1-year Anniversary

Hey, whaddya know? This blog has made it to one year!

Bruce Lee - Bringing Peace to Muslims and Christians

I'm a big fan of Bruce Lee, but the following story totally blows my mind:

Town erects world's first Bruce Lee statue

By Miran Jelenek Mon Nov 28,11:38 AM ET

MOSTAR, Bosnia (Reuters) - Bosnia's southern town of Mostar unveiled the world's first statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee on Saturday, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic groups.

The life-size 1.68 meter (5ft 7in) bronze statue is situated in Mostar's central park, close to the former front line of Bosnia's 1992-95 civil war. A decade after the conflict, Mostar's Muslim and Croat inhabitants remain deeply split.

Unveiled by its initiators, Veselin Gatalo and Nino Raspudic of Mostar's Urban Movement, the statue portrays the Chinese-American actor, who died 32 years ago, in a typical defensive fighting position.

"This does not mean that Bruce Lee will unite us, because people are different and cannot be united and we will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats," Gatalo said. "But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee."

Gatalo has said Lee -- a hero to teenagers all over Bosnia in the 1970s and 1980s -- epitomized justice, mastery and honesty, virtues the town had badly missed.

The statue shows Lee facing north, so that Muslims in the eastern part of Mostar and Croats in its western half do not see him as poised for a fight with them. Croatia is in the south.

The ceremony on a rainy autumn day was attended by dozens of people and the ambassadors of China and Germany, both of which helped the project. They watched a display of martial arts by Bosnian youths.

Hong Kong, where Lee grew up, will unveil its own statue of the martial arts master on what would be his 65th birthday on Sunday at a ceremony attended by his widow Linda.

Lee was born in San Francisco and shot to fame with a series of martial arts movies, staring with "Enter the Dragon" in 1973. He died aged 32 from swelling on the brain.

Mostar's most famous symbol -- a 16th century bridge which the Bosnian Croat artillery destroyed in 1993 during some of the fiercest battles of the war -- was rebuilt last year but unification and reconciliation in the town have been slow.

Raspudic said the statue would help Mostar find a new association. "It's no longer a black hole," he said.

It took Gatalo and Raspudic, both ethnic Croats, more than two years to realize their idea for a statue of Lee, the town's authorities having finally granted permission in September.

Random and Candid Dog-Related Pictures

One of the better tech inventions of the last five years is the merging of the cell phone and digital camera. Despite the lower resolution, I've found these camera phones to be very useful in taking pictures of random stuff. Enjoy.



Ziggy and I kickin' it on the couch.



Scruffy, our resident retarded dog. People think it's sad that he's retarded and crippled, but he's probably the happiest dog I know. Ignorance is bliss.



Ling-Ling, one of our two Olde English Sheepdogs. Cute, big, and furry. She nearly destroyed my laptop on several occasions. Watch your toes when you're around her because it is very painful having 100 lbs on your feet.



Ginger, my parents' new puppy. They seem more excited about their dog than they are about their upcoming grandchild.



Scruff and Seymour. This picture is funny because it looks like they were caught having gay sex. Considering all the dogs in our house are male, I'm not surprised. And if one of them was to come out of the closet, I'd love him just the same. Of course, I'd also call him a sinner and quote Bible verses.




Seymour watching T.V. (Animal Planet, to be exact). He's the only dog that routinely watches the T.V. and appears very facinated by it, especially when there are dogs shown.

If I Were King Part 1

Public Transportation in Los Angeles:

Most everyone lives and works within 5 minutes of a freeway. So why not build all of the Metrolink trains running on the center divider of the freeways? How many people are planning to use the proposed westside line from downtown to Santa Monica? Only the westside liberal basketcases! And that proposed rail line isn't even near the 10 freeway! Look at the major freeways in So Cal: 60, 10, 5, 405, 110, 710, 210, and 105. Everyone uses those! Hey MTA, cut out the carpool and fastlanes, build the rails running down the middle with stations at major cross-streets and overpasses, and you'll have an efficient system with minimal homes lost, minimal disruption to city streets, and a simple understandable layout.

Another funny Bush picture

I'm expecting lasers to come out of his eyes. This post is for you, Big S.

Generation Y

There's this article in Yahoo! news/USA Today about the generation preceeding mine: Generation Y. The article states how Gen Y'ers have a new attitude towards work, bucking trends, tech snobs, not responding to command structures, etc etc. What I find lame is that these are the exact same things they said about Generation X as we were entering the workforce, and I'm sure they said that about the generation before mine. Looking back at history, I think the generation that grew up in the 60's is perhaps the most radical, having been through the civil rights and gender rights era. Talk to me in 10 years, Gen Y'ers, and you'll find yourself just like the rest of us.

Bush Monkey

Click on the image for the full size.

I first saw this image in early 2000. It still cracks me up everytime I see it. For the record, I voted for Bush...twice.

The Seer

Pachoo: "Will I do well on my engineering midterm today?"

*clink clink*

The Seer: OUTLOOK IS GRIM

New radio preset

Looks like Snoop shops at Wal-Mart too.


My new radio preset (replacing KOLA 99.9FM oldies) is KDAY 93.5 'Hip Hop Today and Back in the Day'. I think that Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg's "Nothin' but a 'G' Thang" is perhaps the best hip hop song ever.


Here's my current radio presets
FM1
1 - 89.3 KPCC : National Public Radio (the BEST news and commentary)
2 - 106.7 KROQ: Horrible as of late, but occasional 80's stuff good
3 - Star 98.7: Occasional 80's stuff make it listenable, DJs all horrible
4 - 104.3 KBIG: They're just like Star now
5 - 103.5 KOST: Love them love songs
6 - 103.1 Indie: Kinda weird sometimes, but otherwise good

FM2
1 - 89.9 KCRW : National Public Radio and Morning Becomes Eclectic
2 - 93.5 KDAY: See above
3 - 95.5 KLOS: Classic Rock, crack up the AC/DC and Gn'R baby!
4 - 97.1 KLSX: Howard Stern keeps me entertained in the mornings
5 - 93.1 JACK FM: Mostly good rock stuff from 80's and 90's
6 - 101.1 K-EARTH: Oldies, love that Motown

AM
1- 640 KFI: Bill Handel good when Stern gets lame
2 - 570 XTRA: Sports. Good for managing my fantasy football/basketball teams
3 - 710 ESPN: More sports? Why not.
4 - 690 'The Fabulous 690AM': Cool lounge, big band, and classics
5 - 1150 Air America: 'Liberal' talk shows, Al Franken is decent
6 - 980 KFWB: Their news is lame (go NPR), only good for traffic