New Senator

Jon Hamm was so great on SNL this week, that it was hard for me to just pick one skit to post here. I ended up picking the Scott Brown skit. Enjoy. *wink*

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards Ceremony is tonight and I have to go to a party for it, even though I don't really want to. I like my friends, but I don't like watching the Grammy Awards live, I usually just tape it so I can fast-forward past the 85% of the show that I don't care about. I don't want to see Taylor Swift perform live with Neil Young (or something like that). Ugh, plus, apparently Michael Jackson's children are going to be put on display. Yuck.

Since I can't avoid it, however, there are a few categories that I guess I won't mind seeing. Here they are (I've put in bold the ones I wouldn't mind seeing get a win):

Best New Artist:

Zac Brown Band (winner)

Keri Hilson

MGMT

Silverson Pickups

The Ting Tings

Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals:

"I Gotta Feeling" - The Black Eyed Peas (winner)

"We Weren't Born to Follow" - Bon Jovi

"Never Say Never" - The Fray

"Sara Smile" - Hall & Oates

"Kids" - MGMT

Best Alternative Music Album

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - David Byrne & Brian Eno

The Open Door - Death Cab For Cutie

Sounds of the Universe - Depeche Mode

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix (winner)

It's Blitz - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

"Ego" - Beyonce & Kanye West

"Knock You Down" - Keri Hilson, Kanye West, & Ne-Yo

"Run This Town" - Jay-Z, Rhianna, & Kanye West (winner)

"I'm On a Boat" - The Lonely Island & T-Pain

"Dead and Gone" T.I. & Justin Timberlake

Best Comedy Album

"Back From The Dead" - Spinal Tap

"A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!" - Stephen Colbert (winner)

"Internet Leaks" - "Weird Al" Yankovic

"My Weakness Is Strong" - Patton Oswalt

"Suckin’ It For The Holidays" - Kathy Griffin

"Tall, Dark & Chicano" - George Lopez

Depeche Mode is also nominated in the Best Short Form Music Video category for "Wrong." That video is scary. It's about, like, a guy with a mask who is tied up and driving backwards. Wrong is right.

My friends like country music and Lady Gaga. Gah.

Where are You in the Movie of Life?

This site is pretty fun for a few seconds:

If you put in your birthday and the age you think you'll be when you die, it will show you a picture of where you would be in a movie if your life were a movie (Like Star Wars or The Princess Bride). This is where I would be in Star Wars if I die at 72.5 years old.

You can post your results on Facebook, too.

Phobias

Scary!!!!

I live in Southern California, so most of my Sunday mornings are spent listening to Breakfast with the Beatles on 95.5 KLOS. This show always has quiz questions and gives away prizes (usually tickets to see something I would not want to see, like a Beatles tribute band or something). Today was actually the first day that I actually knew the answer to BOTH of the quiz questions AND they were giving away some pretty good prizes that I would actually like to have! I added the KLOS number to my phone and called in. The second time, instead of a busy signal, the phone rang!

And then I hung up.

Ever since I was a little kid, listening to the terrible top 40 in the early 90's ("Informer" by Snow, anyone?) I have had a fear of calling in to radio stations. It freaks me out. My heart starts beating really fast.

I am not afraid of public speaking - I like public speaking. My job requires me to speak in front of large groups all the time. So, I don't know what this fear of radio station calling is about.

I HAVE called radio stations before, and been on the air. I even won a contest once where the question was "What is Shakespeare's birthday?" for tickets to a play. But today, I just couldn't pull it out for the Ringo CD set. Hmmm.

Speaking of phobias, I also have a (somewhat mild) fear of maps - especially Google Earth. I read about this recently; it's not that uncommon. It's actually a form of acrophobia - the fear of heights! You see, by looking at a map, it's almost like you are high above the earth looking down on it! Isn't that crazy?

Do you have any unusual phobias? If you leave your thoughts in the comment section, I promise not to make fun of you!

Things that Make Me Want to Puke, Part 1

First of all, McDonald's is a horrible, cruel corporation. For more information, visit mccruelty.com.

I have been boycotting McDonald's for over a year now - and will continue to do so until they re-think their policy on animal abuse (after which point I will go back to only getting fries and the occasional cherry pie - do they still have those?).

Not to make light of their sick abuse of chickens, but now they are making me sick with their TV commercial for a Big Mac burrito! Not only does the sight of a burrito made out of pickles, "special sauce", a meat patty cut in half, etc. look incredibly unappetizing (even if I did eat meat) but the commercial itself is creepily puke-inducing. A bunch of people are supposedly in a romantic relationship with the burrito, plying it with pick up lines, laying on a blanket on the grass with it, etc. before eating it.

Every time I see this commercial I want to puke.

For good news on the fast food front, Sonic has now agreed to purchase meat and eggs from less cruel suppliers! You can read about it here. (So happy to hear about the cage free eggs)!

Some Updates

This past week, I have posted a lot of short blog entries and they were starting to look strange and/or lazy, so I put them together into this one post. Enjoy and feel free to leave your comments.

• Torchwood in America: Torchwood is coming to America according to this article. Does this mean a certain person will come back to life?
• Shirtless Magazine Covers: In case you wanted to take a look... Johnny Depp appears shirtless on the cover of the latest issue of GQ. And (for some reason) John Mayer is shirtless on the cover of Rolling Stone. They both have tattoos on their left arms.
• Villain News: Peter Saarsagard might play the villain in the new Green Lantern movie.
• More Good News: Soon, you will be able to stream Netflix movies from your Wii!
• Traffic: I read this article today about the areas in the U.S. with the worst traffic. I can't believe only two of these are near me (in the L.A. area). It's nice to know that other Americans share the grief of the Angelinos.
• Grammy's 2010 (Um, 2009?): Here is an article from the L.A. Times about how Phoenix is up against Depeche Mode at the Grammy's.
• Death Metal Rooster: If you haven't seen this YouTube clip of the Death Metal Rooster, you should watch it. Turn down your speakers a little bit, first.

I warned you.

By the way, you wouldn't want to eat anything this cute, would you? Check out Meat Free Monday!

Coachella 2010

So today was the big day, they announced the line-up for the 2010 Caochella Valley Music and Arts Festival. You can check out the site here.

Last year was the best Coachella ever! This year a lot of great bands are playing, but there doesn't seem to be any really big act or a surprise or anything. I would go if MGMT and Phoenix were playing on the same night, but they are not. Also, I hear Jay-Z is amazing live, but I'm not really into the other acts on Friday night. Them Crooked Vultures has Dave Grohl, but I don't even know what LCD Soundsystem is. Tiesto? Pavement?? By the way, why are there so many question marks after Thom Yorke???? Does that mean it might be Radiohead? If so, will they play BEFORE Pavement?

Can you go? Do you want to? What night would you choose? I think I would pick Saturday. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Update: I just learned that Pavement is reuniting for this. I didn't know they had split up because I don't know who they are. Um... maybe they were famous in 2002-2005 when I was living in Japan?

Update 1/20/10: Here is an article about the question marks behing Thom Yorke's name.

The Jimmy Fallon Experiment: Day One (Fever Pitch Night)

So I Tivo'd Late Night with Jimmy Fallon this week to see if it will be my new show. I will review each of the week's episodes here on the blog!

Monday Night/Tuesday morning Jan. 11/12, 2010:

• Jimmy had the audience play a spit take game where they spit on each other. It was pretty funny! I liked when he asked one team to switch places because he didn't "want to get anything on The Roots."
• The first guest was Maggie Glyyenhaal (I don't know how to spell her name, but her husband is Peter Saarsgard). Everyone says the movie Crazy Heart is really good, but it's about a country singer. Apparently Jimmy actually likes country music because his wife likes it. Maggie said she got into it when she was nineteen, too. She is one of those hipster people who throw around names like Bobbie Gentry, Iris DeMente, and Gillian Welch, (Jimmy asked if she was "in the X-Files" which was not funny) because they didn't grow up around country music, but Jimmy's wife is into non-hipsters like Merle Haggard.
• The next guest was baseball player David "Big Papi" Ortiz. I think he plays for the Red Sox. Jimmy mentioned being in the movie Fever Pitch within two seconds of the guy coming out, but it was interesting when he described how the movie was originally supposed to end with him and Drew in "old people make-up" in, like 2053 or something, when the Red Sox finally won (but then, you know, they won). He sells hot sauce. It's also hip to be into hot sauce. I'm not that into hot sauce. I would totally pretend to be into hot sauce, but I'm afraid I would end up having to put it to the test one day, just like if I pretended to be into Bobbie Gentry, someone would eventually make me listen to country on, like, a cross country road trip or something. Anyway, Big Papi threw some eggs at Jimmy. It was pretty good.
• The last guest was a Boston comedian, Lenny Clark. He is on Rescue Me and... wait for it... he played Jimmy's uncle in Fever Pitch! Then he talked about how fat he was when he was in Fever Pitch! Stop talking about Fever Pitch, everyone! This was kind of like a Boston theme night.

Overall, it was a fun show and a good start to my Late Night experiment. Now I can look forward to watching the next episode which is all about Ringo!

I Re-Name the Jelly Belly Flavors

Pina Colada: Suntan Lotion

Very Cherry: Cough Syrup

Lemon Lime: Citrus Candle

Buttered Popcorn: Puke

Chocolate Pudding: I don't know, I still have that buttery puke taste in my mouth

Blueberry: Plain

Peach: Peach Candle

Bubble Gum: Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy: Bubble Gum

Orange Sherbet: Yeah, this does taste like Orange Sherbet

Island Punch: Purple

Licorice: Yuck! I can't believe I accidentally ate this!

Green Apple: Old socks

Watermelon: Watermelon Bubblegum

Tangerine: Orange

Tutti-Frutti: Bubble Gum

Coconut: Almond Joy

Toasted Marshmallow: Sugar

I'm sorry, there are two more flavors in the box, but I need to stop eating them, these are making me ill.

I'm with Coco

Fast Food

I wrote about this article before, in this post on how to save money, but today I actually tried out their advice.

The basic premise is to make fast food at home, specifically breakfast. We've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Did you know that your metabolism is higher in the morning (within 30 minutes of waking up)? That means you can eat more calories. People who try to lose weight by skipping breakfast are really doing themselves a disservice. Not only does a good breakfast give you the energy to last until lunch, but it also keeps you from snacking, or eating a big lunch you don't need. You can even save money by eating breakfast! Most people who skip breakfast end up going out to lunch, spending more money.

The website suggests making your breakfast in advance (say, on Sunday morning), putting it in the freezer, and then heating it up in the microwave for a few minutes right before you leave in the morning! Here are some recipes:

Breakfast burritos:

Make up some scrambled eggs (I like to put chopped up peppers and veggie sausage in mine), sprinkled some shredded cheese on top, then wrap them up in a tortilla. Wrap the tortilla in saran wrap (or put it n a freezer-proof ziplock bag) and put it in the freezer. When you're ready to eat, take off the plastic wrap, wrap the burrito in a towel, and put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Then you can even take it out the door with you if you are in a hurry. At my work, there is a microwave and a freezer, so I can even leave some at work in case I am in a real hurry, or forget.

Croissant sandwich:

I found some mini croissants in the bakery section of the grocery store. I took two and put the rest in the freezer. Then, I made up two little omelettes and put one on each of the croissants to make a little sandwich. I sprinkled some cheese on before putting each sandwich in a freezer bag.

Update: I have been eating these things for breakfast for three days. My review so far? In an emergency, this would be OK. I guess it's better than not eating any breakfast at all, but really these are kind of gross. The top of the tortilla gets all hard and dry and the cheese gets way too hot. I think it would be better to just heat the eggs and then put them on a tortilla with some cheese, but then, if you're going to do that, just make some eggs!

The Characters from LOST Make a Sandwich

"Read about us making a sandwich!"

I liked this link which describes what I just mentioned above.

Also, it doesn't really give any spoilers for the last half of the last season of LOST, which I still need to catch up on before February's premiere of the last season. I'm not giving up!

Late Night

Is anyone else tired of Jay Leno? Just go home to your cars and retire!

I was a longtime fan of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and thought he was really getting his due when NBC announced he would be taking over the Tonight Show. Then NBC pulled that stupid move of giving Leno a show that came on right before the Tonight Show. (To be fair, I never watched that show, but I have heard it was pretty terrible and that it was a lot like Leno's Tonight Show which I did not like). Now, according to articles like this, they are going to move Conan (and Jimmy Fallon) to even LATER in the evening to give Jay his old spot back. That sounds like a terrible idea.

Anyway, as much as I like Conan, his Tonight Show is not his Late Night. I've decided to give Jimmy Fallon a try because, from the commercials, it looks like he is doing some pretty funny out-there things and has some interesting quirky guests.

Well, the perfect time to switch to Jimmy is here - Ringo Tuesday! On Tuesday, Ringo Starr's new album Y Not hits stores (are there still any record stores?) and he will be the only guest on Late Night.

Maybe if Conan's Tonight Show moves to after midnight (or to FOX), he will get to show a little more of that old Late Night pizazz, but starting Tuesday I'm setting my DVR to Jimmy Fallon.

Shy Ronnie

On Sundays, I usually post the funniest clip from SNL the night before. I didn't think it was very funny last night, so here is the "Shy Ronnie" Digital Short from a few weeks ago.

Speak Up!

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Gold Nails

Here is a picture of my New Years manicure: I got gold nails. It is gold nail polish covered with gold glitter polish! They are pretty cool looking. I feel like I'm on my way to Studio 54 or something. My nails are not very long, though, because my guitar class (level B!) starts again on Monday.

I want to try this myself at home, but I haven't found any gold polish yet.

Reviews of Movies I have Recently Seen From Netflix Written in Iambic Pentameter

"Art thou an Urban Haute Bourgeoisie?"

Bruno:

This movie was not very humorous.

A Chorus Line:

A movie about dancers on the stage;

the documentary is better, though.

Funny People:

That girl from Parks and Rec is cool, and so

Is Jason Schwartzman when he's on Yo, Teach!

But overall, this movie's just OK.

The Last Days of Disco:

It's finally on DVD, the third

Whit Stillman film. Barcelona was not

as good, but Metropolitan is best.

(This one is not great iamb-wise, but the wisdom is sound).

Flight of the Conchords: Season 2

The final season of the Conchord's flight.

I like the song about the full dance floor.

Coraline:

I could not watch this movie - I got scared.

Top 10 "Coming Soon to Netflix Streaming" Movie Titles that Sound Like Fake Movies from Seinfeld

1. Marco Polo

2. The Girl From Monaco

3. Tears of the Sun

4. The Chaos Experiment

5. Ghost Ship

6. The Other Man

7. Funky Monkey

8. Pandora's Box

9. Smiles of a Summer Night

10. Blood Alley

George: "So are we still on for the movies tonight?"

Kramer: "Yeah, we've got to see that Blood Alley."

Jerry: "Blood Alley? No, we're going to see Marco Polo."

Elaine: "I don't want to see Marco Polo!"

George: "We could see The girl from Monaco..."

Elaine: "George!"

Kramer: "Well, how about Pandora's Box?"

Elaine: "I am NOT going to see Pandora's Box."

Jerry: "Well, let's just see The Chaos Experiment."

Of, course, when they show up, everything is sold out except for "Smiles of a Summer Night" and no one is happy.

To see a list of crappy movies that will be streaming for free on Netflix soon, go here.

Money Saving Tips

Last year my new year's resolution was to save more money. I hope to continue that this year and hopefully add some new money-saving ideas to my routine. Here are a few tips I picked up that you might find useful.

1: Don't go to the movies. I have Netflix. Going to the movies should be something you only do for a special occasion.

2: Don't buy anything from iTunes. If someone asks me what I want as a gift, I can ask for an iTunes gift card! That's not cheating.

3: Bring a lunch to work. Here's an article with some good tips on bringing leftovers and here's a previous post of mine (and a follow-up post) on bento - a cute, fun, and convenient way to bring your own lunch. Also, try making your own (frozen) "fast food". See this article for ideas. Here's another one.

4: Call some of the companies you pay bills to (such as the cable company) and ask them to lower your payments.

5: Cancel your credit card. Then, set up a regular payment every month until you pay it off.

6: Invite friends over. This can cut down on your going out costs, especially if they return the favor by later inviting you over. Play games or watch one of your Netflix rentals!

7: Make a shopping list before you go to the grocery store. Plan out your meals. Make plans with your friends in advance if you are going to go out, so you can plan accordingly. Make sure to plan out what you are going to bring to work for lunch!

8: When you do go out to eat, save half of your food and bring it home. If that breakfast burrito cost you ten dollars, eat half and take the other half home. THEN you can even take the half you took home and stretch that out with some eggs in your fridge to make two or more meals.

9: Ask around at work about job benefits. I found out that people who work where I do can get a discount on their cell phone bill. I just overheard someone talking about it and asked them. I had no idea.

10: Get a separate savings account. Once my debt pay-off plan really kicks in, I'm thinking of getting a separate savings account at an online bank such as ING Direct. The savings account I have right now is so easy to access because it's attached to my checking account. If I put some of my money away elsewhere, where I can only get it if I go online type in my passwords and really arrange a transfer, it won't be so easy or tempting to dip into savings.

Finally, don't make yourself unhappy. It can be depressing to turn down an offer to go out with friends or to go right home after work instead of out shopping. Saving money doesn't have to mean staying alone at home every day doing nothing - find something new to do and do it - even if it costs a little money, it can make you happier which will keep you from going around spending that money or more on other things. I always wanted to take guitar lessons but I thought I couldn't afford a guitar, let alone weekly lessons! Once I invested in a good but cheap guitar and signed up for a $68 beginner course at the local community college, I found a new hobby that makes me happy and that I can now do for free every day. Check out Meetup.com to join a book club or find a free or inexpensive yoga class or just to meet up with some new people who enjoy some of the same things that you do. Give yourself some exciting new things to look forward to, and you won't have time to be sad about saving money!

Beverages Direct

Last year for the holidays, I ordered a case of Green River soda for my dad from Beverages Direct.

Last month in guitar class my instructor started talking about Birch Beer (which, I guess, is like cherry-flavored root beer).

Whatever your favorite soda is, you can probably get it at Beverages Direct. A case of nostalgic soda can makes a great gift for someone else, or for yourself.

Green River, by the way, is apparently "lollipop flavored."

2010: The Year of the Tiger

Read my previous post about omamori, the traditional Japanese New Years good luck charmhere.

I wrote about New Years in Japan last week and it occurred to me that I left several things out. For one, instead of Christmas cards, people in Japan send out New Years cards. You send one out to everyone you know (unless there was a death in their family) and then the post office delivers them all on January 1st. Usually, these post cards (called nengajo) are decorated on one side with the animal for that year (2010 is the year of the tiger) and feature the traditional greetings, あけましておめでとうございます ("akemashite omedeto gozaimasu" which basically means "Happy New Year") and 今年もよろしく ("kyonen mo yoroshiku" which means something like, "please continue to treat me well this year"). Many people decorate their own cards using special stamps, stickers, printing machines, etc.

Waking up on new years morning and getting that stack of post cards stuck together with a rubberband is really a treat (even though I usually only got a few myself and one of them was always from my dentist).

Another Japanese New Year tradition is otoshidama, or, giving money to kids. Sweet.

Food is important on new years. Traditionally, the new year is celebrated for three days and for those three days you are supposed to relax and not do any cooking. Thus, the osechi ryori.Osechi is a bunch of food usually served in a lacquer tray with different compartments in it for each type of food. When you are hungry, you get out the tray and eat some of the food, then you put it away again. All of the little foods have special meanings, such as eating long noodles to ensure a long life, or eating fish eggs to ensure fertility.

Another traditional food eaten at the new year is mochi - little pounded rice cakes. These are so sticky that every year newspapers and TV news shows report the number of old people who died from choking on them!

Another tradition is to watch the extremely long annual TV special, the Red and White Song Festival, where two teams (one red and one white) made up of popular musical acts from the year, compete by singing/performing their hit songs. The teams include pop musicians as well as traditional Enka singers. You can read more about this show, known as the Kohaku, here. This year, apparently, that Susan Boyle woman is set to appear.

Here is a post from the blog I kept when I was living in Japan, complete with a hatsumode picture from my cell phone.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! Kyonen mo yoroshiku!
I spent the holidays in Japan this year, saving money instead of going on a trip. Since several of my co-workers decided to go to Thailand, I guess it's a good thing I decided to take it easy. I spent Christmas with my host family and New Year's with my friends in the snow. A special thanks to my friends and family who remembered me with a card or package! A little bit of home for the holidays!
Here is a picture of my first shrine visit of the year (Hatsumode)!

Top 10 "Middle" Movies of the Decade

I don't know who David Wane is (his blog is apparently titled, "BLOG"), but I like his top ten list of the ten "middle" movies of the decade - movies that were not the best or the worst. :) Here is the list (I have added links to IMDB pages, years, and my own unnecessary snarky comments).

1. Changing Lanes (2002): Ben Affleck and Sam Jackson... change lanes or something.
2. Blue Crush (2002): Hotel maid gives surfing lessons to football player or something.
3. Runaway Jury (Tie with Baby Mama) (2003): A jury runs away from home and then learns a valuable lesson, maybe?
4. Baby Mama (Tie with Runaway Jury) (2008): Everyone loves that Tina Fey, right? Right?
5. 3:10 to Yuma (2007): A psycho outlaw tries to outwit a rancher. One of these characters is played by Christian Bale and the other is Russel Crowe. My question: which one is not the psycho?
6. Music & Lyrics (2007): This movie is pretty cool. Plus, It has that guy from Glee in it.
7. Charlie Wilson's War (2007): This has Tom Hanks in it.
8. The Terminal (2004): So does this.
9. Insomnia (2002) The Robin Williams/Al Pacino flick we had all been waiting for.
10. The Mexican (2001): This is about a gun. I think.

Get those Netflix queues ready fans of mediocrity!

January Holidays

January 2010

So, it's 2010. Just for fun, I decided to look up what wacky holidays happen this month. There are so many, that I am only going to include a select few here. You can see the full list at this site.

January is...

International Creativity Month

National Bird-Feeding Month

National Get Organized Month

National Hot Tea Month

National Self Defense Awareness Month

National Soup Month

The 8th-14th is National Letter Writing Week

The 18th-23rd is National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week

January 3rd is Remember You Are Going to Die Day/Chocolate Covered Cherry Day

January 5th is Bean Day

January 7th is Harlem Globetrotter's Day

January 8th is Bubble Bath Day/Women's Day/Show and Tell at Work Day

January 11th is National Clean Off Your Desk Day

January 13th is Rubber Duckie Day

January 20th is National Disc Jockey Day

January 23rd is National Handwriting Day

January 24th is National Compliment Day

January 25th is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

January 26th is National Peanut Brittle Day

January 29th is Fun at Work Day

January 30th is Insane Answering Message Day

Then get ready for Working Naked/Robinson Crusoe Day on February 1st!