Easy Credit --> Hard Choices

I came across this article today, written by a guy who paid off $10,000 worth of credit card debt in one year.

It reminded me of my own credit card ordeal, in which I racked up tens of thousands of dollars in credits cards in the early 2000s, and when they all maxed out I moved back in with my parents for a year, lived rent-free, and put all of my salary toward the debt. By the end of the year I was nearly all paid off and within 18 months from the date I first started paying them off I was completely debt-free.

As difficult as it might have been to move back in with my parents at age 31, the opportunity to get rid of the debt was life-changing. Once it was all paid off, I felt this huge sense of relief. I knew I could never put myself in that spot again. I still use credit cards, but now I either pay them off every month or develop a plan for paying off large purchases within a short amount of time.

I was in the middle of my year spent getting out of debt when a friend recommended I watch Maxed Out. It's a few years old and somewhat dated (Eliot Spitzer was still the Attorney General of New York, and the economy had not yet completely tanked but was beginning to unravel), but it is worth checking out:

I love Dave

As the Joaquin Phoenix cluster-f**k comes to an end, the actor (whose hoax was some indictment of the media, celebrity and "consumers") appeared on Dave Letterman to explain.

Definitely watch this through to the end, when Dave gets in the last dig!



In case you haven't seen his appearance on Late Night in "character," you can watch the train wreck here.

The Ultimate "B Movie"

Every five years it seems there is someone commemorating Jaws, which hit theaters in 1975. It factors into my life in a weird way - my mom went into labor after seeing it at the drive-in with my dad!

Here's a trailer for a new documentary about the making of the film:

Blog Re-vamp

I'm mixing it up a little on this ole bloggy-blog.

I had spent considerable space here discussing law school and some of the good and bad experiences that came along with it, and I've decided to cleanse the blog of all of that and focus instead on life outside the school/work setting.

I want to find more time for fun with friends and family, so I hope to have more stories about that and less (or nothing) about the trials and tribulations of school, work, or bar studying! Life is too short and we spend too much time at work to write about it on our free time, no?

I hope to start things off sometime this weekend with a post about dinner & drinks with friends at Carlsbad Tavern in Scottsdale. Yum!

Eddie Izzard has printer problems

I have a lot of work to do...

...which of course means, cat video time!! I'm afraid to say it, but my cat is almost as bad as this one:

Radical lawyer, William Kunstler

There are many people I find inspiring, and William Kunstler is one of them. He was a controversial lawyer who represented a wide-range of clients, including the American Indian Movement and John Gotti.

His daughters produced a documentary about his life as a lawyer and a father. Here's the trailer:

River Phoenix at 16

RIP... what a cutie. I used to swoon for him!

10/13

Happy Birthday Chris Carter!

Found this on the interscapes... the sound is sometimes off from the video but it's still funny:

Megan Fox needs to go back to obscurity

This is highly amusing...

Lucky you if you don't know about Megan Fox and Michael Bay. The former is famous for her roles in the heavy-hitting dramas, Transformers and Transformers 2. The latter is the director of such masterpieces.

Well, it turns out that the two of them have had a falling out, and it may or may not be because they screwed. We'll probably never know for sure.

The proverbial shit hit the fan when Fox upped the ante and called Michael Bay "Hitler." At that point, even crew members had to intervene and post a scathing letter on Michael Bay's website.

Some excerpts from the letter (read the whole sordid thing here):

Yes, Megan has great eyes, a tight stomach we spray with glycerin, and an awful silly Marilyn Monroe tattoo plastered on her arm that we cover up to keep the moms happy.

Michael found this shy, inexperienced girl, plucked her out of total obscurity thus giving her the biggest shot of any young actresses' life. He told everyone around to just trust him on his choice. He granted her the starring role in Transformers, a franchise that forever changed her life; she became one of the most googled and oogled women on earth. She was famous! She was the next Angelina Jolie, hooray! Wait a minute, two of us worked with Angelina – second thought – she's no Angelina. You see, Angelia is a professional.

We know this quite intimately because we've had the tedious experience of working with the dumb-as-a-rock Megan Fox on both Transformers movies.

*****

When facing the press, Megan is the queen of talking trailer trash and posing like a porn star. And yes we've had the unbearable time of watching her try to act on set, and yes, it's very cringe-able. So maybe, being a porn star in the future might be a good career option. But make-up beware, she has a paragraph tattooed to her backside (probably due her rotten childhood) easily another 45 minutes in the chair!

*****

She compared working with Michael, to "working with Hitler". We actually don't think she knows who Hitler is by the way. But we wondered how she doesn't realize what a disgusting, fully uneducated comment this was?

*****

On our first day in Egypt, the Egyptian government wouldn't let us shoot because of a permit problem as the actors got ready in make up at the Four Seasons Hotel. Michael tried to make the best of it; he wanted to take the cast and crew on a private tour of the famous Giza pyramids. God hold us witness, Megan said, "I can't believe Michael is fucking forcing us to go to the fucking pyramids!" I guess this is the "Hitler guy" she is referring to.

So this is the Megan Fox you don't get to see. Maybe she will learn, but we figure if she can sling insults, then she can take them too. Megan really is a thankless, classless, graceless, and shall we say unfriendly bitch.

Circa 1994

Thanks to Digg for putting this on my radar today.

Awesome, awesome, awesome

A/C is back up and running!

Glorious!

Michael & Michael Have Issues

A new Comedy Central show featuring Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. They are both from The State (if y'all remember that show?). Here's a clip:

Michael & Michael Have Issues	Premieres Wed, July 15, 10:30pm / 9:30c
Fighting for the Intern
www.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Random, I know

But this movie is so good. I need to see it again.

Mid-Century Campaign Promoting Oakland

Brought to you by the fine folks at Oaklandish.

Strange times

I just came across the news that the woman who inspired the famous Rosie the Riveter ad passed away on June 28.

It's very strange how many people are dying, no? On the flipside I know of a LOT of people who are having babies... so many in fact, that I daydream about getting knocked up. Love that biological clock!

Peets - the new Starbucks? Please say no.

I'm on the Peet's email list because (1) I'm a freak and (2) I'm always wondering when I might place an order to have shipped to me.

Today I got an email about a new product line: bottled teas they are selling in select stores:



I know things can't stay the same forever, and they probably shouldn't, but I remember when I worked there forever ago (1996-1997) the menu was still in Italian and we never used fake flavoring. It was all natch to the point that we had to hand-mix chocolate syrup (from ground cocoa powder) that was barely sweet at all. It was important never to serve super-sweet drinks.

People were ridiculous and pretentious about the coffee and the tea, but in my opinion they totally deserved to be. I'm still a loyal Peet's fan... just worried my precious Peet's may go the way of the bottled frappuccino.

Like MST3K - but with song!

Some more light reading

... regarding the torture debate: here is an essay written by a former military interrogator who worked at Guantanamo. He offers some strong counter-arguments to Cheney's support of torture.
A snippet:

... the former vice president never mentioned the Senate testimony of Ali Soufan, the FBI interrogator who successfully interrogated Abu Zubaydah and learned the identity of Jose Padilla, the dirty bomber, and the fact that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM) was the mastermind behind 9/11. We'll never know what more we could have discovered from Abu Zubaydah had not CIA contractors taken over the interrogations and used waterboarding and other harsh techniques. Also, glaringly absent from the former vice president's speech was any mention of the fact that the former administration never brought Osama bin Laden to justice and that our best chance to locate him would have been through KSM or Abu Zubaydah had they not been waterboarded.