Aug04

8-31-04 (01:45)

"Alec Baldwin's younger brother actor Stephen Baldwin is throwing his support behind President George W Bush in the forthcoming Presidential election - because his country's leader is "being led by God". The former liberal and now born-again Christian is attending the Republican National Convention in New York to cheer on the current premier, who he deems has more faith than Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry. Baldwin tells gossip site Pagesix.Com, "I'm there to support the man I believe has the most faith. That's who I'm voting for. I believe the next president should be a guy who is being led by God. I believe there is one guy, and that's the guy I want to vote for." As for any disharmony between him and his Democratic-supporting siblings Alec and William, Baldwin comments, "I don't have a perception about that.""

updated movies list.

tomorrow is my thursday. i like my new schedule. i open two days, then close two days and then work a mid-shift on the fifth day. it also means i don't have to see the boss two out of the five days i work and that means i can take it a bit easier.

i hope to watch a lot of movies this weekend and get caught up in that regard. i also need to catch up on some past issues of the nation and adbusters.

my dad's mom apparently plans on voting for bush. i sent the following email:

"dad told me something about you wanting to vote for bush...? i must inquire as to your motivation behind this decision. is it his vicious pursuit of the death penalty; his haphazard and corrupt foreign policy; his failed economic policies which have led to increases in poverty and our debt load; or his constant catering to industry over the environment through "voluntary" monitoring programs; or is it his hypocritical policies regarding the military - "support" them in war, while slashing veteran's benefits and pension plans; or, being a teacher, is it his failed federally mandated "leave no child behind" program which he has underfunded since day one? living in davis i don't come across many bush supporters so i don't have much perspective in this regard, hopefully you can provide a cogent argument in his support. i honestly do wonder why roughly half the country supports him in spite of his mostly failed policies and the numerous scandals in which his administration is complicit."

after i sent i realized that might not go over too well, especially since i haven't talked with her in some time. we'll see.

got the new orb album today.

need sleep.

8-30-04 (00:15)

updated movies list.

well the olympics are over. here's my recap of the last few days since i've been too busy to recap them till now.

today they had the closing ceremonies some boxing, the marathon and the men's volleyball final. saw bits of all of them.

during the marathon the eventual third place finisher was attacked by some crazy irish priest. that was probably the worst thing that happened during the olympics which is awesome. no bombs, no stupid terrorists, nothing. i'm happy about that.

we actually came away with a silver in the marathon which is very surprising. our volleyball team was no match against the russians who picked up the bronze. we salvaged one gold medal in the light heavyweight class. the guy who won (andre ward) is from oakland.

yesterday we had a disappointing 4x100 relay. the same thing that happened in the women's relay happened in the men's relay, but the men were able to salvage a silver, whereas the women got a dq. the men's race was amazingly close and had the race been a foot longer we would have won...it was really that close. i have a lot of respect for maurice greene as a runner, i think he's one of the modern greats.

the 4x400m races were equally exciting, but more satisfying because of the outcome. in the 4x400 the likelihood of a dq is far diminished so it really just came down to stringing the four fastest people we could muster. both the men and women won without much fanfare, but the 4x400 is always fun to watch - even if it isn't very close. wariner is the genuine article so it was great to see the future of the 400m being continued through him.

yesterday there was also the 5000m race which was good, but wasn't run very intelligently by the ethiopians. they're much stronger runners than El Guerrouj so it was a surprise to see them running so conservatively in the first couple miles of the race. since there were three of them in the race they should have used that to their advantage. technically you're not allowed to run a team race, but you can get away with it so long as it isn't too obvious. they should have taken turns leading the race and pushing the pace for the first eight laps. bekele just doesn't have the kick that El Guerrouj has so you have to burn him out early on. oh well, it was a great race with great runners. El Guerrouj is officially one of the finest mid-distance runners off all-time. sebastian coe, jim ryun, zatopec, lasse viren, Gebrselassie and El Guerrouj all belong in the pantheon.

i was looking over some of the past olympic results....in 1896 the olympic gold medal for the 800m run went to an australian who finished with a time of 2 minutes and 11 seconds...in 1997 my personal record for the 800m was 2 minutes and 7 seconds. i guess i was born 100 years too late. in 2000 the 200m gold went to kenteris of greece with a sluggish time of 20.09 seconds....the slowest time required to win the gold since 1980. tommie smith even ran a faster time (19.83) in 1968. you'll remember tommie smith from the infamous picture of him and john carlos holding their fists in the air on the medal podium. the only reason kenteris won in 2000 was because michael johnson (the world record holder and the best 200/400 runner ever) decided to only run in the 400m that year. tommie smith became a sociology teacher and a track coach at SMC in los angeles.

we picked up one and two in the men's pole vault which is always fun to watch.

the women's 1500m was exciting. kelly holmes from the uk took it with a strong kick. she also won gold in the 800m.

marion jones should have stayed in bed this year. amidst rumors of substance abuse she finished fifth in the long jump and was half of the problem in the women's dq in the 4x100m.

we were shut out of the medals in diving which is too bad. the chinese are going to clean up in bejing next time, it'll be crazy. the aussies kicked some ass by doubling their total diving output in a single olympics. they had only three diving medals going into athens and i'm pretty sure they picked up six more medals in these games.

speaking of out of nowhere...the winner of the 110m high hurdles was from china. it's fairly rare for someone to do something like that from a country that has almost no history of producing hurdlers or sprinters. it would be the equivalent of a nigerian winning gold in table tennis; it just doesn't happen very often. but his form was flawless - i think he nicked only one or two hurdles and lost very little speed while jumping over them. that's how you win that race because, unlike the 100m dash, it's a technical race. that's not to say that the 100m is entirely without technique because that's untrue, it's just that the hurdles require a good deal more technique and it's even more important than it is in the 100m.

of course we also got a bronze in men's basketball which officially marks the end of an era. much like canadian hockey in the 50s, our dominance in basketball has come to an end. there are all sorts of reasons this happened, the first being that the world finally caught onto basketball, it's the second most international sport (behind soccer) and i don't think that was the case 30 years ago. we obviously still have the talent (athletes and coaches) to dominate the world, but the olympic committee in charge just didn't put together a very good team. our weaknesses come in our defense (especially against the three), our shooting and our teamwork. i've said before that i'd like to see the nba champions go to the olympics. i guarantee that the pistons would have beaten argentina because they've played together and they're amazing defenders. clearly we could have used a three point specialist like fred hoiberg on the team, but the committee was more interested in the marketability of the team than anything else. and that's really been our major downfall. because the emphasis is on flash, dunks, and sensationalism our fundamental talent has been diluted. the more i watched the games the more i realized that in 2008 we should just have coach Krzyzewski of duke pick whoever he wants and have that be our team. i don't like coach k, and i hate duke, but that's what's best for the country. the guy knows how to coach and how to get the most out of his players. he has an amazing ability as a motivator and coaches a fundamentally sound, defensively minded game. how many duke players under coach K have been touted as amazing players and gone on to do absolutely nothing? grant hill, christian laettner, j. williams, bobby hurley, etc. most people thing that's a bad thing, but i think it shows that he's able to get more out of his players than they are ever able to give in the future. our team lacked disciplined spacing and team defense, and i think that coach K, assuming he gets to pick the players, will bring an end to that. despite all this i'm glad we were able to pull out with a medal and i think iverson and duncan did a great job. i also came away thinking more of shawn marion and stephon marbury. if i were coach i think i would have played marion, marbury and staudamire more just because they were all on the suns together at one point...perhaps their chemistry would have helped. i don't know. the officiating was as bad as i've ever seen, but it didn't really matter that much since it was equally bad for both teams. also, the international game is a bit different, the key is bigger, offensive goaltending doesn't exist and the three-point line is three feet closer to the basket. that offensive goaltending rule is a joke if you ask me - it just shows that there has yet to be an equivalent to shaq or wilt in the international game. as soon as that happens then they'll change the rule. shaq would have a field day with that rule because he'd just pick up people's trash around the basket and rack up the points.

overall the olympics were great fun.

just read this article from the greatest three-point shooter of all-time, steve kerr.

it's very hot right now.

we ended up with 10 more medals than the economist magazine predicted. it always amazes me when a country like south korea (30) or cuba (27) gets so many medals.

8-27-04 (03:31)

updated movies list.

crawford won the 200m as expected. usa got a sweep in that event. for some reason the greeks were booing before the race and delayed the start of the race for a few minutes. that was bewildering and obnoxious.

usa basketball also won today in a high scoring game against the (formerly) undefeated spanish team. hopefully that'll get us back on track. i hope to watch the game tomorrow against argentina. should be tough.

we also got 1 and 2 in the long jump.

women's 4x100m relay looks very strong and should win barring any kind of disaster during the exchanges.

chinese women went 1 and 2 in the 3m springboard. i look for the chinese squad to make a good run at the u.s. in the total medal count in 2008 since it'll be in bejing.

if anyone happened to tape the 1500m men's final let me know. everyone has been talking about how great a race it was...unfortunately it's also the only race i've missed so far.

haven't been watching many movies lately because of the olympics.

8-26-04 (02:24)

updated movies list.

saw some of the men's 5k prelims today. bekele and El Guerrouj went head to head. there's another guy that i didn't get to see because he was in the other heat and he's supposed to be in the running for a medal as well. the final should be very fun to watch, but i just don't think that El Guerrouj is strong enough for that distance when going up against the world record holder in bekele.

women's 400m hurdles was exciting. greece got a gold there and it's always extra nice when the host nation pick up a medal. however, they were disappointed in men's volleyball when the u.s. took them down in overtime in the fifth game. great match.

for the men's 200m i pick crawford to win gold. i don't know that we'll get the sweep in the 200m because obikwelu from portugal is looking very strong. but crawford, from what i've seen in these games, looks impossible to beat right now. he's a very strong runner throughout. he's quick out of the blocks and his form stays solid throughout the race.

i liked the steeplechase yesterday. kenya one, two and three. i love it when a country gets a sweep like that.

usa basketball has a big test tomorrow - they play an undefeated spanish team. gasol (who plays for memphis) is the best player for spain.

want to see this.

8-25-04 (16:47)

"U.S. EPA head honcho Mike Leavitt struggled yesterday to put a positive spin on the agency's annual report on fish advisories, despite the grim news that virtually every body of freshwater in the country may be contaminated with mercury, which poses health risks to fetuses and children. Every state except Alaska and Wyoming issued warnings about mercury-contaminated fish last year. More than a third of America's lakes and almost a quarter of its miles of rivers are officially covered by fish advisories, but as Leavitt acknowledged, "Mercury is everywhere." The EPA attributes the increase in advisories to better monitoring, not worse pollution, noting that mercury pollution actually declined between 1990 and 1999 (the last year for which figures were available). The report is already adding fuel to the debate over the EPA's forthcoming mercury regulations, expected to be based on a cap-and-trade system that enviros say would be weak and too slow to produce results."

tennessee republican candidate.

8-25-04 (00:00)

tonight i saw one of the most flawed professional hurdles races in my memory. the 100m women's final had the race favorite clipping the first hurdle and taking out the runner next to her. and the two americans who finished one and three clipped a few hurdles on their way to the finish. that said, the times were good.

missed the 1500m final which means i missed El Guerrouj's gold medal finish. the times were very close so it looks like i missed a great race. very disappointed by that.

8-24-04 (03:24)

the olympics were great again today. saw an american sweep in the men's 400m which was very cool. wariner is a very solid runner, but he seemed to run a different race this time. in his other races he went out fast, in this race he held up a bit and let it go down the stretch. usually people don't change their strategy like that. on the other hand he was running in the 8th lane in the qualifying race so that requires a different approach.

i was also very impressed by the greek fans during the men's high bar event. alexei nemov was given a score that was clearly lower than it should have been and the crowd booed in protest, for several minutes. as a result the event was delayed while the head judge convened with the two judges that gave the lowest scores and they revised their scores. it ended up not mattering because nemov still placed fifth, but it was nice to see democracy taking place where it began. some of the judges in this olympics have been pretty bad. paul hamm had to follow nemov which was unfortunate because of the controversy surrounding his gold medal in the all-around. so after hamm received a 9.812 in his routine the crowd was upset that his score was so much better than nemov's. you gotta feel bad for hamm since he just goes out there and competes and the judges seem to make it hard for him at each turn. that said, i think the korean should at least share the gold medal in the all-around since his score was incorrectly graded due to an error on the judges' part. paul hamm tied in the high bar, but because of the tie breaker rule he was given a silver instead of a gold. his brother met the same fate, but was knocked out off the podium despite having the same score as the bronze medal winner.

the ethiopians dominated in the 5k race per the usual. they picked up one and three.

women's beach volleyball was good as always. may/walsh are really good.

the women's 800m showed exactly what i was talking about when i said the 800m is an exciting race to watch....anyone one of them could have taken it at the end, and they all ran a pretty good race.

1.   GBR HOLMES Kelly 1:56.38
2.   MAR BENHASSI Hasna 1:56.43
3.   SLO CEPLAK Jolanda 1:56.43
4.   MOZ MUTOLA Maria De Lurdes 1:56.51
5.   RUS ANDRIANOVA Tatyana 1:56.88
6.   USA MILES CLARK Jearl 1:57.27

whenever i see the decathlon i am unimpressed by the form and athleticism of the participants. the reason is that my eyes get so used to seeing greatness in each event that when i see someone who isn't great at the high jump, the hurdles or the sprinting events i'm unimpressed. but when you take into account the fact that these guys are very good at everything they do...then it becomes amazing. so you see a winning 100m time of 10.4, which is excellent in high school and about standard in college, but that same guy is doing a high jump of almost seven feet and a long jump of 25+ feet. so even though their form isn't as refined as the athletes who focus solely on the high jump, or the pole vault, or the discus, or whatever, they're amazing athletes nonetheless.

i wish they showed a bit more of the lesser known sports like handball or table tennis.

no movie tonight.

8-23-04 (01:41)

updated movies list.

saw most of the olympics again tonight. the men's 100m final was fun. the u.s. got 1, 3 and 4. i was surprised by the winner (gatlin), i thought crawford looked better in the semifinals. maurice greene deserves to be mentioned as one of the greats at that distance, despite what the commentators said. i also thought it was a bit old-fashioned of them to give the runners grief for showboating a bit. they seemed to want the guys to run and nothing else. maybe i've just seen too much of muhammad ali to think negatively of a little showmanship. the top four times were really good. you don't see more than one person under 9.9 very often.

other than that there wasn't anything really great on tonight. the high jump was nice, the individual events in gymnastics was good. i feel bad for khorkina, i remember her coming up short in sydney four years ago. she's a great gymnast, but just doesn't seem able to put it together when it matters most. khorkina complained afterwards: "“I’d like to work for the International Gymnastics Federation. These competitions have shown the sport needs a lot of changes,” she said. “It should be judged primarily on grace, elegance and beauty rather than simply on mechanic tumbling.”" it's funny she's says that because i think she often lacks grace. she approaches her events with a fierceness that i like, but isn't at all graceful. just watch her routine on the uneven bars and you'll get a sense of what i mean.

i also felt a little bad for gail devers even though she's already gotten her gold medal... she didn't even get to finish her race because of an injury.

tired

8-22-04 (01:14)

"George (Lucas) recently made a rather ironic comment about Columbia TriStar having colorized episodes of The Three Stooges on DVD: "I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them.""

didn't get to see the game, but the men's basketball team lost again today. i'd like to at least see the games.

no movies today. watched the olympics after work and picked up melanie from the airport.

today was uneventful.

8-21-04 (1:51)

updated movies list.

dad and sister came today for a few hours. they didn't plan their vacation very well in that regard. sarah finally gave me the movie she made for her beverly hills rich kid movie class. problem is that as soon as i popped it into the vcr i heard a funny noise and the tape stopped playing. when i ejected the tape there was still a quantity of tape stuck in the vcr. i took it out very carefully, wound the tape up and tried again a couple more times, and again on the other vcr....all with the same result. so i had to transplant the tape into a donor vhs body from a movie screener of "the barbarian invasions." after that the tape played fine.

other than hanging out with them for a few hours, i watched a lot of the olympics coverage, and one movie.

seeing phelps' comeback in the 100m fly was one of the highlights of today's coverage.

i wonder what the medal count would be if we counted all the people going to american colleges as american athletes. i know there's a woman (coventry is her name) who goes to auburn who won three medals in various swimming events, but is swimming for zimbabwe, not the u.s. there's also a croatian swimmer (draganja) who got a silver in the 50m freestyle, and he goes to uc berkeley. i'm guessing we'd have about 50% more medals at this point if the medals went to the country in which you train.

i was also impressed by the kid (jeremy wariner) who is being compared to michael johnson...he goes to baylor and trains under the same coach, and of course runs the 400m. at first i thought he was a joke...looking at him you'd never guess it. he's white, skinny, and looks like a poser (he sports sunglasses, earrings and a necklace), but the guy can flat-out run. he got first in the prelims and made a 45 second 400m look way too easy. if he gets more upper body power, like michael johnson had, then you'll be hearing about him for a long time to come. i don't foresee him coming down to run the 200m, or ever coming close to 19.32 in that event, but he could be solid in the 400m for a long time.

alan webb failed to even qualify in the 1500m which is unfortunate. i remember hearing about him a little while back being everything that michael stemper was supposed to be while in high school. he's one of the best americans at that distance and he couldn't even qualify. i don't understand why we're so weak at anything over 400m in track. not since the 60s/early 70s, when we had prefontaine and frank shorter have we had anyone (to my knowledge) who was any good at the distance events. shorter was, i think, a 10k specialist, but also ran the 5k and the marathon (just for kicks). prefontaine could have been great, but we know what happened there. oh well. and the last runner i know of to be decent at the mid-distance events (800-3000m) was jim ryun who, like alan webb, was one of the very few american high schoolers to break 4 minutes in the mile.

i'm having a fun time watching all the coverage, even if i'm not a huge fan of diving or some of the other events, it's still fun to watch.

oh, i also got to see some of the 10k race which is always an amazing spectacle. the ethiopians took 1, 2, and 5, but Gebrselassie was the one who came up fifth. that guy used to be absolutely brilliant. i remember in 96, or thereabouts, when he shattered the 5k record by something like 15 seconds. he ran it in something like 12 minute 43 seconds. he also broke the record in the 10k a couple times. but today he came in fifth. ethiopians are good in that 5-10k range, but the kenyans kill in the marathon (which is 20 miles plus a 10k) and in the 3k/steeplechase (same distance, but one has a hurdle and waterpit). it's weird how that works. when i used to keep track of these things i think that 7 of the top 10 men in the world at the 3k distance were from kenya. what's even more amazing about the guys who run the 3-10k races is how much pure speed they have, despite being string beans. sometimes they'll close out a race with a 50 second 400m which is pretty unreal. i've always wanted to see guys like michael johnson step up to a higher distance, like the 800m, or see guys like Gebrselassie step down to the 800m distance. it would be a really interesting race and fun to watch. you wouldn't get the best times, but it would be great for the spectators. i think that the 800m and the 400m hurdles are the two hardest races in track because the 800m is a short distance, but can't be sprinted the entire way; and the 400m hurdles requires you to be basically sprinting the entire way while hurdling and maintaining your form over that distance.

El Guerrouj is another great runner i remember coming up in the mid-90s. he broke the mile and 1500m records around the same time Gebrselassie broke the 5k/10k records. i think i remember El Guerrouj and Gebrselassie battling back and forth a bit in the 5k, they sort of swapped records a couple times. but since then another ethiopian (bekele) has claimed the 5/10k records.

i think that of all the track races my two favorites to watch are the 800 and the 4x400m relay. i wish they did a distance medley on the international level. we had it in a few high school meets. it starts with a 1200m leg, followed by the 400m, then the 800m and then a 1600m leg. it's a fun race. i participated in it at the 1200 and 1600m lengths a couple times. it's fun because each squad has their relative strengths so you can't ever really count out a team. it's kind of like the im relay in swimming where each leg is done using a different stroke. unfortunately you rarely see the distance medley in serious track meets.

another race that you see even more rarely is a timed event like the hour. you just run as far as you can for an hour. they do the thing in cycling. i know that miguel indurain (5-time tour de france winner) had the record in cycling for a while, but it may have been broken since he did it several years ago. it's not a popular race for some reason. maybe it's the distance that turns people off, coupled with the relative obscurity of the event. the marathon is going to be at least twice as long, but it's got much more history and tradition behind it. as for cycling...they bike the race in a velodrome using time trial bikes which are extremely uncomfortable so it probably doesn't appeal to very many competitors.

i get off of work at 6pm the next two days so i'll likely be watching a lot more olympics in the next couple days. i also hope to watch some of the basketball game while i'm on lunch tomorrow.

8-20-04 (03:45)

good interview with terry tamminem, secretary of the CA EPA.

updated movies list.

updated recommendations.

8-19-04 (14:35)

probably the greatest assembling of basketball talent that will ever occur. the worst player on the team was christian laettner who was great in college, but turned out to be mediocre in the nba. he and michael jordan were the only two players who shot under 50%. even the four coaches on that team are hall of fame calliber.

8-19-04 (03:20)

elmer bernstein passed on recently. the great escape features one of the top ten scores of all-time. if he turned out to be a drug-peddling pedophile then i guess he'd come out about even.

updated movies list.

watched some of the olympics tonight. saw the ladies break the world record in the 200m relay. that was exciting. swimming relays aren't as cool as track relays for at least two reasons - there's less teamwork needed and running is more fun to watch than swimming, but i was a runner so that makes sense. in track the 4X100 requires a great deal of teamwork, but that's not at all true with swimming.

i also got to see an amazing comeback by paul hamm in the men's all-around gymnastics event. he was in 12th place after a bad fall, but a couple people at the top also faltered and he had a couple of flawless routines and was able to squeak out the tightest win in the event's history.

an iranian judo wrestler decided not to compete against an israeli for political reasons. i'm all for supporting palestinians and whatnot, but i fucking hate bringing politics into the olympics. it was lame when we did it in 1980, it was lame when the russians did it in 1984 and what happened in 1972 was even more lame.

also, anyone caught cheating and essentially pissing on the sanctity of the sport should just be killed. i remember when my innocence was shattered in 1988 when that fucking canadian piece of shit (ben johnson) tested positive for steroids. when you ruin the legitimacy of a sport or an event for a billion+ people you should be killed, it's really just that simple. and the same goes for the french/russian judges that pissed on figure skating in 2002 by lowering their ratings to suit each other.

i really like the olympics. i like the summer olympics more than the winter olympics, but both are fun. for me they've always been a pure source of fun and national pride. when the american basketball team wins gold it means more to me than the fact that we're an economic and military superpower. some might think that's backwards, and others might think that i shouldn't derive pleasure from any of those things. in a world where everything is sullied in one way or another, the olympics are an area that is less muddied than the rest. i just hope it stays relatively clean.

8-18-04 (01:22)

"According to a new study, global warming will leave California either really screwed or just moderately screwed, depending on the choices the world makes in coming years. Conducted by 19 prominent climate-change scientists, the study -- published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- models two different scenarios. The first, a "business as usual" scenario involving no substantial change in the burning of fossil fuels or emission of greenhouse gases, would yield a rise in the average temperature of 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Snowpack in the Sierra Mountains, one of the state's primary water sources, would be reduced by 89 percent. Heat waves would be more severe. The dairy, wine, and skiing industries could be devastated. Luckily, if substantial moves toward renewable energy are undertaken immediately -- the second scenario -- the average temperature will rise by only 4 to 6 degrees, and though the same effects will ensue, well, at least they'll be less severe."

updated movies list.

8-17-04 (03:37)

updated movies list.

the other night i reviewed "the zero effect" and in my review i said that it would make a good tv show. i was looking around on imdb.com tonight and noticed that the same director actually directed a pilot episode for the zero effect, but it wasn't picked up. guess i was half right and half wrong.

time to sleep.

8-16-04 (16:16)

updated movies list.

seen more movies this year than in any single year in the past.

this guy is from woodland.

i'm completely embarrassed by the basketball performance against puerto rico. we had a bad shooting night (and as a result couldn't break the zone) and didn't play team defense. pathetic.

8-14-04 (01:52)

updated movies list.

after i watched the last samurai i put on the good the bad and the ugly for a few minutes. actually i skipped to the shootout sequence at the very end. it was a way of cleansing my cinematic palette. that film is so great.

8-13-04 (03:37)

updated movies list.

today seemed very long.

hope to watch a few movies and relax tomorrow. i only have a one day weekend. my mom is visiting this weekend, and my dad/sister are coming next week some time. between getting used to my new schedule, only having one day off, and all the visitors, it's going to be a long week.

i think when i was younger and i saw people who were older than me wearing stupid clothes or acting idiotic i sort of let it slide. in some cases i even figured it was cool and that, since i was younger, i just didn't get it. now i see people of the same age wearing idiotic clothes or doing stupid things and i look down on them. if i were 16 and saw a 20 year old person wearing their jeans really low with a baseball cap off to the side and goofing off like a child, i might think it was cool, or at the very least, not entirely stupid. but now that i'm 25, the same 20 year old just looks like a moron. i guess that's what happens when you get older. i suppose that part of it is that i'm more cynical than before as well.

so nader isn't going to be on the CA ballot. democracy takes a step backwards. i guess that's further testament to the degree to which bush has changed our political culture. i've said it before, but i'll say it again - the 'anybody but bush' mentality is out of control. do you know who kerry's FIRST choice for VP was? a republican by the name of john mccain. perhaps you've heard of him. granted he's not a totally insane neo-con like bush and his lackeys, but he's close enough. he votes republican 80% of the time and backed bush bills 90% of the time. those numbers are according to "all things considered," i didn't just make them up. mccain is a guy who is in arizona (a swing state) campaigning for bush. this is who kerry wanted as his vp? you know you would have voted for the ticket too. kerry/mccain is fine by most people, just so long as it gets rid of bush. it's politics. in this current climate all kerry needs to do is present himself as just left of bush and he'll get 48% of the votes. it's scary that kerry's first choice for VP was a republican who toes the party line 80% of the time. i'll grant you that he's tough on campaign finance reform and he's a straight shooter...as far as republicans go he's a relatively okay person. but if there's an unquestioning free pass for kerry, if there's no one to check him on his left, then he can go to the right without consequence.

i've heard more negative press about nader than about kerry. that's a function of the news i listen to and the hatchet job people are doing on nader.

mccain on the issues.

8-12-04 (02:26)

updated movies list.

have work at 9am tomorrow. wish i was asleep. my schedule is changing around a bit. in the long term it'll be nice, but in the short term i'll have a one day weekend this week and it'll take time to adjust. my new schedule will have me opening on sat. and sun. closing mon. and tue. and working a middle shift (12-9) on wed. the new manager talked with me today about what my duties at the store are and said that he's going to be opening up the product manager (same as assistant manager) position in a couple months and would like me to submit my resume if i'm interested. deja vu.

updated recommendations.

i find myself listening to michael jackson's "billie jean" a lot lately. i don't know why. i really wish that guy was sane because his early stuff is really great, as far as pop goes.

8-11-04 (02:35)

"At a campaign stop in Arizona's Grand Canyon -- wait, isn't Arizona a swing state? -- John Kerry pledged to renew America's national park system, which he said the Bush administration has left "under stress." Noting that Bush's budget for next fiscal year contains less money for national parks than this year's, he promised to immediately seek an extra $110 million to make up the difference. He also pledged to cover what he called the parks' $600 million overall budget shortfall. Part of the money would come from his repeal of Bush's tax cuts for folks making over $200,000 and part from revisions to an 1872 mining law that allows private companies to buy public land for $5 an acre. He said he would also consider pay-as-you-go options like higher admission prices or fees, but only as a last resort. A Bush campaign spokesperson accused Kerry of "playing politics" with the parks -- and really, where does Kerry get off dragging politics into a presidential campaign?"

i don't like pay as you go plans when it comes to national and state parks. i think preserving nature should funded by taxes. but i also think taxes could be higher.

i do like film comment magazine. i read most of the current issue tonight while i was at work. i had to work overtime because the system was being upgraded so i sat around reading the magazine. there's a really good interview with michael moore and a spot on review of spielberg's "the terminal."

8-10-04 (02:20)

"In his 2000 campaign, George W. Bush promised to make coal central to his energy plan, and he was rewarded with millions of dollars in donations from the coal industry and the votes of coal miners in crucial swing states. Upon taking office, Bush appointed several coal executives and lobbyists to positions overseeing the industry; one, coal executive David Lauriski, was installed as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Under Lauriski, that agency has rescinded more than a half dozen mining safety regulations, and his latest proposal would allow the amount of coal dust in mines to rise substantially and would allow mining companies to equip miners with respirator helmets as a substitute for dust-lowering measures. Breathing coal dust causes "black lung" disease, and the measure is opposed by mine-worker unions, members of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a federal panel that studied the issue in 1996, senators from both parties, and, no kidding, the company that makes the helmets."

updated movies list.

8-9-04 (01:44)

in july i watched 51 films. if i watched 50 films a month i would see 600 movies, twice my usual goal.

updated movies list.

that seinfeld gift set listed below is going to be 119.95, not 199.95. i'm pretty sure it was just a mistake.

8-7-04 (02:09)

updated movies list.

did the laundry, bought some wood for my new dvd case, cleaned the house a bit, and bought some groceries. also watched three movies. overall a fairly productive day. i plan on building the dvd case tomorrow. wood is too expensive. does yellowstone really need all those trees? i probably could have saved like 20 bucks if the republicans had had control of the white house and congress for the last 10 years or so. vote republican and save me money on wood.

8-6-04 (13:53)

"Columbia TriStar will release Seinfeld: Volume 1 and Seinfeld: Volume 2 on 11/23 (SRP $49.95 each), just in time for "Festivus" (as George might say). Each volume will feature some 12 hours of content, including interviews with the cast and creators (Inside Looks), outtakes and bloopers (Not That There's Anything Wrong With That), audio commentaries with the cast members (Yada Yada Yada), deleted scenes (In the Vault), original NBC promotional ads and trailers (Sponsored by Vandelay Industries), behind-the-scenes "scoop" and production notes (Notes About Nothing), and never-before-seen stand-up comedy footage of co-creator and star Jerry Seinfeld (Master of His Domain). Volume 1 will also include the hour-long How It Began documentary along with original Tonight Show footage, while Volume 2 will include the Kramer vs. Kramer: Kenny to Cosmo featurette (on the real Kramer). The two volumes together include 40 episodes (Volume 1 will include all 18 episodes of the first and second seasons, while Volume 2 will include all 22 episodes from the third season). There will also be a Seinfeld: Deluxe Holiday Gift Set of both volumes (SRP $199.95), which will also include a limited edition script from co-creator Larry David, Monk's Diner salt-and-pepper shakers and a deck of playing cards. You'll be glad to know that additional seasons are already in production for release on DVD in 2005."

usa basketball team won by 18 today. that's good news. from what i read the serbian team decided to play man-on-man defense. italy and germany both used a zone defense which requires better team play and shooting so perhaps our win is more a function of the defense we faced than us finally coming together. at any rate, the story said our intensity was up and our shots were falling so it's a good win.

8-6-04 (02:05)

updated movies list.

i've filled up my two dvd cases. i think it's time to build a third.

after next week my schedule is changing. it looks like i'll work saturday through wednesday instead of sunday through thursday. the upside is that i'll have two opening shifts instead of one.

bad news of the day is that peja stojakovic wants to be traded.

i had hoped for this sort of thing as soon as i heard of the move towards electronic voting.

already addressed this, but it's written better here. my roster only had one guy under 25 and has a strong tilt towards defense. the roster the us basketball organizers put together has a bunch of rookies and second year players, and focuses primarily on offense. it's too bad that so many guys dropped out (kidd and bibby among them). i understand that guys would rather have the time off between nba seasons. perhaps they should start looking into a mix of nba and non-nba players which would allow a greater percentage of the team to have experience playing with each other.

8-5-04 (01:58)

updated movies list.

i've been pretty tired lately.

today was so-so.

tomorrow is my friday and that's always a good thing.

8-4-04 (21:17)

nice story on senator obama.

8-4-04 (02:13)

updated movies list.

got some news at work tonight that the new boss is looking to clean house and is looking especially at me because a) i bought promos from an ex-employee and b) because i seem like a sinister character for having not talked to the new boss when he came in. my source on this is pretty reliable and the first concrete evidence i've gotten that they have their eye on me. they've been looking at me hard for a while so i guess it's not really anything new, but the way it was put to me made me think the new guy is eager to clean shop, beginning with me, so he can put in people from other stores and start off fresh.

ever since joe became the manager a couple years back i've been really fed up with the way management presents itself. i suppose i should have known that this is the way the (business) world works, but this job was the first real example of the two-faced way in which management conducts itself. i've seen it on so many occasions outside of my own situation and it has always bothered me. on the one face you have the nice manager who pretends that he likes you and that everything is fine and dandy, and then he turns around and tells loss prevention to inform him of anything you do slightly wrong. that's the way it's manifesting itself in this instance, but the same sort of thing manifests itself in all sorts of insidious and fucked up ways. like i said, though, i really shouldn't be that surprised - i've seen people act like this since junior high. i think that one thing that can be said about me is that if i don't like you i'm not going to make it a secret. and even though that gets me in trouble and people occasionally think me anti-social or whatnot, at least i'm a relatively honest person in that regard.

more importantly the usa basketball team got destroyed today by italy. that's what happens when ideas of individualism get carried out to their logical conclusion...i've said before that the winner of the nba finals should be our olympic team. i think that the detroit pistons would do better than our "all-star" team because they're more of a team, and it's a team game. i thought the USA sports world learned that after the "miracle on ice," but i guess not. that said, this team has such a glut of talent that i'd be pretty surprised if they didn't get the gold medal this year despite their inferior team play. our individual talent is so much better than that of the international players (even without some of our best players in the league - shaq, kobe, garnett, carter, mcgrady, pierce, etc.) that i think we have enough to get by. but in four or eight years i think we're going to finally learn that we need to put together the best team that we can, rather than just putting out the best players. it's a really easy concept, but we don't seem to have grasped it quite yet, in part because we're a cocky country.

if i were making the team my twelve man roster would be: duncan, shaq, kobe, garnett, christie, iverson, james, ben wallace, kidd, bibby, artest, and marion.

8-2-04 (12:53)

political game.

in the last ten elections the winner of missouri was the winner of the presidency. the same is true for kentucky and tennessee.

why?

"Universal has also been busy on the TV front with complete first season sets of Night Gallery and The Munsters due on August 24th and the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents planned for later in the fall."

8-2-4 (00:56)

updated movies list.

08-01-04 (00:49)

went camping yesterday and today. it was a fun little getaway. we went to santa rosa, sonoma, sebastapol, bodega bay and everywhere in between. we camped out just outside of bodega bay, near the russian river. the campsite wasn't crowded, but other people were there and there was a highway about a quarter mile away so it could have been quieter. our specific campsite was secluded enough. we also saw a group of birds that we decided were vultures, but may have been something else. they were pretty big and ugly. we went to the beach and saw a dead jellyfish. that was a first. i'm sure i've seen them at the monterey bay aquarium or something, but never "in the wild." i picked it up and it fell apart in my hand because their bodies are so fragile. while i was at the beach my jeans got wet. after the beach we went looking for a place to eat. all the restaurants in jenner were very expensive. we were at one of the restaurants looking at the menu outside and quickly decided to get back in the car and look for something more reasonable. a couple had just gotten out of their volvo and were coming toward us to go into the restaurant. the guy looked at my face as he we were walking towards each other, then his eyes made their way down to my sneakers and wet jeans. his eyes slowly worked their way up from my feet, back to my eyes, at which point he gave me a disgusted look. i don't think i've ever been looked up and down like that before. it was quite a funny experience. we got back in the mazda and drove to bodega bay where we ate at a mexican restaurant.

after waking up today and having brunch in a small town in the hills, we went to santa rosa and caught a double feature at the theater there. i will update movies list later. we walked around santa rosa for a bit and then drove back home. unpacked and watched another movie. overall it was a fun time.

i had the idea that one could go across the country to different campsites planting a camper's version of the gideon's bible. someone could draw up a campsite bible of sorts that preaches the importance of taking care of the earth and campsites in particular. then they could leave it in the courtesy food chest or on the picnic table that some campsites provide.