Who's excited about Transformers??? I AM!!!

I'm sitting in a conference right now listening to the CEO of a company present. I don't think i've ever heard a speaker worse than this guy. He keeps referring to himself in the 3rd person and asks rhetorical questions to which he then snickers and the audience just sits there with this DUR look. I'd have more fun being on Jackass and getting shot at my nuts with a paintball gun or having bowling balls thrown at my junk. I don't know how he became CEO but I'm sure his employees must think he's a raving lunatic or somehow a brilliant businessman. I'm doing the whole head bobbing/knodding off so I'm sure people behind me can see. I've already had 4 cups of coffee before noon. How do you guys stay awake in boring meetings?

Being in the Pharmaceutical industry, I see how there are a lot of problems and issues associated with drugs, insurance companies, etc.  One of the issues that has been bubbling the past year is the questions whether medical professionals specifically pharmacists and doctors can refuse to dispense or write medications based on religious beliefs.  It seems there have been more and more incidents lately of a pharmacist refusing to dispensing Plan B based on religious belief.  What's even worse was a story I read earlier on MSNBC about a woman who was raped and when she saw the doctor at the ER to have a rape examination performed, the doctor refused to write her a prescription for emergency contraception based on his religious beliefs.  She left the emergency room to find a doctor that would write her a prescription, but it's almost a slap in the face to her that she has to go through the whole agony of having to hunt that down after being raped. 

I know that some people believe in life beginning at the point of conception and an embryo is considered a life.  I get that point of view, and I can understand why people would think that this would be killing a life.  What I don't get is how that doctor could be so heartless as to not even direct the woman to someone else that would help.  The majority of the people that are caught up in this dilemma have been women and this never seemed to be the case so much in the past few years.  It almost seems as if the abortion issue has been widely politicized and now on the verge of endangering people's lives because people feel as if they need to take a hard stance on the issue.  I thought it was a doctor's duty to do no harm and if you don't agree with some of the medical procedures being done, at least help the woman out and not leave her hanging. 

I do in fact believe that it's a woman's right to have an abortion should they choose it.  In this day and age, we live in a society that seems to allow people to control whatever they want with their body except when it comes to abortion.  We're allowed to drive a 3000 pound moving vehicle at the age of 16 that can become a deadly weapon.  We can purchase handguns at the age of 18 with a simple and quick background check.  Look at what happened at Virginia Tech and even Columbine when HS kids were able to obtain guns and murder fellow students.  Everything is becoming so partisan these days and people are becoming ever more extreme.  People are even murdering doctors now because they provide abortions.  Did the world seem more innocent 20 years ago?

It's been nice the past week with work being slow.  I've actually managed to have a life again rather than living in the office day and night.  We had a retreat out in Palm Springs where they treated us to a massage and spa visit and also the lead partner of the group invited us out to his house food dinner and drinks.  His house was baller.  Overlooking the golf course and lake behind him, infinity pool, panoramic sliding doors, Viking kitchen, the whole nine.  So this is what partners make at consulting firms.  I'd buy a place out there if it weren't out in the middle of nowhere and 110 degrees during the summer.  We went to the outlet malls down there and picked up a few things at the Lacoste and True Religion outlet.  Can't believe I got a couple pairs of True Religions for $75. 

The next couple weeks will be pretty slack too, I hope.  In Philly for a conference early in the week and then after that helping out with the Miss Asia USA contest for work, since we're the official tabulators.  I get to be one TV handing them the envelope   Work was nice too giving us almost the whole week off of July 4th, so that'll be a nice mini-vacation.  Time to hit the beach!

Did you hear bout this 15yr old kid in India who performed a C-section?  Apparently his parents are both doctors and his dad wanted to see him in Guinness Book of World records.  Now who in their right mind would trust that kid to perform surgery let alone a C-section and all for just getting your name in a book.  Now his parents might get stripped of their licenses, since they were stupid enough to have this all on videotape.  Seriously, you would think doctors would be somewhat smarter than that.

Less than 3k miles on my new Lexus IS350, and my front bumper is already scratched.  I went to Thai town to eat lunch with my bro and couldn't find any parking in the lot.  We went to the next street and saw a spot open up.  I pulled up next to the curb but didn't realize how high the curb was.  Ended up with a big 2X2 inch scratch on the bumper.  I forgot how much city driving sucks.  I'm debating if I want to repaint the bumper or just get touch up paint.  My poor baby, all injured now.  Anyone know any good auto paint shops in LA or OC?

Since my bro's in town, I figured I'd show him around some of the famous spots around LA.  We wanted to hit up Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles last weekend but the line was crazy long.  We decided to try again last night and figured being a Monday night, who eats chicken and waffles at 10 at night.  Luckily, when we got there, we were escorted to our table right away with no wait at all.

I decided on ordering a la carte style.  I only really wanted a couple pieces of chicken and a waffle and some fried giblets.  We both ended up with a leg, thigh, waffle, biscuit to go with it and a side of giblets.  mmm hmmmm.  When the food came out, it was nice and piping hot as fried chicken should be.  You know this place was the spot when everyone else around you was black.  If I'm going into a restaurant, you figured you have to trust the people that are in there.  Would you ever go to a Vietnamese restaurant if all you see are people that you wouldn't find in a rice field?

I started off with the buttermilk biscuit.  Nice, fluffy, and flaky.  Exactly how a biscuit should be along with a side of honey to dip it in.  The batter on the chicken was awesome.  It could have used a little bit more spice and kick to it like a Cajun style, but I was happy with it.  The meat was nice and tender on the inside with juices just pouring out in every bite.  The chicken wasn't greasy at all nor was the skin burnt.  Some of the best fried chicken I've had in a long long time.  Reminds me of the fried chicken back home in VA.

Some pics from last night.  Didn't have my camera so had to use my cell phone.  Didn't do the fried chicken justice:

Is it me or are you sick of all the Paris Hilton news?  Seriously, someone just needs to lock her up and feed her through a tube so that she doesn't claim that her 'medical condition' was due to not wanting to eat jail food.  Being out in LA, this especially hyped up even more with the normal traffic helicopters hovering over her house yesterday and then reporting that as the morning traffic. 

What makes matters worse is that this shows me more how our justice system sucks and that it can be easily swayed by a celebrity.  Had this happened to anyone else, they wouldn't have had their sentence reduced or even gotten out because of a medical condition.  Unless someone is in serious need of medical help, and even then hospitals have jail wards for inmates, I could see them being released if they need to amputate a leg.  Just makes me sick how screwed up justice is.  Did you hear about that 17 yr old kid that got 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15yr old?  10 years and it was consensual!  Is it me or does anyone else think our justice system is screwed?

For some reason, many of my friends seem to confide in me.  I'm the go to person when people need someone to listen to, to give them some objective advice or just someone to vent to.  However, most people don't want advice if the advice is something they don't want to hear.  People tend to go to people they know that will sympathize with them and tell them they're right in the choices they've made.  No one likes to hear that they made the wrong choice or they screwed up.  For the most part, this is especially true when it comes to relationships.

Relationships are the one area that people I think are the most stubborn in.  They already have pre-set notions as to what to do but just want others to agree with them.  I recently caught up with a good friend of mine who confided to me that her boyfriend had cheated on her.  She always told me that if her significant other cheated on her, it was over.  Some reason this time around she made an exception and they're now back together working things out.  When I was talking to her to try to weigh out what to do, I laid it out there for her.  There were basically two options.  The first being just leave the guy, never talk to him, it's over.  This is what most people should do but why is it that when people get cheated on, a lot of times they end up back together?  The second option I thought was to take a break to see how she felt about him, if she really truly could forgive him and think they could work it out, and to see what he would do during this time.  I advised against the second option cause to me cheating is cheating and there should be no 3 strikes rule.  It should be strike 1 and you're out.  She felt that he could be the one and if it were just this one screw up right now, better to handle it now than 10 years down the road.  I can see this but only if people really think there's one person out there for you.  I don't believe that either. I think there's many people out there, but it's just a matter of timing. 

Cheating isn't simple just sleeping with another person.  It's having some sort of attachment that can be either physical, mental, or emotional.  It's simply that you're not completely with the person that you're supposed to be with.  I know that people like to have their cake and eat it too, but cheating is just simply one thing I am firm on.  Having been cheated on myself before, I know what it's like to have to go through the roller coaster of emotions.  I wouldn't wish it upon anyone.  But do people really think they can simply move past cheating?  There's always that lingering feeling in the back of your mind that you can't trust the person anymore.  Why settle for someone that's not completely with you?   I never understood that mentality.  If you had the opportunity to cheat without ever getting caught, without your significant other ever finding out, would you?  Even if it were purely physical, could you?  Makes me wonder then if people are just not built for monogomy if that's the case.

Last Friday, I decided to take some of the leftovers of bagels and muffins and pack it up to give to some of the homeless on my way to the Metro.  I don't know why any of the other people didn't think of this, they usually just throw away the food which is a huge waste.  I walked out of the office and looked around for someone to give the food to, but for some reason there weren't any homeless people around.  No homeless in LA?? Where'd they all go last Friday?  I ended up finding a guy that was asleep and just left it next to him.

Some of the homeless people I can understand that they've just had some hard times, and they don't want/ask for a handout, but if offered they'll take it.  I sympathize with these people.  There's this couple I see on the Metro a few mornings every week that run this scam that I have no sympathy whatsoever.  They go from train to train asking people for some change to get a train pass.  The first time I saw them, I thought they were legit.  Hearing their story I wanted to help out but didn't have any money on me.  Then I saw them the next morning pitching the same story to people.  People who play on people's sympathies really piss me off.  I just can't understand what goes on in people's minds when they scam people like the elderly out of their life savings.  I heard about this story about a church that gave a house to this woman who supposedly lost her house to Katrina.  They built the house themselves and had it all furnished for her only for her to flip the house a few weeks after they gave it to her.  Nothing they can do because the house was in her name.  It turned out the lady wasn't even in New Orleans during Katrina.  Hearing shit like this really makes me disappointed in the world today. 

So the Ocean's 13 premiere is today a few blocks away from my apartment at Grauman's Chinese Theater and there was already a line at 7am to see some of the stars come in at 11am.  Apparently George Clooney and Brad Pitt are going to be there and then the premiere is later tonight at 6.  I saw all these people my age just chilling in line, and I wanna know, what kinda job do they have that they can just play hookey like that??  I need me one of those!