vegas baby

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.

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.

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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.

weekend warrior

so i want to become a weekend warrior (but not like this guy. he's just one of the first pictures that came up on a 'google' search). or perhaps a weekend rogue warrior. or maybe a weekend renegade warrior. i'd like to be a renegade. it just sounds cool. so ive been having the traveling itch or just wanting to get out and do stuff itch. now i realize i do get out and 'do stuff.' this past week i went to yet another concert. i went with my brother and saw morrissey. ill quickly digress and say that it was fantastic. morrissey sweats more than any other human i have ever seen. in his roughly 2 hour show, he changed his shirt three times. his music is really good though. im not too familiar with his stuff, i actually only knew three songs going to the concert, only one of which he played. so i couldnt really sing along to the music, but ive gone home and downloaded some songs because i really enjoyed them.

anyways, so i have been quite the concert go-er lately. which is just grand. i also do get out and 'do stuff.' my weekends usually are filled with stuff. and thats just fine and dandy. but ive been having the desire to go places. and not necessarily far away places, but some nice weekend excursions (although roundtrip flights to costa rica right now are going for $259 on TACA international airlines. thats a deal. im not quite sure what taca airlines is. ive never heard of them. i dont know if you fly with people, chickens or cocaine. but for $259?! ill happily smuggle in some 'goods' if it means i can fly there for about as much as it costs to fly to utah).

here's the siutation: right now i have no classes on friday. i have a three day weekend every weekend. its my third year of law school. its really my last opportunity to have such a flexible and open schedule until i make millions and retire by 40. but after this year, i probably wont have such an nice schedule for at least 10 years and maybe even more. so i need to live it up. ive talked to numerous law school graduates that talked about their third year. one guy bought a jet ski. another guy got his pilots license during his third year. george had his summer. why cant i have my year? (of course, i may not want to use that analogy, because, as im sure we all recall, george slips on some invitations shortly after his summer starts and his summer is ruined due to an injury). i dont really want a jet ski or to learn how to fly, although those would be cool. i just want some weekend excursions. i dont think that is too much to ask or too difficult to make happen. there is plenty i can do that can be pulled off in a weekend. surfing in baja. snowboarding in mammoth. vegas. i have family there and i never go there, but i should. santa barbara. san francisco. austin. cabo. san juan. you know, simple trips.

anyways, if you have any other suggestions or ideas of excursions, please let me know. if you are against me being a renegade, i suppose you can let me know as well. i do realize that a renegade refers to a fallen christian or a soldier or knight without allegiance. so i guess technically i dont want to be a renegade in the midevil sense of the term. rather, the gen x/me generation renegade that spends all his time roaming and avoiding responsibility and looking out for number 1 - himself. if you are against that renegade, then you can let me know and ill at least pretend to take your objections into consideration (but not really of course since they are coming from a source other than number 1).

movie recap

so at the beginning of the summer i did a summer movie preview, well another thing i have been meaning to post is a little recap of the movies i actually did see. not that i think anyone cares, but i still thought i would post my thoughts. so in the end, i didnt end up seeing too many movies. but ill just rank the ones that i did see.

evan almighty: didnt actually see it. this is why it took me so long to make this post. in the original preview post i put this as a movie i was going to see, so i was going to do this recap post after i saw it. but i never did. i planned on it, but then i heard it just wasnt that good. im really not one to pay attention to critics, but occasionally ill check the site rottentomatoes.com. i like this site because it just compiles reviews from many different critics and tell you what percent of them gave the movie a positive review and how many gave it a negative review. again, i dont really care about what critics say, but if an overwhelming amount give it a negative review, it does make me question whether or not i want to spend money on the movie. so when only 23% of the 175 critics gave evan almighty a positive review, i felt that i could probably wait until this movie came out on dvd. or tv. or just wait for my roommate to illegally download it.

7. resurrecting the champ: randomly saw this one with a group one friday night. um, no complaints. one of those neutral movies. i wasnt upset by any means that i saw it. wasnt blown away or it didnt change my life or anything. not that a movie has to. i would and do recommend it, but until i sat down to write this post, i had forgotten that i had even seen the movie this summer.

6. ocean's 13: this was actually a great show. just the other ones were better. i already mentioned this one in the yosemite post. i saw this the evening after climbing half dome. it was outstanding. a fun show. much better than the second. the first was just so good, i dont think any sequel could ever beat it. that said, i do hope they make a fourth(teenth?)

5. ratatouille: do you know what rotten tomatoes number 1 movie of the first 6 months of 2007 was? ratatouille. pixar is incredible. they really are. i have loved other pixar movies more than this one, but the key word there is love. im always pleased with everything they do (except maybe cars. i was bored in that one). seriously though, you cant go wrong with a pixar movie. maybe wont be the best movie youll ever see, but it dont think you can walk out of a pixar movie feeling disappointed.

4. spiderman 3: i also blogged about this one in the first movie post. many people were disappointed with this one. i really enjoyed it. people didnt like the whole peter parker going emo thing. but i was thoroughly entertained. they needed to show that he was 'different' and i thought making him a cool emo guy to show he was different than his typical nerd self was outstanding. the villains were good. good story again. harry dies. what more could we want? well, perhaps for mary jane to lose her voice and quit screaming.

3. transformers: saw this one at a midnight showing on opening night. great show. my roommate zach has seen it a few times in the theatres, including in imax last week and he says it gets better each time. ive only seen it once, but i could easily see it being one of those movies. i really enjoyed it. the effects were good. story wasnt too amazing, but they were trying to make a movie out of action figures, so they deserve some credit. also, i believe that there is now talk of a GI Joe movie. not sure if the success of transformers has inspired that, but the chance that it might have, secures them in the number 3 spot.

2. bourne ultimatum: oh how i wish this wasnt the end. this movie was so good. im going to spoil it because it was released over a month ago, so if you havnt seen it, skip this part. the movie was great, but it became excellent for me right at the very end when he was floating in the water and then suddenly the moby song kicked in and he started twitching and showed that he was alive. something about that ending just made it a fantastic movie and perfectly tied it all together and concluded everything. and im not quite sure why. it might be because i didnt really know if he was alive. he could have died and i would have been fine with it. sad. but this is the end of the trilogy and i thought it could have been a sad, but fitting end to the story. so i honestly wasnt sure if it was just going to fade to black with him in the water and leave us wondering. but then the music, the twitch, i got some goosebumps and just sat there thinking that i had just seen an excellent, and highly entertaining movie. jason bourne is rad by they way. my feelings were reconfirmed that if i could be any superhero, i might just be jason bourne. he's fierce.

1. live free or die hard: yep. you read that correctly. the best movie of the summer. i think because it was a quintessential summer movie. and probably because i had low expectations going into the show. bruce willis was good. the supporting character, the apple guy, was outstanding. if it was just bruce willis making his cheezy comments, i would have gotten sick of him, but he was contrasted by the apple guy and his highly entertaining character. there was a great storyline. something that was actually believable. they put thought into it. which i always appreciate. they didnt just go with the big name + sequel + lots of special effects = breaking even at the box office so who cares about a plot. there was a great storyline that made you think. now, it was a die hard, so bruce willis does do some pretty ridiculous things, like take on and destroy a military jet with his bare hands. which is a little unbelievable ill admit. not many people could pull that off. most of us would just get shot or blown away by one of the many missiles. but there are some people that are capable of jumping onto the jet while it is flying and causing it to crash into a freeway overpass. its fortunate that bruce willis is one of those people because he had to do that in the movie. anyways, it barely beats out jason bourne. both were really good. i think die hard gets the edge just because i didnt anticipate for it to be good at all, and because its the only movie i saw twice in the theaters this summer.

prejudice

so i havnt been posting a ton lately. its hard blogging sometimes because if you dont keep up with it, then i feel like things build up and that i have so much that i dont even want to try and catch up with everything. that, and a lot of times i feel like a lot of things are just small random thoughts that dont necessarily warrant a whole post, or they are just random insignificant thoughts that i dont know if i should even take the time to write about them. here is one such recent thought:

a few weeks ago we went to the byu/ucla football game. it was a great time. here are a couple of photos from the game. it was great to go with lance. one of the last activities we did before he went on his mission. (and by the way, we really beat the 'last' game to a pulp before lance left. everything we did for the whole summer before he left was considered 'his last.' im sure we didnt make it any easier for him by causing so much buildup for so many months).

anyways, so byu lost the game. it was upsetting. the most upsetting part of it was that there were many questionable calls that occurred throughout the game that were against byu. calls that even tv announcers said should have gone in byu's favor. but it wasnt so much that the calls were upsetting as opposed to my thoughts or reactions. i cursed out loud and punched five ucla fans, started a small riot in the stands and got arrested. actually thats not true. i didnt say anything, but i thought many things.

sadly, one of the first thoughts that came into my mind was that the refs were making the calls against byu because they were anti-byu and more specifically were making calls against us because we were a mormon school. i know, its a terrible thought and i have thought a lot about it since. mainly because im ashamed that i thought it or even potentially believed it for a bit for various reasons.

a main reason is because its such a cheap card to play. its like in arguing you are taught that the 'slippery slope' argument is the last resort argument and the worst argument or 'card to pull.' and its true. if you are ever using that argument, its usually because you cant think of anything else to say. i feel like the thinking other people are racist or prejudiced and that is the reason or motive behind their action is the cheapest and weakest argument. doesnt mean it might not be the correct reason behind the things someone is doing, but its a terrible place to start. isnt it much more plausible that the refs, from the pac 10 conference, just flat out favored ucla because ucla is from the conference that they represent, as opposed to thinking they all have some issue against mormons?

another reason, is because im always critical of people that pull the 'race card.' granted, this isnt a race issue, but its similar in nature. anyways, apparently im critical and hypocritical. im critical because i always think that although there was widespread racism years ago, but its really not as prevalent in society today, so when people pull the racism card, im critical of their thinking. granted, i admit that it exists, but i dont think it exists as much as it is argued or as often as the card is pulled. also, i think that a lot of the people that are using the race card havnt really been persecuted like previous generations. yet here i am, being hypocritical because im doing the exact same thing. im thinking some sort of prejudice against me, yet i have never been persecuted for my beliefs. never. yes, early mormons were persecuted and murdered and driven from their homes, but i havnt ever received anything in my lifetime. which puts me in the same boat as everyone else. just sitting back and complaining even though i have absolutely no reason to complain or think that the world is conspiring against me. they havnt done anything yet to me to show that they are conspiring against me, so why should i think it?

well, i might be making something out of nothing, or drawing parallels where they dont exist. nonetheless, the thoughts just got me thinking and i finally decided to write them. basically, if i had to come to a conclusion about the thoughts its that, i really dont think all the refs had an issue against mormons and they decided to use their moment to ref the game against byu as an opportunity to demonstrate their prejudice against mormons. but even more so, when it comes to religion, i am in a minority. and im not sure if its natural as a minority to automatically think or feel that the world is conspiring against you, especially in areas where your minority status can come into play. but regardless, its a terrible way to live to have that mentality. really it is. life is no fun thinking that everything revolves around your minority status. id like to give society the benefit of the doubt and assume that they arent viewing me different because of it. and even if they are, even if the refs really were calling the game in favor of ucla because they dont like byu and/or mormons, i just dont want to go through life thinking that people are like that. its a terrible way to live, and no fun at all, so im going to try not to (sorry this post ended up being long as usual and to end it in a preposition).

the bifecta

so i thought i should just report back on the two concerts for anyone that cares. last thursday we went to 'arcade fire' out at the hollywood bowl. a definite highlight of the evening was deciding to eat at 'phillipes' for dinner. we were going to eat at some random peruvian seafood place that my friend once told me about, but upon hearing that nellie had never been to phillipes, we decided to go there, which was also nice because traffic was bad on the 101 and it was nice to get out of it and let it die down. not that it really did, because it is downtown l.a.

so phillipes was classic and excellent as expected. love consistency. arcade fire was also classic and excellent as expected. we were at the hollywood bowl, so we were about a mile away. but it was fine. the bowl has its own sort of charm. the show was very similar to the last time i saw them back in june or so. anyways, the main reason i wanted to write about the concert is because i was thinking about it and i dont know why i havnt converted more people to arcade fire and why everyone isnt a fan.

first, i just learned that the lead singer and his brother are mormons. i cant really confirm it. wikipedia didnt say anything about it, so i dont know if i can believe it. yet the very credible famousmormons.net confirms it.

second, they are true musicians. if you appreciate music, i dont know how you cant like this band. they have a such a full sound with nine members in the band. in every song they are playing many different instruments and they all play at least 3 or 4 instruments. you have to enjoy a band where in one song a girl is singing and then in the next she is playing one of the two drum sets, or the hurdy gurdy (which they really do use).

third, they have such a great sound. they are the perfect rock band. this is the one that really got me thinking and made me decide that i need to proselyte for them. they have a sound that i think everyone would enjoy hearing. everyone. even kids. really. i walked away thinking that family members that i dont think follow music much (paige, laura, eric maybe, not sure how much he listens to music. i just know he likes van halen) would really like arcade fire. even ron and shanon. so i invite everyone reading this to give arcade fire a chance. they have two incredible albums. 'funeral' and 'neon bible.' here are some of my favorite songs from those two albums: 'keep the car running' (note the use of the hurdy gurdy), 'rebellion (lies),' 'black wave/bad vibrations,' 'wake up,' 'neighborhood # 1.' these are of course videos, youre best served by just buying the albums. if you regret the purchase just let me know and when christmas rolls around, ill just use that as your christmas gift.

fourth, thy are canucks. everyone loves a canuck.

finally, especially for family members: this is one of lance's favorite bands. you know, lance, elder sommer. our younger brother in brazil. he LOVES arcade fire. we all know he is musically talented and has a great ear and knows great music when he hears it. so if you wont do it for me, do it for lance. listen to them for lance.

so the next night i suckered nellie into going to another concert with me. we went and saw muse. i dont really know how to describe seeing muse in concert. perhaps stryker, the kroq dj that introduced them stated it best when he essentially said that what he loves about muse is that we (everyone at the concert) know that they are great, yet whenever anyone asks us why we like them, we cant really explain it, but they are just incredible.

and they are incredible. especially in concert. the amount of energy they produce is unparalleled. they get the whole stadium on their feet with the first song and even the people up on the lawn dont sit down until they leave the stage. EVERYONE that i have ever talked to that has seen muse in concert has said they were amazing. not one person has ever not been blown away by them.

another random selling pitch i can throw in there, even though no selling should be necessary. but my mom mentioned that the author of the 'twilight' book series, stephenie meyer, mentions muse in her second book 'new moon' when she is giving her thanks to certain people. i guess she says something about how they helped or inspired her or something like that.

anyways, here is one muse song: starlight. i would include more, but i feel like i dont need to sell muse to people. arcade fire because they arent as well known and i really think people of all ages will like them. sadly, i dont think everyone will cling to muse even though everyone should. i cant adequately explain how much they ROCK.

two final notes: first, just a quick warning to the guys: chicks dig muse and their lead singer matthew bellamy. so its good because all ladies will want to go to their concert, but beware because many of them WILL fall in love with him by the end of the night. chicks already dig the rock star. this guy plays guitar and piano and is an incredible singer. not to mention he sports a red, yes red suit with a black t-shirt underneath. we just cant compete. the ladies will be forever grateful for taking them to the show, just know that when they go home at night, they will have given their heart away to another man.

second: it was supposed to rain all weekend, but it was clear skys and a mostly full moon on thursday and on friday, as the concert was ending, we began feeling rain drops and as we got into the car to go home it began to pour. we couldnt have asked for better timing. surely there are many potentially witty, but mostly blasphemous lines to insert here about who else might endorse these bands but i dont want to die tomorrow.

stupid meg

check this out.

acute anxiety? sounds like a cheap excuse for her needing to make a pit stop in some drug rehab center. the real unfortunate part about it is that she hardly contributes anything to the band. he is the musical genius. and yes. a genius. she just bangs some drums. she doesnt do anything spectacular on them. not that playing the drums is easy, i cant do it, but i could sit up there in her place and the concert would still sound alright because jack was up there rocking out.

well, bottom line is, my trifecta has been downgraded. its now just a difecta (?). or a duoecta (?). maybe its biecta.

open mic

alright, so tonight i went and performed stand up comedy at 'the laugh factory' in hollywood. yes, i just re-read that sentence and it looks and is correct. towards the beginning of the summer i was talking with someone and i cant remember even how it came up, but i silently made a goal to try stand up comedy once. i think the main motivation behind it was viewing the situation as the ultimate public speaking challenge. i enjoy public speaking. i feel comfortable speaking in public. i am by no means a master at it. ive been very humbled in law school with my public speaking abilities, but i am taking classes that are making me improve my skills. but comedy? thats just a different realm. do i think im funny? no. not really. i think i have my moments. but i think everyone has their moments. and i think most of my moments come around people that i know and with which i feel very comfortable. which is very different than standing on a stage and speaking to complete strangers and trying to get them to laugh. which is why it seemed like such a challenge and for whatever reason, i wanted to try it. it was also an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and do something different. and makes for a good blog post right?

so i went to the laugh factory. same place where michael richards (a.k.a. kramer) blew up a few months ago. i actually tried to go last week but i missed sign ups. they only take the first 15 people that show up. so this week i ditched out on international law, and headed up to hollywood and got my name on the list. i think it was at that point that it really donned on me that this was actually going to happen. i called my friend dave to let him know about it. i even invited him. i figured that if i train wrecked it would be fun to have someone to laugh about it with. fortunately he couldnt make it.

so the attendance was sparse. it was essentially just the people performing and a few random friends and some guys that performed for longer sets after we were done. we all got 3 minutes each. which is actually pretty short. i thought i was going to get around 5-10 minutes so i had prepared more stuff, but i had to cut it down. so i only spoke about blind people and car commercials. it really wasnt that bad. it went rather quickly, mainly because i knew what i was going to say. did anyone laugh? sure. some. there were also cricket moments. it wasnt really much of a crowd (not that i know what a good comedy crowd is) because it was basically just performing for each other. but after the show, the owner of the laugh factory sat down individually with each of us and gave us a critique and told us what he thought of our short act. and that was really cool to hear what he had to say. not that i am looking to make a career out of this, but since it was hard to gauge how i did based on the tiny crowd, ill just use his opinion as an indication of how i did.

however, if you ever have a chance, go to an open mic comedy night. especially one of these. all of us performers received 4 free tickets to invite friends. if you can ever get a free ticket, go. its $20 otherwise, and thats probably not worth it, but there is a great mix of good and unintentional comedy. i think that i felt alright about my performance because there were so many train wrecks. one of those, 'im not quite sure how i did, but i know i wasnt as bad as that guy.' actually, it was downright unbearable at times. i found myself laughing at how ridiculous some people were. its hard to even explain. there were 13 of us. probably 7 were just bad. and 5 of those 7 were real bad. one guy i think could have been funny in his own setting - it had to be 'g' rated, which they informed us of as we sat down, so he had to alter much of his act and i think he had potential if he was with an audience that enjoyed listening to a guy swear a lot. i dont really, but you could tell that he had potential with those types. then there were 4 that were legitimate and good. and then there was me.

but i really cant explain about those other 7. i dont know what they were thinking. are people just walking down the street and they see a comedy club and they walk in and try and perform? its as though they didnt even think about it beforehand or didnt prepare a thing. here was one of my favorite 'jokes:'

'so its been hot the past few days. real hot. i like walk outside, and im like, man...im hot.'

(pause)

(waits for laughter)

(still no laughter until i realize that we just heard a punchline which makes me start to laugh)

anyways, im really not trying to make fun of these guys. its not easy getting up there. so i really do commend and respect them for that. i guess that we just approach things differently. i had things planned in my head since early july and was running over them all day today. these guys have another approach. not sure what it is, but its unique to them im sure.

so in the end im glad i did it. will i do it again? honestly, i would like to do a longer set. nothing too long, maybe 5-10 minutes and thats only because i had prepared more stuff that i would like to say at least once on stage. and maybe if there is a next time around i wont be so secretive about it and ill inform people if they are interested in watching some sub par comedy.

my apologies

so i just wanted to quickly apologize if i ever say anything that offends or upsets anyone. i do understand that this is my blog and i should and can be able to say whatever i want and im not forcing anyone to visit the site. i also understand that i cant please everyone with everything i ever say, and its pointless to even try. yet, i also never really write anything to intentionally offend or upset anyone. many times i may write things that are dry or sarcastic and they may be improperly understood or i may just be trying to be funny and what i say is not funny at all, and offensive or upsetting to people.

so ill probably just honestly continue writing what i want to write, but if anyone is ever upset or offended by anything i do write, i would hope that you would let me know. again, i know you dont have to be here, but i appreciate you being here, so if you have any complaints, please let me know as im not trying to upset anyone and your thoughts will be duly noted.

concert journal

so i have a few concerts coming up and two that i recently attended. i went to a wilco concert last wednesday and an 'angels and airwaves' concert on friday, so i thought i would give a few commentaries.

first, wilco. wilco isnt a terribly well-known band. they played at the greek theatre up in l.a. they were outstanding. i am a wilco fan, so my opinion is probably biased. however, cousin dave, not a wilco fan, and not familiar with them went, and he said that there were about 3 or so incredible songs, 3 really good ones, and the rest were alright. he didnt complain about it and didnt seem too upset that he attended, and i think thats a pretty good review for someone who had no idea what to expect before the night started.

for me, it was a near perfect evening. it was warm. around 70 degrees. i was borderline hot because i was wearing jeans. we were nestled in the hills of l.a. (and you really do feel nestled, youre on the back side of the hill where griffith observatory is and although there is a large sprawling city literally right around the corner and less than a quarter mile away, because of how its set up, you only see pine trees and hills around you and you cant see city lights. really nice venue), listening to a group that i thoroughly enjoy. and wilco are great musicians. they have a great sound. this was the second concert i have been to and both have not disappointed. the other one was in a small indoor venue, which is usually preferable in my opinion, however, the nice outside setting really did make up for not having the intimate setting. it was a great way to spend a final summer evening. even though summer did end a few weeks ago.

oh angels and airwaves. where do i begin? once upon a time there was a band called 'blink 182.' they entered the trendy music scene by storm and sold nearly a billion copies of every song they ever wrote and essentially conquered the world and did as much as any band could do in a lifetime. the lead singer (this amazing man to the left) thankfully, took it upon himself to not only continue to produce and create great music with another band, but to tour and take that music to the masses and effectively change the world through his music and give us all meaning to our lives. f-yeah.

so 'angels and airwaves' have one album and it was good. trendy and all the songs sound the same. not only do they sound the same, but they are the same. and its not a bad sound, it just sounds better when they have had 10-12 takes in the studio. they all have essentially the same guitar riff and you can literally sing any of their songs to the tune of on of their other songs. which we did throughout the concert. if we didnt know the words to one song, we would just sing the words to a song we knew because they are all essentially the same song. it was highly entertaining.

the other amazing part about the concert were the 5-10 minute monologues in between each song where the lead singer would tell us about his life story or tell terrible jokes that on one, unless they are wanting to mother his children would laugh at. my favorite was when he went into this long monologue telling us about his life story and talking about how some bands and some songs have the ability to change the world and then they began to play their hit song, clearly demonstrating his belief that they, 'angels and airwaves' are changing the world. because their music is that deep and influential. (i just found the monologue on youtube if you want to see it)

anyways, that concert was only $6. it was the free concert that followed the friday horse races at the del mar race track in san diego. so i cant really complain about it, since it wasnt really a loss or a waste of money. so two concerts in one week. both very different experiences. neither one a bad experience really. just one im forever grateful to have witnessed so that i can tell my grandchildren about them because they are changing the world.

read karl's blog

do it. here is the link. his post 'i am unoriginal, but i love car talk' is really funny. i would just post it here, but i dont want to take credit for it, even though he apparently just cut and pasted it from somewhere else. but its a fun friday (or any day) read.

endless summer

so last night at 11:40 i got the call (well, actually missed the call, but got the message).

'hey kent, its kris (yes, he, spells it with a k). brandon (brown, of chilli davis fame), nick (lyon, of no fame) and i are all going to do a little night surfing. nick is coming over to my house right now and we are going to head on down to the water. we'll stop by on our way to the beach. there is a full moon tonight and the water is about 70-75 degrees (an over exaggeration. its probably 68-69. which is still quite warm. and while that may not seem like much of a difference between 70 degrees, you can really tell the difference in 1 degree warmer when it comes to ocean water. and the difference between 68 and 75 degrees is like comparing ugly betty with jessica alba. there is no comparison. jessica alba went to condit elementary school and el roble jr. high, both located in claremont, ca (remember how it rocks?), she is clearly superior).'

anyways, i was tired last night and my first response was to not go. i even took out my contacts so that i could use that as an excuse when they came by. plus, i had to give a presentation/argue in class today and i really hadnt done much preparation for it. but then zach jumped on board (pun intended) and i figured that its my last year of law school, and these types of phone calls rarely come around, so i better aprovechar, or for all you non-spanish speakers, carpe diem (or carpe moment).

so i threw all reasoning off, put on my boardshorts and headed out. and let me just say, it was spectacular. the water was warm. the moon was full. you dont have 100% visibility. you can see enough. you can see that a wave is coming, but you cant really tell until the last minute how big it really is, which makes for some gnarly wipe-outs for a beginner like me trying to catch a wave out of my league. but maybe its actually a better way to learn. if i could fully see the wave developing and see what i was getting into, id probably back out, but because i couldnt, i just had to go with it. and its not like the waves were so big they were dangerous or anything. just bigger than ankle slappers (im really trying to use a lot of surf lingo to fool people into thinking im so so. cal and really surf a lot since i live in surf city usa).

anyways, for as much talk as i do about the east coast and how great new york is and i should move there blah, blah, blah, there are moments, like last night, where i dont think that any living arrangement could beat what i have (well, besides the obvious one. but even that one could be contested at times. some days im pretty sure id rather be single in huntington than married in ontario). but, i really feel that it is my duty as a single twentysomething year old to act irresponsibly and to play instead of work. i mean, isnt that why we are all still single?

an american tragedy

what is the biggest tragedy of our generation, or of the past 20 years? well, probably 9/11, but in a close second, doesnt it have to be the demise and personal destruction of michael jackson? im sure that if you asked any person in the eastern block why they are depressed, they would tell you its because michael jackson stopped touring and has essentially stopped making music. sure, chernobyl was bad and has caused many physical deformities, but michael jackson has emotionally impaired millions and caused them to mourn. the governments dont think they'll ever recover. why arent their economies improving? because they are all depressed and cant find any reason to bother go get a job or an education. yes, michael did tell them to look at the man in the mirror and start with him to change his ways, but without him touring, the only thing looking back in that mirror is a sad and depressed image, which just worsens the situation. mirrors are banned on public streets now. its a real scary and concerning situation.

awhile ago i did a post about britney spears. i mentioned how sad it was that she fell apart. and it is a sad story. after writing that, my sister paige asked when and if i would give any thoughts about michael. ive wanted to for awhile, but the michael situation is just so much deeper. its more than just your typical talentless pop princess turned talentless crack addict. (so sad, but the saddest part was really just that she now looks terrible. remember how attractive she was? dang.) because britney falling apart didnt really effect anything besides the 'us weekly' ceo's bank account. michael on the other hand, has left millions of twentysomethingyearolds a little depressed and thus affected an entire generation and probably completely altered the course of history.






the other day i was driving with my friend and i asked her how much she would pay for a ticket to a michael jackson concert. without missing a beat she said $250. i said that i would throw down $300 without thinking about it. i know! $300 bucks BEFORE i would start to question the purchase. the other day i wrote a post called 'the trifecta' where i talked about 3 great bands that i am going to see. a ticket for each concert was roughly (after all the insanely crappy and terribly nazi ticketmaster charges) $50. and for each of them i questioned going because of the price. especially the white stripes. ive almost tried to sell the tickets on ebay a few times. mainly because i havnt seen them, so i struggle spending the money. ive seen arcade fire and muse before and believe me, both of them put on fabulous concerts. both bands are great in concert. true musicians. they sound just as good live as if they had 20 takes in the studio. yet i still questioned buying the tickets. my muse purchase was influenced by a woman (blasted attractive women) and arcade fire was influenced by remembering how happy i was after the last concert, and for my little bro, who loves them but cant go because at that point he will have completed 2 of his 720 days as a missionary.

the point is, many of us are suffering and would go to great lengths to see michael perform again. i mean, he is without a doubt the greatest performer of all time. everyone now just tries to replicate or some way recreate something that he once did. he was going so strong and everything seemed fine and then he suddenly fell off his merry-go-round or something and has never been the same since. im not really wanting to discuss the crazy life he has had and what may have caused him to end up in the position he is in. all im saying is that there are a lot of problems in the world, and i dont think that sociologists, economists, or even presidents are considering that many of the problems we face in society could very well be a result of the fact that michael jackson fell apart.

people call my generation the 'me' generation. we are a very self-centered, self-gratifying group of people. i was discussing this with my mom the other day and she was asking why i thought our generation turned out like this. i rambled off some stupid answers about increase in technology, demise of the family structure, lowering of morals throughout society etc. just baseless answers that couldnt logically have any sort of connection with why our generation is becoming self-serving and self-centered. at the time i guess that it just never donned on me that while there may not be a 'correct' or 'definitive' answer to this question, a main factor in us becoming the 'me' generation has to be that we were deprived of michael and lacked michael in our ever so crucial and formidable high school years. the ways in which he would have affected us are numberless. his impact would go way beyond just the fact that he stopped producing music so we were subjected (and still are) to endless dances where dj's play the ever undanceable 'billie jean' or 'beat it' and force us to move awkwardly back and forth for an excruciatingly long 3 and a half minutes. only 80's high schoolers knew how to awkwardly move on the dance floor for so long. that song was for them. we never had songs for us. and thus we suffered. and it continues.

when you have a minute, do a youtube search of michael jackson concerts. look at the fans. these people have found purpose, meaning and complete joy in their lives. how do i know? because they are all passed out. and thats what all the evangelists do when they hit their joy climax at church. they pass out. so i think that if we could integrate some michael into our lives, we could get this joy in our lives and our lives would have greater meaning. it only makes sense. unfortunately, he doesnt tour. that was always the easiest way to get some michael. i suppose there are other ways. cousin dave the other day posted a video on his blog of people that have integrated michael jackson into their lives. most people would look at this group of people and assume they didnt have anything to live for or were depressed, but they clearly are enjoying what little they have in life, and its surely due to the fact that they have michael again in their lives.

i dont really have answers. i find it easier to just ask questions anyways. so i dont really know how to integrate some 'michael' into everyone's life. but the next time you are depressed or perhaps questioning society or where we as a human race are heading, before you let your brain come up with possible answers or solutions, just listen to your heart for a moment and consider how much better life would be and a different course we would and could all be on if we all just had a little more michael in our lives.

vacation, all i ever wanted

so last night i noticed that the 'go-go's' are playing at the house of blues in anaheim sometime next month. i mentioned that i thought it would be fun show to go to and that we should get a group together to go. i was ridiculed and laughed at by my peers for saying such an 'absurd comment.' incredible. who doesnt like the go-go's? and even if you dont, wouldnt that still be a wildly fun night if you went with the right group of people? clearly im hanging out with the wrong crowd. they are only dragging me down in life.

anyways, i havnt posted in awhile. i did the whole family vacation thing. ill try and be more consistent now that school is back up and running. the vacation was great. my family, meaning my parents and the three singlets went to nyc, then upstate new york, and concluded our trip in washington dc. it was an oustanding trip. its late and i really dont want to do a recap of the whole trip, plus i think that a lot of people would find it rather boring and im sure dont care to read about it. if you do, send me a text or something and ill tell you more about it.

nyc - oh this wretched city. i wish i never knew you. but thats just it. i dont really know you and it eats away at me. i loved being there. even though it was sweltering hot and we almost died of heat exhaustion waiting for the subway one day. new york was a great time as always. there is so much to do there. for me, its sort of unfulfilling as a tourist though because i want to live new york, not just visit and sightsee. id really like to be a visiting student out there for my last semester of law school. i should have gone out there this fall when the weather is nice and then come back to huntington in the winter when its nice here and freezing there. but im sort of late planning this so i might just have to go there for the miserable winter. it will be cold, but hopefully ill be able to get rid of this itch i have about living there. we'll see if life even permits it in the first place. and by life i essentially mean the ladies situation. because isnt that pretty much what drives and determines decisions and paths you take in life as a single person in your 20's?

the first photo btw, is at the statue of liberty. we were sure to thank the photographer for taking our photo. did he think we didnt want the statue in the picture? we just wanted to travel all the way out to the island to take our family photo and we wanted him, the stranger to do it. thanks guy. the other photo is what we did most of the time at the met in new york. mom and dad left us, the singlets, to travel the museum on our own. so we just walked around and acted out statutes and paintings and took pictures. good times.

upstate - it felt a lot like the south for some reason. ive never been to the south, so i dont really know what it feels like, but i bet it feels a lot like upstate new york. it was really pretty though. really green. we made a stop by cooperstown to go to the baseball hall of fame. im glad we did because we were in the area and it was only about 20 miles off of the highway we were on. but if it was 30 miles off the highway we were on, it probably wouldnt have been worth it. and im a big baseball fan. huge angels fan. spent all my childhood money on cards. played little league. suffered a career ending injury at 12 but have always remained a part of the game. but the hall of fame was pretty boring and really a no big deal thing. if youre in the area, stop by, but i dont think it is by any means worth traveling great distances just to see.

for mormons - the church history sites: they were good. and just good. neat to see, but in a way, just like any other historical building or site out there. neat to see that this is where joseph smith once lived, but when it comes down to it, its not like he's walking around there right now or anything.

however, the sacred grove is fantastic. so fantastic, i dont even really feel like i should talk much about it in this blog. dont travel 3,000 miles to see the baseball hall of fame, or the smith home. DO travel 3,000+ miles to see the sacred grove. its worth the travel, effort, hassle etc. to wander around that forest for a few hours in your lifetime.

dc - i love unexpected and unplanned pleasant events on vacations. for instance, while traveling to the statue of liberty in new york, we nearly died of heat exhaustion on the subway and stumbled out into union square. we didnt plan it, but we were all dying underground so we surfaced at the next stop and luckily it was where there was a farmer's market and a great sandwich shop and not some red light district in east harlem.

so i guess stopping by gettysburg on our way down to dc was planned, but it was unexpected how much i was going to enjoy it. i do like history, but the way they have preserved the area and mapped out everything that happened in that battle is really impressive.

dc was great. by the time i got there, i was sort of sick of sightseeing. lincoln memorial is extremely impressive and very fitting for such an amazing man. no need to worship the man, but i have no problems if they erected a new monument for him every day. sadly, they dont, but the lincoln memorial is just as good as if they did. the korean war memorial was also very touching. i think because i didnt even know that it existed. i heard so much about the vietnam memorial, but before you even see that one, there is the korean war memorial looming off in the distance with shadowy ghost soldiers staring blankly and confused at you. cold, tired men, fighting a war they probably didnt understand. almost wandering and looking for guidance and help. hoping that its not their number that is next. its not fair.

the other stuff in dc is cool as well. i liked the city more the longer we were there. it has a really cool downtown and nice big city feel, which i enjoy. my friend tyler said the other day that if he was still single, he would definitely move to dc or somewhere on the east coast. i dont know what the attraction is. would i really enjoy it out there or is it just 'the grass is always greener on the other side' type of feeling? even though in this case, things actually are a whole lot greener over there.

dang it. i really want to shorten these posts and i didnt mean to make this some diary of my travels. oh well.

the trifecta

today i found out that 'arcade fire' are playing at the hollywood bowl on september 20. i recently saw them. here were my thoughts. cousin dave was also there. here is what he had to say. the same ridiculous situation and problem that he so well describes will again be an issue if i see them at the hollywood bowl. but i love arcade fire and love sitting at the hollywood bowl on an nice warm evening. so ill probably go.




later today, my friend texted me and told me that 'muse' announced a concert in irvine on september 21. i saw muse a few months ago and they were amazing. after the concert i said that if i saw them again id want to be in the pit so i could dance and 'rock out' because muse puts out an incredible amount of energy. they had the whole stadium standing for the whole show, which is hard to do in a large arena. so my only regret was that i was standing in front of a seat which impeded me from shakin my groove thang. otherwise the show was perfect. muse is good. real good.








about a month ago, i bought 'white stripes' tickets. for what day? september 19th of course. they are playing at the forum. 3 concerts in 3 days. it sounds excessive, and it is. not to mention a lot of money (more on this later). but i really want to go. all great bands. two guaranteed great shows. im sure the white stripes will be too, i just havnt ever seen them.







so ill probably try and complete the trifecta. why not? its all on daddy's credit card (i accidentally used my dad's card to buy the white stripes tickets. it was saved on the ticketmaster account. an honest mistake. really). anyone else interested? lets rock.

c-l-a-r-e-m-o-n-t-r-o-c-k-s, claremont rocks, oh yes!

that was an awesome cheer i remember my older sister doing for cross country in high school. and claremont does rock. check out this article. bam! have some of that. especially all my beloved oc (dont call it that) ignorant fools. claremont is really lovely and im happy its finally getting the recognition it deserves. well, not sure if it necessarily deserves this recognition, but it is a lovely town. although i do think the cons from the article are rather funny. you cant breathe or afford to live here, but otherwise, the place is a dandy. my brother and i discussed the article and both agreed that we enjoyed growing up in claremont and think it is a great town, but not sure if its worth the money it would cost to get in a home. average home $700,000! thats ridiculous. i remember my friend lindsey mullinax's family selling her home back when i was a senior in high school in 1998. i cant remember what it was selling for, but something between the 700K and million range and their home was huge, and easily two to three times my parents home. now that home would probably cost around 1.7 million. its outrageous. but if you have the money, its clearly the place to be. or if you are there, its probably wise just to remodel your home and plan on staying for the long haul.

but sometimes its hard being from claremont. because no one knows where it is. im always amazed at how little people from l.a. know their geography or where they are in relation to everything else. and i dont know if its their fault or just l.a.'s fault. meaning that l.a. is so spread out and unconnected, well its all connected, but not closely connected. there isnt really a big city feeling at all. so while there are 11 million+ people in the county, youre not really in close proximity to any of them. except while in your car in traffic, but you dont get much person to person interaction in traffic. its not like a new york or something where you throw everyone so close together you cant help but know the city (i think manhattan is only 7 miles long or so). granted, ive never lived in new york, so i dont know that its like that, but i feel like people there are more aware of their surroundings. l.a. is tough because its filled with tons and tons of suburbs. tons. and claremont is just another suburb. so i dont really expect people to know exactly where it is. i dont know where all cities in l.a. are located. ive heard of most of them, but i couldnt tell you where they are exactly. but im always shocked when people dont even know freeways. how are you getting around? oh thats right. youre from the oc and you dont ever leave except maybe to make the long journey down to laguna beach. no. not all oc people are snobs. but they all are ignorant fools.

so here is what happens. people will sometimes ask me where i am from. ill say claremont. sometimes they will have heard of it, sometimes not. which is amazing that some people havnt even heard of a city that is only an hour away from where they live. if i said i was from bisbee, arizona, id expect them not to know where it is. but im not. im saying claremont. its only an hour away. but thats fine. so when they ask where it is, im happy to explain. which i usually do by telling them how they could get there on the freeway. i usually say that its out off the 210 freeway. but this is when things can get interesting. some people are sort of familiar with that freeway, others have never even heard of it. so ill say, 'you know. its the pasadena freeway.' and they will say, 'oh right. ive heard of pasadena. so claremont is near pasadena?' 'well, no. i mean, sort of. claremont is closer pasadena than to huntington beach, but the 210 connects claremont and pasadena.' again, i dont expect you to know where claremont is, but now you havnt even heard of a large freeway.

so theyll usually look at me like im strange for mentioning a freeway they havnt heard of. if i was in utah or another state or something and trying to explain where claremont is, i would have just said its sort of by pasadena. if they havnt heard of that, ill just say, near l.a. but because im in huntington beach and really wanting to let this person know im from a great little legit town, i stick with it. so ill ask them if they are familiar with the 57 freeway. they usually are, as one side of the 57 freeway ends when it hits the 5 freeway, which a main freeway running through parts of the oc. but of course they arent familiar with the other end of the 57 freeway. (the 57 essentially goes from anaheim - near huntington beach to san dimas - near claremont). but sometimes they werent even aware of where that freeway originated. i think some people just think that freeways run forever in all directions. i think some people actually think that if they got on the 405 and drove south that they could make it to chile. so its shocking news to hear that the freeway ends, and no less near my city, which they still havnt heard of. again, i dont expect people to be freeway experts. im not exactly sure where the I-15 ends. or even the I-5. i know it goes up towards sacramento, but i couldnt exactly say where it ends, but i know its general direction. but at least in l.a. i know where it passes and what cities and freeways it intersects etc. but i dont know all of it. and i dont expect others to know either. but the 57 is only about 50 miles long. maybe you havnt driven all of it, but to act like you had no idea where it went once it left orange county is a little embarrassing for you, right? maybe not. probably not. nevermind. youre right. the 57 once it leaves orange county is irrelevant.

so now all i am left with is to start naming cities nearby and hopefully they have heard of one of them. so i usually begin by naming other nice cities in the area. upland, glendora, san dimas, la verne. these are all small communities like claremont, that are also nice, just not as nice, evidenced by their omission from the list. but people usually havnt heard of them, so im left in between a rock and a hard place.

a rock - pomona, a.k.a. 'p-town.' pomona is a hole. its the ghetto. and not just like someone from beverly hills calling a place like santa monica a ghetto (an otherwise really nice town except for homeless people scattered throughout - because it is a beach city). p-town isn like compton bad or east l.a bad. but when the l.a. riots occurred, there wasnt rioting in all of l.a., just a lot of the poorer, shadier neighborhoods, including, some lovely parts of p-town. p-town represented for our area. thanks guys. but pomona is a large city. there are also about 5 freeways that go through or near pomona, so chances are, even your infrequent freeways travelers have gone through pomona. so if i say claremont borders pomona, then they probably know where it is, unfortunately, they also are now afraid of claremont.

the hard place - the 909. you see, a little bit ago, ignorant fools started stereotyping people from cities with a 909 area code. true, i believe that stereotypes exist for a reason. if they werent true, the stereotype wouldnt have started. so the 909 stereotype is that people are white trash, raised ford truck driving, white beater wearing, nascar loving inbreds. and the 909 covers a lot of ground. san bernardino, fontana a.k.a. 'fontucky,' rancho cowabunga, hemet, rialto, ontario etc. basically its a lot of san bernardino county. not just the largest county in the u.s, but also the largest arm pit in the nation. so while the stereotype could be true in certain areas of the 909, its not in claremont. somehow, the people that made the area code put claremont in with all of those other cities, even though claremont isnt in san bernardino county. so if i dont opt for pomona, i have to say, 'well, its out in the 909.' people automatically think its 'super far out there in the middle of no where, with people sitting in their large trucks on their unmowed, brown front lawns all day waiting for it to cool down so they can go out at night and pick up on shady women in their daisy dukes at the local dairy queen.'

but they couldnt be more off about claremont. it doesnt even have a dairy queen. or any fast food for that matter. it wont allow it. nor billboards. nor parking on the street at night without prior permission from the police. and no lawn is brown. when my parents remodeled their home, they let the lawn die because after the home was finished they were going to remodel the yard. the city knew of this remodeling. my parents had to get city permits to remodel. they knew my parents had all intentions of fixing the yard after the house was done, yet the city still sent warning notices to my parents telling them that they were going to fine my parents if they didnt fix their yard. claremont. its a great little anal town. one of the top 5 in the nation. i would dare say. in fact, i will say it. and ill even back it up if necessary.
well, this turned into a long rant and i hardly made any selling points about the city. but maybe i dont want to. not because im ashamed or anything. maybe i like people not knowing the hidden gem that is claremont. (and yes i meant gem, its the proper word here. its like a diamond in the rough in that the areas around it may not be so nice and unless you gots lots of diamonds, there is no way you are affording a house there). im fine with it being a little obsure or undiscovered or not well known to the ignorant fools. those that bother to run into it or famliarize themselves with it, then they deserve to see that its a great little place, and everyone else can miss the two freeway exits and drive right on by judging it as another city similar to those that have 'defined the area.' and im sure other people will attack me when i dont know about their nice little town even though i 'should' because its so great. or their city too is misjudged or overlooked or i should really get to know it. people might even say im hypocritical when i dont care to go to their town or when i dont even know where it is on the map even though its great. is it because im becoming an ignorant oc fool living in huntington beach? perhaps. or maybe its, yep, thats right, i just remembered. your town isnt one of the top 5 in the nation.

an confusing truth?

so this isnt the usual type of post for me. but these are thoughts that have been mulling in my brain and just the other day i was emailing a professor about it and he gave me such a great response that i wanted to post it.

first of all, the professor is gary daynes. he was a professor of mine at byu. i took 'life and thought in the united states' from him. an excellent class. not only because it was interesting reading about the thoughts of influential american people from history, but professor daynes always had insightful thoughts to contribute as well. basically, it was just a class of reading people's thoughts and then discussing them for a few hours each week. a 'true' or 'pure' university experience.

so after the class concluded prof. daynes and i kept in touch. by kept in touch it basically consisted of me stopping by unannounced at his office or sending him emails and asking for his thoughts on various subjects. i was never much into politics and he was very well read on most subjects including politics, so i could just ask for his opinion or explanation on certain events going on and he would always give me an explanation and his viewpoint, which usually turned into my viewpoint. not that i wasnt a free thinker or anything, he always just presented things so rationally.

so anyways, the other day i emailed him asking for his opinion on global warming. im a little confused with it all. i watched 'an inconvenient truth.' it was alright. i enjoyed the information that was presented. it was essentially just a glorified power point presentation. i got bored with the 'al gore' segments. the parts when he was being driven around in his escalade and it would show him staring out of the car with his reflection in the window and he would give his personal thoughts on his life. i didnt need that. im sorry you lost gore. you gave it a good effort. perhaps the balloting was even rigged and you should have won. but its over. its been 6 years. no need to let all of america let you know you are still bummed about it. thats like telling the girl that dumped you that its been a year and you still sit at home on the weekend and stare out your window and wish that it wasnt your reflection but actually hers that was in the window. buck up little camper! move on. put yourself back in the public eye through other means, like scaring them about global warming.

alright, so i dont just think he is scaring people. i felt he was presenting legitimate information, until another video came out about other scientists that refute the main argument in 'an inconvenient truth' that humans are responsible for global warming. im not exactly sure what the opposing argument is, im pretty sure that they essentially say that its just natural warming that humans couldnt have done anything about and that 'an inconvenient truth' is just a big scare.

so my first reaction is a loss of faith in science. science is wonderful, but at times it gets upsetting because i feel like no matter what the theory or idea, there is a scientist out there that can find data or support the theory. its like in the movie 'thank you for smoking,' where they talk about the tobacco industry and how they found a german scientist that could 'prove' that smoking didnt cause cancer and so the tobacco industry hired him and he was 'their' scientist. the movie is of course fiction, but i think that idea occurs a lot. here, there are scientists on both sides stating that global warming is caused by humans and others saying its not.

so my second reaction is that im upset. why? because i feel like this is turning into a two party struggle. well, a conservatives and liberals struggle. perhaps two party, but im not quite sure. and im upset that it has come to this, because i dont know what is exactly going on, but i think there is a legitimate problem, or that the planet is being destroyed, but somehow people are taking sides on the issue and i dont know what to believe or who is correct etc. i feel like there is a big problem and if there is a way to fix it, then id like to know what i can do. i should probably by a 'clean' car anyways, just because it is good for the environment, but will it really make a difference? if it will, then why are people saying it wont? can humans really do anything? im sure this is a weighted issue and there are a lot of things filtering in on both sides and probably lobbyists and who knows what groups that are trying to sell the public on the issue. but in the meantime, i dont really know what to think.

so these are essentially the questions or confusion i brought to professor dayes, wondering what he thought about the whole issue or situation. i asked him other questions about his opinions on certain presidential candidates and other matters, but here is what he said concerning the global warming:

'It makes sense to destroy as little as possible when living on the earth for basic conservative reasons--we have a debt to our children to leave the world in good shape, and we have to believe that reckless destruction of anything is a (small-l) liberal activity. And I think we have to face up to the dilemma raised by the fact that if even a portion of what is predicted happens, the poor are going to get screwed again. So if only because the lives of Bangladeshis and Chadians are, at least in God's eyes, as important as my life, then I ought to do what I can to avoid actions that are going to lead to a worsening in what are already difficult living conditions. (Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren...) I didn't see Gore's movie. I don't understand the appeal...'

bam! i told you this guy was rad. what a great response. he has such a great viewpoint on everything. he is always thinking about and looking out for the little guy. realizing that everything filters outside of america's borders and affects so many more people that are outside my immediate realm or sphere of influence. he stays out of the two party arguments and focuses on the actual issue and forms his own opinion accordingly. were i like him i would form my own opinion instead of just latching onto his, but im not. so who knows if this is all a scare. regardless, i definitely believe that if nothing else, a responsibility exists for me as a human just to do whatever i can to not blatantly and deliberately destroy this world. not sure if that makes me 'green' or just an opinionless clone of prof. daynes (his opinion is just so sensible and logical is it not?). either way, sorry about the political rant. ill get back into useless pop culture thoughts next time. this was just something i was thinking about and wanted to put it out there for all 6 of my readers to enjoy.