This may be odd but I have to say I really do enjoy just driving around on a golf cart. I know they are nothing special, but to me they are just fun. Hum of the electric engine, open air (good or bad), and hoping in and out. I wish I had one of my own to cruise around the block but then that would be silly and some of these things are like the price of a small car. At least at work we have one and I can drive around for fun.
Weekly Recap:
Was a semi busy week with meetings and then some events mixed in. Last Thursday night I attended the Southern California MS Dinner of Champions. They raised over 2 million from that night in the crusade to fight MS, incredible. The event was pretty long, as always, and this is only my second time attending. Still was fun and music from Frankie Vallie. I did get a couple of pics with:
Hosting for the past 14+ years, Byron Allen- pretty cool guy.
Jane Kaczmarek- Amazinginly friendly!
Last Sunday evening my uncle TJ passed away, he was a great guy and I remember him always taking care of me when I was little. The services were in Oceanside on Friday and it was a cloudy day. Apparently Uncle TJ was a famous chemist in the automotive industry. I knew he worked for GM but that was about it. He was a very kind and modest man ... family did come first for him. To me he will always be simply Uncle TJ.
At the movies:
Stupid wins the box office weekend, Jackass: Number Two opens with a healthy 28.1 million. Self torture is a spectator sport after all. Chopping its way to #2 this weekend is Jet Li's Fearless with 10.6 mil and what promises to be his last epic martial arts film. Hanging on for the extra point at #3 is the "Gridiron Gang" with an additional 9.7 mil. Flying in (but not flying high) at #4 is Flyboys, the story of World War I pilots reaching for a struggling 6 mil opening weekend. Yet another re-opening MGM hit movie, their streak lives on (sarcasm if you can't tell). Rounding off the top 5 slugging away is "Everyone's Hero" bringing in an additional 4.8 mil.
Other new films this week not in the top 5 is Sony's drama All The King's Men with a very disappointing 3.8 mil.
Q & A (or "comment response"):
I totally agree with "Blonde's" response regarding the space program and couldn't 't have put it better myself with "Visionaries and pragmatics working together to bring dreams into reality...", well said!
Also thought I would change this section from Q/A to Comment Response, makes more sense to me.
Other News:
Recently some additional research were conducted and the reports released that continues to support the fact that Saddam had no connections with Al-Q'aeda and the hijackers of 9.11 attacks. And on top of this, the president is now admitting that what he stated and believed to be true was not. What is even more depressing and saddening is we still have no exit plan in site and have over 130,000 troops in Iraq and still lose on average 2 a day ... these numbers are completely unacceptable because we clearly went in there due to someone's personal vendetta. And on the other end of things, we have bigger issues that are more pressing and immediate yet we do nothing (ie: North Korea, Iran, etc ...). Did you know in the month of September, 2006, there have been 58 US Soldiers killed thus so far, and 65 the previous month. Total confirmed deaths of US Soldiers since start of conflict is 2700 (13 pending confirmation).
Facts & Tips:
Pennsylvania is misspelled on the Liberty Bell.
"Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like "whoa", and we were like "whoa", and you were like "whoa...""- Andrew Stanton as the voice (also Writer and Director) of Crush in "Finding Nemo"
California approved a minimum wage increase by $1.25 (20%) over the next 18 months. So instead of $6.75 it will be $8.00, .75 first phase and then .50 in 2008. I hope folks realize that almost all business, the only real managable expense is payroll/human resources. So when this goes up, everything else goes up from goods to fuel to ... well, everything. I remember when I used to work at the theatre and min. wage goes up, then a couple weeks later concession prices would rise and following close behind ticket prices. Do not be
surprise when you go to the movies (or even renting them) and it goes from $11 per ticket to $11.50 and a big bag of corn goes from $3.75 to $4.00 per ... its all due to the min wage increase. So in the end, do we really make more? I always felt like I made less because of course more is taken out for taxes and costs of everything goes up that much which is then taxed again.
Weekly Recap:This was a very busy and crazy work week for me and all not good at all. Complicated projects made even more complicated and the loop of information with gaping holes. I have no clue what is going on. But mid-week my back decided to take a break and I was laid up for a day and the weekend. The same thing happen to me about 4 years ago and took about a week to fully recover. So, same thing again and back to the chiropractor (who is a really good one too).Saturday some guys came and finally removed the infested furniture ... next step, I don't know yet but at least that was taken care of finally.At the movies:
The weekend box office win goes to Gridiron Gang as it scores a touchdown with 15 million opening weekend. Coming in second is the crime drama The Black Dahlia with 10.4 mil. The animated adventure from the late Christopher and Dana Reeves, Everyone's Hero comes in #3 with only 6.2 mil. The new romantic drama The Last Kiss takes #4 with a pocket 4.7 mil. Rounding off the top 5 is "The Covenant" with 4.7 mil, just shy of #4's spot.Q & A:None at this time.
Other News:The space shuttle Atlantis went into space on Saturday the 9th, that is the 2nd trip without any real hitches for the shuttle program. There is a lot of debate about the cost for this program and if its really worth it. Lets face it, the Earth is not a big place anymore and as we continue to dry-out a lot of natural resources, we have to continue the exploration or no progress can be made. Not saying that we will find everything we need in space or anytime soon but the steps we take will help that much more. Also, the shuttle progam in the grand scheme of things is actually relatively inexpensive. I think it was estimated if each person in the United States gave $2 per year, it would fund NASA and everything involved with it for that year. These numbers were at least 10 years ago but I have to imagine it being the same for two reasons, 1) costs go up and 2) population goes up. So both factors would off-balance each other. But we have to continue supporting the space shuttle program, aim high and reach for the stars as they say ... the new frontier is up.Facts & Tips:The 4th Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich so he could eat and gamble at the same time.
"I got sumtin' to say, and I need the world to hear it. I'm a lyricologist. I can rap about anything. Shrink, shrink. Blinkity-blink. Tried to make me think. Wanna go to my sing. And vomit. Clean it up wit' Comet. Earth is my planet. See?"- Jamie Kennedy as Brad 'B-Rad' Gluckman in "Malibu's Most Wanted"
So I am doing some furniture re-arranging in my office and I ordered some bookshelves from staples that were way smaller than imagined. However they will still work to hold smaller things like DVD's and CD's but I will still need to get a bigger bookcase. It's no big deal but just that I can't put stuff away till I do get one and it clutters up fast since its not a HUGE office by any means.
Weekly Recap:This was a nice short work week and a fun week on top of it. Last Thursday I did something that I thought I would never do ... I sat in on a "The Simpsons" episode table read. The entire cast was there and it was just an amazing and surreal experience ... to see the the people behind the voices (who I have seen before on TV shows and stuff) in-person and not see the animated characters ... so so cool. Was very fortunate enough to catch pics with:
Matt Groening- Such an amazingly down-to-earth guy.Nancy Cartwright- Amazing person.Yeardley Smith- so sweet.Hank Azaria- talk about coolness.Pamela Hayden- very very nice.As soon as it ended a couple of folks left right away. Julie Kavner didn't want to take a picture but at the table read they gave each person there a copy of the script to follow along and she signed that for me which was very nice.
At the movies:The top 5 this week is pretty ... well, weak. The summer box offices slam is completely over and these numbers support that. Creeping in at #1 is The Covenant at 9 million for the weekend. Starring in the #2 spot is Hollywoodland showing up at 6 mil, this number is very disappointing for what looks like a really interesting film. Tackling its way to #3 is the football bio pic "Invincible" with an additional 5.9 mil. New to the scene making some acrobatic martial arts moves is The Protector with 5 mil which is enough to take the #4 spot this week. Rounding off the top 5 is "Crank" surviving with an additional 4.8 mil.Who are the top 5 summer winners for 2006? Clearly there is one above them all and that would be "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" with an up-to-date total of 416.6 mil and still over 1500 screens out there. This film should cap out at around 430 mil nation-wide (including Canada). The #2 film for the box office summer is Pixar's "Cars" with a 242.1 mil gross and it's pretty much done. Standing in at #3 with 234.3 mil is "X3" or "X-Men The Last Stand". Flying in the #4 summer spot is "Superman Returns" with a strong 196.9 mil as its summer ends. And finally the #5 film for the summer is yet another racing movie with "Talladega Nights: The Ballard of Ricky Bobby" zooming in with 139.2 mil and still going as it was a late summer release.
In the end, clearly Disney wins the summer crown with both "Pirates..." and "Cars" leading the pack and "Invincible" bringing up the tail-end. A total of 14 titles which gave them a 20.79% market share. Looking through the majors ONLY, the top 3 were Disney, Sony and 20th Century Fox (1, 2 and 3 respectively). The bottom ranked for the summer are Lionsgate, New Line and MGM (7, 8, and 10 respectively).Q & A:None at this time.
Other News:Today is the 5th Anniversary of the attack upon the World Trade Center in NY and The Pentagon. Its a solemn day of reflection and one that I will probably always remember. What was I doing ... I was asleep and I remember the radio going off. We had our station set to KISS FM at the time because it was one of the few stations we could get clearly on the clock radio. As soon as I heard Rick Dees say something about NY, first I thought it was a really bad radio prank/joke and I hit the snooze. Then on the second or third time, they were still talking about it and gags don't run this long. So I turn on the TV and sure enough, it's on the news all over and I'm in utter shock. I called into work and was instructed to just stay home because no one knew what was happening ... yep, a day I won't forget. But one thing is for sure ... I wish to remember them standing rather than what will be built there.So its 5 years later and what has happened? We are still searching for Osama, a new report was just released proving AGAIN there was no connection between the terrorist and Saddam, the death toll of US Soldiers and civilians continues to increase at a steady rate in Iraq ... and the country is well worse off then it was with Saddam in power with a failing infrastructure, power outages and no exit plan in sight. Iraq went from a semi-wealthy nation (under a dictator's rule of course) to a poverty stricken third world country.Facts & Tips:
The first vacuum was so large it was brought to a house with horses."I had a dream where Jesus was a dirty old bum, and I was about to sock him in the face because, well he's a dirty old bum, but then I thought, there's something special about him ..."- John C. Reilly as Cal Naughton, Jr. in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"
POST LABOR DAY MOVIE EDITION
Since Labor Day was thrown in the mix this week, movies got another day to get some big box office money."Invincible" scores for the extra point as it takes the box office lead for the 2nd week in a row earning an additional 15.2 mil for the 4-day weekend. Still has good legs to keep it running. New to the scene in the 2nd spot is Crank busting in with a very light 13 mil, not a great number for what looks to be a good action film. Showing up on the #3 spot also new this week is the thriller The Wicker Man buzzing in with only 11.7 mil, not a strong number as I am sure WB was hoping for something closer to 20. Surprising the crowds and moving up the ranks for the 2nd week in a row is "Little Miss Sunshine" with the spotlight on the #4 spot taking in 9.7 mil for the weekend. This little indie film is surprising many expectations as it pops into the top 5! Rounding off the top 5 is another small art film in its third week titled The Illusionist with a strong 8 mil for the extended weekend.One film opened that did not make the top 5 is Sony's Crossover which shows up at the #13 spot with only 4.5 mil.
LABOR DAY SPECIAL EDITIONSo its Labor Day which means tomorrow is full of traffic and more traffic ... everyone fully back to work and schools in full swing ... greeeaaat.
Weekly Recap:
The work week was pretty hectic for me, was pretty tired. But the weekend was nice and relaxing, especially when you get an extra day to just sleep in ... that is always a nice bonus!
Yesterday I went to the California Speedway (formally the Fontana Speedway) to watch the Sony HD 500. Texas Instrument's DLP division invited me and it was pretty cool. It was hotter than Hades (well, 108+ degrees) but having a suite there made the difference for me between going and not going. Its freak'n Ontario/Riverside (or infamously The Inland Empire) where its always HOT!!! The DLP 
car #96 driven by Tony Raines did not win or even come close but it was still a great time. We first met up at a Inn/Spa which was really nice and then they took us in on a big tour bus. About halfway to the racetrack we then got a 6 motorcycle Police escort, that was pretty dang cool. You could see all the people trying to see who was inside ... and it was just us. Once we got the suite, the driver, Tony Raines, came and talked to us, signed items and took a
photo with folks. Later on one of the co-owners of the race team came when the actual race started. He also did the autograph and photo session because it was former NFL Dallas Cowboy QB Roger Staubach ... all-in-all it was a nice day.At the movies:Since today is Labor Day, a movie update will be posted tomorrow as we continue "The Labor Day Special Edition".
Q & A:None at this time.
Other News:I watched (or tried anyway) the MTV VMA's (Video Music Awards) on Thursday night and I have to say ... man did they suck. The music acts were decent to good for the most part but so many of the presenters (if not all of them) either didn't get a joke or attempted to pull off a joke and simply failed miserably. The 
only funny man was the host Jack Black and it was mildly humorous but I have to say it was the show that brought him down. It was simply a dead evening to watch, missed cues and at times couldn't even understand what people were saying. I will have to say, one cool highlight was watching the live performance of the band "OK GO" as they did their treadmill performance that is all over on the internet (link is from youtube of their original video, there were no clear VMA clips). Nice work guys!
Sad news hits the stands, animal lover and conservationist Steve Irwin passed away on Monday (Australian time) from a freak (and extremely rare) stingray barb to the chest while filming a new documentary. He was such a fun-loving, full of energy guy ... the big kid next door who loved his family, animals and life. He will be sorely missed as the world loses not only an entertainer but a dear friend.
Facts & Tips:
The top of the Empire State Building was originally built as a place to anchor blimps
"Ain't it great how they want to be your friend right after they rip your guts out?"- Jake Busey as Private Ace Levy in "Starship Troopers"
This may be odd but I have to say I really do enjoy just driving around on a golf cart. I know they are nothing special, but to me they are just fun. Hum of the electric engine, open air (good or bad), and hoping in and out. I wish I had one of my own to cruise around the block but then that would be silly and some of these things are like the price of a small car. At least at work we have one and I can drive around for fun.
Facts & Tips:
