Wednesday, April 30, 2003The Year for Anaheim?Not that I want to curse the ducks after a hell of a start in the playoffs but they really seem to be serious about taking the cup this year. Who would have picked the Angels and the Ducks to win championships in the same year? Now I'm not guranteeing anything but hey who would have thought it even a possibility and who is playing better hockey now. In the you dont have to be smart to be a marine contest - a reserve sergeant promptly on his return from the gulf war II brags to his local Las Vegas newspaper about shooting iraqi soldiers in the back of the head and is now being investigated by the Navy for war crimes. Work is wearing me out and tomorrow will be my biggest test of the 30 days I am alone as I have to do the month end processing by myself. Wish me luck! posted @ 06:59 PM PST [link] [Karma: -7 (+/-)] Tuesday, April 29, 2003What a weekend!Well I was a bad boy this weekend. Friday was my partners last day after having learned most of what I know in IS from him. So as a sendoff we went to the sports bar in the Hustler Casino. I had three Mai Tais after two rum and cokes and was completely blasted. After that we left the casino and I had to wrestle my buddy from trying to fight the security team and then he and I promptly passed out in the car leaving his poor girlfriend to figure out what to do with us. I wake up at 2:30 in the morning in Van Nuys, mind you I was supposed to be home at 9:30 from this little get together. Called me a cab and 75.00 later I was home. Who says you grow out of being a troublemaker? Watched UFC this weeekend and I would give it a good solid B as far as shows. It didn't completely wow you at all but the fights weren't dull. There were new faces all over the place. Bad news for the UFC Robbie Lawler lost so one of their golden boys is now tarnished but the good news is Pete Spratt won so there is a new welterweight contender. I don't know how good that is for Spratt as anyone who has to go through Matt Hughes right now seems to have trouble. posted @ 02:28 AM PST [link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)] Thursday, April 24, 2003Another Update - UFC, WWE, and Lance ArmstrongThis week has been crazy as I am working mega hours. We went to Palm Springs Saturday night to spend Easter with my parents and my mom's brother and mother. They brought some toys for my daughters including some little remote control car's and some robot pets. We played a lot in the pool and had an awesome dinner. This week I met my new boss who struck me as a pretty cool guy. My mentor/teacher/IS guru Johnie is taking a new position and tomorrow is his last day. I will be the lone ranger in IS until May 19th which should be interesting. Looking forward to anothe UFC pay per view tomorrow and the WWE pay per view on Sunday. UFC looks to be in huge disarray as they are saying that they are going to have Randy Couture face Chuck Liddell for an Interim Light Heavyweight Champion. What is an interim champion? Does that mean Tito is coming back later or what? The whole UFC seems to be going South with their champs with a relative unknown at Heavyweight in Silva, Lightheavy in total dissaray, Middleweight champ Bustamante fighting in Pride, a solid at Welterweight in Matt Hughes and Lightweight championship vacant as the last title fight ended in a draw. What now? Wrestling has gone flipped as far as entertainment value as I see Raw as the better show compared to Smackdown. Rock is making a huge impact on Raw and without Kurt Angle Smackdown doesn't seem to have the same lure. I'm not convinced that John Cena has the pull that Brock does in a title match even though the WWE has pushed this rivalry for a long time. Raw is great with Rock, Goldberg, Nash, Triple H, and HBK making the show top heavy. Add Booker T and RVD to the mix and one has to wonder if they haven't shifted too much draw to Raw. Waiting to see what happens with JR and Stone Cold as it has been some time since we heard from either. Speaking of Good Old JR I miss his weekly web reports and would think the WWE would be well served to have someone else do the same type of report to squash the rumor mill that surrounds wrestling. Enough about TV though. I recently read Lance Armstrongs autobiography and it was awesome. Talk about a guy who has a lot to tell. When he talks about his previous life and his current one he aint lying. This guy has seen enough to have lived two lives. His descriptions of surviving cancer and how it changed him, winning the Tour de France, the birth of his son Luke and winning the Tour again are awesome. I really felt like I had been there with him after reading this book. If you haven't read it because you thought it was just a book about cycling I suggest you pick it up. posted @ 09:46 AM PST [link] [Karma: -3 (+/-)] Wednesday, April 16, 2003Just a few more commentsMe sitting at the computer taken by Marianna, my younger daughter. Apparently this is how she sees me alot. She was really cute tonight as soon as I got home she said she wanted to play with her daddy as she hadn't seen much of me lately. Kids are great for making you feel loved and giving great guilt trips at the same time. I have been working mega hours this week and unfortunately it has been hard on all three of my girls, wife included. We played awhile including the mandatory tickle torture and shot some fun pictures. Til Later Ciao! posted @ 07:15 PM PST [link] [Karma: -7 (+/-)] Chinese Horoscope of the family I am an EARTH ROOSTER and my wife is an EARTH MONKEY. My older daughter is a WATER ROOSTER and my other daughter is a here. posted @ 06:57 PM PST [link] [Karma: 7 (+/-)] Saturday, April 12, 2003Personal Video RecordingI was surfing around because I had heard of a rumored hack that can let you transfer files from your replaytv to your pc. While cruising around I stubled onto an article about Snapstream Media's Personal Video Station. It is a really cool product that lets you do the whole pvr process from your computer to begin with. Being the daydreamer that I am I then started imagining this system with a Plasma screen like Gateways. Apparently Gateway was a step ahead of me as they have the Gateway® Media Center PC with Plasma TV for $3999.00 though with the Bose 321 system and a few other goodies it shot up to $5507.98!  Now mind you there are using Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition to do the dirty work and I have not researched how well this functions but it seems awesome conceptually. Get a wireless keyboard and mouse and it is off to the races for sure. I would never get off my couch. posted @ 08:31 PM PST [link] [Karma: 4 (+/-)] Friday, April 11, 2003Dear AbbeyFrom: "Rory" To: Undisclosed-Recipient@, Subject: Dear Abby: Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 21:11:13 -0700 Dear Abby: My husband is a lying cheat. He tells me he loves me, but he has cheated our entire marriage. He is a good provider and has many friends and supporters, but they know he is a lying cheat and just avoid the issue. He is a hard worker, but many of his coworkers are leery of him. Every time he gets caught at work, he denies it all. It is the same in our personal life. When I finally catch him in the act, with a private eye, then he admits that he was wrong and begs me to forgive him. This has been going on for so long, everyone in town knows he is a cheat. He thinks that I am a lesbian, and he chooses to ignore me at home. I don't know what to do. Signed, Frustrated Dear Frustrated: You should dump him. Now that you are a New York Senator, you don't need him anymore posted @ 09:33 PM PST [link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] Backyard Wrestling Watched Backyard Wrestling tonight and I have to admit that I have never seen anything so insane in a long time if ever. These guys not only were bacyard specialists but were all hardcore maneuvers that were just insane. To be honest I enjoy the professionals a lot more as you almost hate to watch these amateurs work. Coming from the same producers who give you Ghetto Brawls and Backyard Babes I guess I shouldn't be surprised with the content. There are lots of broken tables, broken light tubes, fires, barbed wire, and lot of jumping off roofs. It seemed to get old fast though as the matches get repititious after a while. I can imagine what it would be like for a non fan to have to watch a Pro Wrestling match if they didn't get addicted to the story lines. Anyways the bottom line is that I wouldn't reccomend Backyard wrestling exceptmfor the perverse who really love extreme wrestling. posted @ 09:28 PM PST [link] [Karma: -1 (+/-)] WWE Raw & Smackdown Well I can say that I missed my Smackdown last week. This week though it was back to my wrestling addiction. Raw has been improving steadily since Rock came over from Samckdown to make things interesting. He is still the best in the business, heel or face. The Diesel return was great but Nash still seems a little rusty. The storyline of having Nash and HBK face off against HHH and Flair could prove to be awesome. Goldberg being back also makes for great stuff especially with him looking to square off against the Rock. Stonecold and JR getting fired is a little distracting but I am certain they will be back in the short future though I understand Austin is too injured to continue wrestling but rumors say he may play a role on Raw. Smackdown seems to have gone down a notch in quality since the Rock left and Angle is out with his injury. John Cena seems to be getting a huge push into the title picture but Im not sure he is ready for this level yet. Sounds like Taker is going on a leave now if the hype on TV is true. Liked the Pipers Pit episode last night, as always. I was jazzed about Mysterio and Tajiri teaming up as these are two of my favorite performers. Matt Hardy is not doing anything as Cruiserweight Champ and would love to see a change there. I hope that WWE realizes soon that they made a mistake in splitting up the Hardy's as they did with the Dudlies. The only split that ended with an improvement was Edge and Christian who have both been able to stand well on their own. posted @ 02:15 AM PST [link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] Wednesday, April 9, 2003Back in Los AngelesPhoto of my girls in front of the van. Well I finally made it back home safe and sound. Mimi picked me up at the airport. From there we went home and relaxed for part of the afternoon. We woke up to bring the girls sandwiches from busy bees. As you can imagine Marianna was kind of excited to see me at her school. In the afternoon I ran some errands including getting an estimate for paint and bodywork on my Honda. Fromt there I went and got a new digital camera. Mimi is spoiling me! I bought a Nikon, family tradition, Cool Pix 2100. Went to Open House at the girl's school last ngiht which provided a good opportunity to take some photos. The CoolPix 2100 is really easy to use. The only thing I couldn't do with out reading the manual was go back and review the photos I had already taken. I need to praise Windows XP again though. When I came home I figured I would have a rough time moving the photos over to my PC hard drive. As soon as I plugged in the camera XP asked me what I wanted to do, didn't have to install any drivers, copied though photos right over. Microsoft has done a real nice job with XP in dealing with home media including music and photos. Anyways I uploaded a photo with this entry which I took last night of teh girls in front of the van. You can get an idea of the quality of the images. posted @ 02:19 AM PST [link] [Karma: 12 (+/-)] Monday, April 7, 2003My Last Day in KoreaWell today I left korea for the United States via Japan's Nasaki Airport. My Flight left Korea at 10:50 and my sister in law was nice enough to drop me off at the airport. I love Incheon airport as it really is beautifully designed and is completely modern. The bus we took from Seoul was really nice as well. The trip from Seoul to Incheon takes about an hour but it is fairly scenic and you actually see some wide open areas on the trip. Right now I am in Japan and am looking forward to a 13 hour flight. My parent's tour to China was canceled because of concerns over Sars. They will stay in Seoul until the 23rd or if not Seoul the Korea as I imagine they will want to see more of the country. Anyways I should be in Los Angeles in about 14 hours and they just called my flight to start boarding. posted @ 06:58 PM PST [link] [Karma: -3 (+/-)] Monday in Korea Well it was another wild day in Korea. We went to a wild mall called Techno Mall. It is avery modern 10 story mall with as the name would suggest all sorts of technology gadgets. It really was interesting to see them have a floor full of individual vendors selling like products. I am not sure how one succeeds over the other or why one would choose one over another. I would imagine you could barter some but I am really not certain. After Techno Mall we traveled to the Han River for a boat tour It was about forty five minutes to an hour long and it was very scenic as far as observing the city from a different perspective. After the boat tour we relaxed at the hotel for a while before going out to dinner with Rob's in-laws. Ron and Han-Jieu were not back yet from their honeymoon so they didn't accompany us. It was another wonderful Korean Barbeque. It was really quite classy and the people were really nice. It has been amazing as we really have had nothing but warm experiences on this trip. I was a little concerned because Korea has had a bad reputation as for being anti-american but I have not seen any evidence of that at all. Anyways need to run as my brother and his wife are on their way over. posted @ 01:30 AM PST [link] [Karma: 6 (+/-)] Sunday, April 6, 2003My name in Koreanµ· is how you write my name in Korean which means money. posted @ 11:44 AM PST [link] [Karma: 4 (+/-)] Sunday in Korea Well it was another wonderful day in Korea today. First we went shopping with my cousin David providing the tour as my brother Rob and his wife traveled to Jeju Island which is actually fairly south of Korea. The shopping was fairly similar to what you would find in the alleys close to downtown Los Angeles. From there we went to Deoksugung palace which was quite smaller than the palace we saw a couple of days ago but was also the home of the royal museum which was interesting to walk through. I found that many of the costumes used in Robs wedding date back from the royalty especially King Yeongwang. It was also interesting to see some of the modes of transportation that were used in the past. We ate lunch at Sbarro a Pizzaria found in the States as well and topped our luch off at Starbucks and then returned to Deoksugung palace for the changing of the guard. It was a fascinating ceremony. From there we traveled to a park which was nearby which was the place where the Koreans declared independence from Japan in 1919. It also housed a ten story marble pagoda which was housed in a glass house to protect it from the elements. Again we returned to Insa-dong to do some shopping and I managed to spend some money again. We had tea in an authentic tea house and the gentleman who ran the establishment was quite nice and took photos of us all drinking tea. I had a plum tea which was awesome. We stopped at a gallery to look at paintings of Woo Chang-Hoon which I thought was awesome. The intricasy of his artwork was awesome. Check out his website it is awesome. I'll post one of his pictures below.  From there we traveled to meet Davids girlfriend in a part of town whose name I dont recall but it was much calmer than Sincheon which was another younger town area. I bought a leather cap I had been longing for and then we ate Korean barbeque again. The only difference was this time I decided to try soju which is apparently an authentic Korean alcoholic drink which is very inexpensive. It was like drinking bacardi without the kick, in fact I made myself a soju and coke which was quite good. I have one more day left in Seoul and hope I get to make the most of it. posted @ 03:09 AM PST [link] [Karma: 11 (+/-)] Saturday, April 5, 2003MMA Weekly Top TenMMA Weekly Top Ten has the most current rankings out on the web right now. They look like, as has everyone else, they have gotten tired of Tito dodging Chuck Liddell. I dont know about you but I understand wanting to make more cash for the fight of your life and holding out as a negotiation tactic but I dont understand all this talk with WWE. I think Tito is a good mic man in the UFC but I dont think hes even mid grade to the WWE. The rumor mills have been so active about Tito and Chuck that I am not sure what is true anymore. Typically I rely on SHerdog as they are reliable, but seeing how it was an april fools day post I dont know which was is up anymore. If you are wondering why I am wasting time posting about MMA from Kore I woke up at 3:30 am this morning and didn't want to torment my poor cousin any longer so I came downstairs to surf the web. I hope Tito/Liddell happens. Idont think it will happen in Pride though because it would be to Tito's disadvantage to fight in a ring versus a cage. I also think the rampant rumors of Tito getting stripped are a little premature as withe the rough year Zuffa has had so far they would be bumming to lose another fixture. Unfortunately I think Zuffa has been a victim of its own success and they need to decide if they want to be a top notch org or a feeder org for pride. Just as UFC picks up fighters from KOTC, Pride seems to be picking up fighters from UFC. As for Pride I would love to see them add more divisions to their product. They seem to be enamored with the big men and while that is fine and good the little men offer a damn fine game which is different from the big men which makes the product better not water it down. They seem to be picking up more middleweights, of the UFC variety not Pride, and I think this is an awesome move. Hopefully it will continue and even start to work its way down the weight ladder. posted @ 08:54 AM PST [link] [Karma: 10 (+/-)] Saturday in Korea Well it was another fascinating day in Korea as my little brother was married in a traditional korean wedding. The scene of the wedding was a historic folk village. All of the participants were dressed in Korean Folk dresses and robes. The ceremony was rich in symbolism and tradition. It was interesting though because apparently Koreans had been having traditional western weddings for quite some time and not many understood the traditions much better than us. In fact for many it was the first time seeing a traditional wedding as well. After the ceremony which was actually fairly brief, there was another ceremony called a pebek in which the bride and groom would traditionally greet the family of the groom, as the bride is now becoming part of the grooms family. At first the grooms parents sit in front of a small table with wine and fruits. One of the traditions is that the bride and groom hold a sheet between them and the grooms parents throw nuts and dates at the sheets to see how many children they will have . Dates signify girls and the nuts boys. According to this preactice my brother and his wife should have four children, three girls and a boy. After that ceremony the couple bows to the parents and then purs them a small glass of wine for the to drink. The same ritual bowing, drinking, snack is repeated for the aunts and uncles of the groom and then the brothers and cousins of the groom. They then repeated the custom for the brides parents in a modern touch. After the ceremony there was a buffet reception with a variety of Korean foods. It was wonderful. Rob and his wife then went on to their honeymoon on a Korean island famous for honeymooners. I believe it is called Jae Jee island. We moved on to some sight seeing. First we saw another Korean Folk town which was much busier than the one Rob was married in. They also had an interesting time capsule that was filled in 1994 for the 400th anniversary of Seoul. It is scheduled to be opened at the millenium celebration of Seoul. Next we went shopping on an awesome street called Insa-dong which was filled with artisans selling their crafts. One artisan in particular who I purchased some folk art from was Wan Joo Kang. He creates Pictorial Calligraphy which was very unique looking. I had him do my last name. There is all sorts of symbolism in the pictures including long life, prosperity, friedship and other various good things. He uses the pitures to shape the letters that you request. The man is amazing as he speaks not only korean, but also english, japanese, and arabic. Here is an example of something he did for the world cup.  Tonight we ate dinner in a chinese resturant in our hotel which was awesome. posted @ 12:36 AM PST [link] [Karma: 5 (+/-)] Friday, April 4, 2003Friday in KoreaWell my day started a little later today as I was compensating for a lack of sleep. Went with my brother to see the war museum which was really neat. The war memorial goes through different stages of Korean warfare including pre bronxe age. Also went to a really fascinating show which mimicked being in the war. It was kind of like the Korean war meets Pirates of the Caribean There were explosions to similate artillery and lasers to similate machine guns. I took some pictures today but have a film based camera so it will be a bit before I can post them. From there Rob and I went to watch his Jiu Jitsu buddies spar. They train on Fridays in a gym located on campus of a large university. Korean schools are quite full even in the early parts of the evening. After the sparring session we went to visit Rob's friend Lonny who lives near campus in a house consisting of 13 private bedrooms with a shared bath and kitchen. The house appeared to be one of many in this small complex. It was nicely designed as well with wood style flooring. We went to eat at Outback resturant for dinner. Itwas great but we were definitely cheating the exposure to Korean culture. Afterwards went back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep. My brothers wedding is tommorow so I'll need to be well rested for the spectacular. Until later, Bye posted @ 04:14 AM PST [link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] Thursday in Korea Cant keep track of my days anymore and really I am not sure of the dates. I know it is one more than in the States. My aunt, uncle, and cousins arrived today so we all went to lunch together and went to see the royal palace. It was really beautiful and they are building some major projects there. It was really beautiful as some flowered trees were starting to bloom. We ate lunch at TGI Fridays before meeting with my aunt, uncle and cousins at the hotel. From there we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace was Gyeongbokgung Palace and was originally built in the 1300's and then destroyed in the late 1500's by the Japanese. It was restored in 1868 and was destroyed during the Japanese occupation in the early 1900's. It was rebuilt again in the early 1990's and is still a work in progress. I am the only one who sees a pattern here? I didn't get to see the museum there and just spent time walking the grounds which are really beautiful. There a multiple small squares which are linked together by gates with the less significant people towrd the perimeter and the more significant people towards the center. After the museum we went back to our Hotel to meet my brother's in laws for dinner. We went to a Korean Barbecue place across the street. It was really nice and I learned that if one does not want another glass of beer he should not finish his previous beer completely. It was a contrast for me as I am used to finishing my drinks. Also learned that one does not pour their own drinks. After dinner we went to my brother's in laws house which will be where he lives from now on. It is on the top floor of a building next to what I believe is the Han river. The view was awesome as you could see all around Seoul from the walkway. The house itself is not nearly as small as I thought it would be. It is the equivalent of a three bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. It was a very pleasant stay as we shared some fruit which is wonderful here. Never had better strawberries, too bad I ate so much at dinner. After we went back to the Hotel Rob and I went to another part of Seoul which is apparently a college area of town. It was neon lights to the kilt with mostly bars and resturants. We went to a couple of quaint bars which would have been right at home in the states. posted @ 04:06 AM PST [link] [Karma: -6 (+/-)] Wednesday in Korea - My First Day Seoul is a beautiful city. It is Massive and reminds me a little of the cities in Blade Runner but a little neater. I went out with my brother at 2:00 in the morning quite amazed that the city was still awake. Apparently in Korea it is not uncommon to go out to eat after work and then get hammered. It was strange to see very formally dressed businessmen throwing up at the curbs. In Los Angeles the the streets would be nearly barren at this time. We are staying at the Coatel Hotel. The Hotel is a new one geared towards business people. The room I am staying in is almost more apartment than hotel room. We have a washer and dryer. There is a kitchen area with a small electric stove and refrigerator as well. Apparently it is geared towards businessmen traveling here. The view is awesome at night and not so grand during the day as at night you can see the beautiful city lights and during the day you can see, and hear, a construction site. The flooring is hardwood style and the interior design of the room is very modern. Inside the hotel itself is several resturants, massage parlors, a gym, and a convenience store. The convenience store is a blessing as it has everything a 7-11 would and is open 24 hours as well. posted @ 04:00 AM PST [link] [Karma: 3 (+/-)] My trip to Korea I started my day off by waking up at 4:00 to get ready to leave for the airport at 5:00. Got on the plane in Los Angeles at 7:20 in the morning and it took a couple of hours to fly to Seattle on a MD11. There I spent 3 hours waiting fo the next leg. Seatlle was a cool airport but they didn't have internet terminals in the terminal which was surprising as it is the land of Gates. They also didn't have a starbucks in the terminal I dont hink I have to explain why that is a surprise. I saw MMA legend Matt Hume in the airport and plane trip to Japan, though I was polite and didn't bother him. The flight to Japan was 10 hours! It was fairly smooth though so I won't complain. From there it was a two hour layover and then another two hour filght to Incheon airport in Korea. All told it was 24 hours before I got to Korea. It was a saving grace to have my mp3 player and book. The mp3 player has around 60 songs in it and ran on one triple A battery for the duration of the trip plus all that I had been tistening to before my trip. I really loved Incheon as it was beautifully designed. Everything is new according to my brother in laws family like within the last five years. The bus ride to my Hotel was very pleasant, leather recliner seats were nice after a long time in airlane and terminal seats. The Journey from Incheon to Seoul was fascinating and despite being pretty tired I was too fascinated by everything to go to sleep. The city is very modern. I am told that the section we are in is the newer wealthier portion of the city. posted @ 03:54 AM PST [link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)] Tuesday, April 1, 2003Sitting in LAXWell I am sitting in LAX waiting to take a plane to Washington State and then on to Japan and then Korea. By my best figures it should be an eighteen hour day and I should be arriving in Korea at 9:00 in the evening tomorrow. I am not sure what kind of access to the web I will have so we will have to see what kind of updates I can post. The TSA screeners were very thorough which was no surprise but they were also very courteous which I was surprised about. I had to take my shoes off to have them xrayed which was a little strange but I rest assured that I am safe. I cant help but imagine what it must be like to be of middle eastern decent and flying now days. I was surprised at my own reaction at hoping that a middle eastern gentleman who was in line at the same time I was wouldn't be on my plane. In afterthought I was sort of ashamed of my initial reaction as I shouldn't prejudge anyone but the airways are a strange pale to be after 9-11. Until next time! posted @ 03:16 AM PST [link] [Karma: 4 (+/-)] |
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