168 Hours of Bond. James Bond.

The people at the AMC Channel (American Movie Classics) decided to take a week off by showing a week long James Bond marathon. A week? Really? The longest TV marathon I've heard of before this was the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story on TBS that's shown every Christmas Day. Spike also likes to do Bond marathons on most holidays too, but that's usually just one day. But a one week marathon? Way too long. Way too stupid.

Behind the Orange Curtain

If you know me well, then you would know that I like to, once in a while, read letters to the editors for the Orange County Register. OC is highly conservative, but a lot of these letter writers are not only conservative, they're irrational. Here's a letter that's commenting on the Alito confirmation hearings and the overall tendency of the Senate committee to talk more than necessary:

Representational democracy has never been the most effective form of governing. It is by its nature messy, slow and filled with partisanship.

Until we come to the conclusion that we as a people don't need representatives and political parties and move towards a direct democracy, we will be stuck with senators striking poses for their constituencies in support of the party's platform. So I say "let's get ready to rumble." Democracy works best not when we agree but when we disagree.

Pete Alberini
La Mirada

Really? We should have direct democracy where citizens would be burdened with hours of legislative agenda and voting every single say? Way to go, Pete Alberini. You just made a fool out of yourself.

To photo or not to photo

Today I got my License renewal in the mail. So I am thinking to myself. Should i take a new photo or not? The photo i have is from when I was 16 years old. It looks nothing like me anymore, and makes me look more wetback then i am. So here is is everyone "should I take a new photo or not?"

Bryan

PS I also need to adjust the weight.

My Life in 3 Envelopes

For those who don't know, I've been applying to graduate schools to get a masters in education and a teaching credential. I sent the last 2 applications to UCLA and UCI today. The monkey is finally off my back. In the past month or so, I've been stressing over graduate school applications. I've only applied to one other school: Stanford. Three schools is an insignificant number compared to the number of law schools that Robert applied for, which is around 30, I think.

It's weird going through all this application stuff again. Just like in high school, getting accepted into college meant you knew you were heading in the right path. It was a sense of reassurance from society. Once you got accepted, you had an imaginary voice in your head that said, "Don't worry. Your future is temporarily secured." But before you got your acceptance letters, you had that fear that if you didn't get into college, you were doomed to a path of minimum wage labor. I know not everybody went through this experience in their senior year of high school, but I know it's something that all the advanced placement students went through.

Stanford will send out acceptance letters in March, while UCLA and UCI will send their letters in April. In the mean time, I'm living through that same fear I had when I turned in apps in high school. If I don't get in, I'm doomed to a path of low-middle class wages. Well, that doesn't sound too bad. But I've been wanting to be a teacher for a long time. Plus, I really want to get on with my life. It's a lot like wanting a driver's license. I feel so immobile. I need to move.

I know Robert is going through the same thing. He's stuck in the limbo world of his dad's insurance company dealing with shitty, idiot customers while waiting for a law school to finally accept him. Well, he did get accepted to a tier 3 law school in Akron, Ohio. I believe Akron's chief export is plastic tape. I made that up.

Likewise, I'm certain UCI will accept me, at the least. Chances of getting into UCLA is OK, but I'm not too excited about LA. I'm even pondering the idea of staying with UCI even I get into UCLA. Stanford is my 1st choice, but of course, the odds of accceptance is small. If somehow I do get accepted, I will celebrate like a fool. But I would be totally satisfied with UCI even if it means I have to continue living at home. I like the faculty and atmosphere at UCI's Department of Education.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the majority student population of all these education departments are women? The ratio of female students to male students is roughly 4:1. God, I hope I get into school.

The alternate planet in Costa Mesa called IKEA

Tonight, after work, I had my first encounter with the wonders of IKEA.
Foreign name...foreign planet.

I am both thoroughly in love, and thoroughly frightened of IKEA. It started simply enough. I teach the winterguard at Tesoro high school. The show this year calls for 4 different styles of cheap chairs. I had heard about the great, cheap furniture at IKEA, so I headed over.

I never realized just how big the store actually is until I exited the 405. It truly is gargantuan. I walked in, up the escalator, and started my journey. Everything I have heard about IKEA is true. CHEAP ASS FURNITURE...it's amazing. I now know how I am going to actually be able to afford furnishings when I move out of the abyss which is my parents house. I easily found 8 different styles of chairs that would work for my needs. I noticed however, that buying these chairs would be alot harder than it seems. It's not like you can just pick up the chairs where you see them. Each piece of furniture has a tag in both English and Swedish explaining where to find it in the ginormous warehouse on the first level. Section, row and aisle were all easily (or so it seems) explained on the tag. I went downstairs to find the chairs, and quickly realized that IKEA had outsmarted me (not hard to do, I know, but luckily I have booster parents to buy the chairs for me) and I started to wander around the sale section. HOLY HELL that stuff is cheap! I got 200 tealight candles, a new feather duster and a magazine organizing rack for 4.97! DOES IT GET BETTER?!?!?!

One other thing. THANK GOD for the signs hanging from the ceiling pointing you towards the cash registers and exits, or I would have NEVER made it out of the monsterous belly of the Costa Mesa IKEA.