The Rants of Mister P

This is National TV Turnoff Week.

So be sure to watch an extra few hours to make up for the 15 people across the country who actually participate in this insane behavior.

Relay Marathon update

It seems that our team won "First Place: Entertainment Division, Men". (You need at least 2 women on a team to be considered co-ed.) We rocked!

"But Mister P., weren't you guys the only team in that division?"

Shut up, Ted McGinley.

Me, Brad, Kevin, Carlos and Erika signed up for the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon.
Scratch that; Brad's sick.

Me, Chris, Kevin, Carlos and Erika signed up for the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon.
Scratch that; Chris is sick.

Me, Kevin, Carlos, Erika, and some stranger holding a sign saying "Extra runner looking for team" signed up for the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon.

Basically it's a marathon divided by 5 runners- each person does a 5.2 mile loop. It was in Griffith Park, which has some really nice flat, tree-lined trails. But was that the race course? Noooooo... Instead, the first 2 miles was all hills. The last quarter mile was all uphill.

I was runner 4 out of 5, so I got to watch the others. And as the morning went on, it got hotter and hotter. Runner one came in and said "man, that sucked." Runner two came back and said "man, that sucked". I watched many other teams with the same reactions. We were basically like lemmings; everyone seeing the doom that awaited us yet still just following along. Stupid Jimmy Stewart.

The event itself was fun, but then how could it not be with celebrity guest Ted McGinley?

Preach it grandma

I went to a small (150 people) rally for Antonio Villaraigosa for Mayor. It was hosted by an environmental group, so the people there were very dedicated citizens. Very committed. OK, let's keep it real... they were hippies and old white folk.

There was a little old lady standing next to me who looked right out of Central Casting: picture a woman who lived in Queens her entire life retiring in Florida. She was 5-foot-nothing, white hair, the dark wrap-around senior citizen sunglasses and a little cane to help her stand. (she'll be the star of this entry.)

We had the little "welcome friends and neighbors speech" and then some assemblyperson or something took the mic. She was an eloquent african-american woman who spoke about the environment and education with the little bit of flare you might hear from a Baptist preacher. In the middle of the speech, the old lady next to me blurts out - in that inappropriately loud voice that only old people can do - "This broad's fantastic!"

I nearly lost it.

USCasaurus


I went to the Natural History Museum at USC last weekend with some friends (hi Mark). It has dinosaurs; it was cool. I feel that every museum should have dinosaurs: The Museum of 19th Century Cambodian Quilts? They should have a dinosaur. The French Impressionism Museum? Needs a dinosaur.



There was one strange thing about the USC exhibit. About half of the skeletons in the Dinosaur Hall were labeled "Not a Dinosaur!" I think it was one of those "Dolphins are not fish; spiders are not insects" things. I suppose a bunch of geeky archeologists got together and decided that if certain vertabrae are not fused in a specific way, the animal is not a dinosaur. Whatever. Here's my definition: If it lived 100 million years ago, is the size of a bus, and can eat you, it's a dinosaur.

My mother and I went to Rome in 2003 to see the Beatification of Mother Teresa. (It's a ceremony that is one of the steps in declaring a new saint.) There were many different speakers throughout the several hour event. Whenever you have a couple-hundred thousand people gathered together, there's gonna be a lot of noise. People were chatting throughout the entire thing. But what amazed me is how hushed the crowd became whenever the Pope spoke. Here was this frail old man speaking in a tiny voice. Mumbling. In Latin. I am sure 99.9% of the people had absolutely no idea what he was saying. Yet 200,000 people hung on every word. It really was something amazing.

And I got to see him drive through the crowd in his Pope-mobile. Awesome.

After the trip I took some of the photos and made a little video to send to my mother for her to watch. (You may want to let it load and just scroll through them quickly rather than letting the music play.)

Pope movie (small, 2.6 MB)
Pope movie (large, 7.5 MB)