Time to look at my local ballot again; Nov 2004

I post my voting intentions, not to promote my opinions so much as to promote awareness of the issues and candidates in general. I realize that voting is a personal and private matter, and that many people are not so open about their choices. This posting will deal with the candidates. (I’m not going to get into School district voting.)

President John F. Kerry: The race for president is usually so over exposed that there really is no point for me to state why I make my choice.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer: This is prolly the most pro-Californian Senator I’ve ever seen. The U.S. Government takes California for granted. We need strong supporters in office who that aren’t drones of their respective party or political trends.

U.S. Representative District 14:
Anna G. Eshoo: Very successful and important incumbent. My vote will go here.
Chris Haugen: From what little I’ve seen of him, he appears too focused on party agenda and not very concerned about California itself.
Brian Holtz: Some of the Libertarian party stands are good, but many are bad. Brian appears to be promoting too many of the bad points.

State Senator; District 11: I don’t know much about this, but unfortunately I will likely vote for the democratic candidate in an effort to maintain the balance of power in Sacramento.

Member of the State Assembly; District 24: Ditto to my previous comment.

Superior Court Judge; County of Santa Clara; Office 7: I don’t like either candidate.
Griffin Bonini: He appears to be a bit too opinionated about how are system is supposed to work. He seems like too much of a Prosecution insider.
Enrique Colin: Doesn’t seem to have a strong enough platform.

I’m going to have a lot to say about the new Propositions. There’s a few scams that people are trying to pull in this election.

No happy hour

Welp, no happy hour with my friends this evening. It was cancelled when I wasn't paying attention, I guess. bummed.

To the door dinging fuckhead

Dear Door Dinging Fuckhead,

You are an asshole. I don't care if you were drunk when you did it. I also don't care if it was your little brat of a child. I don't care if you were just having a bad day. I don't care if you are huge, and have to swing your door wide in order to get out of your car. Pay attention where you park and when open your damn door.

If you got an SUV, don't park in a compact spot. You know what, don't even park in the parking lot. No spots are designed for your oversized suburban tank. Go park on the street!

If you got kids, then open the door for them (ever heard of Child Lock?).

If it's late at night, and you are toting around your drunkass friends, then park way the hell away from any other parked cars (again, ever heard of Child Lock? LOL). You better not be driving while drunk yourself!

If you're too fat to get out of your SUV and are toting around your 12 brats with your drunkass husband, then stay the fuck home. Never leave! Oh, and stop breeding too!

Truly yours in Christ,
Victim

P.S., I'm sorry I accidentally smashed up your car with my bat. I was just having a bad day because you dinged my car.

;)

Its about time stylized films are getting made (Sky Captain)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a thoroughly fun film. It’s seems many people willfully don’t understand it. This isn’t a movie were Luke Skywalker cries about Princess Leia’s broken nail. This is a stylized, plot driven, sci-fi action flick in the tradition of the 1930’s Flash Gordon serial films. Paltrow and Law performed nearly flawlessly in their roles. Their acting is wooden and one-dimensional because the characters they are playing are intentionally wooden and one-dimensional. It’s part of the style of the movie. It amazes me some people can’t handle a full length stylized movie, but love even more heavily stylized (and damn near pointless) music videos. Turn off your need to see Luke Skywalker learning about himself when you go see this movie. It’s not a character development movie. It’s a movie that is just fun, which is exactly what it is meant to be. Ok, I’m done with the rant. LOL
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow succeeds where the Star Wars Prequels fail. Sky Captain creates a whole world through concise story telling, and a clear use of visual and acting styles. Star Wars uses a similar approach, but not nearly so well because the stories a just too crowded and compressed; with way too many characters. However, I must credit Lucas with one thing. Without the Star Wars Prequels, Sky Captain prolly would not have been created. I hope this is the beginning of a new movie era were more stylized films are made. I wouldn’t want every movie to be heavy on style and short on character development. However, for some stories, style is more important than character, and I hope Hollywood can now make such films with that in mind. Sky Captain is one example of just one style. The are many other styles out there just waiting to be explored!

Friday busy day

The sail boat race on Friday evening was a disaster for our team, Spitfire. We got a late start, had bad positioning on the course, and our main competitor performed flawlessly. Spitfire was in the lead in the racing series, but because we performed so badly in this final race, we lost the lead in the series. Chalk up another 2nd place in yet another racing series. Yeah, I’m disappointed.

After showering and changing, I picked up my g/f around 9:00pm. Instead of going to the Cheesecake Factory, we went to a good Persian restaurant just down the street from her place. It was nice to have a relaxing diner in a quiet atmosphere.

After dinner, we met up with Jenn and Miriam in downtown San Jose at the Mission Ale House. Miriam picked the spot where we were supposed to meet up. So, while my g/f and I are waiting for her at the Mission Ale House, I get an apologetic call from her. Well, when she told me Mission Ale House, she actually meant Tied House. Well, either way, Jenn and her finally joined us at the Mission Ale House. :-) However, we didn’t stay more than 45 minutes. For some reason, the drinks all tasted like cough syrup that night. Yuk. So, we met up with friends from the French Union (Miriam’s former co-workers from HP, who all happen to be French and who all live and hang out together, so we call them the French Union). It was at this place called The Vault. It’s a little posh, and a bit yuppie-ish. Those aren’t complaints, at least, not to me. But those are complaints to Jenn. We tried to go to this other place afterwards, but stopped off at this one Irish pub instead. We kinda got stuck there, just cracking each other up, laughing our heads off about whatever (Bee-nod). We even got a double laugh snort…one from Jenn that trigger one from Miriam. Bonus! LOL

At about 1:30am, Jenn and Miriam went to eat and meet up with some of Jenn’s friends, including Bee-nod. My g/f and I called it a night.

Long day ahead

Well, I got up early for work today, so I can get off early, so I can go sailing on my friend's sailboat in a "beer can race" up in Oakland (45 to 70 minute drive depending on traffic). Hopefully the race is short because I need to get back to San Jose to met up with my g/f to go to the Cheesecake Factory at 9:00pm. Then from there, we will head down to meet up with some friends in downtown San Jose at a club. ::takes a breath:: I hope I'm not getting too old to keep up this kind schedule. I couldn't make it last time I tried; almost, but not quite. To be continued... lol