Someone is out to get my truck.

That's American made, baby
Originally uploaded by shadyrudy.

As some of you recall, last year I had the transmission in the truck rebuilt after 9 years of service. It came back like new, kicking butt and taking me all over Texas.
Earlier this year, some all star crook decided to steal my XM SkyFi 1 out of the truck and smashed my passenger side window to get it. Of course, once you report a unit stolen to XM, it's deactivated and can never be used again.
Now, some drunken loser in a white or silver Mazda SUV or truck went and hit my truck around 3 or 6 AM on Sunday 27-Nov-2005. The truck moved about 7 feet over and hit a small Mazda 626 on the right. Seems like the Mazda got the worst of the impact, even though my truck was the one that absorbed the direct hit. Both of my tail lights are intact and fully functional. The tailgate was unharmed, but the bumper is a little bent, but it can be replaced relatively easily. I drove it around and everything mechanical seems A-OK. The alignment is fine and the frame looks good, so that a relief. But I am no expert, so we'll see what the body shop says.
What bugs me the most is not the money it's going to cost to repair it, but the hassle of taking it to a place, negotiating a price, dealing with insurance, etc, etc. What a way to end the Thanksgiving holidays. What bugs me the most is that I spent about $30 during the whole "Black Friday weekend" rush, but now I'm looking down the barrel of $500+ in car repairs. Alas.

Thanks for the Memories

I'm your Papi
Originally uploaded by shadyrudy.

I took this pic of Eddie during the Smackdown show in San Antonio earlier this year. Priscilla and I were sitting in the third row and we got great shots of a bunch of WWE Superstars. When I was taking this, Eddie was looking around, surveying the crowd as a good heel does.
On November 13, around 14:00 or so, I was checking my GMail account and found an eMail that I still find hard to believe:
Eddie Guerrero dead at 38.
There isn't much I can add that hasn't already been said about this great wrestler. All I will say is:
Thank you for the memories, Eddie!

Shopgirl and Coffee

Shopgirl
Priscilla had not seen any previews or reviews for Shopgirl. All she knew was that Claire Danes and Steve Martin were the stars. The first thing that she said when I mentioned Claire Danes was My So Called Life. Everyone that she mentioned the movie to, also mentioned My So Called Life. I guess I just missed out on it back when it was on. So she rolled the dice and went with me. And boy, was she glad she did!
The premise of Shopgirl is this: A young girl from Vermont moves out to LA. She works at Saks selling gloves. She meets this poor guy that ends up going on tour with a band. She then meets a rich guy that gets her anything she wants. But who will she stay with? The cold, rich guy or the broke, nice guy? There is a lot more to it than this, but I don't want to ruin anything for you, faithful reader. What's cool is that the movie is based on the book Shopgirl written by Steve Martin! I haven't read it, but I would love to! Check it out!

Coffee at La Madeleine
After the movie, Priscilla and I tried out a new place. Well, new to us. I've seen several of these around here and in Houston and off we went. The place has a really cool ambiance, like a small French cafe. Since it was rather late, all we had was coffee and good conversation. You know, I actually prefer it to hanging out at a Starbucks, too. Plus, the coffee is much better. Then again, I am a sucker for French coffee. Besides the coffee, they have a pretty good dinner menu, and hopefully we'll try something from there pretty soon. But overall, La Madeleine is a great place that we'll definitely goto more often!

Rudy's Movie Reviews

Saw II
Priscilla wanted to skip this one, so I went on my own on Sunday night. The movie starts off pretty much where the other one left off. We see a dude trapped in another bad situation and he has to accomplish a task in order to live. Does he die? You'll just have to watch it!
The main story is Donnie Wahlberg is trying to save his son from Jigsaw. All he can do is watch his son's adventures inside the house through some cameras. The son is trapped with a bunch of misfits who are all trying to find some antidote for a nerve gas being pumped through the house. There are several tasks to accomplish for each batch of antidote, and hilarity ensues as everyone is trying to get a shot of the antidote.
We even visit the bathroom from the Original Saw for a bit, but I won't tell you why. I will tell you that we do see the victims from Saw 1. Of course they are just crusty bodies now.
Overall, it had shock value and such, with a twist, of course. But I believe the 1st one was better and more psychological.

Good night and Good Luck
This film is about Edward R. Murrows 1950s era reports about Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare. It's hard for us, in this day and age to believe that something like that could actually happen in America. Murrows reports on an Airforce soldier getting discharged because his father. The evidence against the soldier was in a sealed manila folder, and he was tried in court and convicted without anyone even opening the folder! Reporting on this issue set off the fire storm with eventually led to the censure of senator McCarthy by the senate.
I really like how this film was shot in black in white to blend seamlessly with the archive footage. The clothes and the fact that everyone was smoking seemed genuine. It's hard to imagine Anderson Cooper lighting up a Winston while talking about the latest news out of France. But it seems like that was what everyone did, back in the day. If you pay attention, you can seem some parallels to things going on in the news of then and the news of today. The first thing that came to mind was the caskets returning from the middle east. There was word that the DoD did not want these images on TV, but some stations still ran them. Much like going against the Communist hunters made you a target to suspicion and scrutiny.
In the movie, there is advertiser pressure to not report certain things, and this is not the case anymore. At least with independent type news. In this day and age, anyone with a video camera and a computer can set up their own news broadcast ala Rocketboom and many others. Of course, these video podcasts can be heavily biased, since they are independent. Interesting times we live in.
Overall, a great movie. You should check it out!

Homecoming 2005 - Friday

Good times with old and new friends
Another year means another trip to Baylor's homecoming. The football team is doing better than they have in years, so a much larger crowd was expected. I got out of work around 13:00 on Friday and met Priscilla in the parking lot. We left the truck in Round Rock and hit the road in the car. After a quick lunch, we were off. We got to Waco around 15:00 or so. Priscilla wanted to stop by the Chaplain's office to talk to some of her old co-workers, so I dropped her off there. Me, being the big band nerd, I went over to rehearsal to see how the show for the week was shaping up. I got to practice around 3:15 and chatted with Ryan O'Shields for a while. The band was working on the Baylor script spell out and parade block for the march over to the bonfire and the parade the next day. Priscilla wrapped up her visit and headed over to the band field. From there, we went and checked into our hotel room and I took a well deserved nap. The night before I was actually up until around 01:00 putting up ebay auctions! We'll see how the sales go!
After my nap, I got prettied up and went to meet Courtenay Harrold for dinner. And where better than Taco C for a good pre-bonfire meal? Nothing like the Flamente Chicken with tons of queso and extra beans. Mmmmm. After dinner, the three of us headed out to the bonfire. There was insane traffic on University Parks, but, thanks to the Lady Bears NCAA run, I knew some shortcuts and other routes. We ended up parking in the parking garage where Priscilla's old apartments once stood. A bit sad, indeed.
We had a good hike over to the Ballpark parking lot, but we found a carnival atmosphere when we go there. There were even rides and a fun house for the kids. Collins had set up the little trailers again, but since I didn't recognize any of the workers, I just walked by. We worked our way through the crowd and got as close as we could. We got there right on time for the show, including the band, yell/song leaders and the Golden Girls playing with fire! After all that, the freshman got down to business and lit the fire. As always, people were right next to the fire and as it heated up, they ran for cover. Me, being me, I got up as close as the fire fighters would let me and took several pics with the real camera. I'll put those up on Flickr when I get them back.
It was probably around 10:30 and Courtenay needed to be at her book signing around 8, so off we went. But on our way out, I found Tina and Matt, who were looking for Christina and Julie. After a round of phone tag and "Where are you?" we found them. We chatted for a bit, and we were off again.
Now, I wanted to go to pigskin and hang out with the KKPsi actives and alumni but we still had to get Courtenay back. So Priscilla just dropped me off and let me chill with the boys. I had a long chat with several of the guys. It was a good time, listening to the issues of the day, and throwing in a little shady wisdom every now and then. Funny, the people change, but the stories are mostly the same. Priscilla arrived after a while and told a few of her stories as well. I wanted to hang a bit longer, but we had Harold Waites waiting for us in the morning. So during one of the intermissions, we escaped. And with a long day ahead of me, I was out cold before my head hit the pillow.