It'll Get You in the END

Pacman and Soccer moms

I hadn't seen a boxing match in a while but this one was special. First, my cousin Jen Jen sang the Philippine national anthem and I had to see that. I haven't seen her since she was a small girl. She is all grown up and she sang beautifully. Jen jen is my first cousin. Her dad and my mom are siblings and grew up together with my lolo who died in 1989. Jen jen was still small when I last saw her, but tonight she was all grown up, looking more filipina than her older sister Christina. Second was Pacman. Pacman took care of business and knocked out Erik Morales in the 10th round, avenging a lost he received by Morales last eyar in a bruising fight. Watching a boxing match is really hard to watch. you Really gotta feel for the guy who takes the beating.

It was sort of like watching Jeremy's soccer matches today. Jeremy has been playing soccer since September last year, this being his first season playing an organized sport. His team, the Assasins, took first place in their region, and in the process, Jeremy made the all star team as well. So, I've been shuttling him back and forth to soccer games every weekend since September, not counting the week I was in the Philippines or the weekend during Christmas, so you can say I have been the "soccer dad" for the last several months. There is always a running joke about soccer moms, but I don't think the steretype fits the bill with soccer dads, besides, I don't drive a minivan. Today's games, they tied the first, and the second they absolutely ran circles around, beating Santa Ana 11-3. That was like watching the Morales/Pacman fight tonight. Tomorrow will be the final game of the all star season for him, so he (and I) will get a much needed rest from soccer. Won't miss the driving but will miss seeing all the soccer moms.

MacBook Pro

I want one. Finally Apple Computer announced that it will ship a notebook computer based on the Intel core Duo CPU. I want one so bad that I'll do anything to get one. You see, I first was exposed to Apple comptuers back in 1989 while doing a report on, of all things, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Plan, a plan that was supposed to divvy up large haciendas in the Philippines to the farmers who work the land. I stole time on the UC Irvine computer lab with my friends Vinh and Tip, who attended the university. The Mac was actually a Mac classic. It was one of those all in one comptuers with a mouse and everything. the graphical interface was what got me. Just point and click. I was hooked. Today, the mouse and the GUI are common place, thanks to Windows. But anyway, my first computer was a Powerbook, purchased in 1991 for $2499. My second was a Quadra 605 purchased when Josh was just four years old. I was an Apple bigot, until I got a job working for a magazine that published on the Windows platform. Imagine that. Virtually all magazines and newspapers are published on the Mac, but back then we were doing it on Windows, and Windows 3.1 Talking about painful. I even remember seeing a commercial where this guy is at a business meeting and he's got this report all printed out in color and everyone around the table is asking him how it was done, and he has to murmur, under his breath, "macintosh" and when his colleagues ask him again, he says it again, "macintosh," because he doesn't want to disparage the business types who insist on IBM. It was really funny.


Ain't it pretty?

Flash forward about 11 years and Apple, which had been using Motorola CPUs finally ships a Mac with an Intel processor. I just have to figure out a way to justify yet another computer purchase. We've got two notebooks and three desktopm computers on a wireless LAN already in this house. Hmmmm, leeme see. I need a macBookPro because my job requires that I stay up to date with technology? That will fly. I need a macBookPro because Macs are less prone to viruses, popups and other malware? Sure. I need a macBookPro so I can be more eficient with my digital photography? Sure. I need a macBookPro because, well shit because it is a Mac!

Pics of 2005

Mom and Jeremy at Ala Moana parking lot
Jeremy at Waimea Bay
Ala Moana sunset
Diamond Valley Lake bluegill

Me and my boys at Pali lookout, Oahu, Hawaii summer 2005

Crashed my car

After 20 plus years of driving, I finally got in a car crash that totaled my car. WQell it happened when me and the boys were going to the desert for some dirt biking when a woman driver came onto the freeway too fast and crashed into the trailer I was pulling. I then proceeded to lose control of the Expedition, and hit the center divider, totaling the car in the process. I have been in a funk ever since, it happened Nov 19 on the 22 freeway. Such BS, but at least no one was hurt. When she came on I tried to move to give her space, but she still hit me. Another woman in a Honda civic proceeded to lose control as well and spun out, hitting the center divider as well. It was pretty much mayhem. It totally sucks, because the Ford was already paid off. Oh well, chalk it up to living in this crowded place called Orange County, not The OC, but Orange County. So now I bought a Toyota Tundra, yet another gas guzzler, but what do you do when you have toys to pull. You can't do it with a hybrid. Though the Hybrid is th next vehicle I want to buy. Gotta teach my son to be some what socially responsible, because his mom ain't gonna, what with her Mercedes Benz and fancy sunglasses. She is so OC.

iPod

I finally got an iPod. I've been learning how to use it the last few days, and I really think it is pretty cool, even though they've been around for about 6 years. I bought josh one for Christmas a few years ago, a 3G 1oGB model, but I never really used it all that much. Jeremy got a video iPod from St. Nick this Christmas, so jovi got his old shuffle. The boys gave me a $50 gift card to target and I went looking for something to buy and bought the nano, a 2GB model. Now I am trying to figure out how I am going to convert all my Cds to iTunes.

Well not all of them, and it isn't like I have a bunch of them. I looked at my collection and I've got a bunch of stuff from the 80s and 90s, Everything But the Girl, Swingout Sister, Basia, as well as some 90s stuff like Sublime, Smashing Pumpkins, Offspring (I am seeing this girl and she just might be out of her mind, well she's got baggage and its all the emotional kind), as well as some other random stuff, Eraserheads, 2-pac (same muthafucking place same mutha fuckin time), Snoop Dogg, and all kinds of other noise, Israel Kamawiwo'ole. Illona Irvine. I've been busy just converting all that stuff, but its cool to have your library playing from your car stereo instead of just 6 CDs or just one CD, which brings me to my next topic. . . .