Advice tip of the day...

Never hire a friend to do work for you. Chances are, it will not go well. When you hire a friend, you either have to ignore all the things about their work ethics that bother you, or you risk losing a friend.

Today, I chose to express my dissatisfaction in the way my "friend" was handling our business transaction, and, as predicted, it went poorly. When you hire a stranger, the relationship is immediately established as "employer/employee." When you bring a friend on to do a job, the respect that an "employee" should show their "employer" is compromised, and the existing relationship can only get in the way of trying to keep things on a "business" level.

Not to mention losing a friend when the business deal goes south. I should have learned from past experience that it doesn't work. Luckily, a friend I lost over business several years ago has become part of our lives again, but take this advice:

If you value your friends, spend the few extra dollars to hire someone else. Everyone will be happier in the long run.

Do the "Hustle"!

We watched "Kung Fu Hustle" last night, and I have to say, it is one of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen. Patti loved it too, though she didn't quite make it to the end before slipping away to la-la land.

The movie is an over-the-top kung-fu version of "Gangs of New York," with a few musical numbers and the same type of acro-/aerobatic fight sequences that characterize most modern martial arts movies. Director/star Steven Chow takes "Hustle" one step further, however, by showing the audience the "impact" of the... er... impacts. When someone gets punched, their chest caves in slightly, or we see faces shmushed like play-dough under the force of a kick or punch. It's extremely amusing, and makes for a lot of cringing "Oh, man!!!"s peppered with laughter.

If you're in the mood for a light-hearted, escapist Kung-Fu fantasy, there are a slew of movies to choose from, all of them quite good: "Hero," "Crouching Tiger," etc., but for sheer entertainment, "Hustle" really has the moves!

Blockbuster does it again

In what could become a regular feature here on Rob's Blog, I have decided to honor Blockbuster Video with the "middle finger of the week" award. This means me extending the proverbial center digit towards something that has really gotten my goat.

The esteemed and highly sought-after first MFOTW award goes to the reigning king of the video rental biz for most ridiculous and wasteful use of plastic. If you've been to the ol' yellow and blue lately, perhaps you've noticed that EVERY SINGLE TITLE on the "new release" wall has a plastic card showing the cover of the movie that belongs there.

Whether this is intended to show customers the movie that WAS there, but is now NOT there and hence, not available for rental, or to show the blue-shirted, alphabetically-challenged BB drones where "Gigli" goes, is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that the rental giant has over 8,500 stores, and if every one of those 8,500 stores has a piece of 6" x 10" (or so) plastic where every new release goes, just imagine how much plastic will be in the landfills in a few years when BB goes belly-up because of online rentals and video-on-demand.

So, Blockbuster Inc., for your selfish and wasteful policies, I extend the bird and salute you.

Casualties Of War

As opposed as I am to the war in Iraq, and warfare in general, there's one aspect that I'm embarrased to admit I've never really considered before: the effect wars have on the "natural" world. Everyone at least pauses for a few moments when they hear that more American soldiers have been killed, but no one even bothers to consider the toll that the war is taking on the animals and environment in the "war zone."

I'm not even sure how I ended up at this web site, but I read something that really made me think. Here is a quote from the site:

200 million have died in the last century's wars, but we should not stop with the human casualties. The noted Indian writer Arundhati Roy, reminds us, "Never counted in the costs of war are the dead birds, the charred animals, the murdered fish, incinerated insects, poisoned water sources, destroyed vegetation. Rarely mentioned is the arrogance of the human race toward other living things. This arrogance will probably be the ultimate undoing of the human species."

That paragraph really made me think (and inspired me to write this blog entry). If this is the first time you've ever considered this, how does that make you feel? It makes me feel small-minded, and... arrogant.

Drum Corps Days

Last Saturday, August 13, Drum Corps International held its World Championships in Foxboro, Mass. As was pretty much expected, the Cadets took the title, with the Cavaliers placing 2nd, and Weidenfeld family favorite Phantom Regiment placing 3rd. The corps I once marched in, long, long ago (1987 & 1988), the Blue Knights placed a respectable 10th place.

In my opinion, the 1990's were a desolate decade as far as drum corps was concerned. Things peaked in the late 80's, with classic shows from so many corps in 1987 (Santa Clara Vanguard's Russian show) and 1988 (Madison Scouts' "Malaguena"), but the 90's were less than memorable.

It seems that things are looking up in the world of drum corps, though, as the shows are showing more creativity, and the activity is gaining some notoriety (ESPN2 will broadcast this year's championships on Sept. 6th). For the last two years, amplification has been allowed on the field, and corps are using some narration as well as 'quieter' instruments with microphones.

I had the chance to see the DCI quarterfinals live via satellite at a movie theater in San Deigo, along with several hundred other drum corps geeks. The picture quality was pretty lousy, but the sound was amazing, and it was nice to see it on such a huge screen. Hopefully they will figure a way to use HD in the future, and it will really be something to see.

No refills for you!

We're back from La Jolla and ready to begin what could possibly be the craziest three weeks of our collective lives. Time to go through virtually every possession we have, give/throw LOTS away, pack it all in boxes, and head to greener pastures. A few mellow days in La Jolla, CA, helped us regroup and prepare for the coming project...

La Jolla is certainly a beautiful place. We stayed at the Best Western Inn By The Sea, and the view from our balcony looked right at the ocean. Within a few minute's walk, there is all the shopping and dining you could want, and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an art gallery.

The dining ranges from the few and far-between sandwich shop (great for an inexpensive lunch) to mid-priced casual (Hard Rock), to "fine dining" establishments - which are in no short supply. This is where you'll spend your money in La Jolla, unless you pack plenty of food or can survive without eating for a while. And we noticed a disturbing trend at most of the restaurants in LJ - no free refills! $2.50 for a glass of lemonade and no free refills? I guess that's what separates "fine dining" from just plain old "dining."

The girls will no doubt go into detail in their blogs about their experiences, but suffice it to say they had a blast on the beach and venturing further out into the ocean than they've ever done before. I've always had to drag or coax them out into the surf, but this time they went out into the water all by themselves and even tried a little body surfing. The water was wonderful, a little "kelpy" but the temp was awesome and there were just enough small waves to make it interesting for the girls.

I think it's safe to say that La Jolla will be a somewhat regular vacation destination for us in the future.

Spastic about plastic

Here's a disconcerting fact that I seem to remember hearing before, but never really thought twice about: all the plastic that's ever been produced is still around today, unless it's been incinerated, which - if you've ever burned plastic you'll agree - releases toxic substances into the air.

Wow - plastic does not go away. Consider that fact, and it's repercussions on our environment. When you're done mulling that over, check out this website:

http://www.energybulletin.net/3707.html

You don't know Jack?

We just stumbled upon a cool new radio station here in town. It's actually an old station that just switched formats - and not to Espanol! Hooray! (not that there's anything wrong with Espanol, okay?)... it's 100.5 - JACK FM! Their motto is "We play what we want."

When Patti first told me about it, I was skeptical. We were driving and switched to it immediately, and they were playing some silly 80's new wave song. I wrote it off for the moment, but driving today I gave it another chance. "Two Princes" by Spin Doctors was playing, and I listened, because, yeah, it was definitely overplayed in its day, but it's a good song that takes me back to the early 90's. Next up was Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me." Nice! What station's going to play those two songs back-to-back? Jack!

Then things took a turn for the worse... "Tell Me Lies," by Fleetwood Mac. I would've dug just about any other Fleetwood Mac song (except maybe "Tusk"), but I just had to switch over to 107.5 (commercials), and then 94.1 ("Lump" by Presidents of the USA - again, NICE!).

Take a look at those three songs, though, and tell me that's not variety. Sure, the occasional suck will come on, but what station doesn't occasionally suck? So, while you're out and about, take the CD out or turn off your iPod and say hello to "Jack"!

Sold!

While not wanting to jinx anything... it would seem that our house has sold after just a week on the market. The whole offer/counter-offer procedure was ridiculous, and when they came back with yet a THIRD counter-offer, we gave the ultimatum: take our last offer or take a hike! I guess they realized that they could lose this great house over some petty crap, so they accepted and as far as I know, we are opening escrow today. August is going to be a crazy month!

That said, Vision Studios will be closing up shop for the month of August. I am just finishing up one last project for Foothill High School (they are going to go nuts when they see the DVD interface I created for their last play), and then I am doing NO WORK on new or existing projects until we are settled into our new house. We have to be out of here August 31, and we will be spending a few days in San Diego, so it's going to be quite a project getting packed and out of here. Got any boxes???