Holiday wrap up

Man, it IS hard to keep up a blog. It's been a while since I've written anything (that picture doesn't really count, I was just experimenting). Happy Holidays, everyone. I had a pretty busy one myself. I have Christmas about 4 times every year. First it's with my wife's more extended family on Christmas Eve, then we retreat to her immediate family where we open presents amongst ourselves. On Christmas day we spend it with my family. At least we had it at our own house this year since my sister and parents left for Hong Kong Christmas night. Finally we recently started a tradition of an AC christmas so the boys came over and more presents were exchanged. Really, the big winner in all of this is...my daughters. They come up with so much toys every year that I always have trouble finding room in our house for it. At least they got quiet stuff this year. No one appreciates a nice quiet book as a present for kids until they have their own and have to listen to Elmo tell you how happy he is in the third person at three in the morning. Really, nothing compares if you don't have kids.

My girls! They're always this happy, I swear! 

DVD mania

In shopping for Christmas, I have learned that DVD's are on almost everyone's wish list. That is probably why that almost every TV shows that has very existed is now available on DVD. I can certainly understand a lot of favorites being made available like Seinfeld or Friends (BTW, I would love to get the Seinfeld set too if anyone is shopping for me). But some releases just makes me wonder if there is really a demand for it. I found out that Night Court is coming out on DVD next month. Now I'm sure a lot of you remember that show. I know I do and I even watched it and liked it. Would I plunk down 30 bucks for a season? And then another 30 for another season? I was talking to Jason about that and we pretty much agreed that you just can't buy one season of a show. ("Yeah, I have season 1, 4, and 8 of Gilligan's Island.")

On the opposite spectrum are shows that must be too new for anyone to give a hoot. I saw a Best Buy that you can get the first season of Without a Trace. Now I haven't actually seen this show, but I'm pretty sure that the six people that do watch it can live without owning the set.

So of course I will rant and rave about some random set of DVD's that I want. No, it's not LOTR - ROTK (I have seen like an hour of the first one and that's it. That puts me in the minority with the world but I think I'm ahead of everyone with about 12 hours of extra time in my life) but an even more heroic figure -- MacGuyver. Really, who didn't love that show as a kid. Didn't you sit at home and wondered what you would use in your kitchen to make a bomb? But of course you wouldn't because MacGuyver always believed that violence (and guns, especially) was not the answer...If TV nowadays were as wholesome...

Ok. I think we've heard all there is to hear about how Cal got screwed in the BCS. I even waited almost a week so I won't go crazy with random voodoo curses for Mack Brown. Let's just highlight my anger and we'll get it over with.

1. The most frustrating thing for me about all of this is Cal got shafted so many ways that I can't even channel my anger properly at any specific thing. Trying to figure out who is most at fault is like watching that one MTV Cribs with Mariah Carey and pointing out the one spot where she is most crazy.

• The BCS - The system just plain sucks. They argue that the system goes along with history and the chances of a non-major conference school challenging for the national title or having three teams be in contention for championship game is rare. Well guess what? It happened! They are just willing to go with a system and allows for "aberrations" and let schools get screwed, accepting that it works most of the time. Is this what our country is headed for? Speaking of history, why do we guarantee the winner of the major conferences a spot in the BCS? History will say they will get in anyway right? Why do we have a BCS ranking when the top 8 teams don't get to play in 4 BCS bowls? Does that make any sense?
• Texas - or more specifically,Mack Brown. I understand them getting squeezed out last year as well. But have some integrity, man! Let your games speak for themselves, and cry about it afterwards like Cal fans are doing...
• Utah - Gosh it's hard to hate them. They are the Cinderella team you root for if this was the NCAA basketball tourney (See, told you we need a playoff in football). But they messed everything up!!

2. So it's on to the Holiday bowl. I remember watching BYU play in that like every year....With like 235 bowl games, do the non-BCS bowls even have any significance anymore? Is anyone of them bigger than another? It used to be that a New Year's day bowl was a big one...so if Cal at least played on New Year's day there would be some respect, right? or how about New Year's Eve? That might be ok...what?...the game is on the 30th? the #4 team in the country? Are you kidding me??

3. I was really trying to decide which of my organs I would sell for some Rose Bowl tickets. Thinking about the big picture, San Diego is probably more fun to visit than Pasadena, but my heart is just not in it the same. I'll watch the game on tv, with some friends, maybe make a party out of it, but it just won't be the same....

Trials of fatherhood...

I have two daughters. People always ask me if I am concerned about raising two girls and having to deal with boys messing with them when they are older. Well the short answer is "yes" and the long answer is "hell yes." I'm devising a plan of contractually obligating them to hold off on dating until 30...minors can sign legal agreements with their own parents, right?

I'd never thought I would already have to shiny up my shotgun, however, for my barely five year old...We got a call at home the other night at around 9:30 or so from one of Hannah's classmates. We (regretfully) gave him our number because we had invited him over for our Halloween, and then Hannah's party (which was only because he ask to come over to our house EVERYDAY after school)...Anyway he asked to talk to Hannah, to which I told him that she was already asleep. He apparently didn't like that answer though, and said in a much sterner tone,"LET...ME...TALK...TO...HANNAH!" I was almost too shocked to respond. I just maintained that she was already in bed and that she would see him tomorrow...

Amazingly enough, he called back an hour later! Why isn't this kid in bed? Why does his parents let him be on the phone? What do five year olds have to talk about on the phone? I once again told him that Hannah was already asleep. His response was, "Go wake her up!" ...Now I think that him being five was good for him...I think the law would be much more forgiving if I killed a teenager messing with my daughter....I was flabbergasted to say the least. I said no again and he asked to talk to Hannah's mom...I got to find out where he lives...

When lazy cheapskates attack...

I'm getting a new dishwasher tomorrow and I am looking forward to it. I don't even do the dishes that often (I'm a lucky husband). I am now always looking for ways to not make anymore dirty dishes (maybe I should move into 5824, I hear Jason does all the dishes there). We have always used paper plates for various little things, but I try to keep that to a minimum as well because they can get expensive if you keep buying them. So my natural laziness and my practical Chinese upbringing collided, which brings me to this evening's tale....

I was hungry shortly before bed so I made myself a Hot Pocket (Croissant Pocket, actually...do they just wrap up anything and eat it nowadays? I'm waiting for the arrival of Air Pocket - now with 50% more oxygen!). We were out of our regular paper plates so I used a small paper plate left over from my daughter's birthday party. The Pocket, while breathtaking, didn't quite satisfy. I went back into the kitchen to ponder what else I could whip up quickly. I threw my plate away and looked in the fridge. I rummaged through the Thanksgiving leftovers (ironically, no turkey) and decided on some mash potatos. I took the potatos out and then realized my conumdrum: My plate has been disposed! I actaully stood in my kitchen and stared into the garbage can and wondered if it was ok to pull the plate out to be used again. "It's not so dirty in there" and "It's not touching any other garbage" were just a few of my yucky thoughts. My senses returned though as I pulled out another Winnie the Pooh plate and had a big helping of sour cream mashed potatoes...how sad...

It will be sad to see my old dishwasher go. It had so much character. It's older than I am, it's extremely loud, it doesn't seem to use all of the soap that I put in, and best of all, it has wood paneling to "match" the rest of my kitchen....who am I kidding, that thing is crap. Long live new dishwasher!!

In the beginning...

Well, maybe not that dramatic...So this is the world of blogs. I've always been intrigued, and I certainly make regular visits to some great ones. I never quite know what I would do with my very own blog though, so I've been hesitant. I do know this much, I always thought that when I do start a blog, I would not do anything to advertise it. I am not telling anyone about this blog at all. Oh you can read it all you want. You can even post comments, tell friends, link my blog, publish excerpts in your thesis, or send my unverified information to Dan Rather. You are just not going to hear it from me. Call it insecurities, call it my mad internet science experiment, call it Nancy for all I care. Those are the rules.

Now that brings us to the first order of business: How the heck did you find your way here?? Now in this age of the Internet you really can pretty much find anything. But really, you just might have too much time on your hands.

And finally, where do we go from here...First off, if you will be visiting semi-regularly, you will be treated to a lot of dots and parentheses (I had to look up the spelling for the plural of that word). I think it's because I grew up reading a lot of Herb Caen in the SF Chronicle. I'm not trying to imitate to be cute, I really write like this all the time to everyone. I might talk like this sometimes and probably think like that all the time. So if scatter thoughts are your thing, this is the place for you....at least for a few seconds until your mind (and cursor) wanders....

This won't be the funniest blog you read (my friends are funnier than I on a daily basis). It won't be the most thought provoking either (that would probably be....every other blog). Heck, it won't even be the one that makes you the hungriest (my sister would take that honor). But we'll see...Life is pretty funny by itself sometimes. I guess I can just be the narrator...Like that guy on the Wonder Years.