I have to make this really short as I'm leaving to San Francisco in the morning and am pretty tired. I'll be up there for almost two weeks (cousin's getting married), so I won't be updating (not much change though, right? Sorry about that), the site will be up though, like always, with that new index. But before I go, I wanted to say two things. On this date last year, I had a longer post dedicated to Stanley Kubrick for his birthday (would have turned 79 today), unfortunately this year, this is all you're getting (oh, and that graphic, which is a shirt I bought last week from Amazon). Even though he is still the greatest to me and to many, today isn't the only birthday, Sandra Bullock and Kate Beckinsale also have a birthday today. haha, but that's not who I was referring to. Sonia also turned 18 today, and hers obviously triumphs over all the other birthdays, but that goes without saying (Jerry Seinfeld has this joke that starts out with something like 'if it goes without saying, then don't say it'). So that's all I have for you. I apologize for not giving you anything more, things have been kind of hectic for me. But when I return in two weeks, I plan on a few new photo albums and a few new videos. Oh! One of the things that kept me busy was working on a promo for Comedy Central for this new comedy, The Ten, a comedic movie about the Ten Commandments. Well the promo is supposed air sometime on August the 5th, but I'm not entirely sure. I won't be able to capture it and put it on here because I won't have access to that up there, so watch it and enjoy (if you can find it). That movie is in competition with some other ones out there (like Anton's new one), so it's up to you if you wanna watch it, I'm not going to ask you to. Alright, I'm out. Stay safe everyone, take care. see u.

AHH! Don't read this! I'll tell you the ending! Just kidding. I haven't been able to read all of it yet. I got home at around 11:30 PM last night from working on my car (I need to do an album for that before I leave to San Francisco later this week) and read the first chapter and was just way too tired to continue the rest of the book, haha. I did something stupid though. The very first thing I did when I got it from Amazon was I went to the back and read the last sentence of the book. Really stupid move. I didn't ruin it for myself, but I now know who lives and who dies in the series between Voldemort and Harry. Not saying a word though. So my plan is to finish the book today, unless of course I get busy with something else (I told you guys I'd be swamped this week). I also got The Order of the Phoenix game for 360 in the mail yesterday too, see a picture here. It was major Harry Potter day! But I'll make this short cos I want to get to reading the book and playing the game. So take care everyone, and if you know any spoilers, keep it to yourself for at least another year, haha. see u.

I told you guys yesterday that Reggie would be showing up on Kimmel this morning, and he did, and it was great. I don't usually watch passed Kimmel's first guest, I usually switch to Conan and stay there, but I had to this time cos Reggie was his second guest. There's an awful, awful long gap between the first guest and the second guest, very long commercial break. It always makes me wonder whether the guest forgot to show up or something. Last time I had to watch Kimmel's second guest was when Carmelo Anthony was on. He was in town to the play the Lakers (we lost that night..., here are my photos from the game, and here are Ima's). This time, Reggie's in town for the ESPYs on Sunday on ABC. Anyway, Reggie shows up and Kimmel and he talk very relaxed. Kimmel I think makes everyone feel comfortable, probably everyone that goes on the show feels so relaxed, or at least that's how it looks. Kimmel talks first about what the Saints are nominated for, Best Sports Moment, the re-opening of the Superdome after Katrina. They joke about that for a bit and then Kimmel starts getting personal about Reggie's life, if he has a girlfriend and who he's taking to the ESPYs, all fun stuff. Afterwards though is even more funny. Reggie asks Jimmy if he likes to chew gum. He tells Jimmy that his agent is always telling him not to chew gum when he's on TV, and Reggie loves chewing gum (and for those of you that don't know, I love it to. My favorite is Orbit Spearmint, it never fails). Kimmel and Reggie decide to chew some gum on air, so Reggie takes out a pack from his right pocket (I keep mine in my left). It's blurred out, ABC probably didn't get permission, and it's green, so right off the bat you can tell they're Orbits. Spearmint. I found this hilarious. So they chew it for a while, commenting on how tasty the gum is, Kimmel remarks, "this gum is delicious by the way" even after he starts another question, haha. The other question is about XBOX. He asks Reg if it's true that he plays XBOX five hours a day and it turns out that it is true, in the offseason. Then they joke about that for a little bit and it's over. It was a great, fun interview, makes me look forward to football season even more! Get it here, I hope you enjoy it.

That's all I have for you today. I want to start working on another album. I got a new toy sometime last week, the Sigma 24-135mm f/2.8-4.5. I loved it at first, then I took some test shots and kind of didn't like it as much, then I took some other tests on a tripod and felt that it was okay. I cheaped out on this one. I had the choice between this or the Sigma 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 DC OS (only on APS-C sensors, and optical stabilization), but I settled with the former as it was almost $300 cheaper. I want to post some photos of it later. Also, tonight Potter Mania continues. This time, Hermione's on Letterman (CBS) and Harry's on Conan (NBC). I think you guys might be getting three consecutive day posts in a row! Aren't you excited? Well I'm making up for it because I'm going to swamped next week and then I'm going to San Francisco for two weeks between July and August, so I guess I gotta throw as much stuff at you as I can. Take care everyone, see u.

It's just around the corner! Potter 5 comes out tonight! Am I going? No. But this weekend for sure. And another Potter thing comes out in less than two weeks, what we've all been waiting for - well I guess most of us haven't been because it marks the end. I've been a fan of Harry Potter somewhere between Books 4 and 5 (in that long three year absence), but before Movie 1. I've never really liked the movies. Probably because I like the books, they're much too fast. Well, Movie 5 comes out tonight and Book 7 comes out next Saturday, July 21 (just 10 days before Potter's 27th birthday). It's funny when you think about it, so many people will be going to go see the fifth movie and the creators will be working on the sixth movie, but only a handful of people know how it all will end. It's a very strange thought. Much different than the other book to movie transitions, especially series. Usually there are a few years (if not more). But not with this series. It's being created into film before the completion, haha. People are signing on for Movie 7 when they don't even know how far in they will die. Maybe I'm the only one humored by all this, I don't know.

Anyway, to start off Potter Mania, the three Potter kids went and got themselves stuck in front of the Chinese Theatre... forever, wands and all. Then, afterwards, Mr. Harry Potter went over to Burbank to tell Jay Leno about it. The interview was pretty good. That Daniel Radcliffe is a very fidgety guy. And all those Brits laugh so oddly. Looks like they're either scared or constipated, or both. And their grammar, oh their grammar, all those collective nouns. Ruffles my feathers. Oh, and when Jay said "you" when he meant it in general context, Dan says "well not me, but" and then went on. haha. Stupid Brits. After the interview, Patton Oswalt, the rat from Ratatouille comes on and does his interview sitting along side Dan, and at the start he explains to everyone why his film is more family-friendly than the new gruesome, nudity-filled, filthy-mouthed Potter flick. haha. It was a good interview. I decided to capture it and you can watch it here.

I have three other things for you. All videos. The first is of that episode of American Body Shop I spoke to you earlier. I made a new section for the show, and even if it does fail like many other Comedy Central shows, I'll still keep it up cos it seems fun enough. You can go to its page here. It's initials are ABS, haha. The second one is a stand-up special from Louis C.K. from his DVD, Shameless. It was on HBO a few months ago, and it came out on DVD two weeks ago today. I Netflixed it cos it was extremely hilarious (I've always loved Louis C.K. when he came on Conan so often) and decided to share (after Imadul got his copy of course). But a warning to all of you, it's pretty inappropriate, and I'm not joking, so if you're a young person, please do not watch it. And if you have young people around, do not watch it either. It's damn hilarious, but is pretty wrong, haha. Catch it here. And lastly is another interview from late night, this time Conan. A lot of you may know of this animal handler kid guy named Jarod Miller. He's on many late night shows a lot and now he's getting his own show, so he came on Conan to show off some animals. I've never seen him on the other shows (maybe Leno once) because I find it so hilarious when he's on Conan. Conan always gets so damn scared and starts hating Jarod, and Jarod always seems so clueless. At first I felt bad for the kid, but it gets funnier and funnier each time. It may not be the best of Conan and Jarod, but it's pretty good. Get it here. That's all of the videos for today, but tonight Reggie Bush is on Kimmel, so I plan to capture it and put it up sometime tomorrow. Catch it at 12:06 AM PDT Wednesday morning on ABC. Oh, and Kimmel will be hosting the ESPYs with LeBron James Sunday on ESPN. Kimmel's great, haha. Take care everyone. see u.

It's that time of the year again. Independence Day? No! Fireworks Day! It's all officially over now, and although mine didn't go as planned, it was okay. I was hoping to take some great pictures, but stupid, stupid me forgot my tripod at home. But instead, we stayed at my cousin's house and made our own fireworks. We couldn't find any that went straight up (the people said they were illegal, boo hoo), some people on her block had some though, so we ended up shooting up our stationary ones from TNT Fireworks. There's a shot of one to the left. They were crazy. This particular one was freaking loud. Damn loud. Had probably five or six loud whistles before it went out. The whole street was loud though. It was insane. I surprised how long it took the cops to round our block (about three hours). I've never seen it like this - not near my house anyway. It felt like it was the apocalypse, or communists had taken over, and people started going crazy and blowing stuff up. From where her driveway was, whichever direction you looked you would see some bright light or hear something very loud. I think I even heard some kids scream in horror. Perhaps it was from one bright red firework that we saw go straight up and then straight back down without popping. It was great. haha. I hope your Fireworks Day was just as great if not better, hopefully you didn't blow up too much of your body.

I don't have any photos for you, mostly because there isn't too much to be excited about, just a few purple colors and some firecracker shots. Nothing too special. Instead of those photos, I will vow that next year I'll get some great shots, Insha Allah. But for today, I have one new photo album and two new videos. The photo album is of my newest toy, the Canon 35mm f/2 (came in very handy last night). It officially came to me the morning before we graduated, but it didn't come to me in that great shape. The focusing motor was broken. That really ruined my morning, I wanted to bring it with me to Grad Nite. Ah well, those photos came out looking pretty good. So I decided to take this lens down to Irvine the morning of Grad Nite. Canon has a little department headquarters down there. They were really nice and I dropped it off in probably less than five minutes. Very fast. The drive up though wasn't. It was okay for me, cos I used my trust SDA with Google Maps to go around traffic - if I hadn't, I'd've probably missed the bus for Anaheim - I drove an extra thirty miles or so, but it saved me a good hour - that 405 was a killer! Anyway, two days later, UPS delivered it - record timing. I was very impressed. The lens looked basically identical, except for these few screws that I noticed. I think they opened up the front and when they replaced the motor, they had to extend the lens a few millimeters. No big deal. It works great though. I have a few test shots in the album as well. There are 56 photos in total. And for anyone that is wondering, the lens is great. I got it for $230 from B&H, and I am not regretting it, at all. I usually don't though. It's a great lens to use under controlled conditions, the f/2 is very handy, and the 35mm is great on your full frame or APS-C sensor. Very, very sharp too. I love it. Anyway, check out the album here.

The two videos I have for you are from the Stand-Up section (I really have to redo that whole section by the way). Both from the same comedian, Mr. Brian Regan. Comedy Central made a weekend out of him last month to promote his new comedy tour so I was able to capture both his old special from Comedy Central Presents and his brand new TV stand-up special, Standing Up. Both are great, very great. If you saw him live, you'll hear a lot of the Standing Up jokes over again, but this guy is so funny, they're probably funnier the second time around. The first is the customary twenty minutes, and the second is the forty some odd minute (from an hour) special. They're still in the same three flavor downloads, DivX, H.264, and WMV9. So download them by going here.

I know I haven't been putting up too many videos lately. I plan on capturing that new Comedy Central original series, American Body Shop when it starts Sunday, July 8 at 10:30 PM. The first episode (Flammers) is on XBOX Live Marketplace for a free download right now. I just downloaded it and watched it. The show looks pretty funny, even for those not into cars. But who knows, it could be like almost all the other recent Comedy Central original series and be cancelled after its first season. Let's hope not though. The show is basically about a body shop (who'd've guess it?) and the guys are VERY unprofessional, haha. "Those were, um... bonus... parts. They were superfluous" haha. That's one of the last lines of the Pilot episode. It's pretty good. I haven't gotten used to all the characters yet, but there are probably five main ones, a boss (who's just a little less clueless than the rest of 'em), then some other crazies, and a secretary woman (the only woman on the staff, and she seems the most level headed, kind of, haha). The first episode is an introduction to the shop basically and the tiny plot (and I mean tiny) is to try to convince an insurance inspector to keep them insured, which is pretty difficult, haha. It looks promising... I hope. So catch it on Sunday. Take care everyone, see u.

I was hoping to get this stuff up yesterday, but you know how things go, especially around here. But that's a good thing, that it took me longer to finish, because that means that I've been working a lot. You may not notice it right away, but up top there are two new icons, and one missing. I've thrown away the "Work" icon, but don't worry, it's still on the site (for those of you still making up last year's words, or for the new kids that might have the same words). I got rid of it because, well, we graduated last month, and that page won't be updated ever again. So where does it go? The "Retired" section. Don't you like the wheelchair guy? haha. In that section I'll put the sections of the site that I've just given up on, or had to end, like "Work". Another page that some people were probably looking for is the Ultimate "I Want" List. That's there too, with two others. I won't tell you what those are, you'll just have to check by going here.

But that addition is a minor one. The other addition is one that takes advantage of that upgrade to the server I made last month. It's "Contact". Have any of you ever wondered, how can I talk to this modenadude guy?! Well now you can. It took me a good four or five hours to make (the JavaScript) to work the way I wanted, so I hope you'll enjoy. But that page isn't just to contact me, oh no. I never create simple stuff like that here. I try to take advantage of everything. So what else is there? Since the PHP's mail() is working beautifully, I was able to also create a Generic E-Mail Form, for people who want to e-mail others without accessing their own account, or by making up a fake e-mail. All you have to do is provide a Subject Line, a Sender, a Receiver, a Message, and viola, simple e-mail without logging in. You like? Over time I plan to make it SSL encrypted so you guys can write whatever the hell you want, credit card numbers, social security numbers, addresses, anything, and no one will know (I don't get copies of the e-mails, and I'm not responsible for anything that might occur because of the e-mails sent, just as a disclaimer). So It's a simple script, but I hope you guys enjoy that.

Those are the major changes, the minor changes lie in a few other places. One is still in the menu, all items have a reflection (I guess it's my answer to the iPhone, haha, and that's the only time I'll speak of that very late-coming product on this site - Hugo was talking to me on his iPhone the other day and that quality was astoundingly horrible, so many echoes. Great design and technology, but I think they forgot it should be a phone first), like the title, that too gain a glow after being hovered, the Saints logo hardly visible on the top also gains a reflection. On this page, I created a 10px margin on the right to correspond with the 10px margin on the left. And you cannot see it now, but the distance vertically between posts has been increased from 10px to 15px, like it was in January 2007, not really sure how it changed. Underneath, the Permalink and Comments (which are still down) has been pushed farther down by 2px, to let it breathe easier. And lastly on this page, the graphic will always have a link, if to nothing specific on the site, or another site, then it will be linked to its Permalink. For some reason, in the past, the body of the website had a color of #242424 (dark gray) when it was supposed to have #252525 (darker gray), not sure how that happened, but I fixed it and now the colors are uniform. The index's addition of the two menus doesn't count as a real change because it was already noted, so the only other change is in Videos, the section titles' link behavior has been altered, in the past it used to become a darker shade of gray when hovered over like the posts' section titles, but to differentiate them, those titles maintain its light gray of #E1E1E1, hover or not. I think that's all of them. Oh, and if you're wondering why I didn't delete "ThaDogg" from up top, it's because Ima says that he will try and continue to update it in Santa Barbara, so it's staying! That's all for now. I plan to give you guys at least one more album of photos later this week of a new toy I bought a few weeks ago. I bought another toy over the weekend, so when it ships, I'll Insha Allah post up another post (they're both about lenses). Happy Birthday Larry! Alright, take care everyone. see u.