TheFranciscos.Net

Today is the last day of my unexpected summer vacation – so I’m trying to make the most of it by doing absolutely nothing!!!! This reminds me of my summer vacation back when I was still in school, kinda sad that everything’s coming to an end, but also glad that my days will be more fruitful. Come to think of it, this is the first job since I’ve been living here in the States that I actually had a choice in. I picked the first company I was with because they were willing to sponsor me for a green card. The second one was during a dry spell in employment, and I needed to move near my wife and daughter. So this is the third company I’ll be with in the span of four years – but I’ve got a good feeling that I’ll be with them for a while. My goal for this job was to stay in one place for a while (after jumping from client to client as a consultant) and start building a career. One of the VPs I interviewed with told me that you usually have two families in life – one at home, and one at your job (kinda like Tony Soprano come to think of it). It was really good to hear that from this guy, and actually says a lot about the culture that this company has built. For the first time in a while, I’m actually excited to go and do my work. Wish me luck!!!

As a side note…. look what I found! Britney Spears paparazzi pics of her changing to a bikini top in public. Click here to check ’em out.

Holy eighties flashbacks, Batman!!!!! The finale act of the MTV VMAs tonight is none other than Guns N’ Roses, although it looks like the only member that actually still there is Axl Rose. It would’ve been cooler if Slash was also in the lineup, but oh well. I guess Axl just needs the crack money.

The VMAs were pretty dull tonight, although Jimmy Fallon’s opening sequence was pretty funny. I almost cracked a rib when he was impersonating Avril Levigne and Enrique Iglesias. Bruce Springsteen, even though I’m not really a fan, really knows how to rock. It was interesting to see Steven Van Zandt playing the guitar. I only became familiar with him because he was playing Sylvio in The Sopranos, but I just recently found out that he was actually also a member of Bruce’s E Street Band. Suprising to see that he’s also a very decent guitar player.

Another highlight was seeing Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth onstage together…. it was kinda like them saying an FU to Eddie Van Halen. “Hey Eddie, we’re here, so where the hell are you now????” Also, Kylie Minogue was smoking hot, hot, hot! If there was a disappointment tonight, it’s that they picked Kylie to present instead of perform.

One of the highlights of these awards shows though have to be the clothes, and this year was no exception. Among the most “what the hell was that?” outfits was Britney Spears in bondage leather. The only thing missing was the cracking whip. Christina Aguilera was in her usual slutty look. Best-dressed? My hands-down opinion would be Kylie!!!!!!

All in all, it was a nice and entertaining show…. much, much better than that tasteless show on the year that the Wayans brothers hosted.

Last weekend was a blast! A trip is always so much better when you’re relaxed and not really in a rush to visit something or someone. We had a leisurely drive to Philly, and met up with some of our friends. The highlight of Aileen’s trip there was shopping at the the H&M and MAC stores, and on my end, I enjoyed eating at my favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory. I enjoyed just being away for the weekend. I do like doing long drives every once in a while, but I can’t believe I did that Philly to Pitt commute every week for almost half a year. My car is sure glad I don’t do that anymore.

Anyway, that was really good and relaxing… and refreshed me for an unemployment compensation appeal that my former employer filed against me. I spent most of the day on Monday researching for the hearing to be held on Tuesday. The hearing would basically decide whether or not I was actually eligible for the benefits. Actually, I already was receiving the benefits based on the initial findings of the unemployment office, but that was appealed and a hearing was set. Anyway, if I lost that hearing, the consequences were that I had to pay back the money I’ve received so far (totalling to around $2500 so far) so you could imagine I was going to do my darn best to make sure I won. I even consulted with a lawyer to see if I had a good case. Anyway, Tuesday rolled by and I was prepared as can be. I’ve practiced all the dialogues, answers to questions, rebuttals, and whatever else I could think of. I was ready to kick ass, but was as nervous as hell. My hands were sweating, my knees were shaking…. I knew that I had a good case, but still if I lost… the thought of having to repay back all that money loomed over my head.

Finally, the time of the hearing finally came and…. my former employer decided to withdraw the appeal without going through the hearing. I won – by default! Although there was no satisfaction of winning after a good fight, I couldn’t be happier.

So what else has happened this week? Oh yeah, I finally got final confirmation that I’ll be back to the grind on September 3, which is about 4 days away. My summer vacation is finally coming to an end. I’m kinda sad because it means that I won’t be taking care of Zoe anymore, but of course I’m happy that I’m back working again. It all worked out pretty good though, I think I’m going to be joining one of the best companies in the Burgh and I look forward to spending a long time with them.

I’ve posted a few new pictures, so if you haven’t seen the pictures section in a while, click here to check it out.

I guess speech isn’t that free in the US anymore – my favorite afternoon radio show “Opie & Anthony” has just been cancelled. Doesn’t this “Catholic League” have better things to do, like make sure that child-molesting priests get put behind bars? There’s even an article about this incident from as far as Manila.

The thing that really sucks about them being sacked is that they weren’t going against FCC (the body that mandates radio and TV) rules… it’s not much worse than say, a regular Howard Stern show (although Opie and Anthony can really get raunchy sometimes). They were just singled out by this Catholic group because the listeners of their show were doing a sex stunt in St. Patrick’s cathedral. Granted, they have all rights to get angry for having/simulating sex inside the church. As a Catholic, that act angers me as well (although you have to admit that it’s kinda funny). The problem is that O&A really didn’t put a gun to these people’s heads to do the deed, did they? So why single them out for punishment? At the most, they should have just been fined a few thousand dollars. Unfortunately, the heads of these stupid radio stations have balls of mush and would rather side with public opinion rather than free speech. After all, O&A is just plain entertainment. If you don’t want to listen to them, turn the damn radio off.

Afternoon radio will never be the same.

This week, I found myself in the difficult position of choosing between two jobs. A very enviable position, I guess, especially in light of these dire economic times. The problem with it was that I had to go through two different headhunters to get the two positions – and if you’ve ever had to deal with these guys, you know that they’re called that name for a very good reason. They simply won’t take no for an answer, and I wouldn’t get the offer letters if I verbally said no to either of them. I decided that the only logical thing to do was to tell them both that I’d take the positions they were offering.

Therein lied the dilemma – obviously I wouldn’t be able to work for both companies, but I wanted the two offer letters in my hand so I could compare them side-by-side. The goal I’m trying to accomplish is to make sure that I would make the best decision for myself. And dammit, if I have to trample and piss anybody off along the way, I really don’t care as long as what I choose I make is ultimately right for me (and my family).

The Royal Tenenbaums

In this age when Eddie Murphy has seemed to have lost his sense of humor and Jim Carrey’s face has lost its elasticity, there hasn’t been any really great comedy movies in the past few years. “American Pie” seemed to start a trend for comedies to become a mixture of stupid jokes and grossness and the movie industry has followed it up with even worse movies like “Not Another Teen Movie”, “Dude, Where’s My Car?” and “Freddy Got Fingered”. Don’t get me wrong, some of these movies are really funny, but man – enough is enough.

That’s why it’s refreshing to watch an intelligent comedy like “The Royal Tenenbaums”. Set in a fantasy-world New York, this movie follows the story of three child prodigies, an absentee father and mother who valued her children’s education above everything else. The patriarch of the family is Royal Tenenbaum (played by Gene Hackman) and the plot revolves around his reunification with his family after 22 years of being away. The wife is played by Anjelica Houston and the children are played by Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson. The acting in this is simply superb, most especially Gwyneth Paltrow who played the adopted Margot Tenenbaum.

Of course, in ensemble casts like this, the director deserves the credit for making everything fluid. Wes Anderson’s direction on this comedy is excellent, and in my opinion, is even better than his magnum-opus Rushmore. Like that movie though, “Tenenbaums” is not intended for the masses. A lot of the comedy is subtle and psychological. It’s also the small details that make this movie work – notice things like the symetry in the hospital room, the placement of Richie’s drawings, the lego on the light cord in the closet. Wes is a master at this sort of artistry and I don’t really know of any contemporary directors that come close to his attention to detail.

Since this DVD was produced by Criterion, you can expect all the great supplements that come with all the films in their collection. You get behind-the-scenes interviews (that are more insightful than the usual promo stuff you see on DVDs lately), an excellent documentary on the making of the movie, and in-depth commentaries from the director and the actors.

All in all, the Royal Tenenbaums is a sold 4 out of 5 stars.

I found out a couple of weeks ago that my dad needs to undergo surgery for some blood clots found in his eyes. This is one of result of being a diabetic for about 20+ years. Although the procedure is relatively simple, it reminds me that my parents are getting older. It scares me a bit because our medical family history has what I’d call “a little bit of everything”. On my dad’s side, there’s diabetes. On my mom’s side, there’s also some of the big D and a history of heart ailments. Not too good, huh?

It also alarms me because about a couple of years ago, I was also diagnosed as being a type II diabetic. Aileen calls me a “borderline” diabetic, mainly because my blood sugar never really goes to alarming levels. The US Health Dept calls it “pre-diabetes”. My long-term blood sugar count is only very slightly above normal. But knowing it’s there and knowing that I can’t get rid of it scares me sometimes, especially when I read that diabetes is the number one cause for heart failure. And if I don’t control it by watching my diet and doing exercise (which I’ve not been doing regularly lately), it can easily get worse. The problem is that I love food – and I know I’ll be miserable if I don’t eat the kind of food I like. So I try to limit my intake of my favorite foods. No “super-sized” fries, no regular softdrinks, eating less rice. Probably the worst thing is I can only drink 2 or 3 beers during drinking sessions (but I stop counting after the 2nd anyway). These are some of the things that I have to consciously think about whenever I eat. I guess it’s better than having my kidneys fail. It’s good that my wife is a doctor, and one who nags me about all this every now and then as well.

I took my drug test for the bank I’m applying for today. It’s good that no blood was drawn since I hate being stuck by a needle. Since I don’t do drugs anyway, I’m not really bothered by this tests and know it’s just a formality, but are these things really necessary?

The site’s finally back up so I’ve been able to upload my past couple of posts from Blogger. I’m thinking of finally switching over to Movable Type, but that would mean another switch in webhosts since M6 doesn’t support PHP. Decisions, decisions.

I just uploaded some pics from my Ninong Gerry’s visit here. The visit wasn’t too long – he was just able to stop for a quick dinner and see the new house, but it was a lot of fun for us. Click here for the pictures.

Damn, my site is down! M6 tech support says it’s because of a worm on the server that exposes a security hole on SQL server…. but my site doesn’t use that db anyway, so why the hell is mine affected? Anyway, I’ll still keep on blogging and publish them once my site’s back online.

Just finished watching what has to be one of the worst episodes of the once-great “Sex & The City” series. The writing I guess is typically good, but what bothers me is “butterface” Sarah Jessica Parker. Is she an overactor or what? Her acting in this new season is annoying, to say the least… even moreso than the previous seasons. Maybe being exec producer has affected her acting somewhat. Aileen thinks it’s hormones since SJP was pregnant at the time. Has the series jumped the shark? Click here for people’s thoughts on when the series started a downward freefall. I’ll still continue to watch the series, but I don’t really expect it to be as great as it once was (seasons 1 to 3).

We rented the DVD of “The Royal Tenenbaums”… it looks like a great movie and we were kinda watching it in the background while we were cooking dinner. We were able to follow the basic storyline, but most of the dialogue got lost while making onion rings and baked tahong. This movie screams to be watched and given your full attention. I’ll probably do that tomorrow night.

One of the nice things this past week was Ninong Gerry’s visit to our home. Although it was short, it was really good to see him. I’ll post pictures of his visit once my site’s back online.

“I don’t care if Monday’s blue

Tuesday’s grey and Wednesday too

Thursday I don’t care about you

‘Cause Friday I’m in love”

from “Friday I’m In Love” by The Cure

Fridays are always fun days, but this Friday was especially good. After almost two months of being unemployed, I’ve received 3 offers from different companies this week (4 if you count the offer I received from my previous employer to go back to work in West Virginia). I’m seriously thinking about 2 different positions, one at PNC Bank (a financial institution downtown) and another at McKesson Automation (a healthcare automation company). I’m leaning towards accepting the McK offer and it’s actually the company I’ve been wanting to join for a few months now. The base salary is on par, but McKesson is a bit better when it comes to benefits. They’ve got tuition reimbursement (if I want to go to an MBA program in the future), stock options and most importantly bonuses. I’ll probably make my final decision by Monday, but right now I’ll just be happy that I’ll be back working soon. Thanks to everybody for the support!