Mr. C

I just read on the SGV Tribune website that my high school band director, Larry Covellone, is retiring after 31 years at Montebello High School. Marching band and music is what got me through high school. I will always look back on those times fondly.

Enjoy your retirement, Mr. C!

Back to Sk00l

First day of the fall semester yesterday. My 2nd semester at Cal State Long Beach.

Two thoughts:

1. Huzzah for the administrators. They just broke ground on a new parking structure. For once a bunch of college admins didn't decide to take away a student parking lot to build an irrelevant ivory tower institute for the study of something nobody cares about.

2. There is no such thing as a 2-week start-of-the-semester freebie parking. Yours truly got tagged with a $25 parking ticket.

The Misadventures of Seymour and Violet 2

The kids have been here a week, and no calls from the owners. Violet and Seymour are both adjusting fairly nicely to the home...for the most part. Ziggy would disagree:



What you are looking at is about a 12-hour old picture of Ziggy as he naps on the couch. The two dark red spots are dried blood as a result of a serious butt-kicking by Violet. Ziggy, initially, was not too happy with the two new friends. He would growl whenever either of them came by to sniff and greet him. Apparently, Ziggy had forgotten that he also was once a mangy dog left on the street. Last week, while the three of them were taking a walk at the nearby park, Ziggy growled as Violet was walking by and she proceeded to do her best vampire impersonation on him. It was kinda scary when it happened, but considering how minor the wound is I think Ziggy got what he deserved. Ziggy growls much less nowadays.

We're going to wait another week before posting Violet and Seymour to petfinder.org, where we hope they can find permanent homes.

The Misadventures of Seymour and Violet 1

Seymour says, "Pachoo, stop cracking those 'Seymour Butts' jokes. Nobody is laughing."


Violet says, "What did I do to deserve this?"

Well folks, looks like another two stray dogs have found their way into the Chiu home. On Friday, Kim and I were driving to the in-laws for dinner and saw these two pups wandering on the opposite side of a busy 4-lane road, looking excited, but lost. After I busted a U-turn and drove back to them, both of them were practically in the middle of the road. The little brown one above was sitting in the middle of one lane, and the other gray one was wandering in the center island. Kim risked life and limb to grab both dogs and threw them into the backseat of my car. Neither of them had any tags or collars, and we asked a neighbor nearby and she didn't recognize either of the dogs.

After taking them home and washing them up, it turns out that both of these dogs are very sweet pups. We named the little brown male "Seymour", and the older gray female "Violet". They are slightly knotted and had numerous fleas, so we are guessing they are normally kept outside the home. Neither of them are neutered/spayed.

Overall the two of them are fairly easy to maintain, with no serious barking or peeing problems. They love attention and follow Kim and I around the house. Seymour has an interesting habit of biting toes when he wants attention, and Violet loves to give hugs (yes, actually hugging with her two front legs). Seymour has a slight limp, not putting any weight on his rear right leg. It doesn't appear broken and we don't know how he got hurt. We plan on posting their "Found Dogs" flyers today. Hopefully we can reuinite them with their owners or find them new happy homes.

Homeland Security Threat Level

For some unknown reason this image cracks me up.

Weekend DVD Review

Ladder 49 starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta. A not-so-good movie about a fireman and why and how he became one. I found myself having little emotional connection to any of the characters, even when one of them died. Having a movie run off of pure action with little character depth is fine with me (such as Resident Evil 2) , but dude, watching a bunch of guys fighting a fire just doesn't do it for me. Nothing against real firemen, of course. Those guys are cool. Movie firemen = suck. Real firemen = cool...except for the firemen back in the 1800's who only put out a fire for rich people because they gave them a lot of money.

Movie firemen = suck. 1800's firemen = sorta suck. Today's firemen = cool.

Meteor Shooting Star Thing-A-Ma-Jigs Update

So Friday night around 11:30pm I stepped outside and to my dismay the whole sky was covered in a low cloud layer. Nothing could be seen...no planets, moon, shooting stars, stars, or planes. Just a dull grey night sky. However, props to Kim for actually walking outside with me. That made Pachoo happy :).

Meteor Shooting Star Thing-A-Ma-Jigs

This weekend will be the almost-annual Perseid meteor shower. Last year, despite the bright city lights, I managed to see about 10 meteors over a 30 minute time span. It was kinda cool. The wife thought I was being ridiculous for standing outside at 2AM. I rebutted her by saying that when it comes to matters of science, there is no such thing as ridiculous.

Her reply: "whatever".

If you're a nerd like me, you can find out more info here.

No more hit points

Here's a story of this dude who died after playing 50 hours of computer games. I dunno, dying after only 50 hours seems a little fishy to me. In college people frequently pulled all-nighters and I don't remember any of them dying. I would guess medical interns work 50 hours straight on a regular basis. Oh well, maybe he had a weak heart or something.

Weekend DVD Review

Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch in Ghost World


Wow, kids! Three movies this weekend! Unfortunately two of them sucked!

1. "Guess Who" starring Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher. Think "Meet the Parents", add lame interracial humor, remove Robert DeNiro's charisma, and throw in a painfully boring story line.

2. "Alexander" starring Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie. This movie just kind of wandered around with no real storyline except to explore the life of Alexander the Great. The battle scenes were decent - I especially thought the Indian war elephants were cool. But I didn't really find the portrayal of Alexander particularly interesting. Angelina Jolie played Alexander's mom and for some reason she sounded Russian instead of Greek/Macedonian. For the ladies, there's a scene where Colin Farrell shows his naked butt, but Kim felt that Brad Pitt's naked butt in Troy looked better. In comparing the two movies, I also enjoyed Troy much more. Not because of Brad Pitt's butt, but because the storyline and characters were much entertaining.

Kim did attempt to spare my fragile ego by saying my butt looks better than Brad Pitt's, but I don't believe her. Not one bit.

3. "Ghost World" starring Scarlett Johansson, Thora Birch, and Steve Buscemi. This indie low-budget flick came out about 4 years ago. It's about two slacker "alternative-y" girls who just graduated from high school and face life afterwards. Good movie if you're in your late teens/early 20's and feeling lost. So-so movie for everyone else.

Mount and Blade

Mount and Blade is my latest computer gaming addiction. Although it's not a fully completed game yet, the smooth hand-to-hand combat and character development is pretty cool. Fortunately for me, the game doesn't contain any magic, wizards, dragons, or mystical what-nots. Just humans, blood, and good ol' Newtonian physics.

The game is being developed by a husband and wife team. Hmm...that gives me an idea...

Weekend DVD/Movie Review

Hitch, starring Will Smith, Kevin James, and Eva Mendes, was mediocre at best. It's a below- average romantic comedy about Will Smith as a "date doctor" trying to help a goofy accountant-type Doug Heffernan woo a New York socialite. Eva Mendes' character was unlikable as a tough-but-sensitive-on-the-inside reporter. Her acting was horrible, and the eye-candy factor was no help. You know it ends: despite some mix-ups, Doug gets his girl, and so does Will.