12.30.2003
jason is gone. i'm going. cal will be the steward of 5824.
12.26.2003
down in hollister...
just came back from a 2nd viewing of ROTK. what a great movie. it's just as good the 2nd time, and the ending might be better because you know what to expect. the 1st viewing gave me the start/stop ending, but this time, i knew how it was paced and enjoyed it more. still got chills during some speeches. still blown away by minas tirith. still excited about the battle at pelennor.
just came back from a 2nd viewing of ROTK. what a great movie. it's just as good the 2nd time, and the ending might be better because you know what to expect. the 1st viewing gave me the start/stop ending, but this time, i knew how it was paced and enjoyed it more. still got chills during some speeches. still blown away by minas tirith. still excited about the battle at pelennor.
12.24.2003
A Christmas poem by Calvin
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through 5824
Not a creature was stirring, except maybe a mouse;
The traps were placed by the cupboards with care,
In hopes our rodent friend may soon be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
Peace to ease the aches in these youth worker's heads;
Jason in the recliner and Danny on the couch,
Had just settled down in a television slouch.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the street,
An unmarked van blasting a very loud beat.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
In the doorway an intruder came with a bound.
He was dressed all in black, from his head to his toes,
"This is a robbery! Give me all your money, you mofos!" (edited for content)
A sawed off shotgun he had strapped to his back,
Who did this loser think he was going to jack?
His eyes -- how wide they got! his dimples how bloody!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose red as a cherry!
His droll little mouth was struck with a bo,
Look how fast the 'movie props' can go.
The ends of the nunchucks knocked in his teeth,
And the stars he saw encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a beaten face and a big fat old butt,
That shook, when he was kicked like a mangy mutt.
He ran for his van, as I spiked him with the mace,
And away he went, at such an incredible pace;
But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through 5824
Not a creature was stirring, except maybe a mouse;
The traps were placed by the cupboards with care,
In hopes our rodent friend may soon be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
Peace to ease the aches in these youth worker's heads;
Jason in the recliner and Danny on the couch,
Had just settled down in a television slouch.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the street,
An unmarked van blasting a very loud beat.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
In the doorway an intruder came with a bound.
He was dressed all in black, from his head to his toes,
"This is a robbery! Give me all your money, you mofos!" (edited for content)
A sawed off shotgun he had strapped to his back,
Who did this loser think he was going to jack?
His eyes -- how wide they got! his dimples how bloody!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose red as a cherry!
His droll little mouth was struck with a bo,
Look how fast the 'movie props' can go.
The ends of the nunchucks knocked in his teeth,
And the stars he saw encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a beaten face and a big fat old butt,
That shook, when he was kicked like a mangy mutt.
He ran for his van, as I spiked him with the mace,
And away he went, at such an incredible pace;
But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"
12.21.2003
hmm, dunno if i should post this, but i will... yesterday, as i was cleaning the kitchen, i found not one, but TWO dead mice. one is in our cupboard and another was in a trap i set. i don't know what's worse, the fact that we had mice running around or the fact that we didn't know we had dead mice in our kitchen. later that evening, i saw something run across our living room floor. if it wasn't a mouse, it was a gigantic superfast bug. either way, i need to set a trap.
12.19.2003
I was driving around Richmond today, delivering presents from the King's Club to several families, when I drove up next to a police car. The rear quarter-panel (NASCAR term) had the words 'CSI Unit'. I have seen many police cars in Richmond , but never had one been marked like that. They must be stealing from our blog. There's an imposter CSI:Richmond out there. Someone should call the cops.
12.17.2003
it's wednesday morning. have you seen Return of the King yet? cal and i have. that's right, we went to a midnight showing of ROTK. i must say, i was impressed. the more i think about it, this seems to me not three independent movies, but one very epic movie. that's what tolkien had intended for his books as well.
before i go into the movie, let's talk about geeks. officially, cal and i are the 7th and 8th ranked geeks at the hilltop century 25. we got there at 10pm, and would have been the 7th and 8th person in line. however, i needed coffee, so we left and came back. at the theater, there were people dressed up as elves. dress-up geeky is not me... too close to LARP (live action role playing a.k.a. ultimate geekdom). we got seated around 11pm where some geeks proceeded to pull out their laptops and watch The Two Towers EE. cal gets some geek points here because he immediately spotted that it was the extended version of the movie based on the scene... faramir talking to boromir. at the end of the movie, some guy said that the ending was incorrect. he was wrong. the geek i am knew it to be true, so i looked it up. furthermore, i looked at the appendices to confirm that other characters share the same fate. (i'll explain this stuff in the spoiler section below.)
my "review" (highlight the sections below to read them):
gripes
i can't say there's very many here.
--i actually didn't like the flashback to smeagol and deagol. the transformation of smeagol actually kinda grossed me out. i might have liked it better if the flashback ended with smeagol killing deagol and taking the ring. that gives us enough to understand how the ring corrupts a person.
--this gripe has to do with a guy behind me. he says to his friend that frodo never goes to the grey havens. how untrue! frodo does go. and if you look in the appendices, you'll see that eventually sam goes because he, too, bore the ring for a while (in the text, he actually wears it). and if you look further, you'll see that legolas and gimli go, too. it's in the appendices you'll read stuff about how peregrin's son faramir took marries samwise's daughter goldilocks. real geeky stuff.
--i suppose there might be more "gripes" about things untrue to the text, but i'll put those in the neutral section...
neutral
--the major omission is saruman's death. i completely understand why this was left out. it would have been horrible for the movie if this stuff were added. it should have happened back in the shire, but like i said, there's no way we wind down from the destruction of the ring and have to face saruman again.
--another omission was the house of healing. this is where faramir and eowyn are healed and eventually decide to marry. it has no bearing on the destruction of the ring nor the return of the king, but i feel like it gives some conclusion to our characters. this is defnitely extended edition fodder.
--merry's pledge to theoden and rohan. pip had his moment, why not meriadoc? more extended edition fodder.
--the ending's pace was a bit weird to me. all necessary, but i thought it could have been smoother.
--wouldn't it suck to have the job of lighting the fires across the mountains from gondor to rohan? seriously, how often do you get relief?
--the audience wasn't as die-hard as i hoped. remember, cal and i were the 7th and 8th ranked fans here. there are moments that warranted a small hand clap by me, but probably would have mustered a cheer in front of die-harder fans.
praise
--very true to the text. i appreciated that after being a bit disheartend by the liberties taken in The Two Towers. there was actually one point where i thought the shelob storyline was gonna be all messed up. it turns out that it was just played out a bit longer than i had expected. and do people remember the light that was given from frodo in the first movie? i hope they do. in all, there were more times when i remembered stuff that happend in the text rather than wondering if something happened in the text.
--samwise gamgee gets my MVP vote. he has heart, determination, loyalty, and the physical skills to carry frodo up mount doom. what a stud. why wouldn't rosie want to marry him? there were times that he appears on screen that deserve cheer.
--my 6th 'Man' award goes to eowyn. she came off the bench to really shine. of course, she had to sneak off the bench, but she came through. taking on the witch-king is no easy task. by the way, did you check out the witch-king's mace? just the chain on that thing makes ours look silly.
--battle at pelennor fields was immense and intense. it just seemed to grow and grow. first, the orcs and gondor. then rohan. then the mumakils (battle oliphaunts). man, it was great. then aragorn comes through from the paths of the dead. the ultimate cavalry. i don't know how men can fight against trolls. i'd pee my pants if i saw a troll come at me.
--legolas taking down a mumakil by himself. money.
--minas tirith is breathtaking. depsite the neighbors to the east, that is an amazing city.
--eagles rock. they are considered the most majestic of animals in middle earth. they do come to help the men in their fight. very awesome to see them.
--pretty good speeches by theoden and aragorn before riding into battle. i actually got chills when i heard theoden's speech.
i'll stop there for now. i'm sure there'll be a lot more i could talk about.
before i go into the movie, let's talk about geeks. officially, cal and i are the 7th and 8th ranked geeks at the hilltop century 25. we got there at 10pm, and would have been the 7th and 8th person in line. however, i needed coffee, so we left and came back. at the theater, there were people dressed up as elves. dress-up geeky is not me... too close to LARP (live action role playing a.k.a. ultimate geekdom). we got seated around 11pm where some geeks proceeded to pull out their laptops and watch The Two Towers EE. cal gets some geek points here because he immediately spotted that it was the extended version of the movie based on the scene... faramir talking to boromir. at the end of the movie, some guy said that the ending was incorrect. he was wrong. the geek i am knew it to be true, so i looked it up. furthermore, i looked at the appendices to confirm that other characters share the same fate. (i'll explain this stuff in the spoiler section below.)
my "review" (highlight the sections below to read them):
gripes
i can't say there's very many here.
--i actually didn't like the flashback to smeagol and deagol. the transformation of smeagol actually kinda grossed me out. i might have liked it better if the flashback ended with smeagol killing deagol and taking the ring. that gives us enough to understand how the ring corrupts a person.
--this gripe has to do with a guy behind me. he says to his friend that frodo never goes to the grey havens. how untrue! frodo does go. and if you look in the appendices, you'll see that eventually sam goes because he, too, bore the ring for a while (in the text, he actually wears it). and if you look further, you'll see that legolas and gimli go, too. it's in the appendices you'll read stuff about how peregrin's son faramir took marries samwise's daughter goldilocks. real geeky stuff.
--i suppose there might be more "gripes" about things untrue to the text, but i'll put those in the neutral section...
neutral
--the major omission is saruman's death. i completely understand why this was left out. it would have been horrible for the movie if this stuff were added. it should have happened back in the shire, but like i said, there's no way we wind down from the destruction of the ring and have to face saruman again.
--another omission was the house of healing. this is where faramir and eowyn are healed and eventually decide to marry. it has no bearing on the destruction of the ring nor the return of the king, but i feel like it gives some conclusion to our characters. this is defnitely extended edition fodder.
--merry's pledge to theoden and rohan. pip had his moment, why not meriadoc? more extended edition fodder.
--the ending's pace was a bit weird to me. all necessary, but i thought it could have been smoother.
--wouldn't it suck to have the job of lighting the fires across the mountains from gondor to rohan? seriously, how often do you get relief?
--the audience wasn't as die-hard as i hoped. remember, cal and i were the 7th and 8th ranked fans here. there are moments that warranted a small hand clap by me, but probably would have mustered a cheer in front of die-harder fans.
praise
--very true to the text. i appreciated that after being a bit disheartend by the liberties taken in The Two Towers. there was actually one point where i thought the shelob storyline was gonna be all messed up. it turns out that it was just played out a bit longer than i had expected. and do people remember the light that was given from frodo in the first movie? i hope they do. in all, there were more times when i remembered stuff that happend in the text rather than wondering if something happened in the text.
--samwise gamgee gets my MVP vote. he has heart, determination, loyalty, and the physical skills to carry frodo up mount doom. what a stud. why wouldn't rosie want to marry him? there were times that he appears on screen that deserve cheer.
--my 6th 'Man' award goes to eowyn. she came off the bench to really shine. of course, she had to sneak off the bench, but she came through. taking on the witch-king is no easy task. by the way, did you check out the witch-king's mace? just the chain on that thing makes ours look silly.
--battle at pelennor fields was immense and intense. it just seemed to grow and grow. first, the orcs and gondor. then rohan. then the mumakils (battle oliphaunts). man, it was great. then aragorn comes through from the paths of the dead. the ultimate cavalry. i don't know how men can fight against trolls. i'd pee my pants if i saw a troll come at me.
--legolas taking down a mumakil by himself. money.
--minas tirith is breathtaking. depsite the neighbors to the east, that is an amazing city.
--eagles rock. they are considered the most majestic of animals in middle earth. they do come to help the men in their fight. very awesome to see them.
--pretty good speeches by theoden and aragorn before riding into battle. i actually got chills when i heard theoden's speech.
i'll stop there for now. i'm sure there'll be a lot more i could talk about.
12.16.2003
cable is switching channels on us. discovery channel used to be 10, now it's 29. this causes a problem. i'm used surfing up to channel 15 (C-SPAN), then jumping to channel 36 (FX). there's nothing worthwhile between 15 and 36. now, i'm gonna have to make a conscious effort to go to the discovery channel. this probably means a lot less Monster Garage and American Chopper for me.
indeed the fridge is bare.
indeed the fridge is bare.
12.15.2003
5824 is one step closer to an appearance on MTV's Cribs. I have acquired a vital component to any crib, a Scarface poster. Now my Scarface DVD won't feel so lonely.
We just need to get some food back in the fridge...
We just need to get some food back in the fridge...
12.13.2003
we have more HBO! i dunno what happened, but it turns out that we have more HBO channels than we used to have. now, we have HBO East, HBO Family-East, HBO Comedy, and HBO Zone. frankly, i dunno what all these new channels are gonna do, but we have them.
12.10.2003
we're leaking.
last week, jason's room was leaking from the rain. this week, our living has a leak. this is actually the SECOND leak in our living room.
maybe, the house is just crying.
last week, jason's room was leaking from the rain. this week, our living has a leak. this is actually the SECOND leak in our living room.
maybe, the house is just crying.
12.07.2003
My room used to have one of those funny shaped energy-saving light bulbs you can get from Costco. However, its plan to save energy was just to shut off by itself every now and then. It has been replaced by 2 100-Watt standard light bulbs. It may raise our PG&E bill by a few cents, but at least it's so bright in here, I can wear sunglasses indoors and feel like a rock star.
12.06.2003
at 4am last night this morning, our bacon-wrapped bacon-stuffed turkey came out of the oven in all its oily glory. i wouldn't call it a failure, but i wouldn't call it a success either. personally, i thought it was really salty. also, i thought it would last a week, but not so. i had three 6th grade boys over, so along with the rest of 5824, that bird was done. there are still remnants of it in the fridge.
we do have one more turkey ready to cook. any ideas? cheese-stuffed turkey? salsa-stuffed?
we do have one more turkey ready to cook. any ideas? cheese-stuffed turkey? salsa-stuffed?
12.05.2003
cal and i have a plan to cook turkey this weekend so we can be with food for a while. this is a pretty good deal for us. one 4-hour session during this weekend, and we've got food for the week. this is also a good way for us to experiment for future turkey events (thanksgiving and christmas). right now, i'm thinking we should try the bacon-wrapped turkey stuffed with bacon. of course, we're gonna have to add cheese somewhere.
12.03.2003
This blog is currently competing in the BCS Hyperbole. Our opponent out of the South Bay Division is Seri.
Game plan for winning the Hyberbole:
1. Establish the run.
2. Win the turnover battle.
3. Challenge Seri and her black belt to a fight, where 5824 will bust out the movie props!
Additional bowl game note: December 26th Cal vs. Virginia Tech at the Insight Bowl. I read the payout for Cal is about $750,000. I wonder what the Hyperbole (or the Blogger.com Bowl) payout will be.
Game plan for winning the Hyberbole:
1. Establish the run.
2. Win the turnover battle.
3. Challenge Seri and her black belt to a fight, where 5824 will bust out the movie props!
Additional bowl game note: December 26th Cal vs. Virginia Tech at the Insight Bowl. I read the payout for Cal is about $750,000. I wonder what the Hyperbole (or the Blogger.com Bowl) payout will be.
12.02.2003
of course, we have no food. there are two turkeys, leftovers, a couple of pudding cups, and not much else. why do we have two turkeys? ask cal. however, i'm tempted to cook one on saturday and have it last for the rest of the week. however, we have no bread, so we can't even make turkey sandwiches.
(ed. note: foiled again on the pictures. i can't share them with you quite yet.)
(ed. note: foiled again on the pictures. i can't share them with you quite yet.)
12.01.2003
the broncos cheerleader renee was only a test post... sorry cal, renee won't be joining us. you can find a link to her on cal's page.
i tried putting up pictures here before, but i couldn't because i was using my geocities webspace was not allowing me to do it. alas, dean has opened our eyes. his legacy on this site will be one of many pictures.
in honoring dean's legacy, i put up a picture on the It List. it's also a link to a website. click it and enter a world where one man is suave incarnate. that man is Suave Dave Han.
in honoring dean's legacy, i put up a picture on the It List. it's also a link to a website. click it and enter a world where one man is suave incarnate. that man is Suave Dave Han.
well, november's over, so I guess this is the end for me.
it's been fun.
peace.
it's been fun.
peace.
