American Teen- Revisited

I finally got to see American Teen last night!! I really loved it. I laughed, A Lot...and I cried too. It is a great film that truly allows you into the lives of these kids.

Hannah- My favorite character (I guess she is not a character, she is a real person.) She is unique, funny, very comfortable in her own skin and so likable. Definitely someone I would want to be friends with. She is inspiring, creative, ambitious and talented. Everything you would ever want to be.


Jake- You really feel for this guy. He is an awkward outcast, but he makes it so much worse by telling himself he is a loser every chance he gets. I believe your thoughts can manifest into whatever it is you are thinking about. He thinks about being a "loser" so much that he cannot break the mold. He stole the show when he leaned over to his date and says, "we are a lot alike, we both suck at life..." That was the end of that date.


Megan- Annoying, mean and spoiled. The girl you hated in high school. Although, the most emotional part of the movie for me was when she received her college acceptance letter.


Mitch- Seems like a nice guy. But proves to be a jerk when he breaks up with Hannah via text message...jackass.



Colin- Everyone will cheer for Colin. Truly a nice guy. Very focused on basketball. In order to get out of his small town and move forward into adulthood, he has to get a scholarship because his parents can't afford to send him to college. Believe me, you will cheer for Colin.


My 10 year reunion was last weekend and I didn't go. This movie got me thinking about who I was in high school and who I imagined I would turn into afterward. I think I was a combination of Hannah and (unfortunately) Megan....but, I'll save that for another blog...

Photo Stealer

Here I go again, posting pictures of kids (and a dog) I don't know.
I saw this and it made me laugh....I had to share it with you.

....even though that meant stealing.

Equality- I Love It!

This is pretty awesome.

Hallmark Adds Gay-Marriage Cards
The nation's largest greeting card company is rolling out same-sex wedding cards — featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. "Two hearts. One promise," one says.

Nearly 120,000 gay couples will marry in California during the next three years — and that means millions of potential dollars for all sorts of wedding-industry businesses.

Discrimination is soooo unattractive.

Open Mindedness + Respect To Others = Human Rights

RAD

Abe and Ricky gave me the pleasure of viewing "Rad" this weekend.

Have you seen it? It's a BMX movie that came out in 1986.

80's to the MAX and totally RAD!

THREAD ~ Sunday 8-17-08

Come check out the latest and greatest from EXIST1981!

Yogurt Craze 2008

Have you noticed it? People lining up at all hours of the day to get their fix.
It's the Yogurt Craze of 2008!

I first noticed it when Golden Spoon replaced Ben & Jerry's in Hillcrest.

Abe and I thought "frozen yogurt...yum...that sounds good..." We stopped by a couple months ago on a week night for a quick treat. To our surprise, the quick treat was going to be a lot more complicated.

First, there was the battle for the parking spot. Parking is limited and people are irate. They want their yogurt damn it! Horns honking, spot stealing and everything! We parked safely and made our way to the entrance. "Whoa!" I said "Look at the line." It was out the door. 12 deep at least. We waited, no problem.

Once I could read the menu I was baffled. Golden Spoon has many options, about 15 flavors and endless mix-ins. Abe warned me not to get up there and start asking for samples, as the line behind us continued to grow. But I couldn't resist I tasted a few (cake batter, root beer) and ended up with peanut butter yogurt with reeses pieces. So yummy!

On a different trip to Golden Spoon (they actually have gold spoons...nice touch) as we were standing in the line that goes out the door, we noticed a lonely little yogurt shop right across the street. Yog-Art.





















Poor Yog-Art. They have to stare at the uber successful Golden Spoon all day! I decided next time, we would give the little guy a shot.

And we did.
And Yog-Art was GOOD too!
And they didn't have a line out the door, but they were busy.

I tried the Taro with mango. D-Lish.
(That's not me in the picture, I found it on google, like all the other pictures on this post)

The Hard Rock Hotel opened in downtown earlier this year. And since then they had a Pinkberry Coming Soon sign. Pinkberry might just be the leader of the Yogurt Craze of 2008.





















We had heard of it. We were curious. We knew it was in cool places like LA and New York. We tried it a few weeks ago....and have been back several times.

After a late dinner at La Puerta, we walked over. It was about 11pm, on a Wednesday night, and guess what? There was a line out the door! Seriously. Mostly due to the Padres game that had just ended, but still...seriously.

Oddly enough, Patrick and Sara, who were visiting from Austin, were there. Lucky us, they were at the front of the line and they ordered for us. I tried original with mango, Abe had original with oreos. I was surprised that the original tastes a lot like regular vanilla yogurt. Abe didn't like it with oreos but since then he has ordered it with fruit and he likes it much better.

My favorite Pinkberry treat is original with fruity pebbles and mango. YUM!
*Raddest thing about Pinkberry, they are open til 3am on Friday and Saturday*

And then, last night, we tried the Pinkberry copy cat, Red Mango.


I don't know how a company can get away with completely copying the business plan of another company. Isn't it illegal? Pink Berry/Red Mango. The menu is 99% identical. Crazy.

But...Red Mango was good. The original was sweeter and the green tea tasted less chemically than Pinkberry.

I have to confess something...
We have been on a minor yogurt binge. Can you tell?

But really...what's up with the Yogurt Craze of 2008? Have you been enjoying as much frozen yogurt as we have?

UPDATE: We found another one, Apple Green in La Jolla. Since the trend seems to be to pick a name with a color and a fruit, I would name my yogurt shop "Orange Orange," representing both my favorite fruit and one of my favorite colors. :D

Sandy Allen- The Worlds Tallest Woman

The worlds tallest woman passed away this morning. I remember looking at pictures of her in the Guinness Book of World Records when I was in elementary school.

Sandy Allen
7 ft 7.25 inches
June 18 1955 - August 13 2008

Wish I Were Here

It's like 50 degrees in my office today. I'm trying to think warm thoughts.

Virgo- August Horoscope

Courtesy of Astrologyzone.com

August is my birthday month, so I was excited to read my wonderful birthday horoscope...that is, until I read it. It's AWFUL! I refuse to believe my birthday month will be this bad. Here are a few terrible excerpts:

You may find out that a relative will be hospitalized in early August.

A trusted member of your staff may leave at the office, or someone you depend upon at home may suddenly say she's leaving. This will put more on your shoulders, so keep that in mind.

In your personal relationships, one very tough incident may be coming up, due to Mars (energy, inflammation, heat, anger, war) in direct opposition to Uranus (explosive and unpredictable events) (ha ha). Here you have a recipe for a very difficult confrontation.

There are other difficult aspects of the month, I am sorry to say. On August 15, Mercury, your ruler, will conjoin Saturn, suggesting news will be weighty and heavy. You seem to be overly sensitive on this day, but you can use this day for good by signing a contract or making a plan that you want to be in place a very long time. If anyone is critical of you on this day, try to take the parts of the feedback that can help you and discard the rest.

Uuurrrggghhhhhhh.

Here's one good thing:
If you were born on August 30 or within five days of this date, this new moon indicates your whole life is about to take off, and it will be filled with many fresh starts.

Clone your dog!

This is scary. We could have Stella forever thanks to cloning.

SEOUL (Reuters) - The loss of Booger the pit bull terrier was almost more than Bernann McKinney could bear.

Now she is happy, minus $50,000 and her house, and owner of five cloned Booger puppies.
"It is a miracle for me because I was able to smile again, laugh again and just feel alive again," McKinney told a news conference in the South Korea capital to show off the week-old black puppies -- all of whose names include the word Booger.

They are the work of the biotech firm RNL Bio, affiliated with the South Korean lab which produced the world's first cloned dog and is staffed with former associates of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk.

She sold her house in the United States to raise the $50,000 for RNL scientists to turn skin cells taken from Booger before he died two years ago into embryos carried by two surrogate dogs for two months until giving birth to the puppies last week.

"I had to make sacrifices and I dream of the day, some day when everyone can afford to clone their pet because losing a pet is a terrible, terrible loss to anyone."

After rescuing him from a shelter 12 years ago, Booger had become an indispensable part of her life, said the 57-year-old Californian. The lab said it hoped to make its technology more commercial along with its program to clone sniffer dogs for the Korean customs service.

"As of today, we are at the stage of receiving orders from anywhere in the world," RNL CEO Ra Jeongchan said.

RNL has said it expected to clone about 100 dogs next year and for the price to drop as technology improves.

Hwang has been on trial for more than two years on charges of breaking the law on research ethics and for misusing state funds and private donations. RNL's research staff is made up of scientists who stayed behind when Hwang left the prestigious Seoul National University after his research results were found to be fraudulent.

Dogs are considered one of the more difficult mammals to clone because their reproductive cycle includes difficult-to-predict ovulations.

Original article
(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and David Fox)

Chromeo-o-o-o-o-o

Chromeo
House of Blues San Diego
July 31, 2008

Our friends Patrick and Sara are visiting from Austin this week. On Thursday we went to see Chromeo! It was so fun and such a good show. We sat in the balcony, front and center. We also ran into more of our friends.

Me and Abe

Dave and Abe

Sara and Patrick

Me and Alex

Dave, Kelly and Brett

Fun with the Fisheye!