The Party

The going away party was cool. Very low-key, just what I wanted and I was glad for the people that came out. I had a nice time. Here are some shots, I’m gonna go to bed.

Party

Indiana Jones at the Solano Drive-In

Two towns over, where I used to live, there’s a Drive In movie theatre.  I used to go a lot with friends and stuff back in high school and then in 2005 they didn’t open it up for another season.  Needless to say, we were all sort of bummed.  I had even heard they were thinking of bull-dozing it and building a Wal-Mart there… God knows we didn’t need another one of those.

So anyway, last year Westwind bought the Solano Drive In, re-paved the two lots, showed some other much-needed love and car, and opened the joint back up.  I didn’t get to go last summer but I made it a point to go this year before I leave.  Tonight a bunch of us went and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I was not disappointed at all.  It was true to the essence of the first 3 movies in terms of humor, dialogue, plot twists, obstacles, and fight scenes.  Except for in this one there seemed to be more longer fights.

Im not going to spoil anything for you, I just want to say that Harrison Ford did a great job, Shia LeBeouf is fantastic (I was already a fan, but this just won him so many more points with me), and I think Cate Blanchett was both lovely and funny as the villainess.  If you are a fan of the original trilogy, I highly recommend you see this one.

Now at the Drive In you get two first-run movies for $6.75.  You can’t beat that price at all, the second feature that was paired with Indy was Speed Racer.  I don’t think I’d enjoy the overly-CGI flick, plus I used to watch the original cartoon as a kid and felt like I might be disappointed with the remake.  And on top of that, I was tired and I have to wake up sorta early tomorrow, so I just came home early.  But whatever.

All in all, it was a fun night… next time I really have to get some video footage of the Drive In to show everyone.  But I’m hella tired, so… peace out!

Chock-full of Random-ness Today

Christmas is Tuesday. I have absolutely zero funds but the fam all sorta voted on foregoing the traditional Christmas because The Wedding beat it by 10 days and that was an all-too-realistic financial experience. So I have asked the immediate fam: Momma, Daddy, Big Bro, Lil Sis (Big sis and brand new BiL don’t really get presents for Christmas because they’ve gone to Kauai Hawaii and NYC for the honeymoon and still haven’t opened 99% of their wedding gifts).

I want to make everything with stuff already in my stash, so far I think Im doing pretty well, even though only one person will actually receive on the 25th. Moms will get a reusable heating pad, you know the kind with rice in it? I found a tute aqui. I figured it would be pretty awesome to have at work.

Im knitting a cap for Daddy, he’s the only person who will get his gift day-of because we don’t live together and we’ll be doing Christmas breakfast. It’s always sorta hard trying to figure out what my dad wants besides a giant flat-screen HDTV… Big Bro will also be getting a hat, but we went and picked out some dark heather gray yarn for his because he wants a hat like the style that Common wears a lot, only a knit version.

I mean, you can’t fully see the style of hat in this photo, but Common is my #1 celebrity crush, so who cares because he’s just GORGEOUS!

So anyway… the Lil Sis… I don’t know what she wants yet, but I’ll ask her. She’s usually pretty cool about what she wants. Plus, she just got a Pink DS Lite (I’m only slightly jealous… she let’s me play it) so she’s still stoked about that.

Also, I was thinking of creating a Painting as a gift for another friend of mine, I’ve got a spare canvas that just about the right size… but I’ve got to sketch it out first and then think about it. I think it would be a pretty awesome gift and they’d definitely be stoked about it.

In other news, I had an interview last Friday for an internship at a videogame website that I’ve actually had a profile on for about 1.5 years. It’s paid, it’s in The City

(only 3 blocks from my mom’s job/BART [our subway]), and it’s an industry gig. That would be pretty awesome to score, without even thinking about the possibility of free stuff! They want to start the position in the beginning of the year, so I won’t find out for another week because they’re interviewing several candidates and I was the first one. Sooo…. hopefully they liked me best! [in that photo, btw, I can totally see in the almost bottom left-hand corner the building I had my last internship in; right next door to Second Life offices!]

I guess that’s it for now. I’m going to go watch The Little Mermaid in Spanish and get some work done on Daddy’s hat. Merry Christmas everyone!

Picked up a new crafty book!

It’s the end of the semester and so, book buy-back time. I didn’t have very many books this semester, so I was just expecting to sell back my books and get some lunch with the money they gave me. Before I left the house this morning, though, I grabbed a book I’d never returned from a class I’d taken probably 3 semesters ago.

So on campus, 5 bucks for the first book, $7.50 for the second book and a whopping $28 for the oldy oldy book! I wasn’t expecting that much. With some extra cash I went and checked out what the bookstore had to offer. I picked up LOTR: RotK widescreen version for only $4. Sure, Return of the King is like, 4 years old, but that’s the one DVD of the trilogy that we didn’t have, and it happens to be my fave one.

I also bought a cute little planner for next year, and a book from a Smithsonian show called “Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas” for only $8, it was like, 60% off. It looks really interesting and Dad and I have been trading Black History books lately, which is really cool. Makes for good discussions.

The final thing I got was a more recent release title Subversive Seasmter.

I saw this book earlier in the semester when it was first released but I was flat broke. So I’m totally glad I could pick it up today. Another awesome point is that their Store, Stitch, is located in San Francisco! I go to school in The City! I live here in the Bay Area! I totally want to go there now and check them out.

The projects in the book look so fun(ky) I can’t wait to try them out. After I finish my last paper of the semester tomorrow. I’ll be going to bed now, though. So good night!

Sick on Public Transportation? Oh No You Didn’t!

Oh my gosh, don’t ever be sick on public transportation, crowded, even; and just be down with hacking and coughing all over the place making everyone sick. If you’re sick, you better get off the train and get yourself some Ricolah and a SARS mask
.

This lady sounded like she was straight up trying to hack up one of those little Total Recall Kuato stomach people. She was banging on her chest and shaking and everything. This one dude’s eyes were super bugged out, like three seats away she was going to cough AIDS onto him; I wish I could’ve gotten a shot on my cell phone. It was priceless.

Anyway, if you get sick, don’t come on the train trying to infect everyone else. You better maintain that cough until you get to your appointed destination and get yourself some ‘Tussin , forreal, cuz flu shots are a government conspiracy. I can’t afford to get sick from your Bird Flu/West Nile/Outbreak virus or whatever you’ve got.

Also, don’t pass the gas and try and blame it on someone else if somebody look at you crazy like this dude. If you have a flatulence problem, you need to keep a steady supply of Bean-O on hand at all times. In fact, you should probably go see a doctor, dude. Get Katie-Couric with it and get a colonic… we don’t need to see it on YouTube or anything, but please do something for your heath; otherwise I’ll have to inform BART as to the cause of their ridership loss.

Stupid Trend That Just Won’t Die: Cartoon Backpacks

I first noticed it about three years ago: teenagers… high school kids wearing backpacks covered in cartoon characters, made for little kids. It was dumb… boy, was it dumb. But obviously, it was a trend; one that I hoped would die, not a slow and painful death, but the quick and merciful kind. I was wrong.

The next fall I started seeing the phenomena on the SJSU campus. That’s how I could tell they were freshman. Walking around campus with these little cheap-o plastic backpacks on. Fast-forward to present day and they are still.freaking.here.

I’m thinking it’s just a trend in California, and more specifically, the Bay Area because the only place I’ve gone out of town lately is to Columbus. I haven’t been to LA recently and when I Googled the trend, I couldn’t find ANYTHING except for this little blog mention here and I know how to boolean search the mess out of Google.

I know it probably has a lot to do with wanting to feel like a kid again, when times were less stressful and you didn’t have any resposibilities… I mean, who doesn’t want to feel like that every once in awhile, that’s what Disneyland is for, but when you get to college, congratulations, it’s time to grow up!

Walking into class with a plastic backpack on sends a message to your professor that you’re not really serious about your higher education. That backpack can’t hold your books and papers and all that stuff you’re supposed to carry in a backpack. It makes you look like you’re not ready for college.

Also, you end up looking like a total jerk because to everyone else on campus it says that you think you’re extremely cool because you’re up on the latest trends, yet no one past their first year is wearing them.

I just think it’s really dumb and for it to last 3 solid years (and I’ve seen new freshmen wear them for 3 solid years), is just insane. This trend should die. If any cartoon-backpack-wearin kid is reading this: put the backpack down. In fact, burn it as a remembrance of the carefree life you will never have back. Just stop looking like an idiot.