Thursday, October 16, 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

California Academy of Science


Mike W. rolled in on Friday on his way to Palo Alto for some law interviews. Saturday we made it out to the CAS for the 9AM opening, about an hour commute from downtown Berkeley via public transportation. As the place just opened last week, it was packed even at the opening. I had bought tickets online, so at least we avoided that mess. Of course, I forgot my camera.

Going midweek would probably be best, or waiting about a month for the crowds to die down. We immediately got in line for the planetarium, which worked out because apparently the line became insurmountable. Crazy lines were the case for the planetarium and the rainforest. Later it was apparent that seeing one or the other was a decision you made early on if you didn't want to wait 1-3 hours later.

Still, the planetarium ruled. Sigourney Weaver narrated it as we went through global warming and population problems, and eventually millions of light years away. Also, there is life on other planets. This is for sure. In the Milky Way. I know. I was there.

The life of a bug 3D show was also great, and funded by Terminex! It's pretty amazing how well these documentaries are filmed, as I couldn't imagine sitting in the rainforest filming some bugs for that long. Also, the butterfly dies at the end. Whoops, forgot the spoiler alert for that one.

Other highlights were the great food, green roof, and great reef aquarium in such a small area. And some dude dropped his glasses into the alligator pit. Way to be.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

I like your voice the way it is, Kanye.

I wouldn't look for too much serious stuff in this post if my blog suddenly became popular amongst lean production enthusiasts after last post.

Just downloaded T.I.'s new album, Paper Trail, and it's not too bad. I think probably better than TI vs. TIP, but not up to King status. Looks like he is trying some new things, and the fact that he churned out 50 songs for this album so quickly (I remember his last album came out Spring 2007) makes me think that more rappers should try being on house arrest. One glaringly awful note about this album is the ruined potential of the Kanye/Lil Wayne/Jay-Z track. Kanye produced the track, which is ok, but guess what? Weezy and Kanye get crazy with the Auto Tune (think T-Pain) and I have to grind my teeth until Jay-Z crushes the track. The worst part about the auto tune effect, other than it sucking, is that Kanye is choosing to beat it to death. I couldn't even listen to more than half of his new "Love Lockdown" single, and makes me worry about how much it's going to surface on his new album. Please, stop stop stop stop stop stop stop. Didn't you hear DJ Boogie threaten to "switch to country" because of this? What would we do without Boogie's 4Play@4??

In other news, Penguins start this weekend! But now Gonchar is out for 4-6 months, which is not good since Whitney is out until December I think. Northwest and Mid-Atlantic regionals is also this weekend. I'm sure Forge will pull off a major upset with Joey's emotional reassurances on the sideline. Think we are headed to the Pirmanti's of the west for the Steeler game, and hopefully Najeh Davenport won't have another eliptical accident before the game.

One sick pic from the facebook vaults:

Bam!