Archive for January, 2005

MGM

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 31, 2005
in Free Stuff, Friends and Movies
. 3 Comments

Hey guys, apparently instead of making widescreen movies, MGM took the full screen and chopped off the top and bottom….jerks. If you go to this web site there’s a list of all the movies they screwed up on. You’re supposed to be able to call that number and get a form to fill out and stuff. I own three on that list so I need to make a call. Thank Tara for sharing this info.

Have you heard about Jazzy Dave? He now works for these people. He’s gonna be jazzing it up for a few months with them. I remember him talking about maybe doing this like 3 years ago. Looks like he’s finally going to do it.

Not much else is shakin folks. Start that class tomorrow. Other than that it’s just crazy at work trying to get everything up and running and fixed.

Poll…..sorta

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 30, 2005
in Free Stuff, Stuff and Xanga
. 1 Comment

Ok folks. Here’s the question of the…whatever. The facial hair is getting changed soon cause i’m tired of what I got at the moment. So I’m up for suggestions. Now keep in mind that even though I might really like your suggestion, it may have to wait til summer when it doesn’t matter so much with work. It’s not like my boss would care that much, it’s just that I want to look professional. So comment away and give me ideas.

Oh, and I gotta love that right after I post earlier about xanga, I get a random comment about getting free pizza. That was awesome. Couldn’t have backed that point up in any better way.

xanga

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 30, 2005
in Blogging, Free Stuff, Xanga and sIIs
. 2 Comments

I’ve started checking out another cool videblog. This one’s called Amyville and I linked it off to the right.

Not a whole lot going on. This morning I saw Bob and Ellen at church so I sat with them. Bob is probably going to start helping out with the music stuff. I really want to go lift, but the fitness center doesn’t open up for a little while yet.

I was just thinking the other day about how much I don’t like xanga. This is another one of the big hosts for blogs out there. I haven’t actually seen a personalized xanga site yet. There are also all these crazy kids that do that xanga thing and it can get a little creepy. Just go check out Shorb’s post from Jan 24th and read the comments. Those crazy groups and stuff. I’d have to say the other big beef I have with them is that I haven’t ever been able to anonymously throw a comment up on one. Maybe you can enable this or something, but people just haven’t figured that one out. I have several friends with xanga accounts and I can never comment on their awesome thoughts because I really don’t want to start up a xanga account just to give somebody a shout-out 3x or so a month.

So hey you xanga people - convert to blogger/blogspot. I’ll even help you set it up and play with the templates and stuff. It’s not that hard - especially if you have some basic understanding of html.

Oh, and on a much different note, while up on the deuce last night I scored myself a free slice. Neal came back with his Pizza Hut which he had gotten with the borrowing of toll’s car. Toll announced “tax time!” and JRod pipes up with, “yeah, you gotta give us pizza”. So Neal then says nobody’s getting any except for Toll cause he borrowed his car. So I say, “what about me? i’m freaking chalupa”. So Neal gives me a slice too. Sometimes they make me feel famous up there.

Another convert

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 29, 2005
in Favorite things and Movies
. 2 Comments

Well, Neville looks like I got yet another person on the Amelie bandwagon. I introduced JRod to it tonight. He was a bit hesitant, but trusted my judgment……and HE LOVED IT! It’s ‘going on his buy list’. I love introducing people to movies, especially when they like em. Awesome stuff.

Quickie

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 28, 2005
in Friends, Movies and Stuff
. 0 Comments

Well it’s Friday folks. It’d be nice if today was my last day on those Tablets, but I’m guessing they won’t be done today. It’s starting to really get to me being down in the dungeon all day long. I’m starting to really remember firsthand why I would start to go nuts after 9 or 10 hrs of dungeon time. However, today I’m armed with my camo boxers and the realization that 5pm starts the weekend. Which also means that Tara, the Buns and JRod are coming down…I mean up for a movie fest at Steve’s next door. If that’s not more appealing than being in a loud, noisy, very-enclosed room with no windows all day working on computers……..¡THEN YOU NEED HELP! Anyways, hang in there folks. That periodic heat wave was just a teaser. I had to put the pants back on. My legs aren’t rated for temps below 20 or so. Well, I better be off to work.

Gunga

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 26, 2005
in Friends, Movies, Spanish and sIIs
. 0 Comments

not much going on today except more of the same. being in the dungeon all day every day is starting to get to me. i’m remembering how much i hated it down there as a student. i come home all tired and wiped out. today i did absolutely nothing. in fact, i was in my bed watching Last of the Mohicans when Bendog roused me from my not quite awake-ness. That ended up being a good thing though. We watched Brotherhood of the Wolf over at Isaac’s place with him. He was a bit excited cause one of the roommates moved out.

chattin with gunga at the moment. he just asked if he’s ever been on here. i’m not sure if he has or not, but Gunga, today is your day of fame. Gunga is another one of the SammyII legends. his name is really……yeah, that’s not really important. Gunga got his name cause he mentioned something was a ganga and the gringos listening thought he said ‘gunga’ so that was his new name. great story, eh? well Gunga currently lives not too far away and i still haven’t gone over for a visit. he was lucky enough to marry into la raza so he gets lots of awesome food during family get-to-gethers like i do. my brother and i were discussing marrying somebody hispanic once. i put his comments in a post a while ago and don’t really feel like linking them at the moment. anyways….gunga also bought a new(used) car. so i really hope he got the ganga he thought he did. pues gunga, ahora eres famoso.

BX boards

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 25, 2005
in Computers, Lifting and Technology
. 0 Comments

Well folks, I saw one of the new BX motherboards today. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the new style after the ATX. The motherboard sits on the other side of the case and they got this superduper new cooler system - at least in the Gateway one I saw. It’s just visionary….wait, it’s what people have been doing in their homebuilt machines for years. Idiotas! Why does it take the mammoth companies so long to make quality stuff? And people wonder I’ve never bought a pre-fab machine….

Well, it’s officially a heatwave. I have had the shorts back on the past few days when I’ve been outside. Also had a really good workout yesterday. You should try 3 sets of 30 while benching sometime. Definitely tires those arms out.

things

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 24, 2005
in Faith, Friends and Spanish
. 0 Comments

Wow, I think today was one of my busier days at work in a while. Seems like I got absolutely nothing done before lunch. I was running here, there, over there, etc. Luckily I finally got to the Tablet PC’s and was able to almost finish them up before 5. Got my book and CD’s in today for the class I’m starting next Monday. I’m getting a little excited about it. It should be a lot of fun. I was also just skimming through the book and the stuff doesn’t look hard at all. So we’ll see how it is. I don’t necessarily want a huge challenge, but it doesn’t need to be a cake walk either. I’m looking to learn here.

I witnessed another awesome quote out of JRod’s head today. This time it was in text format instead of actually being there. Man, you’d never believe some of the things this guy would say in his sleep. I remember we’d run next door and slam the door cause that’s usually what would trigger a golden nugget of JRod sleepiness. Well today I’m not sure how sleep JRod was but in the middle of a conversation he says something to the effect of “gained an admirer…that’s fancy talk for stalker”. I just about fell out of my chair laughing.

I was talking to Nate today and it turns out he’s co-leading a Spring Break trip to Ecuador. Turns out they let you have up to 3weeks of paid leave every 5 years if you lead/co-lead a J-Term or Spring Break trip. You don’t have to raise support either - and that’s on top of getting your normal pay to go somewhere. I need to hop on this bandwagon.

We had a great speaker today in chapel. He was talking about people getting hung up on Jesus being God incarnate but forgetting that he was actually human too. He probably got scared, maybe he hit his thumb with a hammer and got ticked and chucked it. He also brought up the fact that Jesus probably experienced feeling for the opposite sex. I’d have to say that’s something I never thought about, but it sure makes sense. I could list off tons and tons of other examples….but don’t really feel like it. Another example he used was as a kid playing dodgeball at a family camp thing and it’d be adults vs. the kids. The kids would always get pounded and eventually an adult would cross the line and come over to help them out. He compared that to what Jesus did coming down to earth. All other religions you’re basically just pinned up against a wall while these deities pretty much throw whatever (dodgeballs) they want at you. Famine, hardship, hunger, etc. And there’s nothing you can do about. Jesus is like the adult that came across the line and knows what it’s like to be a little kid getting pummeled by the adults. I thought it was some pretty powerful stuff to think about. Reminded me a lot of Aaron’s video about ants.

Sunday

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 23, 2005
in Friends, Movies and Spanish
. 0 Comments

Well, seems like lots of stuff happened today. My day started off early, but Bendog forgot to pick us up for church so Elaine and I went to the 11:00 service instead. Afterwards we chowed down some flautas. The front and back lot got plowed today, but not everybody moved their cars so some people might have some problems getting out.

While doing some laundry today Nate says, “You blog in spanish”. Only I thought he said, “You belong in Spanish!”. I was really confused but luckily it lasted not too long and we clarified.

I saw Fat Mitch, Leah, Lil Moo (sorta cause he’s still inside Leah), Skinny Mitch, Allison, Crack Timmy, Jennifer, and Frenchy. They all came over to Frenchy’s and he made us some stir fry. Good times, good eats and lots of laughs as usual. Last time I had seen Jennifer was at the Campbell’s. I was asked what my favorite movie was and then everybody started talking about favorite movies. Today Mrs. Hess informed me today that she thinks I have really good taste in movies. That’s a nice compliment. She also said she’s gonna give Johnny Depp a chance and might even go see the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with me. That would be fun. Well, laundry, lots of music and my second viewing of Mean Girls. That seems like a full day to me. Now I just need to work on getting some sleep for work tomorrow.

Movies

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 21, 2005
in Movies
. 5 Comments

Neville has encouraged me to come up with a top 10 list. For starters I’d like to list the movies I saw that came out last year:

13 Going on 30
Alamo, The
Alfie
Bourne Supremecy, The
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Coffee and Cigarettes
Dodgeball
Dogville
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Garden State
Good Bye Lenin!
Hero
I Heart Huckabees
Incredibles, The
Jersey Girl
Kill Bill vol 2
Lemony Snicket’s: A Series of Unfortunate Events		 Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The
Man on Fire
Maria Full of Grace
Mean Creak
Mean Girls
Napoleon Dynamite
Ned Kelly
Passion of the Christ
Saved!
Shrek 2
Spider Man 2
Super Size Me
Team America: World Police
Terminal, The
Van Helsing
Village, The

I didn’t necessary like all of these in case you’re wondering why I’ve listed them. My top 10 would have to be

10. Maria Full of Grace
Here’s a great film about smuggling drugs into the U.S. It’s foreign and subtitled but that didn’t keep me away. This definately shed a new light on how drugs are brought into my country and how people are affected. If you wanna read more go here.

9. The Terminal
Another great performance by Tom Hanks. My grandpa even liked this one.

8. I Heart Huckabees
This is the first time I felt like I sorta understood existentialism. Those definitions in books just never quite did it for me. A lot of great performances in this one. More here.

7. Super Size Me
This one was my documentary for the year. Yeah, McDonalds is gross but most other fast food isn’t too far off…or maybe even worse. More here.

6. Hero
Here’s another one of those foreign films. If you wanna know how I felt, check out my post.

5. Mean Creek
Wow, what can say about this one? This was an amazing movie about kids dealing with stuff. I really wish I could hear someone’s thoughts from a sociology/psychology perspective. More here.

4. Kill Bill Vol 2
A great ending to Kill Bill Vol. 1. I liked this movie better than the first. Much more philosophical and meaningful than the first. However, neither would have been good without the other.

3. Napoleon Dynomite
Lots of laughs. I’m sure if you read my blog you’ve seen my rants about the ‘fans’ of this one. I definately feel elitist about this movie because I saw it back in June. However, friends of mine had seen it even way before me. So I’m not saying I’m the first, just tired of the bandwagon jumpers.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Amazing acting by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. I thought it was cool how they played the opposite of their normal roles. Jim was serious and Kate was the crazy chick. Good for discussion on fate, pre-destiny, relationships, etc.

1. Garden State
Oh Garden State, how I love thee. Definately my favorite movie of the year. All the ones before this aren’t necessarily in the right order, but this one is definately number one. Here’s what was writting in the movie blog. There isn’t much there, but there’s definately more in this blog about it here and there.

Oh, and here’s the list of movies that I missed in the theater:

A Day Without a Mexican
A Home at the End of the World
Anchorman
Aviator, The
Bad Education
Cellular
Closer
Collateral
Finding Neverland
Hidalgo
Hotel Rwanda
House of Flying Daggers
I, Robot
I’ll sleep when I’m Dead		 Intermission
Kinsey
Mayor of the Sunset Strip
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Million Dollar Baby
Motorcycle Diaries
Paparazzi
Phantom of the Opera, The
Ray
Shaun of the Dead
Sideways
Spanglish
United States of Leland, The
Zatoichi