I figured out what I wanted to say. Southern California has become like an ashtray for some god's giant cuban cigar. All of these fires all over the place has got ash flying all over the place. Here in Riverside its not so bad because the winds don't come this way, but at Disneyland and back at home it was just awful. The smoke turned the sky orange, which was very cool, but going outdoors to enjoy it wasn't very plesant.

I decided to join a fraternity this week too. But honestly, I'm still not sure, although thats probably how it should be. Don't want to rush into any decisions that might "change my life" like they say.

Loon f/ Mario Winans - Down For Me

Been over a month since I posted and the Dodgers didn't make the playoffs, just to update on the last post. And what potentially could've been an awesome World Series between the Red Sox and Cubs turned out to be the worst possible combination for baseball. Nobody cares about the Marlins and for the most part, only New Yorkers care about the Yankees.

Anyways, today I watched Lost in Translation with a cool, subdued Bill Murray and a very cute Scarlett Johansson. The movie is mellow and the story sort of glides along in a very American Beauty type of way. Its just nice to be able to get immersed in movies. I thought I'd have more to say, but I suppose not.

Bubba Sparxxx - Deliverance

The Dodgers have fallen back 3 1/2 games behind in the wildcard playoff hunt. I took my mom and grandparents to their first baseball game today. My mom has been in the United States for years an she'd never been to a baseball game and now that I've been making money I figured it was time to spend some of it on something useful. I took my parents and my mom the the Dodger game last night versus the hated San Francisco Giants. I had myself some Dodger dogs, spilled some soda and condiments on myself. My grandparents seemed to have fun watching the game and learning about "the wave." They didn't really participate, but they seemed enthused at least. My mom definately tried to get into it and she got up to sing "Take Me Out To the Ballgame." I also think I've converted myself another Dodger fan. She learned about some baseball and even argued some umpire calls. She thought the Dodgers got shafted on at least two plays she later told me in the parking lot. Of course she said something like "I think the judges were unfair to the Dodgers because I think that the player caught the ball before the other team was safe." But I got the idea. Damn straight! Stupid umps. I'll just have to help her brush up on her terminology. "Runs" not "points," and "innings" instead of "games." She'll be a Dodger fan by next season.

My grandparents are already Dodger fans. Sure they don't bleed "Dodger Blue" or anything but they watch the games on TV. My grandfather likes baseball in general and watches it whenever the boys are on TV and since they have only one TV hooked up to the cable my grandma is obliged to watch along with him and he's explained the game quite well while watching at home, so she knows the game well enough. Yay! I think I'll make my future family a Dodger family, or sports fans at the very least, my wife can like whatever team she wants. Unfortunately the Dodgers lost 6-4 after two costly first inning errors by usually Gold-Glove caliber Alex Cora and Cesar Izturis. And of course Barry Bonds just had to homer against us. Tomorrow is another day and the Dodgers will make the playoffs! Then its a whole new ballgame.

On Thursday I went up to visit some friends in Westwood. I'm so jealous of their $3100/month apartment. They got a big screen and leather furniture included with their huge 4 room, 2 1/2 bath, 2 (almost 3) floored apartment. Crummy Riverside. Stupid desert. Oh, and school is starting, and that just blows.

Liz Phair - Why Can't I

Jeez, reading that last post, I was really in a pissy mood.

My computer ended up having nothing happen to it and I fixed it, for the most part. My parents are back to normal after a few additional days of cooling off. So basically I made a big deal out of nothing. I've found that most things that happen are pretty insignificant. Not that I thought my life was so significant that it warranted being announced everytime something did happen. Emotions mostly get in the way.

I worked yesterday and got sunburned, so that sucked. But I was talking to some of the other cast members there and one guy had joined the army after high school and was on active duty for 2 years before taking a medical leave after being stationed at Ft. Knox. He said he regretted joining the army, though it wasn't a bad experience. He just wished he'd done something else with those 2 years after high school. He now goes to Cerritos College and is going to transfer to a UC probably but he said he'd wished he had just gone to the UC right after high school and done ROTC or something similar to that. That got me thinking while I was enjoying this Sunday's NFL action and playing hours upon hours of Madden 2004 that I somewhat regret some of my own life choices. Nothing has gone horribly wrong with them, just I probably would've gone to another college had I known what I did then, what I do now.

UC Riverside has been nice and the people I've met have all been wonderful but I think I definately would've had a much more productive college experience by going somewhere else. I think I bought into the whole idea of going to a school with some sort of "name brand." And while UC Riverside isn't exactly a "great" name university wise, it does have the "UC" attached to it. I hardly looked into any colleges other than ones that I knew of and everyone and their mother wanted to apply to. UCLA, USC, Cal, UCSD, UCI or even CSULB, etc. I was too into staying near my home, though now that I've been in college for 2 years I have no idea why I wanted to. The only out of state colleges I applied to were NYU, because I had harbored some crazy (and very popular) dream about getting into the entertainment industry. Again, I was sucked into the popular belief, albeit this one being a glamourous one. The other out of state school was the University of Massachusetts and I only applied there because my dad was an alumni though my parents didn't even want me to goto that "second tier"-ish school when I could get an "equal education" here in California.

Although my parents, my mom moreso than my dad, encourage me to experience new things, meet new people, visit new places, etc. and don't just follow the herds, going to a school other than a UC seemed almost out of the question because UCs just hold some reputation for being academically stronger than other schools. But I think my parents and myself, as well, fell into the trap of glossing over all the other aspects of college, besides academics. If I had gone to UMass or even some other smaller college that didn't have the academic reputation of UCR or UCSB (since I wasn't getting into no UCLA with my poor effort in high school) I think my mind and worldview would've expanded a lot more than by hanging around in Southern California (the forgettable hot and desert part, no less). But then if I had done that I guess I couldn't have worked at Disneyland and that has been a largely positive experience compared to my other jobs so it worked out more or less.

311 - Creatures (For A While)

I turned 20 last Friday. I didn't really make a big deal about it. For some reason I didn't want to do any sort of celebrating at all. I'm certainly not enjoying this prospect of growing older.

Today was a crappy ass day. I was thinking about writing a lot about it and how I feel and shit, but now I don't feel like it. To sum up:
- I woke up and went to work only to find out that they weren't going to let me.
- My HD decided to up and corrupt itself into an unfixable state, forcing me to diassemble it, and now it won't even power on.
- My parent's computer has also decided to go screwey on me as well, first with that MSBlaster bullshit and now it also has corruption problems as well.
- To top my day off, my parents were arguing about some dumb shit and now they're mad at each other, but I'll see where that goes. Its not really my business anymore, now that I'm older.

This day has made my summer go down the crapper. I actually want to goto work tomorrow just so I don't have to think about shit, for a few hours at least.

Dido - White Flag