Everything Old Is New Again

Well, unless you are stupid (or have never been here before) you will notice that my weblog has a completely new design. For quite some time, I have been unhappy with the other blogger template I was using and wanted something that was more...me, I guess. However, since I am lacking in anything that could be considered "mad skillz" when it comes to html, java and so on, I was more or less stuck with what I had, until I could find somebody else to make it for me. But, in order for it to truly reflect me, it had to be made by somebody who truly knew me. And also, I had no intention of paying for it. For months I had been beseeching my friend Shane Bonham to design a template for me, but he has been busy with his school work, so I had to be patient. Then, early on Friday morning, he surprised me by presenting me with this template. The background picture, as Jenny Smith surmised, comes from this rather clever website called explodingdog. The artist has been given his due credit on this site, and I highly recommend that you go check his pictures out. Also, you may notice that the weekly poll has vanished. I'd like to be able to include it somewhere, but it doesn't really seem to fit anywhere, so it's been placed on temporary hiatus until I find a way to fit it in. Or, more accurately, until Shane finds a way to work it in.

So, as you have no doubt figured out by now, my birthday was this week. It has been filled to the brim with exciting birthday activities, as well as loads of school work. I honestly don't know that I could do the events of this week any justice at all if I attempted to describe them. But, that's never stopped me before.

On Tuesday night, I had a party in my honor at The Brass Monkey karaoke bar in Koreatown with the crowd from the Shoah Foundation. It was a pretty good turnout, but there were a few no-shows. It was the second time I've been to a karaoke bar...it's actually somewhat fun. Particularly amusing is when people who think they can sing get all into it and take it all seriously. As is usually the case, I arrived about 35 minutes before everybody else. It never fails...whenever there is a gathering of Shoah Foundation alumni, everybody arrives approximately 35-45 minutes after I do. Even on the occasions when I arrive 45 minutes late...they all still get there 45 minutes after I do. I told the really hot waitress about this, and she thought it was quite amusing. She laughed at all my jokes and we kind of flirted throughout the night. When I left that evening, I gave her my number and asked if she might want to go out sometime but, as is often the case, she had a boyfriend. I've often said that, in the case of most hot girls, there is a five minute window of opportunity when they are single. If you aren't there during that five minutes, you're out of luck.

But, I digress. I suppose you are wondering if I sang anything. Well, the answer is yes. I gave a stirring rendition of Pearl Jam's Jeremy, as well as a somewhat drunken but still impressive performance of R.E.M's It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). With the latter song, I think most people were just impressed that I was able to sing it all the way through without having to refer to the lyrics on the screen.

Naturally, since it was my birthday, I had way too much to drink and was unable to drive home. So, I had to have John Antolos drive my car over to Angelica Ochoa's house, where I slept on the couch until about 7 in the morning when I drove home. After arriving home, I went right back to sleep and woke up around 1:00 in the afternoon. That gave me just enough time to finish my assignment that was due Wednesday and head off to school.

My actual birthday was on Thursday, March 20...and I turned a very ancient 29. Honestly, I don't feel 29. Actually, I still feel like I'm 15 in a lot of ways...perhaps even younger. On the morning of my birthday, I met Shane Ross, John Lin and Ryan Cox for breakfast at the Rocky Cola Cafe here in Montrose...since it was my birthday I demanded that we have breakfast near my house for a change instead of me having to drive all the way to Pasadena.

Later on Thursday I had to drive over to CSUN to drop off my application for student teaching for the fall semester, as that was the last day to submit it. And then it was off to the DMV to renew my license. Rather than choosing the "stand in line for four hours" option from days of old, I had instead made an appointment online. I was somewhat skeptical about how efficient the appointment process would actually be. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I walked into the DMV office in Glendale at 2:28 PM and by 2:40 I had paid the fee, taken my vision test, given my thumbprint, had my picture taken and been given my temporary ID. All of that in twelve minutes. The last time I had to renew my license was in 1998...before they had the appointment process set up. I believe that time it took me about 3 hours.

Thursday evening, I drove down to Irvine to have dinner with my brother, Erich, his wife, Jaime, and his kids, Alyson and Sawyer. We opted for The Cheescake Factory at the Irvine Spectrum, where we were continually pestered by our annoying gap-toothed waitress who stopped to talk to us like every five minutes. I guess she was just being nice but, honestly...it's kind of hard to have a dinner conversation when you have to keep making small talk with the waitress.

Friday night, Shane and Erika were driving from San Luis Obispo down to Vista, on account of Shane is now on spring break. They called me from Sherman Oaks and I went to meet them for dinner at the Galleria. Since I had just eaten dinner at The Cheesecake Factory the night before, we instead chose to eat at this little Japanese semi-fast food place called Hana Grill. The food was pretty good, although Shane's food looked better than mine did. I think that, later this week, I will drive down to Vista for a visit with all the gang down there. I guess I'll have to take out a loan to pay for the gas.

Naturally, the events of my life are quite insignificant when compared to the events going on in the world this week. I often keep my opinions about current events and political issues to myself, for a couple of reasons. Primarily, I don't really ever assume that anybody else cares what I have to say about a particular issue. Secondly, arguing politics and current events often results in little more than one party getting pissed off at the other and, in the end, nobody's position on the matter has been changed. With regard to the war in Iraq, I have been wavering back and forth for some time. Ultimately, I would have preferred that the United States continued in our policy of containment and let the inspectors continue their work until such time as we could gain more international support. I don't necessarily mean support from the U.N. because, in my mind, the U.N. has many problems of its own. To wit, the fact that nations such as China (as well as several African countries ruled by ruthless dictators) sit on the Human Rights Commission seems to me to be almost laughable. But, again, I digress.

As I said, I would have preferred no war and that Saddam be removed from power by peaceful means. However, now that the war has started, my inclination is to provide whatever moral support I can to the troops there. This no doubt comes from the fact that my dad was a United States Marine and I understand all too well what it is like to have a relative on deployment in a hostile situation. Admittedly, I still waver on this point as well but...that's the direction I am leaning.

I do have this to say about the protesters around the country. First, let it be known that I wholly support their right to vocalize their opposition to the war. However, I think that protests can often have the opposite effect of what the protesters intend. That is to say that, often, the actions of people at protests result only in radicalizing the movement and distancing it from people who may have otherwise been sympathetic to it. I'm not referring to people who peacefully protest in public forums. I'm referring specifically to those who, through their protests, directly infringe upon the rights of others by blocking traffic and shutting down the financial district of cities such as San Francisco, thereby preventing people from going to work. Indeed, as citizens of a free nation it is our responsibility to protest the actions of our government when we feel it is in the wrong. However, it is also our responsibility to do so in a respectful manner that does not infringe upon the rights of others to go to work, school or home. When protesters infringe on these rights and cause damage to property, whether public or private, they become little more than criminals and ought to be treated as such.