I’ve always joked with my family & friends that when I die, I want my tombstone to read: “Why Did I Bother”?  Let’s face it, I’m a narcissistic blogger.  Aren’t we all to some extent?  As someone who pours their heart and soul into social media, I appreciate the ego boost that comes from comments and “Likes”.   I enjoy sharing my photos, stories and views with the world, and that’s why I’m here.  I’m admittedly insecure, and thrive on the constant validation that comes from social networking.  I think I live a fairly eventful life, but I do know that the majority of people could probably care less when I run into OctoMom and her 14 kids out for a milkshake (as I did last week), or post a video of Chazz (America’s Cutest Dog) getting dive bombed by a bird.  For those of you who do indulge me, I remain your humble servant.  As an avowed atheist, I don’t really care what happens to me after I die.  I will donate my body to science (if they want it) and that will be that.  Recently though, I heard about this:

What better way to ensure all my sunset photos live on, even after I’m sunset?  Does Xanga have a death policy for Premium members?  Facebook allows accounts to be “memorialized” when people die.  I wonder what will happen to my tens of thousands of photos on Picasa and other sites when I die?  Speaking of death, I snapped this photo of a bumper sticker on a hearse last week, while driving Laura & Katie on a tour of Hollywood:

It Could Be Worse…You’re Not in a Hearse!

I guess if you do decide to be buried when you die, it would be good to have a sense of humor.  My friend Doug took this photo at the Lake Oswego Pioneer Cemetery (not far from the Linus Pauling plot) outside of Portland, OR:

Care to trade places?

Speaking of sunsets…there were some pretty ones this past week.  Also, aside from the previously mentioned OctoMom experience (which was surreal) and hosting Laura & Katie; I watched Daniel take 5th place in the CalTech Fall 2010 Rubik’s Cube Tournament, and secure his Top 100 World Ranking for one handed Rubik’s Cube Solving!  Congratulations Daniel!  Here are some photos from the week:

Sunset from the roof of The Hotel Careyfornia

Sunset from CalTech in Pasadena last Saturday.  More here…

I taught him everything he knows…as I attest to in the video below

How to solve a Rubik’s Cube in 12.72 seconds.  He can do it one handed too in 21 seconds!


They even had people solving Rubik’s Cubes with their feet!  More here…

A rose is but a rose…with a fisheye lens and focal b&w


I was talking with JC outside the hardware store, when a huge bus pulls up…
 

The paparazzi swarmed.  Elmo got out first, then OctoMom to pose for pictures…then all 14 of her kids.  It was a sad spectacle to behold, watching her exploit her kids. I guess she has to make money though.  A few of the paparazzi were yelling HORRIBLE things to her…even when the kids came out of the bus. I felt so bad for the older kids, who I’m sure were aware of what was being yelled. The young ones just seemed shell shocked. What a surreal experience.  More here…

Laura and Katie showed up at The Hotel Careyfornia for a quick visit and a tour of Hollywood.  More here…

Recently, I received the following email message from the good folks at the Animal Planet channel:

Carey Anthony

From: YouTube Service	Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 8:25 AM
To: CareyGLY
americascutestdog has sent you a message: Animal Planet is interested in your video for television! Julie Cresswell here, with Animal Planet’s television show, “America’s Cutest Dog.” A team of us are currently searching for the cutest dog videos worldwide to air on our second special. I came across the following videos during my search and absolutely loved them . Death of the Easter Bunny:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b20EuJTBYd8 Chazz Coke:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiEGQM2WA9c Dive Dive Birdie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz32LaQjr9Y Chazz & Daisy:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B97f1gVs0QE Chazz at the Beach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me-X3ZiY1lQ Andy & Chazz’s Nature Hike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkyvJ8f6kv4 CJ Teaches Chazz the Rubik’s Cube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1EuJ1oEAEk Chazz & Brockton:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QVPhXExrJA Your videos are really amazing, and perfect for our show. I wanted to reach out and see if you would be interested in submitting your video for “America’s Cutest Dog II”. Maybe you have other clips too! Submitting is easy, and can be done online in just a few minutes. Our show will feature the best videos of dogs and puppies doing the most amazing, hilarious and just plain adorable things, and we’d love to have your clips in the line up. If interested, please email my Production Assistant Heather Scudellari at hscudellari@xxxxxxxx.net with the information below. 1. Please title your email ‘America’s Cutest Dog II’ (Attn: Heather) 2. Please include: • Your full name • The name of the video(s) • The web link(s) of each video • Your dog’s name • Whether or not you own the rights to the video We will reply to your email with instructions on how to upload your video to our server. Thank you for your time. I hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, Julie Cresswell

This wasn’t Chazz’s first brush with fame.  Last year at the dog park he was approached by an agent who wanted him to come in for a screen test, LOL:

It never panned out because Chazz wanted Lassie’s salary…not Rin Tin Tin’s! 
They probably didn’t know that Chazz was already very close with Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black.

Here now, for your viewing pleasure, are the videos you may be seeing on TV soon!

Death of the Easter Bunny

Always Coca Cola…with Chazz

Chazz getting dive bombed by a bombastic bird!

Chazz finds a surprise under the blanket.  It’s Daisy!  And she isn’t happy!!

Chazz playing ball with the kids at the beach

Chazz and Andy dodging crocodiles!

Chazz as a puppy playing with Brockton at the dog park

CJ teaching Chazz how to solve the Rubik’s Cube!

Chazz certainly loves adventure!  He’s had a busy life! 

---

Here are some photos from the past few days.  Have a good week everyone!

Xangalebrity Chris, aka Cakalusa, paid a visit to The Hotel Careyfornia and even got to meet Elvis!  More here…


Din Tai Fung with Jon!  More here…

Thursday Family Dinner!  More here…

Another exciting edition of Clouds & Sunsets From My Sunroof!  More here…


Dinner with Dennis at Phil’s new restaurant in West Hollywood, UnPhoGettable!  More here…

Yesterday, fellow Xangan and comic book letterer extraordinaire, CJ, competed at the Discovery Science Center’s Rubik’s Cube speedcubing competition.  He won 4th place in the blindfolded competition, and achieved a 10 second solve during a practice round!  More importantly, he spent some time with my cousin Tommy, teaching him the basics of cubing.  CJ and Tommy first met two years ago, when Tommy proclaimed he was “the luckiest kid in the world”.  It was meeting my friend Tyson, and CJ at that competition that first got Tommy interested in solving the Rubik’s Cube.  Later that year he was present for the Guinness World Record for the most people solving a Rubik’s Cube in one place.  Yesterday, Tommy’s mom, Lisa, also paid attention, and with CJ’s help and some additional instructions he provided from www.youcandothecube.com, Lisa solved her cube 5 times today!  Congratulations to Lisa and thank you to CJ for being so patient and kind.

Andy had a good time too, exploring the exhibits at the museum:

Mountain Boy

CJ also taught my dog Chazz how to solve the Rubik’s Cube last year.  Remember??

That’s a lot of cubes!

 
In the earthquake machine and outside the space shuttle


A good time was had by all!

Best of the rest…

Maybe in a year or two, Tommy will be able to do this:

 

Macky solves the Rubik’s Cube with one hand while juggling apples with the other:
http://careygly.xanga.com/664099326/a-kaleidoscope-of-mathematics/

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube, my friend Tyson was on the Today Show this morning and the hosts, Hoda Kotb and Dan Abrams proved to be huge douchebags!!  I sent Tyson a text telling him that, and his reply was simply, “They always are…”  (Even Anderson Copper was a little douchey but not as bad as these clowns:)

Tyson was my inspiration for starting this blog over 3 years ago.  After he competed on the TV show Beauty and the Geek we became friends and I was always inspired by his Xanga and how he kept it up.  Tyson and his brother taught Will Smith how to solve the Rubik’s Cube for the movie The Pursuit of Happyness.  He lives in NYC now, but still comes to LA for shows at The Magic Castle and various Rubik’s Cube events, and we always try to get together.

Tyson and I on the red carpet at a movie premiere

Through Tyson and the Cubing Community (yes, there’s a community), I’ve made a lot of good friends.  Like:

Macky, a genius in his own right, who’s doing amazing things at Princeton now, just like he’s done in my living room: (i.e.  juggling two apples with one hand while solving a Rubik’s Cube with the other!)

and CJ, a remarkable young man who’s taking the comic book world by storm and taught Chazz how to solve the Rubik’s Cube:

And don’t forget Tyson’s blindfold solves presented here with more of Macky’s juggling acumen:

Last year Tyson was tapped by the Rubik’s company to create an instructional DVD to be sold with Rubik’s Cubes exclusively by Barnes & Noble.  So if you would like to learn how to solve the Cube, check it out.  Several of my readers have bought this DVD and told me that it worked!

Oh, and to continue with the Asian TV stars theme, Alex reminded me that I forgot to post this photo of me and James Kyson Lee from Heroes that I took a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve seen most of the Heroes around town now; here are just two:

Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots…

I’ve got a few days until my next wave of visitors.  People often ask me if I get tired of always having friends visiting, and the answer is no.  It’s messages like this that make it all worthwhile:

	Voicemail You’ll Love Share this …

Since Claudio & Ryan are in Brazil, I’ve got Chazz all month.  So far he’s really enjoying his summer vacation (just like he enjoyed his spring break).  We met up with C.J. today and he even taught Chazz how to solve the Rubik’s Cube in under 30 seconds!  C.J. is an excellent teacher…and is just as good with dogs as he is with kids!  Chazz was too shy to do it on video, but here’s C.J. showing him how it’s done:

Opposable thumbs be damned! (Click HQ to watch in High Quality. If the video doesn’t play in your country because of stupid copyright…click here for alternate video source.)

Recent Rubik’s trophy winner C.J. with recent Rubik’s canine Chazz.

Here are some other photos of Chazz’s summer break:

 
Chazz & a child actor named Felix…and more kids at The Grove

 

Best of the rest…

I haven’t had much time to blog, so here’s a vlog to start the year.  On New Year’s Eve, Roin, Jack & Lucie, the kids at our party, wanted to make a video of me, blindfolded, eating unknown foods that they prepared!  The adults supervised to make sure they didn’t poison or hurt me (Tabasco Sauce on the apple was vetoed), but other that that, the little rugrats had run of the kitchen.  They were nice enough to have the foresight to provide me a barf bag, LOL.  Why I agreed to let them do this, is still a new year’s mystery.  The foods I ate were:

My worst reaction was to #4.  I really hate white and creamy foods, and it shows!! LOL.  (I suspect that Eva, who knows my disinclination towards anything creamy, had a hand in #4.  Vicious!)

After that, as it still wasn’t midnight and since they were kids at an adult party, I showed them a bunch of videos of Tyson and Macky solving the Rubik’s Cube, blindfolded and juggling respectively.  They thought it was a trick and didn’t believe that the videos were real. So I sent Tyson, who had just finished ringing in the New Year with friends in Boston, an instant message. He was nice enough to solve the Cube for them on the webcam, in less than 20 seconds. Needless to say, they were amazed. Thanks Tyson! Happy New Year!

Here are a few more photos from yesterday and today.  The rest can be viewed here.

Joaquin the little angel

The first sunset of 2009

Eva & Patrick in the Jacuzzi at sunset on New Year’s Day

The Enchanted Forest

That could almost be a painting behind them!

Facebook finally has a video embedding option, so here are a few more videos from the past two days.  This first one shows a little musical performance on New Year’s Day, led by 3 year old Patrick.  The second one shows Tom & Cathy’s backyard tonight at sunset when it got very cold and windy!  I’ll compile a few more after I get home.  Does anyone know a free and easy to use alternative to Windows Movie Maker for the PC? 

Click for the whole photo album…updated in real time by my new Eye-Fi wireless SD card!
Thanks Tom & Cathy!  What a great gift!!

Yesterday, Joel and I took the boys to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana.  They were celebrating their 10th anniversary.  There was cake and punch, and hundreds of Rubik’s Cube enthusiasts (including my friend Tyson), trying to break the Guinness World Record for the most people solving the Rubik’s Cube at one time.  The last time I took Tommy to a speedcubing event at the DSC back in April, he proclaimed he was the “luckiest kid in the world” for having met Tyson, who is admittedly a celebrity in the cubing world, having starred on the hit reality show, Beauty & the Geek.  (He also  taught Will Smith how to solve the cube for The Pursuit of Happyness.)

Ever since then, Tommy has been playing with the cube, but hasn’t mastered it yet.  I think it was good for him to see kids younger than him, who could solve it with ease.  He brought his own cube along and I was careful not to let him ask anyone to solve it for him early on, as I knew that once his cube was solved, he would quit trying, because he didn’t want to “mess it up”. 

At one point though, Tyson was being interviewed by a TV station that sounded Chinese.  He didn’t have a cube in his hand, and since Tommy was shadowing him, Tyson asked Tommy to borrow his cube and to hold some papers for him.  Tommy was elated.  As Tyson proceeded to work his magic fingers, Tommy watched in awe.  I told him he’d probably be on TV in China, seen by a billion people, and needless to say, he thought that was pretty cool!    Of course, now he wouldn’t touch his cube anymore, because Tyson had solved it.  Here’s the video:

After that, I gave in and bought Tommy another mini Rubik’s Cube on a keychain.  When we were watching the speedsolving competition in the theater, Tommy asked the kid sitting next to him if he would solve his mini cube.  The kid, Justin, a former speedcuber told Tommy that he had been “clean and sober” from the cube for a year.  He said that even touching a cube made him want to do it obsessively, and that he had already been down that road of addiction.  I was watching him though, and he was really tempted to take that little cube from Tommy.  It might as well have been a bag of heroin!  Apparently, speed solving can become quite addictive!  Of course, wouldn’t you know it, a few minutes later some girl came up to Tommy and asked him if she could solve his mini cube.  As he watched her, I could see hearts in his eyes! 

At the end of the day, Tyson was nice enough to give Tommy a free DVD that he made about solving the cube.  (Makes a great Christmas gift…available exclusively by Barnes & Noble!)  Oh, and lest I forget, Andy had a great time too….running from the dinosaurs, and not jumping into fountains:

Here are some other images of the beautiful day:

  
Tommy & Tyson

Don’t you think my picture is better than the one they put in the newspaper above??

The kids literally ran from the same dinosaur for over a half an hour.  LOL

Double trouble!

Went to see “Rachel Getting Married” at the Sunset last night.  Talk about a dysfunctional family!!


Best of the rest…

For more amazing Rubik’s talent, check out my visit with Macky in “A Kaleidoscope Of Mathematics”

My favorite Christmas song!

My friend Tyson flew from New York to LA earlier this week to make a special presentation at the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, and he was nice enough to put me on the guest list.  For those of you who don’t know, The Magic Castle is a members only private club whose membership boasts the best magicians in the world.  It’s ridiculously expensive and very “old Hollywood”.  Tyson was there to teach some of the magicians how to solve the Rubik’s Cube.  After all, it was Tyson (and his brother) who taught Will Smith how to solve the Rubik’s Cube in the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness“. 

And even though he was featured as one of the “geeks” on the hit TV show “Beauty and the Geek”, he’s definitely not your typical geek.  Tyson has a unique ability to explain complex things in layman’s terms.  In other words, he’s the geek that all the cool kids look up too.  He transcends geek barriers and is equally comfortable talking to Jay Leno or Martha Stewart or Anderson Cooper (he’s appeared on all of their shows), as he is to his fellow astrophysicists from CalTech.  He can also solve the Rubik’s Cube anywhere!  Whether in front of 60,000 screaming fans while singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at a Giant’s game or in my living room or on Space Mountain at Disneyland.  Oh, and one more thing, he can do it blindfolded. 

Tyson & Carey at The Magic Castle November 3. 2008

Because of Tyson’s ability to relate to everyone, he was tapped by the Rubik’s company to create an instructional DVD to be sold with Rubik’s Cubes exclusively by Barnes & Noble.  It makes a great Christmas gift for young and old and is only $15 if you buy it online!

Here’s Tyson at The Magic Castle the other night, explaining the first two steps in solving the Rubik’s Cube.  If you want to learn the rest, buy the DVD!

Tyson is actually responsible for my Xanga.  He’s had a Xanga for years, and in order for me to leave comments in the old days, I signed up.  I would have never started blogging if it weren’t for Tyson.  He’s also the reason I met Macky, who’s amazing in his own right, as this video I took this past summer will attest:

Click below to play the video and be amazed!  If it’s not working, click here. 

The “cubing” community is full of wonderful people, old and young.  Kids like Daniel who at such a young age is really trying to make a difference in the world.  They give me hope for the next generation.  I’ll leave you with another video I took on Monday of Dan Dzoan and his brother Chris solving the Rubik’s Cube with one hand, and then doing it again with one in each hand.

Best of the rest…

Click below to play the video and be amazed!  If it’s not working, click here. 

Through Tyson, I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of great people in the Cubing community.  None are more talented however, than Macky.  We’ve been trying to get together for some time now, and he was nice enough to head out to the Hotel Careyfornia today before leaving for Math Camp for the summer, and then off to Princeton in the fall.  (He turned down Cambridge and Harvard!)  Over dinner we discussed everything from Game Theory to Phonetics.  You might think that would make for dry dinner conversation, but quite the contrary.  Macky has a unique way of making even the most black and white subjects explode with color.  He makes you think about things in ways you never have.  I always feel so energized after spending time with young people with such drive and intellect.  It give me a hope for a better tomorrow in this country.  Thanks Macky!  I’m looking forward to watching the next few years unfold. 

He was even nice enough to sign a cube for Daniel with his record solve time of 12.11 seconds.

ON THE
LIGHTER SIDE
“Starting Tuesday, if you’re caught talking on
the phone without a hands-free device [in California], you get hit with a $20
fine. That’s almost an eighth of a tank of gas!” — Comedian Jimmy Kimmel

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.