Love me some nuts
What a difference a week can make. This past week finally cooled down and not by much but what really made the big difference was the many breezes! The temperatures averaged in the high 80's during the day but because of those wonderful breezes, almost felt like 70. They make such a huge difference here and not just circulating warm or hot air, they actually cool things down tremendously. Next week looks like it will climb back up into the 90's but as long as the breezes continue, I do not mind. This logo, wherever it is from, sum it up pretty well. The nights remain the same which is great, mid-60's and cool. I do like a place where day to night makes a big difference in weather (usually) instead of it just being dark and the same temperatures which just doesn't make sense to me and my head.
Weekly Update:
So Costco has started selling these snacks called Love Corn and they are delicious and much lighter than Corn Nuts. Now, I do like Corn Nuts, nothing wrong with them, good flavors too but they can be teeth breaking sometimes. I guess Love Corn is trying to rival them and with it being in Costco, they got a good jump. I'm glad they were sampling them otherwise I probably would have passed on them. The box only has three flavors (sweet and salty, sea salt and sour cream and onion). I've had a chance to try the sea salt and sweet and salty, so far both are great but the packets go FAST. Feels like smaller or less corn than Corn Nuts but also, they were less than .50 cents a packet (on sale).
At the movies:
Still at #1 with a commanding lead is Spider-Man: Brand New Day with an extra 70 million and now inches away from 800 mil cume. Likely could have that in the next few days and start it's run to 900 mil! Doing well at #2 is The Odyssey with 23.2 mil more and just past the 500 mil mark. New at #3 is The End of Oak Street with 21 mil and not a bad number for this film. Also new at #4 is Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie with 20.5 mil and as we start towards the end of Summer, good box office for this family film. New and rounding up the top 5 is Katseye: Wild Hearts with 4 mil but on a semi-wide release of less than 800 screens so not to bad.
New movies that did not make the top 5:
Several this week, coming in at #6 is SIX: The Musical Live! with 3 mil on a low wide-release pattern. In at #7 is The Brink of War with 2.7 mil on a wide release so their pre screen is only $1300. And at #10 is Vishwanath & Sons with 1.6 mil but a limited run so not terrible but not good either.
Quote of the week:
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." - Henry David Thoreau
Facts & Tips:
If you keep a goldfish in a dark room it will eventually turn white."I didn't mean to hurt her... I didn't. You go and live your life in full now, all right? You live for both of us." - Rebecca Hall as Sarah in
The Prestige.
Non-stop
What a crazy week it has been for me. So it started off kind of normal but then I had an event to go to on Wednesday and that is when I just couldn't keep up after for some reason. But it was a movie premier for The Wrong Girls which opens in about a week and the theatre was about a mile or so from the party venue. Funny, the theatre mention to take an Uber or Lyft as there is only limited street parking but I was thinking what theatre only has street parking? With all the shops and stores around, maybe make a deal where people can park there after they close or something. When there are theatres in the area, and you all play the same movies... it will boil down to convivence of getting in and out on your own. But anyway, I parked at the party venue, Lyft over to the theatre and carpet, then Lyft back once the movie started. I was the party till about 11P but when I got home it was past midnight and I was kind of wired or hyped up that I couldn't sleep right away and I had to be up early so I got very little sleep and thus just caused a ripple affect pretty much. I'm still waiting to catch up on sleep!
Weekly Update:
What was going on this week... besides it just being very hot and humid? Really not much but still being hot and humid! This weather is confusing me and I don't like it. I need to do laundry again or more often because of it. Normally I have enough cloths to not do laundry for say a month at a time... a load of whites and a load of colors. So far I've done at least 2 loads of whites and 1 load of colors, preparing to do another load of colors because I've had to change cloths more than once per day. At best, I would say, if nothing is going on, I could change every other day... I'm not doing anything so everything is fine but this sticky humidity is getting both inconvenient and expensive with electrical and water costs going up. Hot and warm is more expensive than cold seasons and we have not had a cold seasons in at least 2-years now.
At the movies:
Holding strong for a 2nd week in a row is Spider-Man: Brand New Day with another 145 million. That is a sizeable 60% drop but still an amazing number which brings its current total at 655 mil cume! No doubt will hit 700 by end of this week with that kind of trajectory. Holding on to #2 is The Odyssey with an extra 31.5 mil as it gets closer to 500 mil and should get there eventually. New at #3 is One Night Only with 5.7 mil and as we come to the end of Summer, we'll see some little films popping up. New at #3 is Super Troopers 3 with 4 mil and kind of what was expected. Rounding off the top 5 and in its 8th week is Toy Story 5 with 3.9 mil as it crawls to a potential 500 mil goal, unsure if t it will reach it.
New movies that did not make the top 5:
Coming in at #8 is Ice Cream Man with 2 mil on a wide-release pattern and making only $1200 per screen. New at #10 is CatVideoFest 2026 with 586k on less than 300 screens, no idea what this even is and guessing no one else did either.
Quote of the week:
"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." - Mother Teresa
Facts & Tips:
Termites eat through wood two times faster when listening to rock music!"Not that I do drugs, but I'd like to be asked." - Debra Messing as Grace Adler in the TV series
Will & Grace.
Paperless
Not exactly paperless but exactly paperless? Costco
Kirkland brand water has had an update to its look... or had an reduction in
their look? The removed the paper band that goes around the bottle and I
find that amazing. All the details you need to know about the water is in
the packaging so why does the individual bottle need a label on it? I bet
this is reducing some major costs and at the same time, reducing a lot of
waste! I think this is absolutely brilliant and why didn't anyone thing
of this a long time ago. I know the indents in a bottle (or can) have
reduced material costs over the years by millions of dollars so eliminating the
process of the label plus not making the label at all, that is like double
reduction in both material and production costs I'm sure. Also, the whole
bottle looks clear and clean, I kind of find that more appealing but just
really smart! Now, be nice if other companies follow along and reduce
their costs so instead of raising prices, they reduce cost and in that will retain
their profits instead!
Weekly Update:
I do not like this weather!!! As soon as I get out of like a nice shower,
I'm sweating. As far as I know, I'm probably sweating while taking the
shower! What is happening here? What happened to our dry
heat? More importantly, what happened to our cool ocean breezes or any
kind of breeze for that matter?! This is not normal weather for us, the
heat maybe but not this level of humidity. I do not like it one bit and
it has to change! It is only beginning of August too but supposedly the
official last day of Summer is end of the month. However, we know
seasonally that is not the case and it's more like beginning of October.
I just hope the nights will continue to be a LOT cooler but come on, where are
the breezes? I mean we don't get them all day but sometimes we would and
there has been zero, none, zilch.
At the movies:
BIG weekend at the box office as
Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes
a huge leap to #1 with 355 million for it's debut. What a way to make an
entrance and also at the peak of the Summer season. Word-of-mouth is good
on the film, look for it to hit 400 by mid-week and make it's way to 500.
Drop down to #2 is
The Odyssey with 51 mil extra and now just
inches away from 400, should hit that any day now. Moving up a notch to #3
is
Toy Story 5 with 6.3 mil more as it crawls to reach the 500
mark, likely will fall short but still did great overall. Hanging on to #4
is
Minions & Monsters with 5.8 mil and actually holding
better than expected. Drop down to #5 is
Moana with 5.3 mil as
this one slowly fades out.
New movies that did not make the top 5:
Coming in at #8 is
I Want Your Sex on a semi-wide release (700
runs) and only earning 600k which is less than 1k per screen.
Quote of the week:
"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to
understand and to be understood." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Facts & Tips:
On average a human being will spend up to 2 weeks kissing in his/her lifetime.
"I'm so Chinese, I'm an Econ professor with lactose intolerance." -
Constance Wu as Rachel Chu in
Crazy Rich Asians.
Did it get hotter?
Someone turned up the volume on the heat this past week! It got even warmer and stickier than the previous week, why? Our heat used to be just a dry heat but it has gotten pretty humid (for me and for here). This is not normal and one thing is I can't really turn on m AC (for long periods of time) because my the water run-off from my AC unit isn't connected yet as it went through my old bathroom sink which hasn't been installed yet! That and it's also expensive to use electricity here in general so I try not to use it as much as I can. But with the water collecting (in buckets) and then having to pour it out some where... its a hassle that I was trying to go out to like Panera and sit there for an hour or so to just enjoy their AC and my Panera sipper drink as long as I could. This heat sucks with the humidity added but I'm sure it's not as bad as other places with way more humidity though.
Weekly Update:
This past week had the 14th Annual Variety Children's Charity Poker Tournament on the Paramount Studio lot. This is one of my favorite events at one of my favorite locations. The day part of it was so warm, I just stayed in my car as long as I could and then went to the theatre there on the lot (since it was also part of our event) to enjoy that AC. Fortunately it did cool down a lot when the sun went down but at that point, I was already pre-sticky from earlier in the day. But, the event was great and food was good. Had a delicious pistachio cannoli and got to hand out with some good friends who were able to attend. Especially my friend from the show NCIS, Katrina Law who said next time she would invite her co-stars from the show! Now that would be great if they (or even some of them) could attend and just have a great time with all of us.
At the movies:
Holding ground at #1 is The Odyssey with an extra 87 million and now just over 250 mil cume. The drop from week 1 was only 30% which is very low by today's standards. In a few more days, this should hit 300 mil easily and continue on to more. Hanging on to #2 is Moana with 10.5 mil extra and this just hit the 100 mil mark! Coming up a notch to #3 is Toy Story 5 with 10 mil as it slowly wraps up its summer run. New at #4 is Hadestown: The Musical with 9.7 mil and may have only been in theatres for a limited time but did have a wide-release pattern. Big drop to #5 is Minions & Monsters with 9.6 mil and though it did good overall, it should be wrapping up it's run.
New movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one this week at #9, Motor City earning 1.6 mil on a decent wide-release pattern so made only $1000 per screen average and will be out quickly.
Quote of the week:
"Let us sacrifice today so that our children can have a better tomorrow." - A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Facts & Tips:
A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber."This is really all I ever hoped for - to be someplace amazing with my best friends." - Chris Pang as Colin Khoo in
Crazy Rich Asians.
Why so sticky?
Make the heat stop! It got very hot during the day and sticky?? We got some humidity out of no where and it was making me sticky which I hated. This is not our weather so not sure what is happening here. But the temps do tell us one thing, Summer has hit SoCali for sure now we just need to ride it out but for how long. I think last year the heat was through most of September... as long as the nights drop down 20 to 30 degrees than I'll just hunker in during the day and do nothing. But now my electric bill will likely spike high for a couple of months, I hate that. I wish I could get solar but at what point does it become worth it over time and also, my fear is the golf ball impacts it will get. AND, the recent news about a bunch of solar companies in trouble so it makes it even more weary to trust the company but we know the technology is sound. What to do.
Weekly Update:
Aldi vs Trader Joe's... I went to Aldi recently and I have to say their brands there seem pretty generic but are they Aldi brands like Trader Joe's has their brands? In my opinion the Aldi brands (assuming they are Aldi) are very generic in tastes and quality but way cheaper. Trader Joe's are very generic as well but way more expensive. I got a box of like mini-cheese filled crackers that was $1.99 but something similar at Trader Joe's (TJ for short) is $2.99 to 3.99 and the quality is the same. I often argue that TJ's stuff is kind of expensive and for what? Banana's are up to about .29 each when at Amazon (before they closed) were only .19 and Costco came out close to .10 to .15 if you buy them by the bunch. Another thing I bought at Aldi was a dip... regular French onion was about $1.99 but TJ's was $3.99 for half the amount but does it taste that much different? Not really. Though I appreciate the message that TJ is conveying but their quality doesn't match the price point as Aldi. Just that Aldi is very far and few between.
At the movies:
Big numbers return at the box office with a new #1! Nolan's The Odyssey earns a big 124.5 million and with very positive reviews. It will easily make it's way to 200 mil in a very short time and who knows from there. Drop down to #2 is Moana with 19 mil and should still reach 100 mil within the next 10-days. Following down to #3 is Minions & Monsters with 14.8 mil more and though this is past the 100-mil mark, it will tap out soon. Holding ground at #4 is Toy Story 5 with 14.8 mil as this will stay in the 400 mil zone but still an overall great number. Rounding off the top 5 is Evil Dead Burn with an extra 5 mil and this one is done for the Summer.
Quote of the week:
"We can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water." - Rabindranath Tagore
Facts & Tips:The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.
"An old associate of mine speaks impeccable Cantonese. He lived about 200 years ago. You know him. Sun Lok? Course you do. You locked him inside the Grimhold." - Alfred Molina as Horvath in
The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
