On Writing

Alan Loeb interview...

http://www.wga.org/subpage.aspx?id=2502

Interesting stuff on why he should've quit and why he kept going. Not exactly what you expect.

Working For the Stars

In Hollywood, is everyone just a free lance employee for the stars? Ultimately, films make big time money because of the stars. Sure, nice little movies with good stories can get made, etc, but those are not the engines of the film business. Those films do not justify having huge movie theaters, 10 dollar tix prices, etc. Movies get made (and make money) because of stars. Star directors are such because the movie stars want to work with them. Stud writers are so because actors want to read their lines. And I suppose stars are only stars because the audience will pack the theaters to see them...

I'm not saying anything new here, but it's weird to think of things this way...although not altogether useful for me, I suppose.

LA Doesn't Work

Trying to get out work from Santa Monica today was a total nightmare. Literally in 1/2 hr of traffic to get on the 10. Don't know what the hell was going on.

So I dropped off at Bay Cities, got a chicken parm, and headed to the new Wilshire (opposite traffic). Into the Wild was playing. Watched it and ate the parm.

Brief comments on the movie: Emile Hirsch being miscast only highlighted some spectacular small performances in this movie. Between truly sensitive scenes and beautiful photography of America, there were moments of greatness. Narratively it didn't work well - it was episodic, and something was off about the interpretation of the central character. I can't articulate it yet. Let me sleep on it.

But anyway, I'm off, headed home and right at the 101 hit massive traffic at 11pm on Wed night. WTF?

This town is so frigging weird and difficult. I'm very happy that next week I'll be trapped in Santa Monica.

Snarky

If one removed the snarky tone, I'm sure these ideas would hold some popularity.

http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/10/how_to_get_the_world_to_like_u.php

The Worst

I didn't watch the game this weekend, but got phone call updates that they looked horrible. Can me a fairweather fan, I could give a shit, I'm not wasting three hours watching the most pathetic offense in Forty Niner history get sexually molested each week. Seriously, it's like watching your kid getting his ass kicked on television.

I was in favor of getting rid of Garcia to make space for the new generation. Little did I know the new generation is a bunch of ass clowns. Garcia is a tough quarterback who can lead the team to the playoffs. He did it with the Niners, he did it with the Eagles. I admit I grew up as a football spoiled brat watching Montana play each week. I was disappointed with Steve Young all my life and the guy's a goddamn hall of famer. Now, I'd just settle for the running game they had last year.

Rumsfeld and War Crimes

Will Rumsfeld be charged with war crimes if he steps outside of the US for abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay?

While many of the left would be delighted, do we seriously think Rumsfeld should be on the priority list for human rights abuse? Isn't this just an obvious stab at a general disssatisfaction with American Foreign Policy?

World Series

I wish it lasted longer and had some better games. Last night was decent. Those days off really screwed the Rockies over. Every year after a team like Boston or New York wins, the issue comes up that baseball is unfair. But explain the Rockies? Sure, they got swept, but Boston was almost knocked out by Cleveland, remember. These aren't huge market teams.

I don't know. I know the A's had a great stretch there for awhile being a small market team and competing. Big market teams, like Boston, however, got smart and mimicked the A's strengths (developing prospects) and then also bought big name free agents. The A's never got over the hump and into the World Series, they kept losing to the Yankees and then finally the Tigers (another medium market team). This year, the A's got decimated by injuries and a small market team can't recover from that. But could Boston have survived without Beckett? I doubt it.

Smart money beats more money, but more smart money beats smart money.

USC

Been watching little bits of the USC-Oregon game. USC offense was looking like crap then suddenly, just now, Sanchez launched 4 awesome passes and they scored a touchdown to bring the game within 7. The dude looked totally shaky earlier...but that second throw - dude's got a gun!

UPDATE: Spoke too soon...the perils of having a gun. USC is driving down the field and Sanchez waits a long time in the pocket and knowing he has a gun, tries to gun it down the middle through defenders and gets picked off to the lose the game. Tom Brady never would've tried such a dumb throw. Sometimes talent ends up screwing you over.

A Walk I Wouldn't Necessarily Recommend

There must be some puritanical element to my DNA because every time I end up leaving my car overnight due to over consumption of alcohol, I force myself to either take the bus or walk the next morning to pick it up.

Last night I left the car near Beverly and Curson. I live on Lucile and Sunset in Silverlake.


View Larger Map

I decided to walk for a variety of factors: too lazy/embarrassed to ask for a ride, taking the bus would require a transfer, I had the time, nice overcast weather, and I wanted some exercise.

I began my stroll down Lucile and hit Virgil. I crossed west on Clinton over to Vermont, avoiding the Virgil underpass that doubles as a housing complex for homeless people. Went south on Vermont (unpleasant) until I hit Beverly and then walked along Beverly all the way to my car.

Along Beverly there is a pretty mucky stretch of cheapo Mexican stores and restaurants. But a lot of people are outside walking around, catching buses, buying bbq corn off street vendors, shopping. A large portion of East LA has a similar feel, where Spanish is the primary language and it bears more resemblance to a large Central American city than a North American city. But along Beverly this is a relatively short stretch that is bordered by a small Asian district, a little off shoot from Koreatown to the South east. They too were BBQing outside an Asian market, but with a much different sugary smell. I guessed it was pork, but didn't make it close enough to find out. Shortly after that, Beverly turns into a fairly nice residential area right before the big golf course hidden behind the wall.

The sidewalk literally ends on the north side of the street and I had to make a mad dash across the two-laned 45mph section. After the golf course you hit the north end of Larchmont Village, the eastern most bastion of young, upper class, Los Angeles mothers strollering and shopping and sipping Peet's. At this point I was famished and dehydrated (remember - drinking last night), so I plopped into Koo Koo Roo chicken and tried one of their meals. I was swayed by the fact they carried Pepsi (increasingly rare at chain restaurants).

By the way...a total side note...Pepsi used to own a company that owned Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Koo Koo Roo, and a series of other second tier fast food chains. Is it weird that the reason these restaurant chains exist is to sell soda pop? I suppose it's not all that different from movie theaters operating to sell popcorn, but still...

...nonetheless, I ate my Koo Koo Roo and moved on into the Orthadox Jewish neighborhood where there were also a lot of people milling about and not working as it is Saturday. The last change along Beverly before Curson is signaled by fancy furniture stores and Starbucks, but whose essence is BLD, a fancy restaurant where they could shoot a scene from Entourage...and where incidentally I had a salad last night.

Finally reached my car and in perfect LA fashion, had a parking ticket.

Surviving...

...for the moment. LA no longer feels like the apocalypse. We'll see you next year some time.

Right now I carry water in my car. After water, the thing I most want when society breaks down is a gun. How much do they cost?

Loudness

It's a shame that in politics we so often get stuck listening to people simply because they shout the loudest. The very fact that there are people who somehow managed to get heard by claiming 9/11 was a conspiracy or inside job is ridiculous.

Bill Clinton gets pissed at the hecklers in the above speech. Good for him. F--- those people. They need to shut their faces and go clean toilets for a living.

Vegans

Since I'm officially moving from my Silver Lake abode in a little over a week I thought I'd try the new vegan restaurant in the neighborhood this evening...you know, before I left. Mistake.

A) It costs a lot
B) I'd rather eat my own asshole
C) I had to look at stupid, dirty hippies/hipsters while ordering

What the hell is this weird cut up pasta-esque crap that vegans put on everything like it's goddamn ketchup?

The Apocalypse and Jon Stewart

A delayed post...but with the fires and the weird heat around LA where walking outside feels like you walked into a hotel room where the heater was left on for two days plus my allergies leading to a cold makes it truly feel like the world is close to coming to an end. But that's life in LA, it periodically feels like it's coming apart at the seams whether it be fires, earthquakes, el nino, acid rain, riots, traffic, whatever. That's the nature of the place.

Also, is it just me or is Jon Stewart really not that funny. Doesn't Colbert and the Onion blow him out of the water?

Don't Go Running

As if I needed an excuse to not exercise....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-air23oct23,0,3565277.story

But seriously, stay indoors if you're experience allergies, like me. Fires = Bad. One of these days LA is just going to self-implode. Doesn't it feel that way?

Bullshit

I'm calling bullshit on anyone who out of one side of their mouth acts horrified at "the state of our country" and out of the other not only does zero to change it, but manages to do quite well by it.

Why do so many people doing fine and dandy incessantly whine about the "direction of the country?" What does that even mean? Are they talking about simply the War in Iraq? Is that really it when it comes down to it? Are people just sad because we came to realize on 9/11 that we're actually not the cool, popular kids we thought we were, but rather are the popular kids that everyone else hates?

Gimme a break. When did we become such whiny brats? We're doing better now than in almost any time in our own fractured history and certainly doing better than almost any nation in the history of the planet and all we can do is lament it. I'm serious. What point to does one want to point to in our history when we were better off? World War II. Are you kidding me? Maybe we were in the right, but we were in the fight of our lives, a fight that we certainly did not know could be won the way it was. The 1950s? Where we lived in a racially segregated society? In the 1960s when were were in an unpopular war and socially divided? What place and time in history is preferred? What would you prefer today? Would things be all that different if John Kerry or Al Gore were President. Come on, grow up.

Home: Investment or Something Else

An interesting article on a couple dissatisfied with their home building choices.

The gist of the article suggests that the more recent conventional wisdom of the "home as an investment" is flawed, particularly when the housing market is poised to drop in value over the next couple of years.

As I get closer to my 30s, this is something I've started to think about a little more...and I remember asking my dad about this kind of stuff in my early 20s as I was somewhat thinking about real estate and investing and so forth. He rightly talked about a home being something a lot different than an investment - that fundamentally it a place to live...and for many people, a shared space to raise a family. The investment component is tertiary.

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

I'll Believe It When I See It

Pakistan on an all out offensive in Waziristan. Hmmm. Color me skeptical.

Say they do it and it works, it'll only go to show how little we understand the East and what drives ideas and actions in these parts of the world.

Cleveland-Boston and Strategic Baseball Thoughts

I swear I had the following thought before Boston got the series to 3-2. I've been following the series from a distance...I follow all baseball other than the Oakland A's from a distance...but given the Clev-Bost match up, I had a starting pitching thought...

With the series 3-1 and Beckett starting game 5, does Cleveland consider not throwing Sabathia in game 5 and setting up Sabathia and Carmona to pitch game 6 and 7?

Follow my logic...with the way Beckett is pitching, he seems almost unbeatable. Boston has a clear advantage when he starts - even against Sabathia. So why not concede the game and save your studs for a better match up?

I'll admit the seed of this thought started way back in 2000 or so when the A's played the Yankees in a divisional playoff. The Yanks went up 2-0 against Kevin Appier and Gil Heredia. Remember those guys? Then, we had two young pitchers start games 3 and 4. Tim Hudson and Barry Zito. They both went lights out and suddenly the A's were tied 2-2. We ended up losing game 5, but it was the start of this new A's pitching era. The next year Hudson was runner up for Cy Young and he and Zito won the first two games against the Yankees in the playoffs. We of course went on to lose 3-2 again, but WTF. We're talking mini-market A's versus the Yankees and we're taking them to the limit two years in a row. The Yanks were so scared of the A's, they bought Giambi just to keep us down.

But anyhow, it was an interesting set up because although on paper the A's were completely outmatched by the Yankees, in a given game, with Hudson vs. Yankee #3 starter and Zito vs. Yankee #4 starter, the A's actually had a little advantage.

So take that logic to Cleveland-Boston, and I say just concede the two games Beckett pitches (strategically) and test your luck with Sabathia and Carmona against Schilling and Dice K and Wakefield. Shit, I'd pick Cleveland in those match ups any day.

I guess this is a tad unsporty in that it is custom to throw your #1 as often as possible and always go for the win....but hell, how is it any different than deciding when to put in a pinch hitter or sac bunt...you're sacrificing outs for runs or to advance runners. In this case, you're stacking odds in your favor against superior starting pitching.

To Do List

1. Move
2. Finish Short Script
3. Finish First Draft Feature Script w/ Mel
4. Revamp the Blog. Create new link structure and add new websites I visit:

-Daily Visit
-Every other day
-Weekly Visit
-Once a Month
-Once a Year
-Reference

5. Catch up on 30 Rock and FNL
6. Exercise
7. Rework Drafts of two older scripts.

Blog Blog Blog

I become secretly obsessed with obscure blogs sometimes. I don't know why. It doesn't happen right away. I read something. I think about it. I come back later and read the post again. Then I read other posts. Today, that blog is:

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/inhaling-911.html

The afor-linked article is about the toxic cloud of the world trade center, a mix of computer parts, office furniture and human remains. Creepy. I only found because...

Robyn sent out a brilliant article on Los Angeles from the same blog: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/greater-los-angeles.html earlier this week.

Ironically, I read the article already via Virginia Postrel. Good articles, material, ideas, get out into the air and circulate, like a virus. Can anyone figure out how those good ideas develop? How good material develops? Where do these things come from, exactly? It is a curious thing.

My Favorite Part

"The leads are weak."

"The leads are weak? (beat) The fucking leads are weak? You're weak. I've been in this business 15 years..."

"What's your name?"

"FUCK YOU. That's my name.... You know why mister? You drove a Hyundai here tonight; I drove an 80,000 BMW - THAT's my name."

Don't Forget

1. There is GREAT work.

2. Baldwin has been good for a long mutha fucking time.

Ouch

Old guys getting on each other's choices. Coppola disses on DeNiro, Pacino, and Nicholson. Talk about pot calling the kettle black...

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/coppolla-disses-pacino-de-niro-nicholson/

Don't get me wrong, I love Coppola...but he's listed as a top ten filmmaker of all time, a genius of the medium and the movies he directed after 1980 are as follows: One from the Heart, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Captain EO (yes, in Disneyland), Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker, the worst episode of New York Stories, The Godfather Part III, Dracula, Jack, and the Rainmaker.

And he's criticizing these guys for doing Anger Management and Meet the Parents. Come on.

Obama and Cheney Related?

Funny little factiod

http://www.wcpo.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=6d732b73-74cf-4e56-b31b-f8b0770a6dbe

"A spokesman for Obama offered a response. "Every family has a black sheep.""

Weblogs vs. Facebook, Etc.

Been having on again off again coversations about social networking sites (not sticking for me yet) and I inevitably bring up blogging, which I practice.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=010803B

Here is an old Glenn Reynolds article on how blogging gets around a serious cyberspace question - the tragedy of the commons. A lot of email listservs die because they waste receipients time, and I imagine facebook and other social networking sites might be prone to a similar fate. Article is worth reading for more details.

On the other hand, blogs are completely voluntary. You can go and visit and spend as much or as little time as you want.

And That's For the Successful Ones!

Bad news for screenwriters:

http://www.laweekly.com/news/deadline-hollywood/screenwriters-in-the-shit/15085/?page=2

Place vs. Person

Been checking out places to move within a certain price range and there are two primary considerations - the place vs. the person. (I am basically looking at moving in with 1 roommate). Prior to searching, I hypothesized these two elements would be equal sized considerations. After looking at several places I realized something - place WAY outweighs the person. Certainly a bad person could veto a potentially great place, but it's pretty tough to find someone that retarded with a great place. And chances are, retarded people will have retarded places.

I liken it to an old argument I used to have with athletes about fitness being primarily about exercise or eating right. Many seemed to think they were equal considerations. I did not. To me, it was all about exercise and a little bit about diet.

Bay Cities

Can anyone think of a better sandwich than the Bay Cities Chicken Parm? No, seriously. I challenge every one of my blog readers. Nope? That's what I thought. I'm addicted. Every Friday lunch requires a chicken parm.

Rustic Toast

Goddammit I'm addicted to these Parmesan Cheese toast things they have at Wild Oats. I know there is a similar product at Trader Joe's. Every three minutes I'm up in our kitchen and cracking off a little piece. Not too salty, a nice subtle taste. Damn.

http://crackle.com/c/Moving_Targets/Script_Cops%2C_Ep_2%3A_McKee_Sting/2020262/#ml=fk%3Dscript%2520cops%26fx%3D%26o%3D7

Okay, now that's really funny.

The Ups and Downs of Taking the Bus

1. Walking to and from the bus stop. It is awfully nice to start the day with a little walk. You forget this in LA when you drive everywhere. Especially the cool, crisp weather in the fall. It's nice. The downside: it takes time and is annoying when you are running late.

2. Reading. I can read a script on the way to work and one on the way home. If they're bad, I can get through 2 passes. But today, I got a little sick, partially from reading and partially because I'm a big yuppie pussy.

3. Money savings. I don't know the exact cost of driving, but beyond the gas price, the wear and tear on your car in a long commute around Los Angeles is significant. No downside here.

4. Flexibility. If some hot chick calls me to get drinks after work, I can't simply say yes because I'm bound by the bus schedule. Then again, the odds of a hot chick calling me randomly to get drinks is slightly higher than the odds I'll mistakenly pee all over myself at work and catch pneumonia and die - in which case, it'll be good that my car is at home.

5. Door to Door Timing. Because I have a long commute, it is nearly impossible to determine how long it'll take. It ranges from 50min-1:15 in the car. On the bus, it ranges from 1:15-1:45, so it is both a longer trip and a higher spread, which makes arriving on time and in an efficient manner all the more difficult.

6. Helping the Environment. I can tell you this is VERY small, if not negligible, element in my decision making. If anything, I might deep down calculate that it might impress a few people, but anyone stupid enough to be impressed by me riding the bus for environmental reasons is generally someone who will hate most other things about me, which makes it pretty much a non-factor.

7. The Adventure. I like taking the bus because it is something different. In the long run, the adventure element would surely wear off as I see the people with monthly passes and they bear little resemblence to Indian Jones or Laura Croft. Dumb as it is, though, I do feel more connected to people while sharing a bus ride than I do when driving along in my car. Perhaps it is because our legs are touching.

8. Podcasts and Adam Corolla. I listen to Corolla on the way to work. I like the show. I don't listen on the bus. Somedays I listen to podcasts, but I could do that on the bus, although I haven't yet. Either way, I don't particularly miss Corolla...it's just the best thing to listen to on the morning between commericals.

Could You Say The Same About The Danish Cartoons?

Regarding the Armenian Genocide resolution:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/contentions/index.php/boot/1063

I think there is a fairly reasonable consensus that we agree in principal with the idea, but question the timing. While the resolution and the cartoons bear little pragmatic consequence, the source of agitation is incredibly important. The Danish cartoons were in a newspaper and were not a government resolution. Newspapers, books, tons of stuff has been written on the Armenian genocide and the Turkish government doesn't try to kill the authors/editors. Plus, the current Turkish government has a track record of behaving fairly reasonably, all things considered...whereas Islamicists, on the whole, don't have a spectacular track record.

This being said, it is clear the Islamcists don't see a distinction between government issued speech and newpaper speech, all of it is subject to the same, single law - sharia. This is what the stakes are - a fundamental belief about how society ought to function and what price we are willing to pay to accommodate those who disagree with us. When are we willing to cave for pragmatic concerns and when are we not?

Typical

A funny human trait...

We rep books. Sometimes our books get buzz. All it takes is one person who loves it and suddenly, everyone wants to read it. We generally keep a few copies and if we plan on making a submission, we collect a solid number. But when a book gets buzz, we don't have enough copies laying around for everyone who wants it. Further, when someone REALLY loves it - they want more copies to send to their bosses to try to get the project going immediately.

Inevitably, what happens throughout this is that some folks get angry at us for not sending them a copy. They get mad and take it personally and assign to it a reflection of their status and our relationship that they don't a copy of the book. The irony, from my/our point of view is that normally, these people have access to the book WAY prior to the buzz...but they only want it when the buzz happens and then get mad about NOT getting it. It's crazy. It's hollywood. But there is some lesson there about human nature and our desire to make things dramatic.

Haircuts For Men

http://men.msn.com/articlees.aspx?cp-documentid=1292895>1=10520

Why no pictures?

My Favorite Hollywood Writer

Is easily Nikki Finke

http://www.elle.com/featurefullstory/12428/nikki-finke-page5.html

Granted, I only recently started reading the business crap.

Are Girls Funny?

An old debate that generally isn't fun. It tends to irk the fairer sex, especially since we are all now equal and stuff. And so long as I'm bringing out gender stereotypes, when girls are irked, the debate rationality factor tends to go down a notch or seven.

But Tina Fey is funny. There is no doubt. You how you can tell when someone is funny? When the little things they do, described plainly aren't funny...but if described as when Tina Fey did this...it becomes funny. She passes this test. She's a funny actress, but also a funny writer. I assume she made up and writes the Baldwin character as well.

Beyond her hot body, this may explain my Tina Fey crush.

I Hope This Is A Play

Al Queda goes dark after discovering US had hacked their web communication network.

http://www.nysun.com/article/64163?page_no=2

If this article is true (and not a counterintelligence or misinformation campaign), the result is pretty outrageous. The CIA finally does something right and hacks the network, gives the info to the President, information gets leaked to the press, AQ figures out they've been hacked and then shut it down. Talk about a system failure.

This Is Why Every Guy Loves Bill Simmons

"The Patriots can score in bunches, they can run the ball, they can stop the run AND they can stop the pass. They don't have a weakness. During Monday night's thrashing of the Bengals, you almost got the feeling they were screwing around. In one goal-line situation, they tossed out a backfield of Junior Seau and Heath Evans. They threw a TD pass to a linebacker. They kept feeding Moss in garbage time so he could pass 100 yards and get a second TD. At one point, my buddy Bug called me and decided the Pats looked like someone who had just won a ton of money playing blackjack in a casino; now they were wandering around bored and saying things like, "I think I'll play a couple hands of Pai Gow Poker!" Meanwhile, the poor Bengals were so flustered, Justin Smith was "Miked Up" for the telecast, forgot he was miked up and complained, "It's like we're playing seven on five out there, we can't do anything," before remembering that he was miked up and hemming and hawing his way out of it."

Pai Gow Poker. It is rare I laugh out loud reading an article. Kudos.

Sullivan Off Again

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/10/saddams-nukes.html

"No one doubts that Iran's regime is a force for instability in the Middle East - although nothing has done more to set back stability and democracy in recent years than the bungled occupation of Iraq."

Maybe stability...but certainly the removal of Saddam and having an elected government can be considered an improvement for democracy. Is this a misspeak?

Is the Sunni Insurgency a Disaster?

Well, yeah...but now the internal strife is coming out.

Good and Bad of New Technology

NBC has updated it's website to have better quality streaming TV shows. It looks great, except my DSL isn't fast enough to watch the show without stuttering.

Shucks.

PS-I feel like one of those uber loser women who fall in love with stars because I'm totally infatuated with Tina Fey.

Politics as Inspiration or Problem Solving

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9904609

Interesting economist article on Clinton. I am intrigued by the contrasting democrat constituencies between Clinton and Obama...where Obama does well with college grad outsiders and Clinton doe well with blue collar democrats and insiders.

Blue collar democrats tend to view politics as about problem solving rather than inspiration versus the Obama camp who wants to be inspired by a candidate. Interesting to me...because at one time I remember wanting to be inspired (like during college), but never really feeling that way about any candidate...and now, much more, I tend towards viewing politics a problem-solving exercise...

Perhaps that's why I don't get incredibly excited about Obama, because maybe I just am not that interested in being inspired by politics.

Sopranos in Iran

http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/10/sick_on_lehrer.php

Gangland style infighting with the mullahs. Could be an opportunity to exploit.

Easy Furniture

A singing chorus, "You only get cheaper furniture from the manufacturer, but you don't know to do iiittt."

Funniest radio commerical I've heard in awhile.

Wine Tasting

=Fun

Next Day < Night Of

Whoever Smelt It, Dealt It

Whoever Made the Rhyme, Did The Crime

Going for a Good Loss?

Is Obama going for a serious showing to gear up for a later run? Or does he worry about Pres Hillary taking 8 years in office and missing his opportunity - which really should be 2012?

http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/10/obama_will_no_longer_wear_amer.php

Tony Blankley

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/the_gop_needs_a_survival_insti.html

He is writing about what the GOP should do to try and capture the presidential nomination. I like Blankley a lot. I think he's incredibly smart and he knows a lot of inside information. He is a pragmatic, smart operative. I wish the Democrats had someone like him. Do we?

Favorite Breakfasts

A lot of my consuming habits have changed over the past couple years, slowly and steadily, some for better some for worse. I no longer exercise as much as I once did. I now drink coffee. I spend less money on going out to bars and clubs...but one of the inexplicable ones (to me, at least) is that breakfast is now my favorite meal. It always used to be my least favorite. In fact, I didn't even eat breakfast all that much during high school and college (and even when I worked in SF). But somehow in the past couple years, it became this thing for me. So, with that in mind, I feel like sharing my favorite breakfast foods:

Simple Breakfast

1. Everything bagel with cream cheese and tomato. YUM! I ordered a simple bagel with cream cheese from Casbah one day and they mistakenly put a tomato in it. So I just ate it. It's been my favorite simple breakfast ever since. Casbah makes it good as does Panera, near my new work.

2. Oatmeal. Started eating this at Netflix because they had it. Simple, healthy, filling. I don't love the taste, but on a cool day some oatmeal and coffee ain't bad.

3. Blueberry Muffin from Wild Oats. Simple, cheap, and surprisingly good.

4. Cheese Toast. An old classic, I don't make it much anymore, but cheddar cheese on sourdough toast.

5. Odwalla Puke Green drink. It looks gross, but tastes good and has tons of nutrients.

6. A white peach. I'm in a hurry, not that hungry, and wanting some type of fruit. Easy choice.

Sit down/Complex Breakfast

1. Eggs Benedict. Still the best.

2. Poached Eggs and Toast.

3. Breakfast Burrito with bacon.

4. Cheese Blintz

5. Bagel and Lox Platter (with capers)

We Need Gaghan!

Entourage jumped the shark, but there is still some funny ass shit. Lloyd and Billy Walsh are obviously the two best side characters. But I caught some episodes while in the Gay Bay because my parents got free HBO for a year, which includes in demand (they didn't even know they had it). The season premiere bit when Billy Walsh demands they hire Gaghan to come up with the ending of his movie is freaking hilarious.

Are Women Unhappy?

According to this survey, despite improvements in life options, women are less happy today than 35 years ago.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/why-are-women-so-unhappy/

They list several possible explanations and several possible alternative explanations. No one mentions, however, the possibility that more options does not always lead to more happiness.

In a game class we learned about a consumer survey that measured satisfaction in cereal choice. If a consumer only had 1 or 2 choices of cereal to choose from, they tended to be unsatisfied with their options. But on the other end of the spectrum, once the choices reached a high level (say 35 or so), the more options created a more difficult and less satisfactory consumer experience. We learned this as an element of game design, that by giving players too many choices to deal with, the game play experience went down.

Could too many choices constrict happiness?

UPDATE: The original article points to possible explanations of unhappiness: increased expectations and a wider "comparison" group (by comparing themselves not only to other women, but also men, women feel subjectively worse off while being objectively "better off.")

Garry Kasparov v. Putin

I root for the Gamer.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/kasparov

Oh Good, I Was Worried For A Moment

Michael Vick passes a "be-nice-to-animals" test.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/03/vick.class.ap/index.html

Sunnis Hat in Hand

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/10/the-bright-side.html

The bright and cheery prospect of Iraq. Well, as much as it can be. Rather than a grand deal of national reconciliation which has been the measuring stick of progress both by Dems and Republicans...maybe this grassroots, localized reconciliation is what we should be shooting for. Build upon what's been successful. Wouldn't that be a smart thing to do?

Eastern Promises

Where does Cronenberg find these faces? Every character actor in this film had an amazing face.

That goddamn opening scene had me squirming the entire movie and thank god it didn't get more violent than that. Sure the sauna scene was knarly, but I covered my eyes in that opening scene. He does something a lot different with violence than other filmmakers.

A fine little movie.

He Could Be Pres.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6121_Page4.html

A pretty moving speech from Obama. He's right about the war - Senators who voted in 2002 for the war knew what they were voting for. This was never just Bush's war, although many try to cynically make it Bush's mistake. Clinton's retreat since that time, he says, was like giving the President a blank check and then acting surprised that he cashed it. It's just too bad I don't agree with the guy, otherwise I'd vote for him.

I Fold

All right, my moratorium on social networking sites is over. I've joined Goodreads and Linkin to test the waters. Enough emails from enough people really weakened my resolve. In the past month I've gotten at least 10-15 social network invitations, some from totally random people. It wears you down like the river does to the rock.