Reflections and Recollections

So the holiday season is almost over and I'm glad to see a new year approaching for a fresh start... as if people really keep their resolutions. The holidays have been a big headache with the last minute shopping, odd work schedule, and keeping lunch and dinner committments with so and so here and there.

The biggest headache for the year ender happened about 3 days before Christmas. My car was parked at work and some fool backed his pickup into my car. Its not totalled or anything, just a huge eyesore dent, but this is the kind of stuff you don't want to deal with even if it doesn't cost you a dime. So I run out of the office after a co-worker tells me and I see some dude shaking his head looking at the mess he made. The guy was very apologetic so I wasn't going to go off on him since that wouldn't solve anything. So I just told the guy to go back in his car and get his insurance card for me to photocopy and just take it from there. So about 1500 miles later, my car gets hit. Back in July I walked into a showroom to take a look at this thing and was put on a 30 day waiting list that seemed to last forever, now I have to send this to a shop to have it fixed. The wait begins again.

The year was quick and interesting. I am 26 years old and just a year ago I felt like I was still 22. I don't know what happened but I finally feel my age. I guess the past couple of years I was denying my age and still felt like I just graduated from college or something. I guess when you're still a teenager, the wait to reach a certain age seems to take more than a lifetime (maybe everyone gets excited to be of legal age to do the things we want to do), but at a certain point, life seems to fly like you have no more time to enjoy the worry free moments of childhood without responsibility. As far as resolutions I set at the beginning of '04, I don't thing I set any goals for myself. I have done things that I thought I would never do, but today, like one year ago, I have no idea what this coming year holds. Good luck to us all.


Being the movie and music addict that I am, I can't close out the year without sharing some of the things that impressed me. Thank God this isn't a new decade otherwise this list would turn out to be like one of those Y2K 3 day long top 500 songs of the decade countdown that you heard on your local radio station at the turn of the century.

Well, my days of being a couch potato and having a free ongoing Blockbuster freedom pass have occupied a lot of my late nights. I must have gone through over a two hundred movies this year and the ones that moved me the most were:

5. Napoleon Dynamite- flippin' sweet...gosh!

4. Garden State- Zach Braff is a hack, a trying to be Wes Anderson or Cameron Crowe director... but the story is awesome.

3. The Bird People of China- Okay, this movie came out in Japan years ago but only reached US soil this year.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- this got me thinking for days

1. Before Sunset- all your puppy love "what ifs" and feelings on celluloid. Of course you need to see the first to feel this one.

Of course, I have yet to see I Heart Huckabees, Closer, Oldboy, and I'm getting impatient waiting for 2046 from Wong Kar-Wai to hit this side of the world.



A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the soundtracks of my life. This has been my soundtrack of 2004:
5. College Dropout from Kanye West- this is so played out but I love it

4. Crunk Juice from Lil' Jon- Okaaaaaaaaay...!

3. Garden State OST- The Shins, Nick Drake, and Frou Frou on one disc, how can you go wrong?

2. Give Up by The Postal Service- emo meets electronica could never be better! Actually this came out in early 2003 but got more play this year.

1. Ghosts of the Great Highway by Sun Kil Moon- everyone NEEDS this little indie album. Hope you can still find it. Check out Mark Kozelek's older work from when the Red House Painters were still around. For the past six months, these discs are the only thing I listen to at night.



In 2004, I've been impressed by these products:
5. Halo 2- This game kicks ass 100 times more than the first... I wish I was sober whenever I play it so I can enjoy it more.

4. Church key belt buckle from Urban Outfitters- The ultimate survival tool for beer drinkers. I still need to get one... damn thing is always sold out or on back order. (I just checked the site. Looks like it's back.)

3. Apple Airport Express with Airtunes- iTunes in surround sound on the home stereo system. Thanks Steve Jobs. (Why are PCs like air conditioners? Once you open windows they stop working...)

2. Taco Bell Caramel Apple Empanadas- Heart stopping goodness. To the guys at McDonalds, this is how apple pies should still be. Too bad you decided to go health conscious.

1. Motorola V3 RAZR- So what if it's just an ordinary phone in a cool shell. Thats the point, it looks cool.



...And the disappointments of 2004:
5. M. Night Shyamalan's The Village- I loved it. I praised it on my blog. But he made suckers out of all of us and pissed off the majority. Come to think of it, this makes it bad ass.

4. Bay Area football teams- people in NorCal may as well forget this season.

3. Josh Childress' play time with the Atlanta Hawks- I was lucky to meet and talk to this guy a couple of times while he was still at Stanford and I was excited when he told me he was going pro but the city of crunk keeps him on the bench too long.

2. Nokia NGage QD- I have this thing and was impressed the first few weeks and got me addicted to Tiger Woods PGA Tour again. A huge improvement from last year's taco model but this thing is so buggy and is a piece of shit if used as an actual phone.

1. Kevin Smith- Each movie you make you sell out more and more.



Well, the start of a new year is fast approaching. I'm just at home with Rho and J waiting for this hectic year to come to an end. For me, this year was one busy rush to the point just last week, I felt like I was working myself to the last limb. Several cigarettes and Rockstar energy drinks later, I find it fitting to end this year laid back in the place I rarely have time to relax in.

I have a few glasses of wine that can still go in my system before 2005 drops.


Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas Rush Part 1

With about a week left, I started Christmas shopping today without a clue on what to buy everyone and where to even start looking. This whole rush has turned into one big headache and I have no one to blame but my lazy self. Well, I could've started the other day but I've been in bed recovering from one of the worst colds I've had in ages. I did something that I normally don't do and quit being my hard headed self and actually took medicine. I remember I used to take a couple of shots of gin back in the day whenever I could feel the early symptoms of a cold and feel better in the morning, but that did not work this time. Anyway, I'm well now and have to deal with this madness of Christmas shopping.

So I'm not even half way done and I've combed every place I've been to trying to find something or even just get ideas. I did see some interesting things though but I wouldn't dare stick any of this stuff under anyone's tree or stocking. A lot of this stuff I just stared at and thought "Why...!".

peace
Originally uploaded by lokeliko.

This is some way to market a toy 9mm. I wonder what transpired during the brainstorm session of the manufacturers- "I've got it! We'll teach kids that guns create a peaceful society! This will teach kids that they need to have a gun to keep the peace... brilliant!". I wonder how many people actually buy this thing for their problem child in hopes that he would someday become a law abiding citizen by going gun crazy with his 9mm peacekeeper. I remember having toy guns when I was growing up and I always associated them with war and death. Peace?

yellowthing
Originally uploaded by lokeliko.

When I saw this thing sitting on the shelves of KB Toys, it scared the bejeezus out of me. I thought that the Teletubbies looked like freaky alien chimps, but this looks like a yellow Grimmis shaved poodle style from the lip up. This thing would give me nightmares. I don't give a damn if he can sing and dance. He needs to sing and dance his way from under people's trees and into the fireplace.

trashkeeper
Originally uploaded by lokeliko.

Some annoying guy at a mall kiosk was trying to pitch this thing to me. I told him I wasn't interested and kept walking but the dude grabbed my arm and insisted I take a look as if it was the most innovative thing to come out of the 21st century. Supposedly a bed riser, looks more like four rubbermaid wastebaskets turned upside down supporting each leg so you can cram more trash under your bed. It works if you need the extra space, but the way the salesman pitched it was like he was trying to polish turd before my very eyes. He actually said, "It also adds that extra beauty to the legs of the furniture you're raising.". Great selling point there buddy. Too bad I don't see it.

peewee
Originally uploaded by lokeliko.

Pee Wee's Playhouse is actually out on DVD, not that I would ever want it. There must be some huge cult following behind this show in order for it to be made available but I don't know anyone who would buy this. Other TV box sets I was suprised to see were: Punky Brewster, 21 Jumpstreet, a compilation of those 70s/80s after school specials about drugs, alcohol, don't talk to strangers, stop drop and roll, or whatever adolescent stuff they cover. And coming soon- Full House. Oh no!

ameliawho?
Originally uploaded by lokeliko.

And this caught my eye. I never read any of these books but I know the name. My sis must have read this stuff or something. Anyway, I haven't heard or thought of this name in probably about 20 years and when I saw it, I felt like I was beamed into Ms. Jones' first grade classroom. Cool stuff.


I continue on Sunday.

Happy shopping...

Technical Mumbo Jumbo and Christmas Shopping Woes

Staring at the bottle of Absinthe my sis and j got for me from their recent trip. Thanks guys! I'll let the green fairies out another day.

It's been a while but the time in between has been the same ol'. I have tomorrow off but will be doing some stuff for work as usual. I can't believe the people I'll be visiting tomorrow at Coldwell Banker. I promised the staff a one hour tutorial on how to use a Blackberry in hopes that they would stop calling me. It looks like a complex device but the thing is just a screen with a QWERTY keypad and a scroll wheel on the side. Actually it's pretty easy to use after the setup since e-mail gets pushed to the device automatically instead of requesting a download at the user level. This is probably the most worry free, easy to use mobile e-mail client available which makes it so popular with the techies and businessmen. But this is what I'm dealing with: I told them that all they need to do is register the phone online and specify the e-mail addresses they want to have pushed to the device and then to install the provided software to the computer so they can sync their contacts, calendar and to do list with MS Outlook anytime. The last call I got the lady said, "I loaded the CD and tried installing it but I got stuck because the computer asked where I want to put it, so i typed 'in my blackberry' but the computer said it couldn't find a folder in that name. So where should I put it?"... After several calls from them like this one, I didn't know how to answer her without sounding like I was getting frustrated. Apparently the synching software hasn't been installed yet since they don't know how or where they save their programs. And they insist on using the phone's web browser to access their mail like they normally do on a desktop instead of going through a one time registration and setup so that their e-mail is automatically pushed into the phone's inbox from the server in real time like a text message, which is Blackberry's biggest selling point. I asked if they had an IT person on site that could maybe help them out but the supposed IT guy I spoke with had no clue what to do either. I don't know, maybe its because I work with these things everyday so it seems easy. On the other hand, from what I see, most people that decide to get a Blackberry know what they're getting, understand how it works even before they purchase it and have some kind of technical know how to at least install software on a desktop... and I never received calls like these from anyone before these people at Coldwell. Enough of this technical bull...

Christmas is about two weeks away and I haven't bought a single gift for anyone. I don't even have ideas of what to give. I need to do some brainstorming and make some lists or something. People have said that I'm hard to shop for, but I haven't got a clue what to get anyone. With my schedule I have only about three solid days for Christmas shopping. I hate the yearly mall olympics with the road rage, parking spot searches and the disappointment of finding out that something is already sold out. I feel like I won't get my shopping done on time.

Well, I'm buzzed up, tired, sleepy and listening to Sun Kil Moon as usual, and for some reason I feel like watching Donnie Darko for the hundredth time.