Here are some photos from our recent trip to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas. I got to see Rick and meet The Old Man. Big Hoss and Chumlee were not there. It was amazing to see how small the shop was–the TV show makes the place look huge. I was expecting it to be about twice the size, but then again, the place isn’t as crowded when they film it. At the time, Rick had a torn ACL, so he was limping around the shop and looked like he was trying to grin through the pain.
Pawn Star
Feb 5
I’ve been so busy with work the past couple of weeks, I have had to forego my typically daily walks with the pugs. I feel bad that all they do is sleep and eat. They wait for any chance they can get to hop in the car or go outside if they see me getting up to go somewhere. Usually a 30-minute walk will tire them out for the night. Once I’m done with this project, I’ll try to get back on schedule with them.
Fight Against Death
Oct 8
Please watch the following Special Comment and know that we all ultimately want the same thing for all.
Health Care Reform: The Fight Against Death
Solid reporting?
Sep 26
The lead story of today’s local paper was titled Terror suspect linked to Visalia. When you read the article, it talks about a guy in Sprinfield, Illinois who was plotting to blow up a building. What is the link to my hometown in California? His alleged MySpace profile in which he indicated a hometown of Visalia, CA according to the State Journal-Register of Illinois.
There is, however another city of Visalia in the country–one that is much closer to Illinois–in Kentucky. Since the MySpace profile has been removed, I can’t verify what it actually said for the hometown. It’s not clear from the reports if it could have just said “Visalia” or if it explicitly listed the state. The same MySpace profile said the guy attended high school in Michigan. The three states, Illinois, Michigan, and Kentucky are in close proximity to each other–much closer to Kentucky than California from Illinois or Michigan. I’m not saying the reporting is necessarily wrong, but it is a big jump to report that there is definitely a link to our city rather than another when there is no other evidence–school records or family members with the same last name–living in this city. I think somebody might have jumped the gun when searching for Visalia and finding the California city rather than the one in Kentucky.
RiffTrax LIVE!
Jul 15
Now you can watch the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 live on the big screen in Fresno. Check out the details here: http://www.ncm.com/Fathom/Comedy/RiffTrax.aspx or add it to your Google Calendar by clicking the button below.
Knowing
Jul 15
I saw the movie Knowing earlier this year when it was in theaters. Since it has recently been released to the home market, I wanted to share my thoughts on it. At the time, I knew nothing of it except for the advertising that promised an action-oriented disaster film with a sci-fi twist. While it did deliver in those respects, I had mixed feelings about where it all ended up.
***SPOILER ALERT***
The remainder of this article contains details of the movie that you may not want to know until after you’ve seen the movie.
Sarah Palin Steps Down
Jul 3
I have just a few comments on today’s “strange, bizarre, and rambling” resignation announcement from Sarah Palin. I’m happy to see her ostensibly leave politics, but this speech had too many strange moments for me not to comment.
Her reasoning for stepping down early, rather than fulfilling the remainder of her term, included an explanation that some lame duck governors have a lot of fun traveling while continuing to draw paychecks. Instead of avoiding responsibility like these “others”, she’s going to save the taxpayers millions of dollars by stepping down early. Even if being a leech is the case for other lame duck politicians, why does she behave like she has no other choice but to step down? Is there someone forcing her to “milk it” for a paycheck until it’s over? Can she do nothing beneficial in office before the term is up?
In reference to some alleged media attacks on her one-year old son, she said, “The world needs more Trigs, not fewer.” Nothing against Trig, but why exactly would we prefer more kids with Down syndrome? Remind me again how that would be beneficial. I would just assume that, like any disorder, it is something that parents and society can manage, but also not something you’d prefer more of. If I had written the speech, I might have simply said the world needs to be more empathetic.
And, of course, the number of times that prayer and God were mentioned is cringe-worthy. But that’s nothing new.
I have a working solution to the embedded image in an embedded stylesheet problem, but I would appreciate any suggestions for improvement. This does its own substitution of the CSS file in the Designer class for the IDE. Transparency in PNGs don’t work so far, however. I’ll post some of the code here, but a full example solution is available for download. I’d love to hear comments on this. Thank you! Read the rest of this entry »
Couple Quick Movie Picks
Jul 6
Until I write more in-depth reviews of some of the recent movies I’ve seen, here’s a super quick evaluation:
- WALL-E (2008) – SEE IT
- The Happening (2008) – SKIP IT
- Wanted (2008) – SEE IT
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) – RENT IT
- Iron Man (2008) – SEE IT
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) – RENT IT
- 21 (2008) – SEE IT
George Carlin 1937-2008
Jun 23
My heart is sad today. One of my favorite comics George Carlin is gone.
I can’t tell you the number of times my husband Justin and I have spent driving late at night listening to George’s cd’s and laughing our asses off. In a lot of ways we “got” his comedy we also “got” each other. We also had the honor of seeing him live on stage three times. When we saw him last in February 2006 he had announced that he had a heart attack six weeks ago over Christmas and that is was his first show back. When he said that I had a feeling that it could be one of the last times we might ever see him.
Unfortunately there have been a ton of fake forwarded e-mails and web postings that people attributed to George that are total bullshit. In the coming days there might be a lot of those going around. Most of the stuff is way too intellectually inferior to have ever been some of George’s unique and genius writings and musings. His humor was hugely influential on so many of today’s comics. His work was constantly pushing the boundaries and challenging our freedom of speech.
If you ever had the privilege of seeing George for yourself you could always tell that deep down he was just a cool and sweet guy. Even though there are so many things attributed to him that are not his own, one thing that I did hear him say on a 60 minutes feature has always stuck with me and I believe in many ways defines him as an comic, artist, and person and that I, myself, related to in many ways. “Inside every cynical person there is a disappointed idealist.” George Carlin 1937-2008
Thank You George you will be missed…