Fri, 31 Dec 2004

Schadenfreude

scha-den-freu-de : Pronunciation Key (shädn-froid)
Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

SF Chronicle:
Texas Tech beat Cal 45-31 on Thursday night at Qualcomm Stadium.
...It was the most passing yards a Cal team has ever surrendered.

AP via Yahoo!

Texas Tech Stuns No. 4 Cal in Holiday Bowl

SAN DIEGO - Stunned at getting knocked out of the Rose Bowl by Texas, No. 4 California couldn't even hang with No. 23 Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl, losing 45-31 on Thursday night

In that case, it looks as if Mack Brown isn't such a villain, after all. He and the BCS have been exonerated by the Red Raiders.

Now I just hope Texas kicks some ass in the Rose Bowl

31 Dec 10:41 | /humor | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 29 Dec 2004

More mumblings. . .

>>Or was it ramblings? Anyway. . . So my Texas sabbatical is almost over, and I go back to SF tomorrow, just in time for New Year's Eve. Anyone having a party?

>>I've drafted out some new goals for the new year, and I need to finalize them on the plane ride and print them out when I get back. 2004 felt like a drift year for me, so maybe having some goals written down will help me focus(?), have fun(?), not feel like I'm just in a rut or drifting (?). I should expand on this a bit more, but I don't have time today.. . Hrm, I should expand most of my blog entries actually- maybe I'll add that to my goals for '05.

>>How come every time Patrick goes out of town, his server dies? I should win Lotto and buy him a new 1U and a UPS. (note: his blog just loaded, so maybe it's back).

>>Speaking of Patrick, I need to finalize the draft I've been working on for my next academic theory. This will be an unrelated follow-up to my pioneering work, Luddition Through Economics (and part 2) (c) 2004. I've yet to title the new work, but a working draft is titled Popularity Induced Hatred: The Overhyping of Shit in Cinema.

29 Dec 10:45 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Chasing Liberty - **

Uh oh, did I just give Mandy Moore's Chasing Liberty the same rating as Swimming Pool? Yup I did.

While Swimming Pool is a bit more cerebral, Mandy perks up this formulaic romantic comedy to make it an entertaining afternoon flick. Granted, I watched this on cable when it was raining out instead of renting it or (god forbid) paying for this at the theater. But still, it's really entertaining. A perfect date movie or the type that Jodi likes to watch for her Teen Movie addiction.

I'm kind of surprised that Mandy's not officially America's Sweetheart. She should be in more movies. I'm guessing that she either has a parent as a manager, is going to try to take time off for college, or is too busy with Andy Roddick.

I haven't seen Saved yet, but it's in my queue. I hear that movie's really great and she's even better in that.

29 Dec 10:11 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Sun, 26 Dec 2004

Phone Booth - 0

Phone Booth should have been a 60 minute Twilight Zone episode. But then again I hate Joel Shumacher and would give just about every movie he's ever made a 0 except for The Incredible Shrinking Woman and Tigerland perhaps. I wonder if making a decent movie like Tigerland with Joel Shumacher is like making a pact with the devil, which would explain this flick and Colin's 'relationship' w/ Shumacher .. . . .

26 Dec 09:53 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


S.W.A.T. - 0

S.W.A.T. : Shit Sandwich

(To quote a line from Spinal Tap)

26 Dec 09:46 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Equilibrium - ***

As promised, I said I'd write some quick movie review-blurbs. As I abuse the cable tv in my parents' place, I pass by some movies I've seen recently, the past year, or decide to watch again.

So, Equilibrium has been on cable. I forgot how entertaining it was. Basically it's 1984 meets Brave New World starring American Psycho's Batman. Oh, and Baromir is in it as well. Pretty entertaining flick. A good late-night watch.

26 Dec 09:41 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Tamale Time

Well, even though I've been working out here in SA, I've been stuffing myself with holiday, umm, cheer, um, and by cheer I mean tamales. Damn good ones too. Mmm. I haven't had good tamales in a while either.

Merry Xmas to everyone.

26 Dec 09:13 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 22 Dec 2004

PTW!

So my friends at a company I happen to be familiar with are having an internal "contest" of sorts to replace their old internal slogan. Here are my submissions:

22 Dec 15:13 | /humor | 0 comment(s)


Tue, 21 Dec 2004

Alfajores

I'm livin' the high life here in SA. I'm sippin an espresso from my dad's machine, and eating an Alfajor that my mom brought back from Buenos Aires. Good times, good times.

Here's a good description of the rich cookie. What's weird is that people sell them on ebay. Maybe not weird, but cool- some are homemade!

21 Dec 15:27 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Texas Ramblings

nice double chin at damians I haven't been updating the blog much the past week. I'll try to ramble a bit today. I may even add some quick movie review/blurbs/ratings since I've been reminded of some (on the parental cable-tv).

boudreaux, my brother's dog

I've stayed pretty busy though since I've been here. For the most part I've been working out at the club in the morning, chillin in the steam or sauna, then coming home to log in to the work system. Eating breakfast tacos and having espresso while you're working is a great perk, I must do it more in '05.

In the 'noons I've either met friends for lunch, or right after work, or I just spend some QT con mi familia.mi familia

We did go to Houston this weekend (I'll have pics later) to visit Adam and Angie. We had a great meal at the Cali Sandwich shop (vietnamese sandwiches, similar to Paris Cafe on Clement, but better --same price though) and another great meal at Damian's. Oh, Adam and Angie also took us to Spec's for a bit of fun and shopping. One of the guys there said it was their busiest day of the year, and I didn't doubt it, it was packed.

bbq Of course on the way back to SA I had to have some road bbq (note the bottle of big red). Damn it was good too.

I'm ripping pics off my mom's camera (forgot mine again) and I'll update the page in a bit. I'd better put down this chick fil-a sandwich first though. . .

hrm, I added the pics, but I was having probs aligning them and I'm too tired to fix it so it's perfect. When I get back to SF, I'll run them through my album scripts for the pics page. Enjoy.

21 Dec 11:38 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Fri, 17 Dec 2004

working remotely rules

Note to self, if one has the chance to work remotely from one's parents' house, take the oppurtunity.

cigar time

And this one's for my friends in Bezerkely who are still crying about the Rose Bowl:

17 Dec 15:49 | /general | 0 comment(s)


hitmaps?

Well, since I like to steal ideas, pictures and formatting ideas from Jonas' blog I thought I'd goof off with hitmaps and see if I could get a map generated like Jonas.

So far it's just a sad map with two dots. And I bet I generated both of them:

Here's the "real deal" and I'll add the correct html to the sidebar later.

Locations of visitors to this page
Where are visitors to this page?
(Auto-update daily since 11-Dec-04)

17 Dec 10:35 | /tech | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 15 Dec 2004

Antonio, in San Antonio

So I come in to SA and my parents have "acquired" a new um, display.

san antonio

I dig my dad's new cell/cameraphone. Pretty nice.

15 Dec 15:37 | /general | 0 comment(s)


At the ranch

I'm in TX working remotely. Please feel free to gimme a ringy dingy. Actually- so I don't get massive roaming charges, send me a SMS and I'll get back to you from my parents' phones :). You can also send me a sms via email to cell at this domain (strip out any extra lines like your signature if you do so).

15 Dec 09:50 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Sun, 12 Dec 2004

Thanks everyone

I just wanted to give a quick thanks to the hosts of the parties I went to this weekend. And I'd also like to thank the people who hosted parties I couldn't make it to because of scheduling or timing problems.

Once again, I managed to take my camera with me this weekend, but once again- I didn't take any pictures because I'm an idiot. So that means no pic updates for my stupid blog. I wonder if I had a cameraphone if I'd take more snapshots. Hrm, probably not, I'd still have too much fun chatting and partying to take any pics.

But anyway, thanks Angie & Mike! Thanks Sully & Helen! Thanks Melissa & Chris!

Now I need to go rest and digest the lovely food I had at Melissa & Chris' annual Soul Food Brunch. That Melissa's one good cook- heavenly biscuits, ham, gravy, pie. . . but homemade (cheese)grits with homemade cheese?!?! Who knew? Dizzam!

12 Dec 20:19 | /rants_and_raves | 0 comment(s)


Fri, 10 Dec 2004

Friday Night Ramblings

Well, I forgot to triple-check the work on-call schedule, sure enough I didn't catch that this weekend wasn't covered due to an employee who left. So I'm on-call. Fortunately Brian volunteered to help out and take tomorrow night.

I was playing with del.icio.us again, freaking addictive site, and noticed the boggling amount of items under the tag GTD. It stands for Getting Things Done and apparently there are a crazy amount of sites that are all about GTD. Sure enough I want to GTD too! I must read all the GTD books and sites! I must prepare my 43 folders! GTD MORE! Then I will have *more time* to GTD until I have no more stuff to TD, well, except to read del.icio.us.

I'd link to the sites, but I'm lazy. Just use del.icio.us and either look at my bookmarks (eltejano) or search on your own.

edit: this site is actually pretty good, and I don't mean to make fun of it, just the GTD tag. . .

10 Dec 21:36 | /tech | 0 comment(s)


Cajun Pacific Closes? Sorta. . .

So there've been a few times that I've been craving a po'boy and a cup of gumbo. I usually drive out to Cajun Pacific, but the past few times, they've seemed closed, so I drive off. They've always had weird hours, so I never worried about it. To be fair- *I* have weird hours, and I just figured I was coming by at bad times.

Tonight I had that craving, so I decided to call them on my way home from work. They told me that they've closed as a walk-in restaurant and only do catering and special events. Bummer.

But they also told me over the phone that they have a special dinner now and then that they'll notify people in the neighborhood of via email. I dropped them a line - hopefully I won't have to bribe anyone to get on their list.

10 Dec 00:05 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 09 Dec 2004

Random Vino

Mmm, wine. I've been getting good stuff lately, and drinking some of my older purchases. The fact that I blog in this is probably an indication that I've lived in the PRK for a while (too long?).

I bought a case of Pesquie Quintessence at The Wine Club (that's a store, not a club- the name confuses people). I was going to try it tonight, but Brian, who also bought some, tried it earlier in the week and recommended that I let it rest a while, even though it's good stuff now. If you can get it at a decent price, pick some up.

Through some other connections I'm getting some Copain wine in. I dig this stuff, and really need to get on their mailing list soon. I need to start putting more $$ aside for wine like this because when I get the oppurtunity to buy some I need to jump at it- and for now, I only get the chance through my connection -aka Paul.

I should add a low-priced wine fridge to next year's Chanukah wish-list.. . .

09 Dec 22:24 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 06 Dec 2004

Monday Ramblings

>>Attn: Texans - I'll be coming to the big red state the week of the 13th and will be working remotely. Let's meet up. Btw- I mean both Big Red and big, red. I'll be buying a ticket today, so I'll know more soon.

>>Oh, that reminds me- any of you South Bay peeps want to let me park my car at your house for two weeks?

>>A lot of people showed up for Happy Hour on Friday - I hope everyone had fun! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no pics for you. . .

>>I was thinking of bumping my rating of Swimming Pool up to 3 Stars because it seems that all I've been doing lately is talking about that movie. Buy ya know what? Screw it. . .

>>Just because a song is in the same key as another song, or perhaps has the same bpm, doesn't mean you should do a "remix" (or mash-up) of it. That goes to you Live 105. Do you think you're clever for mashing up Green Day's I Walk Alone and Oasis's Wonderwall? Well, you're not. Do you think you're clever for mashing up Lyrics Born's Calling Out and U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday? Well, you know what? You're not clever, you're annoying. Oh, and get rid of your ADD Hour, that sucks ass.

06 Dec 12:47 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 02 Dec 2004

Morning News

Here's a nice headline to start the day:

OAKLAND - 5 masked men steal $15,000 in gold teeth
story

I just hope the Whistle Tip Body Shop doesn't get hit next. Bubba likes to make it go WOO WOOO!!!

02 Dec 09:16 | /news | 0 comment(s)


Tue, 30 Nov 2004

Similar Minds?

So I saw on Derek's blog that if he were a famous leader, he'd be Abe Lincoln. I took the little quiz and found out I'd be Saddam Hussein, great. If I were a classic movie, I'd be Platoon. Great. I just took the Meyers Brigg Short Test. Here're my results:

Myers Briggs Ideal vs. Real Test
Introversion |||||| 30%
|||||||||||||| 60%
Extroversion |||||||||||||||| 70%
|||||||||||| 50%
Intuitive |||||||||||| 46%
|||||| 30%
Sensing |||||||||||||| 60%
|||||||||||||| 56%
Feeling |||||||||||||| 56%
|||||||||||||| 56%
Thinking |||||||||||||||| 63%
|||||||||||||| 53%
Judging |||||||||||||||| 70%
|||||||||||||| 60%
Perceiving |||||||||| 40%
|||||||||| 40%
ideal you |||||| real you ||||||
ideal type - ESTJ, real type - ISFJ
Take Free Myers Briggs Ideal vs. Real Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Basically I'm Quiet w/ Few Friends, Factual/Practical, Emotional/Selfless/Passionate, and planned/regimented/orderly. Great. I'm like a friggin' Border Collie or some crap.

30 Nov 12:12 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 29 Nov 2004

Swimming Pool - **

Swimming Pool's an interesting flick. Of course I rented it to check out Ludivine Sagnier (tons of nudity) but something about it irked me a bit and it barely squeaked by my 3DMT (tm).

I think I thought it was a different type of movie and that's why I was a bit disappointed, but it's not a bad flick at all. It's actually a mystery/suspense flick and it does a good job of showing the transformation of the main character. Of course it makes me not want to live in London, but that'll pass, I'd move there in a second.

But the movie seems like it's missing some parts. I like movies that don't explain things to you, and that's not what I'm asking for here, but it seems like something's missing.

A decent flick, but it seems like it could've been better. One * for you, Swimming Pool.

I like this review and this one on imdb.

EDIT: I thought about it a bit more and decided to give the flick another star, it is a bit more creative than I'm giving it credit for. . . .

Plus, as Cory said- Ludvine's Breasts should at least get a star each.

29 Nov 19:17 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Tequila Tasting

On Friday Paul and Stef invited me over to have a Tequila tasting and dinner. It was freaking good. Paul and Stef served New Mexico Enchiladas (those are flat ones, not rolled up) and Stuffed Peppers. The peppers were freaking hot, but were quite tasty.

Here's the rundown on the tasting. I hadn't done one in a while (since 2000? maybe, at Sully's loft) and it was good to try some different ones. Fortunately I still had some of my notes for presentation and even more fortunate was the fact that this tasting was seemingly much less formal. Not that the one at Sully's was more formal, but I did more homework for that one.

I took along the latest NOM list from the CRT which is always interesting to review and look up your favorites. I also printed up some descriptions of tequila overall and talked about the process a bit over the food. I had also printed up a copy of the pocket guide from the excellent site by Ian Chadwick.

One thing that wasn't as readily accepted was the sipping of Sangrita with the tequila but people warmed up to it as the night went on. It also wasn't hot enough to serve/mix some tequila with Squirt a la my ex-students and friends in GDL.

I served 2 Silvers, 1 gold, 3 Reposados and 2 Añejos:

29 Nov 12:18 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 25 Nov 2004

Pics of Rocky Doser

Caleb, I've added some pics of the Rancilio Rocky Doser Grinder in action for you in the pics area. You can see the leftover grounds in the next to last pic. As I said in email I personally don't think it's that big a deal to have leftover grounds in the doser area. Btw- I'm thinking of ordering a tamper like yours, quite nice.. . .

25 Nov 11:59 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Sat, 20 Nov 2004

Random Thoughts for Saturday

Although I meant to sleep in, I still woke up a bit too early today. Good times. So I thought I'd update ye olde blogge since I hadn't rambled on about anything all week. Here're some formless and not-well-thought-out sentences:

Michael Powell is a jackass. His QOTW: "I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud." Clearly, the wrong Powell resigned. If you don't understand why his comments should get you riled up, then basically you're retarded (no offense to retards). Oh, and you should already be riled up just with his actions in 2004- Superbowl reaction, Sinclair Broadcasting, Vet's Day shelving of Saving Private Ryan. . .

Even though it's Saturday, the online versions of papers are already starting to publish editorials denouncing Powell Jr. Set up a google news alert for Michael Powell, you'll be amazed at what you read.

Hrm, I should set up something like Patrick and Jonas have for quotes, but I don't feel like messing with Blosxom this week. Every time I do, something goes wrong. . . Btw - have you messed with del.icio.us yet? You can check out what I've submitted by adding "eltejano" at the end of the url, or subscribe to my links. It's an interesting site on many levels- or you can just use it if you're bored at work. The only thing I don't like about it is when I find links to sites about better writing, or is it writing better? Writing sites make me feel like I should edit my blog more. Heh - leik that's going to hapen! Editing's for f00lz!

No movie updates this week, I'm a bit behind.

I do have a movie-related item- I read a nice editorial(?) on my favorite movie site about Kinsey. I sent the author a quick supportive email and got a nice reply. Nothing earth-shattering, but I was proud of myself for a few hours. I'm not really sure why though. . .

I was IM'ing Paul a bit yesterday about wine. He was giving me updates on the price per bottle of a wine he bought for arbitrage (well, and for enjoyment). I love that word by the way. I'll do a separate post about that though.

I'll be doing another tequila tasting soon at a friend's house after Turkey Day. I haven't done one in a while but it'll be nice to re-evaluate some of my faves and some new ones.

Well, the sun's up now, and I think I've rambled enough. Time to make some coffee and do a bit of lazy reading. I should read the dictionary, I may have misused the word arbitrage.. . .

20 Nov 10:46 | /random | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 11 Nov 2004

Starbucks Gossip

Most of you who know me know I'm way too into coffee for my own good. Occasionally I find a story on a coffe site that I think everyone will think is interesting, but it turns out most aren't.

But I'm a big fan of Obscurestore.com and they link to a Starbucks Gossip Blog. They have good entries on occasion, and I wanted to pass this one on. I like it when the *$ employees add comments to the entries, it colors the story quite nicely.

And yes, I'll add it to Del.icio.us.

11 Nov 11:53 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Tue, 09 Nov 2004

Buh Bye Ashcroft

One of the great things about seeing some of the news on fark.com is reading the comments that come out of the woodwork. For today's new about Ashcroft leaving the cabinet a great quote: "does this mean he will be replaced by a dead guy"?

Hopefully he won't be replaced by someone worse, or get nominated to the supreme court, that'd really suck ass.

Now, how do we get rid of that Patriot Act. . . .

Oh by the way, LET THOSE BOOBIES OUT!

09 Nov 19:28 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Infernal Affairs II - ***

I watched the sequel/prequel to Infernal Affairs the other day. I didn't think it was nearly as good as the first one, but stands up on it's own as a good movie.

I was worried that I'd only find the movie interesting because I've seen the first flick, but was pleasantly surprised that the writers/directors added new material that wasn't dependent on the other film and expanded on the roles/stories/plot/history of the characters. I think it could stand on it's own as a decent flick. But then again, I wonder if I'd say that had I not seen the first one. All in all a good rental. Not quite as epic as The Godfather, but a decent comparison in a way.

Another good thing about this movie is that there seems to be more attention being paid to the story and less to the blockbuster actors. In the first flick it seemed that whenever Andy Lau and Tony "Scruffy" Leung were on the screen it wasn't just for the movie's plot. It was almost as if the moviemakers were reminding you- hey, our movie's important, check out the stars we got for this flick. Granted, they were good and all, but you get my drift right? Fortunately for IA2 the whole ensemble is good and you don't miss any of the (major) stars.

You know, I'm all hopped up on advil and cold medicine, so I'm going to end this "review" now before I ramble on straight to hell.

09 Nov 12:10 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 08 Nov 2004

The Incredibles - ****

On Saturday night I went to see The Incredibles. It was pretty damn good. I was actually surprised. I did not think it would be that good going in. In fact I almost wanted to switch flicks, but I had ordered tickets already on @$^@$ Fandango.

In fairness I just wanted to cancel because the flick was sold out and Jennifer and I were the only people there without kids. But go see it- great art, a good story, good humor, etc. The only negative I could think of is that sometimes the voices are distracting when you're trying to figure out which actors' voices they might be. Some are obvious, others distract for a minute.

But all in all a good flick, didn't come close to failing my 3DMT (tm).

By the way if you want to see the (few) movies I've babbled about you can click that link on the far right to just see the movie entries.

08 Nov 18:32 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


New Happy Hour Pics

I just uploaded some pics from Happy Hour on Friday. I hope everyone had fun at The Bitter End and Pizza Orgasmica.

08 Nov 11:38 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 04 Nov 2004

Jonas Got Someone Fired

Jonas got someone at cnn.com fired today. Well, not really, but kinda sorta. What sucks is that drudge and worldnetdaily don't credit like they should, but we knew that already.

04 Nov 18:47 | /news | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 01 Nov 2004

Wine rec: La Bete Pinot Noir

So Sully and Helen had this awesome wine at their wedding and I couldn't remember the name of it. I couldn't remember for the usual reasons- I had a bit too much of it (and too much dessert!) and I wasn't paying attention to the wine, I was talking to friends and acting as a translator between some people and someone with a bit of liquor in her. Long story, ask me in person.

Anyway, I went to dinner over at the newlyweds' new casa recently and they had some of the wine left which we had with dinner. I think it was pretty tasty, although I don't know if the wine could stand on its own. Helen had made such a great dinner that I thought the wine was great. But with her cooking they could've given me MD20/20 and I would've been happy.

Oh, what was the wine? La Bete Pinot Noir 2002 Oregon Selection Du Cave. Check it out and tell me if I'm wrong.

01 Nov 21:00 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Blogger Grounded

My dad sent me this:
Blogger grounded by her airline.
That sucks that she got canned- but it brings up a common topic among my friends. You have to be carfeul when blogging about work, especially if there's anything that can be considered negative. Most people need something to vent abuot though, especially about their jobs-- even when people like their work, they still bitch about it. It keeps you sane.

note: Jonas had a pretty good entry on the flight attendant story, I didn't read it closely enough- she didn't get fired, but suspended.
I still think you have to be careful about writing about work though. I'd love to rant about my current job, but people there read this on occasion. Wheeeeee!!

01 Nov 20:44 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 25 Oct 2004

The Religion of Operating Systems

Derek sent me this interesting column called The Religion of Operating Systems. I found it to be pretty interesting. Whatchoo think?

25 Oct 12:30 | /tech | 0 comment(s)


Sat, 23 Oct 2004

Montpellier Syrah

A quick wine recommendation- Montpellier Syrah. Quite nice, and I think it costs ~ $5 a bottle. Que ganga!

23 Oct 13:14 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Lazy Saturday

It's a lazy Saturday in SF today. I've got Jacques on the tv, some coffee beans in the roaster, and an espresso in my hand. It's a bit cool outside and there's a steady but light rain outside in the park. It's going to be a nice slow day.

23 Oct 13:09 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 21 Oct 2004

A pdf file? Great. . .

via pridkett
You are .pdf No matter where you go you look the same. You are an acrobat. Nothing is more important to you than the printed word.
Which File Extension are You?

21 Oct 15:14 | /humor | 0 comment(s)


Tue, 19 Oct 2004

Patrick wakes me up

LizBorden: that is seriously the last time i ever make a political comment in my journal
LizBorden: i'm gonna stick to fucked up links
eltejano: that's what I do- f'd up links, movies and stupid ramblings all in one
LizBorden: i mean
LizBorden: i enjoy informed discussions and arguements and all
flats: haha
LizBorden: but typing this much is a lot of work
pridkett: elte: your journal is a little like a teen journal from livejournal, but with wine, and no boyfriends
LizBorden: HAHAHAHA
eltejano: ouch
pridkett: not like mine is much better

19 Oct 10:59 | /humor | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 14 Oct 2004

Shaun of the Dead ***

I saw Shaun of the Dead the other day. Nice, smart, witty flick. I recommend it. One bit made me laugh out loud - the protagonist and his buddy are drunk and coming out of the pub, and they're singing White Lines to each other. Cracked me up because, well, I do that. Oh, and there are some Queen songs in the movie too. You can't beat that.

Liked Shaun of the Dead? Then go watch Versus or Evil Dead.

14 Oct 13:07 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Spun - 0

There are many things I'm a big fan of. In particular I'm a big fan of hot naked women. I'm also a big fan of Schwartzmans being on top of hot naked women. Unfortunately for the movie Spun, those two items are just about all it has in its favor. And to make matters worse, they didn't use this Schwartzman to get on top of the naked ladies, they used Jason (no relation- that I know of).

Spun failed my 3Day Movie Test (tm). It's a good looking movie, don't get me wrong, but there's barely any story. And the story that is there is just dumb. I gave a flying rat's ass about the characters. By the second half I was wishing them harm.

It was filmed by music director Jonas Akerlund, and it looks like a music video in parts. A long time ago my friend Will gave me a Jonas Akerlund reel- I thought it was pretty cool. It was mostly music videos. Since they were for different artists the video was disjointed as a whole, but hey- the individual vids were great- and it wasn't a movie. Now, imagine stringing all of those together with a lame plot and lamer characters and you have Spun.

Positive: looks great, cool actors, good cameos
Negative: lame story, waste of time, derivative-
I almost wanted to write a whole rant about the two undercover cops subplot and how lame it was.

Oh one other complaint- since when did drug movies all start using the same fast action clips?

Drugs out |fast cut | drug preparing | fast cut | injection or snort clip | fast cut | Eye Dialation clip
Starts with "C" ryhmes with sashay.

Spun sucks, go rent The Salton Sea instead.

14 Oct 12:24 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Tue, 12 Oct 2004

The Legend of Suriyothai - 0

Suriyothai- One of the first movies to fail my three day movie test (tm) in quite a while. I'm not sure why it drove me bonkers, but it did. You see, I *wanted* to like this movie. I think it was oversold and was billed as "important" so it's easy to knock off it's peg.

Let's start with the negative first- the movie tells the tale of an important, historically-based legend. It's a long soap-opera with a lot of plot twists that covers a huge span of time. Okay, so if you have a historical flick, things are gonna get cut out. But that's problematic with the limitations of a film's timeframe.

Since the story is based on historical events foreigners like me won't grasp some subtleties and the historical context, so narration or extra scenes/lines?/backstories? need to be added.

Adding, removing - what's a director to do? I'm not sure. But what they did here was make a great looking movie that tries to make the best of the long story it tries to tell.

The critical build up was to a final battle/confrontation and that was over and done with in a few minutes. It detracted from the whole effort. The whole story is about this Princess/Queen/Royal Family member who's going to be making this *huge* sacrifice in a battle for her people. Then when it happens, it's just, hrm, odd. . . Her actions seem almost hasty and dumb. There must be more to it though- the whole royal blood lines and how royals are supposed to act. . .

Okay, enough (mild)ranting and rambling. There's a 5 hour version of this flick, but I'm not going to watch it. Supposedly the Coppola team which was involved in the editing of this flick cut a ton of stuff out to make this ponderous tale coherent.

Is there anything good about the movie? Sure- it looks great. The tales of the royal court are intriguing. But the best thing? HUGE ASS ELEPHANT BATTLES!! How cool is that?

It's cool- but not enough to recommend this movie. Go watch Ong Bak instead.

By the way- I know some people who watch any movie that was nominated for the Academy Awards. I think this was nominated for best foreign language flick, but I need to look that up.

12 Oct 13:22 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 11 Oct 2004

Luddition Through Economics

Luddition Through Economics, some feedback

from: Jeff P
to: Kenneth

luddition through economics..reminds me of better off dead*
"so why are you guys here at the gas n' sip on a saturday night with no women in sight?!"
"choice, man. yeah, choice"

* editor's note: I think this was Say Anything

Update: Marisa emailed the correct passage:
Say Anything-

LLOYD I got a question. If you guys know so much about women, how come you're here at like the Gas 'n' sip on a Saturday night completely alone, drinking beers, no women anywhere?
Silence.
JOE By choice, man!
GUY 2 Yeah man, conscious choice.
They all agree.
GUY 1 I'm choosing it.

11 Oct 12:47 | /humor | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 07 Oct 2004

Domestic Bubbles Taste-Off

sparkling wineSo I recently went to Pak's for a wine tasting event. More specifically- domestic bubbles under $30. Everyone brought a bottle, immeditately wrapped it numbered it, and prepped it for the blind taste testing. There were 13 bottles in all. The results are below.

Pak's email and notes:

Here's the tally (the tie for first relfects the misnumbering of the bottles vs. the cards and is noone's fault but my own; I was too tipsy at the time of the mistake being discovered [thanks regs] to realize the tie was between two different winemakers):



Some interesting notes from the cards I have in my possession:
wine's place - comment

An interesting tidbit that's not listed in Pak's email/notes above is that all night there was a spit cup/pour off vessel on the table. Apparently after Marisa and I left and the partying and imbibing continued, someone decided to compare the derided Sophia to the Spit Bucket! Guess what, THE SPITBUCKET WON. And from what I hear - there was more than one judge to verify that ranking.

Quick note: I claimed my quotes above w/ an * and edited the locale where I got the Kenwood.

07 Oct 14:09 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Tue, 05 Oct 2004

Blah blah

So I'm sitting here sipping a double espresso that I just had Silvia make for me, and I start to realize I have the blahs again. A little has to do with the fact that SF's just plain cold and foggy again (especially in my neighborhood). A little bit has to be because the foggyness leads to contemplative moods. Maybe I just had a long day and need to get out or something. Who knows. For some reason I feel like making a to-do list. Then I can do things and check them off. Maybe the espresso will kick in and this feeling will pass. Who knows. I just thought I'd ramble and write for a bit.

Just some quick thoughts:

Google Alerts is pretty cool, but can be alarming at the quantity of email it can generate- pick your subjects carefully.

Sophia Bubbly ranks pretty low. When I get my copy of a recent Domestic Bubbly tasting I'll illustrate more. (btw, Cory likes this, tee hee)

I love/hate how some of my favorite tunes are getting used. Good: Bowie's Starman on the trailer for The Life Aquatic bad: Coke's C2 use of Queen in their new commercial. Uggh. And I'm a coke guy too!
btw- Queen rules, as does ELO

05 Oct 19:46 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Sun, 03 Oct 2004

My 3 Day Movie Test (tm)

Hrm- I just realized I haven't been blogging much and haven't blogged at all about movies as I said I would. I recently watched two movies that barely passed my 3DT(tm): The Cooler and Dirty Pretty Things.

Just to preface this a bit, my 3DT got started after seeing The Usual Suspects at The Crossroads with Megan (the creator of the Meeg-a-rita, but that's another story). To make a long story short, some friends had asked what I thought of the flick immediately after the movie, then quoted me a few days later by which time my opion had changed. Of course this makes for fun discussions at parties, but it lead to me needing the 3DT (tm) when recommending (or not) movies I had seen.

Anyway, back to the 'reviews' . . .

The Cooler- immediately after watching this movie I was gung-ho about recommending it. The acting was great, especially Alec Baldwin's. I've liked Alec Baldwin ever since his turn as Lamont Cranston in The Shadow. I liked the story a lot, but a few things started to gnaw at me for the next few days.

I don't know what it is but a line or a bit of plot change can make me angry a few days later and blatantly dismiss a film as poop. I started to worry that this would happen here, as the next day I had already started to question a bit of "luck" at the end of the movie. I won't reveal anything about the movie here so don't worry, but without spoiling anything, the movie pushes its luck a bit with the main characters at the end. Watch it and tell me what you think. It didn't bother me enough to make the movie fail my 3DT (tm) though.

by the way, if you like The Cooler, you should check out a Spanish flick called Intacto.

Dirty Pretty Things is worth renting just so you can stare at Audrey Tautou as I did. I liked DPT, or as I call it DP Things because the porn connotations make me giggle, but two small things about it almost made me give it the "no".

The first irksome bit is that the movie felt like a BBC miniseries that got the go-ahead to get shortened and released as a feature flick. Okay, so part of me feels bad for ragging on "production values", but hey- that's what it felt like. There were times were that helped convey the bleakness of London though so maybe I should shut up.

The only other moment that made me say "boo!" was during the delivery of the "zing!" line towards the end by Okwe. It was a bit cheesy and barely worked in my humble opinion. But the thing is- you can't take that line out, and there's no other way to deliver it. The actors were good enough to pull it off. A decent flick, go rent it. Oh, and Audrey Tautou is in it.

By the way, "Sneaky", as played by Sergi Lopez was really good in DP Things. If you liked this flick you should check out Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien.

I'll add some more reviews as I get them in my Q from Netflix.

03 Oct 15:19 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Fri, 24 Sep 2004

Rave: Willie Nelson! Rant: Berkeley!

I went with Marisa (and her red Willie bandana) to see Willie Nelson the other night over in Berkeley. Good show! *And* we went and got hot dogs before the concert! What a night! willie!

Just to go over the show a bit- Lucinda opened up, she was good, but seemed lost between songs. She was pretty mellow, but so was the crowd. I like the fact that she uses a songbook and said she can't remember her own lyrics. "I don't know how Bob Dylan can do it."

All RiseDue to the crowd- Willie was a bit subdued as well. I've seen him a few times in my homeland, but seeing him indoors in Bezerkly w/ a quiet crowd of volvo-driving, npr-listening assmunches was a bit hard to take. They barely clapped with the music, sang along (even when prompted), or seemed to know what to do with themselves. It was Marisa's first Willie show, so I wished it had been a bit more lively. She'll have to fly to Austin and check him out there.

But all in all, I liked the show- I was pretty impressed with Willie's son covering Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood too.

24 Sep 13:31 | /rants_and_raves | 0 comment(s)


New Vernita Green Theme

I was bored and was looking staring blankly at my GDM Login page this am. Yes I was tired. I decided to download some Kill Bill wallpapers and change the xml file that had my old GDM Theme- which as of this morning was a theme called "amor amorillo" and features boobers- que techie, no?

my stupid login screenI didn't do anything too fancy, but I basically made a png of a shot of Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green aka Copperhead and made little icons of the Hattori Hanzo logo. Then I just altered an existing xml file from another theme and tar'ed it up. Like I said- nothing fancy but here's a screenshot.

my stupid login screen If you want a copy of the tarball I'll add it here. I'm not sure how long I'll have it up though- I'm pretty sure using a still from a movie site for a theme isn't kosher with certain parties.

Fyi- if you make a tar of your new GDM theme, you're supposed to include a screenshot. I couldn't figure out how to take a screenshot when I wasn't logged in, but this article helped a lot. There's a great blog entry on that site about a hardware review in Tuscany that would make my dad envious.

edit: vernita.tar.gz and kb-black.tar.gz

24 Sep 12:48 | /tech | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 15 Sep 2004

Finally, a reality show I can stand (sorta)

I hate reality shows- even the T&A ones like Temptation Island.

But Fox's The Next Great Champ provides the best in reality entertainment: Shitheads on TV, Shitheads on TV punching each other.

It doesn't get better than that. Well, it could, but it'd involve Dawn from "The Player" and me on our own show on closed-circuit tv. Nudge Nudge.

dawn loves kennykenny

15 Sep 00:46 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Fri, 10 Sep 2004

Blah Tuesday Blah

Yeah so yesterday was Labor Day, but I'm already ready for this week to be over. My bro n' sis-in-law were in town this weekend, we had some fun, although we didn't do much. It was freaking hot here in SF so Sunday I didn't feel like doing much and yesterday I was eager to test out my ankle again so I went on an hour long walk in the wee hours and a jog later in the afternoon. I'd sincerely like to thank whichever neighbor's dog it is that keeps waking me up. Oh, and maybe they're the same person who has the car alarm that is so wonderful? Two thanks in one if so.

Obviously not much to add right now- I should have some more updates later this week- more pics from Kristen & Brett's wedding (via Elise); Brian's last wine-tasting event's list of rankings and notes; Adam and Angie's Alcatraz pics.

Too bad I don't have pics of the Klingons or Apes from whatever sci-fi convention was at the SJ Doubletree this weekend. That was funny.

Basically Adam goes to check in at the hotel in SJ (we stayed there so we could drink eat in SJ Saturday night), comes out and says a guy in a turtle suit was chasing a guy in a rat suit from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He said he looked at the receptionist and said "sci-fi freaks?" - and the clerk nodded.

But it got better because we saw a few Klingons *and* Capt. Jack Sparrow from the Black Pearl. Cpt. Jack was a bit tipsy but looked in control. We wanted to call the front desk as him and say - "Does Milady know if thar be a continental breakfast in the mornin' Arrr"
Ahh, pirate talk never gets old.

kenneth in baja

10 Sep 22:19 | /general | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 02 Sep 2004

Luddition 2

I have severe laptop envy here at work. Some of the "cool" people have these fancy powerbooks. They probably cost more than my Civic. And my Civic isn't riced out either. Even "the new guy" in my group doesn't realize how good he has it - his laptop has to be years younger than my stinkpad. Even my home machine(s) are showing their age. Sure they still work, but I'm still playing Leisure Suit Larry- I'd love to try these new-fangled 1st person shooters. I think I'll have to rob a bank or win lotto, then I'll be ok. I could upgrade of course on my own, but this is a type of "Luddition through Economics" that is more self-induced. The same thing goes for me not having cable and a mythbox. Is self-induced, or self-enforced "Luddition through Economics" still the same underlying principle, or is it more through laziness?

02 Sep 16:46 | /humor | 0 comment(s)


Sun, 29 Aug 2004

New pics are up


I put up pics from Kristen and Brett's wedding and Pam and Joey's wedding up here.
I still need to move the pics from the old site over, but I haven't organized them yet (not like the ones here are organized that well).

29 Aug 15:37 | /news | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 25 Aug 2004

It was a chilaquiles weekend

I just got back from Mexico last night. I went to a wedding in Baja near Rosarito. Quite nice. I should have some pics up later this week. Of course the wedding and company was great, the weather perfect yadda yadda- But the real highlight? --I got to eat chilaquiles and drink tequila all weekend. Mmmm

25 Aug 14:37 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Whose tiddy is my glass made from?!?

So I made a bet with Brian this weekend at the dinner table, which quickly spiraled out of control. We were at a wedding reception and noted that we had the "20's era" champagne glasses on our tables. Brian asked if any of us knew where they inspiration for the shape of the glass came from. I blurted out "Helen of Troy's Boobers!" To which he said "Bzzzzz, it was modeled after an English monarch" to which I beleive I uttered the phrase "BS I'll bet you a dollar." Thus the start of our bet.

This quickly spiraled out of control into a larger argument and Brian's wife getting into the fray by giving him a raised eyebrow and a look. She and another friend said they believed it was Marie Antoinette. But of course, my bet had already been set with Brian.

Well I'm happy to report that EVERYONE was wrong. So I didn't lose my bet and remain at 145-2-13.

via snopes-
Claim: Champagne glasses were modeled on Marie Antoinette's breasts.
Status: False.

Unfortunately this doesn't settle my point at the dinner table that although champagne wasn't around, the Greeks did make glasses or cups from that shape in Helen's honor. But I'll graciously concede a "push" in the bet.

But the next morning, when questioned by Brian's in-laws about which artist was singing a song blaring on the radio at the outdoor restaurant- (being a rocker) I was quickly able to say "Love Hurts, as performed by Nazareth" \m/ . I did add that it was originally an Everly Brother's song. This just shows you can take the boy out of the Home of Rock n' Roll, but ya can't take the Rock n' Roll outta the boy!! \m/

25 Aug 13:42 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 18 Aug 2004

Piperade

On Saturday I went to Piperade with some friends. And I must say- it was quite nice. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. Great food and great wine.

I wound up having Garlic Soup and a Bistro Steak. Their beignets were quite nice. I think I'll add it to my "places to take my tourist friends too".

Fortunately Paul was picking the wine- we had a really nice white rioja, a tempranillo, and a great syrah. Unfortunately I'm finding out that the wines we had may be hard to get at stores. But I should use this as an excuse to go back to Piperade.

18 Aug 15:35 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 16 Aug 2004

Bram died on Friday Night

My friend Bram died on Friday night in a car wreck in SA. He had recently moved to CO and was in SA for the weekend. I had a message from him on my voicemail that night too. I didn't check it until Saturday my time, then later Chuck called me to tell me the horrible news.

I'm not sure of all the details- I should know more soon- for now I just know what people on irc have told me or told me over the phone. There are some news links here and here. pic

Funeral services are Tuesday 8/16 in SA at Porter Loring, I don't have an address to send condolences (yet).

16 Aug 23:25 | /news | 0 comment(s)


Sat, 14 Aug 2004

Good red rec

2002 Castaño Monastrell
I *think* this was $8 at The Wine Club down off Harrison. It's pretty good. I just wish I had opened it when I bought it. Now I want a few more bottles and I doubt they have any more. I don't see any on their site. Pretty good stuff. I'd even pay more for it, but for < $15 you can't beat it. Well maybe you can, but I couldn't.

14 Aug 14:09 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Fri, 13 Aug 2004

RIP Julia

Julia Child, Famous Cook, Dies Aged 91 (and #)

13 Aug 10:56 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 12 Aug 2004

Why the new site? Stic go buh-bye

So why did I change my email after almost 9 years? Why did I move my site? Well, it turns out that stic.net got bought by people in one of my least favorite states. [btw- I know it's not fair to make fun of a state I've never been to, but it's fun!]

Here's the story (registration req. or use the bugmenot.com link over on the right side of the page).

12 Aug 23:08 | /news | 0 comment(s)


So far I'm not liking Blosxom

So when I moved off of stic net, I thought- hey this'll be a great time to move over to a linux or unix server. There was a lot of stuff I had to rewrite for asp for the old site- yeah, yeah, I hated iis too.

Anyway one of the things I tried on one of my shell accounts was pyBlosxom. I tried it mostly because Pridkett uses it, and well I like to copy people. It turns out that this box doesn't have python installed, so I thought- okay, I'll try blsxom out for the blog- since pyBlosxom was based off of it, it should be smooth sailing. Wrong.

Right out of the gate I've had a lot of criticism around the structure and the default templates. Even the plugins don't work the way they should. And most importantly- there's no tool like fixfiletime.py. There is a plugin available, but that just keeps a cached list of file comparisons. As the kidz say: omgwtf? (and don't get me started on the fact that pyBlosxom validates out of the box)

So to make a long story short- if you can read this, great. If not and you're getting a 404 on worldnet, that means the stupid ass calendar plugin cache broke again- which is great- take a look at the right for a highlighted day and see if it matches this story- chances are it won't.

So how am I gonna fix this? I'm not, I'm going to bitch and moan. This is a 'rant' entry. The first one on the new site. Whoopdie Doo!

12 Aug 20:43 | /rants_and_raves | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 11 Aug 2004

Luddition Through Economics


pridkett: i may get to upgrade my server soon. I just found a K6-400 processor in a pile of free computer stuff.
eltejano: heh
pridkett: like 10 people all hitting my photos page yesterday made the server crawl, the cpu load was maxed
eltejano: whenever I get mad that my computer's too old, I just think of you
pridkett: If I didn't have my laptop I probably would have bought a new one
drno: I would have alwyas thought of you as newest-technology type of guy
pridkett: drno: I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to tech. I have a black and white old school cell, no ipod, no burner, no projecter, no lcd, and most importantly no money. If I had money, I might be.
eltejano: luddition through economics
pridkett: put that term in your blog and you'll become the #1 hit for it.
pridkett: Dr. Google says, "Your search - luddition through economics - did not match any documents."
pridkett: sweet....
pridkett: luddition is a one word googlewhack
drno: Yeah, I guess being a college student will do that to you.
eltejano: but I'm not a student and I'm experiencing the same problem
drno: that's cus you're blowing all your money on booze and whores

11 Aug 10:57 | /humor | 0 comment(s)


Yeah, I need to change the layout


Yes, I know the css layout looks different in ie and moz and doesn't validate, but I should have that fixed soon. If anyone has a preferred layout scheme, drop me an email and point to the css examples and I'll try to spruce it up. I'll probably wind up copying what pridkett does on his weblog -although he's Mr.Fancypants-xslt dude.
edit: test

11 Aug 01:07 | /news | 1 comment(s)


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