Closed

I know a few months ago I posted something saying I was done with this blog, but then I started up again. I've never really carried on with much blogging here, and I'm tired of having a unique domain for a silly blog. So now this blog is officially closed. Future posts will be made elsewhere. Ask & ye shall find out.

Day of Immigration

May 1st, 2006 is a day of demonstration. A day when immigrants, and immigrant rights supports band together, and make their voices known in the streets in every major city across the country. This is a big deal. Parent's took their children out of school, people left work. My opinion on the whole thing is in support of the immigrants. They work just as hard if not harder than everyone else, and have every right to be US citizens.
Today as I was sitting at a stoplight waiting to proceed along the street, a large red truck, playing music, loud but not offensively so, pulled up next to me in the left turn lane. I could hear casual Spanish being spoken between the two male occupants. When the light turned green, the truck lurched forward, cut me off, and sped off down the street. The truck had stickers in the rear window, which display what I think is the name of the village they emigrated from.
Now, I really want to support this movement to give immigrants equal rights, but if a protest like this is going to be abused by people who think its an excuse to break the law, I'm not going to be able to support it. Part of this whole "becoming American" thing includes obeying traffic laws and following the rules.
EDIT: I can see how those of you who are under the impression that I'm extremely negative and do nothing but complain can mis-interpret what I'm trying to get across here. This event does not completely sour my opinion of the immigrant rights movement. I still support the idea. However, I'm merely expressing a feeling that those men in the truck should be a bit more considerate about their actions and the effects it might have on the movement that so many of their peers have struggled for. And to those of you who think I'm grouchy, bitter, and angry, bugger off and go judge someone else. ;-)

Silent Movie

I just caught the last one-third of a movie called Silent Movie. It caught my attention as I was channel surfing, and stuck around long enough to become curious. I caught the title on an ad break, and looked it up on IMDB. I saw the cast list, and was taken aback. I watched the rest of the film, and laughed, laughed, laughed. Unfortunately, its not on DVD yet in the US. It has got to be one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a long time. Hopefully I'll be able to catch it in its entirety.

Hell hath frozen over

The other day, I went into a Starbuck's (quite a feat in and of itself I know). I was feeling rather sleepy, and I needed to do some grocery shopping, so I stopped in to get a pick-me-up. The idea then dawned on me to "know thine enemy"; I regularly tell my Peet's customers that the Mocha Freddo is better than the Starbuck's Mocha Frappuccino. So I decided to do an experiment. I ordered a "medium mocha frappuccino, no whip". And that's what I got. And I tried it, and it was decent. The next day I made myself a medium mocha freddo at work. And I noticed a difference right away. The Starbuck's iced blended coffee beverage has much less coffee flavor too it, though it also has less chocolate flavor as well. Whereas the Peet's iced blended coffee beverage has a much much bolder coffee flavor, and a slight chocolate flavor. This of course, coincides with the classic Peet's/Starbuck's difference: strength of coffee. Peet's is traditionally much more bold in its coffee flavors; Starbuck's much lighter.
Now here's the real kicker, given this category of drink, "iced blended coffee beverage", I came to the shocking conclusion that I like the frappuccino better. Peet's makes a great, strong cup of coffee, but when it comes to the iced department, my taste buds lean towards a lighter flavor. The boldness of Peet's espresso is too much; it overpowers the iced aspect of the drink. However I make this statement with the following clarification: just because I have found I prefer the frappuccino to the freddo, this does not mean that I like Starbuck's more than Peet's. There's a lot more to the coffee industry than iced blended coffee beverages, and in the real straight coffee area, Peet's still beats the pants off Starbuck's.

Sunday night, the "tet" festival and more

I just got back from going to the Lunar New Year festival (or the Vietnamese Spring Festival) in downtown San Jose with Ngoc. It was neat to see. Loud music, karaoke and vietnamese booths and food. It was small, but fun. It was nice to see Ngoc so excited about me being involved with one of her childhood memories. Afterwards we walked across the street to a Johnny Rockets and had a root beer float & an ice cream sundae. Ngoc didn't really notice a cultural shift, but I did. One minute we're in a rowdy vietnamese festival, the next we're sitting in a 1950s Americana diner listening to The Beach Boys and sipping root beer out of a shared glass with our own straws. Only in America... After that we went grocery shopping, then took a nice drive up into the hills above the Santa Clara valley to watch the city glow. Its nice to get a changed perspective from the massive, glowing boulevards and shopping centers.

Road Rage

I saw in the newspaper yesterday an article about a kid who thought he could be the train crossing. Instead, he ends up in critical condition at the hospital, and with a dead girlfriend. I don't really feel sorry for this kid. I feel awful for the girl's family, and the last few moments the girl must have experienced of her life. But for Mr. Road Rage, I feel nothing. Probably because there's very little chance that he didn't know the consequences of his actions. Those warning lights go off for a reason, and I suppose he thought he was invincible and didn't have to pay attention. I will be following this story; I would like to know if there were drugs or alcohol involved.

Overhauled subpop.net

I gave subpop.net a once over, and decided to massively re-invent it. So I did. You can take a look at the result, and see for yourself. Its now mostly content, and a bit of biography, but very little personal opinion.