New Banner

I want to thank my friend, Keith Jackson, for creating the new banner you see on the top of my blog. It looks awesome and I'm already getting positive feedback on the new look.
You can view Keith's blog, Wide is the Way of the World, by clicking on the link on the right side of my page.

I'm still playing around with the look of my blog, so don't be surprised if it looks different the next time you view it.

Movie Saturday

We went to see Michael Clayton this weekend. It has returned to theaters after its initial run due to the fact that it has received some nominations and awards.

I thought it was a good legal thriller with some unexpected moments. It was a good story with a great ending. The only knock on it was that it was a little too long. It came in at 2 hours, and at times it seemed like it dragged a bit.

Rainy Days

Here is a picture CJ took of the low hanging clouds on Sunday. This is what it looked like pretty much all last week due to the relentless rains we received. We were lucky we got a break in the action to take this picture outside the apartment. I think it started raining as soon as we went back inside though!

Digital

The wait is over. Finally! This weekend we had our new Directv Satellite dish installed so that we can receive HD quality television. Since we had a DVR before, we naturally had to go with the HD DVR to record our new digital quality programs. Everything is working great, and TV shows look awesome in HD.

The only thing I didn't realize, when switching to HD, is how HUGE this new dish is. Our old one was pretty small and unassuming. As you can see in the picture, this one barely fits below the balcony above. I hope it's not too much of an eyesore in the neighborhood!

Tornado Thursday

Some of you outside of California might have heard that it has been raining here for the past week. It is a good thing, because we badly need the precipitation. So, last night I was watching television, and all of the sudden I see a weather alert scroll across the bottom of the screen. Okay, I'm thinking, "Probably a mudslide or flooded area". No, it was freaking Tornado Warning! What? A tornado in California??? I've never heard of such a thing! Apparently, it does happen, but rarely! Luckily, nothing developed and no property or people were hurt. What's next, a hurricane?

"Trekking" Across The Country

I like Star Trek, but I wouldn't consider myself a Trekkie. I was online and I came across "Star Trek The Tour" that will be traveling across the country to 40 cities. The cool thing is that it starts up in Long Beach, which isn't too far away from me. It is an interactive tour with exhibits and attractions on all the incarnations of Star Trek through the years.

It looks pretty cool. Now I have to find someone to go with me.

Rainy Day Off

Yesterday was a day off of work for me and CJ because of MLK Day! We decided to do something we hardly ever do... go to downtown L.A. We never go because there isn't much we enjoy doing downtown. Most things we enjoy are outside of the city. We decided to take the subway (yes, L.A. has one) to meet our friend Alli for lunch. Unfortunately for her, her company had to work on MLK day. As you can see, CJ took his camera and snapped a few pictures while we were there. It was raining so he didn't get too many pictures.

Movie Sunday

Cloverfield is a modern day monster movie. It was fun!
If you get motion sickness, don't go see this movie. It's shot like a home video, shakiness and all!

Who Needs Hollywood?

I just came across this YouTube video today. It's amazing what you can do with 3 guys, a camera, and computers.

I Can't Wait!

In 30 days, pitchers and catchers report for the "unofficial first day" of Spring Training!
February 28 is the first spring training game and the season starts March 31.

The excitement slowly builds...

Imitation of Life

I never watch music videos anymore, and I haven't for several years. I think the music video has run it's course. It's ironic that the very channel that brought us music videos also killed the music video by showing less videos and more scripted programming. That is why they're less important to our culture than they were 20 years ago.

I heard an R.E.M. song today and it reminded me of one of my favorite videos. It is a song called "Imitation of Life" from the band's 1991 album, "Reveal".

Michael Stipe explained how the video was shot.
"The entire video took twenty seconds to shoot. What you're watching is a loop that goes forwards for twenty seconds, backwards for twenty seconds, forwards for twenty seconds, backwards for twenty seconds, with one camera, static, and then using a technique called 'pan and scan', which is a technical thing that is used when they go from a widescreen format and reformat to fit your television or DVD, moving in on certain parts of the entire picture. And you'll see that we do that picking up various people within the frame."

I think it's an interesting video in that you see something new each time you watch it. Enjoy!

Spotted

Jessica Alba (and her fiance/sperm donor, Cash Warren) walking in front of my SUV as I was turning into the parking garage of the Kodak Theater.

Night of Laughs

The other night I went to see Kathy Griffin perform her hilarious stand-up routine. She was performing at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. You might have heard of this theater because that is where the Oscars are held. The only bad thing was that it took an hour to get out of the parking garage after the show!

If you have seen Kathy on TV either doing stand-up or her reality show, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, you know she earns a living making fun of celebrities. Who doesn't like to do that? She covered such topics as Britney Spears, Marie Osmond, her boyfriend (Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak), Oprah, and the View. The whole performance was hilarious and I didn't want her to stop.

Spotted

A lot of times people back home ask me what famous people I see around Los Angeles. So, I thought I would start posting about who I see. Sometimes you will know the person, or in the case of this particular post, you might have no clue.



This is Daniel Roebuck. I've actually seen him twice here in Burbank. He is one of those character actors you might have seen in things, but you don't know his name. Looking at IMDB, he's been in about every prime time drama since the 1990's. Most recently he was in one of my favorite shows, LOST, playing Dr. Leslie Arzt.

Resurrected From the Dead

My favorite reality show of all time is COMING BACK to television. The Mole will be back this summer on ABC. I believe the writer's strike has something to do with this, but ABC says it was planning to bring it back before the strike happened.

If you haven't watched the show, you might be surprised how good it is. It's in a league with the Amazing Race, in that it's more highbrow reality, and not about people hooking up. In the game, you have a group of contestants competing for a cash prize. Each week, the group completes different physical and mental challenges to earn money for the "pot". The hitch is that one of the group members is the Mole. The Mole is working for the producers of the show and tries to sabotage different tasks so that the team loses money for the pot. The identity of the Mole is secret and none of the contestants are told who it is. At the end of each episode, the contestants take a quiz on questions about who the Mole is. The person who scores the lowest on the quiz is "executed". At the end of the season, the Mole is revealed and one of the contestants is awarded the cash in the pot.

Now your saying to yourself, "If the Mole sabotages the tasks in the game, isn't it obvious who the Mole is?" No! The Mole does things subtly to mess up challenges. Also, you will have contestants (who are not the Mole) try to sabotage tasks so others will think they are the Mole. With this strategy, people will answer questions on the quiz accusing the wrong person of being the Mole. Therefore, it a way to fool people and knock others out of the game.

It's fun to watch because you are always evaluating and re-evaluating who you think the Mole is if your suspect is knocked out of the game. On the first season, I actually guessed from the first episode who was the Mole. The second season, I was totally wrong.

I like this show so much I even made a submission video for its second season about 4 years ago. I'm not even sure what happened to that video, but it was horrible.

ABC also did a celebrity version of the MOLE a few years ago. It was horrible and not reflective of the tone of the original show. Therefore, it doesn't count :)

This summer is going to be exciting! Please watch the show so they will bring it back for another season. Now if they would only bring back my #2 favorite reality show, Murder in Small Town X!

evilBucks

A third of you know, a third of you will be surprised, and another third won't care... I like coffee. Ever since I moved out to California, I fell into the Starbucks trap. There is no way to avoid them, because they are on every corner out here. Soon they are going to open one in my closet!


Anyway, I use to get a non-fat Mocha Latte. Then I realized I didn't need all that sugar and caffeine 2 to 3 times a week (No I don't think I'm getting fat). So, I decided to go with the sugar free vanilla non-fat latte.

Today, I went in to get my regular order. While I was waiting for my coffee, I noticed Starbucks had something new...Sugar free Mocha!!!! I was way more excited that I should have been about chemically processed mocha, but it made me smile. I don't usually have Starbucks 2 days in a row, but I might have to tomorrow just so I can get my non-fat sugar free mocha latte. Yum!!!


On a side note about Starbucks... I really do think they are mind readers. I have joked with my friend Alli about this. It seems like every time you think about Starbucks, you get an email from them tempting you with something new. Case in point... while I was working today, I received an email from (evil) Starbucks telling me I could now get sugar free mocha.

I don't think there is any escape from them!

Lunch

Today, CJ and I went to this restaurant, Granville, for lunch. We have walked by it many times, but have never stopped to eat. We actually stopped and had lunch today. Maybe it's because it's a new year.. who knows what motivated us?????

It was really good. Nice atmosphere. Nice gourmet food at a reasonable price... well, at least for California :)

Chow!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a great New Year!!!
Go 2008!!!!!