a mixed bag of links

emergency contraceptive otc. now, i'm a stickler, but this is the plan b pill. unfortunately, the name "morning after pill" was associated with ru-486 or whatever that french pill was, and so it shouldn't be used in conjunction with the plan b, emergency contraceptive. totally different pills and effects, and i think when people say "morning after pill" it brings up the wrong picture for people. if you don't have a problem with birth control, specifically the oral contraceptives taken by women, you shouldn't have a problem with this pill which is only a double dose of "the pill". and why would people oppose allowing women over 18 to get contraceptives over the counter? (that's a rhetorical question)

too many religious nonprofits

i would ask myself this, "this surgery is legal, so why am i getting it done in a basement?"

want to read about misquoted movie reviews?

do you want to hear an interview between kevin smith, some morning show radio show guys, and joel seigel, who apparently yelled obsenities and stormed out of a clerks 2 screening (not gene shallot as i thought earlier)? it's a pretty good interview, and i think k.smith rightly takes him to task on professionalism.

an activity i may start doing, and i think adam should (he's a little more passionate about this)

still waiting to know about landis...

and justin gatlin


and finally, a program we probably all should enroll in

watch out now

we watched a program about the antichrist tonight on the history channel. although they didn't say it, i'm thinking it's either george bush or oprah.

porn radio

that's right, porn radio. have you ever heard of it? well, we now have it out in the bible belt of the west.

The new format, promoted as "all sex radio, all the time," features only songs with lustful lyrics.


if you ask me, it sounds pretty lame and gimmicky. i doubt it will last.

no good deed...

goes unpunished.

have you ever heard that saying? no good deed goes unpunished.


i don't believe it, but...here's our story.


my brother and sister-inlaw and kids have been in the u.s. for a little over a month. today is the day they fly back to south africa. now, they came over with as a group of 5 people, with 4 or 5 checked bags. they returned to s.a. with 10. that's right, ten. two of those are my aunt's who is moving over there for a bit, but htere rest were theirs. now, rarely are you able to get ten bags in the same car you brought 4 in. of course they didn't all fit. heather and i volunteered to go down to l.a. with some (4) of their bags yesterday. this also gave us a chance to spend a little bit more time with them family.


they were staying @ a certain motel with a number in the name, less than 7, greater than 5, that promises to leave something on for you. this location was right near lax, very convenient, and had a free shuttle. the rates were good, too. so, heather and i got a room there. we drove down, checked in, helped them with all the different bags and stuff and then went to dinner. nice meal @ an english restaurant in santa monica. buy the time we got everyone back, returned their rental car, and then hit the hotel it was about 11:30 pm last night. the parking lot was mad full, so we parked our civic in an available spot. surrounded by cars. pretty well lit lot. again, tons of cars. this morning, the stewarts were getting on the shuttle @ 5:30, so we got up @ 5 to help with the bags and kids. mission accomplished.

then i figured, why not move the car closer so when we leave (noon checkout) it'll be closer, easier. so, i walked out to the car, and then...











dang. dang. some jackhole smashed a few windows. i go inside, talk to security, call cops. literally 3 hours later, the cops showed up, i could get inside the car and not worry about screwing up any possible investigation (which there was none). nothing taken. didn't try and punch the column and steal it. just smashed the windows.

(if you want, we've got some random stories about the interesting characters around the motel. it's not the motel's fault, they actually have security on foot that patrols, and inglewood police also allegedly patrol the lot. and, the motel staff was very helpful with the problem. we'll see if they comp. my room later after their risk management people examine what the motel manager sends them. i'll keep pushing for it.)

so, now i've got a case #, and insurance report, and a rental car. we had a nice, hot ride home from l.a. with a busted window and the air blastin. hopefully our civic will be ready friday afternoon. until then, we've got a rental toyota solara with a full tank of gas.

thankfully, the stewarts got off from the hotel without any problems, and they didn't even know i'd have such a lame start to the day. and, thankfully, they only busted the windows and put a couple of knicks in the paint. we've got insurance, and it'll get fixed.

clerks 2 - a 100 word or less review

a great way to beat the heat is to go see a movie. we chose to see clerks 2. while i didn't storm out like gene shallot, i wasn't that impressed either. there are some laughs, some very funny moments. but, overall, this movie wasn't anything special. if you've seen most of kevin smith's movies, you've pretty much seen this one too. see it if you want. some things will make you cringe, others will make you laugh. it was alright.

how not to have...

my friend steve said something to adam and i about blogging the other day. now, it's not the first time he said it to me, but i think it was the first time adam heard the term. we were talking to steve about giving up on his blog (which is why i'm not linking his name, who wants to read a long dead blog?). hey, he's got his priorities,/reasons and he's sticking to them. and, as he has mentioned to me before, a big reason he doesn't really blog any more was quality control. he didn't want to just put up "daily diaryhea". (i really had to think about the best way to spell that to demonstrate the combo of diary and diarrhea) it's true, many of us put up a lot of stuff that's neither interesting nor profound. i'm fine with that. i'll put up what i want.

tonight, i was poking about the blogosphere, and hit sara's dad's page. he mentioned how blogging was somewhat difficult. this, in turn, reminded me of my conversation with steve. the whole process made me want to really dig a little deeper with my blog, thinking, writing. this doesn't mean that my posts will always be meaningful or profound. they still may be quite shoddy. but, i do hope that i put out some really worthwhile posts for you readers.

holy cow

i never would have expected this. especially a few days ago, when i counted him out (like i'm an expert).








(in case you didn't click on the link, floyd landis won the tour de france. i hear he's from a mennonite family in pa.)

who i am today

normally i don't spend a lot of time hitting up the quizzes and stuff on other blogs. but, today i was intrigued by one on sara's. i figured i'd take the test and see who i am. i'm fine with my results.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

i'm especially happy considering these are the other options.

lady in the water

my friend theo hooked me up with a few passes to the new m. night shayamalan movie, lady in the water. i'm not going to say much about details of the movie, especially because it was an prescreening. i enjoyed the movie. as with many of his movies, it is well crafted.

and, paul giamatti is an amazing actor. really, i'm going to have to see more of his stuff because i was so impressed with how he well he acted.

you should see it when it comes out. you don't have to go right away, but see it.

i heart toothpaste

i love this comic strip. this is one from the other day that really made me laugh. mainly because i hate that crap. i especially dislike it when people are talking on the speaker phone. look, i don't want to hear you shouting into the phone, and i don't want to hear your crackly friend either.

politics, foreign style

some people will say that this news story is sick and wrong. i'm inclined to agree.

are we about to be enemies again?

ah, you have to enjoy it when leaders of other governments get indignant with son of a bush.

"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion," Bush said at the news conference, "and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing."

Putin, in a barbed reply, said: "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly." Bush's face reddened as he tried to laugh off the remark. "Just wait," Bush replied about Iraq."

kinda amusing.

on a serious note, i hope that the situation in israel cools off and quick.

an inconvenient truth

today, i went and saw al gore's movie, an inconvenient truth. another website had pointed me to a place to get free tickets. all i had to do was agree to a few statements and right a review. sorry, adam, you can't get free tickets unless you're willing to lie. one of the statements is, yes, i am a committed Bible believing Christian. i know you're an ethical guy so you wouldn't lie to just see a movie.



here's my review:
"I had been dragging my feet on seeing this movie. I figured it would be informative but boring.

I was right. Don't get me wrong, not every movie should be a "blow 'em up" type movie. But if you want people to buy the message, sometimes you have to spice up the presentation.

Don't go to this movie if you already don't believe in global warming. You will dismiss this information as you always have. And, don't go if you already do believe in global warming. There's no new information, although you may see how much worse off we really are. If there is any doubt in your mind, go and hear the presentation.

The main problem I had with this movie was that it offered hope, but little solutions. You don't have to tell every solution, but at least give the five easiest, or most effective. There were some solutions offered, in the closing credits, but why not include more and earlier? Why not show companies that are making a differnce and should be supported? Give us more than just a website to visit later.

Finally, I realized very early in the film that I agreed and needed to look at my life and make some changes. Just like being confronted with the truth of Jesus and having to respond, the world needs to respond to what is happening all around us."




not in my review: would i recommend the movie? i'm still not sure. probably not. just go to the website. climatecrisis.org

some more sports

as many know, i like sports. and, i work with a track program. this things allow me to argue many different points. one frequent topic revolves around sprinters, especially the racial make up of many of the best. i contend that any one can run fast. this is constantly demonstrated outside of the u.s. but here, we tell kids of certain colors that they aren't fast enough to be sprinters. i'm glad that world champion jeremy wariner didn't listen, and continues to run great times in the 200 and 400 meters. i was encouraged to find this story tonight. new world record in the 110m hurdles. set by a chinese guy. how many of you out there think sprinter & china in the same sentence? not many. to be fair, an american also dipped under the old record in the race as well. but still. and, another american ran the 2nd fastest 200m of all time.

in other good news, jurgen klinsmann stepped down as germany's head coach. this really opens up the chance for him to become the next u.s. coach.

you think adam's got videos?

check out this one. it's especially good if you enjoy video games or owned our vid game ancestor, atari 2600. (ok, i know the 2600 wasn't the first game system. but, it was probably the firstnone that most of us had. except for you younger readers, who got on board with the nes.)




i owe the discovery of this video to boing boing.

france, you still won in my heart

we had a great time @ the woody's on saturday and sunday. the 3rd place match between germany and portugal was fun to watch and i'm glad that germany put the smack down on portugal. portugal played hard, and several of their stars shined a bit but germany was too good. watching this world cup has made me appreciate germany. it may even make up for how they treated pele in victory.

oh, and the secret is out. kendall is a good poker player. don't invite her to your home game without knowing that she is good and will take your money.

onto the final game. i enjoyed the match, and would have loved for the match to end in something other than pk's. i thought both teams played their hearts out, and france seemed to dominate much of the match. i was pulling for them (as mentioned in other w.c. posts i hate italy) and it looked like they would be rewarded for their hard work. but, alas, it went to pk's. neither keeper looked particularly stunning or terrible @ this point and an unfortunate shot off the cross bar lost it for france.

onto zidane's ejection: he deserved it. i don't care what was said to you, who just fouled you, whatever. you can't retaliate in that way, and definately can't be that obvious about it. as we watched the replay, i commented to those around that i bet the italian had made a racist comment, especially because zidane is from algeria. again, it doesn't matter what was said, zidane should not have responded that way. but, knowing the racist streak that lingers in soccer, i figured it would be racist. here's what an espn story had "The Paris-based anti-racism advocacy group SOS-Racism issued a statement Monday quoting "several very well informed sources from the world of football" as saying Materazzi called Zidane a "dirty terrorist." It demanded that FIFA, soccer's world governing body, investigate and take any appropriate action." and "Materazzi, meanwhile, was quoted as denying the terrorist comment. "It is absolutely not true, I didn't call him a terrorist, I don't know anything about that," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Materazzi as saying when he arrived with his team at an Italian military airfield."

UPDATE: this article claims that a lip reader determined the italian said, "“the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure"

we'll see what comes out of this all. for those sportwriters that don't think that they (or some american athlete) would have reacted that way, bull. if dirk nowitski drops the n word on shaq or dwayne wade during the finals, he's at least catching an elbow if not an uppercut.

but, zidane still won the golden ball (not boot as i said earlier).


on to the commentators outside of soccer. some of you may know, i listen to jim rome on the radio. he, like other sports talking heads, doesn't like soccer. okay, i get it. stop talking about it then. honestly, in the past day i've seen at least three stories talking about why they don't like, or why they think americans don't like soccer. it's not just jim rome, they even had some dummas on dateline talking about it, and showing blog quotes. here's one for you. i love soccer. i enjoyed watching the world cup. soccer is america's game, too, even if we haven't won big on the world stage. it's growing in popularity, especially with leagues like mls, pdl, and usl getting stronger. now, it's your right to talk about what you want. and, if you've got a show, you can decide what to talk about. but if you don't like soccer, why not just ignore it? talk about baseball. talk about football or basketball signings. talk about tour de france. talk about golf. plenty of sports happening, so why focus with story after story on why you don't like soccer. it's not that hard. there are plenty of sports i don't like (women's basketball and soccer, hockey, curling) but i'm not wasting my time ranting on about them. then again, maybe if i dedicated my life to talking crap about sports i don't like i might be able to make a good living. (if you read bill simmons, which i do, that's pretty much his take on most boston sports media.)

a new hope

here's an interesting story from the la times. it's only two pages long, so you can read it.


and now a few of my thoughts:
"diagnosed 21 years ago and has been healthy ever since, despite never having taken anti-HIV medications. Antibody tests demonstrate conclusively that he harbors the virus. But his immune system has controlled it so effectively that repeated blood assays have never shown a detectable level of the invader, even though Traywick still occasionally uses speed and engages in unprotected sex."

wow. it's amazing to see stuff about people who are surviving the aids virus. like, i always wonder how magic johnson is doing, but he took aggressive treatment options. this guy never has, and has never been sick. although, the last part of that quote is a bit frightening.


"To examine every controller for defective virus would be prohibitively expensive"

so? $ shouldn't be the thing that stops us from finding cures to deadly diseases, especially global pandemics like hiv/aids.



let's all hope that these individuals can lead to a cure.

what's exciting?

today is the first thursday of the month. for quite some time, that's meant that i would be going out to several art galleries, taking in local color, and enjoying the night. lately, i just haven't had the drive to go. tonight is no exception. i think it started with several months in a row of seeing art that didn't really inspire me, being around huge crowds of people, and a general malaise. maybe next month i'll shake off the dust and head out for art hop.

here are some things i am a little more interested in:
- love, sex and lasting relationships - a small group discussion and study @ our church. last week was the first of ten weeks. pretty good start, really enjoyed the discussion. i hope it continues to be good.
- it's always sunny in philadelphia - it's a tv show on fx. i first started watching this show last summer @ brian's apartment. they recently showed a few episodes on fox. anyway, last thursday was the season premier. tonight's some more new episodes. two episodes last week, two this week. really funny show. and, charlie day, one of the show creators, is a myspace friend of mine.
- 30 days - the morgan spurlock show is about to start its second season. i didn't see the first season, but the adds for the upcoming shows look interesting. i don't know if it will deliver, but i may just see. starts @ the end of the month.
- world cup finale - france vs italy. go france. although they looked pretty poor in the first round, they managed to advance. each match has been an improvement, and the zidane to henri goal against brazil was sweet. hopefully the match will be exciting. i also hope the 3-4 match between germany and portugal will be good. i'm pulling for germany.
- fresno fuego vs oc bluestars - next wednesday night. grizzlies stadium. local soccer, friends, and more. hopefully it won't be too hot, fish will put on a good show, and we'll leave victorious and happy.

what a cup, what a finish!

this has been a pretty entertaining world cup. i've enjoyed most of the matches, even when there have been those that were poorly officiated.

today's germany-italy game didn't disappoint. i was half heartedly rooting for germany. frankly, i've hated germany's football since the movie victory. but, for some reason, i've devoloped a deep dislike for italy. i'm not sure why, especially considering that i rooted for them most of the 94 cup and in that final vs brasil. but lately, i've just despised them. maybe it's because they're a puma side.

so, mike came over to watch the game and we both halfheartedly pulled for germany, but whole heartedly for a good match. and it was fairly decent. it seemed that both sides had a good streaks of controlling the match. both had some nice chances on goal, both had some luck go their way. and when it seemed destined for penalty shots, italy scored two goals in a minute and a half. game over. both were sweet goals.

i'm hoping france beats portugal tomorrow. then, i'll only have to decide if we go down early to bakos on sat for the 3-4 game, and if we'll stay there through the final.