Blog Posts Yesterday we went to Encinitas for the Switchfoot Bro-Am, an annual social activist networking gathering, because Tristan Prettyman was playing. Woo Hoo! She is so beautiful and loving when she plays that is is just mesmerizing. There were lots of really cool orginazations there like To Write Love On Her Arms, The Tony Hawk Foundation, Surfrider Foundation, 100% Natural High, Keep A Breast, Nika Water, Stand Up For Kids, Life Rolls On and more. Good stuff. I spent the rest of the day after the show installing and configuring our new 802.11n AirPort Extreme to extend our network to my new garage workstation (talk about full circle). My "office" is also a workshop for our major home projects. The kitchen is turning into an evil task dealing with 30 years of paint and rusting hinges. It's gonna look great if we have to sell. My desktop is choking on Activesync (again) as I do this. I hate Windows Mobile, even though it does most of what I need to do. It just does it shittily. - Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 13:32:09 (EDT) I haven't been blogging much since becomming my own boss. Probably because my time is now my own. There was nothing better than visiting my sites while siting at my shit-job desk, but now there is TONS to do. Priority one is getting the house ready to sell by clearing out the crap and painting. Our garage sale was a bust, but it created a traffic jam when the ad was changed to "free stuff." It's cool to have summer off with the kids. Saphira is having a pool party right now with her middle school friends and Caleb is in the mix just like I was. Lucky guy. Just got a call that my "Connectivy Coach" cards and flyers are done. It would rock if that works and I never have to go to work again. - Friday, June 26, 2009 at 17:40:29 (EDT) Since I got fired, I've really been looking at my life and wondering how I want the spend the few years remaining to me. What I like most is twizzling on a computer and showing others the tricks & tips I've learned over the years. So, what if I could make a job of that? I've got a couple months of launch time (if those damn pension funds ever arrive) to make it fly, so I've been designing my identity (Jack Roman!) and creating an infrastructure (credit card merchant account, brokerage account, Health & Human Services, child support, laptop drive replaced with "office" software and synced with mobile device and yet another v.5 site design (check out v.1 for kicks). All exciting stuff. Anyway, I remembered that this idea came to me in a dream a year or so ago and I woke up inspired, but let it pass. My life's unmotivated & basicly bored story. But, now that I have to do something... - Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 14:54:01 (EDT) I was a little spooked when I got fired at LPL, but I got over it quick. I was a square peg there and had so much grief over the years. It will be so good to work my own projects for a while. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have socked some money away in my 401k to make things less desperate. Conversely, I have capital and lots of solid ideas. A no-brainer is fixing up the house for sale. $100 of supplies will raise the value $30,000. Oh yeah. Plus, I have three businesses to pitch and skills to hawk. Most notably, by creative projects have been supressed so long. Maybe this is the kick I need. I've spent the last couple days spreadsheeting and developing a business plan. It's a pretty exciting moment. Today, I launched a new site on my server that points to our cancer information site for serving ads and selling transcripts. - Tuesday, June 09, 2009 at 21:44:26 (EDT) I had a day off last week for Shavuot and rather than being a holy moment it became kind of a runaround. After a lazy morning (Saphira came in to ask the day off, allowing me to close my eyes again) we went to get my long-awaited eye exam. Turns out I need glasses for short and long ganges both. Then, we got Johanna (who is awesome) at school and zoomed out 94 to the sticks for art class. After dinner, it was home to watch Foxfire (girl power!) for the rest of the night. Next day, we went to the library (like we don't have enough books already) where I scored the remaining weekend's pastime, A Woman's Place by Arlene Blum. Later, I fell asleep watching Doubt. The weekend finished late into the night with jPod episodes. Dang, I love that show! - Thursday, June 04, 2009 at 11:49:00 (EDT) We took the 4x4 back into Jacoby Canyon to Big Bear's best climbing area, The Pinnacles. Of course we got lost and had to backtrack some pretty rough stuff. Still, there were roads that shut us down that the hardsore drivers would navigate with their crew. Our camp was choice and after our Vons Feast, we watched Tropic Thunder on the laptop and replied to emails.After scouting the classic Coyote Crags and Tombstone areas with the kids the next day, I led Wilber's Tombstone with Caleb on belay for the first time! Scary stuff! In the video, you'll see the elaborate anchor I rigged to keep him on the ground if I pitched. Town was way crayon-filled, so we ditched out to the Log Cabin for some Kartoffelpfannekuchen before closing the weekend loop with a Soak at Marcy's after 345 mi. Plus, we finally got to skate Fontana and it was pool paradise! - Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 12:56:13 (EDT) After two days using last.fm my lifelong music collecting philosophy shifted. Already fried on hearing new stuff through the process of researching, finding, getting, tagging, syncing, playing, and hating a new band, it became apparent that storage in the cloud has become better. Last month was our last with with Sirius because I hate having crappy content imposed on me. Enter my "library" on last.fm and their clever relevance algorithm for suggesting new bands with a sound I like. When combined with radio streaming, it provides more targeted (meaning damn good) music than ever. Now take that infinite playlist and put it in your iPod with the implication that syncing will be reduced by 90% and you will have the killer app that finally sold me on the iPhone. Here's another thing... They have began filtering, monitoring and blocking traffic on the network here at work and I think the scrobbing app will provide access to my music library and stations without the site activity being monitored. Oh yeah... I'm trying to take whole my online presence off the radar. I facebook and email on my phone rather than on the network. Kray works, but Demonoid, Pirate Bay, Mininova, and Torrentz are all blocked. My device handles most of it and syncs with a kluged outlook/google PC hassle. My iPhone will be mac all the way and I imagine a bluetooth sync of contacts, calendar, music, video, to-do lists and documents. Last month I paid $312 to Sprint. AT&T will be yet another technology expense, but I am device reliant and the Apple's mobile platform is too awesome to not adopt. We haven't even discussed GPS centric social networks yet. Are you doing any of that? - Friday, May 22, 2009 at 11:04:32 (EDT) I'm in an evil mood today. It's the culmination of a weekend that began with a guard posted at Rancho Penisquitos. How dare they keep us from using the hole in the closed park's fence? Forced to Poway instead, it was "supervised" skating time, meaning that the session involved dodging butt-boarders. Fortunately, the crap skating got us home in time for a three hour Prison Break finale. The next day we skated some stupid spots between Hot-Topic locations. (Caleb wanted these) Even a session at Carmel Valley wasn't fun. Saphira pulled out $41 of the $50 she owed and funded a couple lunches, which is cool. Having the kids withdraw savings to keep me from spending backfired twice. I had to go out of pocket for Caleb's jeans and Saphira's book, although I did get a graphic novel of "The Trial" by Franz Kafka. This morning, I awoke to the "piss & shit" phase of kittenhood, and balanced my checkbood. Three days after payday I have $19. At least that's a positive number. The dog ran out while Caleb and I argued over the practicality of bringing a box of comics to school (huh?), then ran off a second time when we brought him home from driving around. I used the time to sweep the floor and throw away the broken bricks on the sidewalk where Caleb was skating. 20 minutes late to school, I realized I hadn't cleaned up, so my hair is sticking up. No shave or toothbrush this morning. Too late for Starbucks, I settled for 7-11 coffee. Shook the last of my meds from the pillbox and forced myself to work. This is the kind of day that I've been fired on before, so I better watch out. - Monday, May 18, 2009 at 11:55:58 (EDT) Caleb had a campout at his school this weekend and it turned out to be pretty fun. There was a western BBQ at night and pancakes in the morning. For entertainment, the movie Bolt was projected on a wall and it too was surprisingly good. The best thing was that the kids got to run wild with their friends. The next day, we went to the San Diego Children's Book Festival and checked out the publisher's booths and met some authors. We can have fun anywhere, apparently, because it was a royal dud. On Sunday, we went down to Horton Plaza because we really wanted to see Sunshine Cleaning and it was only showing in three theaters. (Huh?) It was a great film filled with are sorts of tragedy/comedy. It was strange to laugh and cry at the same time. Amy Adams was sweet as ever and was the perfect big sister to Emily Blunt. Alan Alda as the dad was an added bonus. Another cool thing was finally finishing Big Rock Candy Mountain. It took a couple months to work my way through it. Wallace Stegner is a pretty amazing author and this was his best work that I've read. - Monday, May 11, 2009 at 17:26:54 (EDT) When I was just a young man is high school, my friend Kevin had two big brothers in college who were way cool and turned me on to the "New York Scene" where revolutionary music was being created by the likes of Richard Hell, Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith, Television, Lou Reed and the Ramones. A personal favorite was the New York Dolls because they were completely out of control and on the road to ruin. After a couple of brilliant records, and a failed management attempt by Malcolm McClaren, they dissapeared and started dying off. I was sceptical of their reunion, thinking they could not even come close without Johnny Thunders. Man, was I wrong! Their show at HOB was blistering. "One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This" was album of the year in 2006. Well, today I listened to their new one, Cause I Sez So, during the commute and they remain a favorite after over 30 years. Dang! - Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 12:24:19 (EDT) I'm feeling pretty guilty about selling one of the Hermes ties my sister gave me. Sure, times are tough and I'm up to my ears with expenses and debt. Sure, the office has changed to business casual every day and I don't wear ties anymore. Sure, I appreciate the gift in the first place. I just wanted to do an eBay auction and see what would happen if I set a high reserve and let it run. Well, now it's all packaged up to sell and I'm sad about it. Isn't that how life is? The irony is that it probably won't be worn by the next person either because all the bids were from dealers that buy and sell these products as commodities. - Monday, May 04, 2009 at 14:03:38 (EDT) There is a complete punk rock revival thing going on with my Facebook friends, which is awsomely cool. Because of it, I became motivated to find this cassette by the Injections that has been in a basement box for years. The computer imputs didn't work for ripping it, but we did figure out how to hook up the player to the stereo. It cracked me up to see Caleb fast-forwarding the tapes to find the bands scribbled on the weird custom labels of the tape boxes. That technology is so ancient that "Injections" was spray painted on the wall of the Skeleton Club, and you all know how long ago that was. - Monday, May 04, 2009 at 13:56:56 (EDT) I'm sitting in the shade while Saphira plays with Maddie's Celebration guests and just read in the WM6 Reader version of Cory Doctorow's rad book about the information economy, Content, "If there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that an information economy will increase the technological literacy of its participants." It's ironic that this post's quote was pasted from my phone's ebook reader, in a version I converted to my device with a downloaded plugin, to its browser for posting. Doctorow's big into p2p, so grab a copy from his many fascinating books. - Saturday, May 02, 2009 at 15:57:50 (EDT) We finally were able to see The Soloist during the weekend and it was damn good. Jamie Fox and Robert Downey should get an Oscar for this one. Plus, Catherine Keener (surprise!) was in it and my readers know by now that I *LOVE* her. We snuck into Observe & Report since Seth Rogan is a family favorite. It was helladumb and a bit much for the kids to see in the theater. At home, they see sex, swearing, drugs, nudity, gore, torture, etc. but they get embarrassed in public. I've never cared what people think of me... That's why we were provided a middle finger during evolution. Another media tidbit: Last night we watched Chuck on TV (What? TV on a TV?) then watched the Gossip Girl episode recorded on our new DVR. We have another 160GB in the house. Yippee! - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 15:20:51 (EDT) We upgraded to digital cable to take advantage of interactive and recording opportunities and found the process relatively painless. One thing that had me on edge was something that seemed easy enough - programming the "Universal" Remote. I've heard of this urban myth before, but never attempted it. The right way, inputting codes from the manual (long lost) or searching online (12 different Sharp TV codes) failed. Turns out the new remote had its own search function that allowed it to emulate the other two and integrate. I thought it was cool to master a new technology, but the kids yawned at the effort. - Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 19:41:38 (EDT) I've really been crunching on Saphira's new site and as a result have found a lot of cool software. Some scripts were pretty tough to make run right, but it's always good practice to code. Along the way, I got WordPress installed properly (SQL Server!) and found it to be a killer app. In fact, it's so good that it is my new blog. Cool! - Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 16:23:16 (EDT) We trollied down to MCASD to see Primary Forms before it closed and found it pretty underwhelming. It's a bummer that stuff we once enjoyed has become dull. This is the last time the kids will be "forced" to go anywhere with me. So many times I don't do things I want because they aren't interested. They are old enough to sit around at home alone. Plus, I can't be bothered with dumb stuff like backtracking 5 stops like we just did because Saphira lost her phone again. - Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 18:01:47 (EDT) I got out tickets for Comic-Con yesterday, even though the event is not until July. Whole days were already sold out! Fortunately, we always go on Sunday (Family Day) and tix were available. Saphira qualified for a "Junior" ticket this year, so she will get her own badge rather than being a paid adult's child. A related story about being "qualified" is that I changed Saphira's contact info at school away from my parents so I could take a more active role in her parenting. The downside is that she is not in the district for her current school and she is slated to go to Horace Mann next year if our Enrollment Options Application isn't approved. That's a pretty harsh reality that I have to deal with. - Friday, April 17, 2009 at 15:06:12 (EDT) The kids had their first, and probably last as well, babysitter last night when I slipped away to see Jenny Lewis at the Belly Up. We got there late because Kenny had to work, so she was on when we finally parked and got in. Still, it was a long show and I ended up with a good seat anyway. Somehow, she has become my favorite singer right now. So, I was enraptured most of the night and downright inspired at times. Favorites like Carpetbaggers, Acid Tongue and Rabbit Fur Coat gave me shivers to hear live. Plus, I couldn't help but notice that her jeans fit just right. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 13:07:19 (EDT) Here's what I found out about the closed park in Rancho Penisquitos: "In addition, the mayor proposes turning the city's three supervised skate parks, including one in Rancho Penasquitos, into unsupervised facilities. Diehl said doing so will actually cost the city money since skateboarders - through daily or monthly passes - paid $74,000 to use Rancho Penasquitos' Skate Park. That money, Diehl said, goes to the city's General Fund, not the Park and Recreation budget. He also said having supervision is essential to making sure no one group of skateboarders monopolize the park or terrorize others using the facility, plus there are safety factors to consider." - Monday, April 13, 2009 at 12:21:53 (EDT) Saphira went to see Criss Angel, so Caleb and I guyed out three days in a row in SoCal skateparks. Day one found us up the 15 in Chino Hills and Chino. Both were real good and the later had a killer tight amoeba pool. Eager to hit more parks, we bailed to Montclair, Upland, Fontana II, and Fontana, all to be shut down by rain. Bogus! We finally skated at one Riverside park, but didn't even get out of the car at the other. The trip was saved on the way home with Caleb's first barge at Rancho Penesquitos. More on that place later. We hit it again on day two on the way north. First stop, MLK for our first fearless runs at their coping. Our confidence was up at Melba Bishop also and we nailed some transitions there. Day three we got the nerve (finally) to skate Washington St. and all I can say is "wow." - Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 15:39:07 (EDT) I just had a couple days off for Pesach and we did our share to keep the tradition alive for another year. The kids were pretty balky during Bidikat Chametz and were perturbed when we got to shul, but they lightened up after I gave Eve a ration. You had to be there. Anyhoo, I wore my black hat and easily slipped into the frum world again. I swore it would be our last shul seder, but looking back I really enjoyed it, even though it felt like a gathering of orphans. The next night, we did it right with a home seder. I even dug out the ol' Kittel, joking with Caleb that it's one thing he won't inherit. My kids are the epitome of the new genre of kids born into the network, (I did that) but they toned it down and got into our collection of Haggadahs and the old story. - Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 12:31:54 (EDT) So, we went to see Adventureland (Kristin Stewart is Smokin') and they kept playing "Pale Blue Eyes" by Lou Reed. It wasn't on the iPod, so some research uncovered that it is actually a Velvet Underground tune. A few songs into my commute today, VU rose a notch in my book with the artsy story song/poem "The Gift." Did you know that they were part of Andy Warhol's Factory scene? What a time that would have been... - Tuesday, April 07, 2009 at 16:49:47 (EDT) It's funny how much my life is like John Cusack's in High Fidelity. I spend so much time geeking over lists and libraries everywhere I go. I recently did a massive iTunes sync project when the family pod needed a restore. All my best genres (NY Scene, Vinyl Punk, UK Punk, DC Punk, SF Punk, LA Punk, SD Local, High School Rock, Just Plain Good...) have already moved to the brick, so the "pop" genres (Pop, Too Pop, Not So Pop, Punk, Poseurs, Chick Rock...) were loaded up. There is some seriously damaged bands on there now. I also geek out on web programming. Saphira had me buy apocalypticsunrise.com and I'm kinda psyched on building a kid portal. Here is the first module, an E-Blah. - Tuesday, April 07, 2009 at 16:09:12 (EDT) My daughter asked if I was going to the banquet when dropped off this morning. What? A visit to the office and a call to work and wa-la! Here I am paying attention closely to the video. This event is county wide. Each middle school has Model U.N. delegates that will have a unified conference. It's a big deal and I'm the kind of dad who lends his support. - Friday, April 03, 2009 at 12:19:43 (EDT) Monday night is primo TV. It sucks that Chuck is at the same time as Gossip Girl, but our special arrangements (bittorent) let us see both last night. Oh Yeah. Prison Break was on Mondays too, but on April 17th it moves to Friday. Tough call there... That puts it in direct competition with Dollhouse. - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 13:33:42 (EDT) After laying around all day utterly depressed (I quit smoking, again) we just had to get out, so we hit up Fashion Valley to see The Haunting in Connecticut. It was as good as a PG-13 horror movie can get, but I find the whole genre kinda boring. We stayed for Monsters vs. Aliens and I felt gipped that it was animated. It was a fun story, but I left the theater in much the same condition as I arrived there. The next day, I needed drastic measures, so we headed up to Oceanside to skate four parks. The first, Melba Bishop, was a good one. I immediately collected some roadrash by hitting a tiny piece of wood, but got back up and jumped on it. The next two, Libby Lake & John Landes were crap and we didn't even get out of the car. It was our second time at MLK and I snaked the locals for a couple runs in the big bowl. It's got an awesome flow, but is always mega crowded. Feeling a bit frustrated, we backtracked to Carmel Valley and had the session of the day. I finally skated the giant pool and found it wasn't so terrifying. At home, we watched Grudge 3 and I got bored quick. So, I watched Say Anything instead on the iMac. Now that was my kind of film! Finally, I finished watching Mouth to Mouth (Ellen Page!) and found it disturbing, but in a happy way. - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 12:24:09 (EDT) During the weekend, we all headed down to see Alonzo at Tops Salon to get haircuts and the kids had a great time. Saphira went above the shoulders with a classic layered approach. Caleb was more styled in a Paranoid Park manner that is pretty trendy with the skate crowd. I didn't have the patience to endure the crowd at SDSU's animalkind show in the main gallery, so I geeked out instead on a new "underground comics that became movies" genre inspired by the Watchmen release. I started looking at other Alan Moore movies and added Frank Miller to the mix. After downloading a few to file away, I sat back to watch From Hell and wasn't too impressed with it. For the most part, comics make crappy movies. The rest of the weekend was birthday party related, since all of Sunday was devoted to preparing, hosting and cleaning after Caleb's fun day. - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 16:23:12 (EDT) Caleb got a Palm Centro for his birthday today. That boy is hella spoiled. (as he should be) We're having a party this weekend! Weee... - Friday, March 20, 2009 at 13:45:01 (EDT) All this voodoo economics crap is really getting me down! Having a home worth less than its value and having expenses that exceed my income are one thing, but last night my people got my taxes down so that I received a $340 return. The problem is that I had to pay $389 in fees. So really, I netted -$49, which is actually pretty good because I took a big distribution from my IRA (more fees!) and expected to owe much more. It was a mistake to liquidate it, but I just couldn't stand to see my assets evaporate the way they are. - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 12:25:27 (EDT) We met with our realtor last night and the basic message was that we needed to invest $5,000 into the house to push its value equal to what we owe. The grim part, other than the fact that I don't have any renovation funds, is that we won't have a place to live if it sells until we buy a new place. Since I am preapproved at about 78% of what I owe, the new home will be a step down in value. Granted, the market is down and the realtor feels we may be able to get a condo with the 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms we need. My problem of getting the ex off the title will be solved. Saphira just wants something new and Caleb wants to skate to school. So, it's do-able, if I had the money to fix it up. The feeling is that without the renovations, we'll fall about $30,000 short. Ouch. - Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 13:09:22 (EDT) Missed some good art shows this weekend due to a general feeling of discontent. It's always a little scary when that feeling returns. Currently, my hopelessness centers around selling the house for less than it's worth to move into one worth even less. This backwards motion is driven by the need to separate assets from the ex, a lame motivation if there ever was one. This, we escaped to the movies to see Coraline in 3D. I actually loved it. Everything Tim Burton touches comes up gold. The second feature, Race to Witch Mountain was a surprise hit. The kids tried to believe its PGness was beneath their dignity, but they were as riveted as I was. After the food court, we headed over to the Karolides Clan to pick up our long-lost blue rope and to help upload her site. We used homework as an excuse to bail, but laid around watching Tru Calling and Friends on the computer instead. Saphira stressed over the missed assignment in the car on the way to school, ironically. - Monday, March 16, 2009 at 12:18:47 (EDT) Yesterday, I went to the 70's reunion luncheon for the G&S skateboard team. The guest list read like a who's who of Southern California pros (Steve Cathey, Ellen O'Neal, Dave Dash, Dave Mc Intyre , Paul Newkirk, Henry Hester, Layne Oaks, Doug Saladino, Doug Marker, Stacy Peralta, Bill Ruff, Jim Gray, Masami Countryman, Ron Fletcher, Chris Yandall, Paul Hoffman, Martinez Dennis, Bob Skoldberg, James Cassimus, Dave Hackett, Dennis Shufeldt, Joe Roper, Peter Towand, Rodney Barnes, Tony Jetton, Danny Trailer, Bobby Boyden, Frank Blood, Paul Constantineau, Chuck Webb, Bob Shea, Ron Hudgins, Bucky, Bobby Garcia, Larry Wilson, Steve Sherman, Jim Strom, Mike Lieras and more.) and it was awesome to see some of the old faces again. Of the bunch who showed up, I was about the only guy who still skated pools. Either that makes me cool or dumb, I'm not sure which. - Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 15:32:20 (EDT) Man, times are bleak. A lender just told me that I pre-qualify for a home loan amount that is less than my current mortgage. Additionally, the mortgage we have now is actually higher than the home's value. So, to get the kids into a new house where they each have their own room and I have an office is going to be a real trick! - Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 15:49:15 (EDT) Back in the 80's when I was collecting and reading the Watchmen comics, I felt that they were one of the most relevant and important things ever created. It was another "voice of the generation" thing. The writer, Alan Moore, (V for Vendetta, The Killing Joke, From Hell, Constantine, Brought to Light, Big Numbers...) perfectly captured the hopelessness of Generation X in the face of nuclear extinction and I got that feeling that it was something I could relate to and latch onto. Yesterday, we saw the movie (IMAX!) and Saphira commented that the crowd was all old guys. I laughed at that and, afterwards, those same old guys were still in their seats after the credits totally blown away. Sure, they did a great job of creating the Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, Rorschach, The Comedian and Nite Owl for the screen, but it was still the deep philosophical underpinnings that hit home. All this for some comic book? Well, your find meaning in life where you can. - Sunday, March 08, 2009 at 12:58:06 (EDT) After the kids went to sleep last night, I watched a freakin' weird movie called Trouble Every Day. For the most part, it had no dialogue and what it had was primarily in French. The imagery was the movie, and much of it was disturbing and evocative. I grabbed it as a fan of Vincent Gallo and he was typically unhinged in his character. He has a way of making things uncomfortable just by looking at the camera, which is his draw (I suppose). - Friday, March 06, 2009 at 15:00:08 (EST) There's some big changes in the wind. The kids are getting big and need their own rooms, so I contacted a realtor to begin the process of getting into a new place. It's a hard time to sell, but a great time to buy. Not looking forward to the effort, but it will be good to move on and away from the hassles I have now. Sometimes, it seem like my current role is to preserve assets for others. The ex wants equity from the property I've funded for 90% of our ownership. After 10 years of non-participation, her brother wants to sell the canceranswers.com name that earns about 20% of my income. Still, change is good. Speaking of discord, I watched Milk last night and found it incredibly moving. Sean Penn won best actor for his portrayal and it was well deserved. It was one of those lay awake and ponder situations... - Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 11:54:47 (EST) The weekend was one of irony. I got to lay around and read for most of it, which is cool, but then I got bored because all that was going on was laying around reading. So, we did what we always do and hit the mall. The double feature was action packed, starting with the spy movie Taken. It was surprisingly good, but a bit disturbing for the kids since they haven't really heard about trafficking women for prostitution. The next flick, Echelon Conspiracy, was way better because it was a techy network run wild kinda thing. I like the whole "Big Brother" scenario almost as much as post-apocalyptic. Caleb and I watched SLC Punk for the gazillionth time and pretty much decided it's the best movie ever. Anyway, I've got work to to so bye. - Monday, March 02, 2009 at 12:59:00 (EST) Man, my sites really need an overhaul! There is a ton of dorky content on my main homepage that's like 16 years old. In this business, that's ancient! Still, it was an upgrade at the time with its fancy JavaScript nav and what-not. Ironically, the old Version 1.0 site got me a lot more work. In 1993, it was cutting edge and I used to carry it on a floppy disc and show up at interviews empty handed. It was amazing when that would actually work! - Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 17:43:22 (EST) We haven't made kiddush at home in a while, so we picked up some Popeyes Chicken and did the family thing. Afterwards, I was able to chill on the couch and watch a highly anticipated movie, Rachel Getting Married. I knew it would be good for Anne Hathaway to have a breakout role, and it was actually a pretty incredible film for someone with my experience. We tackled a big project the next day by heading downtown for a thriftstore bookcase. Once installed, it allowed the snake to be moved and a larger turtle tank put in its place. It took a load of supplies to move them in (gravel, island, decorations, filter elements, sun lamp) and everyone was happier once they were. Come evening, we had the inside scoop at the member's opening of Rising Tide downtown. Even better was the Jolby show at SubText. It was packed with scenesters and the art was top-notch. The weekend ended with a humiliating session at the Oceanside Skatepark. I skate like a sissy. Things got worse this morning when I went to change Saphira's contact information at school. Every cuss word available is reserved for the official in the office. It was a painful flashback to hate having to even hear her annoying voice. - Monday, February 23, 2009 at 13:37:09 (EST) As the kids get older, they start having their own stuff to do and less time for mine. Thus, this month we missed both Culture & Cocktails and TNT. I love both those events, but the kids just weren't into it. We did visit the Plastic Prophets of Vinyl Redemption show up at Distinction and pick up our new Haubs. Pretty stoked about that. Caught a cool double feature during the rainy weekend of Confessions of a Shopaholic and He's Just Not That Into You. They were my favorite sort of movies (chick flicks!) and I absolutely adore Isla Fisher! Another hottie is Eliza Dushku and we have been enjoying her new show, Dollhouse, as well as the awesome Tru Calling. Now if only Fairuza Balk would come out with something... - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 19:36:35 (EST) I'm beat (in a good way!) from a trip to Joshua Tree with the Karolides clan. During breakfast we found an awesome arete behind camp and took a few laps. Beautiful! We took a park tour after that to check out the other camps and ended up at Belle at the end of the day. I did my first lead in years on a typical two bolt horror and relished the fear. We left one route undone that looked pretty darn good, so I say another trip is in order. Plus, by leaving the park at the east gate, a stop at Ed Chada's in 29 Palms was possible. - Monday, February 02, 2009 at 12:55:49 (EST) We had some time to burn this weekend, so it was off to the mall to see The Unborn. I had low expectations for this one. How many different ways can a PG scary movie be scary? Halfway through, I was glad to have my phone to text and read email because the head rotating 360 degrees and growling demon voices just don't do it for me. Second feature prospects were equally bleak, except for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which the kids won't see. Thus, we ended up seeing Twilight again. It's actually a pretty good movie, but I'm sick of the teenage girl mania surrounding it. Come nighttime, the kids went to stay with a friend and I had the chance to watch a REAL movie by one of my favorite filmmakers, Hal Hartley. His movies are so thoughtful and quirky that it takes a certain type of viewer (me!) to get it. The Girl from Monday was a sci-fi thing about a world where consumerism and buying potential have become the governing rules of a society infiltrated by aliens. Sounds hokey, but it was awesome. I also had time to watch Larry's Dead, a punk movie by Tim Armstrong featuring Lars Frederiksen as the broken one. Cool. - Monday, January 26, 2009 at 17:34:51 (EST) Last night, The Casbah had the greatest gray hair density ever in support of hometown favorites The Penetrators. We were all 30 years older, but having teenage fun just the same. The energy and nostalgia went off with grins all around. It was the friendliness of the fans and players alike that made us all feel lucky to have been a part of the San Diego Scene all these years. - Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 15:12:05 (EST) There has been a lot going on lately. Too much, actually. We visited Subtext for their opening night at the new space and found it filled with the art crowd. It was quite a contrast to the next night's Patron Level preview of the new Jasper Johns show at MCASD. The exhibit was kinda weak, but the snacks and free booze made membership have its privileges. Caleb and I skated the new Carmel Valley park during the weekend and found it to be one of the best. Certainly, the free pool is totally worthy. We also went climbing with the Karolides clan. The trail kicked my butt, the sun went down and we got locked in on the road (good fun!) Plus, we got to have a tribal dinner which is always a fun time. Last night, Saphira tried out for the county-wide honor band. Hope she makes it! In our rush, we ran over her phone in the parking lot. Bummer. - Friday, January 23, 2009 at 14:54:41 (EST) This month marks the 20th anniversary of The Casbah, an iconic music venue that has kept the San Diego Scene alive. For the occasion, many great bands are reuniting to play there. Thus, I made the effort to go see Lucy's Fur Coat and had such a great time that I went the very next night to see The Dragons. What a blast! They killed it, bit I actually liked Wild Weekend a bit more. (Girl Band!) Deadbolt played too and were what I expected during the 30 seconds I watched them. With all the hipsters there, I definitely had better things to do! - Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 14:59:27 (EST) It's been work as usual since our vacation and, to tell the truth, I'm glad to have a job in these times. As it is, the company has announced all sorts of budget cuts for the new year - no raises, no year mid-year bonus, no 401k matching... even a 10% staff reduction. Scary. One thing we still have is a free Gym membership. This year, I have to start using it, and quit smoking, because of all the worries of middle age, dying is the worst. With the kids getting older, soon I can gain regain my lost youth and get a life. In this vein, tonight is the Lucy's Fur Coat show and I'm pretty psyched about it. - Friday, January 09, 2009 at 11:39:53 (EST) We compressed three days into one long one and powered our way across two big deserts, crossing the Colorado River numerous times. When we got to Blythe, we stopped over at the Bigfoot Skatepark and had a grand ol' time dissing it. Dispite its weakness, we had some good fun chasing the local kids with Bob. Further down the road, we were astounded by the quality of the park in Brawley. It was a scary town and we got pretty lost. Even when we got there, it was intimidating. Turns out the locals were cool and the skating was RAD! Easily one of the best of the trip. Of particular note was the gnarly pool with coping and an awesome shallow end flow. Truly one of the best park pools around. It was a long haul into Borrego Springs and we got lucky to score a room at the Stanlunds Resort Inn. Heated pool and continental breakfast... Doesn't get much better than that! Plus, we are in striking distance of the Borrego Badlands, the most anticipated skatepark ever. More on that tomorrow after our session. Happy New Year! - Thursday, January 01, 2009 at 22:27:30 (EST) We left Vegas with a mix of "sick of it" and regret to hit the road south. As it was, we spent an extra couple of days there and cancelled the eastern segment of our plans to visit Flagstaff and Sedona. We found a gem in the Needles Skatepark. The kids must have been stoked when the Tony Hawk Foundation chipped in to build it because there wasn't much else to do there but drink the hundredth energy drink of the trip. We made it to Lake Havasu City and checked out their sole attraction from the bottom and top before seeking out the Rotary Skatepark. That place was so bad that we laughed during every run. Bored, we found a room at the Island Inn and had a well-deserved jacuzzi soak. The restaurant there closed early for a locals party, forcing us to town. Turns out the Barley Brothers Brewery had a cool view of the London Bridge and some fine ale. Fun! Back in the room, we brought in the New Year like millions of others by watching Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. I passed out after that, but the kids must have stayed up because they are still asleep and it's almost 11am. - Thursday, January 01, 2009 at 12:45:24 (EST) The Bunker skatepark in North Las Vegas was pretty much the best park of the trip. It had a tight pool-like feel that was kinked with fun. The locals were killing it and I pushed it until I bled. Then, I skated more. Yeah. The next spot, Desert Breeze, was the worst park. It was amazingly stupid. Caleb learned a new trick there, though. It is done by dropping in, eating it, then fling over the spine into the next bowl. Lunch was had at Sonic, a burger joint with a rollerskating waitress that brought the food right to the car!. Doc Romeo was right across the street, so we drove by to be reminded how stupid it was. Caleb's sharp eye spotted a pool-like thing we hadn't ridden yet, so we went down to it. It sucked, but it was cool because it was shaped like a giant penis. You don't see that every day! - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 20:42:49 (EST) Vegas was so rad for the kids, that we hung around for some kicks. To kill time, we hit up the Doc Romeo skatepark. Typically of these city parks, it was packed with groms and bike fags. Caleb was intimidated by the crash potential, but I got my groove on in the massive combi-bowl there. Durango Hills was a bit more skatable, but it was Saphira's turn to be intimidated, this time by the punky locals and soch girls. Come nightfall, we hit the strip. First off, we checked out the Excalibur buffet (kinda lame) and casino. I bet $2 and lost them both. A couple hours of mazes, escalators and connecting tunnels later, we were at the Luxor. Tix to see Criss Angel were $159 EACH, so we got t-shirts instead and goofed off on the inclinator. - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 14:48:14 (EST) We moved down the strip to Motel 6 so we'd have a place to ditch the dog while we visit the hottest corner in Vegas, Tropicana Avenue! But, before that, some skatin'! - Monday, December 29, 2008 at 16:25:08 (EST) On the way out of Barstow yesterday, where I ran the laptop over in the parking lot, we had breakfast at the Calico Ghost Town (does anyone hear a chicken?). It was more developed than Bodie with shops and a mine tour with artifacts. All in, it was a worthy stop. The road to Vegas seemed long, but the lit-up strip was exciting at the end. Extra-worthy were Luxor, New York, MGM Grand and Excalibur. Gonna stay an extra night to check those. Dinner and rides up the Stratosphere was a bust. Good thing we had Bob and changed over to a motel cuz that place was a dump. - Monday, December 29, 2008 at 14:04:34 (EST) We headed up the 15 to Corona to hit the Harada and Huber skateparks. Both were crowded with poseurs on bikes, but Harada had some pretty killer terrain. Huber, on the other hand was barely skateable. I got the trop's first roadrash just walking into the place! The 215 junction was jammed, so when it went Ontario on my ass we laid over at the Ono Hawaiian BBQ. After that, it was smooth sailing to Barstow and this WI-FI connection at the Economy Inn. - Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 23:22:29 (EST) Christmas was postponed due to my dad's Quadruple Bypass Surgery, so we went to see Bedtime Stories and The Spirit. I've never NOT had Christmas, or gone to the movies on that day, so it was amazing to see how crowded it was! I've forgotten how the holidays can suck! Not that's a break-through. The only restaurant open was a Jack in the Box, so we're going to Anthony's La Mesa tonight for a belated Christmas Dinner. Other than that, I just finished packing the car and mapping tomorrow's road trip to Corona, Barstow, Vegas, Flagstaff, Sedona, Prescott, Brawley, Julian and everyplace in between. - Friday, December 26, 2008 at 18:22:24 (EST) Just saw a sign that said no driving text messages after 1/2009 (from car phone) - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 at 16:48:07 (EST) During the weekend, we headed down to SubText for the Pitiful Fools opening of works by Jasper Wong. It was a very cool show, so we couldn't resist picking up Geez Louise by this very talented illustrator. We missed the Infinity Squared show at Distinction that Kelly Vivanco curated (sigh) but we were able to pick up another Haubs anyway. While I was at it, I ordered one of these just because I could. Happy happy! - Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 16:28:20 (EST) Caleb and I went to see Rancid during the weekend. It was his first big punk show, other than Warped Tour. He was pretty stoked to hang out with all the lurking characters in the parking lot and shuffle aimlessly about like a zombie. To be honest, it was fun for me too. I dusted off the leather and creepers and easily slipped into the old attitude. SOMA is a big ol' hall and it was a sell-out crowd, so the energy level was certainly high. Plus, we got to see Buck-O-Nine open up, which was pretty darn cool. - Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at 19:18:16 (EST) Today was Saphira's Bat Mitzvah and it was cute seeing her give a speech. She was all dolled up in new clothes and proud of herself with her friends and family all around her. Caleb got to put on a tallis and open the aron for Ani Zemiros, which got him pretty psyched. All in all, it was a good (expensive) time! - Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 20:02:12 (EST) We went down to Subtext to check out the Miao show and it was freakin' awesome! The custom toy shows are the best! It was a tough call, but we settled on Never Too Old in a funny way. Saphira and I were debating (like usual) and she said rather loudly that she liked the NC Winters piece the most. He was standing right next to her and said "You don't have to say that just because I'm standing here." Talk about a blush! - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 12:54:52 (EST) It was Saphira's birthday weekend and she made out like a bandit on her new LG Lotus phone. It has every possible cellular feature and she has really put it to work keeping in touch with all her Generation Y pals. Their basic tech offering of wireless internet, gigabite storage, and smokin' mobile CPU's is a modern marvel that they totally take for granted. An example is to type "rock band chix" into You Tube and you'll see this video uploaded during her birthday party. How cool is that? - Monday, November 10, 2008 at 14:25:48 (EST) I haven't blogged in a long time, but not from a lack of activity. We made it through the "High Holidays" of Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Shimini Atzeret intact. It was a rough schedule of mid-week days this year. The kids didn't stay home, but they didn't miss much but me standing around with my Tallis over my head beating on my chest during Vidui. - Monday, November 03, 2008 at 13:16:29 (EST) We have really been looking forward to seeing Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and finally got our chance this weekend. It was freakin' awesome! Michael Cera and Kat Dennings are a couple of our favorites and they were hilarious. You'll surely cringe during the gum scene! It was first-rate double feature when combined with Kirsten Dunst's new film, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. This was another highly anticipated movie that didn't disappoint. When it comes to the "girl with the alternate plan," nobody does it better than she. Simon Pegg did a great job as the lovable idiot and Megan Fox is just plain hot. We had some time to kill at the mall, so Saphira added another pair of earring holes. I offered Caleb the chance to go for a pirate look with double hoops, but he wasn't buying it. The main event came later at Rock Band Live, a concert tour themed on the monster video game. It made marketing sense because who in the audience wouldn't want to rock out at home? We have three guitars, drums and vocals ourselves. Our latest score is the Aerosmith game. Oh yeah! Anyway, The Cab opened up and were surprisingly good. Next was the kid's favorite, Plain White T's. We had good seats and could see really well, considering it was a big arena show (the kid's first). Dashboard Confessional was horrible. By the time Panic at the Disco came on, we were fried. So, it was hard to endure, even though they played some of their best tunes. Plus, they just didn't sound very good live. We left early, which was a bit disappointing to me. But, it was a school night. - Monday, October 06, 2008 at 12:17:10 (EDT) We went to see one our favorite bands, Flogging Molly, last night out at Viejas and had a real good time. While looking for a parking spot, we drove past the venue (which is in the middle of a shopping mall) and heard Beat Union at an incredible volume and sounding like crap. We all moaned remembering how our last show (Rilo Kiley!)there was a form of audible torture. This time we did it in much better style by ducking into Nori Sushi to dodge and nosh. We took a look at The Loved Ones after dinner and immediately escaped to chill in the mall. Thus, we saved our ears for the headline band. Where was a spot for our blanket and pillows right in front and we all had an awesome view while they played a bunch of the songs we know like Float, The Likes of You Again, If I Ever Leave this World Alive, Drunken Lullabies, and What's Left of the Flag. It was damn cool, but a school night, so we left during the encore so the kids could pass out on the way home. - Monday, September 29, 2008 at 13:50:14 (EDT) We drove all the way to Escondido to get a free t-shirt from the grand opening of the Apple Store there. The line snaked around the mall and enthusiasm was high. We almost got a new Nano just because it was SO cool, until I realized that we didn't need it at all. (we have 4 iPods and a Zune) After that, we saw Ghost Town and it turned out to be a really good movie. (T?a Leoni!) I used it as an excuse to get the kids into the theater so I could finally see Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I adore Scarlett Johansson. She has never been in a bad movie and delivered the right stuff in this one. When I found out it was a Woody Allen movie it created a sense of urgency since he is one of my favorite filmmakers. Plus, Rebecca Hall and Pen?lope Cruz are hot! Nuff said! - Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 16:56:17 (EDT) Last night was a killer event at MCASD La Jolla celebrating the opening of Weighing and Wanting, a show featuring works collected over the past two decades from the gallery's archive of over 4,100 works. Some of our favorites like Jean Lowe, Kim MacConnell, and Robert Irwin were represented, along with many more. One of my absolute heroes, John Baldessari sat to reminisce with Dr. Hugh M. Davies (MCASD's Director) about the origins of Southern California's contemporary art scene. The kids were bored. but I found it fascinating. There was also an hour of free cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. The best was the chicken and sun-dried tomato turnover things, with serious runner-up yumminess from the tuna sushi, mini hamburgers, salmon rolls, and caviar. Membership has its privileges! - Friday, September 19, 2008 at 14:28:04 (EDT) I finally (after over two years!) added a WEP 128 password onto our AirPort wireless network, which probably cut off service to half the neighborhood who gaked onto our open stream. It took some major tinkering to reconnect our PC machines to the iMac host, but now all is good. - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 14:36:13 (EDT) Way back when the kids were at Hardy School, I won a couple trail rides from the Julian Stables and just got around to redeeming them this weekend. It was the kids first time on horseback and they had a lot of fun with it. We had a guide that took us on a meandering trail that criss-crossed the ranch and provided some pretty views. The kids vetoed the Rongbranch, so we lunched at the Miner?s Diner. The attraction of an old fashioned soda fountain pulled us in for a Green River and Vanilla soda. Caleb's Chocolate soda got flushed (yuch!) and was replaced with Root Beer. My temptation for a Buffalo Burger was overcome in favor of a standard veggie burger. Saphira had some tasty smoked turkey. Caleb had meat, rounding out our "three tier" dining style. It was too hot for Culp Valley, so we just went home after loitering around in town for a while. Saphira has been raving about the Twilight series of vampire books, so I read a few pages before it put me to sleep. Come evening, I thought it best to wake up so I could sleep. It took no persuasion to get Saphira to watch Gossip Girl. You know you love me... - Monday, September 15, 2008 at 14:42:53 (EDT) Saphira had another BD Party sleepover thing this weekend, so Caleb and I grabbed our skates and hit the road. After a mandatory stop at one of our favorites, San Clemente, to do the "bunny rabbit" thing (multiple roll-in and roll-outs) we headed into the suburbs where most of the new terrain was hidden. Behind a remote soccer field we found the Rancho Santa Margarita park. At first glance, it seemed barely skatable with it's really weird bank area and ditch thing. Turns out it had the best pool ever with a totally killer shallow end and pocket with coping all around. Even the street course became fun as we worked out the kinks. Between parks, we visited many OC boardshops seeking some Blue Doh Doh Bushings to soften up the boy's ride. Then, off to Laguna Nigel were we ended up skating for 5 hours. It was pretty sweet. There was a solid snakey flow to the banks and a righteous island that Caleb must have hit 50 times. Confident, he rolled over a giant hip in the big area. There was also a very ridable combibowl that I tore up until thigh cramps made me sit down. After the lights went out, Caleb passed out as we headed home spent and oh so satisfied. - Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 12:29:12 (EDT) We're not as active on the art scene as we were, partially because the kids are bored but mostly because I'm broke. Still, when I saw the work of Aaron Thomas I just couldn't resist! The work was so cool and the scene so lively that I had to do the patron thing. We got to meet the artist, who was super friendly, and boast that we now owned "Remote Devil." I'm totally stoked on it, but the kids are worried that we'll be living under a bridge from me blowing all our dough on cool stuff. I assured them that if it happened, at least our hovel would be properly decorated. - Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 11:59:12 (EDT) My 30-year high school reunion was last weekend and it was pretty darn fun. Some of my favorite people showed up from all over the place. Julie Bloom, Darryn Berner, Gaye Cooper, Mary Salerno, Anne Crabb, Margaret Albarran, Franchesca Dalfio, Kelley Donnelly, Liz Weaver, Janet Nugent, Barbara Moore, Kim Mattson, and Wendy McDonald were some of the old flames that made things fun (Kelley was the most). Todd Reilly, Randy Bernstein, Greg Frank, Chris Corvo, Kevin Wiggins, Paul Aiello, and Mark Bray are some of the guys I laughed with. I went all out and got a room at the Omni to allow for a party without a drive. Glad I did, because I drained my flask twice and stayed up until 4:30 am. Wow! - Monday, September 08, 2008 at 12:35:56 (EDT) Saphira went to Maddie's for an end-of-summer sleepover, so Caleb and I went to skate at Robb Field. It's a good park and quite fun. Still, we had time to burn, so a trip up to San Clemente seemed in order. It was actually much better than I remembered it, probably because I skated the roll-ins with my son rather than the bigger bowls. Since we were on the road, it was a logical choise to blast up to Lake Forest to the SoCal grandaddy of parks, Etnies. That place is mondo huge and pads weren't enforced, So I was blasting 11 feet of vert with no armor. Thinking back, that was pretty dumb. After bleeding there from a fouled drop-in from the pool coping, we cut cross-town (tollroads?) to the Volcom park in Costa Mesa. I was too beat to skate without killing myself, so we ducked into Best Western for a jacuzzi and movie. Come morning, it was back to Volcom. The trips best flow (and the most blood) was found in a little bowl there, plus I had to drop into the scary combibowl just because. I had high hopes for the kidney pool at Anaheim, but it was rough and kinked. Bummer. Caleb thought it was the worst park, but I felt the pool was the trip's best feature. Laguna Hills was on the way home and was surprisingly good. We were pretty stoked, but had to get home to Saphira. Being possessed to skate, I got a new Zero deck to downsize my burly skate since the Alva was a bit squirly on the big stuff. On the last day of vacation, we tried it out at Coronado and it skated pretty stable, even with the softest bushing installed. It was too big for the park, however, and I hung up and slam dived right onto the flat. Final tally from the weekend: a twisted shoulder, tweaked wrists, a bruised elbow, two scabbed knees, a kinked neck. a hipper and sore feet. Needless to say, I limped into the office this morning. - Tuesday, September 02, 2008 at 12:42:14 (EDT) I passed my Series 6 securities exam today with a score of 82%. It was a huge relief because if I failed I would have had to leave my job. I've had years to do it and put it off until the final week. Typical. Last night was the last of many staying up late studying. Finally, I said "screw it" and watched Gossip Girl and Weeds instead. - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 17:58:25 (EDT) We traveled over 1,350 miles last week on our vacation. It began with a V.I.P. tour of Warner Brothers Studios (thanks Sara!) where we saw the sets for many films, including Star's Hollow. The first day ended off the 14 in Red Rock Canyon, which was a pretty amazing spot to sleep under the stars with a full moon. A long haul the next day got us to Whitney Portal to see the tallest point in CA and play by the waterfall for a bit. That water was a dud compared to the rope swing in Bishop, however. Caleb even jumped off the cliff a few times! That night we bedded down in Tuff Campground near Tom's Place. It was our last night outside since the elevation gain cooled the evenings and added some bear scariness. Come morning, we searched out The Tub in Owens Valley. Choice! Many dirt roads and miles later we found Little Hot Creek, but that place was way too remote to camp at and feel safe. So, we went to Mammoth Skatepark instead. Man, that place was made for giants! My old stomping grounds at Deadman's Summit had a crowd, (one couple) so we visited the Bachar Boulders instead and got totally shut down. It got worse when the car got stuck on a rock backing into our spot at Silver Lake. It was totally old-school to jack up the wheel and stuff some firewood under it to drive off. After a cold and cramped night, we went to thaw at the Navy Beach hot spring and it was closed. After breakfast across the street from the Mono County Courthouse in Bridgeport, we finally got wet at the awesome Travertine Hot Springs. A side trip to Bodie resulted in the famous line "I drove 26 miles out of our way to see this place, so you are going to see everything and enjoy it!" The main event began when we ascended the Tioga Pass into Tuolumne Meadows. Day was ending, so we skipped bouldering at The Knobs and shivered a bit checking out the Great White Book route above Tenaya Lake that I took their mom up years ago. We got our new tent set up in Porcupine Flat before nightfall, before reading that no pets were allowed. While driving to find a pet friendly site a warning light appeared on the dash, which changed our trip's direction. Finally, we rolled into Yosemite Valley and the kids were pretty underwhelmed by the huge rocks. Of course, it was memory lane for me to visit my favorite place on earth. We even scored a campsite! I couldn't stay off the rock and made the kids trudge around the Curry Village Boulders. Man that felt good! One look back from the Wawona Tunnel and we were off to Fresno to get the car looked at. Turns out the light went out and that town was a sh*thole, so we pushed into the night to reach Morro Bay. After a fun boardshop spree, we headed down the beach to a quaint downtown motel in Santa Barbara, Thai food, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. On the way out the next day, we hit Skater's Point on the beach for a session. Farther down the road in Chatsworth, Saphira found some shade while Caleb and I powered out at Stoney Point. The traffic soon got bad, so we diverted to Santa Monica for some pizza before creeping through L.A. for hours on the home stretch. - Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 16:16:21 (EDT) We started our vacation at the Warped Tour and a good punk time it was! I'm gonna go to that show every year until I die! The theme of the day was girl bands and it started badly with Me Talk Pretty. Soon thereafter was The Action Design who turned out the best show of the day. Emily Whitehurst, the singer, was so friendly and cute that we just had to hang out at her booth like groupies! After that was the act we went to see, Charlotte Sometimes, and she was awesome! Her snake-girl style was just plain wow! We tore ourselves away to the biggest disappointment of the day, Katy Perry. Rather than being right in front of the stage like every other band, we were in a mob of dumbness. We hate her now because she made us miss Charlotte in her booth. The other big stage show we watched was GBH. Old school! Speaking of which, there was a stage dedicated to 80's LA punk. (oh yeah!) Big Drill Car was first and sooo good that I had to buy this. D.I. was cool, but MIA was better. (bought that one too) Caleb went in the pit during TSOL because he was stoked to hear his favorite tunes. I never liked Fear, but The Germs kicked ass! - Monday, August 25, 2008 at 19:08:22 (EDT) I haven't been blogging much lately. Not because there's nothing going on, however. There was Comic-Con (awesome), a couple shows at Subtext, and The Dark Knight on IMAX (wow!). Saphira was gone for a week, so Caleb and I skated every day. We tried out Kroc, but that place is totally lame. Mostly we loc'ed out at Kennedy. We did hit up Robb Field and had a champion session (no pads!). It's our favorite park now. Saphira came home during the weekend, so we hit up the circus. Sadly, it will be our last one. Like the rodeo, we are having animal rights concerns with the event. Oh well, it was kinda boring anyway. - Monday, August 11, 2008 at 12:41:55 (EDT) It was a blast having Mikey show us around Hollywood and proving an insider perspective. The first marvel was their loft. Wow! It was a technology palace in a great neighborhood. We goofed off there for a bit, then hit the town for Thai food and a movie. Both of those events were awesome and of L.A. proportions (meaning chic). It was midnight before we got back to the crib, but I was still to jacked to sleep. After a few chapters of Voidoid nonsense, I crashed. After an bittorent tutorial the next morning, we cruised Melrose checking out cool shops (Kidrobot!) before heading down to look for celebrities at The Ivy. We lunched across the street at another trendy spot and the kids had to run outside when an escorted limo pulled up to the Ivy. We stood around gawking at nobody for a while, then hit up Rodeo Drive. (Chanel! Ferragamo! Dolce & Gabanna! Miu Miu! Versace!) It got excessive when we actually bought tourist maps and looked for star homes in the Hollywood Hills. Of all the huge names, the kids were most stoked by the house Shannen Doherty supposedly lived in. It was hard to leave such fun, but we had to get home. - Monday, July 07, 2008 at 13:46:56 (EDT) We got to Knott's Berry Farm right when it opened and did the whole park in about an hour! Silver Bullet was first since there was no line and it was right at the entrance. My reasoning was that it would get fear out of the way and make the rest of the day easier. After that was back-to-back rides on the Jaguar, Montezooma's Revenge and the Boomarang. We had to sit a while and let the barf settle before riding the Excellerator. It provided the scariest moment of the day. The log ride had a line, but it was worth it to have a mellow ride. The heat was rising and the lines lengthening, so we bailed to the hotel pool for the rest of the day before heading up to visit Mike & Sara in Hollywood. - Sunday, July 06, 2008 at 11:44:28 (EDT) We just saw a pretty awesome fireworks show from the balcony of our hotel. From the 8th floor, our panoramic view revealed hundreds of fireworks all across the city. I have never seen so many at once. There was so much smoke that the moon was actually blotted out! We also had a birds-eye view of the park... It's gonna be scary tomorrow when we get there! - Saturday, July 05, 2008 at 00:53:44 (EDT) We are in the Knott's Berry Farm hotel using the laptop and in-room wireless internet. How cool is that? Gotta go though... It's time for room service. (Talk about spoiled!) - Friday, July 04, 2008 at 21:33:04 (EDT) We started the weekend at Quint for the Showdown group show and left after five minutes. It's not that it sucked. The art collected was actually really cool with pieces by Jean Lowe, Kim MacConnel, Ryan McGinness and more. It's just not our scene, so we split for SubText (which is very much our scene) for the opening of an amazing photography show by Marc Tule. He used high-speed exposure and laser triggers to caplure the "Latency" of fluid colliding with solid surfaces. It was pretty amazing stuff. The next day was Reuvie's Bar Mitzvah, which turned out to be an all-star event. Plenty of folk from all over came, including my first frum Rabbi. I was sad to leave early because Saphira had a pool party at the folks. Caleb and I just sweated it out (hot!) until it was over. We hoped to beat the heat at the drive-in watching Get Smart, but it was sticky all night. We finally cooled off at the beach Sunday, but slept hot again last night. - Monday, June 23, 2008 at 12:53:13 (EDT) I don't really blog movies like I used to, probably because it's been a long time since I saw one that really moved me. That is until last night when I watched Meet Joe Black. I've been on a Claire Forlani (Brandi Mallrat!) thing lately, which is how it was discovered. She did a lovely job, but the real emotions were brought by Brad Pitt's interactions as Joe Black (the Angel of Death) with the upstanding gentleman, William Parrish, played by Anthony Hopkins. It really struck a chord in me because I have begun to fear my own death and its effect on my children. I've actually calculated the minimum number of years needed until they could live without me. As they slept, I was awake pondering what is important in my life and how to enjoy it fully and maintain it as long as possible. Pretty heady stuff. When it was time for Parrish to go, he asked if he should be afraid. Black said "A man like you?" I'd like to think that is my fate as well. - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 14:08:50 (EDT) We started the weekend at Carillo's Auto Body because I smashed into a car stopped at a red light while fiddling with my iPod. My dad had a car for us to borrow, so we were able to get around. Family Day at Lux was pretty fun. We didn't bring home any of our watercolor paintings, but did enjoy checking out the underwater landscapes of Daniel Wheeler. We even took a few of our own! After a session at the Carlsbad Skatepark, we headed over to Ruby's Diner for a Sterns family Father's Day lunch. The main event was I Killed Qupid by Isaac Pierro, a series of illustrations and paintings on display at Distinction. Like usual, the kids had me rush away from the free beer to do nothing at all. They did save me from spending $20 on Russel. Ironically, I bought this one anyway. - Monday, June 16, 2008 at 13:20:52 (EDT) Yea! It's Father's Day! So far I have swept the floor, took out the garbage, separated the recycling, did the laundry, washed the dishes, cleaned the hair out of the shower drain and vacuumed the carpets. Now that's the spirit! - Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 12:33:41 (EDT) We hit up the Switchfoot Bro-Am on Saturday, an event that benefited Stand Up For Kids and To Write Love On Her Arms. These organizations help kids in crisis and provide much needed resources that I could have used at that age. Some bands played as well. Switchfoot themselves sucked, but A Fine Frenzy was pretty cool. The next day was the SDMA Family Festival and it was fun to mural paint and do pastels on the asphalt. Also good was a foo-foo lunch in the Waters Caf? there. We've been wanting to try that place out. The rest of the day was lazy, but we did do some Skatin' before making Kiddush for Shavuot. - Monday, June 09, 2008 at 14:23:39 (EDT) Caleb gave a rockstar performance at his school talent show by playing his saxaphone solo. It was pretty dang cool! Saphira went for sleepovers on both weekend nights, so it was boy's night. He fell asleep watching Quentin Tarantino movies (how is that even possible?) so I just messed around syncing and loading my new Touch phone. The kids were jealous, so they got new phones too. Caleb got a UpStage and Saphira got a Katana LX. (spoiled!) It's funny. He was all about features and she wanted it to look slick. After she went to Helena's BD party, we watched Serial Mom, a wonderfully twisted John Waters movie with Kathleen Turner exacting revenge in a psycho-sweet manner. Fun! Typically boring was our visit to the new Georgia O?Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle show at the Balboa Park museum. Yes, I renewed our stupid membership. Duh. Pickin throught the punk rock vinyl and checking out the skates at Route 44 was way more fun. Saphira hated it (girl) and didn't perk up until we got to Iciban. Also, we sold all the damn kittens, so the house doesn't stink anymore. - Monday, June 02, 2008 at 13:37:39 (EDT) We did some pretty cool stuff over the long weekend, starting with the member's reception for Bruce Nauman at MCASD. Afterwards, we dropped a party at the home of Eric Wixon. The kids were shy to barge like we did, but chilled out after seeing his studio and playing some foosball. Turns out that Eric skates and one of his friends at the party works at Route 44 skateshop. He made the place sound like it is worth a visit since Caleb needs a new ride (Zero or Element?) and I'm always looking for elusive punk vinyl. The next day we hit up Vertical Hold to pull down on some plastic. Both kids liked getting upside down, but I'm too fat for that. My thing was sit starts to tall (juggy) problems. The traditional feast at Crazy Buffet followed. Monday was a holiday and the weather was too dodgey to camp as I wanted, so we (and half the city it seems) went to the mall. We needed to get the iWork (easy documents and presentations) and iLife (Garage Band!) software for our iMac, so a stop at the beloved Apple store was in order. Caleb was on the hunt for skinny jeans and didn't find any until we got to Nordstrom Rack. Saphira got pretty sun dresses and I got stogey work clothes. The entire weekend was devoted to selling our kittens, but nobody took one (though many called). I had plenty of time to read a killer book by Jim Bridwell, one of my heroes, and watch a dopey movie and a killer movie. - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 13:36:01 (EDT) We started the weekend at the "Jam Music Workshop" sponsored by the Mission Valley Apple Store and learned about creating our own music tracks with the fantastic Garage Band software. It's packed with loops and beats that can be arranged at will. Plus, real instruments and voices can be imported into the mix. Fun! Then, we rushed to the DMV to pick up our custom Yosemite plates. They say "511C V4" and should puzzle folks not familiar with rockclimbing grades. Those are my hardest on-sight climbs. Come evening, we hit the new San Diego Art Prize venue to see Pamela Jaeger. She was as sweet as ever and had some fanciful new stuff to ponder. The next day was spent beating the heat by ducking into the theatre to see the new The Chronicles of Narnia movie about Prince Caspian. It was a good show with the "Kings & Queens of Adam" being as lovable as ever. The second feature blew it away. Robert Downey Jr. played Tony Stark, a brilliant arms designer with a conscious and an unspoken love for Pepper Potts, his lovely assistant played by Gwyneth Paltrow. (hot!) It was action galore, but the best part was when he said "The truth is, I am Iron Man" Cool. - Monday, May 19, 2008 at 16:43:15 (EDT) After Caleb's school band concert and open house, we blazed out to Viejas for the Rilo Kiley show I have been looking forward to so much. (two nights in a row!) Turns out that they were one of the best bands ever! Some musicians have that extra something that sets them apart. Jenny Lewis had an amazing voice and a true rockstar presence. Plus, we have been listening to them on the pod and knew most of the songs, which is always cool. Poor Saphira bonked on the grass wrapped in a blanket, saying later that her head "exploded" from the massive sound system. It was pretty darn loud, requiring ear plugs during the opening band, Sea Wolf. I wanted to hear it all during the headline act, however. They were just awesome! - Friday, May 16, 2008 at 12:42:52 (EDT) We went up to Hollywood last night to catch the last show of Kate Nash's American tour. She was a bit louder than we expected. At her wildest, I was surprised to be reminded of a young Patti Smith. She played keyboards and guitars quite well, but was best with the mic in her hand dancing around. The opening band, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, was ridiculous, but lovable. The venue was promoted as being swank, but ended up being a run-down dump and about a hundred degrees inside. We were early enough to hit the Hollywood & Highland mall for dinner at Koji's Sushi. We had Shabu Shabu, which was fun. The whole night was fun, but we got home hella late and we were all pretty spun out this morning. - Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 13:40:20 (EDT) We got to the movie theater at 10 am excited to see Speed Racer and were certainly not disappointed! It was super-exciting with crazy futuristic racing with a ninja plot-twist. Christina Ricci, my favorite, was sweet as ever! The 2nd feature was also one we were looking forward to, What Happens In Vegas. It was a lot of fun, if not predictable. Speaking of which, Prom Night (3rd feature) was almost entirely formulaic. Still, it was good for a jump and squeal from time to time. When evening came, we went to the Escondido Art Association opening for free snacks en route to Distinction for the opening of the "Mode" show featuring Jenn Porreca, Jeni Yang and Alex Willan. It was pretty cool until we heard about the Sandra Equihua show opening at SubText. We rushed there to mingle with our familiar crowd. An added bonus was that we picked up stuff from the last show at both galleries. Fun! - Monday, May 12, 2008 at 18:59:59 (EDT) We started the weekend at a brunch for the SD Art Academy, partly because of the free food but mostly because I want to get Saphira into art school. She has a genuine interest and talent. Plus, this a a real school in a cool downtown location that will really help her blossom. We'll see... She has a sleepover for Johanna's BD, so Caleb and I did boy things. We hit up Memorial Skatepark again to ride something challenging and had a good session. At home we watched the pool skating pirate movie Chlorine and Getting Nowhere Faster by the militant skategirl tribe Villa Villa Cola. Fun! We had all day Sunday to skate, so we drove 100 miles to skate the kidney pool in the new Pala Skatepark. Burly! I practiced with scary big drop-ins to get ready to crack the heavy local scene in the bowl, but it wasn't much help to handle the steep shallow end start. I was sketchy at best and way scared, but I hit the tile frontside and backside at about 12' but no grinds this time. The park was full of gnarly terrain and well worth revisiting. Plus, Caleb was killing it with roll-ins and kickturns. It was pretty leisurely waiting for Saphira to get home so I was able to finally finish Inside, Outside by Herman Wouk. As always, this book confirms that he is the greatest American novelist alive. - Monday, May 05, 2008 at 13:09:58 (EDT) Avril cancelled her show in San Diego last night! Dang! We got tickets, like, three months ago after four years of wishing. Oh well... - Thursday, May 01, 2008 at 11:35:15 (EDT) We started out the weekend at an Apple Youth Workshop on building presentations with the Keynote application. Like most Apple products, it's a slick piece of software and fun to use. Then, off to Artwalk. First stop from the trolley was SubText (isn't it always?) to see their show. I loved the work of Julie West, but we had a lot to see before buying more art from that shop! We did get prints from Michael Phillips (Durden?) and Marna Schindler. A giclee print of Amsterdam by Grant Pecoff was a step up, but the big acquisition of the day was the long-coveted Night Watch by one of our favorite art people, Amy Paul. Speaking of favorites, we found the Distinction booth, but kept the wallet in the pocket since we already owe them money. It was too hot on Sunday, so we ducked into the theater for Baby Mama and Forbidden Kingdom. It was an awesome double feature, but you couldn't have found two more different movies. Saphira liked Tina Fey. I liked Amy Poule. Caleb liked Jet Li (of course). All-in-all, it was a great weekend! - Monday, April 28, 2008 at 14:12:48 (EDT) It's Pesach all week and it's going pretty good. I had to learn about Morid Ha'tal and Tefillin on Chol Hamoed to do things right. We had the first Seder at home, which was really cool. On the second night we went to a dumb shul that skipped the traditional stuff to make time for their own "innovations." We still had fun because that's the way we are. We went to Sunset Cliffs to kill time on the first day and explored around for a while until we were fully bored. Then, a Sunday drive in the hybrid. On the way, we stopped to skate at Robb Field, but the park was closed. I fell hard on a six-inch bank in the parking lot and bruised my ribs, again. Now, I'm all racked up with road rash. - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 19:13:08 (EDT) We started out the weekend at the Nils Jawa opening at SubText and had a great time. The artist was super-cool and talked a lot with the kids, so we were very happy with our acquisitions. Saphira picked this one and at the register I couldn't resist these. We went out for Sushi, then back to the show for more free beer. Plus, we got a new toy. - Monday, April 21, 2008 at 13:45:52 (EDT) Saphira was at Legoland for the weekend for Maddie's birthday, leaving just the boys. It was too dang hot to skate, so we did the art circuit again. We started out at the weak Rock/Paper/Scissors show at the Escondido Arts Partnership. The ale was strong and cold, plus snacks, so it was a good warm up for the Aaron Jasinski opening at Distinction. Most of the stuff (awesome!) was out of our reach, but we did get a little piece called I Wish I Could Eat Ice Cream. Caleb was in a hurry to get home and play his new Grand Theft Auto PS2 game, but gladly turned it off to watch vampires and random violence in Robert Rodriguez's masterpiece, From Dusk Till Dawn. It was pretty incredible! The Thread show on Sunday was a bust, but we had some fun checking out the Aerospace Museum where it was hosted, then if was off to the Family Happening at MCASD to make CD mobiles, check out The Modlins, and do some DJ scratchin'. Now, we have some new hardware demands. - Monday, April 14, 2008 at 13:22:50 (EDT) Just for fun, we went to the Swap Meet during the weekend and had fun rummaging through people's stuff. We got lots of DVD's and knick-knacks (sunglasses, cellphone purse, sharpies, airsoft pistol, mexican wrestler toys...) but the score of the day was a Dogtown T-Shirt for Caleb. We found a treasure trove of Tredair U.K. and Emily shoes, but had spent all our money by then :( There was a bird stand also, which caught Saphira's fancy enough to cause a visit to the bird store, but it was all way over budget. We did get Bat Chicken and Cluck Wonder at the Kelly Hutchinson opening later in the day. After the show, we walked across the street to Jyoti Bihanga for some hard-core vegetatian food. Caleb just about choked whn his grilled tofu wrap came, but Saphira was stoked on her nutty Neatloaf. I had a Rueben sandwich with organic saurkraut. The best thing was the Tiramisu and the vegan chocolate mousse cake. Yum! The next day we saw Nim's Island and it was adorable. A fun trivia is that Jodie Foster was making movies at Abigail Breslin's age. They had a cool thing going on together in this movie. It was also pretty neat the way Gerard Butler had a double role as the dad and Alex Rover. Always looking to super-size the adventure, we also saw Shutter for a good kid creep-out. It worked! I had someone pressed into me from both sides jumping ans squealing and squirming. Fun! - Monday, April 07, 2008 at 12:05:15 (EDT) Last night was Saphira's middle school open house and it was pretty cool seeing all the stuff she has going on. I couldn't be more proud of my big girl! - Friday, April 04, 2008 at 20:06:03 (EDT) Saphira got a "matrix" hairdo from Alonzo and loves it! It was her first salon experience and we got all kinds of product to make it stick. This morning I got to play hairdresser and ironed it flat as a board before school. Fun! - Thursday, April 03, 2008 at 19:51:38 (EDT) The Balboa Park Art museum usually has stupid shows, but scored a good on with Inside the Wave, a contemporary installation of "social art" by six San Diego/Tijuana artists. Some of the stuff was heady intellectual (Adriene Jenik?s ?speculative social cinema?) and immersibly interactive (the particle group?s sensor-equipped sniffing multi-lingual nanotechnology columns). We also had fun being Tijuanian Anonymous members in Bulbo's installation. Coincidentally, we got a free exhibition catalog at both SDMA and SDMCA about border art that day, the later for becoming Patron Level members. Yippee! While there, we saw the items from the Benefit Art Auction. Dang! That stuff made our art collection seem kinda wimpy! - Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 15:51:49 (EDT) It was member appreciation weekend at the Balboa Park art museum so we went down to pick up some free catalogs from past shows they were giving away. They were mildly interesting, much like the venue itself. They sit by the toilet, which should provide some insight into their value. After that was the highly anticipated Easter egg hunt and BBQ at my folks. Saphira got the $20 jackpot egg! I got a stomach ache from too much meat and pie. After a short nap on the couch, it was home to Guitar Hero, Gilmore Girls re-runs and ZZZZZZZ. - Monday, March 24, 2008 at 19:53:24 (EDT) We spent the day in the movie theater (again) this weekend, starting out with Drillbit Taylor. Owen Wilson was hired to protect some wimpy kids from the school bully and in the process they, and Drillbit himself, learn about their capabilities. It was lots of fun to see Leslie Mann (Ursulla, you lost your scrunchie!) as the sweet loser-magnet gal. Next up was the kid's main event, Horton Hears A Who. There was so much vocal talent in this film and it's always a kick to figure out who is who. I cheated by using the pocket PC in the theatre. Finally, I dragged the kids into the movie I wanted to see, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and the ended up really enjoying it. Amy Adams was adorable, as was expected. The real star was Frances McDormand as Miss Pettigrew. Every time I see her the film is great! We ended the day at Jenny Yoshida's Master Graphic Design show in the Flor y Canto Gallery. The art was a little weak, but the food was great (Newcastle!). - Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 11:37:35 (EDT) I just got back from seeing Tristan Prettyman at the Belly Up. I figured that someone with such a voice would have to be beautiful. But, OMG, she was