Dream 2: Kathy Rauls' House

I had the strangest dream in a while. My parent's bought Kathy Rauls' parents house on Carnegie Ave. It is weird because my parents live the next block over from Kathy's parents, but anyway its a dream. SO we went to check it out and there were a few people still renting out one of the rooms. We went outside in the backyard, and the backyard, which in reality abuts up to a nursery (Sakioka Farms) , was actually butted up against a house in Midway City, and the back yard had a car on a hydraulic lift and several pigs and dogs running around. This was all viewed from the lanai which was on the second floor and guarded by a Boxer dog that had the most silky fur coat. The Rauls' left some antique Tonka trucks, and various other trinkets. I remember the dog being so friendly and truly opretty. he'd come up and lick you, then go back to his perch and bark at anyone who tried to come up to his perch, except me.

Anyway, I should have wrote this down when it was still fresh in my mind, because other people were in it, but I just can't remember who.

Please don't dump. . .Drains to Ocean

It rained on Saturday night. It was the first significant precipitation in six months, and when it rains, all of the trash that builds in the storm drains ends up in the ocean. Yup, Newport Beach and all the other beaches on the coast were filled with trash that came down the storm drains. I walked Newport Beach today, from the Newport Pier to the first jetty, and I will tell you there was all kinds of trash on the sand. In addition to broken bits of styrofoam, I saw about two dozen different shoes, at least 30 to 40 tennis balls, several spray paint cans, a golf ball, a big plastic container, lipstick, socks, tons of soda bottles and water bottles, a full bottle of red gatorade, a mattress (I think it was a queen or a double), plastic wrappers, a boat door ( I think it is teak, I picked it up and took it home) for a cuddy cabin, at least four jars of peanut butter, some unopened packets of instant oat meal, a tire, an inner tube, a broken half of a skateboard, some rubber balls, a bunch of packets of hand cleaner, a cactus, tons of driftwood, and all kinds of other stuff. It really amazes me how some things end up in the ocean. I mean, a mattress? and jars of opened peanut butter? How does that end up in the ocean? I grabbed about 16 tennis balls for my dog, and some other foltsam. next I want to graobn some driftwood to put in my garden but we'll see what the next storm churns up. because it is supposed to hit day after tomorrow. I'll try and post some pictures of the junk after the next storm. It truly amazes me all the trash that ends up in the ocean.

Dream 1: Zombies in Huntington Beach

Last night I dreamed that Huntington beach was about to be invaded by zombies, and they were coming from the beach. You supposedly could tell they were zombies because their eyes glowed. My best friend in High school, Tim Kearsing, was the mayor of HB and he insisted he had everything under control. He didn't, so my wife and I tried to head back to Manoa (in Hawaii, hey it was a dream anyway), but in the crush of people trying to get away from the zombies, I got separated from my wife. I ended up getting away with Lois Tanner's clan (she is Mormon, and she and I sat next to each other for two years in 5th and 6th grade), but the entire time I was calling out Jovi's name and couldn't locate her. I became so distressed at not being able to find her, I said to myself, this is a bad dream and I am going to wake up and she'll be next to me. So I decided to wake up from my dream and sure enough, she was there. I was relieved because I found her again.

So to kick off my occasional dream entries, I am letting you read up on my latest, Zombies in Huntington Beach. I have a few other good ones that I've kept in my head since high school, including driving the flyover freewway in the Amazon, the 200lb popcorn girl who gains weight for every floor she goes up in an elevator, and driving to the Philippines from California.

Outsourcing Flu Vaccine?

Both Josh, Jeremy and myself got flu shots today. The boys' pediatrician made a housecall at my mother's house, insisting that we get a flu shot, because in part of Joshua's asthma. The thing for me is I don't particularly like getting a flu shot, this being only the second time that I've received one. This year especially I was hesistant, (but for only 10 minutes) because of this administration's failure to ensure that there were adequate supplies of flu vaccine for those who wanted one. I can't believe that the United States, seemingly the most technologically advanced country in the world, can't even adequately supply flu vaccines to the 50 million Americans who want one. How can this administration claim to be in the best interest of the people of the country when it has to outsource the production of flu vaccine to a foreign country?

Do I Discriminate?

Today was not really a good day for me. First I found out that the City of Newport Beach is threatening to ban fishing off both the Newport and Balboa Piers due to the pier fisherman not picking up their trash and basically making a total mess of the place. And I posted this on a local fishing message board basically blaming the Vietnamese fisherman who fish at the end of those piers everyday catching bonito. (For those of you who don't know, a bonito is known as a little tuna. It is a pelagic fish that fights extremely well on light line). And I got in trouble with the people who post to that message board. But the fact is, the people who are trashing the place, taking more fish than allowed by law, are primarily of Vietnamese origin. I got a full on shitload of dissension from people on that board for being "racially motivated" So my dilemma is, am I racially motivated? I think that I am not, but the way that I had worded the message seemed to construe that I am. Questions were thrown at me like "How do you know they were all vietnamese?" "Maybe they were Korean and you didn't know it" People were indeed pissed off, and I should have used the politically correct term "Asian" and not Vietnamese. The issue with me is, I call it as see it, and I walk that pier everyday and I know who trashes the piers, and after living in Westminster California, (which happens to have the largest concentration of Vietnamese immigrants outside of Vietnam) for 30 of my 30+ years on this earth, I know a vietnamese when I see one. I've had Vietnamese friends growing up and even had several Vietnamese girlfriends while in college. SO Am I Racial? I try not to be but today, my words may have sent the message that I am.


The DEBATE

The third and final debate of the 2004 elections was held tonight with both candidates stretching the truth on the issues that face not only Americans, but the rest of the world. Both candidates did pretty good in skewing the truth, but I just don't like Bush. Which brings me to the topic of my older sister, who is a Bush fan. Bush fans fail to see that their candidate is so wroing on many issues and when I stated that Bush Lies, my sister's husband asked what did he lie about, and I listed off a litany of lies that he has told the American people and the world. After that heated exchange my sister said, let's go we're leaving. And on top of this it was my dad's birthday. It is truly sad that Bush fans can't handle the truth that their president lies. Its hard to defend a liar isn't it. The fact is, he lied about Iraq just so he could depose Saddam Hussein because Hussein allegedly tried to have the First Bush assasinated. Now more than 1000 US Soldiers are dead and the world is no safer. Al Quaida has morphed into this Hydra that keeps growing heads and Iraq is now, thanks to Bush's invasion, a haven for terrorists who plot to kill people. Bush calls Iraq the central front on terror and he is right, thanks to him, there are more terrorists being created in Iraq every day. Think about it, before the invasion, Hussein had an iron grip on security in that country, just like our pal Marcos did. Today, life truly sucked.

Hawaii Versus The OC

Hawaii is a place that is unlike no other in the world. For one, it is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. For two, the people are genuinely Original, unlike no other. Case in point, my wife and my two boys, Joshua and Jeremy were at a Keiki children's fair in 2000, when we lived on Oahu (we still have a house in the valley, Manoa Valley, which is the subject of an entirely different post). My wife saw a local woman eating a slice of a seven layer chocolate cake. It was the most insane looking chocolate cake that the both of us had ever seen. Her interest piqued, my wife asked the woman "Is that cake good?" and the woman replied, "Delicious, want to try?" Amazing. I don't know of any other place on this earth where a total stranger would offer another total stranger a taste of her cake. What really took the cake (pardon the pun) was about 40 minutes later, I asked a man, who was eating slice of the same 7 layer cake, if the cake was good, and he replied "It tastes really good. You like to try?" think about it. That is two total strangers offering two total strangers a taste of their food.

Contrast that with California. We were at Fry's Electronics over the weekend and Jeremy had to use the restroom. The restroom is located past the massive line that is always at Fry's on the weekend. SO we went through the line, excusing ourselves as we went. We got to this old couple and asked to be excused and the old man replied, what for, and sort of blocked our path. My wife and I replied because we had to go to the bathroom and the old man decided to direct us to bathroom, explaining how we needed to go around and not through the line. Well the bathroom is located at the front of the line and he knew it and we knew it and we were making the shortest route to it, but the old man wanted to be an asshole that day. I wanted to tell him to fuck off, but my children were around, so I muttered what an asshole he was as we past. It really was none of his business why we wanted to pass him, so he can fuck off.

The OC. For those who are unfamiliar with the OC, or Orange County, it is the county that sits between San Diego and Los Angeles counties. Orange County really has a very fast paced lifestyle with plenty of assholes, nice people, immigrants, illegal immigrants, and white people. Filipinos are pretty scarce here, but there are a lot of Vietnamese and Mexicans in the OC, as well as white people and republicans. The old man at Fry's, he is your typical OC asshole. And there are a lot of them here. The county is divided primarily into two parts, North county and South County. North county is an older part of the county, more established with a matching decaying infrastructure. South County is newer, with better roads and newer areas, but therein lies the difference. Folks in South County tend to be of the younger set, and supposedly have higher incomes than those in North County. The women in South County have a higher propensity of plastic surgery than the women of North County. That is just my opinion, having lived both in North County and South County. There are a lot of plastic people in South County. Is OC like the OC, the TV show? Well, yes and no. Yes Newport Beach is full of huge houses and Donzi's and women like the new Mrs. Nicol. To a lot of people, Newport Beach is a study in unobtainable. Old money living on the beach or on the harbor. Really Newport Beach is old money.

I work in Newport Beach and also surf in Newport Beach everyday. I've always enjoyed surfing in Newport versus Huntington. The waves seem to have a better shape. So I am in Newport everyday. and you see your typical newport clone in Newport beach. I call them clones because, almost everyone looks the same in Newport Beach. It is as if the guys and the girls have been cloned. A Typical Newport looking guy drives a raised truck, wears black wraparound sunglasses, a shaved or close cropped hairdo, and calf length shorts. A pit bull, Rottweiler, Akita, or similarly aggressive dog is an optional fashion accesory (Visit the local animal shelters and you'll know what I mean, dogs as accessories is ridiculous, but its all part of the macho mindset of the type that hangs down in Newport). A typical Newport girl is blond or brunette (Asian women are somewhat rare down in the numbered streets), nice body, and active. These clones are looking for one thing, and that is to score. And they do. Oftentimes, I'll be driving through early in the morning for a surf and see a woman going to her car, hair a mess, usually wearing some revealing sweat pants or some such, heading home after a night of partying. Mind you that these sights are pretty much exclusive to West Newport, as this is the party side of newport, what I call the barrio, because the descriptions of the people that I gave to you previously are of the West Newport crowd, which is primarily migrant, meaning they are primarily renters. Dennis Rodman had his bachelor pad in West Newport. The other side of Newport is where the monied folks reside. Dean Koontz is a resident of Newport's Balboa Island, which is exclusive. Kobe Bryant, who beat the rape charge is also a resident of Newport, though he resides in Newport Coast, which is the setting for the fictional TV show, The OC. Newport though is by far my favorite city in Orange County. Is it like The OC? yes and no.

Bloggin

Ok, I admit it, I haven't been all that up about things on the internet, even though I've been making my living on the internet since we formed our company in 1999. This blogging thing is very new to me, though I first heard about it several years ago, I guess now is as good a time as any to start one. keep in mind, that I haven't written in such a manner since at least 1989, when I had an entirely different view on things. Call it a decades plus personal writer's block. Anyway, let's call it my own personal soap box on the day to days. We'll call it controlled chaos, because anything and everything here will be up for discussion.