Farewell, Aztek.

As you all know, the Pontiac Aztek has changed the automotive industry since its debut in 2001. Just yesterday I noticed that the Aztek has been removed from the Pontiac lineup. It's a sad day. I feel it deserves a moment of silence.

I have often marveled at the existence of this mechanical creation. How does a car company create such an awful monstrosity when there were probably hundreds of people responsible for its design? I wonder how the designer felt when he discovered that the resell value of the Aztek after 5 years was only 16%, the lowest of all cars on the market.



Well, the departure of the Aztek also marks the departure of the deployable rear tent. By far the most outstanding accessory for the Aztek, the tent has proven that it was not just a car, but a home.



I'm glad that I had the chance to drive this spectacular vehicle while I was out in Colorado.

It was an adventure I'll never forget.

Steel Thumbs

If you didn't already know...my sister dominates when it comes to text-messaging on her phone. That's what we call her. Steel Thumbs. Feel free to join in. Anyway, thought it was relevant when I ran across this article.


Some girl won $5000 because she entered the following text in 2 minutes, 23 seconds:

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.

Lame. Without too much effort, I typed that in to my phone in 2 minutes, 45 seconds. I am unimpressed. Of course, the world record is apparently 43 seconds. That's pretty damn impressive. I'm just sayin'...my sister could've sent that girl packin'.

Time yourself. Don't use predictive text entry (if you know what that means) and type in the two sentences. I opened the little clock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen to time myself.

Our 200th post !

We started this weblog on June 1st and we've already made 200 posts! That's more than one entry per day! I thought this would be an appropriate time to finally get around to posting the remaining pictures from our trip to Japan. Here are some of our favorites for the last half of our trip:

Kintai-kyo ('kyo' means bridge) in Iwakuni. Iwakuni Castle on the mountain to the right.

View of the torii gateway in Miyajima from the Itsukushima Shrine.

Peace Memorial in Hiroshima with view of the A-Bomb Dome in the background.

Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto.

Ninomaru Palace in Nijo Castle.

Octopus waiting to be purchased at Ichiba Fish Market.

Mt. Fuji over Motosuko ('ko' means lake)

Shiraito-no-taki (White thread waterfalls) in Yamanishi.

Gyuusashi (made from the finest Kobe beef). Yum.

Joanne tying her not-so-good luck fortune. Sad.

Friendly little bug at the train station.

Riding the fire engine at Tokyo Disney Sea at about 1 mph.

On the Tokyo Bay Cruise to Odaiba.

We had a great trip. If you want to plow through the full set of 213 pictures, have at it. Hey, it used to be 1400 of 'em!

Chicken Little

On Friday night, we went to go see Chicken Little in Digital 3-D at El Capitan. It was pretty good (I had low expectations). The 3-D part of the movie was really well done. And the best part was that we got 3-D glasses!

Since we saw it at El Capitan (in VIP seating...thanks Glenn), we saw their special Pre-Show with Chicken Little dancing on stage.



Afterward, we went to grab a bite at Mel's Drive-In across the street from the theater. Old school. Had some burgers and watched their overhead TVs. They had the Laker game AND Episode III playing!

Thanks again, Glenn, for setting up the event!

Yoda joke.

Joanne told me this joke yesterday:

What does Yoda call a girl who's green and wrinkled?

Cute.

Another visit to Staples Center

On Wednesday night, I went with my dad to the Knicks vs. Lakers game. Tony was nice enough to give us his tickets for the game in Section 301 (center court). We had a great view and it was a great game. Any game when the Lakers win is a great game. Kobe scored 42 points, 29 of which occurred in the second half. Chris Mihm and Lamar Odom played well also. I used Joanne's camera at the game. I didn't bother to sneak in my Nikon D50 this time.

Also, my dad had a good idea and we took the Metro to the game. It was a nice ride and it was my first time on the Blue Line. We caught the train at Lakewood station on the Green Line, transferred to the Blue Line at Rosa Parks, and got off at Pico, right down the street from Staples Center. Just $1.25 each way! Just a little cheaper than the $15 to park near Staples.

Tangram Game

A new game for you guys. It's all about speed. I got an 835 my first time. What did you get? (LINK)

One free second.

Did you hear the big news? At the end of December, we're getting a free second! It's just like Daylight Savings except about 3600 times smaller. On December 31st at midnight, the final minute of 2005 will be 61 seconds long. Apparently our Earth's rotation ain't perfect, so we have to compensate for it.

Here's how it will go at the end of this year:

2005 December 31 23h 59m 58s
2005 December 31 23h 59m 59s
2005 December 31 23h 59m 60s
2006 January 01 00h 00m 00s
2006 January 01 00h 00m 01s

If you want to read more about it, click here. So, what are you going to do with the extra time?

Oh no.

Star Wars is great. Transformers are great. Look what's coming out in January. Oh no.

International Space Station

Looks like the Internation Space Station has been around for 5 years now. Here are some really cool pictures they've taken since they started. (LINK)

Funny videos.

Do you need insurance? I didn't think so. But, at least they have funny video clips.

http://www.lifecomesatyoufast.com/

2005 WTA Tour Championships

On Saturday, Jimmy had some extra tickets to go see the 2005 WTA Tour Championships at Staples Center (Hollywood hookup). We sat in the 5th row! We saw two matchups: Lindsay Davenport v. Mary Pierce and Maria Sharapova v. Amelie Mauresmo.

Well, upon entrance, we noticed that they were not allowing camera lenses longer than 3.5 inches long. Well, they had me pull out my camera and they checked it. It must be about 3.7 inches long. Seriously. That's lame. So they had me escorted to guest services to check in my camera bag. I wasn't about to let this prevent me from taking pictures, so I snuck my camera out of the bag at the last minute before turning it in. Victory! The only downside was that I had to leave my telephoto lens in the bag (I didn't want the camera bag to be too light). Anyway, yet another win for Russell's camera in the battle against Security. So, here are the results (if I had my telephoto lens, I would've been able to take pictures up the tennis players' noses...maybe it's better I didn't have it):

Here was our view from the 5th row:

Lindsay Davenport vs. Mary Pierce (they had 2 tiebreakers!):

Maria Sharapova vs. Amelie Mauresmo:

I was most impressed with Maria Sharapova despite her loss. She was very aggressive and her serve was awesome. She wasn't able to take control of the game because she let her mistakes get to her head.

If you want to see more pictures, click here.

The next day, Mary Pierce played in the Finals against Amelie Mauresmo. Mauresmo took the victory, which was well deserved.

Spaceway F2 Launch !

Probably not the most exciting news for you, but the second satellite I have worked on is launching today! The first Spaceway satellite (Spaceway F1) launched this past April and is already functional. I worked on both of them. Together both Spaceway F1 and F2 will provide high-definition TV to the world. They will have the capacity to deliver 500 HD channels through DirecTV. (Here's an article)

If you want to watch the launch live, it will be playing on DirecTV Channel 399 at 3:45pm-4:30pm. I'll be Tivo-ing it, don't worry. :)

Star Wars...in ASCII

Some brilliant mind has recreated Star Wars: Episode IV in ASCII code. Now you can watch the whole movie right off the internet! It's pretty hilarious and it has the entire script. Note: If you want to fast forward, just click your mouse over the movie.

Thanks, Nancy, for the link.

Happy Birthday, Jill !

Our friend Jill turned 27 today. Just wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday. (She's the one on the left)

Patience, my friend.

As you know, I have been waiting for this day. The day when Netflix makes Trapped in the Closet (Check yesterday's post) available. November 8th. Here's what I found out today:

This is an outrage! I should have known it would have been a hot item. "Very long wait" ?!?

I even strategized by not returning one of our DVDs until yesterday...just so I could get the R Kelly DVD when it came out.

Looks like I need to look to other avenues...

Happy Birthday, Joel !

Today is Joel's birthday and at work we had the typical photo cake made just for him.

Don't ask.

Happy XXst birthday, Joel. Enjoy your day.

Later on, we went to dinner at Bluewater Grill in Redondo Beach. Joel tried some oysters, but that didn't work out too well for him.

Amy got Joel a nice ice cream cake for his birthday.

It was a fun party. Thanks for setting it up, Amy.

Can't Touch Me

The Family Guy always provides some great forms of entertainment. Here's a clip of Peter doing his version of "Can't Touch This." (LINK)

Trapped in the Closet

If you are like most people, you were probably ready to skip this entry altogether once you saw R Kelly's face. I don't blame you. Well, with prolonged exposure certain things evolve from disliked to hated to accepted to enjoyed (I feel like Yoda). Some things are so bad that they are great. That's where Trapped in the Closet by R Kelly has gone for me.

Before I go any further, let me explain. Trapped in the Closet has got to be the worst "song" I have ever heard. It has R Kelly narrating this ridiculous soap opera drama with this really bad repeating background. There is no melody, no chorus, and he just keeps talking about what he said and what she said. The best part is that the song is broken up into 12 chapters (so far) and each one has a really bad cliffhanger, so you are left with a desire for more.

If you haven't already, you have to see for yourself. Check out Chapter 1 here.

Want more? Check out Chapter 2 here. (Let the commercials play first)

There have been 8 chapters that have played on the radio. I have only seen the videos for 1 and 2, but have followed the story in the first 8. The story starts with Sylvester, played by R Kelly. This is the madness that has occurred so far (note the legend at the bottom):

Isn't that fantastic? It's a love spider web. The best news is that R Kelly just came out with the DVD with all 12 chapters in it. Netflix won't have it available until tomorrow, so we'll check out the last 4 chapters when I get it in. We'll be following it closely...