wildyams

Well I got a bunch of pics below that you can check out, and they're chronological for you (I'll have captions with them so you can follow along lol). But basically, the night started off with Jon calling to say he definitely wouldn't be there, he got stranded in Chicago. And we knew Dave had already bailed. Then Edrich couldn't make it because he was driving down from San Francisco and we never heard from him. Keith couldn't come because the power went out at his place and he was stuck at home with his kid and his wife, who is pregnant again lol. But my sister Rebecca showed up here at 7, and Steve showed up shortly after that. We went out to The Grove and checked out the madness and mayhem of shopping going on there with it being Thanksgiving weekend and all. Too many damn people. I checked out the Apple store finally, but it was so overrun with people it wasn't really enjoyable. After that, we went to Benihana where Koga was waiting for us, and we got a table with these two girls that Koga was drooling all over (but he didn't make a move, wuss lol). We got dinner and they told them it was my birthday (it took them like 3 tries for the waitress to understand though lol), and after dinner they brought out a statue with a candle in it and a dish of ice cream. They asked if we wanted to sing a song though, and we didn't, so I just blew out the candle while forgetting to make a wish (I can't remember any birthday wish I've ever made though, so no harm done). I ate a couple bites of the ice cream, then turned it over to Rebecca. While at dinner we saw Kurt Russell and Derek Fisher (the point guard for the Lakers). Neither of them were in a spot where I could get pics of them though, so you'll have to use your imagination. We discussed our favorite Kurt Russell movies and lines though. After that, we drove around for a while (actually, Koga drove, and he got all pissed at the traffic lol). We ended up going to Hollywood and Highland, and got coffee and ice cream and just watched the scenery and chatted. Then we went back and Koga dropped us off. Then we took the scenic way home through Beverly Hills and the Hollywood Hills and that was the night. So there you go :-) Now check out the pics:

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Jesus, check this out:

Ok, its my birthday today, and not only do my Lakers lose a game that they easily had won (and they lose it in embarrassing fashion), but my football team (the Giants) also lose a 14 pt-lead in the last quarter, and this comes after my college football team (Notre Dame) has the worst loss in their history yesterday to my least favorite team (USC). Now I don't really care about football too much, but still, kinda nice to have those two teams win, you know? I am pissed about the Lakers losing though. They must be close to their worst start since they moved to LA some 40+ years ago.

Ok, so I went to my Dad's for my birthday today, and everything there was great, I had a great time with my family, had a great dinner (my Dad made me one of the tastiest lobsters ever!), and a nice cake and all. But afterwards, I came home and as I got here, I noticed all the power was out everywhere. This means I couldn't get into my place at all, because the gate to the garage is electronic. So I figured I'd go gas up my car and deposit my birthday checks and come back and hopefully they'd have the power back on. But the power is out everywhere, which is damn scary when there are no lights in Hollywood with all the traffic around here. So the traffic was really bad, and its scary hoping I don't get in an accident going through an intersection with no traffic light. But on top of that, they had the Hollywood Christmas parade today, so most of the streets around here were blocked off, and there were pedestrians everywhere. So just getting across town took about 3 times longer than it should have. But I got my stuff done, got back home, and had to reset all my clocks, re-boot my computers and all that. And here's a nice little bonus: having been out all day on my birthday, no doubt people called me and left messages, but since the power went out, I lost all those messages. So if you read this and you called me, sorry, but I didn't get it :(

Still, it wasn't a bad day I guess. Just more bad stuff then you'd want on a birthday. Oh well. Just venting a bit ;-)

Feels like I haven't really worked in a while. I mean, technically I haven't, as is the case with most people I suppose, with Thanksgiving and all (or "T-Day" as Mary calls it lol). But the last two weeks, I was at work on Monday only one week, then only Monday and Tuesday and only for 4 hours on Wednesday last week. So out of the last 16 days, I'd only worked 3 and a half. Not bad, huh? Guess that makes up for the fact that during Xmas I don't have a big break really, just 2 days for Xmas and 2 for New Years. Could be worse I guess though (thinking back on my days working retail lol). Man, what a first day back to work though :( I logged about 11 hours today and was there about an hour later than anyone else. I had a project that's gonna be a redo because of something stupid that me and two other people overlooked, so I feel like an idiot for that, and that caused me more work today then I otherwise would have had, and I had plenty to begin with. On top of having a super-rush project, I also had to submit my expense report for the year today for my annual allowance. See, at my work, they give everyone $250 to spend on any company products, and we get reimbursed for it, but we have to turn in only one expense report for the year, and it was really due last week, but they said it would be ok today. So I had to go find $250 worth of crap to buy, or else I'd lose out on that reimbursement. That took a while, but I got it all done. I know I know, hell of a thing to complain about huh? lol Just added to everything else I had to do today. Oh well, the rest of the week HAS to be better than today was.

I guess on the good side we went to Buca di Beppo for my "birthday lunch" today, and we hadn't ever gone there before as a lunch group. I always like going to new places, and it seemed like it went over well. I dig that place. I've only eaten there twice, but the food is damn good. It wasn't that expensive for everyone either, even though they paid for me (which was nice of them :-)

What else is going on in my life? My fantasy basketball team is going downhill fast cause I've got somewhere between 6 and 7 of my 14 players out injured at the same time. Hard to compete with half a team, but hopefully they'll be back shortly. I dunno, not much else to say I guess. Hey, here's some pics for you:

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Maybe its just cause the Lakers just won a game tonight, but I'm in a pretty good mood right now, and have been pretty much all day. Work wasn't too bad today, just kinda had a good feeling about myself all day I'd say. I don't really know how to explain it. Maybe its cause I haven't gotten much sleep the last two nights and I'm just slaphappy lol. I'm gonna go to bed here in a bit to make up for the last two nights. The big news is that tomorrow I'm gonna be going to pick up my tickets for "The Two Towers". If everything goes according to plan, we should all have great tickets for midnight on December 17th to see the next installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This, for me, is the most anticipation I've had for a movie in quite a while. Probably since "Episode I" back in 1999. As I've said on here before, I'm very confident that "The Two Towers" will be every bit as good as "The Fellowship of the Ring" was, probably even moreso. Well, that's about it for me tonight. Sorry no pictures, just didn't take any today. So tough shit lol

Cookie will be mad about this, but tough shit lol. I got my tickets for the midnight show of "The Two Towers" today. I went with Dave, Steve-o and Jon and bought out the entire 4th row dead center at the Arclight Dome for that very first show at one minute past midnight on December 18th. That's right, we bought the whole damn row! We needed 11 tickets, and there were 14 seats in the row, so we figured what the hell and just bought all 14. I'm sure we'll be able to find takers for the remaining 3 seats. Matt was still making up his mind about whether to go or not, Mario might end up bringing a friend, and who knows what else might happen from the other 3 people who were there to buy tickets. Rebecca's gonna be there, so is Koga, so I'm happy that all my friends will be in attendance. As I said, I absolutely can not wait for this movie. All the early reports are extremely positive to say the least, and I'm not a bit surprised. I can't imagine it will be disappointing, considering it was filmed at the same time as the last one, and from reading the book I know how solid the story is: IMO, all the stuff not having to do with Frodo and Sam from here on out is the best part of any of the story, although of course what goes on with Frodo and Sam is good as well, and should be probably some of the most visually interesting stuff the rest of the way (I can't wait to see Mordor!).

Anyway, my day boiled down like this: went to work (work was nice today, not too busy, although that usually means the shit's about to hit the fan), then left work promptly at 6 to go meet up with the guys at Tower. Dave was supposed to come meet me at work and we were gonna go together, but he had, uh "issues" which made him have to skip that and just meet us directly at Tower instead. At Tower Steve-o picked up the 4-disc "Fellowship of the Ring" so he could get the MovieCash to use for the ticket to "Two Towers". I had called Arclight and they said that they could not accept these MovieCash coupons yet because they were only valid from December 18th-31st. I wasn't too worried cause I'm sure I'll see it at least one more time before 2003 after going opening night, and could just use the MovieCash coupon then. My only worry was that Cookie would have something to rub in my face, because he has been rooting for me to not be able to get tickets to the midnight showing. He wants to be the first one to see it, probably so he won't have to hear me talk about it at work on the 18th lol. Anyway, when we got to the theater, I asked for all the tickets and we showed them the MovieCash coupons, and the guy at the counter (who was arguably the nicest clerk I've ever seen at any business in my life) didn't bat an eye and said sure they took them. On top of that, for whatever reason the tickets were only $11 apiece instead of the $14 we thought we'd have to pay, so that was a nice bonus. 14 tickets for about $100 is not bad at all, and for the 4 of us with the coupons our tickets were only fifty cents. Well worth it, wouldn't you say? lol The two best benefits of seeing the movie at that theater (aside from the comfy seats and the fact that its LA's largest screen) are that there are no commercials before the movie (trailers yes, but no stupid car ads or whatnot), and the seats are all reserved so there is no reason to show up early for good seats: we already have good seats. After getting our tickets, we cruised over to Amoeba Music on my reccomendation because its a cool ass store and none of the guys had been there before. I ended up picking up two CDs: FC Kahuna's "Machine Says Yes" (based on Brian's review of it on his blog), and Orbital's "Work"; both of which were used so that my total for both came to only $17 (not bad in this day and age for an album that is only 3 months old and one that's only 3 weeks old). Dave and Jon also got some pretty good buys from the look of it, so we were all happy.

So that was my day. Not a bad day at all. By the way, I'm going to hope that Cookie doesn't read this before tomorrow morning so I can go in and pretend that the show was sold out just to build his hopes up before crushing them brutally for rooting against me getting my tickets LOL

I saw this movie today, "Four Feathers", and it wasn't really that great. Its about a guy in the 1800s in Britain, who is in the army and gets told he's going to war the next day. Well, that night he drops out of the army cause he's scared to go to war, but then his friends all think he's a coward. At that point in time, evidently if you wanted to brand someone a coward, you gave them a white feather, so his 3 friends and his fiancee all give him feathers and he's ostracized by them and his dad and everyone. So he decides to go to the war by himself to help his friends if they need it, only now he's not in the army, so he goes in like Rambo in Rambo 3. The war is in the desert, and he's there for years trying to figure out how to help his friends and a lot of stuff happens and blah blah blah, who cares. Anyway, at the end of the movie it made me think that if you suddenly decided to do something like that, something totally risky and nuts like going into the middle of a war in the desert by yourself, if you survived it you would never be afraid of anything ever again. It made me think about what that would be like. I mean, to truly just go out on a limb, take a leap of faith like that. Gamble everything on something with no guarantees. Some day I'd like to do something like that, but honestly right now I'm too chickenshit to do it. Some day though, I'm going to break from the norm, I'm going to choose my own path, and follow wherever it takes me. Don't you ever get that urge?

Once again, my neighbors probably hate me lol. In what was without question the most exciting regular season NBA game I have ever watched, the Lakers overcame a 30 point defecit tonight, including coming back from 27 points down in the FOURTH QUARTER! That was one point shy of what the NBA record for largest 4th quarter comeback ever by anyone. Ok, lemme set the scenario for those of you who don't follow basketball:

The Lakers have won the championship the last 3 years, so obviously they have been the most dominant team in the league for a while now. This summer they didn't make any major moves, and essentially have the exact same team that just won their third straight NBA championship. However, this year its been a different story. Headed into tonight the Lakers were 6 games under .500 and were last in their division, and the only team they'd beaten in the last two weeks was the Grizzlies (who have the league's worst record). The Mavericks, on the other hand, have the league's best record at 17-1. They came one game away from tying the NBA record for best start ever. They are absolutely dominating the league, they have the highest scoring team in the league, and have the best shooting team in the league. They came into LA tonight, however, having lost 23 straight games against the Lakers in Los Angeles, and had not won a game here since December of 1990. Earlier this year the Macs destroyed the Lakers in Dallas, but Shaq was out injured for that one, so you could say it didn't really matter. Ok, cut to the game tonight:

The game started off with Dallas hitting their first four 3 pointers and opening up an early 10 point lead. The Lakers fought back though and early in the second quarter cut the lead to one (LA never led though). At that point however, the Mavs just went nuts and ended up outscoring the Lakers by 20 or so in the second quarter, including ending the half on a 15-0 run to go into the half up by 28 points with the Laker crowd booing them off the floor. To start the second half the Mavs hit a shot to make the defecit 30, the largest the defecit would get. The Lakers battled all 3rd quarter long, cutting the defecit to around 21 at times, but started the 4th quarter down 27. But after that the Lakers went on a 21-4 run to start the quarter. From there the Lakers continued to cut away at the lead, until they finally took their first lead of the game on a Robert Horry free throw with a little over a minute remaining. The Mavs fought back, but ended up turning the ball over to the Lakers with about 30 seconds remaining and the score tied. Kobe took the shot with 8 seconds left and nailed it, and it turned out to be the game winner, completing one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of the NBA. Kobe had an absolutely insane 4th quarter, going 8 for 8 and scoring 21 points, and the Lakers ended up outscoring the Mavs 44-15 in the fourth quarter.

Now I am a rather vocal fan. I once slammed my first so hard on my couch's armrest that I snapped a bunch of the wood inside it a couple years back when the Lakers did something that pissed me off. I also frequently yell out loud both in anger and in joy depending on what is happening during the games. Well tonight during the 4th quarter, I almost yelled myself hoarse I was so excited, and I was jumping up and down with excitement. It wasn't just a win for the Lakers tonight, it very well could be the turning point in their season, and everybody knows it. If the Lakers do go on to win this year, tonight will be the game that people can look to as the night it all turned around. Check out this pic below of Kobe hitting the game winning shot and revel in my joy!

Ok, I know that most people reading this probably don't like basketball, let alone the Lakers, so I hate to be talking about them again for you, but I went to the game today, so I gotta post about that. My dad had got tickets to see this game against the Utah Jazz a while back because he wanted to see Utah's two old and future hall of fame players, John Stockton and Karl Malone. The Jazz haven't been that good the last couple years, so going into the season I figured it would be a dull game as the Lakers routed them, but with the horrendous start the Lakers had gotten off to, and the way the Jazz pretty much embarrassed the Lakers earlier this week in Utah, it was looking like it might be the other way around. Utah actually has a pretty good team this year, and were 9-1 in their last 10 games heading into tonight. After the miraculous Laker comeback on Friday night, this game suddenly became one of the most important of the season so far, because it would go a long way to determining if the Lakers had only come alive for one quarter on Friday before returning to the funk they've been in all year, or whether they would relax after the big win. Basically, tonight was a good indicator of whether the Lakers really had turned a corner or not. Well, the Lakers started off really great tonight, so that was a good sign. Greg Ostertag (the Jazz center) got thrown out of the game about 2 minutes into it for not agreeing with a call by the ref, and he basically went balistic when he didn't get a call. He had to be restrained by his teammates from going after the ref, and on his way out he kicked over a stack of towels and ripped down a canvas covering on his way to the locker room. It was quite a pitiful display, and it left the Jazz with really nobody to put on Shaq tonight. So as a result Shaq pretty much went nuts in the first quarter, and the Lakers jumped out to a big lead. The Lakers led the whole game, although the Jazz cut it a bit in the second quarter. The lead swelled to 20 points in the 4th quarter before the Lakers finally won it by 9 110-101. After the game, my dad and I went to the Pacific Dining Car for dinner, which is sort of becoming a tradition for us when we go to games, as we went there last year the last time we went to a game together. I got a baseball steak, which was damn tasty, and it was a really good meal overall. That place isn't cheap though, cause everything is a la carte, but very very tasty. Anyway, I'm off to bed now, but check below for some pics from the game:

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Ok, its just before 5 am and I'm awake on a work day. "Why?" you might ask, well I'll tell you why. On Sunday night I just could NOT fall asleep. Probably cause I slept till like 2 pm on Sunday from the night before, but I think I finally nodded off at around 5:30 am yesterday. So needless to say, yesterday I was pretty sleepy, and by last night I was fucking dead. I almost don't really remember going to sleep last night I was so tired. But as usually happens with me, when I get to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour, I do not seem to be able to sleep in like I usually can, so here I am awake at this hour.

I really don't have a whole lot to blog about, there's just not too much to do at this hour. I am going to leave here at 6:30 this morning though, and go to Dupar's for breakfast and get some of their incredibly delicious pancakes. Yum. Then hopefully I'll be over at work by around 8 or so, because I need to leave work a little early today.

Since I don't have much to talk about, I wanted to discuss this article I came across (thanks to Daypop). Actually, its not an article, its a book review, but it basically reads like an article. It is about the mentality of SUV drivers, and the danger that SUVs pose to everyone on the road. Now two of my good friends (John and Jon) both drive SUVs, and in my opinion neither of them are anywhere near fitting the profile that this article lays out as befitting the typical SUV driver: "they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors and communities." The article is pretty harsh on SUV drivers, but as you read on you find out why. The statistics surrounding SUVs is rather disturbing in terms of saftey to other drivers, and interestingly enough, to SUV drivers themselves. It says the occupant death rate for passengers in an SUV is 6 percent higher than it is for passengers in cars, and it is 8 percent higher in the largest SUVs. It sites SUVs instability and the high risk of rollover as the cause, quoting that 62 percent of the people killed in SUVs in 2000 died as a result of rollover accidents. This comes from SUVs not being able to handle very well, and being prone, especially at high speeds, to being easily tipped over, even by relatively small bumps in the road. That combined with the fact that the government does not regulate SUVs any differently from cars in terms of requiring that their roofs be reinforced to protect against rollovers is why the death rate it so high. On top of that, SUVs are (not surprisingly) very dangerous for all other drivers on the road, quoting some rather distressing numbers (saying that the "kill rate" for a car like the Chevy Tahoe is six times higher than that for a Honda Accord, for instance). The reasons that SUVs provide such a threat to other drivers on the road are somewhat complex, in that it is a combination of the feeling of saftety and security that SUV drivers possess, which leads to a somewhat more reckless manner of driving, as well as the inability to manuver a car that size very well as compared to most cars (something that large just will not handle very well), as well as the fact that in accidents where an SUV sideswipes a car, the elevated bumpers of the SUV usually are high enough to come right through the side windows of most cars and instantly crush the heads of the people unlucky enough to be in those accidents (making side impact airbags, seatbelts, and reinforced side panels meaningless). Anyway, I don't want to write out everything that's in it, but its a pretty interesting and eye-opening book review, I'd suggest checking it out. But like I said, this is not in any way meant as a dig to my SUV-driving friends, so don't get all bent out of shape about it, or think I'm trying to single you guys out or something. If you guys were these egomaniacal assholes that this article is talking about, I wouldn't be friends with you in the first place lol. Like any generalization, it is not all inclusive. I just found the article to be definitely something interesting to read.

Anyway, here are some pics I took of work the last couple days that you may be interested to see, enjoy:

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My favorite music album of all time, as some of you may know, is Mr. Bungle's self-titled debut, but I would not reccomend it to most people unless they really showed they possessed a rather eclectic taste in music and if they were open to listening to something new. It is most definitely not a mainstream album, and they are most definitely not a mainstream band. Their two follow up albums since this one were decent to good, but nowhere near approaching really the musical perfection of that first album. For me, I seriously doubt I'll ever find a better album then that one, but as I said, its most definitely not for everyone, so if you go buy it based on my praise here, and don't like it, don't say I didn't warn you.

Back about 10 years ago or so, my good friend Cella turned me on to this album, and I've been hooked ever since. He used to have a T-shirt from the band, which had an angry letter on the back that was written by a girl who'd bought the album and was chastising the record company for putting it out. I found the text from that letter, and thought I'd share it with you to kind of offset my praise for the album, and to laugh at this person for her bad taste in music lol. Here you go:

February 5, 1992

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter concerns the CD recently released by the band Mr. Bungle. I am a 19-year old female, and I must admit, when I first bought this CD, I was very excited about it. I thought it would be really good, but when I played it for the first time, I'll be damned if I could understand a word of it. Then when I read the words, I decided that was probably better that people couldn't understand what he's saying, because the songs they wrote are nothing but filth and trash. All of the songs totally suck, to be quite honest. They are the biggest bunch of nonsense I've ever heard in my life. How in the world Mr. Bungle ever got a record deal is beyond me.

Now please don't get me wrong about this. I'm not a prude or for censorship or anything, but I simply don't see the reason why you people allow such garbage to be produced. How could you even consider it? Do you all think this band has even one ounce of talent in it? I've heard local high school bands that can play a hundred times better than Mr. Bungle, and yet they are no closer to a recording contract that the man on the moon. In fact, the only reason I bought this CD is because I knew the lead singer "Vlad Drac" is really Mike Patton of Faith No More, which by the way is a great band. I love Patton, which is why I thought Mr. Bungle might be at least half as good as Faith No More, maybe even better. That was my mistake.

But what really gets me is how stupid bands like Mr. Bungle make their money off some song lyrics that make no sense in the world, and they make their money off of poor suckers like me that could use that money on something worth listening to instead of wasting my time. The only way they could have possibly gotten a contract is because of Patton, otherwise they couldn't have made it to a high school Prom to play their ridiculous, chaotic, strange and bizzare music, much less a recording studio. For one thing, there is no talent in this band whatsoever, unless you call screaming talent. Cussing and vulgar language; another fine talent. Patton can sing, but only when he wants to. In this band he doesn't sing; he screams and talks so fast it's either inaudible or not understandable. Actually, words cannot describe how bad this crap really is. Have you ever taken the time to actually listen to it? If you did, then I know this ridiculous joke of a band would have never had the chance to make money off of some songs that are so absolutely stupid that mental retards could have written them. I think that's what they are anyway.

As you can already tell, I'm very dissatisfied with this CD, and am determined to get back the full amount that I paid for it. Garbage like that doesn't deserve to be released to the public, and I think that we, the public, deserve better.
Sincerely,
L.G.
St. Louis, MO.

P.S. If you ever get the chance to talk to Mike Patton, advise him to drop this crap band as fast as he can, and stay with the Faith. They got him started and put him in the limelight, And he owes it to them. I got some bad news for "Vlad Drac"; Mr. Bungle is not going to go anywhere as far as success is concerned.

Ok, this will be pretty to the point. I saw "The Two Towers" tonight at a press screening in Westwood, so this will be my review. Because I hate it when people see a movie before me and either overhype it or trash it, thus ruining my attempts at having as clean a slate as possible, I will not go into huge praise or complaints. I'll give a more complete review next week when 1) I've had a week to digest this viewing, 2) I see it for a second time, and 3) everyone else has a chance to go see it right away. My review is going to be based on the assumption that you've seen the trailer, and will probably be geared for people who (like me) read the book and are film fans. Ok, enough disclaimers.

In short, I really liked it, just like I knew I would. I would guess if you liked the first Lord of the Rings film, you'll like the second one; although they are fairly different films. Because of that, even if you didn't like the first one (and I haven't met anyone who really disliked it) you should give the second one a chance. My concerns going in were what Gollum would look like, and what Treebeard would look like, because both are purely CG characters (computer generated, for those who don't know what CG means). I was also worried about the prevalence of Liv Tyler in the trailers, because in the book, her character is really non-existant almost throughout all 3 parts, and I was worried they'd try to make it into a love story, when really it wasn't in the book. Finally I was worried just that they'd take huge liberties with the story and change things dramatically or something like that.

As to my first concern, Gollum and Treebeard looked pretty good. I would even go so far as to say Gollum looked great, definitely the best CG character I've ever seen in a movie. Its the first time I've seen a CG character that really did look like a real living creature, even if there were some points here and there that Gollum didn't look totally lifelike. Overall, they exceeded my expectations with him. With Treebeard I was really just most curious to see what actual shape he was going to take. For those who have read the book, you know what I'm talking about, for those who haven't, I won't say any more. Overall though, the effects looked really good, better than the first one even, although the Balrog from the first one still stands, in my opinion, as the best effect so far.

As to my second concern, about Liv Tyler being in the movie a lot because she was all over the preview, I had nothing to worry about. She was in this movie less than the first one, and in that one she was hardly in it at all. They did not turn it into a love story, at least they haven't yet. The stuff having to do with her (or any women in the film) is not there to "satisfy the female audience members" or whatever. The women are basically filling the same roles as they did in the book, so once again if you've read the book, you'll know what that means, if not, you'll have to see the movie.

My third concern, about them taking too many liberties with the story, or leaving things out, making things up or what have you, once again they did a great job. As with the first one, the story is not necessarily told in the same order as it was in the book, but all the same stuff happens by the time its all done. This one they may have stopped just short of where The Two Towers stopped in the book, but its ok because it was a good stopping point, and they'll get to that stuff in the next movie.

One thing about this film was that the pacing was vastly different than the first film was. The first one takes a bit to get going, picks up the pace for a short point in the middle, then kind of ends a little slower paced again (just like the book). In this one, they just don't have time to take it that slow, because there is so much going on. I remember thinking that same thing while reading the book though, just being amazed at how large the story was, and how much happens, and that comes across very well in the film. Another thing from the book that I thought came across very well was the feeling you have by the end of the second one how far they have come as characters. They are all clearly very affected by what is going on, and its even hard to picture how they were at the beginning of part one after all they've been through (this is especially true of Merry and Pippin). The other main difference between the first one and the second one is the overall tone of the film. You really get a feeling of the desperation they are all up against, and that wasn't there as much in the first one (or really hardly at all). In the first one I felt watching them that they were all these fairly invincible people who didn't get down about the task set before them. In this one, you really feel that what they're attempting is an extreme long-shot, and they have zero room for error if they want to succeed (and even then, they need a lot of lucky breaks).

Ok, the big question I guess is did I like it more or less than the first one. That's tough to say. I've seen the first one I think 5 or 6 times at this point, including having seen the extended cut. This one I've only seen once, so I don't know it as well. I think next week I'll have a better feel for whether I liked it more or less than the first one, but it did seem that in general the people there liked the new one better. It did make me somewhat emotional in parts, as the first one did, and I did get very pumped up at points. Even if I didn't like it as much as the first one (and I don't know on that one, as I said), it was certainly close enough. I reccomend it :-)

Ok, here's some pics from the screening tonight, enjoy:

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Ok, its pretty late cause after I got home from the show, I had to go through my pics, so this might not be too long, but the pics are below for you to enjoy. Well the night started at Phillippe's for some tasty french dip sandwiches. Pierre and Jon met me there and after eating we drove to the Staples Center. We parked and went to go inside, but they told me I couldn't take my camera in. So I went around to the other entrance and got right in cause it didn't set off the metal detector. So armed with my camera, I entered the arena, and oddly enough I was in the exact same section that I sat in Sunday for the Lakers game when I was there. The stage was set up in the center of the floor and was a "theater in the round" setup, circular with fans all around it. We had great seats, just 9 rows up off the floor making us high enough to see over the crowd on the floor, and maybe 50 feet from the stage or so. The show was awesome, definitely, although he didn't play every song I wanted to hear (but lets face it, the list of songs I wanted to hear was rather long). I won't go into too much detail, cause like I said, its late, but hey, since a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, these should satisfy your curiosities:

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Damn, I don't think anyone read my Two Towers review from the other day cause they were worried I had spoilers in it, even though there aren't any. It won't spoil or ruin the movie for you at all if you read it unless you have never read the book AND you have not seen any of the trailers. If you saw even the teaser, even if you never read the book, then I don't give anything away. The thing that sucks about seeing a movie like that before everyone else is that you can't discuss it with anyone. Honestly before seeing it I was very tempted to just not go and wait till next week, but I was too selfish and anxious so I saw it lol. Work sucks today. I'm knee deep in one of the most tedious things that I ever have to do here, and it just is not fun. Essentially I am checking these warning slates to make sure they come up in correspondence with the right combination of language presets on a DVD player. I can't figure out how many combinations there are, but its something like 200 of them, so needless to say its not a whole lot of fun. Anyway, just needed a break from the monotony, and now that I've had it, its back to work :-)

So I'm here at work this morning when one of the coordinators here showed me this coupon she was going to give to another guy who worked here. She said "Wanna hear a scream of joy, watch this." So I looked at the coupon, and to my complete dismay its a coupon for like $5 off at a FARRELL'S ICE CREAM PARLOUR! Now for those of you who have never heard of Farrell's, this will probably make no impression on you whatsoever, but for those of us who grew up with Farrell's and had many a birthday party there, I think its big news that one has opened up again. A while back I went searching online to find out if there were any Farrell's Ice Cream Parlours left, and discovered that there were not. It turned out they were founded by Bob Farrell, a legend in the customer service field and author of "Give Em the Pickle!" Evidently during the 70's he opened over 150 of these ice cream parlours and never once had one of them fail due to his understanding of customer service. Anyway, in the early 80s Hilton Hotels or something bought the chain from him and spent the next couple years basically running it into the ground. But there is still something of a cult following, although not much considering they all disappeared. The only one left was the original one up in Oregon, but that closed down a few years ago as well. So now that there is another one open, I am very excited, to say the least, cause I love nostalgic stuff like that. Well anyway this new one is located out in Santa Clarita, which is like 25 miles or so from here, and is out on the way to Vegas from here, so I am going to make a point to stop in there next time I go to Vegas and get me some ice cream and relive some childhood memories :-)

By the way, there also appears to maybe be one down in San Diego, although I'm not sure if its still in business or not. If you're at all curious or nostalgic about Farrell's like I am, this is a good page to check out.

Tonight was just a great time. We had the company party over at Ca Del Sole, and it started right after work at about 6:30 or so. We were gonna walk over, but Matt lost his ID, so we took his car instead, cause without his ID he didn't want to risk not being able to get back on the lot to get his car for the weekend lol. So we drove over and met up with everyone else there. They had an open bar and waiters with appetizers walking around, so everyone just kind of gathered in this nice courtyard they had and chatted for a while before we were finally seated for dinner. Dinner was a four course affair, with a salad, some things which looked kinda like enchiladas (but weren't, it was Italian, not Mexican food), then steak and salmon (some of the best salmon I've ever had actually) with mashed potatoes, and finally apple strudel for dessert. The booze was flowing pretty well, especially thanks to Cookie who seemed to be anxious to make sure everyone's glass was always full, so eventually the conversation turned... interesting lol. Ok, the question came up, if you changed your sexual orientation, who would you most want to have sex with just based on looks. It seemed that among the guys, the leading vote getter was Johnny Depp, while Cameron Diaz did well among the women (since we didn't have anyone with us who is gay or at least open about it, guys of course chose guys, and girls chose girls). Other names tossed around were Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, David Duchovny, Nicole Kidman and Marilyn Monroe. Soon we got tired of that, and it turned into "which cast member of 'The Right Stuff' would you most want to sleep with?" and "which member of your favorite sports team would you most want to sleep with?" Needless to say it was a rather interesting evening, and I think it was fun for everyone. I wish we actually got together more often as a group after work and did stuff on a purely social level, cause I really do like the people I work with, and we all seem to get along pretty well. Anyway, naturally I was armed with my camera all night, and I grabbed a couple choice pics for you all to check out, so here you go:

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Today is Wendy and Koga's birthday, so I'd like to wish them both a very happy birthday. I could be wrong, but I think they're both turning 30 today, so that's kind of a big day for them I suppose. I'll be there soon enough. Happy Birthday you two :-)

Last week I was discussing a line from "Vanilla Sky" with my co-workers in which Kurt Russell said something to the effect of "I'm a guy who as a kid, my favorite Beattle was John, but as I've gotten older, its now Paul." I know what it means, of course, about how a person's values grow and change as they get older, from being somewhat wild and rebellious as a kid into a more stable, calmer person when they're older; but the line kinda struck me as something that most people would generally not say to one another. I mean, people who knew each other to be hugely into music might, but in this case neither Kurt Russell's character nor Tom Cruise's character had really shown (at least to each other) that this was the case, Cruise playing a millionaire playboy-type who owned a magazine, and Russell playing a psychologist (just for Kuros: "I'm real." lol).

At another point during the week Matt commented that "The Breakfast Club" was a movie that he really thought was good growing up, but that having watched it lately didn't think it stood up as much, and that was why he wouldn't consider it John Hughes' best film (he went with "Sixteen Candles"). So this weekend as I was lounging around, I got curious and put "The Breakfast Club" in and watched it. I disagree with Matt, I do think it still stands up, and I still enjoy it quite a bit. Sure some of the musical montages seem a bit dated now, but that was the standard fare back in the day. But I will say that I noticed something that was very different for me watching it now as opposed to when I was younger: I identified with different characters. Much in the same way that Kurt Russell's favorite Beattle changed over time, evidently my favorite character from "The Breakfast Club" has changed over time.

When I was in high school and I watched the movie, I identified partially with Judd Nelson's character, and partially with Anthony Michael Hall's character (the rebel and the nerd, basically). I certainly dressed most like Judd Nelson's character, and had many of his thoughts and feelings about a lot of the real socialite members of my class. I certainly was never anywhere near as charismatic or quick-witted as his character, but what the hell, his character wasn't real (just like Kurt Russell's lol). Still, Judd Nelson's John Bender was kind of my mojo back then, you know? I thought he was awesome. Yet at the same time, I've always been somewhat nerdy or dorky or whatever, so I couldn't help but identify with Anthony Michael Hall's character, Brian Johnson. While John Bender got picked on by the socialites, he dished it right back, and ended up pretty much breaking them down completely; Brian got picked on and was totally unable to defend himself at all. He just took the embarrassing jibes and tried in vain to come across as cool. Its hard to not identify with that in some way, especially when you're a kid (certainly we all got picked on at one time or another I'm sure). So back then I felt somewhat like a combination of John Bender and Brian Johnson, and certainly looked up most to John Bender. But that isn't the case for me anymore, evidently.

This weekend when I watched it, I found myself most identifying with Ally Sheedy's character, Alison Reynolds. I thought Alison ruled. She's great, she seems to be the one who is on the outside looking in, watching this little scenario play out before her with a wry smile on her face. Of all the people there, she's the true individual, the one truly taking the road less travelled, which is something I respect immensely, mainly because I know I'm not bold enough to do it, and neither is almost everyone else. While I now look at John Bender and see a guy who's covering up for his insecurities with his bold presence just as much as the others are putting up their own facades, Alison seems to really be the one who is just being herself, in spite of the ridicule and questioning she gets from her peers. Of course she still has her insecurities, but everyone does, and it makes her a more real character. So anyway, just like in high school I wasn't exactly like John Bender, I just looked up to him; now I look up to Alison Reynolds, even though I'm not exactly like her either.

So I suppose for even bringing up something as frivolous and trivial as this, I'm no better than Kurt Russell's psychiatrist for making this weird correllation between some piece of pop art and real life, but then again I'm a movie guy, just like Cameron Crowe (who wrote that dialogue in "Vanilla Sky") is a music guy. Anyway, I had to write about something, right? lol

Ok, here's a quiz for you: see if you can name the reasons that all 5 members of "The Breakfast Club" were in detention that Saturday :-)

Consider me dancing a jig on the grave of Star Trek, which is surely doomed to end shortly after the flop at the box office this past weekend. Spanning 5 different decades with 5 TV shows and 10 movies, the insanity that is Star Trek seems to have FINALLY run out of gas. For the first time in decades (and maybe ever) a Star Trek movie was not number one at the box office in its opening weekend in theatrical release. This is the end of Star Trek because what typically happens with Trek movies is that they make all their cash right at the beginning when all the Trekkies go see the film, but because there is little to no interest outside of the Trekkies, the films fall way off immediately afterwards. Insurrection made over 30% of its total domestic gross in its opening weekend, then fell off 62% and limped along to a poor $70 million showing overall. Generations made over 30% of its total domestic gross in its opening weekend, before falling off and hovering around long enough to pull in $75 million. Even First Contact, which was considered a success, made 33% of its total in the opening weekend, and even though it held on for one more weekend of good business, the bottom fell out after that and First Contact ended up doing 62% of their total business in the first two weeks before finishing at $91 million. Trek movies usually start at around $25 million and number one in the opening weekend, then fall off to around $7 million in their second week and are out of the top 10 by their 4th or 5th week in release. If Nemesis follows this trend of falling off (and there's no reason to think it won't), then it and the Trek franchise are in trouble. Nemesis opened at #2 (behind Maid in Manhattan of all things) with a measly $18 million this weekend. Nemesis is possibly looking at finishing somewhere around $50 million total, which would rival Star Trek V for the worst showing at the box office yet by a Trek movie. And following the failure of Insurrection, this is probably it for Star Trek movies. Paramount had hoped to have a winner in Nemesis that they could then use to springboard into a movie with the cast of one of the other shows, but that does not look like its going to happen.

In all honestly, I mean, how long did people think this tired old franchise could last anyway? 5 decades of this nonsense? 10 movies? 5 TV shows? All for "nerds in space"? Come on, please. Nothing stays interesting that long, and nothing is such a good idea that you can keep going in that many new directions and expect people to remain interested. Its a typical problem in the entertainment industry that they squeeze any idea until it is totally dry and until it is no longer profitable. The TV show Enterprise will no doubt go on with its limited audience frothing at the mouth for new episodes, but the reality is that its finished, there are no more places for the show to "boldly go." How it ever lasted this long is beyond me, but evidently its time has come. Stick a fork in it, its done.

Ok, so I saw "The Two Towers" for the second time last night at midnight. Because of the late hour and my work today I waited till now to post my review, and besides this gives those of you not insane enough to go to the midnight show one full day to see the flick before reading a review from yours truly with spoilers. Yes that's right, there ARE spoilers in this review, if you want to read a review of it without spoilers, go here to my earlier review from last week.

Ok, after seeing it twice, I still can not decide if I like it more than the first one, but I realized I don't have to. In all honesty they are not two separate movies, but two-thirds of one 10 hour epic. Picking one over the other is a waste of time, they're different parts of the same story. This movie is paced differently because it is following three separate stories at the same time. You have Frodo and Sam being led into Mordor by Gollum, you have Merry and Pippin being carried around by Treebeard, and you've got Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas (and Gandalf at times) trying to help save the people of Rohan. The three stories are all done by cross-cutting from one story to the next throughout the film, in the same way that the stories were interwoven in "Return of the Jedi", for instance. These three groups of people never are together at all in this film, and as a result the cross-cutting takes place throughout the film leaving a small series of mini-cliffhangers as it jumps from what is going on with one group to what is going on with another group. Really the meat of the story in this movie is what is going on with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, and not the other two stories, and for me anyway those parts of the movie are the most compelling. Merry and Pippin's side-journey with Treebeard and the Ents is almost non-essential except for the great payoff at the end that propels the story along when the Ents destroy Isengard; and Frodo and Sam don't end up any further along their journey by the end than they were at the beginning, but of course they have Gollum added to their pair and there are some disturbing hints about what lies ahead for them with what the Ring is doing to Frodo and to them all. Frodo and Sam do meet some new characters along the way, however, the aforementioned Gollum and Faramir, Boromir's brother. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas, however, meet a LOT of new characters, namely Theoden (king of Rohan), Eowyn (Theoden's neice), Eomer (Theoden's nephew), and Wormtounge (Saruman's aide).

If you haven't heard already, the two most impressive things about "Two Towers" are Gollum (hands down the best CG character ever seen, with even some Oscar buzz surrounding him, he's that good), and the final battle scene at Helm's Deep. The battle scene is truly incredible in scope, and length and power and vision. Truly one of the best battle scenes I've ever seen (and if the movies do follow the book, this one will pale in comparison to the siege on Minas Tirith that takes place in "Return of the King"). The movie is worth seeing just for that battle scene and Gollum alone, but the rest is fantastic as well. The tone of this film is much different from the first movie, as is the pacing (as I mentioned with the cross-cutting intertwined stories). In this movie there is an overwhelming feeling of dread about what is happening and what is going to happen. Even though the film tries to end on somewhat of a happy note (before a nice little prelude to bad things to come), if you stop to realize that with everything that's happened we have yet to see anything from Mordor, you may understand how deep the shit is that everyone in this movie is in, regardless of how well they've fared up till now.

I don't have much else to say about the film other than just go see it. See "Fellowship of the Ring" first if you haven't seen it though, because "Two Towers" definitely assumes you've seen it as there is no part at the beginning catching you up on what you've missed. My only thought is that when all three movies are out and they release a box set on DVD, I honestly would love to see them release the set as 6 parts instead of 3. I would prefer to see the entire epic broken up in the same way that it was in the book, as 6 parts. I would like to see Peter Jackson re-edit the films so that they would run that way, and have each part be two hours long (or close to it). I doubt that will happen though, but its a nice thing to wish for. Anyway, I'm beat from the late showing last night and its time to hit the hay. Laettner :-)

Well, I'm now off work till Thursday, then I work Thursday and Friday next week before going off again till the following Thursday. 4 days of work in 16 calendar days is not bad at all, especially since I get paid fully for all that time and considering I only had to take off two days of work and those were days I had to take before the end of the year or else I'd lose them. I'm pretty beat right now, and will be going to bed after I post this, but wanted to give a quick update for anyone who cares. We had our Secret Santa at work today, I'll have pics from that up tomorrow. The Lakers got creamed by 27 last night and then literally had the game slip through their fingers tonight and are now 8 games under .500 at 10-18. I'm totally disgusted with them and don't want to go into it too much right now. Ok, that's enough for now, I'm going to bed. I will post stuff this weekend cause I'll have nothing else to do lol. Happy Holidays and have a good weekend and all that :-)

The weirdest thing just happened to me. I thought that it was midnight, totally and completely, for about 5 seconds there before I realized it was noon instead. Its weird, it still feels like its midnight. I guess I'm not used to sitting here at home on my computer making a blog entry at this time of day or something, or that I'm so used to doing this at around midnight. I dunno, its just bizarre. I went to bed after my entry last night (9:30 or so?), then I got up today at like 6 am :( I could not go back to sleep, cause I was, well cause I wasn't tired any more lol. So I got up, went to the store and did grocery shopping. I figured I'd get whatever looked interesting, and ended up mainly with crackers and snacks. I guess I'm mainly a guy who doesn't like to cook, but I do like to have something to eat around the house. Anyway, after shopping I came home and watched a movie, then figured I'd surf the web for a bit. So I went through my week's pictures and decided to post the good ones. Here you go, enjoy:

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So lets see, its been a couple days since I made an entry I guess, but its been a couple rather dull days, just the way I like them. Last night I went out to dinner with Dave and Jen, whereby they informed me that I was cordially invited to be their guest at the Laker game tomorrow against the Sacramento Kings, and we will be sitting in the luxury box that Jen's dad has access to. Needless to say, I am thrilled, but I just hope the Lakers don't get creamed, cause who wants to see that? I went with Jon to the Lakers-Blazers xmas day game two years ago and LA lost that one, so maybe they'll win this one, although the way the Lakers have been playing, it will be extremely impressive if they win it. Tonight with the family I went to dinner in old town Pasadena, then we went back to my Dad's place and hung out and chatted for a while. Tomorrow I'm going back over there at noon where we're gonna exchange presents, then eat, and then I'm off to the game. So anyway, Merry Xmas everyone, here's a couple pics for you:

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First I'd like to point out a cool ass page for all of you reading this to check out (go look at it, you'll enjoy it, trust me). Here you go: Christmas Card

So yesterday I went with Dave and Jen and Jen's brother Dave to the Lakers game against the Sacramento Kings (Sucramento Queens, if you prefer), and the Lakers lost, making me wonder if I'm a Christmas jinx for them. I would be more inclined to think that if the Lakers didn't suck so bad this year. Anyway, the game was fun nonetheless, and I grabbed a couple pics (see below). Afterwards we went to a party that Dave's brother's girlfriend was throwing, and that was pretty fun. After that I went home and went to bed, and saved blogging this terribly interesting entry till today. Today I was back to work, and will be back at work tomorrow then I'm off again till next Thursday. Work was weird today because it almost seemed like we were the only department on the whole lot that was actually there. It seemed like a weekend or something. But our department is plenty busy, so we couldn't really slack off at all. Anyway, there's not much else to say right now, but I got some pics from our lunch foray today, check em out:

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Even though my Dad's birthday was yesterday, we celebrated it today because he had a golf tournament to be in yesterday. So I was up before noon and over at his place with my present in hand (a bottle of Lagavulin 16 yr.), and he, Rebecca and myself left shortly thereafter to go catch a movie. We went to the Paseo in Pasadena and saw "Catch Me If You Can." I really liked "Catch Me If You Can," although honestly if it was not based on a true story I don't think it would work that well. Its one of those cases where truth is stranger than fiction, I guess. For me, movies like that are really somewhat inspirational. I look at a guy like Frank Abagnale, Jr. (the guy the movie is about), and am just in awe. The resourcefulness, intelligence, charisma, and most importantly, the balls to do what he did is truly staggering. Its hard not to respect someone who was able to pull off what he did (provided the movie didn't embellish too much, of course). I blogged once before about fear, and this for me is another one of those movies about a guy who definitely takes the road less travelled. I think more than anything that is what I truly admire and respect, because I recognize how difficult that is to do (namely because I, like so many others, find myself unable to do it). Anyway, after the movie we went to Islands for lunch (their tuna sandwich is excellent, by the way), then went back to my Dad's house for a bit before calling it an evening. It just rained here in LA last night, so today was a particularly beautiful day with all the smog and whatnot in the air cleared out and with the clouds still here and there in the sky, so I grabbed a couple pics of that. Check em out:

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By the way, hello Dania :-) lol

Ok, wanna be jealous? lol I went to the dentist today to have my teeth looked at. I'd been to the dentist of course about a month ago because of my wisdom teeth, but while there I didn't really get a full checkup or cleaning or anything, they did one of those radial x-rays, said "yep, you've got a wisdom tooth coming in" and sent me on my way to the oral surgeon. But they wanted to see me back in a month, so today was my return trip. Anyway, before my wisdom tooth-related visit to the dentist, I had not been to the dentist in 7 or 8 years, so naturally I was worried I could have a whole host of problems with my teeth: cavities, gingivitis, root canal, whatever. Also, a little confession here, but I take pretty bad care of my teeth, although not as bad as I used to. In college for a year or two I hardly brushed my teeth at all, in fact. This came from me neglecting my teeth for a while, then going to the dentist and him telling me "keep up the good work" lol, so after that I kinda stopped caring as much. Now I brush my teeth almost every day, and I floss maybe 2 times a week, but there have definitely been stretches over the years where I just used mouthwash. Anyway, enough about my bad oral hygene lol. The reason for you to be jealous is that in spite all of that, in spite of me not going to the dentist for almost a decade, and the bad care I've taken of my teeth during that time, the dentist says to me today "you have remarkably good teeth" lol. Nice huh? Well anyway, since nothing lasts forever I'm gonna take better care of my teeth from now on. I've already got an appointment to see the dentist in 6 months, I'm gonna floss and brush more regularly, blah, blah, blah. Nobody cares about this crap, huh? Here's a pic:

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So when I was at the movie theater yesterday, I was looking around the lobby checking out the one sheets when I saw the poster for "Narc," or at least that's what I thought I saw. When I looked a little closer I realized it was the one sheet for "The Hunted" instead. I thought the one sheet for "The Hunted" was the one sheet for "Narc" because, to me anyway, they look like they're almost the same poster. So I decided to get a look at them side by side and sure enough, they're ridiculously similiar. They're both from the same studio (Paramount) which probably explains it, but its just another example of how bad, and how generic movie one sheets have become. Check this out for yourself:

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I was just reading this interview with Christopher Walken and came across this hilarious quote when asked if its harder to play a regular guy as opposed to an over-the-top psychotic character:

"It's probably harder to make an impression, to do something memorable. With the supervillain, the impression is already made. The guy drives a blimp."

I dunno. I think the shit is funny lol

Would I be the lamest person alive if I made a blog entry right at midnight tonight? Probably, huh? lol Anyway, I doubt that will happen since I'm at my Dad's place housesitting and I've got people coming over for a party tonight. I have no idea who exactly is coming and I don't know exactly what people are bringing or planning, but I'm sure it will be fun nonetheless. I know Dave and Jen are coming and Jen is bringing a lot of food, so that's good. Anyway, I want to get up tomorrow morning before the Rose Parade starts and get a look at the Stealth Bomber when it flies over the parade route (cause my Dad's place has an awesome vantage point). If I get up and do that, I'll let you know. Ok everyone, have a Happy New Year's. Please get drunk, but please don't drive. I'm gonna go watch some "Twilight Zone" on the Sci-Fi Channel :-)