Wrapping up the Year!
Lots of things have been happening so I'll get right down to it. If you read this site then you may have noticed almost a complete lack of updates this month, well lots of things have contributed to that. The first one was me being sick and off work for three days and pretty much the entire weekend was blown. It was rough and somehow I made it through it all.

I did, however, get to take some vacation time and am enjoying a wonderful break from work and some wonderful quality time with Karen and Jaden! That's always a good thing. Jaden's been hooked nonstop on this Finding Nemo movie, but he's slowly enjoying some other movies right now. He started a few weeks ago on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and he's getting more into the Lion King as we speak. This is very good for Karen and me 'cause we now have a variety (if somewhat limited) of movies to choose from. up until now we have had Nemo playing 24/7! I swear I have the entire script memorized!

Christmas was going to be something different this year but all plans went right out the window with some last minute schedule changes. We were going to attempt to fit everyone in on Christmas Eve and then spend Christmas Day with just ourselves, having Jaden open gifts in the morning and then spending the rest of the day with dad putting together the toys and then watching Jaden run around playing with everything. Sadly, it didn't work out that way. My family decided last minute to tell us that they wanted to do this family portrait photo shoot at 3:00, so that meant we had to rearrange with Karen's mom and brother, but then it was decided that 2:00 would have been better for the picture shoot and that meant scrapping all plans with Karen's side for Christmas Eve and putting them on the Christmas Day schedule. Believe it or not, things did work out and we had a pretty good time on all sides, though Christmas this year felt very rushed and a little hectic at times. We did, however, manage to get some great pictures and about 3 videotapes filled up. I'll be posting the pictures on Ofoto soon. In the meantime, here's a couple shots from the day.

I also got to see the absolute best picture this year... Return of the King! This movie was spectacular, to say the very least. This is how epic film making should be all the time. Peter Jackson needs an Oscar for this movie! On a side note, George Lucas should watch these movies and learn how to direct, it might just save the Episode III! I will be doing a full review of the movie and how the little (and sometimes big) differences between the book and the movie are just things better left outside the theater. Anyway, I truly did love this movie and knowing how Peter Jackson loves to make his Lord of the Rings Extended DVD versions I'll be expecting the perfect movie on DVD in November 2004.

So, here's hoping that you and all your friends and family had a Merry Christmas and will have a tremendously fun-filled Happy New Year! Take care of yourselves friends and hopefully will talk more in 2004.

.

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Long Time Coming
I know, I know, where have all the updates been? Well for right now let's just say I've been busy. Not just regular busy but swamped to the gills busy. Between Jaden, Karen, work, Web site stuff, Thanksgiving, the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade and numerous other things I just haven't had the time to update. So, here's a quick update below, a part one of many that I have been working on and I'll be putting up the rest of them through the week and throughout the weekend.

My Kid is a Tauntaun
I was listening to the voicemail on my cell phone the other day and it was Karen telling me that she had just picked up Jaden and how incredibly good he was at the sitters house. Well, in the background I could hear him talking and he was making all sorts of weird noises that sounded like a taun taun. What's a Tauntaun you ask? Well, a tauntaun is the creature that Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are riding at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. Anyway, the sounds they make are kind of like a little dog growling mixed with a gurgling noise; and that's what he sounded like. It made me chuckle like the geek that I am, knowing all that Star Wars information.

Holy Picasso, Batman!
Back in March, I worked on my first official Web site project for a small record label called World in Motion Records. I got to do some fun graphics work for them and occasionally get a call to update something here and there, but the last few months I've been doing a full-fledged Web site for this artist named Rob Padilla. The initial launch of the Web site was November 25th and slowly more pages are being added. We eventually want to get about six gallery pages up with six paintings per page for a total of 36 paintings. And that's just for starters, soon I'll be putting up a bunch of new pages and I'm also working on the e-mail setup. I never knew so much went into Web site design, especially for someone doing everything by himself and this is a fairly simplistic Web site. Anyway, you check out the Web site by clinking on the kooky jester image or at the following link: http://www.robpadilla.com

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Plumbing Hell
Since Sunday, November 9th we've had a drain problem in our tub/shower and have been dealing with the worst plumber ever. This guy just amazed me with his complete lack of gray matter. The situation started Sunday and he couldn't make over to the house until Wednesday. So Karen takes off from work at 2:00 pm and he doesn't show up until almost 8:00 pm! He then proceeds to fix the problem but doesn't double check his work and leaves after the tub drains initially and that's it. So a little later I scrub the tub to get it ready for Jaden's bath and notice that it's draining rather slow, however, it does drain and I get the tub filled with clean water and we've give Jaden his bath and by this time he is off in dreamland and I go into the bathroom and see that the tub hasn't drained at all. This probably a good 30-40 minutes after Jaden goes to sleep! So I call the guy back and leave him a message to come back out tonight if he can or the next day. Well, Thursday comes and goes and we leave a bunch of messages and the guy never calls, comes by, nothing! He finally calls late that night and he says he'll be over in the late afternoon on Friday. Again, Karen takes off work at 2ish and he never shows up or calls. So we leave a ton of messages and, still, he never calls Saturday and finally on Sunday he calls and says he can come over between 11:00-1:00 pm. Unfortunately, we had made plans to get out of the house and I ask him if he can come over after 5:30 pm and he is good with that. This guy never calls and never shows, AGAIN! This is the breaking point (actually, it was Wednesday night when the tub didn't drain attempted to fix it). I call the landlady and tell her that this has now become a health issue due to the fact that water is still in the tub and is turning an odd green/brown color. She tells me that she has another plumber that she uses (which I knew about but was told not to use unless it was intense plumbing issues) and that it is okay to call this new guy. I call the new guy on Sunday evening and he calls me the next morning and tells me he'll be over between 10-12 pm and sure enough he shows up and the tub is now fixed. If this guy hadn't shown I think I would have gone "Falling Down, Michael Douglas" on these plumbers. Then I get home yesterday and someone broke into our laundry room and stole an almost empty bottle of detergent and half a box of dryer sheets. To quote one of my all time favorite movies, Clerks, "A bunch of savages in this town!"

Funny Little Elf
So in light of all this, Karen's friend from work watched Jaden on Sunday and we got a couple hours to watch a movie and we saw ELF with Will Farrel. Surprisingly, this was a pretty entertaining movie, with maybe a little too much sappiness thrown into the mix, but nonetheless it was fun. Click on the poster to read my review of ELF.

Star Wars Does Good
As some of my friends may know, I am a pretty big Star Wars fan. Since the utter catastrophe of the new films (okay they're not really that bad), I have been relentlessly at the end of many jokes for Karen and her friends due to these new movies. I know, I know, Jar Jar is no Chewbacca! However, I know feel a little justified with the new animated Clone Wars cartoons, which brought some credibility back to the series. This new series rocks Old School Star Wars style. I had hope, after reading that Lucas was bringing in a secondary writer to fix up the dialogue, for Attack of the Clones before it hit theaters and sure it was better than Phantom Menace but it was still lacking. I was hoping he'd actually do something right and call in Lawrence Kasdan (who co-wrote "Empire" which is by far the best out of the series) or even Frank Darabont, both of which are great screenplay writers, but that was not to be. This leads us to the present, George hands off this idea to the Cartoon Network and Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, power puff girls) and his talented team of artists and whammo the perfect mix of new blood to revitalize this shaky franchise. These aren't the perfect replacement for Star Wars fans but Star Wars tv history has been pretty tarnished in the past e.g., Star Wars Holiday Special (just listen to Carrie Fisher's singing), Droids cartoon, Ewoks cartoons, The two Ewok TV movies. Anyway, it's good to see George let go and allow someone fresh and new pump some new blood into the series. My only real problem with these cartoons is that they're too short. They come in 3-5 minute packages and we are only getting Episodes 1-10 now and the second set of 10 aren't coming until next February or March. Well, we're FINALLY getting the original trilogy DVDs in September of next year so maybe these 'toon shorts will make it to DVD also to hold over this Star Wars fan until May 2005! But so help if he screws up Episode III there's gonna be riot at Skywalker Ranch!

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Nemo Finds The Evanskeys!
Finding Nemo came, hung around for awhile and finally went at the theaters (actually beating out the Lion King and becoming the highest grossing animated film in the US) and for some reason Karen and I decided to pass on it. Not that it didn't interest me (I mean, Pixar's has a perfect record as far as I'm concerned), it's just that a lot of other things were coming out at the time and it's also very tough to get a sitter and try to see the amount of films we were used to seeing. Also, it just wouldn't have been fun to see it knowing that Jaden probably would have wanted to see it and being how young he is there is no way I would bring him to a theater, even knowing that it is a children's film. Personally I have despised people in the past for bringing their kids to the movies and then let them terrorize the place and trust me I will show Jaden the proper amount of respect that one needs to show while watching movies in a theater (at least that's what I am forcing myself to believe…).

So basically working from Pixar's track record, we bought Finding Nemo and, damn, that is one nice looking film! The story is great, the animation (CGI) is spectacular and now I can't wait for their next movie "The Incredibles." I only wish now that Pixar's horror remake of Frankenstein didn't fall into movie studio limbo and plummet down into Hollywood's never-ending abyss where a lot of good ideas usually end up. There was a small clip of animation done a few years back and you might still be able to download it. If you are net savvy, it might be worth your time to check out what might have been from a great studio. Sorry, got a little sidetracked. So, the scoop is Finding Nemo is one terrific movie and Jaden really loves watching it. He actually made it through more than 30 minutes and that's really saying something for kids whose attentions spans don't usually last longer than 5 minutes or so. Anyway, you might still be able to pick it up at Wal-mart for a mere $14.09!

Karen is really becoming quite the eBay master. She just posted our second eBay auction tonight and is getting a couple more items ready to go. Looks like it's time to hit the garage with a vengeance, and dust off those old 80s T-Shirts. By the way, Karen's eBay name is Kitsch-Kat so look her up whenever you're browsing the world wide garage sale site. We should have a our own eBay store soon and when we do we will put up a link to it at the top of the page, until then you can click on the eBay image below to go check out our latest auction.

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Jaden News, Halloween, Kill Bill Review and More!
Sorry for the long delay between updates but things have been pretty wacky over here. Keep reading to find out the scoop on the West Coast Evanskeys.

What a crazy few weeks these last couple weeks have been. We'll start off with the most recent news and work it from there. Got the call today from Karen that Jaden has Fifth disease. You see, he hasn't been feeling that well lately and broke out in this funky rash this past Sunday. Well, after a couple sleepless nights for Jaden and us and a couple of calls to the doctor, Karen brought him in today and let us know that it's Fifth disease. Karen thought it might be that, but there were so many other options in the sickness department that we thought it could any problem related to rashes. So now we'll just take it one day at a time and wait this thing out. It usually lasts anywhere from one to three weeks and as long as he shows signs of normal behavior there should be nothing to worry about. So, to top that off with a minor ear infection, Jaden's world hasn't been that much fun lately.

On a lighter note, we did manage to get out a bit for Halloween and took a bunch of photos. I'll set up some Ofoto links for the entire bunch and post a couple of favorites here on the Site. We dressed Jaden as Batboy from the Weekly World News and he looked great! The W.W.N. is one of these tabloid magazines that you would find at any checkout aisle at the grocery store, but they are the absolute lowest of the totem pole when it comes to news (or highest depending on your point of view!) Anyway, they constantly run this ongoing story about a half-human/half-bat baby that was born in West Virginia and how he has grown up into super stardom. According to the W.W.N., he is trying to revitalize the US space program by being part of the next space shuttle launch! WooHoo, Baby! So they have these ridiculous "Photoshop" altered pictures of him that they put in the magazine which are hilarious and we thought Jaden would look good as "Batboy" and sure enough he rocked! We did get to go out for a while to do some "Trick or Treating" on Second Street but ended up heading home 'cause this was when we really noticed that Jaden wasn't feeling good. He did get a decent amount of candy though and that made him and dad pretty happy. Anyway, here's a shot of him as the famous mutated national wonder.

Next up is my long overdue review of Kill Bill. But before I begin, I have to say that after a few suggestions I will now be posting all reviews to my review page and leave just the minimal amount of info on the front news page, something in the vein of, say, if I liked it or not or some small blurb that gets you to link over to the actual review. I will say that the actual review will most likely contain small amounts of spoilers (unless otherwise noted), so if you are looking to not be spoiled by my thoughts and opinions then don't read them. Anyway, you can check out my review by clicking here or on the poster of Kill Bill. And if you haven't figured out by reading the past few updates whether or not I liked Tarantino's latest offerings then you really don't know me very well or haven't been reading the Site! By the way, I will also be cleaning up the Site by removing all the reviews from the news pages and the Archive sections and placing them into my review section. This may take some time so be patient.

Karen just posted our first auction on eBay last week and it ends tonight. It's a Baby Jumper Exerciser that Jaden outgrew quite quickly. We'll be posting our newer listings on the Web site as soon as we get them going and feel free to check them out. We started eBaying back in June and figured we had a lot of stuff laying around the garage to clear out. So now that we got the gist of it, look out world, 'cause the Evanskeys are hitting eBay.

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The Battle of Belmont Shore Wages On
The ants brought in the heavy artillery, people. We're talking La Cucarachas, that's right cockroaches, actually just one cockroach and a couple million ants. I've wiped out at least one battalion so far, but the war isn't over yet. These puppies are going down hard. It's time to go Rambo on their butts and, yes, I'm about to start digging trenches and moats!

Insects: 0
Humans: 1,000,000+, including the Roach

The Boy Is Unstoppable
On a lighter side Jaden's got eleven teeth and counting. He's been playing a lot lately. Running, playing hide n' Seek with mommy and daddy, and sliding down his giant toddler slide is taking up most of his evenings. Jaden also loves to chase the cats (or at least try and pull their tails) and his new pastime is playing with this little battery operated barking wiener dog we got him from the swap meet last weekend. He's such a blast right now and it's so much of a difference from this same time last year when we were going through that colic phase. It's pretty amazing to see this kid having such a great time laughing and playing and just being so much fun.

You Can't Handle The Meat!
This was what I sent in response to an e-mail I recently received regarding taking care of our friend Cris' cat while she was away (totally in good humor mind you). Here's how it went:

A segment of the original e-mail:
"(Take care of cat, blah, blah, blah…) I have a bag of spring mix and all the fixins that I bought on friday in the fridge. please use it if you can...i know how much scott truly loves rabbit food"

My response to the outrageous accusations of carnivorous behavior on my part:
You want answers?
I think I'm entitled.
You want answers?!
I want the truth!
You can't handle the truth!

Girl, we live in a world that has meat and that meat needs to be eaten by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for my digestive system and curse the flame broiled burgers I chow down; you have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Scott's eating habits, while tragic, probably saved lives and that my eating, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties you want me eating meat, you need me eating the beast flesh. We use words like Medium, Rare, Bloody-As-Hell. We use them as the backbone of a life trying to defend something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a woman who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you," and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest that you pick up a big fat greasy burger and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you salad eaters are entitled to.

I'll be back soon with my review of Kill Bill and some new photos of Jaden hanging at the El Dorado park. And if you can't wait for the full review, Kill Bill is by far the best picture released this year on so many levels!!! But then there's this Matrix movie coming out and I think they're making a Lord of the Rings movie too.

UPDATE: The freaky dude in the suit is Ponkikki, a ground beef version of Barney!

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Begun, This Ant War Has
We've been having a huge ant problem since late summer and after killing and drowing them periodically they just keep coming back, so now it's time for the Evanskeys to go on the warpath. I've got my Karen, my Lieutenent scoping out the scene and Coco, Isis and Roxy on the front lines ready to pounce and then there's my sniper, Jaden, he scares them death with his super high pitched squeal. These punk ants are going down hard. I might just recruit The Rock, Mr. T and maybe Ahhhnold to throw some smackdown on my new enemies.

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Visions of Sandblasting Danced Through My Head
I forgot to add to my last post the sandblasting incident. About a week ago some neighbors across the alley behind our apartment decided to sandblast their apartment and not notify any of the apartment buildings around them. So the contractors show up and for some lamebrain reason they think it might be a good idea "not" to hang protective tarps around the work area. Well, we live in an upstairs apartment so most of our windows stay open to keep the air circulating throughout the apartment during the day. So this particular day Karen heads off immediately after work to do some laundry (we don't have a washer and dryer yet) and I come home with Jaden and we start playing and the typical routine we go through every night. That's when I notice that Jaden's hands and feet are turning black! I checked out my own feet and sure enough they're dirty as hell. Anyway, I cleaned up Jaden and proceeded to carry him around the apartment inspecting everything and then realizing that there was this layer of dirt and grit covering everything in the apartment, especially Jaden's room which faces the building being worked on and the master bedroom which is the second closest room to that building! We contacted the landlady of that apartment and it turns out she's shocked and willing to help us out no matter what and I'm upset not knowing whether or not these old buildings down in Long Beach have lead-based paint in them. Karen took Jaden to get a blood test, I've been dealing with the landlady on what needed to be cleaned and, after two weeks, we finally got them to come out and clean our carpets and furniture. The good news is that the paint was not lead-based and Jaden's fine and the apartment got a good cleaning. And I think all it would have taken was one piece of paper and pen to write a quick note and imagine the time and money and inconvenience that would have been saved. Nothing bothers me more know than putting my kid through an unnecessary hell because of someone else's stupidity. I hate stupid people.

The Blue Ghost is Back
Yeah I know, it's sad seeing summer go, but this time of year with the weather cooling off and the smog turning colors at sunset I'm reminded of something truly great on the horizon. Is it Halloween, you may ask? or possibly Thanksgiving? Wrong, it's that truly special time of year for cereal lovers everywhere when we get BOOBERRY cereal!!! The grand daddy of great breakfast enjoyment everywhere. For some reason, it's counterparts, Frankenberry and Count Chocula, can found all year round, but not Booberry, oh no, this baby gets his chance to shine one time and one time only and that time is now! So stock up sugar lovers 'cause this blue box of marshmallow ghosts and artificially flavored blueberry crunchies is waiting at a store near you. You can visit the Official Unofficial Booberry Web site here for more tidbits on the greatest cereal ever created: http://www.i-mockery.com/booberry/

Not Just a DVD Review
This is gonna be much more than a review of a movie. I recently borrowed a burned copy of "Old School" on DVD. During my hey-day of downloading I downloaded this movie and tried watching it on my computer and gave up almost halfway through. I figured this is the type of movie I'll see as a rental or better yet free on HBO. So this opportunity came along to check out this copied DVD. First off, the movie is okay. I think I would have felt ripped off though if I had seen this flick in the theaters. Will Farrell is always great in my mind and I'd pay to see him so an hour and a half of nothing but Harry Carey impersonations! Vince Vaughn is also someone I like nowadays in movies and even though I didn't care for the Psycho remake I think his Norman Bates was pretty okay. I do feel, however, that his performance in "Old School," while entertaining as it may be, felt like I was watching his "Swingers" character years later, after he got married and had a kid. I didn't feel like he was really trying something too new here. Luke Wilson is hard to watch after seeing the "Royal Tenenbaums!" He was great… scratch that, EVERYONE was great in that movie and I advise renting right now! So "Old School" was just so, so for me. But here's where I get to have some fun. The DVD is full of fun extras so if you must see this movie rent the DVD. However, I was able to watch a copied DVD of it and I have to say that I'm going halves on this one. Everything transferred over great, including the Anamorphic (16x9) transfer, but one minor flaw with it was the menu selection indicator wouldn't show up on my screen for any of the selections. This makes navigating the DVD like playing "Russian Roulette," albeit you don't die for making the wrong decision, it is quite annoying having to back up to the main menu every time you pick the wrong option. I believe this copy was made from a software package called DVD X Copy. Anyway, I'll be looking into it more and see if I can obtain another movie to review that has been created by it.

Evanskey Updates
Jaden's walking better and faster. It's like watching the Bionic Man being built. He's also throwing and kicking this big spongy Nerf ball around and likes to play catch with dad. Karen's getting pretty hyped up with this eBay thing and our house is starting to look like Austin Powers' bachelor pad. I dig it, man… ultra grrr-oooovy!

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Pumpkin Patches and Carnies
We are a week into October and all seems to be okay. I've been sick a couple of times in the past few weeks but nothing major. Jaden has a ton of teeth comin' in and I swear this kid is going to have all his teeth before 18 months, which would definitely be a good thing! Also, we took Jaden to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and went back on Sunday 'cause he liked it so much. They turned the pumpkin patch into this pretty good-sized carnival and we got to hang with the "carnies." They are truly some freaky people that run those carnivals. Anyway, Jaden had a good time riding most of the rides (at least the ones that were for him) and he even went into the petting zoo area to check out the sheep, goats, and lamas. I'll have an Ofoto link soon and you can check it out then.

Speaking of "Carnies" I'm really into this new HBO show called Carnivale. It's kinda in the vein of the X-Files, but focuses mainly on a group of travelling sideshow freaks who pick up some guy 'cause his mom died and ever since then they keep having weird things happen to them. Oh yeah and there's this freaky preacher who has some sort of twisted power allows him to manipulate things on a spiritual level. Very weird but extremely interesting. I guess it kinda reminds me of that great horror flick Tod Browning's "Freaks". What an excellent movie to watch if your ever in the mood for a good creepy flick. I just Tivo'd it (or recorded, for all you nonTivo people out there) off the one of the cool movie channels on my satelite. In fact, the Ramones quote one of the lines from the movie at the beginning of their song Pinhead. I believe the line is "Gabba, gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us." Anyway, enough about the freaks already.

So all is good over here at the Evanskeys and we hope all is good with everyone out there reading this. Peace out, peeps! Oh yeah, here's a couple of photos of the last week plus the movie poster for "Freaks."

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Return of the "Holy Frijole" Trailers, Batman!
It's been awhile since I last wrote mainly because this past week has been a little tough for me. Jaden had his one year shots about two weeks ago and is also busting out three new teeth. That's right three at one time. So a combination of teething pains and a reaction to his MMR and Chicken Pox shots have not made Jaden a very happy boy. On top of that I've been sick with some weird head/sinus cold since last Friday.

So with all this junk bearing down on me I decided to scour the net for some new trailers to watch and lo-and-behold it was a good weekend to check out some new downloadable previews. First up is the Return of the King trailer. I've been wondering when this was going to make an appearance and then BAM it hits the Net and hits it hard. This was like watching the Reissue of Star Wars back in the summer of '96 and seeing a 2,000 people give a minute and a half preview a standing ovation. Just breathtaking and I can't wait for this movie to be here. You know we will be there on opening weekend to see this baby! Next up we have the Matrix Revolutions trailer. Now I have to say that I know a lot of people didn't like the Matrix Reloaded, but I actually enjoyed that film and am happy to say that I get the same feeling if not more for Revolutions. There are scenes in this trailer that just blew me out of the water. I can't wait to see Zion and the machines go toe-to-toe in a know-down, drag-out brawl. This is gonna be like if someone cloned Sylvester Stalone and that Dolph Lundgren and made the ultimate Rocky 4 with thousands of Rocky's versus thousands of Ivan Dragos, the Russian Dude. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. So just for giggle I thought with all the excitement I'd rewatch the trailer that started it all for me and popped in the 1997 redo version of Star Wars and man that is an exciting trailer. I think I'll start a new trailer review section. Anyway that's about it for now hope to have some new stuff up soon and I'm throwing together a few photo albums I'll be e-mailing out to everyone and posting up links on the Web site. As future Califor… oops, I mean Kalifôrnia Governor would say, "Hasta La Vista, Baby!"

By the way, the picture posted here has nothing to do with any of above topic. I was just visiting an old neighborhood that I grew up in and saw that this restaraunt was still there, so I snapped a photo. I have actually never eaten at Scotty's, but one of these days I will.

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Somebody Stop That Kid!
Here's a movie download for all of you Jaden fans out there keeping score of just what he is up to. Anyway, here's the little guy doing what he loves best. Right click on the image below and choose Save Target As... and save the file to wherever you want.

Update: To view the Jaden Walking file you will need a copy of Quicktime Player. You can download the free version of Quicktime here. Also, people with slower connections (dial-up modems) may want to let it run overnith or when you are not to busy on internet, it may take a pretty good chunk of your time. Sorry, but if I reduced the size any further it wouldn't have been a very nice picture to look at. Anyway, I hope you can find the time to download this and check it out.

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Three Years, Eight Months, One Week, and 10,000 pics…
I'll start off with an update that I forgot in the last posting. About a month ago our digital camera broke and it was a sad day for the Evanskeys. That camera took almost 10,000 photos in the course of 3 years and 8 months. Never in my life have I taken that many photos and it made me wish that I had had a reliable camera during my high school years and the years following. True, as many of my friends will point out, we had some pictures taken and, of course, some video footage also, but a camera would have been nice. Anyway, back to the matter at hand, it turns out we needed a camera for Jaden's 1st birthday and so we hit the internet to do some product searching and price comparisons and we decide to stick with our familiar brand, Olympus. We found that the C-4000z was a very nice step up for us and we could continue using the media that we used on our old Olympus, which is a definite plus. Sure, we would like to upgrade to the new XD media cards, but for right now Smart media will do. So there you have it, the Evanskeys are digital again!

Now on to newer things, this past weekend was pretty fun for us overall. Saturday, Grandma came over to watch Jaden, while Karen and I got away to see the final movie in the El Mariachi trilogy, Once Upon A Time in Mexico. I have to say this movie is ultra fun but a little gory in some places. The plot is… well… there is very little plot, but a lot of stuff going on that pretends to be a plot. I believe and will always believe that part one in the trilogy, El Mariachi will always be the best, but Johnny Depp brings and interesting twist and flavor to the series and makes up for where some of the other acting lags. The lines of dialogue are hilarious, but not in a bad, bad way but in a campy, bad way! The movie depicts a rough and tough underworld south of the border (that's the US/Mexico border for those of you not "in the know") and features badass Mexican thugs, borderline corrupt CIA and retired FBI agents, and Ultra baddies Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke… oh yeah and a pair of Latina hotties, Eva Mendez and Salma Hyeck. This movie is all over the place and relies heavily on its action scenes and lets you, the viewer, attempt to make sense out of a plot with more twists than the movie pretzels they sell you at the concession stands. The action definitely keeps the flick going and I can't believe I am saying this but even the opening titles made me feel like the movie fanboy that I am. The gory stuff isn't bad but took me by surprise in what is (and concludes) basically a shoot 'em up modern western. Definitely worth a matinee, but after seeing that matinees cost $7.00 a pop, maybe you should wait for the DVD, which is bound to have a lot of extras anyway.

Sunday we had the Belmont Shore car show and took Jaden down to see all the colorful and noisy cars. My mom came back over to check out the show too since one of the places she works for deals with racing and cars and such. So she took Jaden earlier in the day and then Karen and I took him later on. He seemed to have a blast and like I said loved the bright colors and crowds of people. During my mom's visit, Karen and I got away for a nice lunch at Bonos, the fairly new eatery from Christie Bono, Sonny's Daughter. For one of the nicer places on 2nd Street, it was decently priced and the food was excellent! And how can you go wrong eating at the very place Sonny Bono's vest is hanging right next to you? Anyway, I recommend it highly and don't ask the waitresses to sing, "I Got You, Babe!" apparently they don't find this very amusing.

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Jaden and the Web Site Duke It Out for #1!
I know, I know, it's been awhile, but things have been pretty hectic over here and I'll try to get to everything, alright? First off, I may be a couple of days late but I had better put something up here about being our One Year Anniversary! That's right folks, Friday was one year of the Evanskeys on the Web.

The next big news is that since this is our first anniversary it also means that Jaden turns a big 1 year old today (Sunday, September 7th) and there were all the festivities and fun that a one year old could handle. I'll post all the pictures after the party. We're pretty excited seeing him almost walking by himself and all the fun stuff that comes with being 1. We made it one year and things have been much better the second part of that year. Tons of people turned out for the event and we had a blast. Jaden almost made it through the entire party but pooped out towards the end and then he woke up while Karen was opening the gifts and went berserk with all his new stuff (in fact he's still playing with all the toys). So here, off to the right, is a picture of him smashing up his first cake. Thanks to everyone who showed up and for all the wonderful gifts and well wishes. And a special thanks to Cris and Lori for all your help and for letting us use your backyard, Cris. Also, a great big shout out goes to my mom for stepping up and watching Jaden while Karen and I got the party ready to go. Thank you so much mom! Click on the picture of Jaden to see his 1 year birthday party pictures.

Oh, and on a long, overdue note...

Adios Amigo!
Recently, a good friend of mine, Gordon and his girlfriend, moved to Oregon and I thought I had better be putting some "mad props" up on the Web site for them. It's been thirteen years since I've know Gordon and I must say there have been some crazy, out-of-control moments throughout those years. There was this time we almost wiped ourselves out at 100 miles an hour on the 605 freeway, who knew a Bonneville could get sideways at that speed without flipping! Or how about the all the Danzig and Love/Hate shows we went to. I could write pages and pages of stuff on all the events
that Gordon and I went through, but I'll save that for another time. Jennifer I just met about a year ago and seems way cool, especially for her taste in music. I'm just glad to see him and Jennifer happy. I hope Oregon
is good to you two. Hope to see you soon. By the way, California didn't want ya anyway sucker! I'll leave you all with some wisdom of Gordon.

How to make a screwdriver Gordon's way:
1. Fill a glass half full of vodka.
2. Add a shot of orange juice
3. Add more vodka!

That's enough for tonight. I'm very tired and I must get back to the new Harry Potter book 'cause it's actually getting pretty interesting at the pretty interesting at the point where I left off. I bid you all farewell for now and we will see how year two holds up for the Evanskeys.

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That's One Hot Car! (This was supposed to be posted on Thursday)
Wednesday morning Karen was rushing to get out of the house and off to work. Karen came running back into the apartment with a very worried expression on her face and told me she thought the truck had been stolen 'cause it wasn't were she parked it the night before. I told her quite that I had moved it after returning a bad order of food for down on 2nd St. Knowing where the truck was and feeling relieved, she left for work with Jaden and after about 10 minutes I left the apartment and realized MY car was not where I had left it the night before. Then I started thinking all the thoughts that come rushing through your head, "Did I move and don't remember? Did I park it somewhere else, but thought I parked it here? and so on and so on. Anyway, it turns out my car was stolen…AGAIN! No more than 30 feet from the place it was stolen from a year ago. This time however nothing was in the car except for the baby car seat. So it got me to thinking in the frame of mind of a car thief. What is running through their heads when looking for a vehicle to "lift?" This is what I pictured…

Joe "Not-So-Much-A" Millionaire quietly slips through the night past the exposing beams of light. He traces the silhouettes of some very nice cars parked in the peaceful neighborhood. A black Escalade whispers to him, begging a second look, but Joe knows the truck is too flashy for his intended purpose. He sees a few common looking cars and is about to move in and that's when he spots it! A 1985 White Toyota Camry, with what looks like from the distance a rugged worn baby blue interior. He approaches the partially sparkling oxidized white gem and peers into the not-so-spacious cabin area. He sees the small cigar burn on the passenger side seat and a smile forms on his shadowed face. He then glances around finds exposed wires from the stereo that was taken from its resting place the last time this beauty was seized.

"Obviously, a very popular prize," Joe M. mutters under his breath.

And then, the prize of all prizes, the one that really just glows with a golden gleam, a luxurious Graco Baby Seat, complete with animal design padding and a 3-position locking handle! His eyes glazed over at the crème-de-la-crème of automobiles, and at that moment his mind was made up, this would be his car.

Are you all seeing the bitter sarcasm in my story? What damn fool walks down the street late at night (presumably) sees all the decent cars in my neighborhood and screams to him and/or herself "Hot damn an '85 Toyota Camry, with no stereo and it has a babyseat!" TWICE, no less! They should catch this person and let me do to them, what that kid got for spray-painting graffiti in another country. I'll beat his ass with a bamboo caning stick. The cop actually asked me if I would prosecute if they caught him. What kind of question is that, I ask? Are people really that scared of some punk who steals a car for a joyride or drug deal? Of course I'm going to prosecute! Now, if it was mafia related, then I'd be having second thoughts and I made sure cop understood this too.

The Plot Thickens (Saturday)
Okay so get this...

Thursday I'm dealing with getting a rental car and finally end up with a Ford Focus. It gets me around but this car has got to be the Pinto of the Millennium! But, who am I to complain, right? At least I'm getting some wheels. So I'm all set with the car and then Friday morning out of the blue I get a call from the police saying they found my car and that I can pick it up from the impound. I get to the impound yard after work and they tell me the Auto Theft division has put a hold on my car for fingerprinting. Apparently they may have the bastards in custody and want to see if they get a match on prints. COOL!!! Can't wait to see these punks in court. I wanna jump up in the middle of the proceedings and shout Al Pacino style "I'll take a FLAMETHROWER to these punks!" Well not really, but a man can dream can't he? I'll be driving the Pinto... oops, I mean the Focus for a few more days and then it will hopefully be back to the Eight Five, homies!!!

Anyway, so that's been my week. I'll add to this update later with Catalina pics and some reviews of places on the island. Peace out, peeps.

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Scott Van Gogh

Okay, while searching through some old boxes I ran across this little gem! Back in the day I was (and still am) a huge Star Wars fan and in between films (1977-1980), I needed anything that was sci-fi to tie me over until The Empire Strikes Back came out. So I came across Battlestar Galactica, a totally cheesy TV show of the late 70s that one of the effects guys from Star Wars did while he was away from the classic trilogy. Anyway, I found this piece of art I did circa 1978 and it's true genius if I do say so myself! I'll post more when I get the time to set up an art gallery.

On to other news, Karen and I are getting geared up for a weekend of fun and relaxation on Catalina Island. We might actually explore the island this time and check out Two Harbors and other inland activites.

Jaden has been teething like a madman and he has two molars coming in which are causing the little guy a lot of discomfort. It's also keeping all three of us up late at night for the past week and a half. I can't wait for those babies to pop through so he's not feeling so bad.

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70s Dinettes and Lava Lamps!

Hello Everyone,

Okay, here it is, my latest love...and I must share itwith you! We have been in desperate need of a kitchen table, but not just any one would do, oh no, so I've been searching E-bay for just such a table as you will see here, with no luck, close but not the DEFINITIVE table that could groove in our home. So we are off to a yard sale last weekend, we make a turn around the block on Covina and what do we see? This little beauty, one that was similar to a set (sans the extra groovy table) I had just seen on ebay for starting bid of $65 clams. So, I scream, STOP! and I get out, casually ask how much and they say, hmmmm, oh....$20. I am trying to contain my glee and say, Ok, I'll buy it. It also comes with a large leaf insert. As I browse around, I see other 70's artifacts (a few which are displayed on the table), lots of orange kitchen ware, pot and pan set (you can either click on the Lava Lamp or my picture at the top of the page to see my photos) and I am really getting thrilled now. I purchased a ton of USEFUL stuff that is like new and Ultra cool, all dirt cheap. I was told this stuff was the sellers mothers that had the full on 70's home and all this stuff had been packed away for 20 years. It was all in mint condition! I now have a purple and orange Lava lamp (new but a knock off of the original 70's lava lamp) on my table and all three of us eat and it and love it every day! Now I am looking for the definitive piece to go on the wall either teak / brass sunburst clock or similar Eames, Panton era or Danish Modern light fixture. Now I know many of you might not appreciate this style (and some may consider it anti-style) but some day you just might.

Have a great happy day!

Karen

Not a ton of stuff going on with me, only enough to keep me respectable. Working on a new Web site development deal which will probably take up the good part of this month. I'll post more about it when I get further on into the project. Other that that, I'm just working a lot and oh yeah, getting ready for Karen's birthday in a few weeks and then Jaden's first birthday on September 7th. So for Karen's big day I'm taking her to Catalina for the weekend and then the following weekend we're doing a Reggae harbor cruise.

On the fun side of things Karen, our friend Cris and myself did manage to check out that American Wedding movie and even though it finished up the series fairly well I couldn't help thinking where half the cast went. I guess the paychecks weren't big enough so they were written out of the story or just plain disappeared with no explanation at all. That and the fact that they wrote Stifler's character WAY outta control this time kinda bugged me, but all in all it was decent for 2nd sequel. Anyway, I'll leave you all with a very cool pic of Jaden and our friend Lori's little girl, Laurel, who stopped by for a visit and who is just about 2 months younger than Jaden. Later days, fellow readers.

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I Love The 70s and Crazy Cop Shows!

The 70s are coming back in full force on August 18th on VH1 and I can't wait. You see VH1 did this 10-hour special last year called "I Love The 80s" and it was a blast to watch and reminisce. Each year of the decade gets an hour dedicated to it and they cover all things going on that year from music to movies, sports to politics and all things covered in the pop culture fondue boiling pot.

Anyway, now they are tackling the 70s and it looks to be just as good as the 80s. Let's just hope they decide to release these on DVD soon with plenty of extra goodies to go along with it. I'd pick up those boxsets in a heartbeat and wouldn't it be great to get as many people from each one of the years to do a running commentary throughout the entire episode. Man that would be great! VH1 some of the greatest shows on TV nowadays.

And speaking of TV shows on DVD, it looks like there's a massive push by the shows creator Alan Spencer to get the two seasons of "Sledgehammer" on DVD and I for one will be a big part of this campaign. "Sledge" was a great TV show during the 80s that spat in the face of the wussy guy formula most TV shows were turning to at that time and though not popular to the masses it had a nice following that has apparently grown over the years despite the lack of syndicated airplay. I will be anxiously awaiting those discs for some true comedy genius! And in closing, I'll use one of Sledgehammer's famous lines,

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

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Holy Hot July's, Batman!
This has been a smokin' hot July so far. Something like a record 22 days we've been at or above 90 degrees. Man that's just outrageous. Anyway, on to the other things. Last weekend Karen went with her friend Cris to Knott's Berry Farm for Cris' work picnic so that left me with some options. I was going to take Jaden down to San Diego for the International Comic Con but thought Jaden might not like being down there all day long so I called up Grandma (my mother) and she agreed to watch him while I went down for the day. So I packed my geek bags and headed down to cool town San Diego for a day at the International Comic Con and man was it a blast. Every freak and geek (and even a few normal people) came out of the woodworks for this thing and something like 75,000 people were there andit was a riot. I'm working on a slideshow for the Web site and will hopefully have that up soon. I met my friend Gordon and his girlfriend Jennifer down there for a day of fun and good times. I didn't see any celebrities walking around this year, but they were there at least from the reports and photos I have seen from some of the Web sites I've checked. Anyway, the costumes were great and the people were super nice.

Some old favorites were there, including independent comic creators "Crucial Comics." These are the guys who created the Rat Bastard comics, which are great stories about a future Manhattan where scientists have performed bizarre experiments that has turned half of the population into E.L.F.'s (experimental lifeforms) by messing with their DNA and these people are the outcasts and scum of society. And society now worships an "Elvis" that gets re-elected every few years as their god/president and Rat Bastard is this rat/human half breed that is a detective solving crimes in this mixed up world.

I'm also reading a Clive Barker book called "The Great and Secret Show," which I read years ago but, since it has been so long ago I forgot most of the story. So I picked it back up and this is a great book. It's the first book in an unfinished trilogy. I'll probaly read part two next or maybe after the newest Harry Potter.

Anyway, on to the movies. I haven't been to the theaters since the last posting so I just talk about some flicks I saw on satelite. I just saw the Adam Sandler film "Mr. Deeds" on HBO and all I really need to say is that movie stunk soooo bad. I usually get a decent laugh out of his flicks, especially knowing the type of humor and target audience they are shooting for. But this thing had storylines going every which way but loose and I usually like Winona Ryder but man she was bad too! I've wasted too much time on this flick time to move on. But I'll be sticking with his other movies, especially Punch Drunk Love! Now that was a great movie! I also watched an excellent little indie film called "Kissing Jessica Stein." It's about a girl who's fed up with the dating scene and the whacko guys she keeps ending up with so she answers a personal add from a girl who's seeking another girl and story goes on from there. I liked the premise of how a hetrosexual girl is so frustrated with the losers and jerks that she is willing to give up everything she was taught in order to find companionship from the least likely place she would have thought. It's a very touching movie with light humor, very much like if "Friends" and "Sex and the City" were thrown into a blender and were frappe'd them into this movie.

Jaden's almost walking and his 1st birthday is just around the corner (September 7th). We haven't figured out what were doing yet, but we might end up having a BBQ/pool party at our old house since our friend Cris moved into it. We'll be posting/e-mailing all the info as soon as we find out more later.

As I'm sitting here writing this, an excellent thunder and lightning storm is passing overhead giving us more weird July weather. You gotta love Southern California. It's late I'm signing off.

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Hot Town, Summer in the City... So Let's See Movies and Read Books!
Just a couple of reviews to throw at you this time. Not much else is going on but I will be heading down to San Diego for the day on Saturday to check out the International Comic Con. It's so much fun watching the freaks and geeks come out of the woodwork for this wacky event. Anyway, now for the reviews...

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Plot
I Don't want to give anything away, so I will keep it light. Okay, so there are these two terminators who travel back in time to present day Los Angeles to possibly kill/save John Connor and alter the future.

Sound familiar? Well it should, 'cause it takes the basic idea straight from James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but throws a hella-good twist into an already familiar franchise. This movie was fun and has to have one of the best chase sequences ever put on film! I thoroughly enjoyed the new ideas, adding to an already interesting story and seeing how the new characters fall into the scheme of things was pretty fun also. The things I didn't like are the too many jarring moments that throw you out of the film. I won't give away specifics, but one has to do with Arnold's arrival in the present day (or night I should say). Anyway, the story is what saves this movie, along with some pretty good acting (even from Arnold!), however, the quirky (supposedly funny) moments are what kept me from giving this film five stars.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Plot
Based on the ride from Disneyland, a band of baddie pirates capture the damsel, Kiera Knightley (who is now in distress and looks a lot like Winona Ryder), for some medallion to break a curse and it's up to her love interest Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) to get her back. Plenty of pirate action and hijinks ensue.

I absolutely loved this movie! This is my surprise hit for the summer. An original, fun pirate romp with scenery to awe you right in the seats where you sit. Johnny Depp is at his weird, quirky best and just so believable as a little off-his-rocker pirate, Jack Sparrow. Orlando Bloom is also terrific and Geoffery Rush is just such a great villain. The story kept me going, even though it did seem a little long and the acting is great. This is also a movie where the offbeat humor and inside jokes work whole-heartedly, especially for those of us who have ridden that ride thousands of times. Hats off to the Mouse for making a top-notch summer film! They have made a classic flick with this one and will definitely be added to my DVD collection when it comes out.

I'm really having a good time at the movies when I get the chance to get away. I still need to see this Nemo film everyone keeps talking about and see why it took the box office crown from the Matrix Reloaded for #1 movie of 2003. This is turning out to be a hell of a great summer for movies.

Swan Song

Plot
Swan Song was written and takes place during the nuclear scare of the 80's and how an inevitable war finally happens. The result leads a handful of survivors crawling from the ashes of this all-out global annihilation to pick up the pieces of their devastated world and begin life anew. In the process of their travels these select few come across all sorts of society's worst painted against a seven year nuclear winter. The radiation has done a number on the planet but somehow these strangers must find each other in the madness of the aftermath.

This is an excellent book. It takes the Stephen King's "The Stand" to whole new level. If you are a fan of King then I highly recommend this book. Robert McCammon has created some truly great characters and throws them into a melting pot of chaos and carnage. The book is just shy of 1,000 pages and doesn't feel long at all, in fact I was actually hoping it would keep going! His other books are pretty darn out there and not all of them are labeled sci-fi/horror. Seek him out and I'm sure you'll find some very entertaining books. Another personal recommendation of Mr. McCammon is Gone South, a great adventure/thrill ride dealing with an Elvis Impersonator and a sideshow freak. You can check out his works here: Robert R. MaCammon

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No Boom Booms For Us!
This year we just took it easy and actually didn't even get to see a firework show. We certainly heard them, but not a single fountain, sparkler, nothing. It was pleasant and nice. Next year we'll take Jaden out but with all he's been through the past three or four weeks we figured he could hear them all night. Anyway it was a very relaxing 4th of July and we had some great food. Shortly after the last post in June we finally broke down and bought ourselves a kick butt Barbeque. So wheeled that puppy over to our old place (where our friend Cris llives now), set up the Jar Jar Binks Blow-Up Pool and had ourselves a good time.

On the other hand, Jaden has been entering a new stage (I swear these phase/stages feel like they're coming every day). This stage is what I like to call the "I will scream at the top of my lungs if I don't get what I want" stage. There are techniques to calming him down even before these outbursts start, but they sure can surprise you every once in awhile. It's just amazing watching this kid grow and the changes he goes through.

Not much else really going on over here at the old Evanskey front. Karen and I might go check out a movie or two this weekend to catch up on the onslaught of summer fare that's been thrown at us. I've actually heard good things about most of the pictures coming out so far. I think we'll check out the Pirates of the Carribean on Saturday and then if time and a babysitter permit will see Terminator 3. "Pirates we're actually heading out to the El Capitan theater in Hollywood, which is just a spectacular theater to see a movie in and ranks up there with Grauman's Chinese and the Egyptian. Disney owns the El Capitan and primarily shows disney flicks there. I saw Beauty and the Beast there with my friend Jon and his family and also saw Nightmare Before Christmas. They do live shows before the movie on the restored stage and it's a blast. I definitely love those old Hollywood theaters and it's good to see a lot of them still thriving. I'll post any pictures we take while we are up there.

Last item on the list is a couple of photo albums I posted over at Ofoto, so check them out if you didn't get the e-mail I sent out. By the way if you didn't get an e-mail link to our latest photos and would like to be added or have your e-mail updated (some of those e-mail addresses are outdated) please send me an e-mail here at home so I can either fix the bad e-mail for you or add you to the list.

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Holy Angels, Charlie!
Alright, alright this update was supposed to be posted earlier this week and then due to more illness on Jaden's and daddy's behalf it was going to go up last night but more pressing things came up and finally I'm posting this mess today. Anyway read on true believers.

Just got a break today (no, not McDonald's), so Karen and I checked out the new Charlie's Angels flick and it's pure eye/ear candy, just like the first one but ten times louder, bigger, and better. The outrageous and unbelievable stunts just kept coming every second of the film. They make be fake but they never lead you on into thinking they are supposed to be taken seriously. I for one think they captured the feel of the TV show perfectly. And it's so entertaining to see a bunch of friends up on screen just having a great time. The music kicks ass too. Just like the first movie, the soundtrack totally compliments the imagery and to hear the Nickelback/Kid Rock version of Saturday Night Is Alright For Fighting from Elton John all metal'd outis the greatest! The cameos are pretty shocking I won't tell who they are or how many but it was fun 'cause some of the disguises are pretty way out there. And the explanation for Bernie Mac as the new Bosley was pretty good too. Overall I think this is just one of those really super fun summer movies that lets you escape from the outside world for an hour and a half and not feel ashamed to do it.I recommend it highly, but if you don't want to shell out the big bucks definitely see the matinee.

Two Weeks Crazy
Well things have been pretty out of control over here. First off let me start by saying that Karen and I finally experienced a full blown baby fever starting on Sunday june 8th through June 15th. It started on Sunday as a mild fever that we were expecting from his nine month shots, which he got a few days earlier. Monday rolled around and he just got progressively worse (more so in the evening) and then Tuesday was the kicker. Just after midnight his fever spiked at 104.5 degrees and we were off to the emergency room, where we stayed until six in the morning until they could give him some antibiotic shots. It was the toughest thing to see our little guy in such agony, not to mention that he pulled a Linda Blair and covered me with almost the same colored green vomit. Once he returned home and finally got some rest he started feeling better and next few days the fever disappeared and the all over body rash appeared. After some research, we realized that was either a reaction to the antibiotic or a common rash that develops from fevers, called Roseola. Anyway, he is doing much better and as happy as can be.

Right after that, it was off to getting Karen ready for her business trip to San Francisco and then dad was left alone (technically, but mom did help out quite a bit) with Jaden on Tuesday through Friday. Friday evening was when I would be leaving for San Francisco to join up with Karen and have two days vacation in one of the coolest cities in the States. It didn't start off too good with the flight being delayed over two hours due to high winds in the Bay City, so I ended up rolling into town about 11:00 pm. It did give me a chance to catch up on some reading on this great book called Swan Song by Robert McCammon. I'll have to write up a review of soon. I also got some fun shots of me just sitting on the runway parked while other flights were taking off left and right. I've never seen so much of LAX before.

Anyway, got to do a bunch of stuff we couldn't do last time. We took a tour of the bay right at sunset and scored some good pictures of the bridge, the city and Alcatraz. I'll be posting more pictures soon. We also got to hang out on Haight Street much longer this time and do some walking and shopping in one of the coolest shopping districts in the world. We got Jaden a little tye-dyed shirt that's pretty groovy. We also hit this groovy bar called Aum Zam Zam and it looked like you walked right into India! I was waiting for Apu from the Simpsons to show up, but the best part was a total surfer dude was running the place playing Hank Williams greatest hits on this psychedelic jukebox. What a blast and then it was off for some of the greatest pizza on the west coast at "Escape From New York Pizza." A good time was had by all and we can't wait to go again. Maybe next time we can stay longer than two days and spend some time along the coast at Big Sur. So were back and Jaden gets another fever but this time we're on it big time and then I got sick for a couple of days. Jaden's fever is now gone and I'm doing great but what a crazy two weeks.

On a sad side note, after seven plus years, the old Evanskey Web site at Earthlink has finally been shut down! It's sad day and the end of an era. Let's hope the Charter site holds out just as long (or at least until I figure out Verizon's system). That's all for now folks. Be good to yourselves.

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Gregorian Ponks and White Rappers!
My mom has been coming by quite a bit all through May and June to watch Jaden while Karen and I have been getting our place together and during one of these visits she brought a few boxes over that I had left at my Grandma's place while I lived there. One of these boxes was filled with old flyers from the "Hollywood" days, when some friends of mine would go hang out in Hollywood see some shows and just act like the young punks we were. So I scanned some of these flyers and will be posting them periodically. Anyway the first one is for my friend Arlen, 'cause he really seemed to like the name of this band. I never really knew anything from these guys but they seemed like a joke punk band.

The next wacky item I'm putting up here was in the stack of flyers. It's an autographed 8x10 glossay of Vanilla Ice that I got while I was working at Tower Records. The story behind it goes like this... this girl I worked with was also interning at SBK records and brought in a bunch of freebie stuff from the studio and in the boxes of junk I came across a stack of Vanilla Ice 8x10 glossies and kept a bunch of them for future fun and had them kept in my area in the back of the store until I could bring them home. Every now and then famous people would stop into Tower Records. I, however, believe this was a little self promoting on Mr. Van Winkle's part (aka Vanilla Ice for those uninformed). He showed up in the store with a wig and fake moustache on (Seriously!) Anyway, the disguise was so bad and obvious that I had to confront him. I ran for the back to get picture and pretended to be this big fan, but I think he caught on when I kept calling him Robbie but he played off like a pro and signed my picture of him and that's basically the gist of the story. Well enough talkin', here's the granddaddy idiot of all white rappers.

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Spicoli revisited!
Karen gave me an early Father's Day gift and had to share with you all 'cause this was just too cool of a gift to let go quietly. She picked me up some Vans slip-ons, Spicoli style (checkerboard for those who are not familiar with the works of Mr. Spicoli last seen in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"). These things are great and bring back a lot of good times. I used to wear Vans Slip-ons all the time and so many different colors I can't even begin to recall all of them. They were bitchin'! Anyway here's a peek at them and my new look!

I also posted a few new links in my Scott's page. I added a link to a great 80's TV show called Sledgehammer and another to a fun glam rock page called Sleaze Roxx. I also added one more to my friends links to my friend Anna from the Prosoft days, where she sells her works online, it's called Lulu Goes Gaga, so check those out some time if you feel the need. I will be adding many more links and some of fun things I have been talking about for the past year, it's gonna be a blast!

Well onto other things. I finished with Charter completely and have since moved on to Verizon DSL and even though I am now with my new provider, these other companies still have my old Web sites up and running. Charter is understandable since I have only switched over recently, Earthlink I've been done with for over three years or more. Oh well I guess Web space is plenty and then some so I'm not worried about it. As soon as I get my new Web address I'll post it here just in case I forgot someone in the e-mail I'll be sending out. Anyway it's been an interesting three years Charter, but in the famous words of Dennis Miller "I... am... outta here."

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Evanskeys #1 on Google (kinda)!
I was out browsing the net searching for time zones on Google (don't ask, it's a really long story!) when I decided to search on a couple of my family's names and when I searched on Evanskey this came up! How cool is that! We are listed on Google and to my surprise Yahoo and a couple other search engines. I know it isn't much, but damn I thought it was pretty cool just to have that little niche of the internet carved out for yourself and to actually have Google recognize it. Now if I could only get more family members out there on the Web and maybe even with their own Web sites! Come family I know you are reading this let's kick the tires and light some fires. I wanna see some updates on you people!

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!
I'll Start off this post with a new picture of Jaden and then dive right into all the latest happenings.

Finally, after a few weeks at the new place we're starting to get settled in to our new apartment. Movin is an interesting monster, you're all excited about moving into a new place and at the same time there's all this work involved. Yeah, sure the initial move is physically tiring but then there all the unpacking and sorting and wondering if I really need al this stuff. It really takes it toll on you. Anyway most of it is done and we have truly enjoyed the space in our new apartment and hopefully when all is finalized we will have some kind of housewarming party with good eats, good drinks and other stuff.

On the flip side of all this I just finish setting up my new DSL account and sent out an e-mail to everyone with karen's e-mail. I'll set up mine soon and have that all sent out when I'm finished dealing with Verizon. Anyway the Charter site is still up and when I get the new URL for the Web site I'll send that off also..

Next up is a not-so-quick review of the Matrix Reloaded. It took me awhile to come to this decision and after much soul searching (hehehe) I like this movie, and like it a lot! But coming to this decision was a tough one and here's why: The first Matrix was groundbreaking and this one had a lot to measure up to and I didn't feel it lived up to that 100%. It tried, and tried real hard, but didn't quite make it, but that's okay 'cause it really went over the top in certain parts of the movie. The effects and stunts are out of this world bitchin' especially the Twins, the chase sequence & Neo/Agent Smith(s) fight. After my initial viewing I felt so overwhelmed by the effects that I wondered if there was even something that remotely resembled a story. I actually downloaded a part of the script that whizzed by me during my viewing and after reading it, cleared up quite a few of the questions I had. There are plenty of questionable moments in the movie but the first one had those also. And, since this is the second film in the trilogy I have to give them the benefit of the doubt and see if they will resolve some of my questions in part three. Brian Singer said that his X2: X-Men United is like his Empire Strikes Back and I have to agree (but that's a another review coming soon) I can't quite see The Matrix Reloaded up to par with "Empire" but now that I understand what was going on in the movie I think it was pretty dang good. I'll definitely be checking out another viewing of this flick. I tried to keep this review somewhat vague, 'cause I'm holding back on any details (or spoilers) for those who may not have seen it yet. Overall I liked it and hopefully it will grow on me even more after repeat viewings. So I leave you all with a picture of (left to right) Cris, Fred, Karen and me at Grauman's Chinese for the opening weekend for the Matrix Reloaded.

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Return of the Demon Flyer!
In the process of moving I started going through some of the many boxes in our garage and came across the original Demon Flyer. The Demon Flyer was a frisbee that a bunch of friends of mine and me would take along to Beach BBQs, camping trips, etc. The frisbee was just this old freebie item I got from working a temp assignment for FHP in their insurance packets department. The name came from the demon face drawn on the top of it with black permanent marker. Anyway, I think he's starting to show his age, there seems to be some gray hairs around the edge and the permanent marker's not looking so permanent anymore. Looks like he needs some plastic surgery! I'm also including another photo link to my 31st birthday party, where I was blindfolded, kidnapped and taken to the Santa Monica pier and amusement park. It was a blast and then we ended the day with dinner and a movie out in Hollywood where we say Phone Booth. I had an excellent time and the movie was pretty good too, so all in all a really good day.

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Picture update
Here's a couple quick things that have been occupying my time.

We're still settling into the new place with plenty of boxes to unpack. And the garage looks like a year long project, okay maybe a couple of weeks. It's tough getting any work done with my boss that's Jaden!) around. I did finish the majority of my work on that Web site I was working on and you can view it at www.worldinmotion.com or click the image on the right. The site is best viewed at 800x600 but I don't seem to have any problems at 1280x1024.

I'm also moving over to DSL in the next day or two so I will be sending out the new Web site address and e-mail as soon as I get everything up and running. I scored a great deal through verizon. No contract, a flat fee of $29.00 and upgraded 1.5 Mb down and 768 Mb up, plus the first month free. So even though I've bitched about Charter in the past now I can finally say adios you crappy cable company. It feels good to be free of the suffocating, maniacal, evil-empire called Charter.

Another project I'm doing, which falls perfectly in with the move, is that I am going through all my CDs and cataloging each one of them as I listen to them at work. This is something I decided to do with all of our belongings since my car was broken into once in 2002 and then stolen six months later, in June of that year. In both cases I lost quite a bit of personal belongings including about 50-60 CDs. So I started with the CDs and it really helps my day go by faster listening to all these great albums.

Click on the picture to your left with the baby and check out the latest Jaden photo album. Click on the image to go directly to the Ofoto album.

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We're Moved!!!
A great big thank you goes out to everyone who pitched in and helped move. Sam Barrera (and happy 1st birthday Raymond), Gordon (long time friend), Brian Danks (work buddy from the Prosoft days) and Mark Duimstra (life long friend). Thanks also to Frank and Trudy (my Uncle and Aunt) for watching Jaden through all this. Your help was greatly appreciated. As soon as the pictures start to roll in I'll be posting them up probably tomorrow night sometime, along with a bunch of Ofoto links. So until then be cool true believers.

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New Jaden & Apartment Pics
New pictures of our new place and the Jaden pics are him playing in the new apartment while we were moving.

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The Wisdom of Mr. Claven
The following is the result of an e-mail my friend Cris sent to me awhile back. In that e-mail, there was a great quote by Mr. Claven about beer being helpful to the brain and prompted me to do a search for a few of his more wiser moments. Here's the quote that started me on the quest...

"A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

and the following is what I found:

• An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.
• A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
• It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.
• White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (formerly of the Monkees).
• In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
• Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax, and correct itself.
• Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.
• 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.
• 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
• To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs-it will let you go instantly.
• Reindeer like to eat bananas.
• If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
• No words in the English language rhyme with month, orange, silver, and purple.
• Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
• "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
• The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."
• Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
• The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
• In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam."
• Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
• More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
• A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
• The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
• Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
• Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
• The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
  

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Update-O-Rama! Hooray!!
Well Thursday was my 31st birthday and to celebrate Karen and I went to our favorite Italian restaurant Papalucci's to have some good eats. They definitely have the best Italian food. And if anyone who reads this page decides to go, you really need to order the "Garlic Roles" instead of the garlic bread for your appetizer, they're just plain evilicious. Anyway before we went out we had one of those bizarre Long Beach experiences that make this place great. Our babysitter Cristine just showed up to watch Jaden and Karen was getting ready, when I noticed this lady and a couple of her friends standing on my front lawn dressed up in shiny "Uncle Sam" attire. I thought nothing of it other than maybe some local weirdos hanging out around the pad, probably early bird race fans of the Long Beach Grand Prix, which happened last weekend. Cris and I talked while Karen got ready and then I noticed a cop car pulling two big bikers over. These guys were straight outta the Hell's Angels, shaved heads, tons of leather and denim and Harley's right outta hell. So these guys get pulled over right in front of my apartment and that's when I notice not only the few crazies from before but now a whole gathering of them. 20 of these people are now standing on my lawn and make things weirder they all have dogs with them dressed in costumes. There was a genuine freak show right on my front lawn and I loved it! Now the bikers were being cuffed by street clothed cops and five more squad cars were called in, blocking off Corona Ave. and The Toledo. It turned out the biker guys were let off with a warning and dogs and wacky owners were applying for the Haute Dog Easter Parade happening this Sunday, April 20 in Belmont Shore but before Karen and I ran off to dinner I grabbed Jaden and took a picture of us and the Elvis dog!

The Weekend was the real birthday fun when Karen and Cris blindfolded me and surprised me with a trip to Pacific Park on the Santa Monica pier. We had a blast riding a few rides (including the world's first solar powered Ferris wheel). Although I'm not one for heights the view was pretty spectacular from the top of the Ferris wheel. Anyway, we had lunch at the end of the pier at pretty good Mexican place called Mariasol Cocina Mexicana. We also ran into a few of the L.A. freaks, including a Golden Mermaid (she seemed a little bitter to me). After three hours surf and fun we headed to our next destination, Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. We checked out Phone Booth and had a great time. L.A. has the best theaters anywhere. None of these cookie-cutter megaplexes you see on every corner. These are the theaters that made movie-going an experience. Those megaplexes serve their purpose and I'll see a (not-so) cheap matinee there any day but to get the real movie experience you need to find one of the classic old theaters like Grauman's, or The Egyptian Theater. Sorry for the rant but it needed to be said. We took pictures with some of the locals, had a quick dinner and then headed home. That was pretty much the weekend.

On a side note, Karen and I have been talking about a bigger place and Friday Karen called me up with some great news about a place across the street from where we are now. Karen called the landlady, set up an appointment on Monday and we prepared a hell of a good presentation for the landlady and BAM we got the place! I did send out an e-mail this past week and for anyone who didn't receive it, that's due to my contacts list being a little wacky. I'll get that fixed as soon as I can.

Now on with the week...

Most of this week has been work, work, work. The new job is great. Now that training is over with and I'm actually getting regular work it's pretty insane. I'm working on my second article right now and things are progressively getting easier and better. It will still take some time to get into a good groove but I'm really picking this Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) thing up.

Last night Karen, Jaden and I headed over to our friends Lori and Damien's place for a quick visit. While we were there we took some snap shots of Jaden playing with their newborn, Laurel. Here's a couple of pics of the two of them whooping it up. Laurel is about two months younger than Jaden and loves holding herself up as you can see in the photos.

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April is here and I guess it's time for me to update this crazy page. Believe it or not, I will try to update this site more than just three times a month. I just started my new job as Production Editor at the IEEE Computer Society and have been in some of the most intense training I have ever experienced. That aside I am really getting into this job and at first it seemed like a slow go but each day got bigger, faster, better (kinda like the six million dollar man). Anyway, on with the show.

Jaden turned seven months on Friday and this kid is getting big. He's really trying to crawl and he's still says the occasional "Hi" when he's feeling talkative. The other thing is his energy level just seems like it set on high all the time and we love it. He's laughing, smiling and playing so much now that almost every night is fun except when it's time to put him down to sleep. He is teething again and has been waking up almost every night for two weeks but that seems to be passing, slowly but definitely passing.

I'm trying to get all the photo albums linked and will have the photogallery updated soon. I'm also working on on all three of our personal pages with little bios and more pictures. I'll try to get some lists and maybe some Top 5s up soon but no gaurantees.

So I'm working on the fourth Harry Potter book titled "The Goblet of Fire" and I've finished the first three and it's very rare that I find a series of books that just keep getting better. So far book three (akaYear Three) "The Prisoner of Azkaban" is my favorite and is probably the darkest out of all of them. "Goblet" started off a little slow, but that's because it's the longest out of all four and has a lot to set up at the beginning. I recommend these books highly for kids and adults that might still have an imagination left. I also see these books as a great way to get your kids into reading, by reading to them! Finally here's a recent picture of the little squirt in action.

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It seems I have been away for awhile. Well a lot of stuff has been happening these past few weeks and I'll try to bring you up to speed. The first bit of news is that after more than three years I will be leaving Prosofttraining to pursue a another job at IEEE Computer Society. It was a very hard decision to make with the many friends I have made at Prosoft. I will miss them all hope to stay in touch with them. But it is time I move on and IEEE graciously offered me a position at their Los Alamitos site and I am pretty excited to see how I fit into my new work digs.

On other news Karen and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversaythis past weekend. My mom offered to stay over at our place and watch Jaden while Karen and I headed to Mammoth Lake to get away and do some snowboarding. Friday was mostly traveling and resting and then Saturday was an all out blast. We covered waht seemed like so much of the mountain and it was incredible. There are three lodges around the base of the mountain Eagle Lodge, Canyon Lodge and the Main Lodge and somewhere between Canyon and Main Lodge is a small lift/ticket area called The Mill Cafe.We started there and worked our way across to the Main Lodge and back many times and just had a wonderful time! Here's a picture of Karen, me and friend we made up there.

More photo albums will be going up soon so check back anytime to catch up on all the fun and mischief.

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I already announced the big news yesterday so on to other stuff. I saw "Chicago" with Karen yesterday and I tried to go into this movie with a lot of animosity but damned if I didn't enjoy it completely. What an all around fun film it is. Every performance in Chicago is great (with a very, veryminor complaint on Rene's lip synching) and the atmosphere that the director sets is terrific. Mad props go out to all who were involved in the process of making a musical and a gritty drama mix so well. My personal pick for the best picture is still Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but now when* Chicago wins I won't feel so let down by the academy. This is a thoroughly enjoyable film and I highly recommend it! This could be a fun DVD if Miramax takes their time and does it right. It might just find its way into my collection.

* yes I said when, not if, because we all know that it' going to win, so let's not fool ourselves alright.

Update: Did I not say it was going to win! Still, the Polanski win was a real shocker!

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The big news this weekend is that Jaden said his first word! Saturday we were running around all morning apartment shopping (we're in need of a bigger place) and by the time we got back to our place we thought we should have some fun and shoot some video with Jaden. You see Jaden's been baby talkin' quite a bit lately and we thought it would pretty cool to get some of that on video. Anyway Karen was talkin' to Jaden and he was responding with his typical baby banter and then she just said flat out "tell daddy hi" and just stunned us with a "Hi" and we got it on video and just to make sure it wasn't just nonsense noise we watch the tape a couple of times and he is definitely mouthing the word while saying it. How cool is that!!!

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A new month and too much going on here in the Evanskey kingdom. So the big news today is that Jaden turns 6 months today! We'll be celebrating over at his Grandma's house tonight and then try to have a wonderful slow weekend. Sorry about the delays in updates, but I've been working on a side project for a few weeks with a friend from work. It's a design job which is right up my alley and I'm having a blast working on it with him. As soon as the site is finished I'll be posting a link to the page so you can check out the image work I did on it. The name of the company is World In Motion Records and they are a record label for folk/jazz style artists, at least that's what I have gathered so far. I'll post next week with more info so until then take care of your bad selves!

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Added two new photo albums to the Web site, one on Jaden's page and the other to the photogallery. The first one is Jaden - Vol. 8, which I'll be adding more photos to as I get more. The second album is the pictures I took for my cousin Hannah's 10th birthday party. Family and friends were there to share in the festivities and I grabbed a few snapshots of the event. I'm adding direct links here but in the future all photo albums will either be in the Photogallery or on Jaden's Page. Enjoy!

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Not a whole lot going on this month as you can see. I did fix the bad/broken links on Jaden's Page, so check them out when you get a chance. Basically, I just consolidated all of Jaden's Ofoto Albums into larger albums so you wouldn't have to look at tons of albums, now you just have to look through lots of pictures just in a fewer albums!

Karen and I saw Daredevil over Valentines Day and I have to say that it wasn't that good. We dropped ALL our expectations going into this film and still found it disappointing. There moments in it that made it feel like the comic book, but each time those moments would appear they just didn't seem to have the steam to keep the pace and would fall short. And who ever said "to be a villain in a comic book movie you HAVE to act so over-the-top that it detracts from the story" needs to have their mouths duct taped shut! Subtlety plays off much more imposing than these hyped actors I've seen in the last 10 years or so. Why can't they make a movie like the first Superman again. Sure it's a little long and wordy but it has repeatviewings appeal. Anyway if you must see Daredevil then I advise a matinee or rent it when it comes out at the end of summer!

On the other hand I just finished reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and thoroughly enjoyed this book, even after lots of kicking and screaming I finally gave in and read the darn thing and wouldn't you know it the book is pretty good. And I must go on the record in saying that the movie remained fairly true to the book, although the book went into a bit more detail and some of the plot holes that were left open in the movie were resolved nicely in the book. The movie was quite long for a kid friendly flick and these very minor plot holes do not detract from the story at all. I was quite happy with both the book and movie. I have also seen "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" but I am just starting the book today so I'll do a comparison of those two in a couple of weeks. So it looks like the Harry Potter franchise is pretty solid in my book. Now if Warners Bros. could fix the crappy DVD they issued for HP and the Sorcerer's Stone I'd be a much happier fanboy. Here's hoping for the "Chamber of Secrets" DVD to be much better. And I'm actually looking forward to seeing the "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Until later, I'm signing off...

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A new month and I'm finally getting to some updates. But first a quick Valentines shout out to my beautiful wife and wonderful son. You two are the best!

So a couple things that have been happening. Jaden's been teething for awhile now, but in the past week one of his two bottom teeth has finally broken through. We're happy to see this happening so soon but it's not making Jaden too happy. From what everyone is saying, we should expect this teething discomfort for the next 2 1/2 years. He's a trooper though and still loves to have a good time. My mom's been over a bunch to watch Jaden while Karen and I had a chance to get some work done and actually got outside for dinner and a movie. We ended up seeing "Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind" and I have to say that it was extremely entertaining. George Clooney did a fine job of directing and Sam Rockwell is such a great actor. I definately recommend it. If you want to see more of Sam's stuff I would urge you to see "Galaxy Quest" and the "The Green Mile".

I will be putting more photo album links up on a regular basis, so check back as often as you can to see the new albums. If you haven't been there yet, I am categorizing them by year and then working with a backwards timeline. So in the 2002 section, the first album you'll see will be one taken in December and then November and so on.

Gordon and Jennifer (aka Woody) stopped by last night to visit with Jaden and I grabbed a couple of pictures.

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A couple of small updates:

Jaden's page has been cleaned up. The photos on the page are gone and will soon have his bio posted along with new pictures. It will give people who read it an idea of what we went through from the moment Karen and I found out about Jaden up to the present.

The photo gallery has been updated with links to some of our ofoto albums. Click the photo gallery icon link above to access this page. More albums will be added soon.

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Two updates in less than 48 hours! Amazing!

Jaden news first and then the other garbage. Jaden is doing great and is on his way to a happy 5 months. He's just starting teething and can get a little uncomfortable every now and then. November and December last year were pretty tough on the little guy because he was sick for over three weeks and his colic was just starting to ease up around that time. It is great to see him so active now. he's been rolling around the past week or so and is starting to lift himself up into the crawling position (with a little help from Mom or Dad). But the wild thing for us is that he really like to walk, with our support of course. I just can't believe how much he loves to get up and go. He's been doing this since at least December and when he's in the mood he cruises around the house. Some pretty exciting times with Jaden. Don't worry, don't worry, we'll be adding new photo albums so everyone can check it out.

So anyway, I caught most of the Golden Globes Sunday night and Jaden and I must saythat we weren't as impressed with them as with the past couple of years (of course I don't know where Jaden's getting his references from), but it didn't seem as wacky as some of the last few shows they've done. But I will say the "jaw-on-the-floor" shocking moment for me was when Lara Flynn Boyle came out to present an award and she looked like a circus blew up and the remains landed on her! What the heck happened there and who didn't have the guts to tell her NOT to wear that outfit? And since when did she sign up for the "Calista Flockhart School of Eating"? She looked like a Ballerina Pez Dispenser. I was happy that a couple of the awards went to "Adaptation" which leads me into the next paragraph...

"Adaptation" bumped out my previous pick for best movie of the year "Punch Drunk Love". PDL is still a great movie and I highly recomend it, but "Adaptation" is just plain incredible! This gets as deep as Fight Club did four years ago! And if you haven't seen Fight Club please rent that movie it is so wonderful on so many levels that I can't even begin to describe! But back to "Adaptation", this movie is such a mind trip I don't even know where to begin (which is ironic 'cause that's pretty much the gist of the movie). As far as I know it goes something like this: Charlie Kaufman is a screenwriter, who wrote "Being John Malkovich", he now wants to adapt a novel by Susan Orlean called The Orchid Thief, into a screenplay but is having a difficult time starting it and reluctantly asks for help from his brother Donald, who writes the most inane cliche' screenplays Charlie has ever seen. This movie is like an Independent, Autobiographical, Based on True Events, Adaptation, Hollywood Action flick, mixed bag. It was definately worth my movie money and then some. It's good to see Nicolas Cage doing some really good stuff here and Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep are fantastic in this movie.

Karen and I also caught the new Spike Lee movie, "25th Hour" starring Edward Norton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper. Normally I don't give up the dough to Spikey because of some racial comments he made during the publicity tour for Malcom X (that's a whole other story), but being that Karen treated this time and we already had the hard choice of deciding which movie to see out of the tons of nominated fodder, I caved pretty easy. It was either that or "The Hours" which didn't jump right out, grab me and say "Scott this is YOUR type of movie!" plus Ed Norton has never let me down yet. I have to say this is not one of those fun movies you come out of screaming "Hey, that was a blast, let's get a drink to celebrate!" Of course most, if not all, of Spike Lee's films are usually lumped into this category. Anyway the film is quite good and the performances are all tremendous. It was interesting to see Spike Lee's twist on a Irish Drug Dealer story and have to say brought up the level of my respect (albeit a small amount) for Mr. Lee.

2002 should be archived and ready to go. Just click the 2002 link at the bottom of this page to read last year's news, that is if you feel the need to.

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Let's start things off with a new family picture and thenget to the heart of my madness...

Oh my goodness! So the last update was almost a month ago on Christmas day. Why the long break you may ask? Well it seems it was a combination of a few things. First off, the program I use to create this site was not allowing me to upload images. Whenever I tried loading an image of any kind it would freak out and crash. I figured out what the dealio was with that and now am on the road to Web site recovery. Next, my entire system has been giving me quite a few problems also and for some reason it doesn't seem to like Windows XP a whole lot. Then, this video capture project I am attempting (I'll fill you in later about this) would just freeze up my operating system. I almost decided to go with a Macintosh, and am still thinking about it! I have two friends who use Macs and one has been an Apple supporter since the Apple IIc. The other one just coverted and is now a happy Mac user. I never see PC people that happy and I blame it on Bill Gates. I think I'll watch the South Park movie again just so I can watch them kill the cartoon version of Mr. Gates over and over again.

All the small projects I had in mind for this site are still in the works but have been put in kick back mode until these problems have been 100% fixed (and we're not quite there yet), so in the next month or so you'll be seeing some changes happening around here.

Next on the back burner is a project I have been working on for a some time now. I am scanning and archiving all my old photos of family, friends and what-nots and on top of that I've been getting ready to digitally transfer all my old home movies/videos of friends and family and burn them to DVD. This second part is a huge project that will take up a good chunk of my time which isn't readily available at the moment due to the fact I have a four month old boy and a loving wife who requires most of that time. An old school friend of mine, Jon P., just sent the group friends a copy of one of the many projects he is working and here's a scan of the cover:

These were a bunch of videos that a group of friends of mine and me did way back in the day when we could all stay up 'til 4:00 am every night without tiring. We just grabbed a bunch of instruments (or things we thought that would make good instruments), drink a lot of Mountain Dew and grab a bunch of old clothes from Joe's garage and Lip Synch to our favorite artists or songs. Ahhh good times! Stunning work Jon.

So, that's kinda what's been going on, but I'll wait until tomorrow to finish this update. Adios for now and here's a belated Happy New Year!!!

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