The world would be a better place if you just listened to me

Two drunks are walking along. One drunk says to the other, “What a beautiful night… look at the moon.”
The other drunk stops and looks at his drunk friend. “That’s not the moon,” he says, “that’s the sun.”
They started arguing for a while when they came upon another drunk, so they stopped him.
“Sir, could you please help settle our argument? Tell us what that thing is up in the sky that’s shining. Is it the moon or the sun?”
The third drunk looked at the sky and then looked at them and said, “Sorry, I don’t live around here.”

p.s. Lakers win the Pacific Title! Suck it Phoenix

and then this:

Showtime is back baby!

what are you doing today?

I’m working late, and then coming home and watching LOST.

I actually blacked out during the second half…. what happened?

I know this post is kind of late, sorry. But look, I’m trying to post regularly these days (mostly in short outbursts), so give me a break.

Pics from the Superbowl party I attended are here

Couple notes about the game and event:
1. Playing a drinking game involving three six-sided dice with pictures of crustaceans instead of the numbers is generally a bad idea.
2. Double fisting a tall glass of scotch in one hand, and a tall glass of gin in the other, also is generally a bad idea.
3. My jungle juice margarita mix was a hit. One of these days, I’ll post my secret recipe.
4. Designated Drivers rock (Thanks dear)
5. The game itself…I never thought I’d see the day Bill Belichick gets outcoached with two weeks to prepare…by Tom Coughlin.
6. look, the Giants played their a$$es off, and deserved to win, but Eli Manning as the Super Bowl MVP. Please. The Play was a good play, but that was about it. The Pats DBs were playing with stone hands, or Eli would have thrown 4 picks in that game, including the one Asante Samuel let go through his hands in the fourth quarter that would have iced the game for the Pats. Eli got lucky, you’ll never convince me otherwise. But look, luck counts for as much as skill, so good for him. I should also note here, you can directly correlate the Giants win to the fact that they actually tried against the Pats in Week 17, when they had nothing but pride to pay for. I’m Hindu, so Karma is a big deal to me.
7. If you are looking for the biggest reason the Pats lost, its this column by Bill Simmons, written more than a week before the Superbowl, comparing the 2007 Pats and the 86 Celtics (one of the greatest basketball teams ever, and, yes, they won the title that year). Its almost inconceivable for someone who writes as much about jinx’s and karma and the role of Murphy’s Law in sports to have written a column essentially assuming that his team wins the Championship.

I, like most people, have random IM conversations with people during work. Yeah, probably not a good idea, but whatever.

Anyway, have you ever had one of those conversations, where the other person starts typing in all caps. And you say “why are you yelling?” and they reply “SORRY, IM WORKING IN ALL CAPS, AND IM TOO LAZY TO SWITCH”.

That really pi$$es me off. Here are a couple reasons why.

1. Let me get this straight…. you aren’t too lazy to alt-tab over, or (if you’re a moron), click over with your mouse to a different window, but you can’t freaking press the caps-lock key? In addition to being lazy, you know what else you are? a loser. i bet you also don’t know how to paste formats only in excel. loser.
2. Its a lot like people who are in loud places and answer the phone, and even though its too loud to have a conversation, they insist on trying anyway. Dude, put the phone down, and call me later when its quiet. DONT SHOUT AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS. Similarly, if you are doing something at work that prevents you from typing normally, how about you don’t type till you’re done.

I went to Yahoo! answers and searched for this question… lo and behold, most people agree with me.

A couple weeks ago, a friend took us on a pretty sweet hike out near Malibu.

If you’re in the area and are looking for a good hike, I highly recommend it, especially now, so close to the storms we’ve had, as the creeks and waterfalls are going pretty strong.
The hike starts in North Malibu just off of PCH. You hike about 2 miles through shaded woods, crossing over a creek (several) times, till you end up at the lower falls (because there are four falls overall). This is just the start, as the payoff, another 150 foot waterfall, is near the top. If you’re feeling feisty (which we were), you can climb to the top of the waterfall. The rock climbing itself requires some moderate skill, but its fun. There’s even a part where you have to climb through a crevice, on top of a boulder, en route to the top.

Anyway, my pictures are here.

As a sidenote, when we got to the top of the falls, there were some adventurers tying ropes to the trees getting ready to rappel down the waterfall. I got a video of one of the guys starting (and failing at) his descent:

Of the 5-6 people who read this blog regularly, I know for sure that atleast 2 (including myself) watch HBO’s The Wire on a regular basis.

If you aren’t the other one, you probably should start. I’d recommend you rent the DVDs and watch from the beginning. The fifth and final season is going on right now.
I don’t know much about many things, but one thing I do know is television, and so trust me when I tell you that this show is the best show on television right now, and it has been for a couple years now.

Anyway, for those of you that are caught up, I came across a pretty cool blog by Sudhir Venkatesh. Who is Sudhir Venkatesh you might ask? He was made popular in the book, Freakonomics, by Steven Leavitt, but basically, several years ago, he was a grad student walking around some housing projects in Chicago trying to get poor people to take a survey. Somehow, he ended up having a gun drawn on him, and then, he became really good friends with an upcoming gang leader, and so, like any good sociologist, over the next 7 years, he continues to hang out with these guys, learns all about their organization, the economics behind it, how they fit society, yada yada, and then writes a book about it.

In his current series of blog postings, he watches the last season of The Wire with his gang banging friends, and then blogs about it. Some of the comments are priceless, like this one from the episode that aired this past Sunday:

“You know why [black men] don’t do serial killing?” Tony-T asked me.

“That’s not true; black Americans have actually participated in serial killings,” I began to lecture. “It’s a myth that they don’t.”

“It’s a joke, my man,” Tony-T interrupted, disappointed that I would go into professorial mode so quickly.

“Okay, why then? Why aren’t black folk serial killers?”

“Because we can’t count that high.”

The first post in the series is here

Btw, before you ask, no, I have not read Gang Leader for the Day. But I am second on the waiting list at the Santa Monica Library.

Dumb? Yes.
Panic move after the Lakers got Gasol without giving up any of their top 10 players? Yes.
Last big move Steve Kerr ever makes? Yes.

shat on me today.

awesome