Happy New Year

Over the past a few months, I have started a new job at a new company in a new city. We even bought a new car, a new house, and almost everything in the house is new: video, audio, furniture etc. Sound like the new year starts off all fresh to hopefully make new money to pay for all these. Most importantly, keep my old friends while busy making new ones.

Anyways, happy new year for all.

2005 in review

Cruisin' through '05 by Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay is a columlist for the Toronto Star. I really don't think the Tom Cruise pieces are funny after the third time he mentioned him. If you're a Tom Cruise fan, please stop at here.

Here are some lines that I'd like to remember this year:

Jan. 4: With bombings and assassinations going on daily, it's clear, says U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney, that the Iraqi insurgency is in its last throes.

Jan. 7: Amber Frey wins the Kato Kaelin Award for the year's most tangential celebrity.

Jan. 20: George W. Bush, sworn in for his second term, renews his pledge to fulfil the duties of the presidency, should something happen to Cheney.

Jan. 31: Hundreds of news organizations, apparently unaware of the Iraq war, global warming, AIDS in Africa and terrorism, descend on California for the Michael Jackson trial.

Feb. 18: Car insurance companies, having achieved record profits, say they are willing to do whatever it takes to be even more hated than the oil companies.

Feb. 22: Buckingham Palace announces that the Queen will be unable to attend the Prince Charles-Camilla Parker Bowles wedding owing to a previously scheduled Corgi neutering.

March 9: CBS anchor Dan Rather says all the evidence that it was time for him to step down has turned out to be fake, so he's going to hang in.

March 10: Michael Jackson, hearing rumours there may be a sleep-over at the court, arrives in pyjamas.

March 14: Robert Blake joins O.J. Simpson on the golf course so they can pool their efforts to track their wives' killers.

March 31: Terry Schiavo passes, while the Republicans pull the plug on their pretensions to dignity

April 30: Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks joins the cast of Desperate Housewives.

May 27: In what is believed to be the first case of a North American contracting avian flu, Tom Cruise jumps up and down like a chicken on the Oprah Winfrey show.

May 31: Deep Throat turns out to be Darth Vader's father.

June 30: Tim Hortons says it has no immediate plans to get Karla Homolka to do Ice Cap endorsements.

July 21: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sparks parental outrage when it's learned the digital characters, who steal cars, gun down cops and drive like homicidal maniacs, are having premarital sex.

Aug. 2: It's called one of the most miraculous air disasters ever: only seconds after an Air France plane crashes at Pearson, lawyers are on board.

Aug. 22: Pat Robertson says he'd assassinate the president of Venezuela himself, but he's too busy at home doing God's work.

Aug. 29: Katrina, a monstrous Category 5 hurricane heading for the Gulf Coast, threatens, for the first time in history, to completely destroy a U.S. president's vacation.

Sept. 28: Anna Nicole Smith's case goes to the Supreme Court, but it's too late: Justice Rehnquist has died and is no longer husband material.

Oct. 3: Bush nominates his own lawyer to the Supreme Court, his gardener to environment secretary, his chauffeur to transportation secretary, but the White House switchboard operator to CIA chief of surveillance.

Oct. 25: Rumours abound that Janet Jackson has an 18-year-old child, but that she kept it a secret so as to avoid having to deal with her brother asking the kid to come over for sleepovers.

Oct. 28: U.S. vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is charged with lying, obstruction of justice and being the only American adult with a more childlike name than Soupy Sales.

Nov. 4: Thousands of French film students embark on an epic remake of Is Paris Burning?

Nov. 8: The oil companies, which made billions in extra profits in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, worry that if there's another major hurricane, they'll have to pull tankers out of service just to store all their extra cash.

Dec. 13: The New Oxford American Dictionary includes "podcast" in its latest edition and now defines "lame" as "similar to, or in the manner of, the Conservatives' TV campaign ads."

Dec. 19: Bush says wiretapping Americans without court approval prevented terrorist acts, and it was also interesting to learn that Barbra Streisand calls her cat "Hubbell." In other news, Bush says he totally opposes little girls torturing their Barbies.

The Producers

Watched this show on Christmas Day. The power went off at 3pm for the whole south half of the town, so the only good option to kill the rest of day was to hit the movie theaters, which was almost the only thing open at the time.

The movie has a great cast: Nathan Lane (Bird Cage) and Matthew Broderick (War Games) are the main highlights while the performance of two supporting actors (the attractive Uma Thurman and the funny Will Ferrell) are also memorable.

The best part of the movie to me is the part when Leo Bloom went back to his accounting firm. It's so funny when his boss telling him that "you're a PA, and I am a CPA..."

Same as Chicago, I watched the movie without seen the musical (US Tour) first. Hopefully, I will see the musical some time soon either on Broadway or when it's on tour. Jason Alexander was on tour at LA two years ago. I'm sorry I missed that.

Happy holidays, a late greeting

Can't believe the cold I had in LA is so bad. It lasted over 3 weeks! On Christmas Eve, I had fevor and coughing that had to cancelled our plans the next day to avoid passing it to all the kids....

Anyway, happy holidays, a late greeting.

Another blow to the West Wing: John Spencer died in LA today

John Spencer died of a heart attack today in Los Angeles. This is probably the worst time for the West Wing, one of my favorite, after Aron Sokin's departure two years ago. Although Josh Lyman, played by Bradley Whitford, is my favorite character in the show, Leo McGarry is one of the key characters who have the potential to last more than the Bartlet presidency.

It is a sad thing to say, but how they will kill Leo in the show would be very difficult and challenging.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

There's a voice inside kept telling me: this is true, you're what they say you are, ...

What Celebrity Matches Your Taste in Music?

Your Musical Tastes Match: Jennifer Garner

See her whole playlist here (iTunes required)

What Celebrity Matches Your Taste in Music?

What a week: one commuted in Virginia but then other one hanged in Singapore

VIRGINIA Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) gets my vote for what he did this week: commute the death sentence for Robin M. Lovitt to life in prison without parole. See the story and editorial from the Washington Post.

At the same time, Singapore executed Van Nguyen today, an Australian Vietnamese, who was convicted for drug trafficking.

These two cases represent two main reasons for my objection of death penalty:

First, and the most important, it is almost impossible to be so sure that you can kill someone. If it's life in prison without parole, the penalty is tough enough as a deterrent for crimes while we always have time to see if we made a mistake to kill someone. Even this jury is so sure that he speaks out now still standing behind his original decision, it is unquestionable that Mr. Lovitt has been deprived his right to appeal when some destroyed the only evidence that can prove his innocence.

Second, the law does not make common sense. In the case of Mr. Nguyen, he was said to use the drug money to save his twin brother. May not be the best method, but some times it is the only option one has, especially if they're in the lowest level in society.

You Are 70% "Average American"

You Are 70% "Average American"

You are average because you drink on occasion. You are not average since you would pay to go in space.

How "Average American" Are You?