panoramic Landscape"
By Philips Koninck, 1665, Oil on Canvas
"The Entombment"
By Peter Paul Rubens, about 1612, Oil on Canvas
"Dancer Taking a Bow (The Prima Ballerina)"
By Edgar Degas, about 1877, Pastel and gouache on paper

I loved the fountain in the following pictures and took a lot of pictures of it...
This is the sunset at the end of the day, Montclair Plaza

What a beautiful day, hope you enjoyed this blog!

Bored...Crazy 8's

2008-11-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

I was bored and saw this on a friend's blog, so...

8 Things...

8 things I am passionate about:
1. My wifey, Amanda
2. My family
3. The Gospel/Truth
4. Books
5. Accounting
6. Speaking my Mind
7. Meat, yum
8. Reese's Sticks

8 words or phrases that I use the most
1. I love you. (to Amanda)
2. Blah, Blah, Blah
3. Hi, How are you doing today?
4. Hi there
5. Thanks for coming in today...
6. This book is good/bad because...
7. WHAT?!
8. I'll Kill you... (??)

8 things I want to do before I die
1. Have kids, grandkids, etc.
2. Own a home
3. See the world
4. Have my own personal Library
5. Get published
6. Be remembered (maybe I'll just go shove some random kid's face into his ice cream, the kid should remember that, right?)
7. Learn how to fence (i.e. sword fight)
8. Invent something useful

8 things I need right now
1. Switch the laundry out
2. For winter to actually arrive and stop bouncing around between cool and hot
3. More books, you always need more books right?
4. More water bottles in the fridge (I hate tap water)
5. To understand Lease accounting better
6. A nap....zzzzzz
7. A vacation (soon enough)
8. Something yummy to eat

8 places I want to visit
1. Italy
2. Ecuador
3. Jerusalem
4. Mexico (in a couple weeks on a cruise ship...)
5. English Isles
6. Greece
7. The rest of Europe
8. Church history tour

8 favorite restaurants
1. In 'N Out
2. Senor Baja's
3. Logan's Roadhouse
4. Olive Garden
5. Applebee's
6. Red Robin
7. Chipotle
8. Chili's

8 TV shows I watch
1. The Office
2. 30 Rock
3. South Park
4. House
5. Heroes
6. Lost
7. News
8. Seinfeld

How did YOU celebrate Nov 4th?

2008-11-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

I voted for McCain, but him losing doesn't mean the end of the world for me, these videos might illustrate the sentiments of both sides a little better... ENJOY!!

There are those who supported McCain...

And those who supported Obama...

but the truth of the matter is, Obama winning was part of a greater plan...

Late but fun

2008-11-04T23:30:00.000-08:00

I know Halloween has past but I just found this song by Panic at the Disco and I liked it. It's not spooky or anything, but it would be a lot of fun when I have kids.

Panic at the Disco - "It's Almost Halloween"

Pearls Before Swine

2008-11-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

I love this comic!!

New Adventure Mate

2008-11-03T22:35:00.001-08:00

Alrighty, we now have a new inductee to the world of blogging.

AMANDA HENDRICKSON

That's right, my wonderful wife has decided to join in the family/friends fun and start blogging her two cents on life as well. So I know many of you out there would like to welcome her, so instead of finding her randomly on my side bar, here's the link, check it out!

http://mrsamandahend.blogspot.com

Welcome Amanda, you are such an amazing person and I love you. Recently Heidi said that one of the elements to a successful marriage is to ask yourself at times: "Do I want to be right? or do I want to be happy?" Luckily for me, you are almost always right! Even when I think I am. So for all those out there, you should know that when I am right about something I make a big deal about it and celebrate (cause it doesn't happen often) all in good fun of course. So we can be happy, and I can usually count on Amanda being right! haha, it's true. Though I must say, I too enjoy being right, whenever I try to argue it, I usually lose. So I choose happy! Welcome again.

House, M.D.

2008-10-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

This show is hilarious. I really love the cynical quips of Dr. House and his attitude towards medicine practice. For those who haven't watched the show it is great stuff. Here are some quotes from the show, enjoy!

-"You can think I'm wrong, but that's no reason to quite thinking."
- “Everybody lies.”
-"Lies are like children: they’re hard work, but it’s worth it because the future depends on them."
- "Never is just reven spelled backwards."
- "I teach you to lie, cheat, and steal, and as soon as my back's turned you wait in line?"
-“Treating illnesses is why we became doctors. Treating patients is what makes most doctors miserable."
-"Seizures are fun to watch, boring to diagnose."
-"I ask you, is almost dying any reason for not being fun?"
-"I'm a jerk to everyone. Best way to protect yourself from lawsuits."
-"Are you comparing me to God? I mean, it's great, but so you know, I've never made a tree."
-Thirteen: "You are the champion of not dealing with your problems."
House: "My grandson gave me a mug that says that."
- "Idiots are fun, no wonder every village wants one."

Could definitely keep going on, if you want to hear/read more, watch the show or go to this page.

The Orc King, by R.A. Salvatore

2008-10-26T02:08:00.000-07:00

The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well even though I read this book only a year ago when it first came out, it is still an amazing book. Salvatore never ceases to amaze with his writing prowess. Both morally inspirational, and written beautifully, Salvatore writes with the same technique, speed, and skill that his character, Drizzt, fights with. Here are a few insights to both of those aspects of his writing.

INSIGHTFUL

- "Quit being afraid of who you are, of who you might dare to be, deep inside." (92)

- "...emotions cloud the rational, and many perspectives guide the full reality. To view current events as an historian is to account for all perspectives, even those of your enemy." (1)

- "That was all they could do in the end, really. Do their best, accept their mistakes, and go on to a better way." (64)

- "In an honest analysis, change is the basis of fear, the idea of something new, of some paradigm that is unfamiliar, that is beyond our experiences so completely that we cannot even truly predict where it will lead us." (81)

- "It is not just boredom that propels my steps along paths unknown, but a firm belief that the guiding principle of life must be a search not for what it is, but for what it could be..." (165)

- "The ideal is achieved only when the ideal is sought. The ideal is not a gift from the gods, but a promise from them." (165)

FIGHT SEQUENCE
- "...he had used the battered and dazed orc king merely as a springboard to launch himself at his real quarry.

"Grguch twisted frantically to get his axe in line with the Dwarf's weapon, but Bruenor, too, turned as he flew, and his buckler, emblazoned with the foaming mug of Clan Battlehammer, crashed hard into Grguch's face, knocking him back.

"Grguch leaped up and came right back at Bruenor with a mighty chop, but Bruenor rushed ahead under the blow, butting his one-horned helmet into Grguch's belly and sweeping his axe up between the orc chieftain's legs. Grguch leaped, and Bruenor grabbed and leaped back and over with him, the pair flying away and tumbling down the hill. As they unwound, Grguch, caught with his back to the dwarf, rushed away and shoulder-rolled over the hill's lowest stone wall.

"Bruenor pursued furiously, springing atop the wall, then leaping from it, swooping down from on high with a mighty chop that sent the blocking Grguch staggering backward.

"The dwarf pressed, axe and shield, and it took Grguch many steps before he could begin to attain even footing with his newest enemy..." (325)

View all my reviews.

2008-10-19T23:33:00.001-07:00

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow, this book was much better than Eragon. You can definitely see Christopher Paolini mature as a writer and as a person as he goes through this series. I can't wait to read Brisingr now. Eragon really matured as a character and the book had some great twists at the end. Now I must say that some of the twists I caught on to early on in the book, but one surprised me when I realized what was happening. This is not a spoiler review so I won't give away any details. I would just like to give two little quotes that I really liked from the book:

-"I won't tell you what to believe...It is far better to be taught to think critically and then be allowed to make your own decisions than to have someone else's notions thrust upon you." (p. 544)

-"Saphira: 'It takes courage to admit you were wrong.'
Eragon: 'Only if you are afraid of looking foolish, and I would have looked far more foolish if I persisted with an erroneous belief.'" (p. 620)

View all my reviews.

R.A. Salvatore Book Signing

2008-10-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

This Friday (yesterday, the 17th) in Pasadena, R.A. Salvatore hit up Southern California on his book tour for his two latest books: The Pirate King and The Stowaway. The Pirate King is the second book in the latest Drizzt trilogy (Transitions) and The Stowaway is a Young Adult book that R.A. Salvatore (on right) co-authored with his son Geno Salvatore (on left). As both of these books came out this month, I haven't had a chance to read/review them so you can look forward to that. But the book singing was great. Bob (R.A.) and Geno did a great intro and talked about their work together on this project and what they have upcoming. Then they opened up for a few questions (which was interesting to hear what people asked) and then finished up with the book signing. I brought 3 books to be signed and Amanda let me buy The Stowaway there to be signed as well (thanks love for your support). Since Amanda doesn't blog, she sometimes will put input into my comments or posts, so to her: Thank you for the love and support! She went out to the book signing with me and sat around with me and listened and took the great picture above. Thanks! Anyways, this is another official Nerd Alert brought to you by Scott H. Thanks for reading!
This was originally only for DVDs. Again, thank you Amanda for putting up with my Bibliophilia.

Heidi Loves My Blog

2008-10-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

Heidi said she loves my blog and asked me to do this! I love to read other peoples, so here is mine!

1. Where is your cell phone? Right next to me.
2. Where is your significant other? In the Hallway
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? My momma
5. Your father? My standard for Men
6. Your favorite thing? Books
7. Your dream last night? I remember a lot of darkness, a pillow, and something about becoming a rock...
8. Your dream/goal? Be a CPA and a Father
9. The room you're in? Living Room
10. Your hobby? Reading, book collecting, movie watching...
11. Your fear? Spiders
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Father of one or two, and working at an Accounting firm, with my CPA license in hand
13. Where were you last night? First we went shopping at Victoria Gardens, and then I spent hours in front of the computer working on a group paper with Skype and google.docs
14. What you're not? Boring
15. One of your wish-list items? Well, look at my wish list link to the right...---->(below the goodreads.com currently reading box)
16. Where you grew up? Southern California
17. The last thing you ate? Honey Buns and milk
18. What are you wearing? Pajamas
19. Your TV? 30" TV ( I think, I'm not sure)
20. Your pet? N/A
21. Your computer? HP laptop
22. Your mood? relaxed and tired
23. Missing someone? My Utah family
24. Your car? '99 Toyota Camry
25. Something you're not wearing? A shirt
26. Favorite store? Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobel, or Borders
27. Your summer? Busy, hectic, fully scheduled, etc.
28. Love someone? Of course...
29. Your favorite color? Brown
30. When is the last time you laughed? Tonight
31. Last time you cried? I don't remember.

I award the following 5 people to do the 'I Love Your Blog' post!
Chris
Nicole
Jodi
TJ
Mom

"Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008," or the Bail-Out Plan

2008-10-07T23:20:00.000-07:00

Well I'm sure you have all heard about the passage (the second time around) last week of the famous "Bail-Out Plan" for $700 billion. While I'm not for the specific plan that was passed, something needed to be done. So I thought I would discuss some of the issues involved, some repercussions, and (hopefully) add a little transparency to the subject. First off, if you want some light reading and have some spare time, here is a link to a full text of the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008." It's only 110 pages so you should be through it in no time... :)

One ramification of inaction is that many companies use lines of credit to pay employees (in other words, payroll comes from a line of credit). In today's economy and with lender trust drying up, so too are such lines of credit. If those dry up, how will employees be paid? Another problem with lending is many auto-dealerships on the east coast have been closing up shop because they can't sell their cars because they can't make car loans.

"Supporters said the bailout was needed to prevent economic collapse; opponents said it was hasty, ill conceived and risked too much taxpayer money to help Wall Street tycoons, while providing no guarantees of success. The rescue plan allows the Treasury to buy troubled securities from financial firms in an effort to ease a deepening credit crisis that is choking off business and consumer loans, the lifeblood of the economy, and contributing to a string of bank failures." (see NY Times article).

Basically the main point of the Bill is that the government is going to buy an array of mortgages and securities that are worth nothing and thus clogging the nation's financial system. It puts the U.S. Treasury in charge of said securities/mortgages and leaves much of operations up to the Treasury. As of yesterday, the Treasury had $350 billion immediately available for use in buying up these junk mortgages/securities. The fund that these monies will be put into will be overseen by a bipartisan congressional commission that will receive reports from the Treasury every 30 days. Also, the bill has a stipulation that protects tax-payers: if after 5 years the government has a net loss, the president will be required to submit a legislative proposal to seek reimbursement from the financial institutions that participated.

Basically the core of the failed Bill presented on Monday by Mr. Paulson remains unscathed and unchanged. They basically just added some fluff to the bill to quell fears. So what else did they add?

1) The FDIC limits on insured money per person, per institution was formerly $100,000. The new Act passed upped that figure to $250,000 per person, per institution through the end of 2009 at which time it will return to $100,000. This only impacts you if you have that much to deposit into a bank. This was also mainly done to help big savers and older retired people insure their money. Though if it came down to it, they wouldn't be able to cover big bank failures if they happened. From today's headlines, if WaMu and Wachovia both went under and hadn't been bought by other institutions, the FDIC would have had a hard time insuring those deposits.

2) The Bill gives the SEC the right to suspend -- by rule or order -- mark-to-market accounting under Statement Number 157 of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Much blame has fallen on accountants and the "Mark-to-Market" accounting rules. The basic premise of "Mark-to-Market," means that at the end of each reporting period, the carrying value of an asset is adjusted to fair-value. What does that mean? you ask? Basically, fair value boils down to this: fair value is the price you could get for something if you had to sell it right now." In other words, the devaluation of your home (if you own one) on the banks books in today's economy is a result of "Mark-to-Market" accounting. Critics say this contributed to the downward spiral of markets. I say this was just the market correcting itself for a huge home-price bubble. Home prices were inflated way to high and the natural thing for a capitalistic economy to do in such a situation is correct itself. Congress trying to stop that by forcing the SEC to change accounting rules is just price fixing, which is not a good thing. Let the prices come down, if they go too low, people will start buying again (if they can get loans) and the price will fix itself back up. (plus, even if the SEC changes off of Fair Value accounting, it won't matter anyways as we go to an international accounting reporting standard in the next couple years, which uses *gasp*fair value accounting!) (see this article, and also this article).

Basically this particular change amounts to this: Give banks a break by letting them value their bad mortgage assets at a price they could fetch later, not now. But that might just postpone the reckoning. The Mark-to-Market rule was implemented to prevent companies from misleading investors about the true value of their assets. Didn't dishonest investors play a big part in this in the first place? Now we want to help them be more dishonest? What? Investor advocates say scrapping the rule now would encourage exactly the kind of shady accounting that defined the Enron era earlier this decade. "Besides, when the real estate market was soaring a few years ago and mortgage asset values were spiking, no banks complained about having to use mark-to-market accounting," noted Edward Ketz, an associate professor of accounting at Pennsylvania State University.

3)Another part are two tax breaks. Of the two tax measures, one is a package of energy-related tax incentives and the other extends about 30 tax breaks that are set to expire at the end of this year, including a temporary patch that keeps more people from having to pay the alternative minimum tax. One would provide tax incentives for individuals and businesses to save energy, produce alternative energy or mitigate carbon emissions.The other would extend a variety of expiring tax breaks. The most significant of these would prevent millions of middle-income Americans from paying alternative minimum tax for the first time. (more)

4)It will require the Treasury to modify troubled loans to help American families keep their homes.

5) In order for companies to participate, it limits their tax-benefits and also must limit executive pay (in order to prevent "the golden parachute," or big compensations to failed execs) (more).

What do you think?

References (in order of use)
-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/bailout-legislation-full_n_130063.html
-http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/business/economy/04bailout.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=business&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1223117572-uBS+s6E7K4vLFKyvhrBH9w
-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122304922742602533.html
-http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/congress-takes-hard-look-mark-to-market/story.aspx?guid={D80D6DE4-793F-4A08-AF1B-620C84ACB42B}
-http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/01/BU77139RDC.DTL
-http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/sep/29bcrisis1.htm

Foundation

2008-10-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was definitely a good read. Written in 1951, it kind of gave me a sense of where George Lucas got some of his ideas for Star Wars. There are such elements as: the Galactic Empire (and it's fall), blasters, hyperspace travel, and the traders (reminiscent of Han Solo for me). Not so much a edge-of-your seat type read as it was a compelling novel with great stories.

This is the second Asimov novel I have read and they always seem to be short story collections. While this is not designated specifically as a short story type novel, it is for all effects and purposes. The story takes place over about 600 years and different time periods are broken up into their own little books within this book, each with distinct chapter numbering. If you like Sci-Fi this is definitely one to read. Thanks Chris for the recommendation.

View all my reviews.

Some quotes:

"...childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child..."

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety."

"To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well."

Eragon

2008-10-03T01:55:00.001-07:00

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Eragon was a really good fantasy read. Not the best epic series ever, but considering the author started writing this at 15 years old and was a New York Times Bestseller by 19, you have to give him some respect.

The first 30 pages were tough to get through for a staunch fantasy reader (just look at my cloud of things read!). Things seemed repeated from other fantasy series. For example: the brutal, northern mountain range near Eragon's hometown is named "The Spine," hmm, reminiscent of "The Spine of the World" in the Forgotten Realms? Yep. And the biggest city near to Eragon's hometown is named "Carvahall," while I can't put my finger on it, I feel like I've seen this elsewhere. Anyways, it had very generic first pages that were not very gripping.

I can't exactly put my finger on a certain point in the story but it's like the book is a ship launched from a beach: the beginning is not smooth at all; but once you get past the crashing waves and into the deep blue sea of the story, it just sucks you in. I can't wait to dive into the next one! Thanks Paolini for a great read!

Oh, and the other thing that kind of bugged me was a moment when Eragon went out onto the plains and a storm was brewing overhead. He looked up into the thunderheads and imagined the clouds to be the vaulted ceiling of a majestic Cathedral, with pillars, and flowing arches. He grew up in a little po-dunk town at the rim of civilization and has never seen a mid-sized town, let alone some kind of Cathedral. The only other way he would have heard about it would be from some story-teller or Bard, and when do Story-teller's relate the "tale of the grand Cathedral?" I digress and found this artistic writing device to be unbelievable, though it did make a nice mental picture.

Ok, a slow get-go and one sentence that I found to be not believable is no grounds to put down this book. It was a great read, with minute flaws. Hence, four out of five stars.

View all my reviews.

Song of the Week - Double Feature Premiere

2008-09-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law Chris used to have posts like this, until he and TJ entered into a joint-venture to create their music blog The Sounds of Science. Recently, Nicole created a music blog as well and invited Jodi, Heidi, and I to participate in it. I will participate, but at the same time, I feel that their music type is a little different from mine in some aspects, though I certainly share much with them as well. So along with my participation on that site, I will portray some of the stuff that I enjoy that they may not so much. So here is my first "song of the week" (we'll see if one makes it on here every week) and my second as a special premiere Double Feature! Both are harder, scream-o mixed with pop-punk type of music, but give it a try...you might like it.

Hawthorne Heights - "Ohio is For Lovers"
I knew the lyrics to this song before I came home from my mission, but not before I left...My last companion (Braden Bangerter) filled me in on some of my current favorite bands before I even came home (Fall Out Boy and this band being the most prominent on my mind right now). Anyways, good song to listen to. Enjoy

Scary Kids Scaring Kids - "My Darkest Hour"
This is a band that I recently discovered thanks to a friend at work and they are amazing (one of my new favorites) and their album spends much of it's time playing on my iPod. I hope you enjoy! If anything the music video is higly entertaining, so if you don't like the music, turn it down and enjoy these crazy kids...

New Star

2008-09-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

European astronomers "found" this strobe light star which belongs to a long-sought family of compact "neutron" stars. Scientists believe it to be something called a Magnetar which, according to the article “would wipe the information from all credit cards on Earth from a distance halfway to the Moon." I thought this was way interesting. To read the full article click here.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

2008-09-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

col The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
-"I have given to this book so much of whatever time I have because I feel, and I hope, that if I honestly and fully tell my life's account, read objectively it might prove to be a testimony of some social value...I believe that it would be almost impossible to find anywhere in America a black man who has lived further down in the mud of human society than I have; or a black man who has been any more ignorant than I have been; or a black man who has suffered more anguish during his life than I have. But it is only after the deepest darkest that the greatest joy can come; it is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come. For the freedom of my 22 million black brothers and sisters here in America, I do believe that I have fought the best that I knew how, and the best that I could, with the shortcomings that I have had. I know that my shortcomings are many..." (p. 378-379)

-Malcolm X

I just finished reading this and it was a slow read. Not only because of the excellent, but deep, content; but because of small margins and small print. Anyways, what an excellent book. Reading about Malcolm's life growing up in the 30's and 40's, his hard times, his conversion to Black Muslim in prison and long dedication to that, and his final conversion to true Islam was an engaging eye-opener.

As a white man growing up in modern-day southern CA, this book presented ideas/lifestyles that I was aware of but had never experienced. Seeing the kind of life Afro-American's suffered through because of racism is really sad but important to know so we can learn from it.

Upon Malcolm's initial conversion to Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, it was tough to read through his constant preaching of the "Devil White Man," though I can certainly understand where he was coming from (as I had just read where he was coming from).

Many only think of Malcolm X as a promoter of a violent resistance, whereas he never really participated in any violent activity. The skewed version of him as being a radical is in part due to the media's changing of his words and in part due to most of his live's preaching of the "Devil White Man." While some of his views were indeed radical, they were necessary. Though the ones that were over the top he later changed in his life.

For me, the book went from a good, instructional read, to an excellent story important for us all when Malcolm went to Mecca and found the true Islamic faith. Not only did he just encounter a renewed and expanded faith, he also discovered something he did not expect in Mecca: white Muslims and black Muslims (and all other colors of people) living in true brotherhood with no regard for color (or even a recognition of a difference in color).

From this point on he made a change in his life and creed. He no longer decried ALL men/women of white complexion to be devils, but had changed it to something completely different. Of this change he said: "That morning was when I first began to reappraise the 'white man.' It was when I first began to perceive that 'white man,' as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it describes attitudes and actions. In America, 'white man' meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been." (p.333-334)

Less than a year after his realization in Mecca and forthcoming change his life was cut short. The public never really accepted his modification of his beliefs to consider all as humans and acceptance of white complexioned men who did not follow the western-white-racism belief. His life was cut short just as he could of made even more dramatic change for equal rights for all.

Truly a compelling read and one that I would recommend to anyone interested in being a better person and valuing human life and brotherhood. There is truly only one race and that is the Human Race and we are all brother and sisters. May we remember that. There are no separate races, only melatonin count in our skin.

Now for some great quotes from Malcolm X:

-"...in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the 'white' Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers)--because their belief in one God had removed the 'white' from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude." (p. 340)

-on John Griffin's book Black Like Me: "Well, if it was a frightening experience for him as nothing but a make-believe Negro for sixty days--then you think about what real Negroes in America have gone through fro four hundred years." (p. 347)

-"I said that both races, as human beings, had the obligation, the responsibility, of helping to correct America's human problem. The well-meaning white people, I said, had to combat,actively and directly, the racism in other white people. And the black people had to build within themselves much greater awareness that along with equal rights there had to be the bearing of equal responsibilities. I knew, better than most Negroes, how many white people truly wanted to see American racial problems solved. I knew that many whites were as frustrated as Negroes." (p. 375)

-"When I am dead...I want you to just watch and see if I'm not right in what I say: that the white man, in his press, is going to identify me with 'hate.' He will make use of me dead, as he has made use of me alive, as a convenient symbol of 'hatred'--and that will help him to escape facing the truth that all I have been doing is holding up a mirror to reflect, to show, the history of unspeakable crimes that his race had committed against my race. You watch. I will be labeled as, at best, an 'irresponsible' black man. I have always felt about this accusation that the black 'leader' whom white men consider to be 'responsible' is invariably the black 'leader' who never gets any results." (p. 381)

View all my reviews.

Dilbert

2008-09-18T23:24:00.001-07:00

American Auto Bail-out? I Think Not!

2008-09-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

U.S.Going Overboard in Bail-Outs?

I don't know if you guys heard, but the CEO of Ford (and others) called for the Gov't to make a loan of up to $50 billion to the auto industry cause they're failing! I think this is ridiculous! If you make a bad business decision, that is the risk you take when entering into a business proposition. All of this "bail-out" crap is getting out of hand. To some degree I understand, but when is enough enough? I don't buy Ford because they suck (i.e. Found On Road Dead), so why should my tax dollars subsidize them? I understand the whole saving jobs thing, but how much can we really do before people become responsible for their mistakes? I'm afraid of all of these bail-outs because it enables people to do it again. It provides the midset that goes something like this: "Well, we did it once and the government, why not again?" What stops consumers/lenders alike from making bad loans again 10, 15, or 20 years down the road if they both bank on the government bailing them out?

This is reminiscent of the failing US Steel industry. It too was failing because of international competition and called for government aid. The gov't approved funding for large steel companies so they could improve their equipment/technology, just like the Big Three automakers want gov't loans to retool old plants and save on borrowing costs. So what happened with the steel companies? Big bonuses for everyone! Woohoo! Literally, they blew all the money, didn't use it for it's given purpose of upgrading equipment, then they horribly KEPT failing (with their old equipment). Of course they wanted more money. At this point the gov't put their foot down (finally). What was the result? The merger of #1 and #2 steel producers (both foreign steel makers) in the world creating Arcelor-Mittal, the obvious ruler of the steel industry and based out of Luxembourg and London who is now the number one provider of Steel IN THE US.

What's even worse is that there was a break out of smaller steel recycling plants that were doing the major production of steel here in America and had a chance to make it. Did they get any gov't help? Of course not! The gov't only encourages failure nowadays! What not help companies that can stay alive instead of encouraging irresponsibility. I understand with some of the financial ones so the financial industry doesn't crash, but how long has the American Auto Industry known about impending growth in popular foreign vehicles? How long has Toyota, Honda, and others growth been happening? Foreign Auto makers have been providing quality, affordable, cars AND customer service for years and I consider that the American Auto industry has done nothing to improve quality. And for some reason the American Auto Industry didn't catch on until they fail and want a get-out-of-jail free card. I SAY NO! If Congress Seriously tries to pass something to help the Auto industry then WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN and tell them NO!! Anyways, that's my gripe for the day.

The Wheel of Time

2008-09-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

Many of my readers will appreciate this blog entry just as I appreciated it when Mom introduced me to the information presented here (yep, thanks Mom). In December of 2007, TOR announced the author who will be finishing off Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series as being Brandon Sanderson (see official press release)

For those who aren't too familiar with Robert Jordan and The Wheel of Time, it has been an epic fantasy tale created by James Oliver Rigney, Jr. under the pen-name of Robert Jordan. It was originally planned as a six book series which, those of us who have read it, quickly grew to one prequel and eleven books published by Mr. Jordan. He was working on the twelfth and final (yep, final, there was only one left) book when he passed away on Sept. 16, 2007 from a rare blood disease. Knowing of his impending passing, Jordan prepared extensive notes, some rough draft chapters, and even audio commentary on the story so that it could be completed according to his original design. His wife Harriet is also working in collaboration with Sanderson on the twelfth book.

The book is tentatively named A Memory of Light and will be possibly published as soon as Fall '09. The new novel, A Memory of Light, will be the 12th and final book in the fantasy series which has sold more than 14 million copies in North America and more than 30 million copies worldwide. The last four books in the series were all #1 New York Times bestsellers. Sanderson himself is an accomplished novelist and was chosen by Harriet (Jordan's wife). Brandon Sanderson has assured s of the following:
"Note that while I'll be writing the words of the book, the novel was outlined by Mr. Jordan before his death. His wife, who was also his editor, will be heavily involved as well. I am writing this book, but it is not my book. It is Mr. Jordan's book, and our goal will be to make it fulfill his vision for the series as much as possible...
"I can't do the job that Mr. Jordan could have. Nobody can. But I will do the best I possibly can, and am confident in the quality of my work. This will be a fantastic book. His vision and foresight will make certain of that." (see Wheel of Time FAQ)

Personal Mosaic

2008-08-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

Concept: 1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. 2. Using only the first page, pick an image. 3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php (choose four columns and three rows, also choose individual URL's)
Questions:

1. What is your first name? (Scott)
2. What is your favorite food? (Mexican Food)
3. What school did you go to? (Cal State San Bernardino)
4. What is your favorite color? (Brown)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Scarlet Johansson)
6. Favorite drink? (Milk)
7. Dream vacation? (Italy)
8. Favorite dessert? (Chocolate Covered Pretzels)
9. What you want to be when you grow up? (Dad)
10. What do you love most in life? (Amanda)
11. One word to describe you. (Nerd)
12. Your nickname. (Scotty)

New Ender Book

2008-08-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

For everyone out there who loves the Ender series this one's for you. Ender in Exile will be a direct sequel to Ender's Game and is due out for release November 11, 2008! I just pre-ordered mine (which maxes out my book budget through November, oh well) and I kind of have a netflix for book type thing going. I get a new book this week (hopefully), a new one another couple weeks later, two new ones in mid-October, and now this in November. I know, it's a sickness this Bibliophilia.