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.)