so a couple weeks ago i went to vegas for about 18 hours. my friend had her work christmas party there and she invited me to go with her. we drove up saturday morning for her work party that evening. because of church obligations we had to leave early sunday morning. anyways, although we only spent about 12 hours actually in vegas, it was a great time. after the work party we went and rode the rides on the top of the stratosphere. to ride all 3 rides and go to the top its about $24 a person. not terribly cheap, but if you like roller coasters, it it totally worth it. im including videos of each of the three rides. i have been on rides like the one where you shoot up and down. this one is particularly great because it has the added element of being on top of a huge needle in the middle of vegas. the other two are just ridiculous. you cant really tell, but the one where you are spinning, you are suspended in the air over the edge of the stratosphere. there is nothing below you but the ground which is over 100 stories below. its absolutely nuts. you are latched onto this big arm with raises you in the air, then pivots and extends you out so you are no longer above the roof of the stratosphere and then it starts spinning with your chair angled towards the ground. its just stupid. but as crazy as that ride is, it wasnt even the scariest.
the worst for me was x-scream. we sat in the front row for this one. it is truly a 'thrill ride.' not a roller coaster. none of them are really roller coasters. but ive never been legitimately scared on a roller coaster. this one actually got to me, to the point that i wasnt even really enjoying it because i really was fearing my life. which usually doesnt happen to me. normally i know that i am strapped in so nothing will happen, but that wasnt enough reassurance with this ride. which is strange because it didnt seem like the worst of the three. its a simple ride. you just roll out to the end of the track and then you roll back. repeat three times. it sounds harmless. but you roll out so fast and break so hard that you legitimately fear that the breaks wont work. plus, they roll you out to the end and then the track drops. after two times i was begging that we wouldnt go a third time because i wasnt sure if i could handle it. anyways, it was a blast and quite a rush. a ton of fun. i highly recommend it if you like 'thrill rides.' im not sure if i will ever ride them again. i already survived the misery and dont wish it upon myself again. just upon you.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
macaroni grill
so i remember awhile ago my friend karl telling me that he felt he was done eating at chain restaurants. i dont even know if he remembers saying that or if has sticked to it. at the time i remember thinking that was something typical for karl to say. i dont really know what that means or why that would be typical of karl, but i thought it was a bold statement and pretty ridiculous and a little pompous perhaps. but im beginning to realize that karl has a good mentality or is on the right track. and i realized this a month or so ago when i went out to eat at macaroni grill. now macaroni grill is a fine restaurant. but its just fine. nothing more, and nothing less. just an average time in my opinion. i didnt hate my meal, but there was nothing wonderful about it either. granted i wasnt expecting any sort of fine italian cuisine, and i realized that i am paying only about $12 a plate which isnt too bad, but i just realized that there is no point in even eating there. once upon a time it was a great restaurant and i loved the bread and most everything it had to offer. now, its just blah and average. ill go there about once a year because ill forget how average it is and remember how i used to love the place, but after going ill realize that nothing has changed and that it doesnt have anything to offer me anymore. like the gap.
now i dont think this applies to all chain restaurants. there are many great ones still. i go to corner bakery often. i still like pei wei. its just that when i first heard karl's statement, i thought it was ridiculous, but im realizing that it is hardly ridiculous. there is a lot of sense to it.
and i dont feel as though if i choose not to go to chain restaurants that im being some sort of food snob. well, perhaps i am and i guess thats alright. but i dont think its really being a food snob. its more of me needing to lower my expectations and recognize what i will be receiving at these restaurants. just mediocrity (not at all of course. some are just delicious and have special places in our hearts etc.). pretty good food at a pretty reasonable price. i didnt hate the food, but i chose to go there so i cant complain that i wasnt blown away by the meal. its my fault. i just dropped $40 for my date and i, which is fine, but i can easily find better food for that price elsewhere. and i think that is what i realized after macaroni grill. i can find better food for the same price. so come on karl. lets go place ourselves above the masses in society and scoff at them because we are food snobs and have convinced ourselves that few places have something, if anything to offer us. i feel special already.
now i dont think this applies to all chain restaurants. there are many great ones still. i go to corner bakery often. i still like pei wei. its just that when i first heard karl's statement, i thought it was ridiculous, but im realizing that it is hardly ridiculous. there is a lot of sense to it.
and i dont feel as though if i choose not to go to chain restaurants that im being some sort of food snob. well, perhaps i am and i guess thats alright. but i dont think its really being a food snob. its more of me needing to lower my expectations and recognize what i will be receiving at these restaurants. just mediocrity (not at all of course. some are just delicious and have special places in our hearts etc.). pretty good food at a pretty reasonable price. i didnt hate the food, but i chose to go there so i cant complain that i wasnt blown away by the meal. its my fault. i just dropped $40 for my date and i, which is fine, but i can easily find better food for that price elsewhere. and i think that is what i realized after macaroni grill. i can find better food for the same price. so come on karl. lets go place ourselves above the masses in society and scoff at them because we are food snobs and have convinced ourselves that few places have something, if anything to offer us. i feel special already.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
guitar center
i had such a positive experience at guitar center yesterday, i really wanted to give them a shout out. i went there looking for a guitar tuner. i am a little tone deaf and it takes me literally a half hour to tune my guitar because i can never tell if its tuned properly. anyways, the only guitar tuners that i know of, are the ones where you plug in the guitar into a foot pedal and when you play the guitar it lets you know what note is being played and how sharp or flat it is to that note. not sure if that made sense, but i get in there and ask them for a guitar tuner and the guy shows me one that they have. he told me it was $99 and that it was really reliable and that they havnt received any complaints about it etc. it sounds expensive and it was, but im not really a guitar player, at all, and im really sick of playing an out of tune guitar. so im ready just to suck it up and make the purchase and get out. and i told him that if that was it, then ill take it, but then he lets me know that there is another one that is $75. i asked him how it was different and he said that it is also a very reliable one and that while the other one perhaps can get a more precise note etc, this one is a lesser known brand that is trying to make a name for itself and would be just as good. so i was sold.
i told him i needed a cable as well and he took me over to the cables. he showed me a cable that he thought would be good. he said it had a lifetime guarantee and that it is reliable etc. i pointed to some others and asked about them and he said that i could get that brand if i wanted. he said that they have a warranty where i could literally walk out into the parking lot, cut the cable with scissors and come back into the store and they would have to give me another cable. but he said that the brand is of course more expensive and so unless i thought i would be cutting the cable in the parking lot, i should just go with the cheaper one, because it was just as good.
so we go to check out and i mention that i need some picks. he asks what kind. i didnt know that there were various kinds. he asked if i wanted light or heavy etc. i said, 'light. i suppose.' he picked out some picks for me that he thought would be good for me. at this point, or much earlier, i think he understood my amount of guitar experience and he told me that if i wanted, they have guitar tuners where you dont have to plug it in. they have just a built in microphone and if you place it close to the string, then it picks up the note and tells you how close you are. he said that they arent the most precise thing, but they are pretty good, and they are only $15.50. i couldnt believe it. i was ready to check out and be on my way. i had no idea that these other tuners even existed. they only had them on display behind the checkout counter, but in an area where i never would have seen them, and here was this guy, downselling. and it was so refreshing. i of course took the cheaper tuner because it very much suited my purposes. having such a small knowledge about guitar stuff, i thought my only option was the plug in tuners that i see used by guys in bands.
anyways, i got out of there with what i needed and i didnt even have to pay over $40. it was so refreshing to be downsold for once. after going to countless places like jiffy lube where you spend 45 minutes of your hour long experience saying 'no' to their countless upsell attempts, this was a phenomenal experience. and what made it so good was that he had me. he never tried to upsell me from the start. but i was fully prepared, with credit card out, to but the more expensive tuner. yet, he still bothered to stop me and offer me items that were better suited for what i needed. i got what i needed and wanted, not what he wanted me to need because its more expensive. so i salute you guitar center. thanks for caring about me more than 'the man.'
i told him i needed a cable as well and he took me over to the cables. he showed me a cable that he thought would be good. he said it had a lifetime guarantee and that it is reliable etc. i pointed to some others and asked about them and he said that i could get that brand if i wanted. he said that they have a warranty where i could literally walk out into the parking lot, cut the cable with scissors and come back into the store and they would have to give me another cable. but he said that the brand is of course more expensive and so unless i thought i would be cutting the cable in the parking lot, i should just go with the cheaper one, because it was just as good.
so we go to check out and i mention that i need some picks. he asks what kind. i didnt know that there were various kinds. he asked if i wanted light or heavy etc. i said, 'light. i suppose.' he picked out some picks for me that he thought would be good for me. at this point, or much earlier, i think he understood my amount of guitar experience and he told me that if i wanted, they have guitar tuners where you dont have to plug it in. they have just a built in microphone and if you place it close to the string, then it picks up the note and tells you how close you are. he said that they arent the most precise thing, but they are pretty good, and they are only $15.50. i couldnt believe it. i was ready to check out and be on my way. i had no idea that these other tuners even existed. they only had them on display behind the checkout counter, but in an area where i never would have seen them, and here was this guy, downselling. and it was so refreshing. i of course took the cheaper tuner because it very much suited my purposes. having such a small knowledge about guitar stuff, i thought my only option was the plug in tuners that i see used by guys in bands.
anyways, i got out of there with what i needed and i didnt even have to pay over $40. it was so refreshing to be downsold for once. after going to countless places like jiffy lube where you spend 45 minutes of your hour long experience saying 'no' to their countless upsell attempts, this was a phenomenal experience. and what made it so good was that he had me. he never tried to upsell me from the start. but i was fully prepared, with credit card out, to but the more expensive tuner. yet, he still bothered to stop me and offer me items that were better suited for what i needed. i got what i needed and wanted, not what he wanted me to need because its more expensive. so i salute you guitar center. thanks for caring about me more than 'the man.'
Friday, November 2, 2007
riddle me this...
so about 10 years ago 'batman forever' came out which introduced jim carrey as the riddler dressed like this:
then, when i was in high school, i remember joe thoits dressing as the riddler one year for halloween. i always thought it was a great costume. this year i decided to at least pursue the idea and see if i could somehow pull it off. i did some web based research and found the riddler costume for about $250 which was a little more than i wanted to spend on a halloween costume. so i did a google search for full body spandex suits, which admittedly could have brought some scandalous results, but not nearly as many as anticipated. anyways, after searching through some junk, the chinese and ebay provided me with more or less what i was looking for, and for only $7.
granted, shipping was four times that amount, but i still felt it was a deal worth taking. so only 4 days later i received it in the mail. its pretty amazing. it is full body, as advertised. it was made for a woman that was between 5'10 and 6'2 so it stretched a bit and i had to cut off the fingers because they were too skinny for my hands. and no, this isnt on backwards. it has a zipper in the back that zips all the way up from the lower back to the top of the head. you can see through it, not well, but i suppose well enough if you were wanting to rob a liquor store or something.
anyways, it didnt have any question marks on it, so i went over to my friend becki's house and she suggested that the best thing to do would be just to paint them on. so we made a few stencils and bought some sharpies and began coloring. it actually took us 4 hours. by the end im pretty sure i had a contact high from inhaling sharpie scent for so long. my head hurt the whole rest of the night. but the question marks turned out surprisingly well. 
add in some pink hair spray and some little mermaid glasses that i found at a cvc pharmacy and i think the costume turned out looking pretty good.
there were some obvious problems that needed to be dealt with whenever a guy puts on a full body spandex suit. not sure if i completely solved the problem, but i figured it was only for a night and not a permanent or daily outfit. here are some photos from the evening:
this is mindy, who painted on the majority of hte question marks, myself, zach, and becki, a real life troll doll.
here we are at a party in costa mesa. this is britney, one of zach's many ex-lovers. she is now dating another guy, only to try and make zach jealous though.
and here is dave (justin timberlake), zach (an urban cowboy), me, and our friend sean who was a creepy nudist guy. i thought my full body suit was bad, his was flesh colored. every time i saw him throughout the night i always did a double take. i would catch him out of the corner of my eye and think i saw a naked body running around. thankfully, it was just a fellow friend cruising around in a spandex suit. its nice to have added support from friends when wearing spandex.
then, when i was in high school, i remember joe thoits dressing as the riddler one year for halloween. i always thought it was a great costume. this year i decided to at least pursue the idea and see if i could somehow pull it off. i did some web based research and found the riddler costume for about $250 which was a little more than i wanted to spend on a halloween costume. so i did a google search for full body spandex suits, which admittedly could have brought some scandalous results, but not nearly as many as anticipated. anyways, after searching through some junk, the chinese and ebay provided me with more or less what i was looking for, and for only $7.
granted, shipping was four times that amount, but i still felt it was a deal worth taking. so only 4 days later i received it in the mail. its pretty amazing. it is full body, as advertised. it was made for a woman that was between 5'10 and 6'2 so it stretched a bit and i had to cut off the fingers because they were too skinny for my hands. and no, this isnt on backwards. it has a zipper in the back that zips all the way up from the lower back to the top of the head. you can see through it, not well, but i suppose well enough if you were wanting to rob a liquor store or something.
anyways, it didnt have any question marks on it, so i went over to my friend becki's house and she suggested that the best thing to do would be just to paint them on. so we made a few stencils and bought some sharpies and began coloring. it actually took us 4 hours. by the end im pretty sure i had a contact high from inhaling sharpie scent for so long. my head hurt the whole rest of the night. but the question marks turned out surprisingly well. 
add in some pink hair spray and some little mermaid glasses that i found at a cvc pharmacy and i think the costume turned out looking pretty good.
there were some obvious problems that needed to be dealt with whenever a guy puts on a full body spandex suit. not sure if i completely solved the problem, but i figured it was only for a night and not a permanent or daily outfit. here are some photos from the evening:
this is mindy, who painted on the majority of hte question marks, myself, zach, and becki, a real life troll doll.
here we are at a party in costa mesa. this is britney, one of zach's many ex-lovers. she is now dating another guy, only to try and make zach jealous though.
and here is dave (justin timberlake), zach (an urban cowboy), me, and our friend sean who was a creepy nudist guy. i thought my full body suit was bad, his was flesh colored. every time i saw him throughout the night i always did a double take. i would catch him out of the corner of my eye and think i saw a naked body running around. thankfully, it was just a fellow friend cruising around in a spandex suit. its nice to have added support from friends when wearing spandex.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
hip hop horray
so last week i was talking to my friend garret, a fellow law student, and somehow it came up that he used to be a personal trainer. he mentioned that he doesnt do any training right now because of school, but he still teaches a class once a week. i asked him what class and he responded, 'hip hop.' to which i of course responded: 'can i come?' he said of course and that he could get anyone in for free. so i rallied together 15 friends and we crashed his hip hop party. thats not entirely true. i did find a friend though and we went. and it was fantastic. seriously a good time. not the most tiring workout, but a workout of sorts. i consider myself a rhythm-less wonder, so i found the class challenging, but really a lot of fun and im definitely planning on going back. here is a video of a class that he taught. this isnt what he taught us. he taught us a dance to a justin timberlake song. garret is the instructor at the front. he moves a little better than i do. he's pretty fluid. im not so sure he has bones in his body. he also dominates when it comes to mock trial. a really good public speaker. a multi-talented law student. who knew? we're not all law geeks. anyways, go hip hop. its a blast. and good for the soul.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
FIRE!!
so there are many terrible fires going on right now all over southern california. im sure everyone is well aware of this. i woke up sunday morning and heard about a malibu fire that happened because of some felled power lines. i didnt think much of it. later that afternoon i went to my friend joe seymour's wedding. two quick things about the wedding:
1. it was peppered with 'beatles' songs. the prelude music was 'all you need is love.' the processional was 'something' and the recessional was 'two of us.' which is a beatles song that i wasnt familiar with, but its a great one. later, their first dance was to 'here, there and everywhere.' just outstanding. i think she chose the music. if it was up to joe, he probably would have picked their first dance to be 'bow down' by 'westside connection.' anyways, i would much rather get married in the temple for obvious reasons, but i think that a 'beatles' wedding is a close second (can i say that? i was going to say acceptable second, but i dont think that would be the best way to phrase it. hopefully my readers understand me here.)
2. i need to give a shout out to my date. though i wont say her name. she was great. i later told her that she should become a professional date(r) but i think that that job exists and its called a female escort. which isnt a job with the greatest reputation, so i dont recommend it. anyways, i dont know if all women enjoy weddings and would have had a good time, but from a guy's point of view, if someone asked me on a date and then took me to a wedding id be visibly upset about it and she and i would be one and done. plus on top of that, its an event where i knew people from high school, but she didnt know anyone. she made great conversation with strangers and i never felt bad or nervous leaving her so that i could talk to people i know or just 'escape' for a bit because i knew she could and would hold her own. anyways, i felt bad asking anyone to come with me, but she acted the part well made the evening a great time. sorry, this has been a long shout out. i need to stop before i get even more family comments than im already going to get.
so, back to the fire. the wedding was up in dove canyon in orange county and on the way home the freeways we took to get to the wedding were both closed because huge fires had started. the evacuation of the area had just begun and we sat on the side of the road with hundreds of other people and watched as these huge fires started to crawl over the hills. we stood next to one lady whose house was at the bottom of the hill where the fire was. it was rather awe inspiring watching these huge fires in the late of the night. i hate to say it, but at the time it was really cool to witness. things arent so cool now that they are out of control with no sign of anything getting better while the winds continue. it appears that the winds might be dying down. one can only hope.
so i asked my friends on monday if they had heard how the fires had started and they had heard it was because of arson. of course some fires began because of the initial ones that started. so they all werent arson, but even if they were, it got me thinking about arson. or arsonists.
first of all, how do they do it? like with these brush fires. are they just driving along the highway and they throw some fireball outside their car? i would think it too risky, to drive off the side of the road, get out, light some brush on fire, then get back in your car and drive away. i guess its more plausible than the fireball, but it still sounds like there is a large risk of someone seeing you. granted, i realize we are dealing with someone that enjoys lighting large areas on fire and doesnt feel remorse or sorrow about all the damage, so their brain might not be able to calculate risks associated with lighting the brush on fire.
the other thing is just how its such a strange crime. i think a lot of crimes are committed out of desperation or necessity, like robbing a store to feed a drug addiction. those crimes are terrible, but sort of make sense at least. or crimes of passion. also terrible. very terrible. but again, i sort of understand. not that i justify any of them. or find any of them acceptable. but arson? unless the person is trying to burn down their home because they need the insurance money, there isnt desperation. passion? not really. its just for kicks. which makes it one of the worst crimes. in that, i think any crime that is committed because someone gets a kick out of is the worst motive and the person is seriously sick and messed up in the head.
anyways, i need to end this post. i dont think im conveying my thoughts very well. its never a good sign when i cant even really understand myself. i just had some random thoughts about how this all began. i guess i cant even confirm that they were started by arson, but if they were, i just dont understand it.
1. it was peppered with 'beatles' songs. the prelude music was 'all you need is love.' the processional was 'something' and the recessional was 'two of us.' which is a beatles song that i wasnt familiar with, but its a great one. later, their first dance was to 'here, there and everywhere.' just outstanding. i think she chose the music. if it was up to joe, he probably would have picked their first dance to be 'bow down' by 'westside connection.' anyways, i would much rather get married in the temple for obvious reasons, but i think that a 'beatles' wedding is a close second (can i say that? i was going to say acceptable second, but i dont think that would be the best way to phrase it. hopefully my readers understand me here.)
2. i need to give a shout out to my date. though i wont say her name. she was great. i later told her that she should become a professional date(r) but i think that that job exists and its called a female escort. which isnt a job with the greatest reputation, so i dont recommend it. anyways, i dont know if all women enjoy weddings and would have had a good time, but from a guy's point of view, if someone asked me on a date and then took me to a wedding id be visibly upset about it and she and i would be one and done. plus on top of that, its an event where i knew people from high school, but she didnt know anyone. she made great conversation with strangers and i never felt bad or nervous leaving her so that i could talk to people i know or just 'escape' for a bit because i knew she could and would hold her own. anyways, i felt bad asking anyone to come with me, but she acted the part well made the evening a great time. sorry, this has been a long shout out. i need to stop before i get even more family comments than im already going to get.
so, back to the fire. the wedding was up in dove canyon in orange county and on the way home the freeways we took to get to the wedding were both closed because huge fires had started. the evacuation of the area had just begun and we sat on the side of the road with hundreds of other people and watched as these huge fires started to crawl over the hills. we stood next to one lady whose house was at the bottom of the hill where the fire was. it was rather awe inspiring watching these huge fires in the late of the night. i hate to say it, but at the time it was really cool to witness. things arent so cool now that they are out of control with no sign of anything getting better while the winds continue. it appears that the winds might be dying down. one can only hope.
so i asked my friends on monday if they had heard how the fires had started and they had heard it was because of arson. of course some fires began because of the initial ones that started. so they all werent arson, but even if they were, it got me thinking about arson. or arsonists.
first of all, how do they do it? like with these brush fires. are they just driving along the highway and they throw some fireball outside their car? i would think it too risky, to drive off the side of the road, get out, light some brush on fire, then get back in your car and drive away. i guess its more plausible than the fireball, but it still sounds like there is a large risk of someone seeing you. granted, i realize we are dealing with someone that enjoys lighting large areas on fire and doesnt feel remorse or sorrow about all the damage, so their brain might not be able to calculate risks associated with lighting the brush on fire.
the other thing is just how its such a strange crime. i think a lot of crimes are committed out of desperation or necessity, like robbing a store to feed a drug addiction. those crimes are terrible, but sort of make sense at least. or crimes of passion. also terrible. very terrible. but again, i sort of understand. not that i justify any of them. or find any of them acceptable. but arson? unless the person is trying to burn down their home because they need the insurance money, there isnt desperation. passion? not really. its just for kicks. which makes it one of the worst crimes. in that, i think any crime that is committed because someone gets a kick out of is the worst motive and the person is seriously sick and messed up in the head.
anyways, i need to end this post. i dont think im conveying my thoughts very well. its never a good sign when i cant even really understand myself. i just had some random thoughts about how this all began. i guess i cant even confirm that they were started by arson, but if they were, i just dont understand it.
Monday, October 22, 2007
quick plug for 'crash'
so 'fx' is acting like a typical cable station and repeatedly showing a movie five or six times a day for a few weeks. right now it happens to be the movie 'crash.' it is a heavy movie but i loved it and i highly recommend it. when i first saw it i had a 'gattica' moment. a gattica moment is where i sit down to watch a movie, but im really tired or not in the mood for a movie, but the movie immediately sucks me in and keeps me alert and attentive throughout. crash was that type of movie. i was only planning on starting it and watching the first part; 2 hours later i was still staring at the screen at highly moved and impressed. cant guarantee youll have the same experience, but if you have a soul, you probably will.
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