OakMonster’s Den

Jessica Callahan is back with her second CD and a new and improved website.

One heck of a singer/songwriter. Her live show is solid. She performs all over town, from Hermosa Beach to LA. Y’all should catch her sometimes. Brandon and I brought some friends over to her show, and they are all hooked.

Next week, she’s in Singapore, helping to promote a movie there which her song “Penny” is on the soundtrack.

Drink some wine and support the fight against breast cancer all at once in the LBC.

For the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Wine Country in Signal Hill is hosting the 2nd Annual Red Wine and Dark Chocolate Tasting on Saturday, October 16 from 1 to 4 p.m. The cost is $20 per person with $10 from each admission benefits Long Beach Memorial’s Breast Cancer Unit.

Whoever is in the area, you should attend.

Okay. I goofed. I thought I could be attending this this year. But it’s actually on my good friends Aurora and James’ wedding day.

Yeah. Up until 10 minutes ago, I thought their wedding is October 2005. That shows how much I know.

Thai Olympic medalists and atheletes arrived in Bangkok to much fanfare.

I still can’t get over it. 8 frelling medals, man. EIGHT. That’s HUGE!

Just logged in to my portfolio after a year or so. I haven’t lost the farm yet, so that’s good news. Heh. Then I logged onto the message board, and, as always, was greeted warmly by friendly faces. And an invite from Mojave that I think I should just post out here just in case there are other closet HSX traders out there who want to meet new people.

HSX Traders of Los Angeles and Orange County area: Come join the L.A. Palooza, a trader/TickerTalk’er gathering at El Cholo (Western) on Saturday September 18 at 4 p.m. Ask Mojave for more details.

James “Scotty” Doohan bids Hollywood Walk of Fame star–an effort put together by his son Chris and his fans, including Brandon and myself–on Tuesday.

Thanks for the good times, Scotty.

**UPDATE** Here’s the coverage of the event.

Just watched the American version of Godzilla for the first time after all these years. Since I grew up with the Japanese Godzilla, I felt like I would be betraying my roots by seeing the US Godzilla.

Mutated iguana. Give me a frelling break. The damn thing can’t even breathe fire, and you’re calling it a Godzilla?

Oh yeah, all 2 times that it “breathes fires” in this US version. If you watch closely, you’ll see that Godzilla’s breath/roar sends cars flying, and the collision of those cars cause explosion. Godzilla’s breath fans and pushes the flames. That is no firebreathing my friend.

Well, now I too have lost 2 hours of my life I could never get back.

Along the line of “the Curse of The Exorcist” special they have going on right now on E!, in the middle of watching Godzilla, I figured out that there is also the curse of American Godzilla.

You know, other than the fact that the movie itself is a curse. All the bad things that happened to all that involved in the 1998 Godzilla. **Update Alert: The more I thought about this, the more I have to add. Haha.**

1. 9/11 happened to New York City.
2. The French screwed up again after creating “Godzilla” by pissing off the US for Iraqi Freedom etc.
3. Director Roland Emmerich went on and made “The Day After Tomorrow”.
4. Matthew Broderick was dumped by on-the-up-and-up Sarah Jessica Parker. His film career never really recovered. Wait a minute, that was since Ferris Bueller days…
5. Jean Reno virtually vanishes from American screen since Ronin.
6. Poor Maria Pitello. Thought Godzilla was going to be her big break. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
7. *Madison Square Garden, the breeding grounds of baby Godzillas. Life imitates arts this week as the RNC continues…
8. *Godzilla himself. The Japanese company announced their plan to retire him after 50 years of stomping over Tokyo earlier this year. Well, after his final batttle, Godzilla: The Final Wars, of course.

The only 3 people that seem to have escape the curse. Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria are protected by the holy aura of The Simpsons.

3 Gold (2 women’s weightlifting, 1 boxing)
1 Silver (boxing)
4 Bronze (2 women’s weightlifting, 1 women’s Taekwondo, 1 boxing)

This is the best Olympics ever for Thailand, and best ever for Thai women.

It’s been emotional.

…and for my first viewing of live Olympics event in Athens!!

Thailand Manus Boonjumnong won the gold medal, the first ever for Light Welterweight category.

And here’s the best part. I was calling my dad right before the match started. A call waiting beeped, and it was Brandon’s dad on the other line, letting me know that the boxing match was on. So me and my 2 dads were all watching.

The best feeling in the world is to be able to call my dad right after the match to say “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” to each other.

That brings us to 3 golds, 4 bronzes.

One more match tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. PST. I hope MSNBC is doing it live again.

Thai Middleweight boxer grabbed another bronze for the motherland!

That makes 2 golds and 4 bronzes so far.

2 boxers are left in the rings: Light Welterweight boxer is fighting his final bout Saturday, and Bantam is fighting in the semifinals later on today.

In Taekwondo, one athlete left in the competition tomorrow.

**NEWS UPDATE** Our Bantamweight boxer made it to the finals. We are looking at 2 more medals either gold or silver!

Thai Taekwondo team is not doing as hot as the country has expected. Our pride-and-joy girl lost her shot at the gold today, but may still get a chance at the bronze.

How do they do that? Olympics TKD competition is set up this way: anyone who lost to the 2 finalists in the first round get to compete with losers from semifinals for the bronze. So our female athlete still has a shot.

On the other hand, our guy didn’t make it very far.

We’re not giving up yet. There are still 2 more athletes going on in the heavier weight groups.

And the boxing boys are back in the rings tomorrow and Saturday.

*BREAKING NEWS* Yaowapa Boorapolchai of Thailand won Taekwondo bronze in the Women’s Flyweight (49kg/108lbs) category. First ever for our Taekwondo team.