i can see clearly now.. the resolution is better...

mood: upbeat, but w/ headache.
music: nada.

a couple of my friendly and awesome co-workers snagged me a new computer monitor and a new computer out of the wreckage of forgotten electronics here at work. IS is going to come tomorrow to set me up on my new computer, and as i type im looking at a FLAT screen with much better resolution and less headache inducing out-of-date-ness. im so techie.

any way. today has been a pretty good day. i had an oral examination for a promotional position today. i have to place in the top 7 to move on to the next interview. either way it was good experience. we shall see what happens.

i am happy about what happened in sunday's sopranos, and im so looking forward to being able to watch next week without the constant nervous feeling that ive had the last two weeks. tony will be back to being tony fucking soprano. thank god. props to steve buscemi for making an appearance in the last episode. he rules. i briefly heard on fresh air that he's directing a new movie. i'll have to look it up. also... be on the lookout for bob sagets new project, "farse of the penguins" a tale of penguin love (and graphic sex scenes- so i hear). that saget... such a dirty dirty man.

speaking of the bob, for those of you with hbo, check out the reruns of entourage on every sunday at 8... starting at season 1. that show rules. or if you are without hbo, rent the dvds.

im looking forward to going home and finishing off the remaining saved episodes of 24... i think i have about four hours left (including last nights... ) so it shouldnt be too difficult a task. this season has been pretty good... glad to see they arent scared of taking chances with their characters.

thats all for now...

birthday wishes are in order.

mood: food sleepy.

happy birthday to tyler. he's turning--old. i won't out him on how old, but old enough. lets just say that over lunch today we discussed colonoscopys. fun. men are babies.

im still fat and full from korean lunch today, courtesy of omogari. i took tyler out to lunch for his birthday (and one of my youth advocates--who randomly showed up along side my truck at mt. pleasant today). im going to go home and exercise on my bike and do a billion crunches and lift my little eight pound weights before heading off to the nuthouse tonight for more stomach expanding beverages.

first i will go home and unapologetically watch last nights episode of the OC. hey! when they ever decide to release 90210 on dvd, i will consider giving up the OC, but for now, its in my regular rotation of shows.

speaking of shows... the new pornographers//belle and sebastian show happened on tuesday. at the risk of coming off sounding like a pretentious music snob (which i am, but hopefully minus the pretentiousness), the show was not worth the money.

the venue is HORRIBLE. the sound is also HORRIBLE. location & parking i give a thumbs up to, and while i look forward to going to APE at this same venue, i will never (probably never) see a show there again. don't get me wrong, it wasnt the worst show ever, im just drawing a comparison to all the number of times ive seen these bands--belle and sebastian (this my fourth time) and new pornographers (fifth time), and i must say this was my least favorite time seeing B&S and my second least favorite time seeing new p's (the only other time we only got their in time to see about 2 songs).

not to say that the new pornographers werent awesome, but they were neko less, and i had very little room to dance, and the venue was too big for them. belle and sebastian, my problem was more with the venue than them. me and jocelyn left reese and jeff, and moved from our front of the stage spot after new pornographers (to get air, visit teshia & rick), and after that we were unable to find a spot where we could actually see the band. we either had tons of heads in our way, or giant posts. what a shitty venue. why have shows here? i cant imagine how horrible the strokes show is going to be there. oh well. you live and learn. cant say i had a bad evening, just wasnt worth forty bucks.

then when i went to buy a beer, they had a bunch of rows with beers filled in clear plastic cups. i asked what types they were and she said they were mystery beers. look lady, i aint payin' six bucks for a freakin' mystery beer (later she confessed they were pale ale and budweiser). i had told her, give me your darkest... which was pale ale. lame.

ok. time to leave work. spending some time in santa cruz this weekend, which will include some nicole time, which is nice.

spreading the world water day gospel

Today is world water day--a day used to spread word on the fact that more than 1 billion people world wide – 20% of the planet’s entire human population – lack access to clean, safe drinking water. According to the United Nations, this world water crisis leads to the death of more than 4,500 children every day and is a leading cause of poverty, disease, and social instability world wide.

Soooo... I'm doing my part and letting the five of you know who reads this about today... and about what's going on in developing nations. Spread the word.

Here's some tidbits from the World Water Day Website:

Despite the apparent abundance of clean water in the US and most of the developed world, more than 20% of the Earth’s population lacks clean, safe drinking water.

This world water crisis isn’t confined to one particular region of the planet, though the crisis is most severe in developing nations and particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Poverty, health, education, and economic growth all are impacted by the lack of clean water and sanitation in these communities, creating a perpetual struggle for basic survival.

The world water crisis is created by a confluence of factors including climate and geography, lack of water systems and infrastructure, and inadequate sanitation, something that 2.6 billion people (40% of the world’s population) lack access to. Some of these countries have additional problems, including high levels of arsenic and fluoride in drinking water.

Even with these unsanitary conditions, many women and young girls in rural areas in Sub-Saharan African and other parts of the world must trek as much as six miles everyday to retrieve water for their families. Due to this manual labor, such women and children are prevented from pursuing an education, maintaining their households or earning additional income.

Just wanted to give you something to think about as you are drinking your bottled water, etc.
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belle and sebastian//new pornographers show recap to come later today.

for the love of the indie-rock.

NPR has a live belle and sebastian/new pornographers broadcast posted on their website. or just go here --> for those who will be missing out on the show tomorrow night. (reese)

i plan on downloading that baby when i get home. i also plan on purchasing the new neko case record on my way home from work. she is one bird who can REALLY sing.

so sad that shes not touring w/ the new p's. boo to that. but oh well. carl newman has hilarious stories.

some people think they're always right.

mood: sleepy
music: the strokes- impressions of earth

this weather makes me LAZY! incredibly lazy. i would like very much to go home and watch tv or lay in bed and read. that would be nice. damn the man.

i just came back from having lunch with joce and ryan. we had pupusas--reveuletas--i dont know how to spell it (pork & cheese) are yummy in my tummy. and also made me full so now i want to take a nap.

yesterday i stayed in doors all day. i make no apologies for it. it felt good. i did work out though on my exercise bike, and did some crunches and weight lifting. but mostly i did nothing. i watched some more of nip/tuck season 2. that show is... well... overly dramatic and ridiculous--but i'll continue to watch it. i spent some time reading about teri hatcher's childhood tragedy in the latest vanity fair. later on in the day i began to catch up on the current season of 24. thanks tyler for putting the first handful of episodes on tape for me. dang. i am still hot for jack bauer. the show is seriously addicting. but... the main event of the evening was the second new episode of the sopranos. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT. STOP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS THIS SEASON. STOP READING NOW. okay. so this episode was extremely dark and sad. if they kill off tony soprano i will feel a mix of emotions i am not yet prepared to deal with. first. i would feel cheated. cheated that i had to wait two years for new episodes, wait two years for more of tony, and to have him be shot in the first episode is just cheap. but second... it could make for an extremely intense and bad ass season. with no clear person in line to replace tony, and with the clash of characters... it could seriously give the show a major kick. i dont know though. killed by uncle junior, aj is right, that would be just embarassing. but i dont appreciate the mummy head jokes at junior's expense. the man has a disease. im not excusing him, but dementia is a sad illness. well. what do i think is going to happen? i think we are going to have to say goodbye to tony. last night's episode made it really seem like the characters were saying their goodbyes to tony, and it was such an intense episode that i cant imagine him being okay. and if he doesnt die, im not sure he will even remember who he is anymore (they alluded to memory loss). but... we shall see. we shall see.

tyler just called me about 24. we chatted a bit about the first three episodes of this season. they finally addressed a problem i felt the show has had over the last couple of seasons. the inability to let some of its characters go. lets just say that the first episode took care of the problem. good stuff. tyler is also helping me w/ group hookups for the new movie "thank you for smoking" which i am organizing a field trip w/ the youth to go and see. the trailer for the film is HILARIOUS.

speaking of movies, i went and saw v for vendetta on saturday. i had to avoid making comparisons of the film and the comic book, which took about half of the film to do so, but in the end i really enjoyed it. i did scoff during one scene in the film that was very hollywood. mizz portman is hoTT stuff though. im looking forward to checking out the inside man, the latest spike lee joint. i still wanted to see block party too.

saturday evening i went over to eidelyns and michaels for their get-together/party. i had a lot of fun. drank some really good punch and some good irish beers left over from st. pattys day. also had some healthy and not-so-healthy snacks. enjoyed good conversation with people i havent seen in a really long time. then on the way home me and lulu were stuck in accident-traffic (w/ a fatality), that had us parked on 85 for at least an hour and a half... getting us home somewhere around 4-ish.

okaaaaay. going back to doing work now. new pornographers & belle and sebastian show is tomorrow night! i cannot wait!

xoxo.

sarah silverman + jon stewart = a happy thursday morning.

mood: calm.
music: rude sarah silverman//subtle jon stewart

so i brought my boom box into work this morning so that i can catch two of my favorite comedians on the adam corolla show. i was desperately trying to find a spot in my hell box//closet//cubicle that would be the less fuzzy frequency for 106.9 free fm. i also realized mono stereo makes it less fuzzy. noice!

aye. the satellite glass guy came to replace my broken windshield. its been broken for about a year people. two fairly large cracks running across my windshielf. yes. i know. bad. but hey, its getting fixed now, while im at work--no extra charge. which is awesome. im glad he made it by 9:00, you never know with that four hour block they give you... but of course he came right when jon stewart came on. haha.

last night was the first part of the season finale of project runway. it was cool to hear more about the final three designers and their background. im still rooting for santino regardless of the fact that he's arrogant. i appreciate the fact that hes honest and gives an honest opinion of what the other designers are creating--besides most of the time he's right anyway. my prediction is that santino will win project runway, and if he doesnt... thats crimminy.

going to see stereolab tonight with jeff. woo free show! (thanks jeff) i think we are going to hit up amoeba ahead of time, which probably isnt good for me because i dont have really much money to spend, but maybe i can get at least one thing.

this lady that works on the other side of my cubbie is this really really quiet lady, and then when she gets on the phone shes the loudest fucking person on the planet. i know that we can sometimes get loud on our side of the fence, but dang. lower the volume lady.

ok. time for some crudeness from the adorable sarah silverman. i heart her.

on a quest to see a film...

music: the hold steady- separation sunday
mood: hungry & tired (today feels looooong)

its been a couple of years, two i think, since ive attended cinequest. prior to my not attending, i had gone for 5 or 6 straight years. i stopped because the festival was getting too popular and even having purchased advance tickets for screenings, getting in wasn't guaranteed because of hoity-toity badge holders. bah! ive kinda missed going though.

so driving through downtown san jose today i was reminded by the red street light banners that cinequest starts pretty much today.... dang. i hadnt even had a chance to thoroughly look through the program guide. now im at work quickly trying to look at what sounds interesting, and what showtimes are feasible for me, and which shows are least likely to require me getting there 3 hours early.

i decided this one could be interesting. ive always had love for william h. i also want to see "thank you for smoking" but i'll wait til its released officially so that i can organize an outing with some of our youth advocates... during work time! hey! its a work-related film. see for youself. but what else is there? i need suggestions. whats the buzz? what about this one? im not really too sure about this one... could be cliche. im always a little skeptical of woody allen comparisons... so not sure about the west wittering affair. i usually try to attend both the comedic shorts and the student shorts, but not too sure this year. its hit or miss and the comedy shorts are always soooo crowded. i think this year i might try out the animated shorts. i wonder if the animated short that lauren worked on got in. it should have... it made it to sundance afterall. i'll have to spend more time looking through the emerging mavericks and new vision category.

please let me know if you have any suggestions.

isnt it time to go home yet? or go have dinner at krung thai w/ joce, lulu and tyler?? i think its a choo-chee tofu kinda night. then later its part I of the finale of project runway... and a cheese medley-extravaganza.

ok. thats all thats in my mind for now.

i will miss you tonite jack bauer! i truly will.