What do you do with Gifts?

I love gifts. I get them occasionally by friends and colleagues who travel the world. I travel the world too, so I really cherish a gift that is clearly not from the airport or cheap quick stand. Here is a pic of recent gifts, a boomerang from Australia and Mask from Indonesia. In the pic, you will see a tray from Peru and a mask from Guatemala which I bought for myself on those trips. They are in good company.

And yes, they are in the guest bathroom. It really classes up the place! I am serious! It makes me look like a world traveler, which I used to be. Enjoy!

How I met Your Mother: I love "Slap bet" (Robin Sparkles)

Well, I love this show and caught the original "Slap bet" on netflix this week on my plane. It is also known as the "Robin Sparkles" episode. Clearly one of the funniest 22 minutes of tv. ever.

And, I am happy to report that the myspace page of the show has the whole episode, free! enjoy...

Been in Vancouver for work

Hey ya'll. I have not posted in a week. I was at a conference in Vancouver. I am heading to LA tomorrow for vacation. Here are some photos from the week:



Above: Tree Trek at Whistler. We walked across those! It was pretty cool

Above: We were at the base of the mountains for our dinner. We saw 2 black bears on this mountain. neat.


Above: rapids. taken on way to Whistler



Above: Taken from airplane. Yes, I am one of those who are fascinated by aerial shots. I think those are volcanoes in Washington.


Taken from Hotel.That is Stanley Park in background.


I love the above shot from airplane. I went on Google Earth (my favorite) and found the actual lake! It is Bear Lake in Idaho or Wyoming. Below is the google earth shot. Awesome!


Waterfall on way to Whistler. Can't remember name.


Upside down house in harbour in Vancouver. Don't know the story behind it, but I hear the locals were upset about the artist's choice. I guess they wanted more. Pretty freaky, huh? Anyone else know the background to this?

Ellen's Getting Married

Pretty Cool.



Not me, stupids. :)

Story about the greatest story ever written by a sports guy: Joe Posnanski

This isn't about a sports story. This isn't about a sports writer. This is a sports writer's story about stumbling on the greatest day he has ever gotten to write about, and how to write about it? (It's about the Rulon Gardner Olympics upset, remember that story?)


We need some cheer stories after all this crappy stuff about the economy, the market, people dying, American Idol sucking yet again...

(Got this via either The Big Lead or What's Alan Watching, both linked to the right)

In other news, Tony Kornheiser and Tom Shales, the only guys I click on at the Washington Post to read, have been given options.

How much longer before the newspaper (in hard copy) is dead? I love the interwebs but I am going to let my Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated expire. I don't read them anymore because the interweb is too instant.

American Idol Final 3

I pretty much agreed with the judges tonight. Cook, when he started the show, was called arrogant, cocky, etc; now he just appears humble and grateful. (I haven't watched the third songs, I just got back from my game)

Hate everything about Archuleta. When they comment about his weird dancing, he was like "dancing?", because that is just the weird way he moves. Weird.

Syesha is an actress and that's about it.

I love that Switchfoot song, and totally agree it just stopped when it gets really good. here's a listen:



Sepinwall review.

lolcat post of the day: How can you not love this stuff?

more cat pictures

Houston tragedy: Art Car Curator Dies after Perfect Day

This is a really sad story. Tragic. Really don't know what else to say. I wonder if the irony of the situation will get national play? When one struggles with the definition of irony, I think this situation covers it.

Bottom Line: Art Car Parade is a big deal in Houston. Happens every year. This year went off great, curator and friends are sitting on the steps of the Museum at 2AM ruminating about the success of the day.

Drunk driver hits parked car, parked car kills curator. So sad. Hope drunk driver gets life. Or the chair. He's free on bail? And only manslaughter charges? Are you kidding me??????

Mo' Music More Music: Ting Tings and Lyrics Born

Because you asked, here are the songs of the summer that I like:

Sweet rides

Don't you wish you could be me?

New Music: Raconteurs These Stones will Shout

I haven't posted lately on music I love. Vampire Weekend and MGMT have still been burning up my car ride to work. Along with gasoline, hee. Here is a track I absolutely love:

Another take on big oil taxes

What about the Google windfall profits tax? Analysts with energy consultants Wood Mackenzie agree with Halff's take, and introduced a more ideological reason for holding off on a windfall profits tax.

"Do they want to take some from Microsoft too? How about hedge fund managers," asked Wood Mackenzie oil analyst Ann-Louise Hittle, somewhat rhetorically.

It's true that while the oil industry rakes in huge sums of cash in raw numbers, the profit margin for the S&P energy sector, at about 10%, is only slightly higher that the average for the S&P 500.

Google, by contrast, has a profit margin of 25%, yet no one is calling for a special tax on search engines.

Invade Myanmar, seriously

We sort of invaded Haiti, we let genocide take place in Rwanda, the world responded to the 04 Tsunami. Darfur is Hollywood's pet project.

Why can't we just take over Burma? The military junta is refusing aid. They would rather have one million people die, the less people to plot a coup.

Seriously, just send in the blue hats. It is simple. How long will the world standby and watch this travesty? The world laughed at the US after Katrina. It is time to do something back.

Is it Time to Invade Burma?

American Idol: Bye Bye Jason

OK, I posted before the ouster and will come back and fix if I am wrong.

I would have been happy if either Michael Johns or Carly Smithson made the final 2. Here are them on the Ellen show. Seriously, wouldn't you have preferred them to Jason?

American Idol: My Review

Jason was a nightmare, as I predicted. When you are a dreadhead, and you want to be taken seriously, don't do Bob Marley. Horrible. And then humming the lyrics to I Shot the Sheriff - certainly not first one to forget the lyrics, but worse to recover. Seriously he is so gone.

Sayesha - Pretty good. I actually felt for her when she cried. She actually researched her song (hello, dreadhead) and felt moved by the experience. I don't think she was "Actingggggg". Very moving. Didn't think she should have done a Tina Turner impression, but she made it work.

David Cook - I was disappointed in Hungry Like the Wolf because I thought he would "make it different", but sometimes he makes it different by doing an actual cover. So I didn't mind. His Babe O'Reilly gave me chills. I know that is a cliche but he made it work, getting rid of the synthesizer beginning and focusing on his voice. Then when he rocked out, welcome back indeed.

David Archuleta 0 if he had been like this the whole competition I would agree with him winning. He caught up today and his voters are a loyal group.

Gone: see ya, Aggie. Look forward to a David v David Final. Unless we get a stunner like last season, when Melinda got voted out at third.









Remember this image from the previous previous season? Guess who's laughing now?

and the day I swore I would give up Idol (who hasn't but keeps....crawling....back .....for more)

A couple of articles I agree with (these were written before tonight's perfomances):

Idol Final Four (yawn) chron
What's wrong with Idol (NJ Sepinwall)

And yay, Allen Sepinwall review is up. Meanwhile don't forget to hit the TWOP review which will be up tomorrow. Just google it.

American Idol Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Spoilers

I can't wait to hear DC cover Duran Duran. And Archuleta is singing and Elvis song but a female cover version? Jason singing I shot the Sheriff? No shocker there. DC will rock the house. I miss Carley.

David Archuleta: "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King and "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley (cover by Norah Jones)

Syesha Mercado: "Proud Mary" by Tina Turner and "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke

David Cook: "Baba O'Reilly" by The Who and "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran

Jason Castro: "Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan and "I Shot the Sheriff" by Bob Marley (cover by Eric Clapton)

Cesc Fabregas: En Fuego

cool. Not sure what it is promoting, but since I have mentioned I am a Nike whore, here it is:

ESPN best story ever: Touching Them All

I linked this below, but for all 10 of you who click on my blog randomly I wanted you to see this for yourselves. ESPN, the WWL, had a great story today about the Western Oregon softball player who blew her ACL on a homerun trot. The other team carried her around the bases so it could count.

Here is the ESPN link.

New Dark Knight Trailer

I can't wait for this movie! Ironman will make $100M this weekend and according to rotten tomatoes is the best reviewed superhero movie ever.



Cedric Benson (Chicago Bears running back, UT alum) got arrested this weekend boating while intoxicated. The best part of the story is he got maced. Stupid man.

Sunday morning

What are you doing with your rebate checks? If you have debt, and you do anything but pay down that debt, you are a moron. (Ok, if you bought food for your table I will forgive you.)

Ways to save money (wsj)

i cried again this morning. ESPN ran a story on the home run girl being carried around the bases by the other team. They have a video of it, of course. Here is an interview.

Here's a link to the ESPN story, Touching Them All.

Kentucky Derby: Death

I really don't like horse races or rodeos. Living in Houston, I am surrounded by them. My work likes to have our "teambuilding" activities built around them. Why do I hate them? Horses die. If you go to a football game, soccer match or car racing track, you don't expect that someone may die.

But it is part of the game at horse racing. Just sad.

Look Out! Umpire gets knocked out at home plate by Pitch

Just caught this on latimes. Didn't watch any sports today so if you have seen it, ok. But the link to the article will show the video. He's okay, just lots of headaches.

Blurgg: Tonight's shows were awesome

see more crazy cat pics



Don't have much to say. good night

Direct TV: Channels you didn't even know you had

Good article about what do you do when you have 600 channels? And then you weed them out to what you think you watch, and it is still 300 channels?

I was going to take a pic but it is Thursday night and my DVR is burning up on Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, The Office, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy.

So I get a channel that has 8 news channels in one frame, and you can scroll around to the sound. Same for sports channels! So awesome. I really need to get rid of the crap channels I don't watch so I can appreciate what I have.

My Trip to the Dentist

Not an exciting post. I haven't been in 2 years so it was a painful experience. They moved offices and here is the first shot:



And then they handed me the remote, and I said what is this for? As my chair tilted back, this is what I saw:



I love my Dentist! I would go 4 times a year if my insurance paid for it!