It’s just 11 days before I leave on my trip. It’s funny because when I first started preparing, buying the plane tickets and everything, it seemed so far away.
I finally finished putting together the San Francisco plan and I printed it out late Friday night (more like Saturday morning). The total plan is over 300 pages, mostly contingency plans in case I get lost or something takes longer than expected. It’s a solid plan but there are a few concerns.
First, there’s no scheduled time for eating really. Breakfast is factored in and I can eat dinner but there’s no time specifically designated to eat lunch. I’m planning on having a backpack with me and I’ll probably have some snacks or something so that I’ll skip lunch. On the Colorado trip, I skipped dinner. I had a big breakfast and then a late lunch. If I can, I’d like to do that and there are a couple spots in the plan where that might be possible but nothing is scheduled definitively.
Next, I’m checking weather reports and while it’s far too early to change plans around, it’s supposed to rain the early part of the week I’m going out there. To get good pictures, I need the weather to cooperate. But if it absolutely must rain, Thursday’s the best day for it. Much of Friday afternoon would be okay too, other than I’d be out there walking in it.
Third, my side started seizing up yesterday and a couple times today. In fact, there were several points where it was really hurting today. That’s the biggest concern because over the last couple weeks, it seemed like it was improving but…
And that leads to my last major concern…The plan calls for over 12 miles of walking (basically a half marathon). I’ve looked at this several ways and I can’t figure out a realistic way to chop that down any without skipping going to certain places. The most likely place to skip is Buena Vista Park, which is on Friday. It’s not just that I’ll be walking but apparently San Francisco is a hilly place and that’ll make any walking more difficult than it would be anyway.
I’ll have plenty of painkillers on hand and will try to grit through it but obviously it’d be better to not need to use them.
Oh, and I don’t remember if I mentioned this or not but I was granted my other off-day request. There was a slight concern since I was only given one of the two days off that I’d requested. But everything’s fine on that end.
Crime Alert
While this is not so much a major concern, it is noteworthy. I was reading about the San Francisco crime rates and the most dangerous area is the Tenderloin Neighborhood, which is a few blocks from where I’ll be staying. Earlier this month, a guy was shot about five blocks from my hotel and a few weeks earlier, gunmen opened fire killing one and injuring five people in the area.
On the other hand, the Tenderloin is where ‘The Maltese Falcon’ was set, so that’s pretty cool.
Is This Crazy?
I’ve been looking into the frequency of earthquakes in the area because I’d really like to experience one while I’m out there. I don’t mean a giant one or anything. I’d just like to have a small one but big enough to feel it. Of course, if I had to choose between not feeling it and it being a major earthquake…
According to stats, earthquakes happen several times a day in the general region around San Francisco (though not necessarily in the city itself) but rarely do they measure above 2.0. Most are even under 1.0 in magnitude. In order to feel it, the quake has to be at least 3.0 but I’d like it to be at least 4.0. On any given day, there’s an average of around an 80% chance of an earthquake of 2.5-3.7 occurring in the area. Here’s hoping I’ll be out there when it happens.
Creed News
I was watching ‘The Office’ deleted scenes and one of them references Creed Bratton (who I knew was played by a guy with the same name) as being a member of the Grass Roots, a 60s band. I thought it was so out of left field that it might actually be true…and it was. Creed Bratton actually was a member of the Grass Roots. Check out the link because it has an old picture of Creed, which is funny to see.
Most of the famous stuff the band did came after Creed left in 1969. While he was there, they put out Midnight Confessions and Let's Live For Today. After, they had hits with I'd Wait A Million Years, Temptation Eyes, Sooner Or Later and Two Divided By Love.
Check out his website at http://creedbratton.com/ which has some pretty funny things, most notably a Creed for Governor sign with the slogan ‘Exploiting People Who Believe in Vampires.’ There are several pictures of Creed from back in the 60s that are worth a look too.
Final Thoughts
I’ve had this word that I’ve been trying to remember for several months. It had to do with urban renewal but I couldn’t remember the word. The other day, I was reading and saw the word gentrification and I think that was the word I was trying to remember.
I’m completely sick of the NCAA Tournament. And it’s not just because my bracket looks horrible now (Michigan State?) but it’s because the analysts for college basketball are weird. Dick Vitale keeps screaming and Digger Phelps matches his tie to his highlighter. If I see either one ever again, my brain will explode out of my ear.
I'm putting together my list of the Best and Worst Movies of 2008. I have a couple more movies I need to see and hopefully before I leave for San Francisco, I'll post the list.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Bus Tour, Bracket Update & Rocky Marathon
From the beginning of the planning for the San Francisco trip, I’ve had certain concerns about the double decker bus tour and I’ve never been able to really pinpoint the problem. Last week, I had everything booked that needs reservations except for the bus tour. There were four choices to choose from, three of them had pictures of the same bus, making me think that at least two, maybe all three were third parties for another company.
Going through a third party, though apparently cheaper, made me nervous. So I settled on what I thought was the main one of the three and the fourth one, which went around downtown and also stopped at both the north and south vista points of the Golden Gate Bridge. I decided that since this would give me an extra view of the Bridge, I would go with it, even though it was more expensive and took up an extra block of time.
However, when I read the terms of agreement, I began to get a little wary. It was made worse when I was getting ready to enter in my credit card information and the site wasn’t encrypted. I looked up the company on the Better Business Bureau’s website and they had given the company an F. It turns out that the company not only wasn’t based in California but it was in Cobb County, Georgia. They had numerous complaints filed against them and in many cases, the company never bothered to respond to BBB.
So I checked the other company, and while it wasn’t as many complaints, they too had an F rating and had trouble responding to BBB. In addition, their site didn’t offer encryption for credit card information.
I decided that it was better to get rid of the bus tour. On the one hand I’m disappointed but it will save a lot of time and a little bit of money as well. And if I’d gone on the tour and been forced to sit on the bottom level, I would’ve really been upset. I hope not going on the tour turns out to be a good thing.
Giant News
I got the tickets to the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark tour this week. I don’t know why they wouldn’t let me print them out but at least I got them in the mail without any problem.
Randy Johnson’s having a really good Spring, which is good news for him but bad news for me. The depth chart’s now listing him as the second starter, meaning I’ll see Matt Cain against the Brewers’ Jeff Suppan. Baseball’s baseball regardless but it would’ve been cool to see Johnson again (or even Barry Zito, currently listed as the team’s fourth starter).
On Opening Day, the Giants are giving away a calendar. On game two, they’re giving away collectable pins. And on the third game? Nothing. So I don’t get anything and I’m forced to see Cain, whose brother Abel was quite the shepherd from what I hear.
Rocky Marathon
My girlfriend and I watched 11 hours worth of movies this weekend, including Rocky I, II, III, IV and Rocky Balboa. Instead of watching the fifth one, I just explained the major details of the plot, though you can pretty much pretend it didn’t happen and move from part four to part six. She’d never seen any of the Rocky movies.
A couple things I was struck by about the series is that the little details hold up fairly well from beginning to end. Well, it was kinda odd that Mickey was 76 in the first one and he died in the third one, which was set five years later, at the age of 76.
The first two are similar in style to each other but the third and (especially) the fourth one seemed sillier, going for laughs in many places. And what was the deal with that robot in the fourth one.
Rocky Balboa, the sixth movie, is a successful return to franchise’s roots. I’ve seen the movie a few times but I appreciated it more having watched all the others back to back. In my original review, I wrote that it was the best one since the original and that I wasn’t sure if it might not be better than the first one. I still don’t.
Angelina
The other movie we watched was ‘Changeling,’ starring Angelina Jolie in the role in which she was nominated for an Oscar. It was a well-made movie and I certainly was interested from beginning to end. The plot was so unbelievable that I went to the Internet to find out how close this kept to the true story and it was relatively close, considering how movies go. I object to the starting of the story featuring the phrase: ‘A True Story’ when any details are changed. Enough was changed for it to be labeled ‘Based on a true story.’
Did Jolie deserve an Oscar? Here’s my problem with Angelina…I’ve never seen her in a movie where I was able to get past who she is. Is that her fault or mine? Sometimes it doesn’t matter but in this one, I found her presence to be distracting and I think someone else playing the part might’ve been more effective.
My Brackets
Okay, so my brackets aren’t super great. I already know I don’t know anything about college basketball.
I’m not going into the few upsets that I nearly picked because that’s pointless. It also wastes time to list the games I got right. You can look at the last entry and the scores for that. The bottom line regarding the Sweet Sixteen: I had three of four right in the Midwest, three of four in the West, three of four in the East and all four right in the South. And all my Elite Eight teams are still alive right now.
Final Thoughts
So much for the possible resurgence of ‘Scrubs.’ After a decently positive start, ‘Scrubs’ has sucked so bad as of late. This past week’s episode ranks up there as one of the worst of the series’ history.
Speaking of television, another week has gone by and I didn’t tape ‘The Simpsons.’ Am I missing it? No.
Want to know the greatest opening line to an article? James Mason had known his wife since she was a little boy.
Going through a third party, though apparently cheaper, made me nervous. So I settled on what I thought was the main one of the three and the fourth one, which went around downtown and also stopped at both the north and south vista points of the Golden Gate Bridge. I decided that since this would give me an extra view of the Bridge, I would go with it, even though it was more expensive and took up an extra block of time.
However, when I read the terms of agreement, I began to get a little wary. It was made worse when I was getting ready to enter in my credit card information and the site wasn’t encrypted. I looked up the company on the Better Business Bureau’s website and they had given the company an F. It turns out that the company not only wasn’t based in California but it was in Cobb County, Georgia. They had numerous complaints filed against them and in many cases, the company never bothered to respond to BBB.
So I checked the other company, and while it wasn’t as many complaints, they too had an F rating and had trouble responding to BBB. In addition, their site didn’t offer encryption for credit card information.
I decided that it was better to get rid of the bus tour. On the one hand I’m disappointed but it will save a lot of time and a little bit of money as well. And if I’d gone on the tour and been forced to sit on the bottom level, I would’ve really been upset. I hope not going on the tour turns out to be a good thing.
Giant News
I got the tickets to the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark tour this week. I don’t know why they wouldn’t let me print them out but at least I got them in the mail without any problem.
Randy Johnson’s having a really good Spring, which is good news for him but bad news for me. The depth chart’s now listing him as the second starter, meaning I’ll see Matt Cain against the Brewers’ Jeff Suppan. Baseball’s baseball regardless but it would’ve been cool to see Johnson again (or even Barry Zito, currently listed as the team’s fourth starter).
On Opening Day, the Giants are giving away a calendar. On game two, they’re giving away collectable pins. And on the third game? Nothing. So I don’t get anything and I’m forced to see Cain, whose brother Abel was quite the shepherd from what I hear.
Rocky Marathon
My girlfriend and I watched 11 hours worth of movies this weekend, including Rocky I, II, III, IV and Rocky Balboa. Instead of watching the fifth one, I just explained the major details of the plot, though you can pretty much pretend it didn’t happen and move from part four to part six. She’d never seen any of the Rocky movies.
A couple things I was struck by about the series is that the little details hold up fairly well from beginning to end. Well, it was kinda odd that Mickey was 76 in the first one and he died in the third one, which was set five years later, at the age of 76.
The first two are similar in style to each other but the third and (especially) the fourth one seemed sillier, going for laughs in many places. And what was the deal with that robot in the fourth one.
Rocky Balboa, the sixth movie, is a successful return to franchise’s roots. I’ve seen the movie a few times but I appreciated it more having watched all the others back to back. In my original review, I wrote that it was the best one since the original and that I wasn’t sure if it might not be better than the first one. I still don’t.
Angelina
The other movie we watched was ‘Changeling,’ starring Angelina Jolie in the role in which she was nominated for an Oscar. It was a well-made movie and I certainly was interested from beginning to end. The plot was so unbelievable that I went to the Internet to find out how close this kept to the true story and it was relatively close, considering how movies go. I object to the starting of the story featuring the phrase: ‘A True Story’ when any details are changed. Enough was changed for it to be labeled ‘Based on a true story.’
Did Jolie deserve an Oscar? Here’s my problem with Angelina…I’ve never seen her in a movie where I was able to get past who she is. Is that her fault or mine? Sometimes it doesn’t matter but in this one, I found her presence to be distracting and I think someone else playing the part might’ve been more effective.
My Brackets
Okay, so my brackets aren’t super great. I already know I don’t know anything about college basketball.
I’m not going into the few upsets that I nearly picked because that’s pointless. It also wastes time to list the games I got right. You can look at the last entry and the scores for that. The bottom line regarding the Sweet Sixteen: I had three of four right in the Midwest, three of four in the West, three of four in the East and all four right in the South. And all my Elite Eight teams are still alive right now.
Final Thoughts
So much for the possible resurgence of ‘Scrubs.’ After a decently positive start, ‘Scrubs’ has sucked so bad as of late. This past week’s episode ranks up there as one of the worst of the series’ history.
Speaking of television, another week has gone by and I didn’t tape ‘The Simpsons.’ Am I missing it? No.
Want to know the greatest opening line to an article? James Mason had known his wife since she was a little boy.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Blind Bracket Picks & Penishead Exits?
It’s bracket time and I know absolutely nothing college basketball. I haven’t watched a single game from start to finish and I’ve probably watched no more than five straight minutes of any one game. So these picks are out of complete ignorance.
Every year, I tend to have all the number ones in the Final Four, and last year was the first time I ever got that right. This year, I have all the number ones except for Memphis, which is a number two. Oh, and virtually every year I pick UNC to win and this year's no different.
So, we’ll see how close these picks are…
In the Midwest:
First Round
(1) Louisville over (16) Morehead State
(9) Siena over (8) Ohio State
(5) Utah over (12) Arizona
(4) Wake Forest over (13) Cleveland State
(6) West Virginia over (11) Dayton
(3) Kansas over (14) North Dakota State
(10) USC over (7) Boston College
(2) Michigan State over (15) Robert Morris
Second Round
(1) Louisville over (9) Siena
(4) Wake Forest over (5) Utah
(3) Kansas over (6) West Virginia
(2) Michigan State over (10) USC
Sweet 16
(1) Louisville over (4) Wake Forest
(3) Kansas over (2) Michigan State
Regional Final
(1) Louisville over (3) Kansas
In the West:
First Round
(1) UConn over (16) Chattanooga
(8) BYU over (9) Texas A&M
(5) Purdue over (12) Northern Iowa
(4) Washington over (13) Mississippi State
(6) Marquette over (11) Utah State
(3) Missouri over (14) Cornell
(10) Maryland over (7) Cal
(2) Memphis over (15) Cal State Northridge
Second Round
(1) UConn over (8) BYU
(4) Washington over (5) Purdue
(3) Missouri over (6) Marquette
(2) Memphis over (10) Maryland
Sweet 16
(1) UConn over (4) Washington
(2) Memphis over (3) Missouri
Regional Final
(2) Memphis over (1) UConn
In the East
First Round
(1) Pitt over (16) E. Tennessee State
(9) Tennessee over (8) Oklahoma State
(12) Wisconsin over (5) Florida State
(4) Xavier over (13) Portland State
(11) VCU over (6) UCLA
(3) Villanova over (14) American
(7) Texas over (10) Minnesota
(2) Duke over (15) Binghamton
Second Round
(1) Pitt over (9) Tennessee
(4) Xavier over (12) Wisconsin
(3) Villanova over (11) VCU
(7) Texas over (2) Duke
Sweet 16
(1) Pitt over (4) Xavier
(3) Villanova over (7) Texas
Regional Final
(1) Pitt over (3) Villanova
In the South
First Round
(1) UNC over (16) Radford
(8) LSU over (9) Butler
(5) Illinois over (12) Western Kentucky
(4) Gonzaga over (13) Akron
(6) Arizona State over (11) Temple
(3) Syracuse over (14) Stephen F. Austin
(7) Clemson over (10) Michigan
(2) Oklahoma over (15) Morgan State
Second Round
(1) UNC over (8) LSU
(4) Gonzaga over (5) Illinois
(3) Syracuse over (6) Arizona State
(2) Oklahoma over (7) Clemson
Sweet 16
(1) UNC over (4) Gonzaga
(3) Syracuse over (2) Oklahoma
Regional Final
(1) UNC over (3) Syracuse
Final Four
Louisville over Memphis
UNC over Pitt
National Title
UNC over Louisville
World Baseball Classic Notes
I didn’t pay any attention to the World Baseball Classic in 2006 when it first started but I’ve watched a few of the games this time around. A couple thoughts: This means so much more to people in other countries than it does to Americans. When you look at the games that took place in San Juan, the stands were packed and it was wild.
Second, the two games between the Dominican Republic and Netherlands were absolutely incredible and fun to watch.
Finally, I realize that injuries can happen in Spring Training but when Chipper Jones is out with an oblique injury that I have a feeling will be nagging him all season long and USA manager Davey Johnson puts Braves’ catcher Brian McCann out in left field, I can’t be too enthusiastic about the WBC.
Side Notes
Last night, I hardly slept. My side was really hurting and I couldn’t get in a position that would allow me to go to sleep. I finally managed to fall asleep a little after 1am and then I woke up for a while after 3am. I then woke up at 5:30am and I didn’t get back to sleep until about 7am. I then woke up for good a little after 9am.
Besides being really tired today, the bigger concern is how this affects the San Francisco trip. Over the last couple weeks prior to this week, I was feeling better. I was cautiously optimistic that maybe I’d be near 100% by mid-April and that the planning wouldn’t be affected by my side. Unfortunately, it appears likely that it will be a factor while I’m out there.
I’ll try to plan around it the best I can but there’s a part of me that believes that this might be the only chance I have to go out there and if there are things that I don’t see, I’m going to really regret it. And it’ll probably cause me to push through when maybe I shouldn’t and it’ll cause me to do possible significant damage.
The biggest day that I’m concerned about is Friday, where I’m set to do the most amount of walking, possibly three miles or so. I’ll have pain killers on hand and might need to prioritize some things so that if I absolutely can’t keep walking, I won’t miss anything too important.
But it is a concern. I’ll try to be careful over the next few week so that I can be as healthy as possible by trip time. For instance, I have undated tickets to Six Flags and while I’d love to do that before the trip, that’s not going to be possible. My real goal would be to go before school gets out but that looks unlikely.
I could go on April 18th, the week after I get back but I imagine I’ll be pretty worn out. That next weekend, my girlfriend and I will be going to Talladega for my first auto race. So that makes it unlikely until May. Because the tickets are undated, it means I can wait to see what the weather is going to do and then go.
So Long, Penishead!
Okay, so apparently Penishead’s last day really was yesterday. He’s been saying that his last day was near since November. ‘My last day is next Monday’ or ‘My last day’s the Monday after next’ is all I’ve been hearing for the last five months. So it wasn’t a Monday at all…it was a Tuesday.
Is there a chance that he’s still there today or tomorrow? Will his desk be cleared out? I don’t know. I’m still not sold. I realize that he was given a cake and flowers and everyone was saying goodbye but I still have trouble believing he’s really gone this time. He’s fooled me so many times before that I just don’t want to be fooled again.
Final Thoughts
I was clearing out stuff in my jacket pocket yesterday and I had a receipt from Applebee’s from a couple weeks ago. The name of the waitress that night was Say-Ruh. That’s the way a person from Macon would pronounce Sarah.
Research shows that old age begins at 27 and I feel it. I tell you, sometimes I start sentences that I never
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Baby Concerns, Doctor Bills & Dr. Manhattan...Again
Okay, this post will be the last time I mention Dr. Manhattan…I think…maybe. I feel like I’ve lost the ability to be funny because I saw a naked blue man and this isn’t right. What’s wrong with me that seeing a giant blue naked man should have any effect on me at all? Am I that immature? Well, probably.
So, I’ll mention it one more time and I’ll try to make that the last time. And then maybe I can move on. Maybe.
What’s the Deal With Babies?
I just got back from a birthday party for this baby, and while I’d met this baby before, I’m quite sure it didn’t remember me at all. Which is strange because all it did the first time was stare at me like it was analyzing me for a weakness.
And that’s the thing about babies. They haven’t learned that it’s not polite to just keep staring at someone, especially someone you don’t know. It’s not like you can even just stare back at them and they’ll realize they’re being rude. I know this because I tried it. I stared back at the baby just as intently as it was staring at me. Did the baby look away? No. It had this expression of, ‘I’ll meet your challenge, Oblong Face.’
Was it intimidating? Not really. Here’s why: Because I’m quite confident that a baby can’t defeat me, especially one I only see every two months. And once they start actually understanding English, that’s when you can start playing head games with them. Then they have no chance of winning.
Quick SF Notes
I still haven’t made the double decker bus tour reservation. I’m having reservations about making the reservation, which is why I haven’t made the reservation yet. Why am I picturing an Indian dancing around a teepee right now?
At work, I’ve gotten one of the requested vacation days approved but Monday still hasn’t been approved yet. That could be a potential problem.
I had a dream the other day that I didn’t pack until the day I was leaving for San Francisco and I tried packing everything into a backpack. It was horrible and I woke up in a panic. I also had a dream that I was moving out of my apartment and even though my lease was a month from being up, they were charging me $15,000 to leave and the head of the complex was my old landlord from Virginia. His name was Frank Gough. He may or may not be dead now.
Inevitable Post-‘Watchmen’ Date Conversation
‘Sure Dr. Manhattan is well-endowed and has amazing biceps and triceps and lats,’ she says.
‘And don’t forget his pecs. You could stick your finger in his pecs,’ he notes.
‘Yeah and he has amazing pecs…’ her voice trailing off.
‘I’m waiting for the but.’
‘Yeah, his butt was pretty incredible too.’
Let this be a warning to you, little grasshoppers. Let this be a warning.
My Netflix Movie
I still haven’t received ‘Changeling’ from Netflix yet. It was supposed to be here on Tuesday and it hasn’t arrived. What’s the deal? Why am I even mentioning this?
My Doctor Bill
I still keep getting hospital bills from October and November of last year and every time I think everything is paid, they send me another bill. Well, this most recent bill matched an exact amount that I already paid a month ago. The notice advised me that I was going to be reported to a collection agency if I didn’t pay immediately.
I called the billing group and after acting like I was some deadbeat, I was told that it takes 30-45 days to show up in their system after a payment posts to a bank account. So, if I pay on the due date and a collection notice generate three weeks after that date, a collection notice will automatically generate because it takes 4-6 weeks for them to be able tell they received a payment.
And why does it take that long for a payment to show in their system since everything is computerized? I didn’t bother asking.
As a Follow Up to Last Post
Jim Cramer went on ‘The Daily Show’ this past week and I thought Jon Stewart really did an excellent job interviewing him and asking very difficult questions. This isn’t an interview that goes for laughs but is really serious media critiquing.
Below is the unedited, uncensored version and it’s definitely worth watching. After watching, read this article for reaction to what you just watched.
So, I’ll mention it one more time and I’ll try to make that the last time. And then maybe I can move on. Maybe.
What’s the Deal With Babies?
I just got back from a birthday party for this baby, and while I’d met this baby before, I’m quite sure it didn’t remember me at all. Which is strange because all it did the first time was stare at me like it was analyzing me for a weakness.
And that’s the thing about babies. They haven’t learned that it’s not polite to just keep staring at someone, especially someone you don’t know. It’s not like you can even just stare back at them and they’ll realize they’re being rude. I know this because I tried it. I stared back at the baby just as intently as it was staring at me. Did the baby look away? No. It had this expression of, ‘I’ll meet your challenge, Oblong Face.’
Was it intimidating? Not really. Here’s why: Because I’m quite confident that a baby can’t defeat me, especially one I only see every two months. And once they start actually understanding English, that’s when you can start playing head games with them. Then they have no chance of winning.
Quick SF Notes
I still haven’t made the double decker bus tour reservation. I’m having reservations about making the reservation, which is why I haven’t made the reservation yet. Why am I picturing an Indian dancing around a teepee right now?
At work, I’ve gotten one of the requested vacation days approved but Monday still hasn’t been approved yet. That could be a potential problem.
I had a dream the other day that I didn’t pack until the day I was leaving for San Francisco and I tried packing everything into a backpack. It was horrible and I woke up in a panic. I also had a dream that I was moving out of my apartment and even though my lease was a month from being up, they were charging me $15,000 to leave and the head of the complex was my old landlord from Virginia. His name was Frank Gough. He may or may not be dead now.
Inevitable Post-‘Watchmen’ Date Conversation
‘Sure Dr. Manhattan is well-endowed and has amazing biceps and triceps and lats,’ she says.
‘And don’t forget his pecs. You could stick your finger in his pecs,’ he notes.
‘Yeah and he has amazing pecs…’ her voice trailing off.
‘I’m waiting for the but.’
‘Yeah, his butt was pretty incredible too.’
Let this be a warning to you, little grasshoppers. Let this be a warning.
My Netflix Movie
I still haven’t received ‘Changeling’ from Netflix yet. It was supposed to be here on Tuesday and it hasn’t arrived. What’s the deal? Why am I even mentioning this?
My Doctor Bill
I still keep getting hospital bills from October and November of last year and every time I think everything is paid, they send me another bill. Well, this most recent bill matched an exact amount that I already paid a month ago. The notice advised me that I was going to be reported to a collection agency if I didn’t pay immediately.
I called the billing group and after acting like I was some deadbeat, I was told that it takes 30-45 days to show up in their system after a payment posts to a bank account. So, if I pay on the due date and a collection notice generate three weeks after that date, a collection notice will automatically generate because it takes 4-6 weeks for them to be able tell they received a payment.
And why does it take that long for a payment to show in their system since everything is computerized? I didn’t bother asking.
As a Follow Up to Last Post
Jim Cramer went on ‘The Daily Show’ this past week and I thought Jon Stewart really did an excellent job interviewing him and asking very difficult questions. This isn’t an interview that goes for laughs but is really serious media critiquing.
Below is the unedited, uncensored version and it’s definitely worth watching. After watching, read this article for reaction to what you just watched.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
More Planning and Chuck Norris for President
Today was a big day in planning for the trip to San Francisco. It’s four weeks until I leave and I’ve got a tentative schedule in place that includes reservations that have been made for everything but one event where reservations are needed.
I called several places to make sure that booking on Easter weekend wouldn’t be a problem. And this probably shows my Southern skewed viewpoint because in Georgia, several places are closed on Easter, a few others are actually closed on Good Friday. But in the Devil’s City, Easter isn’t observed, so visiting most attractions on Easter isn’t a problem.
The best news I learned today was that the movie tour has extended breaks at two locations but actually stops at eight places, including at the Painted Ladies mural, which I’m very happy about. The person I spoke to was really friendly and it made me more confident that taking this tour is a good idea. And it better be since it’s the most expensive thing on the docket and it also takes up the most time, a three hour block of time.
Also today, I checked bus and subway schedules to make sure I have enough time to get from place to place and while it’s close, it fits. Several places can be switched around if it comes to that and there is a certain amount of flexibility, though not as much as I’d like.
The current schedule of events:
Thursday: San Francisco Visitors Center to pick up the City Pass and ask a couple questions about the way it works (namely, does it cover buses, because it seems to but I’m not sure). Try to check into the hotel early if they’ll let me. Visit Yerba Buena Garden, Modern Art Museum and if there’s time, the Cartoon Museum. Then I’ll watch the Giants play the Brewers, still crossing my fingers that Randy Johnson will be the team’s third starter.
Friday: Heading out at 6:15AM, stopping by Twin Peaks, Buena Vista Park, Castro Street and Castro Theater. Walking along Haight-Asbury area. Visiting the Conservatory of Flowers, Academy of Sciences, Shakespeare Garden, Botanical Gardens, the Japanese Tea Garden and Stow Lake, which has a cool looking waterfall. Then I’ll go to the de Young museum and the giant Dutch windmill in the Tulip Garden. There are several options on what to do next but the goal is to see the Seal Rocks and make my first stop at the Golden Gate Bridge before getting back to the hotel by 8pm.
Saturday: I’ve made reservations for the first ferry out to Alcatraz that boards at 8:30am. That should end at 11:30 and I need to book it across town for the AT&T ballpark tour at 12:30, for which I also have reservations. Then I go back to the wharf (maybe stopping at Coit Tower first), and I’ll take a open top double decker bus tour. If I didn’t do it in the morning, I’ll stop by Lombard Street, ‘the crookedest street’ before going to the Cable Car museum and Grace Cathedral. Depending on how I’m feeling and what I did on Friday, I might visit a couple Victorian style houses and Alta Plaza (which supposedly has good views of the Golden Gate Bridge). Most likely, I’ll be back to the hotel by 8pm.
Sunday: I’ll stop by Lombard Street if I didn’t get a good picture of it the day before and then continue to the Aquarium before going on the movie tour at 10:30. I should be back in time for the Blue and Gold Cruise (which goes under the Golden Gate Bridge) and then I’ll visit the battleship the Jeremiah O’Brien (on which I’ll keep saying, ‘You sunk my battleship’ over and over again) and the submarine the USS Pampanito. Then I’ll go on to Coit Tower if I haven’t already. If I have, then I can do the double decker tour again if my pictures from Saturday didn’t come out good. If the pictures were good and I don’t have anything else left to do, I can watch a movie at a nearby theater or rest in the hotel.
Monday: There are a couple things I can do before I need to leave if I didn’t already do them, but I need to head to the airport by 10:40. I’ll land back in Atlanta around 8:45 and should be home by 9:45.
Again, it’s a packed weekend but it seems doable and hopefully there’s enough flexibility to fit everything in and move stuff around depending on the weather. There’s enough redundancy that if I don’t get a shot on one day, I should be able to get a comparable shot at another point.
After I make the reservations for the bus tour, I’ll start putting a packet together. It will include information on each event, every possible travel point to that location, alternate times and alternate timelines for each day in every conceivable way that the events can be changed and flipped around. That way, if something doesn’t work out, there’ll be a contingency plan in place.
While the heart of that can start now, I can’t get that completely done until I have access to the Easter weekend bus and train schedule. The current plans are based on this month’s schedule and while the schedules aren’t likely that different, I just want to make sure everything has been planned for.
His last name is Norris and his first name is Chuck
Chuck Norris is interested in being president…of Texas. Before you think Chuck is confusing president with being governor of a state, it’s worth noting that he envisions Texas seceding from the Union. That didn’t work out too well the first time but then again, Robert E. Lee didn’t have Master Chuck on his side. So what if he had a couple great generals serving under him? Could any of them roundhouse kick?
Chuck fears that state of the union is turning into the enemy of the state. And while I could argue with him, he would just punch me with his beard.
Want to see a funny Chuck Norris clip? Check this out:
One day, I think it’d be funny to post a series of funny Chuck Norris clips the way I did the funny ‘Price is Right’ clips.
Brave New World Update
I’ve never heard of the ‘Iron Chef’ before but apparently Cat Cora and her lesbian partner Jennifer Cora are both pregnant and will give birth three months apart. They already have two children and all four kids will have been created from the same sperm donor so all of them will be biologically related. Cat is carrying an embryo created using Jennifer’s egg and in Jennifer’s previous pregnancy, she carried an embryo that was created using Cat’s egg.
In perhaps related news that could be entirely unrelated…Aldous Huxley died on November 22, 1963. Just a thought that occurred to me when reading that article.
Showtime/TMC: Out
I have my Charter bill deducted each month, so I don’t look too closely at my bill. I’d received a letter saying that the cost of certain items would be going up, so when my bill increased this year, I didn’t think anything of it. But it turns out that Showtime and The Movie Channel are now $14 a month. Because of this, I cancelled both of them and added HBO and Cinemax which cost the same thing.
Showtime and TMC have no series worth watching and rarely do they have any quality movies. I used to have HBO and was happy with it back then. I’ve never had Cinemax but it can’t be worse than either Showtime or TMC.
Simpsons: Out
Alright, earlier this season, I stopped an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ before it was over. The week before last, I didn’t see the episode due to the NASCAR race that ran long. This past Sunday, I stopped an episode before the first commercial. Have I given up on the show? In a word…Yes.
I should’ve stopped watching this drivel years ago but I kept hoping it would get better. But not only is it not funny, which it’s not, but it’s unclear whether it’s even trying to be funny. It’s just, uh, boring. And I know boring (see above listed travel itinerary). I removed ‘The Simpsons’ from my series record list on my DVR.
Now some of you (read: one of you) might think I’ll relapse. Believe me, I won’t.
Birthdays
I’m not sure I understand having a birthday party for a one year old. Not only will the baby not remember anything but one year olds seem easily confused. The baby doesn’t know what it’s being given and it’s more for the mother anyway. It’s marking a year since she gave birth and now people are giving the baby stuff that she doesn’t have to get for the baby.
A party for a two year old makes a little more sense. They are speaking by then, right? But I doubt they’re saying anything all that interesting. I’m betting they’re doing a lot of pointing still and I don’t like people who point a lot, even if they are babies.
I think maybe birthdays should be celebrated every few years. Maybe just the milestone ones. Five, ten, 16, 21, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70. If you live past 70, you should be happy any time you’re still around. You shouldn’t need to have a cake to say, ‘I can’t believe you made it through another year.’
If each person only had ten birthdays a year, there’d probably be fewer wars, more travelling calls in the NBA and better television.
Final Thoughts
I had barbequed meatballs today. They were okay.
Actually, I’m still stuck thinking about Dr. Manhattan.
Final Thoughts: Take Two
March 9, 2009:
March 10, 2009:
I called several places to make sure that booking on Easter weekend wouldn’t be a problem. And this probably shows my Southern skewed viewpoint because in Georgia, several places are closed on Easter, a few others are actually closed on Good Friday. But in the Devil’s City, Easter isn’t observed, so visiting most attractions on Easter isn’t a problem.
The best news I learned today was that the movie tour has extended breaks at two locations but actually stops at eight places, including at the Painted Ladies mural, which I’m very happy about. The person I spoke to was really friendly and it made me more confident that taking this tour is a good idea. And it better be since it’s the most expensive thing on the docket and it also takes up the most time, a three hour block of time.
Also today, I checked bus and subway schedules to make sure I have enough time to get from place to place and while it’s close, it fits. Several places can be switched around if it comes to that and there is a certain amount of flexibility, though not as much as I’d like.
The current schedule of events:
Thursday: San Francisco Visitors Center to pick up the City Pass and ask a couple questions about the way it works (namely, does it cover buses, because it seems to but I’m not sure). Try to check into the hotel early if they’ll let me. Visit Yerba Buena Garden, Modern Art Museum and if there’s time, the Cartoon Museum. Then I’ll watch the Giants play the Brewers, still crossing my fingers that Randy Johnson will be the team’s third starter.
Friday: Heading out at 6:15AM, stopping by Twin Peaks, Buena Vista Park, Castro Street and Castro Theater. Walking along Haight-Asbury area. Visiting the Conservatory of Flowers, Academy of Sciences, Shakespeare Garden, Botanical Gardens, the Japanese Tea Garden and Stow Lake, which has a cool looking waterfall. Then I’ll go to the de Young museum and the giant Dutch windmill in the Tulip Garden. There are several options on what to do next but the goal is to see the Seal Rocks and make my first stop at the Golden Gate Bridge before getting back to the hotel by 8pm.
Saturday: I’ve made reservations for the first ferry out to Alcatraz that boards at 8:30am. That should end at 11:30 and I need to book it across town for the AT&T ballpark tour at 12:30, for which I also have reservations. Then I go back to the wharf (maybe stopping at Coit Tower first), and I’ll take a open top double decker bus tour. If I didn’t do it in the morning, I’ll stop by Lombard Street, ‘the crookedest street’ before going to the Cable Car museum and Grace Cathedral. Depending on how I’m feeling and what I did on Friday, I might visit a couple Victorian style houses and Alta Plaza (which supposedly has good views of the Golden Gate Bridge). Most likely, I’ll be back to the hotel by 8pm.
Sunday: I’ll stop by Lombard Street if I didn’t get a good picture of it the day before and then continue to the Aquarium before going on the movie tour at 10:30. I should be back in time for the Blue and Gold Cruise (which goes under the Golden Gate Bridge) and then I’ll visit the battleship the Jeremiah O’Brien (on which I’ll keep saying, ‘You sunk my battleship’ over and over again) and the submarine the USS Pampanito. Then I’ll go on to Coit Tower if I haven’t already. If I have, then I can do the double decker tour again if my pictures from Saturday didn’t come out good. If the pictures were good and I don’t have anything else left to do, I can watch a movie at a nearby theater or rest in the hotel.
Monday: There are a couple things I can do before I need to leave if I didn’t already do them, but I need to head to the airport by 10:40. I’ll land back in Atlanta around 8:45 and should be home by 9:45.
Again, it’s a packed weekend but it seems doable and hopefully there’s enough flexibility to fit everything in and move stuff around depending on the weather. There’s enough redundancy that if I don’t get a shot on one day, I should be able to get a comparable shot at another point.
After I make the reservations for the bus tour, I’ll start putting a packet together. It will include information on each event, every possible travel point to that location, alternate times and alternate timelines for each day in every conceivable way that the events can be changed and flipped around. That way, if something doesn’t work out, there’ll be a contingency plan in place.
While the heart of that can start now, I can’t get that completely done until I have access to the Easter weekend bus and train schedule. The current plans are based on this month’s schedule and while the schedules aren’t likely that different, I just want to make sure everything has been planned for.
His last name is Norris and his first name is Chuck
Chuck Norris is interested in being president…of Texas. Before you think Chuck is confusing president with being governor of a state, it’s worth noting that he envisions Texas seceding from the Union. That didn’t work out too well the first time but then again, Robert E. Lee didn’t have Master Chuck on his side. So what if he had a couple great generals serving under him? Could any of them roundhouse kick?
Chuck fears that state of the union is turning into the enemy of the state. And while I could argue with him, he would just punch me with his beard.
Want to see a funny Chuck Norris clip? Check this out:
One day, I think it’d be funny to post a series of funny Chuck Norris clips the way I did the funny ‘Price is Right’ clips.
Brave New World Update
I’ve never heard of the ‘Iron Chef’ before but apparently Cat Cora and her lesbian partner Jennifer Cora are both pregnant and will give birth three months apart. They already have two children and all four kids will have been created from the same sperm donor so all of them will be biologically related. Cat is carrying an embryo created using Jennifer’s egg and in Jennifer’s previous pregnancy, she carried an embryo that was created using Cat’s egg.
In perhaps related news that could be entirely unrelated…Aldous Huxley died on November 22, 1963. Just a thought that occurred to me when reading that article.
Showtime/TMC: Out
I have my Charter bill deducted each month, so I don’t look too closely at my bill. I’d received a letter saying that the cost of certain items would be going up, so when my bill increased this year, I didn’t think anything of it. But it turns out that Showtime and The Movie Channel are now $14 a month. Because of this, I cancelled both of them and added HBO and Cinemax which cost the same thing.
Showtime and TMC have no series worth watching and rarely do they have any quality movies. I used to have HBO and was happy with it back then. I’ve never had Cinemax but it can’t be worse than either Showtime or TMC.
Simpsons: Out
Alright, earlier this season, I stopped an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ before it was over. The week before last, I didn’t see the episode due to the NASCAR race that ran long. This past Sunday, I stopped an episode before the first commercial. Have I given up on the show? In a word…Yes.
I should’ve stopped watching this drivel years ago but I kept hoping it would get better. But not only is it not funny, which it’s not, but it’s unclear whether it’s even trying to be funny. It’s just, uh, boring. And I know boring (see above listed travel itinerary). I removed ‘The Simpsons’ from my series record list on my DVR.
Now some of you (read: one of you) might think I’ll relapse. Believe me, I won’t.
Birthdays
I’m not sure I understand having a birthday party for a one year old. Not only will the baby not remember anything but one year olds seem easily confused. The baby doesn’t know what it’s being given and it’s more for the mother anyway. It’s marking a year since she gave birth and now people are giving the baby stuff that she doesn’t have to get for the baby.
A party for a two year old makes a little more sense. They are speaking by then, right? But I doubt they’re saying anything all that interesting. I’m betting they’re doing a lot of pointing still and I don’t like people who point a lot, even if they are babies.
I think maybe birthdays should be celebrated every few years. Maybe just the milestone ones. Five, ten, 16, 21, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70. If you live past 70, you should be happy any time you’re still around. You shouldn’t need to have a cake to say, ‘I can’t believe you made it through another year.’
If each person only had ten birthdays a year, there’d probably be fewer wars, more travelling calls in the NBA and better television.
Final Thoughts
I had barbequed meatballs today. They were okay.
Actually, I’m still stuck thinking about Dr. Manhattan.
Final Thoughts: Take Two
Okay, since I’m still messed up with that whole Dr. Manhattan thing, I’m going to end this with a series of clips regarding the feud between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer. That’s at least funny.
March 9, 2009:
March 10, 2009:
Sunday, March 8, 2009
SF Trip, Dr. Manhattan & Extra Pizza
Okay, so I’m slacking on the planning for the trip. What I need to do this week, is call several places that are tentatively scheduled for Sunday to make sure they’re open on Easter. I need to calculate the travel distances between the events and then by Wednesday (hopefully), start making reservations and locking everything in place.
Once everything is locked in place, I’ll print out some of the stuff I found off the Internet so I’ll have an Internet guide in addition to the travel guide I bought at Barnes & Noble.
The goal is to get everything done by next weekend, so I’ll have four weeks leading up to the trip and everything pretty much in place. Then I can focus on packing.
And Then There’s Dr. Manhattan
My girlfriend and I saw ‘Watchmen’ on Saturday at the new IMAX that just opened near Southlake Mall. The sound was incredible in the theater.
I could give me review of the movie, but I’ll be honest, what I really took away from the film more than anything is that I felt very emasculated. The same thing happened after I watched the other Zach Snyder directed film, ‘300.’ After my brother and I had watched ‘300,’ we went to Best Buy and I saw a woman struggling to pick up a box to get it into her car. So I helped her and that helped to counteract the way I felt after watching ‘300.’
But after ‘Watchmen,’ there were no women putting boxes into their cars that I could help them with. So instead, I kept thinking about Dr. Manhattan and his shoulders, pecs and yes, his giant blue penis that hung out there most of the movie.
After we got home, I put on another Billy Crudup movie, ‘Almost Famous’ just to show my girlfriend that Dr. Manhattan was a CGI creation. ‘Almost Famous’ is a really good movie but it didn’t keep me from thinking about Dr. Manhattan.
I Was Further Freaked Out When...
I went to Pizza Hut on Sunday. I’d ordered a pizza and cheesesticks online for carryout. When I went to pick it up, the cashier was staring off to the side, his tongue poking out of his mouth, displaying his bluish tongue stud. He look at me, and I realized he had these super-sea blue contacts in. You know, the ones that make your eyes look freaky. To top it off, he had very over dramatic hand movements and an effeminate way of talking.
He explained that he wasn’t paying attention and did the pizza wrong, so it had to be redone. Since they couldn’t use the other pizza, he gave me the ‘wrong’ pizza for free. So, I got two pizzas for the price of one. And that was good but he completely freaked the hell out of me.
Final Thoughts
I accidentally bought Brawny the other day. Didn’t their cover guy used to have a beard? What happened to the beard? Dude looks like he has a shrunken head too. It’s really freaky and I don’t think I like it.
Who am I kidding…I’m really still thinking about Dr. Manhattan.
Once everything is locked in place, I’ll print out some of the stuff I found off the Internet so I’ll have an Internet guide in addition to the travel guide I bought at Barnes & Noble.
The goal is to get everything done by next weekend, so I’ll have four weeks leading up to the trip and everything pretty much in place. Then I can focus on packing.
And Then There’s Dr. Manhattan
My girlfriend and I saw ‘Watchmen’ on Saturday at the new IMAX that just opened near Southlake Mall. The sound was incredible in the theater.
I could give me review of the movie, but I’ll be honest, what I really took away from the film more than anything is that I felt very emasculated. The same thing happened after I watched the other Zach Snyder directed film, ‘300.’ After my brother and I had watched ‘300,’ we went to Best Buy and I saw a woman struggling to pick up a box to get it into her car. So I helped her and that helped to counteract the way I felt after watching ‘300.’
But after ‘Watchmen,’ there were no women putting boxes into their cars that I could help them with. So instead, I kept thinking about Dr. Manhattan and his shoulders, pecs and yes, his giant blue penis that hung out there most of the movie.
After we got home, I put on another Billy Crudup movie, ‘Almost Famous’ just to show my girlfriend that Dr. Manhattan was a CGI creation. ‘Almost Famous’ is a really good movie but it didn’t keep me from thinking about Dr. Manhattan.
I Was Further Freaked Out When...
I went to Pizza Hut on Sunday. I’d ordered a pizza and cheesesticks online for carryout. When I went to pick it up, the cashier was staring off to the side, his tongue poking out of his mouth, displaying his bluish tongue stud. He look at me, and I realized he had these super-sea blue contacts in. You know, the ones that make your eyes look freaky. To top it off, he had very over dramatic hand movements and an effeminate way of talking.
He explained that he wasn’t paying attention and did the pizza wrong, so it had to be redone. Since they couldn’t use the other pizza, he gave me the ‘wrong’ pizza for free. So, I got two pizzas for the price of one. And that was good but he completely freaked the hell out of me.
Final Thoughts
I accidentally bought Brawny the other day. Didn’t their cover guy used to have a beard? What happened to the beard? Dude looks like he has a shrunken head too. It’s really freaky and I don’t think I like it.
Who am I kidding…I’m really still thinking about Dr. Manhattan.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Boring Planning Notes, Dylan News
I did a lot of planning both today and last night for the trip that’s now just about a month away. The goal has been to get everything locked in place, tickets purchased and everything by March 9, exactly one month before I’m set to leave.
The problem I’ve been having is that I don’t see how everything fits together and there’s a good reason for that…it’s because it doesn’t fit together.
Last night, I stayed up until about 4am and I printed off a small slip of paper with the name of the attraction, the location, time of operation and expected duration of the event. I then printed out a page with the hours in a day so I could move the slips of paper around to see how everything fit, or didn’t fit.
On Thursday, it’s a relatively light schedule. I’ll land around 11am and visit the Modern Art Museum and Cartoon Museum before going to the Giants game at 4pm. The game is part of the Giants’ opening series and there’s a good chance that Randy Johnson will be pitching against Jeff Suppan. The Giants also have former Brave Edgar Renteria, Aaron Rowand and Randy Winn. The Brewers have Prince Fielder, JJ Hardy and Ryan Braun.
That Sunday’s Easter is a slight problem and some of the places are clearly closed, others might be closed even though the website doesn’t specifically state that. For the most part though, the biggest problem is that too many things have a 10:30 start time. In some cases, that’s the only start time they have, in other cases, the alternate times conflict with the other events as well.
As it stands now, and it’s not by any means locked in place, one day will be devoted to the Golden Gate Park area, which will include Twin Peaks and Haight-Asbury. The end of that day, depending on time (I should have two extra hours), could have me either visiting the Pacific Heights area or some places that would give me side shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The day to visit the Golden Gate Park will likely either be Friday or Sunday of the trip (again, Thursday and Monday are travel days). I’m leaning toward putting this day on Friday. It’ll be the most taxing physically and I think I’d rather get that out of the way first. It also has the potential to be the shortest of the days. Of course, there’s merit to making that the last day of the trip since it will be the hardest day.
My side has started hurting worse over the last couple weeks. There’s a concern that there’s only so much walking I’ll be able to do and unfortunately, that’s going to have to factor into the planning of this trip.
Since Thursday and Monday are set and one of the days will be devoted to Golden Gate Park, that leaves two days that will be primarily based out of the Wharf. Most of the amusements and tours originate from one of the piers at Fisherman’s Wharf. But trying to fit everything I want to do outside the Park into just two days seemed near impossible. The worst thing was that no matter how I moved stuff around, I couldn’t figure out how to tour the baseball stadium.
Now I love baseball and I enjoy touring baseball parks, especially one as beautiful as the one in San Francisco. In order to make it fit, I’d have to do something at the Wharf, then go all the way to the other side of the city, take the tour and go all the way back to the other side again. In order to do that, something would have to be eliminated.
The two most likely candidates were either the movie tour, which lasts three hours or the air tour, which would take up about two and half hours. Either one would open up the time needed to fit the ballpark tour in (plus the travel time there and back to the Wharf).
The first two questions: Is seeing a baseball stadium more valuable than going on a movie tour? Is seeing a baseball stadium more valuable than getting a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge from the air? The third question: Which is more valuable, going on a movie tour or getting a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge from the air?
I decided that I value seeing a baseball stadium more than I value both the movie tour AND the air picture, meaning that whatever I did, I needed to make the stadium tour fit into the schedule. I checked to make sure that I couldn’t fit the ballpark tour into Monday but because of when my plane is leaving, Monday will need to basically be a travel only day.
That left it between the movie tour and the air tour. Here’s the thing, I don’t know how good the movie tour is going to be. There’s going to be a certain amount of redundancy in the movie tour but that’s kinda the point. I want to have multiple chances to get the same shot in case weather is an issue. How good are the pictures really going to be on the movie tour.
The movie tour apparently stops at City Hall, Fort Point area (near the Golden Gate Bridge) and some reports say a surprise location that could be Lucas Films. On Trip Advisor, they have 16 reviews and all of them are five stars and highly recommend the tour.
On the other hand, we’re talking about a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge from the air in either a helicopter or seaplane. I’ve never been in a seaplane! But here’s the thing, I’ve never really gotten great pictures from the air. The shots are hit or miss, mainly miss. In St. Louis, because they don’t let you go up by yourself (like the seaplane and possibly the helicopter in San Francisco), I had to purchase two tickets. And then the pictures sucked major ass.
Two tickets in San Francisco would cost $300 and the odds of getting a good shot of the bridge are minimal. Even if I could do it for the price of one ticket, the odds aren’t great of getting a good shot of the bridge. So I would’ve just spent a bunch of money and lost two and a half hours for almost nothing.
I decided that the risk was higher with the air tour and decided to kick it out of the itinerary, leaving the movie and ballpark tours on the list.
As it stands right now, the Blue and Gold Cruise and Alcatraz trip are on separate days. Now, the last I checked, the Blue and Gold website isn’t working. Is that because it’s temporarily down or is it no longer running? What’s going on? That’s why next week, I’ll call each place to make sure it’s open on the day I’m planning to visit.
I also need to find out the exact time between location and MUNI routes and everything. That shouldn’t take too long to do. But the hardest part is done. No air tour. No zoo. Likely no Mt Davidson or Legion of Honor museum. No Wells Fargo Museum. And Marina Green and Fort Mason or looking doubtful.
Jimmy Fallon’s Debut
I saw Jimmy Fallon’s first episode. It wasn’t as horrendously awful as I’d expected. Maybe he’ll get better. I mean, I didn’t like Conan when he first came on.
Fallon’s monologue was dreadful and the skits were lousy and his interview skills were weak. He seemed comfortable with Justin Timberlake but it was more like two guys hanging out than one person really interviewing another.
Side note: Timberlake was funny and I really liked his imitations of Michael McDonald and John Mayer. Maybe JT should get his own show.
It was cool to see Van Morrison. He has one of the most intriguing voices in the world. It made me want to go pull him up on my mp3 player but I didn’t do it because I’m too lazy. I could listen to him sing almost anything…until he starts singing ‘Rigga digga digga’ over and over again like he did on Fallon’s show.
I watched Fallon’s second episode and it was a lot like his first. You could tell he was friends with Tina Fey but them telling stories about stuff they did together wasn’t all that interesting or funny.
I imagine NBC will have a long leash on this show, probably a couple years at least but I don’t have that kind of patience with a new show.
Will I Stop Watching?
Speaking of patience for shows. I didn’t watch any of the ‘Simpson’s’ last week. Okay, so it was because my DVR ended up taping the end of a NASCAR race but still. It’s not like I’m going to be make a concerted effort to watch it.Also, the end is near for ‘Chuck.’ If it doesn’t start getting better soon, that’s it. It’s stuck in the same rut it was in last year. The show is far too predictable and liking the people only takes you so far. Each episode feels like a rough rewrite of the last one and it’s getting really old. At the beginning of this season, it’s like they realized that and some curves were being thrown in there but the last few weeks have really sucked. That long hiatus didn’t help either.
Dylan News
Big news from the music front. I was looking at a list of albums coming out this year and it looks like okay list of stuff. But then today, word came out that Bob Dylan is releasing a ‘surprise’ studio album next month. It’s supposed to contain “raw-country love songs, sly wordplay and the wounded state of the nation.” Whatever it is, I’m certainly looking forward to it. This wasn’t on any list of upcoming albums I read, hence the ‘surprise’ element in its release.
Quick Internet Hits
It’s been a while since I felt this affected by a Falcon leaving the team. In this article, Keith Brooking says goodbye to the Falcon organization, while at the same time inferring that he wants to be part of the organization after his playing career is done. Brooking is an absolutely classy guy and it’s really upsetting to see him go. It’ll be even harder when I see him playing for the Cowboys next season.
The Sunday Alcohol bill was withdrawn after it was clear it wouldn’t get out of committee. That puts Georgia in the weird position that you can drive to a restaurant or bar and drink alcohol and then drive home but you can’t buy it in a store on Sunday and drive it home to drink it there. Governor Sonny Perdue cites safety concerns as the reason he opposes the measure, even as he signed a bill to allow Sunday alcohol sales at the new minor league stadium in Gwinnett.
Headline: For one-armed woman, court victory is bittersweet
Harrison Ford, after successfully putting the one-armed man behind bars, wasn’t as successful in imprisoning the one-armed woman.
Final Thoughts
The other day, I actually jumpstarted someone else’s car for the first time. I was so excited that it actually worked. I’d watched an instructional internet video on it and then went out and got it done. For about 10 minutes, I actually felt like a man…and then I went back to feeling like an amoebic blob.
I still don’t really understand why so many people are upset about ‘The Bachelor.’ I watched a CNN segment on it and I still don’t get it.
Why is it when I see the lead singer of The Fray, I want to squish his little, oval head?
Monday, March 2, 2009
SF Planning, Movies and Snow
Movie Tour or No?
I’m starting to really question whether I can do that movie tour. They run it once a day, starting at 10:30 and it runs for three hours. That’s a huge block of time. There are two extended stop offs on the tour, in front of City Hall, which was close to being kicked off my list and Fort Point, which would be very convenient for me since I’m not sure I can fit that in otherwise.
But is it worth giving up three hours for those two locations when a lot of the other locations are going to be redundant. I was looking at a list of movies shot in San Francisco and some of them are notable but I’m not sure I really NEED to see what scenes were shot where.
Some of the movies (and I don’t know how many of these will be on the tour) are ‘Milk,’ ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘Vertigo,’ ‘Zodiac,’ ‘The Pursuit of Happyness,’ ‘Bullitt,’ ‘Basic Instinct,’ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ and of course the Dirty Harry movies and several movies that are set in Alcatraz (though I doubt the bus tour drives on the water to the Rock).
I don’t think those movies really warrant a three hour tour necessarily. I don’t know. If I had more time maybe. But right now, that’s the next thing on the list that’s looking kinda doubtful.
‘Mythbusters’ is based out of San Francisco. Do you think I could participate in one of their shows? Hey, do you wanna see a really cool clip from the show?
Here:
Movie Thoughts
My girlfriend and I watched ‘Stalag 17’ and ‘Network’ on Sunday as part of a mini William Holden marathon. We’d watched ‘Sunset Boulevard’ last weekend. And I had a couple thoughts that I always have when I watch these movies.
First, William Holden is a really underrated actor. I mean, he did win an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in ‘Stalag 17’. I memorized his acceptance speech, which isn’t hard since he took the award, said, ‘Thank you,’ and walked away. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in ‘Network.’ But you know how little known he apparently is? You know Suzanne Vega’s song ‘Tom’s Diner?’ If you heard it, you’d remember it. Anyway, the line, “I open up the paper / there's a story of an actor / who died while he was drinking / he was no one I had heard of” is a reference to Holden.
Second, Billy Wilder has to be considered when talking about the best directors ever. Also, he wrote almost all the movies he directed. You can watch a movie he wrote/directed and it has his thumbprint on it.
And finally, ‘Network’ is one of the most forward thinking movies I’ve ever seen. It’s so far ahead of its time, it’s amazing that it made any sense in the 70s.
‘Network’ had five of its actors/actresses nominated for Academy Awards but it lost Best Picture to ‘Rocky.’ I love ‘Rocky’ and likely will watch that next weekend as part of a ‘Rocky’ movie marathon, but I’m not sure ‘Rocky’ should’ve won that one.
You know, if you look at the Best Picture winners by decade, you could make a good case that the 70s had the best Best Picture movies. Among the list: ‘Patton,’ ‘The Godfather,’ ‘The Godfather Part II,’ ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ ‘Rocky,’ ‘Annie Hall,’ ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Kramer v Kramer.’
Certainly no decade since can even compete with that list but I don’t think there’s really a decade before that’s as strong as the 70s. Now, when it comes to best movies, I still think you hafta look at the 40s as the benchmark decade but so many of the best movies of that decade, weren’t nominated or didn’t win.
How exactly did the following movies of the 40s not win: ‘Citizen Kane,’ ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘The Pride of the Yankees,’ ‘The Magnificent Ambersons,’ ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ‘The Bishop’s Wife’ and ‘The Big Sleep.’
The Snow Falls
It did snow on Sunday but it was more like the dusting I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t the four inches that some places were predicting. I believe I had that one.
The Hunger Walk was cancelled due to snow. This is the worst thing that’s ever happened. Here’s why: People who were hungry are still gonna be hungry now. These little wusses couldn’t put up with a little snow and now people are hungry. I bet alotta these hungry people are also homeless. So guess what? Not only are they cold but they’re still hungry.
And McNabb Exits
Mr. McNabb officially left today, clearing out the last of his things like his plants and wind chimes. He knocked on my door to borrow some ‘pliers or better yet a [insert some fancy sounding wrench here].’ I gave him the pliers and a few minutes later, he returned them and he said, “I know you’re a Braves’ fan but look at the name on this hat.” He showed me a St. Louis Cardinals hat allegedly signed by Stan Musial.
But you know what really confused me? He was wearing a New England Patriots hat. How weird is that?
Iran Wants an Apology
Iran wants an apology for ‘The Wrestler’ and ‘300.’ Is this how it works now? We can start demanding apologies for movies that have been made? Hey, Adam Sandler, got a minute?
The real question is why they were asking the apology of Annette Bening. If she was going to be asked to apologize for something, how about ‘The Women’ or ‘What Planet are You From?’
(This might be the time to reiterate my policy on ‘The Women.’ If any person should get me a copy of this film, the thank you present will be ‘Peewee’s Big Adventure.’ That’s the way it works.)
Salman on Slumdog
I found someone else who doesn’t like ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Salman Rushdie. I’m not much of a fan of his. Of course, I’m sure he doesn’t care. Once you have a global death threat made against you, criticism like ‘I’m not much of a fan’ probably bounces right off you.
I’m starting to really question whether I can do that movie tour. They run it once a day, starting at 10:30 and it runs for three hours. That’s a huge block of time. There are two extended stop offs on the tour, in front of City Hall, which was close to being kicked off my list and Fort Point, which would be very convenient for me since I’m not sure I can fit that in otherwise.
But is it worth giving up three hours for those two locations when a lot of the other locations are going to be redundant. I was looking at a list of movies shot in San Francisco and some of them are notable but I’m not sure I really NEED to see what scenes were shot where.
Some of the movies (and I don’t know how many of these will be on the tour) are ‘Milk,’ ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘Vertigo,’ ‘Zodiac,’ ‘The Pursuit of Happyness,’ ‘Bullitt,’ ‘Basic Instinct,’ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ and of course the Dirty Harry movies and several movies that are set in Alcatraz (though I doubt the bus tour drives on the water to the Rock).
I don’t think those movies really warrant a three hour tour necessarily. I don’t know. If I had more time maybe. But right now, that’s the next thing on the list that’s looking kinda doubtful.
‘Mythbusters’ is based out of San Francisco. Do you think I could participate in one of their shows? Hey, do you wanna see a really cool clip from the show?
Here:
Movie Thoughts
My girlfriend and I watched ‘Stalag 17’ and ‘Network’ on Sunday as part of a mini William Holden marathon. We’d watched ‘Sunset Boulevard’ last weekend. And I had a couple thoughts that I always have when I watch these movies.
First, William Holden is a really underrated actor. I mean, he did win an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in ‘Stalag 17’. I memorized his acceptance speech, which isn’t hard since he took the award, said, ‘Thank you,’ and walked away. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in ‘Network.’ But you know how little known he apparently is? You know Suzanne Vega’s song ‘Tom’s Diner?’ If you heard it, you’d remember it. Anyway, the line, “I open up the paper / there's a story of an actor / who died while he was drinking / he was no one I had heard of” is a reference to Holden.
Second, Billy Wilder has to be considered when talking about the best directors ever. Also, he wrote almost all the movies he directed. You can watch a movie he wrote/directed and it has his thumbprint on it.
And finally, ‘Network’ is one of the most forward thinking movies I’ve ever seen. It’s so far ahead of its time, it’s amazing that it made any sense in the 70s.
‘Network’ had five of its actors/actresses nominated for Academy Awards but it lost Best Picture to ‘Rocky.’ I love ‘Rocky’ and likely will watch that next weekend as part of a ‘Rocky’ movie marathon, but I’m not sure ‘Rocky’ should’ve won that one.
You know, if you look at the Best Picture winners by decade, you could make a good case that the 70s had the best Best Picture movies. Among the list: ‘Patton,’ ‘The Godfather,’ ‘The Godfather Part II,’ ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ ‘Rocky,’ ‘Annie Hall,’ ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Kramer v Kramer.’
Certainly no decade since can even compete with that list but I don’t think there’s really a decade before that’s as strong as the 70s. Now, when it comes to best movies, I still think you hafta look at the 40s as the benchmark decade but so many of the best movies of that decade, weren’t nominated or didn’t win.
How exactly did the following movies of the 40s not win: ‘Citizen Kane,’ ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘The Pride of the Yankees,’ ‘The Magnificent Ambersons,’ ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ‘The Bishop’s Wife’ and ‘The Big Sleep.’
The Snow Falls
It did snow on Sunday but it was more like the dusting I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t the four inches that some places were predicting. I believe I had that one.
The Hunger Walk was cancelled due to snow. This is the worst thing that’s ever happened. Here’s why: People who were hungry are still gonna be hungry now. These little wusses couldn’t put up with a little snow and now people are hungry. I bet alotta these hungry people are also homeless. So guess what? Not only are they cold but they’re still hungry.
And McNabb Exits
Mr. McNabb officially left today, clearing out the last of his things like his plants and wind chimes. He knocked on my door to borrow some ‘pliers or better yet a [insert some fancy sounding wrench here].’ I gave him the pliers and a few minutes later, he returned them and he said, “I know you’re a Braves’ fan but look at the name on this hat.” He showed me a St. Louis Cardinals hat allegedly signed by Stan Musial.
But you know what really confused me? He was wearing a New England Patriots hat. How weird is that?
Iran Wants an Apology
Iran wants an apology for ‘The Wrestler’ and ‘300.’ Is this how it works now? We can start demanding apologies for movies that have been made? Hey, Adam Sandler, got a minute?
The real question is why they were asking the apology of Annette Bening. If she was going to be asked to apologize for something, how about ‘The Women’ or ‘What Planet are You From?’
(This might be the time to reiterate my policy on ‘The Women.’ If any person should get me a copy of this film, the thank you present will be ‘Peewee’s Big Adventure.’ That’s the way it works.)
Salman on Slumdog
I found someone else who doesn’t like ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Salman Rushdie. I’m not much of a fan of his. Of course, I’m sure he doesn’t care. Once you have a global death threat made against you, criticism like ‘I’m not much of a fan’ probably bounces right off you.
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