It's a really horrible feeling to be reuniting with two of my childhood friends via the wake of their uncle. :(

Today I saw "The Social Network", and I have to say that I enjoyed the film. The story line was very interesting, being it's [unfortunately] a large part of my day-to-day routine. I was kind of disappointed that the 'founder' of Facebook essentially Bill Gates'd the idea from other people who were looking to include him on their project in the first place; according to the film. I didn't know anything about how Facebook started prior to this, aside of it being exclusive to college students at the beginning. And this movie was based on a true story, and everyone knows that the word "based" is used very loosely. But according to Mark Zuckerberg's Wikipedia page, there was a lawsuit involving the Winklevoss twins [played by the same actor in the movie who had an unusually deep voice for a white man] and he went to Harvard. The Wikipedia page said nothing of Justin Timberlake's character who was a d-bag... or of Eduardo, who was cool.
After reading bits and pieces of Zuckerberg's Wikipedia page, [which is always 100% accurate, duh] it doesn't seem that he's as much of a jerk as the movie portrayed. He donated I think 100million dollars to the Newark New Jersey school systems, which is pretty awesome, and he seemingly has a good sense of humor being he played himself in a Simpsons episode.

I'd give this movie a 7/10. It was very good, but I don't think I like how the movie was structured with the flashbacks and flash forwards to the court cases. That made the movie a little bit harder to follow than it should have been.
Plus, the movie served as a FANTASTIC 2 hour commercial. When I got home I was in the mood to do two things: blog, and check my Facebook. Which I would say makes the movie a great success!

ON ANOTHER NOTE: Today I found out that We're goin [goin] back [back] to Cali [Cali]! Jesse let me know that the day after Christmas, we're all headed to San Diego for our Christmas gifts to each other. I cannot wait to go to California with my love again! It's going to be especially fun because I haven't been to San Diego before, I'm old enough to drink, and Disneyland in Anaheim has a Nightmare Before Christmas festival until the beginning of January! It's going to be so great! I loved Cali last time, and I can't wait to go again!!! This means I'm going to have to start saving my money HARDCORE. I've been looking to take care of Christmas gifts lately so that won't be an issue.

A lot.

Ok.
Right now I'm on my 2 week vacation from work. Last week Jesse and I spent in North Carolina with Moon and Meema and Peepa. Moreso with Moon. We had a lot of fun and went to the beach a bunch of times. We bought a shiny new "piece" and I bought myself a new ukulele, a concert ukulele. It's currently making friends with my pineapple (soprano) ukulele. I'm super stoked about this because I'm really learning how to play now. I'm picking it up slowly but surely, and I really enjoy it.
Jesse and I also went to Boston not this past week, but the one before it, to visit his brother. It was really fun checking out the city and staying with Jesse. :)
Today I bought myself a handy-dandy Bluetooth thing, so I don't have to throw the phone to the passenger seat at the first sight of a cop. :) Safe and efficient!
Tomorrow, we're going to see Sublime with Rome and Dirty Heads again, this time up in Poughkeepsie NY. Todd Foreman, the sax player, texted Jesse last night stating he could get us tickets to get in for free, so of course we're going to jump on his offer. Also, this will be the last time we see them play before they head to Germany to tour.

I also wanted to take this time to not really update, but put down what's left of my 101. There are some things that I don't want to complete anymore, so those will be listed in red.

1. Lose 20 lbs [5/20]
2. Keep 20lbs off
4. Do 100 sit-ups a day for a month straight >[This seems incredibly unhealthy, and time consuming. It's not realistic and I'd rather work out on the Wii Fit.]<
6. Walk/jog/run an hour a day for a month >[See above]<
8. Don't eat junk/fast food for a month
9. Run a mile on the beach (with use of a pedometer)
10. Go back to vegetarianism >[It's much too expensive right now, and I feel that I'll be getting better nutrients from lean meat]<
11. Go to the dentist
18. Keep car spotless for an entire month
19. Sell back school books >[For a $45 sell-back rate, I'd rather keep them being I spent $100 minimum on each]<
25. Learn three skateboarding tricks [0/3]
26. Learn Hawaiian
27. Learn to hula dance
28. Learn to SCUBA dive
30. Re-learn how to ride a bicycle
34. Skate down a half-pipe
40. Climb a rock wall
41. Don't get angry for a month
42. Don't burp out loud for a month straight
42. Take a photo a day for a month
45 Maintain a garden for a summer
47. Build a ship in a bottle >[This is stupid. I don't want to.]<
50. Write 5 haikus [1/5] >[See above]<
51. Paint two pictures [0/2]
52. Donate 250,000 grains @ www.freerice.com [28,050/250,000]
56. Attend three beach clean ups [2/3]
57. Plant two trees [0/2]
59. Build a birdhouse
60. Donate blood
61. Volunteer in two soup kitchens [0/2]
66. Do two charity walks [0/2]
69. Get passport
71. Visit Hawaii
74. Go to Medieval Times in New Jersey
75. Go jet skiing
76. Go to the beach everyday for a month
77. Swim with the dolphins
79. Go kayaking
80. Go skydiving >[I still want to do this, but will not in my 101 time frame. Jesse doesn't quite feel comfortable with this being I'd be jumping out of a perfectly good airplane and must sign a waiver. I totally understand this and don't want him to feel uncomfortable... it can wait. It's not that important.]<
82. Move into an apartment with Jesse
85. Have a dinner party
86. Send out Christmas cards
87. Buy random flowers for mom three times [0/3] >[For the past forever she's been giving me grief, she doesn't deserve it; and flowers are pricey]<
88. Get a professional photo of my brother and 3 step-brothers for dad and Nancy
89. Host 3 movie nights [0/3]
90. Send out 10 birthday cards [3/10]
91. Have an off-season beach party
92. Hang out with my brother 25 times [16/25]
93. Go on a picnic
96. Identify 25 things I like about myself [0/25]
99. Send a secret to PostSecret >[Secrets are secrets for a reason and I don't want mine published. Thank you.]<

So aside from all that, everything else is going well. Brian's in college and attending classes; I'll be on a job hunt soon-- as my mom found the time between walking up the stairs and getting to her bedroom to hound me about it. And Jesse and I are pumped for Sublime tomorrow! :D <3

I haven't had time to post anything substantial.

The other night was Sublime with Rome at Jones Beach Ampitheater. It was awesome seeing our friends rock out to a crowd that large. I'm so proud of them. Tour manager, Cheez, invited us backstage afterwards where we got to meet up with our friend Amber and talk with her, as well as our friend Bud, and Todd. Rome and Eric were both busy, but that's okay. I'd rather talk to Bud and Todd; they're really nice. Bud looked really tired, but really excited to hear that we're planning another trip to Reno to visit them. :)

I'm exhausted this morning and my stomach is killing me. Luckily, I only have 5 hours of work ahead of me... I can't handle this pain. :(

Awesome.

This weekend has seriously been the best of my life.

Friday, we went to see Pepper/Offspring/311 (the show went on in that order.) and we got there early. Like... really early. The doors opened at 6pm and we were there at 1pm. But it payed off. Jesse got to network with someone from Mulcaheys-- a local venue, and we got a bunch of free Donovan Frankenreiter tickets for this Tuesday. Then we were hanging out and a couple of hours passed bye and we chilled in the car.
Megan thought she saw a mirage, and asked if the hot guy on the horizon was real. It was Kaleo, skateboarding through the parking lot. So we then got  out of the car, and Kaleo told us that he's hook us up with 3 all access stickers.
When the time came to get the stickers, they had run out because I'm pretty sure the intern gave them to his friends who only went backstage for a minute. Anywho, the Coach escorted us to the backstage area where Kaleo and Bret followed. They had a whole BBQ set up with food and cornhole and some weird kind of ringtoss. So we hung, BBQ'd, bullshitted with the band. Megan was in shock and awe of being near Kaleo, but her bubbliness made him adore her -- in a non sexual way, more like how one would adore a puppy.
We had some chicken legs, which were so spicy I thought I was eating fire, and made some industry connections. Then I heard over Coach's walkie that he should fire up the grill because 311 is coming back.


OH MY GOD.

In a matter of minutes, Chad Sexton walks past me. I ALMOST CRAPPED MYSELF.
Then Tim came in with Nick and SA. It was WONDERFUL. We got the opportunity to not only meet 311, but to converse with them and take pictures.
And by converse with them I meant, Jesse did the talking and I just said "Thank you" a billion times because I forgot how to say anything else.
It was seriously the greatest night of my life.

Then, yesterday, I was at Sound Room Studios alll day, during the Hazmat Bay recording session. They got 4 songs finished in an 11 hour time frame. There was a slight intermission where Matt performed some IMPRESSIVE urban wakeboarding (skim board, 8 inch deep and 40 yard long puddle, tow rope, water shoes, a hard hat, and a Jeep) in the studio parking lot. I got to chill with Kim and Nova for the first half of the day, and the second half I hung out with Kathi. Then after they were finished for the day, Jesse, Tom, Jeff, Kathi, and I went to Applebees for some food and called it a night. It was so much fun!

This morning, Jesse, Allan, Teri and I went on a fishing boat. Teri and I didn't fish, but Jesse and Allan did. Jesse caught 4 fluke and about 2 dozen crabs, and Allen caught a bunch of fish and won the pool for the largest fluke in length. +$40 prize moneys.

Now I'm here, getting ready to shower, because I haven't since Friday morning and we're gonna eat some foods, and then Brian's coming home after the World Cup final. Roger went to go get him.

Tomorrow's work, then on Tuesday I'm going to go to Walmart to develop my 311 photos in duplicate and pick up some fuchsia hair dye...

Then Wednesday's the Jack Johnson concert.

Very busy month... will probably update sometime in September.. :)

Beeps for BP.

A while ago, I started a habit of beeping at everyone who throws cigarette butts out of their car windows, into the street/grass/whatever. It's fun. I don't want your addiction, thank you very much. And I don't feel like our Earth should suffer from your stupid habit.

Currently I'm developing another habit. My cousin Leesa tweeted that every time she passes a BP station with patrons fueling up, she leans on the horn. EXCELLENT! I've adopted that, and made it into another beeping habit. I mean, why? Why fill up at BP? It's not like they're the ONLY oil company in the world; they just so happen to be the worst! It bothers me especially when there are alternatives to BP within eyesight. For example: Vets Hwy in Ronkonkoma-- There's a Hess station, and a BP on one side of the road, and DIRECTLY OPPOSITE is another Hess. Not too far away. Just across the Hwy; a simple u-turn would do the trick!

This morning I looked on the live feed of the oil spill --- it's still spewing out oil at an incredible rate. Really, I would've never expected that 8 weeks later it would be spilling at the same velocity --- actually, a heightened velocity thanks to BP blowing it up into a giant hole instead of a big one and 2 little ones --- as day 1.

Well, I would've never expected that it would still be uncovered, and unresolved 8 weeks later.

An approximation of 634 live oiled birds have been captured, 42 of them were released, and 783 were collected dead. 


Also, according to Surfrider's estimate - the spill is at approximately 62,244,000 gallons of oil in the Gulf.
And on that same blog, it states that "BP continues to drill two more 'relief wells' that are intended to intercept the blown-out well at a depth of about 16,000 feet. Drilling mud and cement would then be pumped into the well to seal it. The wells will take at least two more months to drill."
So, not only has it gone on for two months, it's going to take AT LEAST two months before the relief wells are drilled. Ok, that will be 4 months down the drain, and what's going to happen then? BP realizes that it was a bad idea to continue drilling on their disaster? Then we have to wait 2 more months for another idiot solution? At this rate, oil will be reaching us in NY before we know it.


So, being BP is destroying pretty much everything in the Gulf at this point, the LEAST a civillian can do is boycott their gasoline, and beep at those fueling up at the stations. Don't beep in extreme anger at these people, consider their circumstances: they're clearly stupid, so treat them with care, beep to encourage them to use other gas stations. Unless you're really in the middle of the desert with ONLY BP in sight, and your car is already out of gas and stalled on the side of the road and you have to walk to get to the next gas station to get some temporary fuel and that lone gas station you have to walk to happens to be BP. That, my friend, is an extenuating circumstance, and nobody should be expected to boycott under those conditions. But! A suggestion: Fill up that little red container with enough gas to get you to another gas station, a non-BP station. That way you don't give BP too much of your money. 10 dollars is acceptable in my book; as long as you're in that situation. Anything less than that: BEEP!

You Suck

Please note: Christopher Moore is a genius. Finished reading "You Suck" a couple of weeks ago, after not having picked it up for a year due to school. Picking it up right where I left off was much easier than anticipated. I felt as if I had never gone on a year-long leisure reading hiatus. After finishing the book, I realized that it was only part 2 of 3. I hadn't read part one, and thankfully I didn't have to because Christopher Moore did a great job with providing a back story. The book is a continuation of the first of the trilogy "Bloodsucking Fiends" (which I'll get around to reading) but, "You Suck" is basically about a girl who turns her guy friend into a vampire as retaliation to him having sex with her as she's asleep. The girl has an 800 year old vampire lifemate that turned her. She'd only been a vampire for a couple of weeks before turning this other guy. (Forgive me, I'm terrible with names) So we've got two n00b vampires in California, trying to figure out how to be vampires, and a bronzed 800 year old vampire lifemate-- thanks to the new guy. They meet a girl Abbey Normal who wants to become a part of the "vampire legion" and pretty much acts as an assistant to the two vampires. Being pursued by vampire hunters they make an attempt to flee with the help of their lovely assistant Abbey. Christopher Moore does well in keeping the reader on the edge of their seat, while making them giggle their asses off. I would definitely suggest this novel to everybody... but I would also suggest to read the first of the series... well, first. It was disappointing finding out that there was more to the story that I had just missed because I didn't research my shit. The novel is a wonderful parody of serious vampire books, as Abbey is brought in thinking that vampires are noble, eloquent creatures, where they're just normal people --- except they're undead, need SPF1,000,000 sunscreen, and suck the blood of the living. 

I'd give it a 7/10.

And with not having read the first novel, I would still give the book a re-read value of 5/10.

Chris Moore is funny.