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Quidam April 8, 2006

We went and saw Cirque du Soleil, Quidam last night in Long Beach. I wonder if this is the only group of people who have devoted their lives to perfecting these particular talents. The guy whose life calling is spinning around inside a giant metal wheel, is he the only one? Are their other spinners in the wings in case this guy messes up, or would he be replaced by some less interesting talent should he pull a hammy?

Anyone who makes these strange, and I’m assuming rare, talents their top priority in life has got to be a fairly eccentric, slightly bizarre human being. It really makes you wonder what it’s like behind the curtains. Are the balancing statue people married? They should be. You can tell they have the trust thing down when she balances vertically, upside down atop his shoulders. They share the same presumably top interest as well, balancing atop other people. The Cirque du Soleil site reveals that they in fact, do not have the same last name. They must just be dating, or more likely, she kept her maiden name for the stage.

My skill, it turns out, is finding free event parking due to lots that are unequipped to handle credit cards. Parking like this tends to unknowingly funnel you in with no option to exit before you realize you don’t have any cash. It happened at a World Baseball classic game in Anaheim, and then last night in the Queen Mary parking lot. Just tell the attendent, “I’m sorry but I have no cash, where can I exit?” and they let you right in. In the future I plan on being unprepared for such unexpected cash expenses. If I actually had the money I’d never be able to lie convincingly, Instead I’d just shell out the $10 and fume at the high cost of parking. Knowing that you spent at least $10 less than anyone else in that Cirque du Soleil tent is second to none.

As we left for the night, we passed the trailer area, where all the talent spends most of their time, hoping to catch a glimpse of someone off the stage. You could see the empty cafeteria trailer and just wonder what it’s like when all these people gather to eat meals. It’s bound to be just as fascinating as bodies spinning from hoops in the air. It so leaves you wanting more. Does one talent think they’re better than the other? Are those diablo girls kids, or just really tiny asians? There’s got to be a documentary on this already. Go see this spectacle of talents you’ve never thought, and can’t believe, actually exist.

Softball, rookie game March 8, 2006 3 comments

First at bat, struck out swinging, and so began my foray into community softball.

Ground out.

Ground out RBI.

Base knock.

Ground out.

My only time on the bases, I didn’t slide into second to keep them from turning a double play. That’s when I learned of the must slide rule, and the double play was called.

My fielding in right was less than stellar.

First ball hit to me went right between my legs, little league “I’m a skateboarder, not a baseball player” style.

Had a couple balls played on a bounce, holding the runner on first. To cap the game off, last inning, I fully missed a pop fly that the ump called out anyway, just to keep the time constrained game moving along.

Thankfully, my rookie game skills were right on track with the rest of the team. Fly balls were dropped on several occasions & grounders misplayed more than once. Just a bunch of dudes having fun trying to play a sport. Can’t wait for some more softball action!

Softball February 23, 2006 3 comments

I joined my friends softball team, first game is Tuesday. This may not have been such a good idea, it’s bound to resurface all my nightmares from being a crappy little league player. I just hope that ten years of watching television & drinking beer has somehow improved my game a bit.

I’m gonna hit the batting cages this weekend to see if I can swing a bat.

Update:

Turns out, the medium speed softball cages weren’t intimidating at all, I was even able to place some balls in left or right field, as planned. I bought some cleats too, and they only set me back a mere $25! I got a good feeling about this sport.

Financially Speaking November 3, 2005 1 comment

I haven’t had a savings account since I was 16, I think. Not a traditional bank one anyway. ING Direct Orange Savings account has always had an APR that’s about 4 times greater than a traditional savings account. APR was never the main issue though. Unlike checking accounts, ING is not tied to any specific bank monopoly in any particular city. While I’ve changed checking accounts several times in the last few years, due to relocation & bank convenience, I’ve had an Orange Savings Account through them all (sure, the majority of the time it’s been hovering around zero).

Transitioning to a working stiff however, allows for a little more financial freedom. A high APR savings account is an easy way to stash some money, where it can earn more than pennies a year. Surely a real working stiff has more advanced techniques of making their money work for them, and some day I’ll take a look at those.

In the meantime, this new savings account from Bank of America caught my eye. It’s called Keep the Change. You make purchases as usual with your bank card but Bank of America rounds up to the nearest dollar and puts the difference into your savings. Sounds like a simple way to put some spare change aside. This is the part that really makes me interested:

“For the first three months, we’ll match your Keep the Change savings at 100%. That means for every Keep the Change transfer, we’ll contribute the same amount to your Bank of America savings account… and we will match 5% thereafter.”

You can’t pick & choose what transactions will be rounded up, they all are - but if at the end of the day those roundups overdraw your account, they will not transfer your change to a savings.

After all this I just read some more fine print: “The matching funds will be credited to your savings account annually”. Damn, I knew there was something I was overlooking. Still sounds pretty good though, I imagine it has the potential to earn more than a high APR savings.

Rejoice! October 10, 2005 4 comments

Met fans (and baseball fans) rejoice! Angels defeated the Yankees in the American league division series. We all know that real baseball is played in the national league but still - this could be something big. The decline of a dynasty as it slips into anonymity. We’ll see all you yankee bandwagoners late september next year, or will you even bother? I hope not.

Road Trip 12 comments

Anyone have good ideas for planning a road trip online? I want a google maps interface where I can plot multiple spots along a desired route. An online version of AAA’s Triptiks (maps of just your desired route, along w/ places of interest) would be ideal & I’m suprised something along those lines is not readily available online. You know - one of those google maps mashups. There is gmaptrack.com, but seems pretty limited at this point. How about google earth, Anyone using that? Backpackit seems like its too much work, If I’m going that far I’d just create my own website, plus the free version are pretty limited.

Now Playing September 16, 2005 10 comments

Has the quality of movies been steadily declining in the last 5 years? What’s Playing tonight looks weak as all hell, with the exception of March of the Penguins and perhaps Broken Flowers. Watching Bill Murray paint a wall for 2 hours would be entertaining, so I’m not necessarily dying to see the latter. 40 Year Old Virgin is clearly a dvd rental and I’ll pass on Wedding Crashers altogether.

I hear Grizzly Man is good, a flamboyant dude who lives with bears, until the bears kill him sounds entertaining but, like the penguins, I’m not feeling the urge to see it on the big screen.

When it comes to other lower budget flicks - I’ve never thought of Penn as a comedian (not a very good one anyway, great magician though) so I have little interest in an un-funny inside joke. So what the hell should Susan & I see tonight? By the way, Crash is a good rental.

More like GAY S.R. September 13, 2005 5 comments

This past weekend was the ASR trade show. If you’re unfamiliar with the acronym, it stands for Action Sports Retailer, and you’re as unhip as they come. You should be fully embarrased of your lack of culture, and accept the fact that your current lifestyle will never be cool. First time attendance for me, but thankfully I had some seasoned veterans telling me exactly what to do.

Turns out, with the exception of the game of skate - It’s a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!!

We were lucky enough to be sitting on the floor, alongside one of the lanes the games were taking place in. The highlight was watching Eric Koston that up close & personal (basically, I was lurking). Koston was totally just having fun, even though $15,000 was on the line, proving he’s deserving of his legend status. We later determined that I would in fact, fellate Koston if in turn, I received his skating abilities. If I’m remembering correctly - haveboard agreed, while Snikkul said he wouldn’t (but I’m not buying it).

I’ve got some ASR photos on Flickr & some small format GAYSR video. My favorite is bomb-drop.avi.

Update:

Awesome Transworld Game of Skate video, watch for Bates vs. Koston.

Photos from the Franklins Paine crew

Great Game of Skate coverage on es.

Also check Skatepark of Tampa’s game of skate coverage.

Online Flight check in August 24, 2005 6 comments

I’m heading to NY tonight via Jet Blue and just checked in online. They asked me if my bag contained any hazardous materials, providing a handy unordered list of possible items that may qualify as hazardous, I disregarded the list and selected NO. I was then presented my boarding pass in PDF format. It was that simple. The next step is to drop my non-carry on luggage at a designated counter and proceed right to security. I’m wondering, do they somehow have MORE info on me since I’ve done nearly everything online? They’ve had at least a month to examine the data I gave them when purchasing the ticket. Name, address, CC info. Did I give them my social security number? Have they already ran my name against the databases of suspect fliers? Did I make it easier to do so? Is it just as easy if I bought my ticket old school style; in person and perhaps mere hours before my flight?