A Final Look at 2010

Now that I've been writing this blog for a while, I sometimes like to look back at what I wrote at the beginning of the year. I want to see if I kept my New Years resolutions. So I looked back at what I wrote on January 1st of this year, and it seems I only mentioned three things, and I accomplished two of them.

I wanted to take the family on a decent, US vacation that wouldn't make us go broke. I had mentioned either Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone, or Disney World. We ended up going to Disney World (and New Orleans), which was pretty nice. We managed to save some money on the attractions by going to a loathsome timeshare meeting, but it all worked out pretty well in the end. The kids got their day at The Magic Kingdom, and another day at the Hollywood Studios. If we go back again, we'll have to do the other two parks (Epcot and the Animal Kingdom.)

My next resolution was to get over my anger issues towards my brother. To be honest, I've barely thought about him this entire year. We did send him a Christmas card earlier this month. As expected, we didn't get anything from him. He can keep the feud going for as long as he wants. I don't really care. I've moved on.

The third one was more of Christy's resolution than mine. She would like for me to talk a little less about our personal life on the blog. But I still do. If I didn't, that would just leave me to talk politics all the time, and the few readers that I have here don't seem to really appreciate my liberal rants, although I fully intend to keep ranting when I feel the need.

This year started pretty well, with us moving into our new house and discovering what it's like to actually own a house. My fears of insane electric bills didn't come to pass. I think our biggest bill for one month was $130, and that was because we had the heat on all the time. Our house has very good insulation, so it always tends to stay warm (or cool) even when we're not using the A/C or heater.

Life went along pretty well until we had a death in the family in the late summer. Christy's father seemed to think that life no longer had any meaning for him, so he killed himself. That was a bad time. Christy crashing our new Toyota Corrolla was also a low point during the year.

In better news, David (in Taiwan) got married in October, so let's hope the third time is the charm for him. Probably the biggest highlight (for me anyway) of the year was seeing Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd) performing "The Wall" in November. I can't even really describe how awesome that show was. Looking back, my only regret now was that I didn't see it more than once. He's going to be filming his upcoming shows in London next year, so I expect we'll get a blu-ray of the concert soon. Most likely he'll be filming the show where David Gilmour makes his surprise cameo.

I've been on Facebook now for about a year and half, and I'm having some odd experiences there. Just recently, I've come across three people that I knew decades ago. Two of them became "Friends" and one of them blocked me from ever seeing his profile again. The first one, a girl named Abra, who I worked with back in 1991 at Crown Books. David (in Taiwan) and I were managers of that store in Grenada Hills, CA, and she was one of the cashiers. The second guy, Kerr, was a kid I knew back in something like 1977 when I was in elementary school. He looked totally different. He was a guitar player for a heavy metal band, with long hair and a long beard, looking like a roadie for Motorhead. I sent him an email saying "Is this the Kerr who used to go to Imperial Elementary school in Downey back in the 70's?" He replied "I am." Then I asked him if he remembered me, and I haven't heard back from him since then (this was about two weeks ago). Finally, I discovered another old friend from elementary school (and high school) named David Sandvigen. We were pretty good friends back then, so it surprised me when he not only rejected my "Friend" request, but blocked me as well.

What the hell? I thought. Had I done something to piss him off 20 or 30 years ago? I couldn't really remember. I didn't think I had. I saw his picture, and he had become morbidly obese, and with a goatee, he looked like a gangster from the Sopranos, or a Martin Scorcese movie.
"Maybe he feels ashamed about his appearance?" my wife suggested. Could that be it? I really have no idea, but why even register on Facebook if you don't want people to see you? That didn't really make sense. My only guess is that maybe he wants to distance himself completely from the past. It's just a bit odd when people I've barely spoke to in years want to be friends, but someone I was good friends in the "non computer" world don't want anything to do with me. C'est la vie.

There didn't seem to be any big superstar deaths this year, nothing close to last year, when we had Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett at the same time. The only big shocks for me this year were Gary Coleman and Corey Haim. And Abe Vigoda is still alive.

So, that's it. My last blog for 2010. Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas 2010

Pictures: 1. Sara and Kyle at the Gingerbread house. 2. Sara and the Ice Angel. 3. Christmas morning, and the kids are excited. 4. Kyle shows off his Thomas toy. 5. Sara and Kyle dressing up as reindeer.

The Nutcracker in Austin

I took Sara to her first ballet yesterday (and my first too) at the Austin Symphony Hall to see "The Nutcracker." I'm not much of a ballet person myself, but Sara loves it. I guess most five year old girls want to be a ballerina, so this seemed like the best time to go. Even though I only bought the tickets a few days prior to the show, we still somehow managed to get front row seats, which was pretty neat. We could see the expression on each performers face, and, though not necessarily a good thing, we could also see just how tight those leotards were on the men.

As expected, as you walked through the doors of the theatre, one of the first things you notice is the souvenir stand selling Nutcrackers. Sara wanted one, but these things were ridiculously priced, ranging from $25 for an average sized Nutcracker, up to $50 and $100 for the larger ones. I've seen the $25 Nutcrackers for a buck at the Dollar Store, so there was no way I was going to fall into that trap, so Sara was just going to have to be disappointed.

The show was nice (although I think Sara liked it more than I did), and the orchestra did an excellent job with Tchaikovsky's classic music.

Photos were not allowed in the theatre, but I did manage a few with my cell phone, which is why most of these pictures look like blurry crap.

Pictures: 1. Outside the Austin Symphony Hall. 2&3. Blurry pictures from "The Nutcracker" 4. The Orchestra warms up. 5. Sara poses in front of the overpriced souvenirs.

Sara and Kyle Meet Santa!

Yes, it's that time once again where Santa Claus starts making appearances all over town. This time he showed up at the hospital where I worked, so I invited Christy and the kids to come down to meet Santa.

Sara and Kyle still believe in Santa. You've only got a few years where kids still believe in this stuff before they become disillusioned. Christy and I use Santa Claus a lot lately to keep the kids from misbehaving. We tell them that every time they do something bad, Santa will bring them one less present for Christmas. So if they were going to get 7 presents, now they will only get 6. It usually works. We tell them that Santa can always see what they're doing with his magic snowball. It's actually kind of hilarious the things you can tell kids and that they will believe.

Thanksgiving 2010

Our first Thanksgiving in the new house.

Yet again, I have to work today, but by choice. I can either work Thanksgiving or Christmas, and for me, I would rather have Christmas off. So, like the previous years, we had our turkey early. And this year, unlike last, Sara is finally eating her mashed potatoes. Kyle still doesn't like them, but I think he'll grow out of it.

A lot to be thankful for this year: the house, our jobs, our health, and my sister being reliable to watch the kids while my wife and I saw "The Wall" show. To be honest, that was something I wasn't sure was going to happen.

"The Wall" comes to Dallas!

Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd) came to Texas this past weekend, playing in Houston on Saturday night, then Dallas on Sunday. I caught the show in Dallas Sunday night, and, other than David Gilmour showing up to play, it could not have been better.

This was a show I've been waiting for 30 years to see. "The Wall" hasn't been performed since 1980, and as much as I wanted to go, there was no way my parents were going to let a 9 year old kid see a rock concert. Having seen the bootleg recordings of the old shows, and listening to the recordings, this new version of "The Wall" seemed very similar. Some of the projections and cartoons had been updated, and the show had a much stronger "anti-war" message.

Roger's voice still seemed very strong, even on some of the tougher numbers, and he had a lot of energy for someone that's 67 years old. He really seemed to enjoy himself during the show.

"I wrote 'The Wall' because I felt alienated from my audience. I don't feel alienated from you anymore. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart." Roger said at the end of the show. That was a bit of a touching moment, coming from him, who's been notoriously distant from his fans for most of his life.

I took some pictures of the show with my cell phone (which you can see above), so the quality isn't too great. I thought about taking video, but if you watched my recent "Rush" video, you can see how bad it sounds, so I figured why make a video that will just sound like crap anyway. Besides, you can watch the entire concert (on HD even!) on YouTube. Just go to YouTube, type "Roger Waters The Wall 2010" and there you go. Every show is pretty much the same.

You can download an audience recording of the show in Chicago from 9/20/10 here:

http://bootlegtunzworld.blogspot.com/2010/10/roger-waters-wall-tour-chicago-09202010.html

(Pictures: 1. Before the concert. 2. The teacher appears during "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" 3. The "wife" puppet during "Don't Leave Me Now" 4. Pictures of people who died during wars were displayed during the intermission. 5. & 6 The highlight of the show, "Comfortably Numb." 7. The pig comes out during "In the Flesh" 8. The marching hammers from "Waiting For the Worms.")

Taxes and Healthcare (again)

It's that time of year once again where I have to sign up for my 2011 health insurance benefits at work. As expected, everything has gone up. My health insurance has gone up an additional $40 a month, and my deductible went up from $1,000 to $1,900. No doubt this is because of President Obama's health care reform, which I supported. In looking over the benefits, there are quite a few positive changes on there: there are no more lifetime maximums, preventative care is now covered at 100%, and my copay would be the same whether I go to my own hospital or any other hospital in the country. You can also keep your children on your health plan until they are 26 years old, but since my oldest child is only 5, this isn't a big issue for me.

Of course, right now as I'm typing this, Republicans are hard at work trying to kill this new healthcare reform. "It's too expensive!" they scream, while on the other hand they are fighting tooth and nail to keep the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of the country, which will in turn add over 600 billion dollars to the national debt.

The GOP hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me. Just the other day, the newly elected Republican congressman from Maryland, Andy Harris, an outspoken "Obamacare" critic, complained that he couldn't get his government health insurance fast enough. He caused a bit of a scene when told he would have to wait 28 days for his free health insurance to kick in. He then looked into getting some sort of government sponsored "gap" coverage for those 28 days, coverage that's addressed in the healthcare reform bill that he is so opposed to.

I have yet to know what the GOP plan is to fix healthcare. It seems all they really care about is "Repeal! Repeal! Repeal!" Ok....repeal, and then what?? Keep things the way they were? As much as Republicans and the big health care industries hate to hear it, but I think universal healthcare is the only true answer, and most of the country agrees with me. In a recent CNN poll, 69% of Americans favored universal healthcare. (click link below for article)
(http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/poll-americans-overwhelmingly-favor-universal-health-care----until-taxes-are-mentioned.php)

Why don't we have universal healthcare now? Because it would kill the giant, "for profit" healthcare industry. The healthcare industry is so worried about their profits that one company, CIGNA, even targeted Michael Moore because of his movie "Sicko." In a private meeting, they threatened to "push him off a cliff." (click link below for that article)
(http://topnews.net.nz/content/210026-insurance-companies-anti-michael-moore-campaign-revealed)

I think the Republicans, with their big victory in the last election, should really put all their focus on jobs right now. Hasn't that been their mantra for the last two years? JOBS JOBS JOBS! They thought Obama was spending too much time pushing healthcare instead of focusing on jobs. Now the Republicans are spending their time trying to kill healthcare and keep the tax cuts for the wealthy instead of focusing on JOBS JOBS JOBS. If this is the path they are going to continue to take, saying "no" to everything and not getting anything done, their victory will be short lived.

(Picture above: a 2009 CBS poll)

Election Night Blues

"Sure, I'm mad at the Democrats. I'm also mad at my cell phone company. But I don't throw away my cell phone cause I'm mad and then rub dog shit on my teeth." -Bill Maher 10/29/10


I finally voted for the first time here in Texas. First off, I'd like to say that Texas has a much better system for voting than California. No punching holes and worrying about "hanging chads." Their system was entirely electronic and very easy. You press some buttons, and then you have a chance to review all your choices before you make the vote official. Very nice.

Unfortunately, unlike California, everyone that I voted for lost. For Governor, I voted for Bill White, the democrat. He lost with only 42% of the vote compared to Rick Perry's 55%. Rick Perry is now entering his third term as Governor. I don't particularly like Perry. He comes off as a cocky cowboy, a GW Bush clone. But, this is not California, it's Texas, so I knew Perry would win before I even voted. If there is any consolation, at least the city of Austin overwhelmingly voted for Bill White (with over 60% of the vote here.)

Nationwide, things didn't look too good for the Democrats, with the Republicans taking back control of the House. I was also a bit disappointed to see the marijuana initiative fail in California. Had it won, marijuana would have become legal. This, in addition to passing the anti-gay marriage law, has started to make me lose hope about California being the hip, progressive state it once was. However, they did elect Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown as their governor, which is quite a welcome surprise. Meg Whitman would have been a very bad choice.

This election was pretty damaging for the Democrats, but it didn't seem to be the tidal wave that everyone was expecting. Harry Reid won, beating that tea party menace Sharon Angle, who once said that Medicare was "wicked", Social Security was "welfare", and opposed abortion even in the case of rape and incest. It's great to see that people aren't so angry at the Democrats that they're willing to vote for any right-wing extremist who's running against them. Christine "Witchiepoo" O'Donnell also lost, thankfully. I guess her "I'm not a witch" ad didn't work too well for her. The Democrats maintained control of the Senate, and most likely it's in part because of these wacky Tea Party candidates.

If things don't start to improve within the next two years, Obama will likely lose re-election, unless the GOP puts up some nutcase like Sarah Palin to run against him, then he will win easily. But, if the Republicans actually find someone of quality, they have a good chance. Unemployment is still very high nationwide, and of course we will blame our current leader. If you happen to mention that we were losing 700,000 jobs a month during the end of GW Bush's presidency, and are now losing much less under Obama, the Republicans don't want to hear it. They will just tell you to "Stop blaming Bush!" But the reality is that Bush totally decimated this economy to the point where it could easily take 8 years or more to fully recover. Sure, Obama could have delayed his unpopular health care program and focused exclusively on jobs, and that was probably his biggest mistake. I assume that now, after this election, he will do exactly that.

Halloween 2010

According to Sara, Halloween is her 2nd favorite day of the year (after Christmas), so she was pretty excited when she woke up on Halloween morning.

Last year we had some problems with Kyle. He would run inside peoples houses as soon as they opened the door. This time, thankfully, he didn't do that.

Just like last year, we probably got enough candy to last us until next Halloween (see pic above).

IKEA and China: A Scary Mix

I've been reading some articles recently about Ikea opening some new stores in China. The pictures are coming in of massive crowds both inside and outside the store (see pic above.) This doesn't surprise me at all. I remember the crowd of 20,000 people who showed up at a Costco store opening in Taichung, Taiwan. (you can read my blog entry here: http://kenberglund.blogspot.com/2008/04/costco-opens-in-taichungand-all-hell.html

It seems the Chinese aren't actually buying anything at Ikea, but instead just going there to sleep in the beds (and put their children in cribs to have naps). I mentioned this story to my wife, who replied "What?? I would never sleep in those beds. It's so dirty. You don't know how many different people have been lying in them."

Those are my feelings exactly, and the Chinese never cease to amaze me with their bizarre behavior. Whether it's going completely homicidal apeshit over 10 free eggs at Costco, urinating in public at the Hong Kong Disneyland, or sleeping in beds at furniture stores.

"When we go to Ikea, it feels like we're abroad." said one Chinese shopper at Ikea.

I still don't really understand this total adulation that China and Taiwan have over western culture. Is it the movies and television that have done this to them? Have they watched too many episodes of "Friends" that they think this is what America really is? Is it all the Meg Ryan and Sandra Bullock movies?

It's kind of sad to see so much western influence in Asia these days. There was even talk about opening a Starbucks or a McDonalds in the Forbidden City. I'm not sure whether that happened or not, but that's just wrong. Our culture isn't one the Chinese should try to emulate.

I'll probably go back to Taiwan next year, and the last thing I want to see is Taiwan turn into another America. I like all the temples and Buddha statues and duck head stands. If those are gone and replaced with more McDonalds and Costcos and Ikeas, I will be very disappointed.

A Brush With Fame....Or Not

Here's a bit of fluff to lighten things up after the last couple of sad, serious weeks:

I rented the movie "Paranormal Activity" from the library this past weekend and you can see my name in the credits at the end. I knew my name was there, but had no desire to either buy the movie or pay to rent it. Not that it's a bad movie. It's okay, and marginally scary at times, but after you've seen it once, it's not really effective anymore. Similar to "The Blair Witch Project," with each subsequent viewing, it loses its impact.

So why is my name in the credits? Because I was one of those people who clicked the "Demand It!" button when this movie first came out. I wanted to see it, and it seemed like the only way to see it is you "demanded it" on the official website. So, I demanded it, entered my name, and boom! Now I'm in the ending credits.

Apparently, thousands of other people are in the credits too, so the names go rushing by at a speed that make it impossible to read. Seriously, if you blink for a millisecond, you will miss my name. I had to pause it several times just to find it.

So anyway, here's the video:

Rush in Houston

I took the kids to see their first concert on Saturday night at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. One of my favorite bands, Rush, was currently in Texas, stopping in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas (and skipping Austin, of course.) So we went to the show in Houston, since it was on a Saturday night, and kids are free on the lawn. I'm so glad the kids were free, because the whole experience was somewhat of a disaster.

I was expecting to have an experience similar to what we had on the 4th of July. We'd put our blanket on the lawn, sit down, and just watch the show from a distance. I had seen Rush five times previously over the past 20 years, so I didn't really care if I was close to the stage or not.

Unfortunately for us (but fortunate for Rush, I suppose), the show was completely packed. It appeared to be completely sold out, even on the lawn. Sitting down became an impossibility, unless you didn't want to see anything at all. If you wanted to see something, even the giant video screens, you had to stand for the whole 2 1/2 hour show. The kids didn't like that, and they kept begging me to hold them so they could see. So Christy and I took turns holding the two kids up so they could see. We did this all night, and by the end of the night my arms were as sore as if I had been lifting weights all day.

To make things worse, Sara began to feel tired shortly into the second set (right after Rush had finished playing "Moving Pictures" in its entirety) and she started complaining that she wanted to leave.
"I'm not leaving before I hear 'La Villa Strangiato' " I told them, and I meant it. That was one of my favorite Rush songs, and I knew they didn't play it until the encore. Soon Christy joined in with the complaints, and she and Sara left before me and Kyle. Surprisingly, Kyle was much more into it, and he wanted to stay. So, after I heard the song I wanted to hear, Kyle and I left, even though the concert still wasn't over yet (we missed the final song, "Working Man.")

The show was good, but just about everything surrounding it was not. I told the kids that there will be no more concerts for them until they are teenagers and we don't need to keep our eyes on them every second.

(Picture above: Kids going crazy at the concert. Video below: my shaky-cam recording of Rush performing "Free Will")

More Accolades for Sara

Sara has only been in Kindergarten for less than a month, and already she was won another "Student of the Week" award!

This time, thankfully, they were able to pronounce her name correctly.

Death of a Toyota

It was just 11 months ago when we bought a new 2010 Toyota Corolla. Here's the old blog entry:
http://taiwantotexas.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-car-blues.html

Well...that car is gone. Totally destroyed. Dead. Kaput.

Last Tuesday, during a major storm here in Austin, Christy decided to pull in front of a speeding car at an intersection. She claims she didn't see the other driver coming, and the other driver obviously didn't see her, because she made no effort to brake. The other car literally tore off the entire front of our car (see picture above.)

Luckily and thankfully, no-one was hurt. Had Christy driven a few feet further, the story might have been different.

We had just started with a new insurance company about 2 months ago, Progressive, and so far they've been pretty good about paying all the claims. They gave the other driver $981 dollars for medical expenses (even though by all accounts she wasn't even scratched.) They agreed to pay off the remainder of our loan with Toyota, and we still ended up having about $7,000 left over to get a new car. So yesterday, we had to again look for a new car, something I've always hated doing, and still do.

We went to three car dealerships and tried three styles of cars: The Hyundai Accent, the Toyota Yaris, and the Honda Fit.

I didn't like the Hyundai at all. It didn't feel smooth when I drove it. The air conditioner wasn't cold enough, either. The car just didn't feel like it was well made. To top things off, they didn't even offer us free drinks when we went inside! (if you wanted water, you had to pay for it.)

The Toyota dealer began things right by offering us Italian ice (for free!) the moment we arrived. Then they handed us about 4 bottles of bottled water right away. It was a hot day out, so it was definitely appreciated. I know this may seem like a petty issue, but I look at all aspects of customer service. What does it say about Hyundai if they aren't even willing to give their potential customers a free drink while they're talking business?

We came very, very close to buying a Toyota Yaris. It was a nice little car. Not as good as our old Corolla, but close. The sticking point was that they just wouldn't sell it to us at the price we wanted. In the end it just came down to $300. We wanted them to cut $300 more off the price. They offered $80. Christy wouldn't budge. They wouldn't budge. So, we ended up leaving. Had it been me, I probably would have just got the car, but this time I wanted Christy to handle the negotiations. Last year she complained that I didn't haggle for a big enough discount.

So our last stop was the Honda dealer. I thought the price for the Honda Fit was reasonable, and since we had $7,000 to put down, we knew it was within our budget as far as monthly payments. The Honda seemed like a far superior vehicle to the Yaris. It only required an oil change every 13,000 miles (instead of Toyota's 5,000), and didn't require any additional maintenance at all until the mileage hits 110,000. The engine has a lifespan of about 450,000 miles, and is (supposedly) impossible to steal (unless of course, it's loaded onto a tow truck and taken away, which is how they do it these days.)

The salesman at the Honda dealership was pretty cocky. He said the cars basically sell themselves and that Honda never gives discounts. He pointed out the reason that Hyundai and Kia give big discounts is because their cars have a very low resell value. Still, Christy wanted to haggle, and we did manage to get a small discount, but that was only by removing a few options from the car that we thought were totally unnecessary (like a plastic tray in the trunk of the car.)

I should also point out that at Honda, they had two enormous refrigerators filled with water, juice, and soda that were readily available for all their potential customers. A very nice touch!

So we bought the Honda Fit, and it seems like a nice little car. I hope it lasts us 10 to 15 years. I hoped the Corolla had lasted 10 years, but alas, it only survived for 1. Hopefully Christy has learned an important lesson on traffic safety (she has to pay a traffic citation for "failure to yield" as well as attend traffic school.) I think traffic school will be good for her. She learned how to drive in Taiwan, and their method of teaching driving is not exactly inspiring. Since she started driving, she has hit trees, posts, walls, and now...other cars. She even hit a pole while taking a driving test! So....yeah, she needs driving school.

As Yoda would say, she needs to "unlearn what you have learned!" Words of wisdom.

(Picture: Christy with our our poor, demolished Toyota Corolla)

40 is the new 20

So, today is my 40th birthday. 40 freakin' years old. It's an age that's hard to imagine when you're a young kid, but now here it is staring me at the face. I'm not young anymore, I'm middle aged.

I feel grateful to still be alive at 40. I know 40 isn't that old, but I've got a few friends and classmates that didn't make it this far. My Taiwanese sister in law recently found out that she has cancer in her neck, and she's only 33! So....(knock on wood), I feel lucky I've made it this far without any serious medical problems.

I certainly don't feel like I'm 40, and when I saw a picture recently of Courtney Cox wearing a shirt that said "4O is the new 20", I thought yeah, that makes sense. I still feel like I'm in my 20's.

I've changed a lot. I'm a lot more responsible than I was 20 years ago (kids have a way of doing that to you) but I'm still a bit of a kid at heart. I still enjoy going to rock concerts, or playing a game like "Rock Band" on the PS3. I like playing with Sara and Kyle, but sometimes my 40 year old body doesn't always agree with my 20 year old attitude. I can only let them ride on my back like a horse for a few minutes before I start complaining about my aching bones. hehehe

I don't have to work today. I've got the day off. My fun filled agenda includes picking up Sara from school, taking my wife to see the dentist, buying a new hair-dryer, picking up a "Thomas" book from the library, and then having a (hopefully) nice dinner. Yeah, it's not the same as going to Disneyland or Magic Mountain like I used to do for my birthday as a kid, but at my age, just being able to have dinner with the family is its own present.

The Mosque, The Muslims, and Obama

"A good Muslim is a dead Muslim." - Nelson
"What do you call a mosque with 300 Muslims? An opportunity." - Honkie Rodeo
"Go home Muslims. Go kill each other in the middle east. We don't want you here." - B. Beverly

These are just three random quotes I pulled from the comments section of a Yahoo! article regarding the proposed mosque that might be built close to ground zero in New York City. There were many, many more just like this one. Too many to even count.

There's a disturbing trend going on in America right now. There's an enormous amount of hatred directed at Muslims unlike anything I've ever seen in my lifetime. I can imagine that it's similar to what Japanese Americans experienced here after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What I've been seeing isn't just a few racist remarks by extremists, it's normal everyday people calling for (at the very least) a mass exodus of Muslims, or (at the very worst) complete extermination. Wow.

Let's look a little closer at what we're doing here: we're taking a hated religious minority, blaming all the problems of society on it, comparing them to vermin, and condoning violence against them. Just recently a Muslim cab driver was stabbed in New York City by a white college student. That college student is now considered a "hero" by many. Welcome to Nazi Germany my friends! But this time it's right here in our own country. What makes matters worse is that right wing leaders like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, people who have enormous influence, are just fanning the flames of hatred instead of condemning it. How much longer until we hear the same words coming from a Conservative, right wing senator or Presidential candidate? How much longer until Muslims are rounded up and put into camps? Hard to imagine? It feels like that's the path we're on.

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." - Edmund Burke. Better words could not be said.

Personally, I don't think a mosque should be built at Ground Zero. But then again, I don't think anything should be built there. It should be a park, or just a quiet place of observance for those who died. Put some benches there. Build a pond.

As for President Obama, people seem convinced that he's a Muslim. That he's a traitor who is out to destroy America from within. That he's going to get on TV, shout "Allahu Akbar!" and nuke the country. Give me a break. He has stated several times that he's a Christian. No president in history has gone through what this man is going through. Saying he's a Christian and having people reply back "No, you're a Muslim!" What the hell?

If there's anything I've learned from living abroad, it's that we have to be tolerant of other cultures. The Chinese have a lot of wacky superstitions that I don't understand, like not washing your hair for a month after you have a baby, but I accept it because that's their way. Just because Muslims read the Qur'an, doesn't mean they follow every passage literally. If we followed everything in the Bible literally, we'd have the right to kill our neighbors (and our own family) for all kinds of ridiculous reasons.

I'll admit that I'm not without fault. I have prejudices too. Do I get a little uncomfortable when I see someone who looks like Osama Bin Laden get on the same airplane as I do? Sure. There was a guy like that who sat next to my daughter once, but he was actually a really nice guy, and never once complained about her crying all the time. I work alongside a Muslim nurse (from Iraq, no less!) at the hospital, and she's one of the nicest people I have met. Like any race or religion, you can't let a few bad ones represent the entire people.

So come on America, let's stop the hatred directed at people who don't really deserve it. Instead, let's focus on the truly evil, like BP and the woman in the UK who threw a kitten into the trash bin for fun.

Sara Starts Kindergarten

Today was Sara's first day of Kindergarten. We spent a good portion of the weekend trying to track down all the supplies that Sara was required to have before her class starts. While some were quite easy to find, others proved to be elusive. It was bit like going on a scavenger hunt. Here's the list of "required" items:

1 Regular size backpack, no wheels
6 folders with "brads" (I wasn't sure what "brads" were, but once I found out, I could only find two of these folders at the various stores we went to)
2 packs multi color construction paper 9x12
1 pack multi color construction paper 12x18
2 packs of manila paper 12x18 (the hardest thing to find here was this paper)
2 packs of manila paper 9x12
2 Wireless journal/composition books
6 boxes of Crayola crayons - 24 count
2 pack of #2 pencils, 24 count
2 boxes of washable markers
2 pairs of blunt Fiskar's scissors
6 small bottles of Elmer's glue
2 glue sticks
1 school box needs to fit in desk
3 boxes of Kleenex
1 box of quart or sandwich Ziploc bags
1 box gallon size Ziploc bags
1 package of 50 paper plates
1 package of Play Dough

Can you believe this list? Am I supplying one child, or the entire class? Back when I was in school, the only supplies I can remember bringing were paper, pens, and a notebook. Has the school system gotten so bad that now the parents handle the school supplies budget? Just think if every parent buys all the items on this list, the school is set. We found most of the items on the list, but not all of them. What we did find set us back about $50.

Naturally, Sara was very excited to go back to school. She woke up early on Monday morning and came into my room.
"Why are you up so early?" I asked her. "School doesn't start until tomorrow."
"I just wanted to practice waking up early." she said.

Wow. I don't remember having this much enthusiasm about going to school, but I think it's great that Sara does. I think she'll be an excellent student.

The Bugs of Summer

This is my third summer in Texas. I really hate the summers here. We get about 3 months straight of temperatures that are above 100 degrees. When you walk outside, you literally feel like you're inside an oven, the sun burning your flesh like a Thanksgiving turkey. On weekends, whenever my wife suggests we go to the park or a lake or some other outdoor activity, I almost always reject it because "It's too freakin' hot!" Instead, I'll suggest we go to a local pool, or a library, or a movie, or anything that's indoors.

This is our first summer in our new house, and I've now discovered that summer brings out (what seems like) every bug on the planet. Our backyard is filled with spiders, ants, grasshoppers, ladybugs, an occasional frog or two, and hundreds of other species that I'm not aware of. Whenever I mow or water the lawn, I see all sorts of movement going on within the grass.

Now, I don't really mind bugs as long as they stay outside, but lately they've been getting inside as well. Just recently, our house has been invaded by ants. They started out in our laundry room. Once we sprayed there, they moved to the kitchen. Then the bathroom. Then our bedroom. Now this morning I find them in the kids bedroom. And these ants aren't of the friendly variety either. These are aggressive freakin' bastards. They have bit me and everyone else in our family (except Kyle, for some reason). When I was a kid, I remember I use to let ants walk on my hand, and it wouldn't do anything. Now they bite the hell out of you. I have bites all over my hands. Sara has them on her arms and legs.

We've bought "Bug Barrier" from Raid, which you spray all around the perimeter of the house. It's worked pretty well for all the other bugs, but not the ants.

It sucks. It makes me really wish that winter would hurry up and get here.

Chuy's Hula Hut

On the weekends, we're always looking to find some nice, new restaurant that we've never been to before. We get lots of suggestions from our colleagues at work. We have yet to try the restaurant owned by Sandra Bullock (Bess Bistro), but we'll get around to it eventually.

One restaurant that seems to come up a lot, and seems to generate a lot of buzz on the internet, is a place called "Chuy's Hula Hut." It's situated on the banks of Lake Austin, and they specialize in what they call "Mexonesian" food. It's a mix of Mexican and Polynesian food, and the place is decorated like a Hawaiian restaurant.

From what I had read, it normally takes around 2 hours to get a table here, so we arrived at 3:30pm on Sunday, assuming we'd have to wait a while to get a seat. My first impression of the restaurant and the surrounding area (and I hate sounding like a disillusioned Californian)was "Meh. I guess this is the Austin version of Shoreline Village in Long Beach." Instead of various restaurants by the beach, you had 3 restaurants by the lake.

The restaurant was busy, and parking wasn't particularly easy either. Our wait was only about 20 minutes, though. They sat us outside, which was fine, since we wanted a view of the lake. Chips and salsa were self serve, which I liked, because Mexican restaurants always seem to give you too little salsa, and you always have to ask for more. The only problem, though, was that the salsa was sitting outside in a container under the direct sunlight. Who knows how long it had been sitting out. I had premonitions of being sick by the end of the day (which came to fruition, by the way.)

So, I ordered BBQ chicken tacos and Christy ordered shrimp quesadillas. Christy immediately disliked the taste of the shrimp, and told the waiter. The waiter pointed out that seafood in Texas isn't exactly fresh. So she changed her order to pulled pork tacos, which she liked. The BBQ chicken tacos that I had tasted okay, but once I got home I had serious stomach pain for the rest of the night. I assume it was probably the stagnant salsa.

I have to say, I just didn't see the allure of Hula Hut. Was it the view of the lake that everybody likes? Is that why people wait 2 hours for a seat? Personally, the best Mexican food I've had in Austin has been in our small little Manor suburb, at a place called "Ramos Restaurant." It has no scenery or ambiance whatsoever, but the food is good.

We probably won't go back to Hula Hut again. There are better places in Austin with less crowds. If we feel like good BBQ, we go to Rudy's. If we feel like good Chinese food, we go to Pei Wei. For Italian food, Buca di Beppo is pretty good, and they are always giving out $10 off coupons. And for Mexican food, we'll stick to Manor.

Pink Floyd Reunite (sort of)

As a fan of all things Pink Floyd, it totally surprised me this morning when I was looking at Roger Waters facebook page, and seeing pictures of him and David Gilmour playing a show together. Apparantley it was a one-off charity gig in England to raise money for Palestinian refugees. These guys aren't exactly friends, and they've had a feud going on now since around 1986. Pink Floyd reunited once in 2005 for the "Live 8" show, but after that it seemed like things just went sour again. David Gilmour had said to the press that, although he enjoyed the performance, it was the rehearsels that made him realize he didn't want to get back together with Waters. I'm assuming Waters was starting to act like an egotistical control freak again.

The show this past weekend wasn't a full fledged reunion. Drummer Nick Mason wasn't there, and keyboardist Richard Wright died a couple of years ago. But, in many peoples opinion (including mine), a Pink Floyd reunion really only needs Gilmour and Waters.

Later this year, I'll be travelling to Dallas to see Roger Waters perform "The Wall" live. It's something I'm really looking forward to, and I feel the only way it could be made better is if Gilmour joined him on this tour. Without him, several of the songs will have to be sung by other people, as will the classic guitar solos. I've seen Roger Waters in concert a few times before, and he's never had a guitarist capable of playing at the same level as Gilmour. Unless he gets Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton, it's probably just not possible.

One can only hope that this brief reunion will result in more appearances together, if not "The Wall" shows, maybe at least something down the line. They are both pretty old guys now (each in his early 60's, so time is ticking away.) Do they really want "The Division Bell" to be the final Pink Floyd record released to the world, or do they have one more masterpiece left in them?

(Photo: David Gilmour (left) and Roger Waters (right) performing together again in 2010.)

The Decline of Good Movies

We took Kyle to see his first movie recently, "Toy Story 3", and was quite surprised when he didn't run around and go crazy. He sat through the entire movie, wide-eyed, and almost never saying a word.

Wow, I thought to myself. Now that Kyle can finally sit through a movie, maybe we can take him to other movies!

The only problem is...what movie? This summer has got to be the worst summer for movies that I can remember. For kids and adults alike. For every good movie like "Toy Story 3", there is complete dreck like "Marmaduke."

What has this summer offered so far?

The Prince of Persia ----another video game made into a movie? Boring.
The Last Airbender ---when was the last time M. Night Shyamalan made anything good?
Sex and the City 2 ----even my wife doesn't want to see this.
Jonah Hex --- more comic book movies from comic books I've never heard of
The A Team --- A bad TV show that only can only make for a bad movie.
The Karate Kid ---- Did this really need to be remade, and with that annoying Will Smith kid?
Knight and Day --- Tom Cruise as action hero just doesn't work for me.
Robin Hood --- looked promising at first until the reviews came in, and the PG-13 rating.
Grown Ups ---- Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider, enough reason not to see it.

Even movies that I didn't catch in the theater and watched on pay per view have been disappointing. I just saw "The Wolfman" and it nearly put me to sleep. Same goes for the latest George Romero zombie movie "Survival of the Dead." What is going on??

It seems the only movie left that might save the summer from being a total washout, other than "Toy Story 3", is the Chris Nolan movie "Inception." Nolan, the director of "The Dark Knight" hasn't had a bad movie yet, so this seems promising.

As I had mentioned before, I have some pretty fond memories of my mom taking me to the movies every Sunday afternoon when I was a kid. Yeah, we saw a lot of junk, but we saw a lot of really good stuff too. It would be nice to continue that tradition with my kids (although with today's ticket prices, that's not likely), but when the movies coming out are like this, I think it's better to just stay home.

(Picture: "Toy Story 3", the one good movie (so far) of the summer.)

The Oil Hits Texas

"There is no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back."
-BP CEO Tony Hayward, who also attended a yacht race in the Isle of Wight during this oil crisis.


So, BP has gone and done it now. They have messed with Texas. Tar balls have begun to show up on the beaches at Galveston, and the oil keeps coming. Here we are, almost three months later, and the oil keeps flowing. The Exxon Valdez disaster was nothing compared to this. We already surpassed that amount of oil in just two weeks.

Of course, I know nothing about how to contain an oil spill, but I am continually dumbfounded when I watch the CNN live feed of the oil spewing out into the gulf, and nobody can do anything about it. Why do we have the technology to build such equipment to get the oil, but we don't have the technology to stop it? I have a feeling that when it comes to spending money to obtain oil, there is no limit, but to protect the environment when an accident happens, suddenly there is nothing anybody can do.

I think if BP had been honest and forthcoming about everything that's going on, and the people in charge acted a little more compassionate, there wouldn't be this utter hatred of them that Americans have right now for this company. They constantly try to downplay the effect of the spill, at first claiming that only "5,000" barrels a day are spilling into the ocean, when in actuality it's more like 50 or 60 thousand. They have referred to the damage in the ocean as "tiny." They refuse to talk to CNN, or even let reporters take pictures of animals covered in oil.

Then you've got the CEO taking a vacation to watch a yacht race in England. What the hell? You know, I took a vacation recently, after working a FREAKIN' YEAR to earn it. And this guy wants to take a vacation during the biggest oil crisis in history? The way I (and most people) see it is...you don't get a vacation until every last drop of oil is cleaned up. Bastard.

BP should look to Toyota for how to handle a crisis. Toyota is now admitting to everything they have done wrong and trying desperately to correct it. They have spent millions, if not billions, on fixing cars that probably don't even have anything wrong with them. Owning a Toyota myself, I have received numerous letters from them updating me on which cars are being recalled and why. Will I buy another Toyota? I don't know, but I don't feel the hatred for the company like I do with BP.

I really hope that when we buy our next car, the prices for hybrids come down. I'd buy one in an instant. Oil dependency has got to stop.

A Few More Pictures from the Trip

(Picture 1: Sara and Kyle pose at the Florida state line. Picture 2. Breakfast at the Marriott in New Orleans. It was a buffet-style breakfast that we had paid for in advance with the cost of our room. Had we not paid in advance, this simple breakfast would have cost us $54. Yes, $54 for eggs, cereal, and waffles. Picture 3: Sara and Kyle getting ready to go swimming. Picture 4: The swimming pool at our hotel in Orlando. This was very nice, and with a little waterslide too. Picture 5: The green swimming pool at a "Days Inn" motel that we stopped at along the way. We had a very, very bad experience with Days Inn. The water coming out of the faucets was brown and dirty, the bedsheets were not clean, there was exposed wiring on the walls, so we had to leave the hotel. I have since wrote an email to their customer service department about their shoddy motel. Supposedly, the general manager is going to call me before June 18 to resolve my complaint. What is he going to do? Offer me another night at his terrible motel?)

Disney World, Florida

I think that Disneyland and Disney World are great places to take the kids. Just watching their faces fill with wonder on each ride is something every parent should see. To them, it's a dream world come true.

For parents, though, it's a lesson in shock and awe about capitalism. There are four major theme parks in Disney World: 1. The Magic Kingdom, which is essentially Disneyland. 2. Epcot. 3. Hollywood Studios, and 4. Animal Kingdom. Each parks costs $79 (plus tax) for adults, and $69 for kids 3 to 10 years old. We managed to pass Kyle off as being two years old this time, but that won't work again the next time we decide to go. If we decided to see all 4 parks the next time we visit Orlando, it would cost us around $1264. Yes, over a grand just for some Disney magic. Then you have the $14 for parking, and the overpriced restaurants ($2.50 for a small bottle of water).

This year, we were able to see two parks (Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios) for only $330. We were able to get a big discount attending one of those horrendous "timeshare" seminars. Holiday Inn was promoting time share condos in Orlando, and we spent about 2 hours being pressured by salesmen trying to get us to buy property. They wanted to sell us a 35 thousand dollar timeshare, with $6,000 down, and payments of $600 a month, with 16% interest. Ha! Like we would ever do that. Basically, we just suffered through it to get the discounted Disney tickets, like most everyone else there (and there were a lot of families there).

So this is what we have to resort to now to take our families to see Mickey Mouse without having to take out a second mortgage on our house.

The Magic Kingdom park was the most fun. It has the most rides and the kids loved it the most. It's the only park that can (kind of) justify its high price. Disney's Hollywood Studios was not nearly as good, or as big. If Magic Kingdom is $79, this one should be about $49 in my opinion. It has mostly shows, and only a few rides, including a very disappointing "backlot tram tour" that paled in comparison to Universal Studios.

We may go back again in the future. I wouldn't mind seeing the Animal Kingdom park, and maybe we'll also see Universal Orlando (we skipped it this time out). But, unless we go to another time share seminar, we're going to need a big tax refund again.