Stream Of Consciousness Sept. 1

Hotter than Hades today... 108 in da shade... Spent all day inside in full retreat from the unrelenting global warming... I read that Hollywood attributes this summer's good box office to global warming... Good Gawd... they have no shame... Just heard Britney's "Comeback Song": It's called "Gimme More." I say, Gimme less of it... infantile repetitive nonsense from the bald one. At the opposite end of the spectrum, newer stuff from Collective Soul comes out tomorrow, featuring the single, "Hollywood.." Catchy little dittie.. I heard it live on Jay Leno.... I'm running out of room at the house for the stuff I had at Advanced Video... equipment that I didn't include in the SALE... Oh, I didn't announce that? Sorry. Yeah. Sold. Done-O-Rama... The Big 8-6. I don't miss it yet,.. Not likely to any time soon... Steven went to his first dance, and it was of course, a bit of a snooze... 7th grade dances don't exactly set the standard in entertainment,.,,.. Damn Mexican trucks are a comin... I'm warning you, someone's gonna get killed by some idiot taking his siesta behind the wheel...... I'd like to have a Halloween costume this year from the Holy Grail... I wonder where I'd find that garb... It's looking pretty good for a Sept. start at Valencia Lexus.,.. US Auto sales are at ten year lows, so I'm not gonna try to sell Saturn or Ford.... I hear gas might go down below $2.00 a gallon in CALIFORNIA by Xmas.... WHY????? I put the dog picture up for no good reason... I will start adding my own videos soon, as Blogger now allows direct video posting (No Youtude nonsense)......
Have a good Labor Day!

Advanced Video Gets Dose Of Dean

As of Friday, the 17th, I was about 90% complete with the sale of the store, and its assets. Things were going smoothly enough. I was advertising on Craigslist everything under the sun, and stuff was flying out the door, admittedly at lower than desired prices. Below is a sample listing...

All Right, You Win - more free stuff

Apparently everyone in the whole freaking city is broke.
You'll just have to live with your conscience if you take the stuff
I have, for free....

Fully functioning JVC VHS VRS's.
Office Chair
Non-recording VHS fullsize camera, suitable for hooking up to a DVD or VHS recorder for auditions... Camera part works great...

2 Work Benches.
Quit a bit more... too much to mention..

I even took Sunday off, as I was exhausted... Monday, as I was going through my voice mail, I get a message from the LA Fire Dept. telling me there had been a flood, that they had to force entry into my store, and to please come take repossession of the store. The message was left a full 24 hours before.... I rushed in to what was left of my store...A million year old pipe burst about 12 inches below ground in the crawlspace between my store and the Medical Marijuana store next door. This was probably another section of the same pipe that burst 2 years before, flooding the then Asian Massage Parlor, next door... It didn't spare me this time. Everything in the store that was near the floor got soaked. The fire dept. took 70 minutes to arrive, according to a fellow store owner. My security alarm never went off, (and the ADT people said they didn't even have me on file.... odd, since they've been charging me for the last 48 months.)The f-ing slumlord of a landlord isn't even bothering to come out and see what happened.... This is a major setback in Project: New Life...
More to come.....

MY 4th of July: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

I was happily lazing my way thru the 4th when my son walks up to me and asks "Dad, can I set up a lemonade stand?" My heart leapt with joy... my son is picking up on my entrepreneurial legacy and wants to EARN his dough. I looked outside, at a bird who was hooked up to an IV machine getting a dose of fluids, in the 101 degree heat. It was 11 AM.
"Sure!" I said. Oh man... a hot day... but I gotta support this kind of initiative... We spent $9 on lemonade, ice and cups... picked a good spot, and two hours later, we'd made.. $9. But I'd had a very good time making the signs with him, and tossing out little educational terms like marketing, advertising and location, location, location.

We went and saw "Ratatouille" and I might have enjoyed it more than him, although he was often doubled over in laughter. VERY good job, Pixar. Thanks for making the movies I wanted to see when I was a kid.

Then we went to our strategically parked car on the roof of the Valencia Town Center Mall parking garage, to watch the fireworks. Perhaps next year, we'll get a little further away, as fireworks shows are too damn loud that close..I don't know what was worse: the bangs, or the BIKERS constantly using foul language even though they were surrounded by dozens of families with kids. They reinforced every negative stereotype I've EVER had about bikers, and started brand new ones for my kid to believe. Idiots. Left the parking lot behind a guy who had taken great pains to put a ghetto-like lift kit on.... a Chevy Corsica... a Corsica? There is still one on the road? That was one of the worst cars ever made... My town, Valencia.. is turning into frakkin' Los Angeles slowly, before my eyes.... I hope it slows down, because Valencia is still far better than anywhere else in this state to live.

Wii: Now I Get It

Since its launch last October(?), The Nintendo Wii has made fools out of Microsoft and Sony, outselling them both... I've seen Nintendo systems in the past, and they kinda sucked. I thought the Wii was selling because people couldn't afford $599 for a PS3 or $400 for an XBox 360... Nope. it's because it is playable by ANYONE. Our family played TOGETHER for 2 hours last night, and it is a great bonding tool, unlike other game systems where a kid closets himself for hours....I am amazed at how realistic the bowling is... At $4.50-$6.00 a game at the alley, I just might be done renting shoes....
$300... plus extra controllers...
We're taking it to a pool party today. The pool will be empty. Photo at left is of someone's Grandma playing... Get off yer butts people.. Time to Wii.

We've officially got a new gadget-related medical term on our hands people, coined by Dr. Julio Bonis, who woke up one morning and realized his Wii was causing him sports-injury like symptoms. Wiiitis is the name, learn it well. it has been canonized in a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine, Unfortunately, the treatment may be worse than the disease for some: Bonis prescribed "ibuprofen for one week, as well as complete abstinence from playing Wii video games".

Wanna see what the gameplay looks like? CLICK HERE.
It is an EXERCISE machine...
(And I need it..) It comes with 5 games, in Wii Sports: (In order of my favorite)
Bowling / Tennis / Golf / Baseball / Boxing

Advice From 8-11 Yr. Olds to Parents

I stumbled across a section in the Daily News where children can tell their parents a thing or two. You know, give advice to us old Folks...

"I will tell them to spend more time with their children...Don't drive really fast why? Because you'll get pulled over or you will crash into a car.... Mom and dad stop smoking... Please don't talk on the phone while driving, and make more time for yourselves to relax and do nothing on Sundays ...Let us stay up late on weekends... Spend more time with me... Put on gloves when you're working with wood or you might get a splinter... exercise more... really celebrate your birthday when it is your turn... don't embarrass me... get off the computer... go to bed earlier so you feel good the next day... my mom needs to quit smoking and my dad needs to get more exercise...don't force your child to eat something they don't want to eat... go out three times a month and have fun... make a water balloon launcher...don't ever pinch a little kid's cheeks or talk in baby talk to them... my mom should play more with my brother and I because watching a lot of food channels is weird... play with me more, instead of watching TV together, let's play softball on the front yard...
and there you have it..

Bring On Jack Bauer

Only 5 days to go till the PREMIERE of 24..... Life becomes livable again...
Till then, a nice feature on Kiefer Sutherland appears at Men's Vogue..

http://www.mensvogue.com/arts/feature/articles/2006/12/18/kiefer_sutherland

I had a fairly uneventful holiday season.... no snow here in SoCal.. Damn Broncos played their way out of the post-season... Wished I could've gone to CES in Vegas.. (Consumer Electronics Show)...
I've been there about three times, all of them with Steve Flack... Couldn't go back there without him.. Just wouldn't be the same..
Steven played his first game of the season in the city Touch Football League, as Quarterback... He did well, though the team's Coach and other players are absolutely raw beginners, and they faced some freakish Powerhouse-Drill Sergeant-led overachievers with wristbands telling them what plays to run... It was like every kid sports movie you've ever seen,,, I felt like Rick Moranis... They lost 33-0.... Steven was NOT pleased...
Hopefully, all the teams aren't like that..

My sister asked for advice on the best way to get VHS into DVD... I've been using the Panasonic DVD recorders for years... dependable and easy.
http://focuscamera.com/sc/froogle-lead-1.asp?id=964601113&rf=froogle&dfdate=01_05_2007&sid=874375851

Useful Site Of The Month:
http://kids-in-mind.com/
Rates movies and DVD's in three categories: Sexual Content / Violence / Language
with 3 numbers from 1 to 9, for a quick glance as to the appropriateness of a movie for the kiddies...

2nd Useful Site of the Month:
Yelp.com
A place to get real-world reviews of restaurants/services in your area... Hey.. somebody post a nice review of ADVANCED VIDEO there.... I'd be ever so grateful...