catching z's

I can't sleep. Actually this is untrue. I *could* sleep, but for some reason I seem to find a ton of things to do late into the night that preclude me from doing so. It's like my mind kicks into another gear after midnight and I find a million little things to ponder.

Some might call me a night owl. I think this understates the case, as the night owl by definition is purely nocturnal. No, my job demands that I be dayturnal as well, which basically sucks, since sleep is the sacrificial lamb in this case. And strangely for someone who loves sleep as much as I do, I don't seem to get enough of it.

Perhaps it is because the wise rapper Nas once said, "sleep is the cousin of death." If Nas is correct, gravitating towards things which inevitably lead towards the end of our existence would indeed be a silly choice. However, upon further research, I now believe that sleep is merely the great step-uncle of death. And really, how often do you actually see your great step-uncle? Maybe once ever at a family reunion? And even at that point, he's probably too busy playing mah-jong with all the other old people, and thus would never come close to interacting with you.

So what's my point here? None. Except I think this 3:40am blog post only illustrates one fact. I really need to go to sleep. Like really badly. Good night.

waking up in the city that never sleeps

Ok, I admit. It's been a loooooong time since I've written anything. But I really do have a good excuse this time. I moved clear across the country to New York and have been preoccupied with fixing up and selling my house in Pasadena, quiting my old job, starting a new job in NYC, finding a new apartment, learning how to get around the city, figure out the subway system, poke around for decent spots to eat, and basically meeting a whole new social network. So other than that, I guess I've just been twiddling my thumbs.

What brought me to the east coast, you ask? Well, two main reasons. A great job opportunity at an up and coming mobile services company, as well as the realization that if ever there was a time to try living in NYC, now would be it. If I let one or two more years go by, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't drop everything to make the move. And what's the worst that could happen? Even if I hated it, I could make my way back to California without too much trouble. So I bit the bullet and sold my worldly possessions (well in the process of trying to sell them, anyway) and headed East.

I remember when I started telling people I was moving out here. The common response was, "what, New York? You? Seriously?" And while I'd like to call my friends jerks for being skeptical, I really can't blame them. Why would a guy who hated walking, isn't fond of crowds, loves the beach, and has a bitter fear of cold winter days, choose NYC as a target destination? On paper, this made about as much sense as creating a reality show around the former lead singer of Poison. But if Bret Michaels can pose as the rock and roll version of the Bachelor, surely I could adjust to life in the Big Apple.

And you know what? NYC has been a blast. I've met a lot of new people, gotten to experience a whole new way of life, and overall am very happy I made the move. Keep in mind, the muggy summer heat hasn't really decended upon me yet. And I have yet to make it through a winter. So let's not be too hasty and call it a fairy tale ending. For now, I'm just glad to report that I'm a New Yorker, and so far, I'm loving it.

Take that, skeptical friends!

poor miss usa

In last night's Miss Universe pageant, our very own Miss USA, Rachel Smith, had a night to remember. Oh, it's not like she won or anything. She came in 4th runner up, which in itself is really not all that memorable.

But she did fall on her ass in front of the world on live TV, so that was notable. And she was constantly booed throughout the night by the Mexico City crowd, who reports say were voicing their opposition to illegal imigration laws in the US (although I like to think they booed her because she would not shut up about her time in the Oprah leadership camp). So all in all, despite losing, Rachel Smith will be talked about and remembered. At least until tomorrow, at which point we'll immediately forget her.

odd video of the day

Wow. Japanese cartoon land is a wonderous place. I mean any place where confetti rains on you every time you go number two must be pretty awesome, right?



If anyone actually speaks Japanese, can you confirm that the subtitle translations are accurate?

when you need to see baby animals and hot babes

I have a module that was defaulted on the new My Yahoo! homepage I set up that shows me the most emailed photos of the day. And the thing I've noticed over time is that there are only two types of photos that ever appear in here. Cute animals and hot babes. Nothing in between.

I wonder which ones are most emailed by women and which ones are most emailed by men. Hmmm...

See for yourself:
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/gallery/1756

an interesting ad for wendy's

Hey boys and girls, it's David Hasselhoff enjoying a Wendy's hamburger. Looks fun, where can I get one?

(not so) shocking news of the day...

Today's (not so) shocking news item comes from the Christian Science Monitor:

Key US Army Ranks Begin To Thin
By Gordon Lubold, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Thousands more mid-level enlisted soldiers are leaving the Army than in each of the past two years, forcing the service to increase its use of pay-to-stay programs and find other ways to keep GIs in the fold.

This truly is (not so) shocking, isn't it? People leaving the Army in droves? Any it's really hard to incent them to stay?

What reason could they have for leaving? I mean, it's not like we're entrenched in a meaningless war over questionable motives, leaving the country we invaded even more divided and unstable than when we arrived, with the President refusing to create an exit plan simply out of ego and hubris, right? What's that? We ARE entrenched in that exact scenario?

Wow. What a baffling problem for the Army. I really can't think of any reason why they can't get soldiers to stick around. Not a one...

feel good story of the day...

Yes everyone, it's today's feel good story... that makes me completely uncomfortable. From the AFP comes this heartwarming tale of a blind pilot who flew halfway around the world:

SYDNEY (AFP) - A blind British pilot landed his microlight aircraft in Sydney Monday to complete a record-breaking flight halfway around the world.

Miles Hilton-Barber left London on March 7 and flew more than 21,000 kilometres (13,500 miles) to raise funds to fight blindness in developing countries.

"I've wanted to be a pilot since I was a kid. Now I'm totally blind and I've had the privilege of flying more than halfway around the world. The big deal is not me doing this, it's raising funds," he said.

Hilton-Barber, who has been blind for 25 years, hopes the trip will raise some two million US dollars for the charity Seeing is Believing, which works to cut the incidence of preventable blindness in developing countries.

To recap -- a guy who has been totally blind for 25 years was allowed to fly an object into the sky for over 13,500 miles. Look, kudos to Mr. Hilton-Barber for pulling off the feat, but why did anyone feel like this was a good idea?

What's that sir? You want to be a pilot? And you can't see anything? Totally and completely blind? Well... how far do you want to fly this plane? Oh, halfway around the world? And again, you're totally blind? Um... SURE! Let's DO IT!

responsible journalism is a dying art

I hate Geraldo Rivera. I know that's not the most groundbreaking statement ever uttered. I don't hate him because he's a smarmy nutjob who for some unknown reason still gets paid millions to perpetuate sensationalistic journalism. Well, ok, I do hate him for precisely this reason.

His utterly ridiculous report during the Virginia Tech shooting really highlighted Geraldo at his absolute worst. Just hours after the shooting, Geraldo decided to pay no attention to the facts and instead shifted the focus away from the victims of the tragedy over to the the most sensational angle he could find. I actually saw this clip live and was disgusted:



At the time I had no idea whether the Facebook profile he pulled up was indeed the actual shooter, but I knew that Geraldo himself had no idea either. In the days to come, the student's profile that Geraldo pulled up was proven not to have any link to the actual Virginia Tech shooter. The page belonged to another VT student, Wayne Chiang, who definitely has some personal issues of his own, but has handled the attention with surprising grace, stating in his blog:

Please remember: the real tragedy isn't the racist remarks going on, false accusations, ineffectiveness of the administration, or gun control rights. These things are superficial. This time period will be the darkest of Hokie history...

I want to further reiterate that there is no "tragedy" concerning me. Instead, we should turn our attention to those in need down at Virginia Tech.

The recklessness Geraldo showed by pushing this "news" story goes beyond anything like Don Imus' transgressions against the Rutgers women's basketball team. Yet Imus got canned, and Geraldo gets to continue reporting his idea of the facts. How is this acceptable?

boto dolphins suck

I was watching a Discovery Channel HD show called Planet Earth this afternoon (by the way, one of *the* most amazing nature programs ever made -- I'm not a huge nature freak by any means, but this show is fantastic, especially in HD). Today's show centered around the creatures who live in various rivers and lakes around the world. I had heard about the Amazon's freshwater dolphins, also known as boto dolphins, back in elementary school, but I completely forgot what they looked like. Until now:




Um... gross? What kind of ugly, warped creature is that? Give me a good ol' bottlenose dolphin any day:



Uh huh. That's how we do it. How about a solo shot?



Bottlenose. Best dolphin *ever*.