Well...time to break the silence yet again. As I stated before, I was out of town for this past week, hence no update. Still, I was about to not update again in get into my lazy mode of ignoring this record. Oh well, at least I'm trying now. Nobody cares, but at least I'll remember what I was doing on June 7th 2004 someday. Sitting around in my underwear typing on the computer...that's too much info, isn't it?

So, white water rafting was a hella good time...as my friend Julie up north would say. Then I would ridicule her idiotic use of that stupid Berkeley slang "hella." It was a lot more intense than the Peruvian rafting trip and with far less protection. We did class IV which is just like class 4, only more classy looking. Hey, if it works for the NFL, why not here? We did pretty well too; only one chick fell out of the boat on the entire trip. That was Fong, which isn't unexpected; the girl weighs like 60 pounds or something. My Buddy dolls might be bigger...anyways, one incident was pretty amusing as it involved Vicky falling into a rapid. I know I said only one person fell out of a raft, but hear me out.

The raft in front of ours gets stuck on a huge rock right in the middle of a class III, so we had to pull off to the side and wait until they got unstuck. They managed to get moving again, so we pushed off and, surprise surprise, ran smack into that same rock as we had no room for manuevering...not that we were all that adept at it in the first place. So anyways, we try the high side manuever and end up just getting off the damn raft and huddling onto the big rock while our guide Andy maintains a tenuous grip on our raft. At this point, we can almost see the hamster in his little head start spinning trying to figure out what the hell he's supposed to do. Suddenly, we hear a splash and as we turn around, we see Vicky go rushing through the rapids. Apparently, Linh pushed her in...or "accidentally" shoved her in, whatever. That chick is dangerous. About this time, Chih Hao decides to take matters into his own hands and leaps onto the raft. This breaks our guides grip on it, which causes him to jump in after it. The rest of us distracted by Vicky bobbing down the river suddenly realize that we're standing on a rock in the middle of the rapids with no god damned raft. We weren't stuck up shit creek without a paddle...we didn't even have a damn boat! I did, however, have my paddle still. So you see, the lesson is...well, I guess it's to not get out of your raft when you're in a rapid. Vicky learned that the hard way. We were eventually rescued by one of the other boats as the rest of us were too chicken to jump in and swim out to our raft.

Once we got back through all the rapids, some affectionately named "Eat Rocks and Bleed" or "Surprise", Chih Hao and I were in for a rude awakening. We had our keys with our alarm clicker in this plastic bag that ended up leaking water. A Glad bag it wasn't...this led to a whole telephone adventure which involved me having to call up the original installers probably routed through India or some such nonsense for them to finally tell me that they installed this little button hidden behind everything which I can press to reset the alarm. Thanks for that tip off guys. It only took 2 hours of explaining...Chih Hao wasn't as lucky. His stupid alarm wouldn't reset so he couldn't start his car. Finally, Jerry, Vicky's boyfriend, got one of his friends to disable it. He's an "engineer" and knows about circuits and stuff...right...he just steals cars on the weekends for fun, I guess.

Well, this was what preceded my trip up to Oakland and on to Michigan...which didn't turn out to be as terrible as I thought. This, sadly, was because I spent minimal time with my family out there and mostly with my dad. We got to watch game 4 and 5 of the Stanly Cup finals, not to mention the movie Miracle, about the 1980 Olympic hockey team which beat those Commie bastards and inspired our country. Turned out to be an omen as we got Ronald Reagan as our president shortly after. We also checked out Shrek 2, the Butterfly Effect and Troy. I already mentioned Shrek, but I saw it again with my sister and she enjoyed it as well. The Butterfly Effect was actually a very clever movie involving time travel and, unfortunately, Ashton Kutcher. Still, he wasn't too terrible. Troy was a big, stupid spectacle that horribly miscast Helen of Troy. They couldn't have gotten a more boring chick to play her if they tried. The dialogue between her and Legolas...sorry, Paris was so terrible and laughable that it gave Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones a run for it's money. Luckily, the rest of the cast was actually quite good. Brian Cox is brilliant as always playing a really cool character named Agamemnon...well, actually he's a total prick, but he has a lot of fun doing it. Brad Pitt doesn't have to stretch too far as they've realized his acting range is from A to B, so he manages the killing machine Achilles quite nicely. One of my favorite was Sean Bean as I really liked him in all the Sharpe movies on A & E and he didn't disappoint as Odysseus. There were several things that bothered me about the themes of Troy, however. It seems that Wolfgang Peterson went out of his way to make a whole lot of anti religious statements. Of course, these people were pagans, but they were very superstitious...hell, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to appease the gods so his ships would get a favorable wind. Yet in this movie they were mocking the gods like it's fashionable to do nowadays about any christian "fool" who still believes in all that hocus pocus supernatural stuff. I guess it can't be helped, but still; atheists running around in Anatolia 3400 years ago?

My brother's graduation was mercifully short, which they also managed to mangle our last name when announcing him. It came out Castiolano...I think the teacher has been watching too much Sopranos...I wish I were in the mafia so I could have had someone break her kneecaps...the stupid bitch. She had him in her class; how the hell do you misprounce a student's name on his graduation? The head of the school system gave his quasi inspirational speech and in order to be more hip, he decided he'd use the Lion King as a learning model. Yeah, Disney's the Lion King. What a frickin' tool. I guess the lesson is to make sure your father is the king and get rid of any uncles hanging around...I met several of Alex's buddies who also graduated...boy, Michigan sure is a different place. I wouldn't fit in there.

The next day we got to go to the Henry Ford Museum, mostly because I pestered my mom into giving us a ride. It was definitely worth it...there was all types of exhibits from the usual planes, trains and automobiles as well as motorhomes, appliances and even mock hotel rooms from the past. I must admit I've never been a car buff, or even that interested in vehicles other than to get me where I'm going, but this museum had me fascinated for hours. I had no idea that with the original automobiles, gas, electric and steam were all challenging each other for dominance as the fuel for tomorrow. Turns out gas was the weakest link at first, but pulled ahead, just like VHS over betamax. Oh well, I'll have to wait a while for my steam powered car, I guess. I'll be cruisin' like Jules Verne.

There were several interesting exhibits at the Ford Museum, such as the secret service vehicle that JFK was shot in...as I stared at it I kept thinking, Back and to the left, back and to the left...god, that was a crappy movie. Also there was the rocking chair that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in to watch Our American Cousin as he took a bullet from John Wilkes Booth...both had been cleaned pretty well, no blood stains...darn it. Right next to it was a vial that supposedly contains the last breathe of Thomas Edison...what the hell was his son doing to get that? I can just imagine him standing there with the vial in one hand and a pillow in the other. "O.K. dad, that's your last god damned breath!" Come to think of it, that's a rather morbid collection, but still, they're definitely conversational pieces.

Once we finally got the hell out of Michigan...er, I mean, once we took off for the Left Coast again, I started to feel more comfortable, but still a little peeved that I had to miss a Franz Ferdinand concert. I mean, it's not like it's a once in a lifetime thing to see my brother graduate from high school...oh, you mean it is? Nevermind then. I listened to the book Catch me if you can which they based the movie on with Leonardo Di Caprio. It was a very good movie, but the book was even better. The real Frank Abignale, Jr. was one of the ballsiest con artists I've ever heard of. He pulled some shit that fiction writers would have called bullshit on. If you ever get a chance to pick up a copy, do it. I laughed my ass off and disturbed the guy next to me on the plane. Hell, I'd laugh my ass off to disturb the wacko next to me on any plane without the encouragement, but this book is seriously funny. If you can't be a real con artist, at least you can live vicariously through one of the most successful ones in history. Hell, he had stolen millions of dollars before he was 21; has to be the biggest thief since Olowikandi signed with the Timberwolves.

Once I got back to San Fran, I got to go and see a musical about Buddy Holly. It was pretty fun as the people involved were having a good time and they played their own instruments, so it was almost like a real concert, just like Franz Ferdinand. Except that it was Buddy Holly music. Yeah...I'm not bitter or anything. The drive home was horrible as usual as I can never stay awake on that drive. This might be because it's always around 2 a.m. when I end up home, but I blame the road. It must have sleeping agents in it somewhere, like a turkey. Hmmm...well, I better get to bed.