I think Xanga is an awesome blogging site and online community. I love that I can have my audio, thoughts and photos on one page, and that they’re all hosted securely at the same place. I love that I can design my site how I want and that there are relatively few aesthetic limitations to what can be done here. And for the most part I really like the new inbox. I also love that Xanga listens and responds to people who use the site here. But to make Xanga even better I think a couple things could be done..

When Xanga first released the universal inbox, its default setting was on feedback rather than all items. About a week or so later they changed that to all items but I really miss the original way they released it. For me I greatly appreciate the people who comment on my site and I enjoyed being reminded of their comments when logging in. This often increased the likelihood of me returning their words with a comment or a mini to their site. In general I just think that being able to set the default settings in the universal inbox would be pretty darn rad. Anyone with me?

Second, star.xanga.com is a cool concept because certain photos can win star awards. I’ve even won a couple myself but when I went looking for other awarded photos I couldn’t seem to find em’. This is probably the only aspect I miss about Xanga boost – the newspaper layout made finding boosted items fairly easy. I’d love to see “awarded photos/weblogs/videos” sections at star.xanga.com.

hope you all have a safe and enjoyable weekend ~ Pedro

I took today off of work not because I’m sick but because I’m exhausted and have a few pto days. I need to start getting to sleep earlier.

Mariah carey is still beautiful though she’s almost 40.

The more I play the new Smash Bros. the more I like it.

Here’s a funny video of David Letterman and John McCain poking fun at each other.

P.O.D. has been advertising their new cd here on Xanga. Their title track, When Angels and Serpents Dance, is pretty rocking (link). I’ve been a fan of POD for a long time and was glad to see their original guitarist, Marcos, come back to the fold. Back when I still had my myspace he even responded to a message I sent him when I heard he was coming back (link). POD’s now-former guitarist, Jason Truby, just released some amazing instrumental music which I recommend to anybody who loves amazing guitar and soothing instrumental music (link).

And lastly one of my all-time favorite bands and my favorite band from highschool was a Tooth and Nail band called Plankeye, though they broke up in 2002. Fortunately the lead singer started an awesome new band called Fielding. Here’s a great Plankeye song called “Goodbye”…

What was your favorite band in highschool?

After seeing 10,000 B.C. a few weeks ago and actually enjoying it quite a bit I was disappointed to discover that it is getting horrible reviews. In fact after reading several negative reviews I felt a little weird for enjoying the movie so much. But then I started thinking and realized that there are several movies that have gotten bad reviews that I’ve really enjoyed. Here’s a short list of movies that I liked even though most reviewers didn’t…

Ace Ventura – When Nature Calls

Both Ace Ventura movies got pretty bad reviews when they came out even though they made a lot of money and helped make Jim Carrey the star he is today. I liked both of these movies but I especially liked When Nature Calls. (When Nature Calls got 33% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes).

Evan Almighty

Steve Oedekerk directed When Nature Calls and was also the screenwriter for another comedy that got horrible reviews: Evan Almighty. This movie was a sequel to the popular Jim Carrey movie Bruce Almighty, though Steve Carell (The Office) replaced Jim Carrey as the main protagonist. For me Carell made this movie hilarious. (Evan Almighty got 24% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes).

Nacho Libre

This movie was directed by Jared Hess, the guy who also directed Napoleon Dynamite. In many ways Nacho Libre is admittedly ridiculous, but I also found Jack Black and his luchador friend pretty darn funny. (Nacho Libre got 37% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes).

Waterworld

Costing nearly $200 million this movie generated a ton of hype, which was probably why it was such a big letdown for many. And it didn’t help that it was almost two and a half hours. Though I can agree that the budget was unnecessary, I really loved the science-fiction plot of Waterworld. What would the world look like if all of its polar ice and glaciers somehow melted? How would people survive without direct access to mundane things like fresh water and dirt? (Waterworld got 38% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes).

Lady in the Water

Another “water movie”, this one was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and was considered by many to be a huge letdown after the success of his previous hits Signs and the Sixth Sense. It’s true that the plot in this movie was far fetched – it was based on a traditional children’s story that Shyamalan heard growing up in India. However I really liked that Shyamalan was willing to try something completely different and even portray a small part of his culture in doing so. I loved this movie’s soundtrack and I also appreciated some of the themes Lady in the Water portrayed such as unity and finding strength in weakness. (Lady in the Water got 24% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes).

Do you read movie reviews? If so, do you find that you usually agree or disagree with them?

My band is opening for Blind Melon this coming Tuesday at the Rave in Milwaukee. The venue has us listed on their website beneath Blind Melon now, and we are excited about this awesome opportunity. We do have some free tickets so if you’re interested let me know. Hope you all have an awesome weekend!! Peace. Pete

As you may have noticed consumer advocate and corporate analyst Ralph Nader made an announcement recently to run again for President of the US…

Since Nader is philosophically closer to Democrats than Republicans he has sometimes been accused of taking votes from Democrats and even swinging the 2000 election Bush’s way.

While Barack Obama has admired Nader’s past consumer advocacy efforts, he has also been critical of Nader recently. “My sense is is that Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don’t listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you’re not substantive,” he recently stated (link).

In a US News and World Report interview last week, Nader responded to the claim that he is simply a spoiler. “We all have to recognize: This isn’t about candidates first and foremost, it’s about the voters, and we should never have laws that obstruct voters from having their free choice of candidates,” he argued (link).

Of course Republicans have had their fair share of “spoilers” as well, probably most notably Ross Perot, who ran against Bush and Clinton in 1992.

This election ended with Bill Clinton winning with 43% of the votes. George H.W. Bush came in 2nd with a close 37.4% of the votes while Ross Perot had 18.9% of the votes (link). Many conservatives accused Perot of being a spoiler at the time, a claim he refuted.

Republicans could potentially have another “spoiler” this election with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Like Ross Perot, Bloomberg is an independent billionaire who would attract fiscal conservatives and independents to his cause. Needless to say this would likely be devastating for John McCain, which is why he’s probably praying that Bloomberg doesn’t choose to run any time soon…

edit: Last week Bloomberg announced he’s not running, but that he’ll be backing another candidate. As he said in the New York Times, “If a candidate takes an independent, nonpartisan approach — andembraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy — I’ll joinothers in helping that candidate win the White House” (link). Though he’s not running for President it looks like he’s still positioning himself as somebody whose influence can possibly sway this next election…

Would you like to see more third party support in US elections or do you consider third party candidates to be spoilers?

Thanks to our drummer, meester Vargas, for putting this craziness together.. 

Well I’m going to give you four truths and one lie. It may be difficult but can you guess which one the lie is?

1) floss - So about four years ago I went to the dentist and had a grand total of eleven small cavities in my teeth. Yeah, it sucked. I had to go back three more times to get all of them filled. I’ve been flossing almost every day ever since and so far have no cavities. I would definitely suggest you all floss before it’s too late. 
2) log into Xanga – It’s true, I usually find it necessary to log into Xanga at least once a day, if I’m able to of course.
3) listen to Michael Medved – After
work pretty much every day I’ll listen to radio talk show host Michael
Medved for about a half hour. He discusses politics and pop
culture and reviews movies from a relatively conservative perspective. The thing I like about his show though is that roughly 90% of his callers are people who disagree with him. This helps provide more dialogue and separates his show from the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity.
4) play some vids – lately I’ve been playing a lot of Nintendo DS – mainly the games Advance Wars Day of Ruin and Bomberman Touched 2. Both are sweet games for a pretty sweet system.
5) 350 pushups – As Ron Burgandy would say – just sculpting my guns.