Friday, April 28, 2006

gas

I spent $47 on gas yesterday. Ugh. I really need to switch to the bus.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Massive Attack

Matt, Petey (Happy Bday!), Derrick and I checked out Massive Attack tonight at the Paramount....and it was an AWESOME show. Supposedly, they haven't toured to the United States in 8 years, and on this tour alone, they're only hitting 4 U.S. locations: Seattle, NYC, Chicago and Coachella. Nice. They brought on a bunch of old favorites like Angel, Teardrop, Safe from Harm, etc...and they were all powerful and explosive. It was fantastic to hear them live, in particular to catch parts of their music that I couldn't hear before, like a backup vocal or the bass line strumming. One really cool bit of their performance was that there were TWO drum kits on stage. Pretty amazing. There's only 1 album of theirs that I haven't heard yet--100th Window: anyone heard it? Is it good? Anyway, fabulous show. Check them out if you're a fan.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Life in the big city...

There've been a lot of shootings in Seattle recently (or maybe the media is paying attention to it suddenly) and one of them happened last night in Capitol Hill at the corner of E. John and Broadway, right in front of Twice Told Tales, the cute used bookstore with all the cats. This is a block away from my first apartment in Seattle (and still a 5-10 min. walk from where I live now). Craziness.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Scheduling woes

Don't you hate it when you schedule a meeting with all these people to a room that CLEARLY is available on the free/busy tab...only to then shortly get a "DENIED! YOU LOSE" email from the conference room saying that it's actually, in fact, busy but likely unknown to me because people with special powers booked it without saying so in the free/busy tab?!?! argh.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Weekend wrapup

This has been a really nice, chill weekend. Friday, Matt and I attended Jocelyn's dinner-ish party where for the first time, I was in an environment where most party guests introduced themselves by asking "So..are you an attorney also?" (Jocelyn and her boyfriend, Ivan, are recent Seattle U. Law School graduates). I did get to see another former Amazonian there, Daniel--so it was nice to catch up with him a bit. Saturday evening, Kabir invited me and Matt over for dinner with his parents, Sri, Noreen and his former boss, John. We had a yummy homecooked meal c/o Kabir's parents and just an overall good time catching up. And today's weather was gorgeous--sunny and nearly 70. Matt and I took a stroll through downtown shopping and then came back up the hill, got some chardonnay and cheese and went up to my rooftop for about an hour, reading magazines and soaking in the sun. [sigh] The realities of work are starting to sink back in soon.....only 2 more weeks for Portugal. 2 more weeks...

Yesterday, Matt and I saw Thank You for Smoking and really enjoyed it. It's fully of clever one-liners and very entertaining. Aaron Eckhart is so fitting for the role as the fast talking lobbyist for the cigarette companies.

Also, over the weekend, Betina and Justin got engaged: CONGRATS!!!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Clip about Aaron from Doug Hall interview

Okay--I went ahead and edited the podcast interview with Doug Hall to show on the clip that references Aaron. It's about 2 minutes long and it's an mp3. Check it out. Note that this radio interview was taped way before the show aired but it was already after the taping of the show and the finalists determined.

"It's fun, he's fun..."

Here's the brief clip of Aaron on American Inventor from last week. This clip's shorter than the previous one but at least you can see his name written on the screen. I talked to Aaron a bit more about the audition after he was eliminated. I complained about seeing so little of him in the Top 24 show and he told me that during his final presentation, a pigeon came out of nowhere and landed 2 feet in front of him. Because of that, he thought that was why they didn't show a clip of his final preso. (Personally, I thought that would've made some funny tv) He also told me that the judges grilled him a bit on the similarities of his anemone clock to Clocky, which is another alarm clock idea out there which has gained a lot of press. The two, in essence, are really different--but alas, it sounds like Aaron didn't defend himself enough. What's cool is---if you download this podcast, which is a 22-minute radio interview with Doug Hall (one of the judges), Doug tells a story about Aaron which starts off not sounding great, but in the end is really flattering. He doesn't mention Aaron's name but Aaron confirmed to me that it was definitely about him. Fast forward to 12 min. 12 sec. in the podcast interview to hear him talk about Aaron. It lasts for about 2 minutes.


Thursday, April 13, 2006

Finalists of American Inventor

Well, I sat through the grueling 2 hours of American Inventor tonight, hoping to see some more good airtime of Aaron---instead, I just saw more and more of the inventions we've already seen, like those edible snowglobes and the wig lady. What I also did see was a lot of Aaron sitting dead center in the middle of the whole group of the top 50. Hour 1 ends----Aaron makes it into the top 24. Yay! Okay, onto the 9pm show. Surely, in the next full hour with the top 24, I'll see more of Aaron. Near the beginning, there are some quick frames of him with the group of contestants. Ooo--I think he's wearing the sweater that I bought him for Christmas (here comes the awww...big-sister-is-proud moment) I wait and wait and wait...and I just see the same damn contestants over and over again. All right, I get it--it's a bike for someone to ride in the front. The hour's almost up and they go through and deliver the good or bad news. Wait, where's Aaron? They end up showing only 19 of the final 24. Come on. Seriously. If people make it to the top 24 out of thousands of people that auditioned, at least have the decendency to give them some airtime so we can see if they make it or not. Sadly, in the final bit, they run through the final 12 and Aaron isn't there. Bummer. He should've gotten more airtime. And he definitely had a better invention than some of the people in the top 12---everyone needs an alarm clock. I don't get the Nia doll. The barbell lock system thing sounds like something that's been done already. Argh. Aaron just wasn't the type to give the whole "I sold my kidney, spent $100,000 and am living out of my car" sort of sob story like the rest of the final 12. Guess that's what makes good TV. Oh well. I still think Aaron's clock was a much better invention---either way, great job lil' bro. It's still pretty freakin' awesome that you even made it into the TOP 24 for American Inventor!

Friday, April 7, 2006

No Tango on Inventor tonight

It looked like tonight's episode of American Inventor was the last of the general auditions and that next week's show will show the top 50 contestants, who will then get narrowed down to 24 and then to the 12 finalists. What's exciting is that my brother, Aaron, appeared in the previews for next week's show....meaning he's at least in the top 50. And in the clip that he was in, it was joyous group celebration clip, which I hope means that perhaps he even made it to the top 24. Who knows--he's not telling anything to the family. In any case: for all my friends that I've mentioned to about my brother and this show---TUNE IN NEXT WEEK! Cuz' it looks like Aaron will have a lot more air time then!

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Past two weekends...

I haven't had time to write about what's been going on for the past 2 weekends, so let me get it out of the way quickly. 2 weeks ago, Matt and I headed back to Kansas to attend my high school friend, Matt Hillmer's wedding in Lawrence (did I mention the best man was a Matt and the usher was also Matt?). Fun times and I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a really long time, so there was a lot of catching up. The time in Kansas was short and sweet---we ate dinner at an old favorite, the Savoy Grill, in Kansas City on Friday night. On Sunday, we got dim sum in K.C. and saw the Kongs again. Then, Matt and I watched the UConn v. George Mason game at the airport while we waited for our plane to arrive (and what a game!). All of the basketball games that weekend were pretty ridiculous to watch. Fun!

Last weekend, headed up to Whistler with 12 friends for a quick weekend of snowboarding. I only went up the mountain on Saturday but we had a fabulous time, hitting Blackcomb Glacier immediately as our first run of the day. It wasn't a full powder day but it also wasn't super icy or anything. It's so nice to get a good day of snowboarding in. I also went through the BoarderCross for the first time (it's like a lil race track) which was super fun---only went through it once but I can imagine how fun it would be doing it over and over until you're really familiar with it.

Congrats also to my friend Jed in Kansas for getting married to Christa this past Sunday. I wish I could've made it to the wedding!

Once in a century moment


Coolness. Tonight, it will be 1:02:03am on 04/05/06.

Monday, April 3, 2006

Aaron on American Inventor

My brother auditioned for American Inventor a few months back---and he finally appeared on it briefly on Thursday night's airing. If you want to read more about the project that he brought onto the show, click this link. Check it out!