Before women's fashions began to feature exposed navels, I had no idea how many gals had unattractive midriffs.

--Thomas Sowell

I can see where he is coming from; I've been going back to the Diamond Bar gym since my visit to Shangri Lai, land of the beautiful people over in La Verne, and I have to say that there are some women who really need to rethink their wardrobe options. When your stomach is resembling a third breast, do you really want to wear a spandex shirt that lets it all hang out? Do you really want to be confused with the prostitute in that movie Total Recall? I really don't think so.

I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 this Friday with my quasi-liberal friends Mr. T and Chow, who both appeared to really enjoy it. I, on the other hand, thought it was full of crap. Michael Moore seems to think just throwing out allegations of Bush being a traitor and a liar is proof enough...no need to find any actual evidence. In fact, the documentary, if you really can call it that, was rather scatter-brained and seemed to contradict itself in several spots. If you've looked at some of the reviews, you'd have heard them. Such as, if Bush is in the control of the Saudis, how come he invaded Iraq and Afghanistan against their strong, public objections? Or why would he say that we shouldn't have gone into Afghanistan then then follow it by saying we didn't bring enough troops? He states that all of the Taliban got away, but in his opinion, they weren't dangerous anyways so why is that important? The only thing you can really take away from this movie is that Moore thinks Bush is the devil. Or a Nazi secretly plotting to take away all our rights. Or a moron who needs to be told what to do at all times or he's helpless. Well, whenever he decides, maybe he'll make another movie.

Saturday was the day of the big hike. There were many of us, about 10 or so who all went hiking. I ended up going with Joan, a friend from high school. To be honest, we weren't really friends, more like acquaintances. We've seen each other more often now due to other other people, so it wasn't weird or anything. She's a smart girl; got her Phd. in English and is teaching right now at Whittier. Anyways, we met up with Jack, Chow, Marlon, Fong, Paul, Vicky, Jerry, and some of Jerry's friends. When we got to our hiking location, the road turned out to be closed for repairs. Luckily, they had a second option, although it wasn't as strenious as I would have liked. We're trying to get ready for hiking the Half-Dome in Yosemite this summer and this hike isn't the best training in the world. It was seven miles, but most of it was flat. The one bonus of that is we could all have a conversation about various things. Joan and I debated whether or not Angel was worthy of a spin off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; I conceded that the first season was a little formulaic but I won the point of the show picking up momentum and creating a mythos of it's own as the seasons progressed. Yeah, quite the thinker, aren't I? Well, it's more fun than discussing whether a progressive tax system is inherently wrong, isn't it?

When we reached the halfway point, we were greeted with the wafting smell of sewage. It turns out that the end of this trail ends at a damn of sorts with some of the funkiest smelling water I've smelled since Venice. This didn't stop two of Jerry's friends from deciding to walk right through it. Their stupidity should have tipped us off, but when they proposed climbing up this makeshift path along the concrete edge, we ended up going along with it. Obi Wan once said,"Who's the bigger fool? The fool, or the one who follows him?" I'm going to have to go with us, as we followed them all the way past the damn over tricky ledges and through prickly bushes only to find a bigger hill to climb. This one turned out to be chock full of lose gravel and rocks, which Jerry managed to start rolling down the hill as though he was Donkey Kong. Vicky and Fong got smacked with several rocks; Vicky took a football sized one right in the chest. This only got them pelted with insensitive comments like,"If you can dodge a rock, you can dodge a ball!" Well, o.k., most of the comments came from me, but hey, I'm a jerk. I can't help myself. We ended up having to climb back down the way we came all the while cursing those two buffoons we followed up. Well, not all of us had to climb back down--Jerry managed to make it all the way to the top and find the trail. All it cost him was a bunch of scratches and his hundred dollar Oakley sunglasses. Yeah...that was worth it.

My uncle Jimmy passed away this Monday. He was my grandmother's older brother and he was a big FDR liberal; the kind that aren't around anymore. I really liked the guy; he was the first adult I ever had a real political debate with. I was 12...and I won many of my points. That's not really a compliment to my intelligence, not that I want you to think he was stupid. He wasn't; he was...simple, I guess. I mean, he knew what he wanted in life and he made up his mind long ago on issues. He wasn't one to change his opinions. Either way, he was also the first man to show me how to use a gun and the first man to show me how to hunt. I bagged my first and only wabbit with a 22 rifle...I can't say I really enjoyed killing an animal, but I did learn first hand about the circle of life. He carved that sucker up and we had rabbit jerky the next day. Well, he lived a full life into his seventies so it's not as though he was cheated out of years, but I have to say that I will miss him and I'm regretful that I didn't visit him more often in his final years.