in the pursuit of all things web 2.0, i signed up for a twitter account and installed the twitter widget on the sidebar of this blog. i also installed an app called twinkle on my iphone that uses the tower positioning to automatically identify my location and upload my “tweets” and images more easily than using the standard sms mobile function.

i figure this will be perfect for random things that aren’t quite blog post worthy but that might be interesting to some, nonetheless.

thanks ben.

i read michael crichton’s the andromeda strain about a year ago and enjoyed it so much, i sought out the 1971 film based off the book that followed the storyline very closely. the film also looked very much as i had imagined many of the scenes.

so i was again excited to hear that there was now a new version of the movie out on a&e. for some reason it was 4 hours long, but with tivo it was only about 3 and change, so i recorded it and watched it last night. what a dumb fucking movie. first of all the cast was comprised of washed up tv and b-rated movie actors. benjamin bratt (of miss congeniality) was probably the biggest star, accompanied by eric mccormack (will & grace), rick schroeder (silver spoons), christa miller (drew carey show/scrubs), and daniel dae kim (jin on lost).

the acting was terrible and the storyline was very different than the book or the original film. they added extra storylines like the reporter that was trying to get the story, and the rouge military unit that was trying to get a sample of the bacteria, and started killing anyone that knew anything and then the ending made no sense. they also for some reason killed off ricky and jin, even though they were fine in the book. anyway, retarded movie. stay away.

man, so last night while me and taka were watching the american idol finale on about 1 hour delay (because i was watching that awesome lakers comeback), we got to the very end, i mean *THE* moment, and ryan seacrest said “by twelve million votes of american idol two thousand eight is…. david” and then i swear to god, my tivo made that little *bloop* sound and asked if i wanted to delete this recording. the fucking recording ended because the show ran long and it stopped *right* before they said the last name of the winner. taka and i started screaming, then laughing, and then looked it up online since it actually happened like 4 hours ago. i didn’t get to see his reaction until this morning when i watched the re-cap on good day la. stupid tivo.

and was i the only one imagining costin, ben and me in these blue suits during this entire performance?

Obama/Laurie ‘08?

and how hot is olivia wilde? she’s that sexy lesbian alex, from the O.C. that was mischa barton’s lover for a few epiosdes.

steph and i went to see chivas usa (which doesn’t sound like an american team) vs. dc united (which sounds like a ripoff of manchester united) at the home depot center in carson. i’d never been to a soccer game, and i’d always wanted to check out the stadium since it’s right next to where i went to high school.

the game was kinda boring up until the last few minutes when chivas usa scored 3 goals to win the game 3-1. soccer’s also interesting in that there’s 90 minutes, and the clock never stops running (except for half time), so the game didn’t take too long, unlike basketball, which has 48 minutes of gameplay but usually takes 2+ hours.

not sure if i’ll go back anytime soon, since i don’t really follow soccer at all and can’t imagine i ever will, but it was a fun experience nonetheless:

front row seats:

i had planned on taking the boat out and doing some wakeboarding last saturday, but costin was sick and as it turns out, marine stadium was closed. taka was off and the weather was hot, so we met up with shal and sanam and went kayaking.

we kayaked around naples island and went to a cove where there were sting-less jellyfish that we could touch. we stopped at jamba juice and then headed back home. we were out for about 2 and a half hours and it was a lot of fun but i got pretty sunburned on my legs. my shoulders were pretty sore too since taka was only pretending to paddle.

kayaks on the water is at the end of bayshore off of 2nd st and costs $15 hour.

check it out here: http://www.kayakrentals.net/

i was washing dishes and knocked over a red wine glass that ended up breaking at the stem and the bottom half ended up pointing down into the drain. the diameter of the base of the glass perfectly fit into the drain, so there was no way to get any leverage to pull it out. after thinking and taking pictures of my predicament for a few minutes, i found a suction cup dart and that did the trick.

last night we had dinner with the campys at gyu-kaku, a yakiniku restaurant in torrance. according to wikipedia, the gyu-kaku chain has over 800 restaurants in japan and now have a handful of them here in so-cal.

on tuesday and thursday nights between 9:30-10:30p they have a happy-hour special with 50% all harami and kalbi beef and $1 beers and $1 sake. =$2 sake bombs?!

the food was delicious; we ate 8 plates of meat, an order of vegetables, salad, edamame and 8 beers within the happy-hour hour. the total bill? $63! needless to say this is going to become a tuesday night tradition.

http://www.gyu-kaku.com/

which was across the street from my office it turns out. i was watching csi:miami last night and started to wonder where that building actually was and a quick google search showed it on the corner of rosecrans and aviation. so today i parked in the east parking lot instead of the west one, and realized i could actually see the building from my parking lot.

it’s a great location for them to film because it’s across the street from the manhattan studios, and just behind my credit union and a marriott so it can’t clearly be seen off the street. it’s an amazing looking building, which actually houses the federal aviation credit union.