We went to Cole’s Little League game tonight, and I’m a heck of a lot more sore than any of the players!

  

Lisa, Joel, Tommy & Andy met me at the Discovery Science Center today, which was hosting the World Cube Association 2008 competition.  Since Tyson is moving to New York next week, this was my last chance to see him for a while.  He competed in the blindfold solve (see video below) and did great as usual.  Tommy really took a liking to the whole “cubefreak” phenomenon.  When asked if he would rather go to the dinosaur exhibit or go meet Tyson, he opted for meeting Tyson.  At one point afterwards, he said to me, “I’m the luckiest kid in the world.  I just got to meet Carey’s famous friend.”  (I had explained to Tommy that Tyson was on Beauty and the Geek and had taught Will Smith how to solve the cube for The Pursuit of Happyness.  That really impressed him!)  After they got home, apparently Tommy donned a blindfold and gave it a try.  LOL.  He was also infatuated by the video of Macky I had on my iPod where he solves the cube with one hand, while juggling 2 cubes with the other.  See for yourself:

Tommy has now proclaimed himself, “Tommy the Science Nerd”.  It’s going to be an interesting next 12 years.  LOL.  Best of luck in New York Tyson!

BTW, the movie “Cubefreak” is premiering next Saturday at the Newport Beach Film Festival.  If anyone wants to go, let me know.

Most of the family was busy tonight, but Lisa was nice enough to bring the boys to meet me at Fuddruckers after work.  I got there a little early and struck up a conversation with a young marine named Frank.  He was there with his wife and step-daughter and his pet iguana, Smeagol.  Since you don’t see an iguana on a leash every day, I asked him if I could take a couple of photos.  He graciously obliged, and gave me his email address to send them to him.  Later, we all talked as he played video games with the kids.  At only 20 years old, he was really just a kid himself, and had already completed one tour of duty in Iraq, and was about to leave on his second tour; leaving his wife, step-daughter, and presumably Smeagol, behind.  (I doubt he got the iguana in Iraq, I embellished that part, to make the title of this post more dramatic.  LOL)  He was limping, and I asked him if he had been injured while serving, but he told me it was a skateboard accident.    “No fucking hadji is going to hurt me.”, was his response, which was remarkably similar to how the kids in the movie Stop Loss spoke.  Nearly verbatim in fact.  (I asked him if he’d seen it, he hadn’t.)  I’m troubled by the hate of other cultures we’re breeding in our military.  It’s probably nothing new though.  Nonetheless, he was a charming young man, who like James and Jimmy, I’m glad to have on our side.

From www.lewrockwell.com:

This
nation, its political leadership and the vast majority of its religious
leaders, have thrown away their moral compass and replaced it with
a rabid nationalism unseen on the world stage since Germany in the
1930s. Torture and murder of hundreds of thousands are readily accepted,
as long as it is done for the graven image called the State. Eventually,
unless we take a different path, the number of those tortured and
murdered will include those in this country who refuse to submit
to the State as it pursues its “mission
from God.” The venom readily spews forth from the shills
for the State now, building a hate and resentment in the masses
for any who would challenge the official position of perpetual war
for peace.

Since
our nation and its civilian leaders have lost their ability to judge
right from wrong, why should we expect anything different from our
military?

On a side note, my crazy neighbor, who I blogged about a while back, finally moved out.  But not before leaving this note, on my other neighbor’s door!  (Not mine, thank goodness.)  I would love to know what it said.  LOL.

Our weekly family dinner was at the Irvine Spectrum tonight.  The kids had a nice time.  Here a few shots.  I’m still experimenting with the new camera.

Complaint Department

Is anyone else as annoyed about this as I am?  Maybe I’m being too hard on the good folks at Xanga.  They’ve been trying really hard this year.  I can be a bitch.  Is it just me??

As you read this, keep in mind, it could be worse.  I like Xanga.  I didn’t like efax:

Carey Anthony

From: Carey Anthony	Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 8:56 AM
To: Natalia – Xanga Support Team
Natalia,  Is there a way to disable the “Subscribe to get updates from this site” pop-up that appears for non-members who come to my site?  It’s deceptively annoying!  Why not let people subscribe to the RSS or Atom feeds like Blogger does?  95% of the time people don’t want to be forced to sign up for something just to read or receive updates on a blog.  If you simply allowed them to enter their email addresses to receive updates, and be done with it, that would be fine.  But if they do enter their email address, they’re brought to a Xanga sign up page which is EXTREMELY annoying and presumptive. If you’re not the person I should be bugging about this, let me know.  I can send it to Chris or John or whomever you tell me to.  Thanks Thanks, Carey From: Natalia – Xanga Support Team Date: Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 12:15 PM To: Carey Anthony Hola. Hope the new year is finding you well – haven’t heard from you in a while. The pop-up is IP based, so it shouldn’t show up as long as your visitors aren’t clearing their cookies each day. It is deceptively annoying, yes, but it takes two seconds to register and we’re hoping that more people will take advantage of doing exactly what you said – receiving updates by email, even if that means they don’t update their own personal blog. So far, it’s actually been very effective, so . . . yes. And by the way, I almost didn’t email you back because I saw your “goodbye Xanga” post today – [faceplant]. Have a good one. Can you drop Ben a line? From: Carey Anthony Date: Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 8:50 AM To: Natalia – Xanga Support Team Cc: Ben – Xanga Will do.  Thanks. Sorry to be a pest about this, but I don’t think Premium members should have to pay for a site that’s basically unusable until people choose to sign up or not.  Again, the way it’s done is very deceptive and shady.  If you just allowed people to enter their email addresses in for updates, that would be one thing, but to then trick them into signing up for something they have no intention of ever using, is entirely another.  Ben, please advise. Thanks

The cousins went to LegoLand this week and Andy had a Spring costume parade at his school.  I’ll let the pictures and video speak for themselves.  I’m outta here for a few days.  Have a great weekend everyone!  –Carey

While the rest of our family back in the Midwest hunted for frozen Easter eggs in the snow, Southern California basked in 100 degree plus temperatures!  It was so hot, my bunny melted!

The kids had fun though and Jennifer cooked an amazing meal.  Thanks Jenn!

 
Easter 2008, Cole, Tressa, Andy & Tommy….compared to:

Easter 2005, Tressa, Cole Tommy and…

Andy (with Great Grandma in 2005)

Hey kids, I was just in a car accident!  Some things never change

Tommy & his favorite cousin

Yes, it was over 100 in the sun!

And here are the best of the rest:

Andy stole the show all day as this video will attest:

It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

I had to work in Irvine today and afterwards I met Lisa at Costco because I was going to buy a temporary camera until mine gets fixed next week (pathetic huh?  I feel naked without it though.  Plus, I may want a small pocket camera for times I don’t want to carry the G9.  So I settled on a cheap SD1000.  If I don’t like it, Costco has a 90 day return policy.)

After that, we headed to Pick Up Stix to get dinner and head to her place to feed the kids.  As I was driving north on Technology Dr. a woman in a white Volkswagen (with Hawaii plates) who was heading in the opposite direction, suddenly decided to turn left, but didn’t see me coming. 

I remember thinking to myself, there’s no way she could possibly turn, but as she did, I slammed on my brakes and braced myself for impact (not a smart thing to do apparently, and I’m paying for it now).  I’ve never been in a car where the air bags deployed.  It’s like a small explosion in the car.  There’s smoke and the smell of gunpowder.  After the crash, I was disoriented.  I smelled smoke though and knew I had to get out.

Luckily, the other woman was unhurt.  I was banged up, but alive and not much worse for wear.  When the police came, the first thing the other driver said to the cop was, “It was all my fault, I’m so sorry”.  Lisa and I looked at each other and both thought the same thing.  Long story short, my car was towed away, and my wonderful cousins took very good care of me tonight.  I’ll rent a car tomorrow and go home.  Weekend plans might be shot though.  It’s 2 AM and I best get some rest.  My neck and my knee is really hurting.

I have my bell and my cousins are at my beck and call.  LOL.  Ice packs are for the swelling!

Today we celebrated 2 milestones.  My uncle’s 80th birthday and my cousin’s 16th birthday!  Both pretty important numbers as birthdays are concerned.  I gave my uncle a card that was for a 40th birthday, but I wrote “times two (x 2)” in front of the 40.  My rationale was that I hope I look half as good as my uncle when I’m 80!

It’s amazing how fast the kids are growing.  Look at Kyle, Cody, Kevin, Kenny and Emily in these photos starting just 5 years ago when I first moved to LA:

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Meanwhile, I’m just getting greyer and fatter.  LOL.  Here are a few more pics from the party.  Have a good week everyone!

Happy New Year from Rain

Ho Ho Ho!  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  Fred & Susie had Christmas Eve this year for the first time in their new house.  There was SO much more space than we usually have and the kids had plenty of room to run around and play.  The only problem for me, was the 3 cats but I survived.  We did a grab bag this year, which was really nice.  I got a great leather camera bag and an extra camera battery from Sam. 

These are some of the little photo Christmas tree ornaments I made this year.  I thought they came out pretty well.  I still need to work on finding the right photo dimensions though.

Fred & Sue’s backyard is right out of Gilligan’s Island

 
There are even banana trees

And persimmons

And a tennis and basketball court (OK, maybe not like Gilligan’s Island!)  Damn, I should have been a sports photographer (not)!

Curtis, Kevin, Susie, Fred, Cody, Kyle & Kenny

Rob, Cole, Tressa & Jenn

Lisa, Andy, Tommy & Joel

Tressa, Tommy, Andy, Carey, Cole & Cody

Pre Santa

One eyed Buster and Roxy in their Christmas finest

We had the webcams going with our family back home in Chicago.  My brother was showing me the snow there, so I took my laptop outside and…

pointed the webcam at the thermometer

Which kind of reminded me of this photo of my Dad which was taken 30 years ago on  Christmas Day 1977.  We called out to my aunt and uncle in California and (the same ones I’m here with now) and they said it was 80° and they were barbecuing.  My Dad told them he was cooking out too…and this picture was born. 

Nice legs Dad!

Everyone seemed to really like their presents.  The girls got brand new Nikon SLR’s.  I got the new Stephen Colbert book, and a new Gorilla Tripod, a bluetooth mouse, the Hairspray “shake & shimmy” DVD, the Camp DVD, some toiletries, sweatshirts, hats, a crystal globe from Italy and a heated towel rack.  The kids all got new DS games, and were actually quiet most of the afternoon.  We took them to see Alvin & the Chipmunks tonight (save your money), and then I drove home to prepare for Bassam’s arrival.

As I watched my niece (via webcam in Chicago) open her presents this morning, I was reminded that this year she announced that she no longer believed in Santa Claus  (She’s 19.  j/k).    This is interesting to me, as I’ve had the Santa discussion a few times in the past month with friends.  We discussed it in Portland over Thanksgiving (is it OK to lie to your kids?).  Tyson and I discussed it after the God debate.  I personally feel the power of myth can be a good thing, and that the Santa myth is pretty darn time tested and solid.  I also found it interesting to note that my niece wanted to spend Christmas morning watching her little sister (who still believes in Santa) open presents, before going over to her Dad’s house (her parents are divorced).  So Santa or no Santa, God or no God, most of us can’t resist watching kids open presents on Christmas morning.

Children believe in Santa Claus. Creationists believe in creationism. But children eventually discard their belief in the Man in Red on the basis of evidence. So why don’t creationists? The issue here is not so much that creationism is bad science – though it clearly is and that is a serious issue. The issue here is that it is bad Christianity: blinkered, arrogant, literalistic, paranoid, pusillanimous, delusional, anti-truth, world-denying, and cringingly embarrassing Dawkins bait. (This is hardly the place to dredge through the overwhelming scientific case against creationism. It can be done perfectly well in one word anyway: fossils.)  But the parallels between these two beliefs, creationism and Santaism, are more extensive than you might have noticed.

Both start out as reasonable assumptions. Children are not fools, but believe in Santa on the authority of their parents, who have proved a reliable source of information. Just as Christians have found the Bible an invaluable source of information about the ways of God.

But new information makes children rethink their understanding of authority: not every story their parents have told them is literally true, but that does not make them untrustworthy in more important things. Likewise the mature Christian response grasps that God might have good reasons for letting myths be told with his seal of approval on them.  Read more…

And not to beat a dead horse, but Daniel finally responded to the fracas over the D’Souza debate, and seeing as he is one of my most learned friends, I thought I’d post his response here:

On the subject of atheism vs. Christianity there is much to be said. The subject will naturally submerge us into polemics of the most invidious variety. What it ultimately comes down to is this: there are those whose belief systems are culturally and emotionally grounded, and those that choose not to subscribe to what could be construed as anthropomorphic delusion.

Although I would not purport to be a Christian per se, (despite my interest in Jewish literature and Church history) to declare myself an atheist would be both limited in scope and suggest I am seemingly indigent of imagination. An atheist believes there is no God. The problem with an absolute declaration like this is that it begs the question: what exactly do we mean by God? If by God we mean the God of the ancient Hebrews (and subsequently what some would consider the figure of Christ himself) then yes, I am an atheist on the basis that I reject the notion of a personal God. This is partially because I believe that neither the Hebrew nor the Christian weltanschauung has any right to sanctimoniously declare their self-proclaimed, respective apexes of the theological realm to be the center piece of world religions. Their rituals, which are by and large a hypocritical pre-occupation and overindulgence in sin and self-righteousness, limit the average parishioner’s ability to enter the realm of authentic spiritual ecstasy (unless you count those freaky quacks having fake orgasms on the Christian music commercials). Contrast their practices with those of the Hindus or Buddhists, and you will find that by comparison, many Christians don’t really enter into the true realm of spirit (not to level that those seeking nirvana or Krishna-consciousness would be). Buddhism and Hinduism spiritually engage their followers and encourage their quest while in the midst of life (I have witnessed this first hand). Granted, like the Christians and Jews, those religions likely mold, limit, and shape the views of their followers, but at least they are getting more spiritually advanced in the process. There is no waiting for the afterlife (which is why Marx called it the opiate of the masses) as the central focus of its tenets.

On the other hand, to deny any possibility that there is any mystery to the magic of the living realm and how it originated (as the atheist might purport) would be just as narrow-minded as the belief that missionary work is necessary because the whole world should be subservient to just one arrogant admonition (or the ethnocentric Ann Coulter imposistionist view). Empirical science should inspire awe and wonder in humans; not the close minded, fixed views that characterize the repugnant nature of many organized religions. 

Speaking of “fossils” and creation, get a load of this:

It’s an exhibit at the “Creation Museum” in Kentucky (I couldn’t make this shit up!), that depicts a “penis free” Adam naming a sabre tooth tiger in the Garden of Eden.  Nice kitty.  But wait a Kentucky minute!  “Genesis 2:25 clearly says that at this point in Adam & Eve’s life, “And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.” If Adam courageously sat there unencumbered while he was naming saber-toothed tigers, then why, six thousand years later, should he be depicted as a eunuch in some family-values Eden? And if these people can take away what Scripture says was rightfully his, then why can’t Charles Darwin and the accumulated science of the past 150-odd years take away all the rest of it?” 

The first thing one notices when walking into this den of deceit is the dinosaurs.  Interestingly, they have saddles and are being RIDDEN BY PEOPLE!  I’m sorry, but I found this concept ridiculous at the age of 8 when I saw it on the Flinstones!!!  (This is like shooting fish in a barrel!)

Welcome to white trash (the woman in this picture is likely holding a Bic Mac and a cigarette in her other hand.)

As this excellent Esquire article points out:

The dinosaurs are the first things you see when you enter the Creation Museum, which is very much a work in progress and the dream child of an Australian named Ken Ham. Ham is the founder of Answers in Genesis, an organization of which the museum one day will be the headquarters. The people here today are on a special tour. They have paid $149 to become”charter members” of the museum.

“Dinosaurs,” Ham laughs as he poses for pictures with his visitors, “always get the kids interested.”

AIG is dedicated to the proposition that the biblical story of the creation of the world is inerrant in every word. Which means, in this interpretation and among other things, that dinosaurs coexisted withman (hence the saddles), that there were dinosaurs in Eden, and that Noah, who certainly had enough on his hands, had to load two brachiosaurs onto the Ark along with his wife, his sons, and their wives, to say nothing of green ally-gators and long-necked geese and humpty-backed camels and all the rest.

(Faced with the obvious question of how to keep a three-hundred-by-thirty-by-fifty-cubit ark from sinking under the weight of dinosaur couples, Ham’s literature argues that the dinosaurs on the Ark were young ones, and thus did not weigh as much as they might have.)

“We,” Ham exclaims to the assembled, “are taking the dinosaurs back from the evolutionists!” And everybody cheers.  Read more about the broader dumbing down of America…

The Times of London, said this, when this creationist crap pot opened last May:  “The $27 million (£14 million) exhibition is funded by evangelical Christians, who apparently believe that by reclaiming dinosaurs and fossils for their literal biblical interpretation of natural history, teenagers are less likely to look at internet pornography or get pregnant out of wedlock.”

It’s 3 AM and I’m going to bed.  In the meantime, here are the rest of the photos and a couple of videos I shot.  The first one is of the kids opening their presents.  The second one is of me singing Darcy the Dragon to Andy & Tressa on Christmas Eve and for some reason it’s all jacked up.  I think it’s a codec issue, but I’ve already spent way too much time trying to figure it out and it’s still messed up.  You’ll get the idea though.  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  –Carey

I got a very nice email from Colin’s mom & dad tonight saying that he was feeling better, and was even able to go to his school’s Christmas party today (thought he still on a congee diet).  He had a blast at his party, and I know his friends were happy to see him.  His mom wants to thank everyone for their concern. 

Carey Anthony <careygly@gmail.com>

Here’s a video for you Colin.  It’s a song I loved as a kid.  Merry Christmas!

---

Lisa had a rough day today, so a movie was in order.  We went to see “Atonement“.  It was a good film.  The early Oscar buzz is all about James McAvoy and Keira Knightley and I must say I enjoyed their performances.  The cinematography was breathtaking, though the film could have been edited better in my opinion.

Without giving too much away, let me just say that Lisa wanted to strangle the little sister in the movie.  So we let her take some anger out on the movie display:

I still have several Golden Globe nominated movies to see, but this might just be Mr. McAvoy’s year.

Why don’t any of my friends want to go see Sweeney Todd??  I admit, it’s not my idea of a Christmassy movie, and Johnny Depp looks even creepier than he did in Willy Wonka, but it does look like a good move, right?  Does anyone want to go tomorrow?