Friday, July 30, 2004

Strike a Pose

I don't really have much to say about this stamp, I just happened to find it while surfing the. Those eyes are really creepy, don't ya think?

If you don't know the background, Austria just issued this stamp to honor Arnold. I'm a bit surprised that they call him Governor, even though he doesn't hold any position in Austria. Of course, this could never happen in the US, since people can only be on stamps after they've passed away. Of course, I think too many Americans would have real problems with Arnold on a stamp regardless (including me). He would need to accomplish a lot more to be worthy of a stamp. But in any case, I'd still be opposed because of those eyes!! Yikes!

And yes, I do have thoughts about the recent Democratic National Convention :) I'm just too lazy to post anything serious here. Forgive me! Can I just say that the news "pundits" are way too conclusive about Kerry's speech last night. Seriously, there's no need to make a prediction on the outcome of the election 98 days before people go to the polls. The real campaign starts now and both sides will have a lot to say in the coming weeks and months.

BaghDaddyKane

Ok, a friend of mine sent me this link which is just hilarious. I don't normally pass on random links, but I save the best for posterity's sake.

Kim Jong Il (the illmatic)'s Journal

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Coffee Freak

Another friend of mine just started his own blog. For some reason, even though none of us really updates our blogs too much, the whole blog thing seems to be contagious. In any case, there's not much on his blog just yet since he just started it, but check him out and encourage him to continue posting. If nothing else, we'll all learn more about the randomness that is Toluca, Mexico.

Coffeefreak

Marriage Madness

So if you've never known Indian Hindus or seen a Bollywood films, it's hard to comprehend what a big affair Indian Hindu weddings are. Two great friends of our's got married over the weekend. Not only was the day itself fantastic, the weeks leading up to the event were a blast.  And yes, we're talking weeks, not days.

I'm sure other cultures have similar craziness when it comes to weddings, but I'm not sure anything can be as extended an affair as a Hindu wedding. Now, I'll mention Hindu several times throughout this, because, Indian Muslim weddings are somewhat different. I've only been to one Indian Muslim wedding and it was a rather more reserved affair. Still lots of joy, just like at any wedding, but the cultural attachments found at Hindu weddings don't seem to exist in much of the Indian Muslim wedding.  I may be completely wrong, but that's what I've seen at one wedding. I should really experience a few more Muslim wedding before commenting...

In any case, I've been to quite a few Hindu weddings and I can tell you they're just madness! They're even better when it's close friends or family that are getting married and you're in the wedding party. Of course, there's tons of events, but more importantly, there's tons of bonding with friends and family that you may not have known too well previously. This time, we got to know the wedding families much better, but we also got to know the bride and groom's friends much better. Now, of course, we're all mutual friends, but much of our interaction had been the "night out" kind. That's where you hook up at a noisy venue and spend a few hours talking then head on home not see your friends until next weekend. After this wedding, we've spent a heck of a lot more time together than we would have otherwise.

As one of the group said, it's like college when you spend so much time together you go into withdrawal once it's all done. And that's kinda what it feels like. Getting home and having nothing to do but kick back and watch TV is kind of depressing. Of course, we're filling up this "dead time" with other things and finding ways to hang out with the same friends, so don't cry for me :)
In any case, I just have to say that I haven't gotten to know so many people so well since college and it's pretty cool. I've had good friends here in the Bay Area for a while now, but that group has expanded greatly in the past month.


Wednesday, July 28, 2004

San Jose Family Shelter

Our CEO wants us to give back to the community since the community has helped support our company for the past 20 years. It's nice to see such a proclamation coming from the CEO of a fairly large company. It's even better when lower levels of mgmt follow through by making sure we can set aside time to do the volunteering. So last Friday I, along with a few others, went to the San Jose Family Shelter.

It's a place where families who have recently lost their homes can stay for 30 days and get help getting back on their feet. The families are assisted with employment, housing, and many other things to help make sure they don't have to go from shelter to shelter. No doubt, a lot of good work goes on there.

We were there to help organize and clean up things with the folks who run the place. My small group was given charge of the food store where tons of canned food, coffee, and other things had been sitting dis-organized. First off, we had to throw away the bad stuff. More interestingly, we threw away the stuff that the shelter just had too much of. Stuff like cranberry jelly, pumkin pie filling, and sweet potatoes. While these canned items could last for years, the head chef just wanted us to throw the stuff away since they would be getting more than enough of it again come November.

Sad, but true...they just had to throw away useable stuff since there was simply no room for it. On the other hand, we kept and re-organized stuff which would come in much better use. Food which could be distributed to families as they leave the shelter was put into another shed. This food would help families start out life again in their new places of residence.

Most interesting of all was the coffee. There were literally 7 garbage bags full of single-pot bags of coffee. Most of it from Starbucks. The whole time while going through these bags we were wondering what the hell the shelter would do with so much coffee. It turns out that coffee is like currency amongst shelters and can be used to trade for other food items. So this shelter had arranged for a local Starbucks owner to donate a box or two of these small bags of coffee for them to use towards other things.

The other thing which shelters need? Meat. Ground meat, Deli meat, you name it, it's what they need most of. While the canned food is great, apparently there isn't enough meat to be used for dinner every night.

So lesson learned: Come Thanksgiving when we all start thinking about donating something to a local shelter, check with them to see if they can use deli meats or anything like that. Coffee also comes in very handy for them. Don't just go out and buy the cheapest cans of food you can find at Costco or Safeway.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Resigned to fate....

You know, I haven't commented on the drama with the Lakers since they lost to the Pistons. But this whole thing with Shaq being traded is really dis-heartening. Eric Neel captured my thoughts pretty well in this article.

I've always liked Shaq more than Kobe. While the argument that the Lakers should get something for Shaq while he's still worth something on the trade market, but you know what? He's still Shaq. It's not worth trading away a franchise. Jerry Buss and Mitch Kupchak are taking this franchise down a path that doesn't make me smile.

I'll always love the Lakers, but this is just making me shake my head even more. I did enough of that during this past season and during the playoffs and being a life-long fan, head-shaking isn't a fun thing.

Monday, July 12, 2004

Call my Agent!

You know, Robert Smith's agent must be on the phone right now negotiating to have "Friday I'm in Love" serve as the theme song for TGI Friday's restaurants. The dude is working it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with The Cure finally making some bank for all the work they've put in over the years. I wrote before about the HP digital printing ad which uses "Pictures of You". I haven't written about the recent covers of Cure songs (although they're pretty bad). The latest tidbit about hearing The Cure in unexpected places?

Nordstrom's

If you've never been to Nordstrom's, you're not missing anything. It's just another posh departmant store with relatively bland, overpriced fashions and relatively bland, over-make-up-ed shoppers. The couple of unique things about the place:


  • Shoppers actually buy license plate frames declaring their heart's content with "I'd rather be shopping at Nordstrom's"

  • Pianists play live music on weekends to keep people tapping their toes.



So over the long weekend we were at South Coast Plaza down in THE OH-SEE, BITCH! (er, I meant to say Orange County). My mom wants to take a look into Nordie's even though all of us know we're not going to spend a dime in the store (I still can't really grasp the concept of walk-by shopping just to see what's for sale). As soon as we walk past the crowded espresso stand (oh yes, add that to the list of Nordie's specialties - they have espresso stands in the store), I hear the pianist playing a catchy tune.

Lo and behold, it's "Love Song" by The Cure.

WTF?

If you don't know what song I'm talking about, listen to it now.

Ok, so 311 recently did a gawd-awful cover of this wonderful song and that cover is getting a lot of radio-time, but how does a classical pianist chose a relatively depressing song to play on a holiday weekend when people are jazzed up to display their national pride? (smirk).


  • Did this pianist hear the song on KROQ before coming into work?

  • Did he just love 311's version so much that he had to do his own rendition?

  • Did he think Robert Smith is a god and must be worked into the leisurely lives of the insanely wealthy OC'ers shopping at the South Coast Nordie's?

  • Did the Robert Smith robot from South Park somehow infiltrate the hallowed riches of THE OH-SEE, BITCH? (er, Orange County)


What is going on here??

Whatever the case may be, I need to find an agent who will pimp me and my talents left, right, and center.

Fat and Happy

You know, sometimes the obvious just hits me in the head and yesterday was one of those days. The past week has been quite busy for us, but all of this busy-ness just reminded me of how well off most of us are. Now, I'm not trying to be arrogant when I say that, but just trying to show that we should all be pretty damned grateful for what we've got. Obvious, to be sure, but it just hit me in the head Sunday night again.

Sunday evening ended with my wife and I having a nice little barbecue in our new (still unfinished) backyard. Sitting there watching the smoke rise from the grill, chilling out with some tasteless beer (MGD, if you want to know), really just made the events of the past week come together and help me appreciate all that's been given to us. Just the fact that we're in a position to enjoy a Sunday evening in this way is something we tend to take for granted.

Moreover, the running around we've done for the past week has simply been a demonstration of the basic YUPPIE lifestyle we have. Afterall, we've been running around, not from job-to-job-to-job, but from job-to-lounge-to-dinner-to-friend's place, etc, etc. In essence, our busy schedule is busy simply because we're livin' it up.

So what's my point? Well, for once, I took a moment to think about what's been given to me and my wife. Sure, we've worked for some of it, but in the end, it's all a gift. It's something that we should be thinking about more often. It's generally something we do only a few times a year (Thanksgiving, New Year's, etc), but on a random summer evening, it was nice to sit there and smile in appreciation.

Moreover, it gives me more motivation to work harder on the other projects I'm involved in. Hopefully, they will help people who are less well-off than us. Don't worry, I'm not gonna write about my "benevolance" trip, just wanted to mention a small point of motivation for me.

With that, I'll leave you all with a moment to smile in appreciation of everything that's been given to you. :)