i went to the joan baez concert last night. who is joan baez? thank you for asking! i don’t know. but christi’s dad has wanted to see her perform all his life and she has a new album out. this year marks 50 years of her singing professionally and she seems to be quite the political folk singer.

the concert was about what i expected for a folk singer. i didn’t recognize any songs, but christi’s dad had a blast.

i am completely spoiled. after finally finishing the investment into my home theatre setup, it seems that my standards for video have become outlandish. i don’t even watch normal lowly DVDs anymore. i can’t stand it. who would want to watch the poor quality DVDs when you have the gorgeous views of blu-rays?

my pet peeve, of course, is that the library of blu-ray discs available is still quite limited. is blu-ray going to turn into the way of the dvd and become a standard or is it going to only appeal to the niche high end movie enthusiasts? i had thought that dvds were a thing of the past, but i guess that’s not quite true.

i was talking to a friend who was saying that they would be willing to spend $1-2 a disc for dual layer DVDs so that they can make full copies of DVD releases. i had thought that the price of a disc had gone down significantly so that’s actually not that bad, but then my next immediate thought was, “who wants dvds??”

ugh, i am officially spoiled with the ps3’s beautiful blu-ray player. now, if only some of my favorite movies would get transferred to blu-ray, i’d buy them. serendipity and bring it on! go to blu-ray, go!

i went to safeway during my lunch break and as i am wont to do, i went to check to see if diet coke was on sale. the safeway in san mateo/foster city had a sale on diet coke. buy 2, get 3 free. $6 per pack of 12. so for $12, you can get 60 cans of diet coke. that’s 20 cents a can! so, of course, i did what any other person would do. i grabbed two 12 packs, then three more.

i looked at the shopping cart and it looked like it could hold more, so i grabbed two more 12 packs, then three more.

the shopping cart was kind of heavy at this point. i think that it is usually around the ten 12 pack cases that i start to make my way to the registers, but there was something stirring inside my soul. maybe it was the call of the diet coke, maybe it was the call of the deal, but whatever it was, whenever i can buy diet coke for less than $3 a 12 pack, i usually stock up.

so i did the unthinkable. i grabbed two more 12 packs…and then three more. 15 cases were in my shopping cart as i made my way to the cashier. i told her i had 15 cases, she rang it up, and then there was a delay. apparently the safeway machines have some kind of limit on savings that once you exceed this limit you need manager approval. so a manager came and looked at my shopping cart and scanned her card and i proceeded to make my purchase.

the trunk of my car is now full of diet coke.

do i have a problem? i’m not sure. but the one thing i do know is that the refrigerator will stay well stocked with diet coke.

with social networking sites so popular these days, it’s easy to stalk people online. you know, people that you know only well enough to want to know what’s going on in their lives, but not enough to actually talk to them? yeah, that’s what makes social networking sites like facebook, friendster, or myspace so popular. i mean, sure, it’s also to keep in touch with you friends. yeah, uhh, that’s why i use it.

an interesting consequence of these social networking sites is that you will learn where you stand in a particular person’s life based on how information about their lives are communicated to you. for example, i was recently made aware of a friend’s engagement through facebook. something made me think of an old friend and i did some digging around. it turns out that they have recently become engaged! craziness, i say. i had no idea that they were even dating anyone. of course, we have fallen out of touch, not so much because we had a falling out as much as our lives had just diverged.

so, yes, facebook is a great medium to get reconnected with people, but it’s an even better way to stalk people. i’m pretty bad when it comes to keeping in touch with people, maybe i’ll stop facebooking them and start reaching out to them.

i cannot believe that jennifer aniston talking about brad pitt and angelina jolie is STILL news. brad and jennifer broke up. brad and angelina are together. ok, already. leave the poor woman alone. jennifer aniston’s failed marriage is old news. let’s move on and talk about more relevant and important things…like why is paula abdul getting so many crazy stalkers?

so circuit city is filing for bankruptcy. this is not a sign of good times. part of this means that they will have to shut down some of their stores around the country. one such store is the east palo alto location. everything in the store must go. a lot of the everything must go stuff has already gone, but there are a couple of things here and there worth looking at. it looks like a lot of the tvs and stereo systems are still on sale there.

i picked up a cordless phone system. it’s been a while since i bought a cordless phone. i thought the 2.4GHz phones i had was pretty decent, but apparently since then there have been 5.8GHz phones and now this new standard DECT 6.0. You would THINK these phones operate in the 6.0GHz frequency, but you would be wrong. they actually operate in the 1.9GHz range. the reason why it is called DECT 6.0 is purely for marketing reasons. people think bigger numbers are better.

anyway, everything must go at this store and everything is discounted at least 10% upwards to 20%. not a whole lot to get and things are being discounted off at retail prices so don’t expect huge savings once you consider tax, you’re really only getting a little bit off, but hey, a little is better than nothing and might be competitive with online prices. the phone i got was cheaper even with tax than any place i could find online.

(i know…we suck, but it was halloween)

so koda has been getting pretty big. i don’t think that he is gaining weight as quickly as he was earlier so i’m hoping that his growth spurt has ended. he is already too big to be a lap dog, but he thinks that he still is and tries to sit himself in my lap…and doesn’t fit. this doesn’t appear to bother him as much as it bothers me.

christi and i took koda out on his first walk over the weekend. it started to rain which made me unhappy because i had not brought an umbrella with me. we toughed it out, though, and koda seemed to enjoy the walk. he did alright walking on a leash, we still have a ways to teach him how to properly walk on the leash, though.

i feel like i am an old man now. my back has been hurting for a week, but i finally decided that i could make volleyball. volleyball was a lot of fun, i played much better than i expected considering the back pain. the back actually loosened up soon.

i got some free passes to go watch an advanced screening of role models, so christi, jim, and i went to watch it last night. i am always a little weary of any movie that sean william scott is in, because i don’t want to see another american pie movie. his character was considerably toned down though in comparison and had a little depth, too. don’t get me wrong, this movie is still mostly crude, but it delivers an entertaining performance.

the movie surprised me and though my expectations were low, i was very pleasantly surprised. the movie was funny, it had its heart-warming moments, and there were some laugh out loud moments. definitely a rental, but i don’t think you would be left disappointed if you go check it out in the theatres.

sometimes i forgot how much of a bubble i live in here in the bay area. with the results of the election in, it appears that prop 8 has been passed. this is the amendment to ban gay marriage. i had always thought that living in california, it would have been an easy prop to defeat. but as the results streamed in and it was close to a 50-50 vote, i also forgot how big the religious vote can factor into these types of moral issues.

it’s one of those things that i sort of took for granted, but the results today are a wake up call.

did you rock the vote? i did. i rocked it hard. =P

it’s election day and though i requested to vote by mail, i went to the polling place to drop off my ballot. i heard on the radio that there were something like 7 million vote by mail ballots sent out this year. my polling place was overstaffed with volunteers (which isn’t a problem, really). there were no lines but people were trickling in the entire time i was there to vote.

in california, the biggest proposition that i have seen was prop 8. there were signs everywhere. a yes on 8 would “protect marriage” and ban gay marriage. a no on 8 would not eliminate marriage for anyone. i’ve seen public rallies taking place on street corners with supporters for a no vote on 8. the last i had heard said that the votes were still about 50/50 for prop 8. big day in politics for california.