Salut!

I arrived in Paris today at approximately 9:00 a.m. After a brief nap, shower and light lunch, I headed out to explore. Notre Dame is only a few blocks away, so I wandered around for an hour before arriving there. Currently, the weather is clear, cool and crisp - approximately 1 C



Roman Bridge connecting the Rive Droite (Right Bank) over the Seine to the Ile Saint Louis.




My French comprehension is much better than I thought it would be, though my pronunciation leaves a little more to be desired. A few glasses of wine really help. The Parisians I've encountered have been pleasant and polite. Most begin speaking English as soon as they figure out (pretty quickly) that my French is not up to par.

For more pictures, please view my flickr site.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Whoever is in charge of marketing/promotions at Fox needs to visit the analrapist.

Tired!

Too tired to post right now, but here's my flickr album of Tuesday night's show. Didn't take many pictures of Wednesday night's show - decided to focus more on rocking out. Will post a review soon.

Slainte!

On Tuesday, Zack and I ditched work to hang out in front of the Oakland Arena from 11 a.m. on, enjoying what I have dubbed an "Irish afternoon." We were, of course, waiting in the General Admission line for the evening's U2 show.

11 a.m.? You wonder why. Ahem.





Yeah, I don't like the bandana either, it looks real dorky, but hey, we were in the second row. No, we did not get into the ellipse - those coveted spots were selected through random lottery, but we were right up the ellipse rail, 5 feet from Bono, Larry, Edge and Adam intermittently throughout the show. Not too shabby.



What made our afternoon Irish? It's only vaguely connectly to U2. An Irish afternoon is somewhat related to Mimosa Sunday. Once we settled into our spots in line, it became clear that the group of fellows next to us were Irish. Very kind, very generous, hilarious and entertaining Irishmen. They also fulfilled just about every stereotype of the Irish that's out there. Drinking, swearing, storytelling and singing seemed to be their favorite activities. Based on some of their stories, I suspect that fighting was another favorite activity of our new friends, but everybody was generally pleasant and laid back, so there was really no opportunity for it. Zack especially enjoyed our company, immersing himself fully in the Irish afternoon. [Sidenote: "Slainte" is what the Irish say when they toast each other - it's Gaelic. There's also another toast they use, but I'm not going to spell it out here. Let's just say it's four letters and it begins with "c". (Refer back to favorite activities)] The Irish afternoon culminated with public urination into a plastic cup as we were about to enter the arena. Now, I've lived in Berkeley long enough that public urination doesn't faze me, even if it's right next to me. However, the jostling and pushing that happens in any long line of impatient (and drunk) people combined with the urination directly behind me was a little disconcerting. Also, the color of the red bull and vodka consumed all afternoon was not unlike urine, and I found myself fearing a possibly disastrous mixup of fluids.

Anyways, there was no mixup, I was happy to see that our a couple of our Irish line buddies lucked on and got into the ellipse. They made our afternoon very fun. Oh yeah, and the show totally rocked.

Direct Democracy - An Opinion

It's not popular to favor a reduction in the direct participation of the People in govenrment, but that is, in fact, what I favor. Direct democracy, in the form of the Referendum, is a terrible idea.

There is a reason that we elect officials to write and pass laws. As legislators, our officials are charged with making laws that represent their districts. It's thier job to make laws. They are better at it than we are.

Furthermore, a quick reveiw of the results of the Referendums past indicates a few things to me:

1) Special Interests dominate the Referendum

2) Laws that no self-respecting state Senator or Representative would propose in session sneak in the back door of the Referendum

3) Many Propositions past in California are at least partially Unconstitutional. That has to do with the fact that the bills are poorly written.

So, in short, I don't believe people in our state at least are ready to be given the power that the Referendum represents. It's sort of like handing out guns to children.

What is this obsession with pickles? We're a frat! We drink beer!

Out of my love for all things Judd Apatow related - the Ben Stiller Show, Freaks and Geeks, Anchorman and the 40 Year Old Virgin, I recently purchased "Undeclared". I'd been pondering its purchase for a while, but had my reservations. First of all, I'd never seen a single episode, and I recalled Zack and I mocking its premise when it first appeared on NBC - the shenanigans of residents living in a co-ed college dormitory at a California university. We'd already lived through that experience, at Griffiths Hall in Cal. The commercials made it seem much cheesier than our experience (and our experience involved co-ed bathrooms). Besides, it was on at the same time as Buffy. Despite critical adoration, the show was cancelled shortly after it debuted, and I mentally noted that it was an Apatow-associated project. (In case you haven't noticed, any critically adored show destined for cancellation usually attracts my attention. I guess I like to root for the underdog.) When I heard about its DVD release, I figured I would rent it. But of course, my neighborhood video store didn't carry it, nor did Blockbuster. All they seemed to have was Lost, 24, Desparate Housewives or Alias. Bleah. When I stepped into Best Buy to pick up Arrested Development's second season, I caved in. Finally, this weekend, I opened it up, and was pleasantly surprised. It really *was* a good show, and it does capture quite a bit of the dorm experience - "Don't go to the campus clinic! Doctors are bad!", listening to Adam Sandler tapes, Truth or Dare, all-nighters, etc. Many of the Amazon reviews claim that this show is better than Freaks and Geeks. It's good, but I'm not so sure about that, because really, nothing can top the "Tell her about Korea, Bob," story.