I think I am funny… yes, you heard it first, I am delusional. However, people do laugh at what I say, even though it is still up for discussion whether it is with me or at me, people do laugh. Recently I have been picking up the habit of listening to stand up comedy a day. It is something I enjoyed since I was a kid listening to the people that would come to the radio morning shows and Colombian stand up comedians.

I have started to listing to a variety and I find that some of them are not that funny, and even though they are not bombing on their shows, they are not getting that much of a reactions. If those dudes can make it, maybe I can too.

My wife has a pretty good sense of humor, and enjoys mine. It started as an inside jokes that some of our every day life occurrences were going to become part of my stand up. The more I said it as a comeback, them more it started to sound like a possibility. I mentioned it to a couple of friends and they said, do it… go to a local place and give it a try. One even said he will look for me and hold me to do it one of these days.

Without even knowing it, I have been working on material in my head for some time now. And unlike most comedians, I am not afraid of having someone else steal it, or do a version of it. I think that if you get bigger laughs from someone else’s jokes its cool… you do have to make it your own though. So with that thought in mind I present you my first bit.

Do you guys like reality TV?
I used to like it, but now I have realized that reality TV really does not exist. With most shows actually being scripted… I know hard to believe that they actually manipulate people into doing or saying things for money. I actually want to create a Reality TV channel… I know what you are thinking, there already is a Reality TV channel, but the one on right now is not my Reality TV channel.

I will have a show that is a group of friends trying to make it through their 20s, and don’t tell me there is already a show called friends or its most recent clone, how I met your mother, I know, I have seen them and they are not reality. Neither of the shows have a token minority friend, sure they all date minorities to show they are cool, but none of them actually have a friend of a different color… and while we are on the subject, when the being Jewish become a color? I hardly think that not eating a tasty animal like pork puts you on the same level with us “Chicharron” eaters, most Jewish people can keep their last name a secret and still pass for “white.”

Getting back to my real friends show, besides having real multiculturalism in my show, there will be real arguments. Friends will lose friends over money not being paid. Friends will help each other move and destroy and build backyard structures. Friends will forget their wallets when time to pay for dinner will come. When friend date each other the whole group has to break apart and take sides, and the baby mama drama will be real.

My reality TV channel will also have real commercials. None of these commercials that show beaches, flower fields and puppies, I am talking about real life. This is how I would advertise products, come with me.

A kid is trowing a huge tantrum and resists to go to bed, at first you would think I have already seen this in another channel, they are just advertising their Super Nanny show, but just wait. The kid is now running around crying and refusing to go to bed… then suddenly the kid stumbles and passes out… Voice over comes on, Super Drowsy Children Benadryl, because you also deserve a good night of sleep.

Real advertisement, for real life…

So what do you guys think? funny? I have a couple of more things for the bit and it is a work in progress, but give me some feedback.

I have to admit that I spent most of the concert waiting for Rev Run to come out, but it was def worth it. I am not much of a country fan, except for maybe Garth Brooks who is an amazing entertainer. Chimpotle joined me on a night of Rock and Roll revival.

The night started with the National Anthem and a group of marines doing a little memorial for the fallen heroes. The guy opening the show up told everyone how Kid Rock spends his Christmas entertaining the troop overseas which to me was a nice touch. Kid Rock is proud of being an American and it shows.

Kid Rock was flawless and from what I could tell did not use a backing track but just sang his heart out. He puts on a good show that is worth the time, but the whole calling himself Jesus is not all that cool or shocking since so many others have done it before. The stage was nice enough, but the sound system did obstruct the view of the opposite side of the stage from where we were sitting.

The low point came when he brought out Dickie Betts from the Allman Brothers and the dude spent a long time trying to get his guitar to sound right in the middle of the concert. He then tried to sing and it was pretty sad, I am not sure how old the dude is but he should have used a backing track. He was not a bad guitar player, but I think he spent a little too much time on the stage. I am sure the southern rock fans, which were plenty (mullets galore), enjoyed this more than I did.

His new material is a lot more of the same. I was not blown away by any of the songs but I was certainly entertained and glad that he was singing and not that I was listening to a pre-recorded track. The concert hit its high point for me when Run Rev came out and Kid Picked up the DMC side to go back and do some of the hits. It was funny to see that Rev Run mentioned his TV show, but everyone seemed to have at least seen it.

Before the end of the show Kid Rock did gen on the turn tables and showed us that he is also a talented turtablelist. I remember that the first time I saw him he was DJing for MTV at one of their summer shows. He closed the show with Badwitdaba which was the song I was waiting to hear. The show went until almost 11:00 P.M. which was not bad at all.

Some entertainment came from the crowd too. We had a drunken girl dance most of the show on one of the top rows on the opposite side of the arena, she looked like she was having a blast. Then we had the 50 year old dude drooling over a couple of women that were dancing a suite over from us. I am sure he had no clue with could see him watching the woman like a hungry dog looks at that hot dog that is about to fall of the grill. Overall Kid Rock’s concert was one of the best ones I have seen live. He is truly a mixed bag of musical styles that he manages to blend them all into one big show.

I am still trying to decide if I should recommend going to the theater for this one or just making it a rental. I only open with that statement because from this review you might get the sense that I hated the movie, but even though it has many flaws it is still somewhat entertaining action movie.

I am sure that the book is more complete, but the movie script seemed like someone had rolled the dice of a movie plot game. Think of the movie guy’s voice and use his voice to read the following. Two sides fight a battle through history, a neglected child who is bullied as a kid turn out to have powers, from growing up in a small town to a big city, a new hero is born.

I was hoping that Heyden Christensen was going to redeem himself for making Darth Vader uncool, but I think he is not as good of an actor as I had hoped. I first saw him in life as a house, and he showed some promise there. It could just be that the script was not that good, but I have not read the book and might be just giving the material too much credit.

The problem is that the main character is not a hero, the characters are very one dimensional, the plot is at best confusing. Samuel Jackson used to be one of my favorite actors because I thought you could deliver a monologue like no other, but since the Star War retooling he has been giving crappy lines. In this movie he says the same line at least tree times, “Only God Should have the power.” I am almost sure that this is significant in the book, as probably the sacrificial knife to kill jumpers is, but you never get the information on the movie.

What did work was the action. The special effects are done very well and never really distracting. Besides a car scene there are no moments where you go, that’s BS. The fight scenes leave you wanting more, and overall the movie smells of sequel. I think that if you can find a cheap theater to go watch it at, it is not a bad movie. As long as you expect just action and no real plot, y ou will have a good time.

My friend Daniel has been writing a little series about the books that changed his life. It is amazing how much he inspires me when he writes. It amazing that two people can connect to the level we have as friends even though geographically we are very far. Reading his posts I began to think of the books that I have read, but it never occurred to me that they would be powerful enough to change my life, but then I read blink.

After reading this book I felt like Malcolm Gladwell was someone that I wanted as a friend. He a talented and best selling author(he also wrote The Tipping Point,) but when he writes he has a conversation with the reader that is spoken in a tone that most people reserve for their best friends. The message of the book is in a way about tolerance and introspection, but the book gave me so much more.

I just turned 30 and self evaluation has kicked into high gear. Event though my birthday has never felt quite like a milestone, this one did and it was partially because of this book. The books title talks about the power of thinking without thinking. In simple terms it tries to let you know that you have a key to your unconscious, but it is not the one that will let you open it.

After reading this book I feel I understand the way I make decisions a little better, but more importantly, I learned that my decisions are being affected by what surrounds me more than I ever even imagined. I then decided that what I was doing for my brain was simply not enough. To put it in computer terms, I have a very powerful machine, but I was just leaving my connection to the internet at dial up speed.

We can all let ourselves be manipulated by what advertisers or media outlets want us to believe about the world or we can go one step further and learn to think for ourselves. Knowledge is power only if it used. One of the biggest problems I have with formal education is that it is almost set up to make you pass tests rather than to actually learn something. After reading blink, you start to see the purpose of gathering knowledge. From being able to read minds to eliminating racism or sexism in some situations. This book gives us the opportunity to look at life in a different way. What if we could literally steer history in a different way by refusing to accept the negative imagery that is presented to us in a regular basis?

The book is powerful because it does not hold our hand by giving us a quick guide as to how to make quicker decisions. Rather it opens up the door for us to make our life and mind better by filling it with better information. The reasons some of the experts on his book are as good as they are is because they took an active interest in a subject and became truly amazing at it. While we might not be able to do it at the scale that some of those scholars did, we can take steps towards being more mindful of all the clues that are out there for us.

While it might have been that I read the book in the weeks before my birthday, I still think there is a lot of merit for the authors ability to make me think. His message is simple while covering very complex subjects. It lets us take a peek into how truly extraordinary people make decisions even when they do not even know themselves.

One simple lesson that you can take with you is that vocabulary is important in any subject. It is probably one of the places most of us get really hung up on. While we might have an opinion about something, not having the correct way to express it can leave us with a simple yes or no answer. If you think about relationships and feelings, being able to voice them is very important, but what if we cannot explain what we are feeling? There are plenty of books out there that can give you the vocabulary you need to vocalize what you feel. When we put a puzzle together we use the picture of what it is supposed to look like to find the right pieces. So if you are particularly stuck with something in your life, it might be a good idea to pick up a good book and find the picture that will help you put that puzzle together.

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead today in his apartment in NYC and it seems to have been drug related. He had recently split from Michelle Williams. He plays the Joker in the upcoming Batman Movie.

Daniel just told me about this happening and it made me feel really sad. I don’t remember being this sad when Chris Farley died under also the suspicion of drug overdose. I was living in Chicago at the time and felt almost detached from the whole thing. It was not until the whole documentary about his life came out that I felt a little more connected to the story.

I first remember Ledger from 10 things I hate about you where he played kind of a loner that steals the hearth of the chick that wants nothing to do with boys because of a broken heart. The Movie was a great mixture of a love story and a teen movie without making you want to puke.

Ledger moved on to being in the Patriot which I thought was a good role, and then did the quirky A knights tale which was ok. I had not seen another one of his movies and I am not interested on broke back mountain, but I was very excited to see him as the Joker in the previews for the new movie.

I am sad that his life ended so short because I found him to be a good actor. I am sad for his little daughter that will grow up without knowing a father. I am also sad to lose another great actor to drugs, but it seems like it is not an uncommon thing. Rest in Peace.

I just finished reading Next by Michael Crichton. He is one of my favorite authors, but this book really left a lot to be desired. While I do have to say that I read the book pretty fast and I wanted to keep going, I think it was mostly to see if he could untangle the mess he had created.

The first issue I encountered is that I could not keep the characters straight. Initially I thought it was because he was introducing to many, then later I realized that, while all of the mini stories were connected, they did not flow. I ended up not caring for any character in particular, there was no real hero, no real victim, no real redemption, no main story.

The book tries to bring genetics to the forefront of our mind, but it does so in a very disjointed way. I don’t feel like he was thinking of the reader when he wrote the book, or at least not the average reader. One of the things I have always loved about Crichton is that he makes science seem easy, but in this book we feel very removed from he actual science, catching only glimpses of it. If genetics was to be the main character of the book, it was an elusive character that never quite came to the forefront of the story.

I blame Google for the spastic nature of the book. Imagine someone doing a search on Google about genetics and then trying to fit every link that came back in the first page into a book.

I do not recommend this book, but if you want to read Crichton start with Timeline or Airframe; both are way better written. I am sad to say that this book ended up being an spaghetti bowl that I expected to find meatballs inside of, I searched and searched and in the end I ended up with a bunch of noodles that filled me up, but I did not really enjoy.

One of my non resolutions this year is to start reviewing movies again. I really slacked in 2007 not just on movie reviewing but also watching. We have recently found a place where movies are only 4 bucks for matinée and 6 dollars even on weekends for new movies. So here is a list that I took from the wikipedia and gave myself the title of reviewer or the number one box office hits of 2007. Somebody better buy a freaking DVD from Amazon after all the link building I did.

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