MONDAY, MAY 30, 2005

Jamie Morris : My New Bike : Specialized 05 Globe Bicycle
Specialized 05 Globe Bicycle
My New Bike

I went over to the Supergo Bike Shop in Santa Monica today and got myself a new bike. I haven't ridden my old bike in years because it's a piece of junk. I'd be out of breath after riding it for a half mile. My new bike is a Specialized 05 Globe Bike and it's really nice. It's made for riding in the city, commuting, and going on long treks. It rides really well with very little effort. I rode for 18 miles today around Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and West Los Angeles and I didn't even get a little tired. I'm sure I'll be a little sore tomorrow because I'm not used to riding. If anyone wants my old bike, let me know. It's a Mongoose hybrid bike that I got in '99, but haven't ridden that much.

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SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2005

Jamie Morris : Topanga Daze : Mmmm... Beer
Mmmm... Beer
Topanga Daze

This afternoon, Niki and I went to the 32nd Annual Topanga Days Country Fair in Topanga Canyon. We got to see the two finalists of the Folk and Bluegrass contest perform as well as John McEuen, the founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It was a fun little festival and the community is really cool too. Topanga Rocks!

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SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2005

Jamie Morris : Star Wars Episode III : Star Wars Ticket
Star Wars Ticket
Star Wars Episode III

I finally made it to the theater tonight to see Star Wars. I liked it a lot. It is definitely one of the best Star Wars films. It's much, much better than Episodes I and II. The dialogue isn't much better, but everything else is great.

Also today, I decided to rearrange my apartment. My furniture has been in the same place for 6 years now and I needed a change. I drew out a floor plan of my studio on some graph paper that I created using the Graph Paper PDF Generator and arranged some cut-outs of my furniture on it. I moved the furniture tonight, but my room is still a mess. I've also got to do some rewiring of my cable. The good news is, I've got room for a small couch now!

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2005

More Soccer and Summer Fridays!

I got to see a little of the UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and Milan today while I was at work. What an unbelievable match. If you didn't see it live, try to catch a replay on TV. Tonight, I went to another LA Galaxy game at the Home Depot Center. This match wasn't quite as exciting. The Galaxy dominated the game in terms of possesion and shots, but they were unable to score a goal, probably because their star player, Landon Donovan, didn't play because he's training with the USA National Team for their upcoming match this Saturday against England. The final score was 0-0. Boring...

At work today, we got a very nice memo from Brad Grey, the new CEO of Paramount Motion Pictures. It said that all employees in the Motion Picture Group are getting summer hours on Fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Every Friday this summer, I get to leave work at 1:00! We've had a lot of changes over the past few months at Paramount, but so far, it's been all good.

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SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2005

Jamie Morris : Soccer Saturday : Niki's First Soccer Match
Niki's First Soccer Match
Soccer Saturday

I got up at 5:45am this morning and made my way over to Dave's parent's house to watch The FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Manchester United. Man United completely dominated the game for 90 minutes. They had chance after chance after chance but were unable to score a goal. I don't think Arsenal had one shot on goal. The game went into 30 minutes of overtime and Man U continued to get chances and Arsenal still looked terrible, but still the scored stayed at 0-0. So, for the first time in 130 years, the final ended with penalty kicks and Arsenal won. Not fair.

Tonight, Niki and I went to the Home Depot Center to see the "California Clasico" - LA Galaxy vs San Jose Earthquakes. The Galaxy dominated the first 30 minutes, but were unable to score - I was afraid it was going to be like the earlier game. Finally, towards the end of the first half, we scored. The refereeing of the game was terrible. The ref was stopping play every few seconds and gave out six yellow cards in the first half! Early in the second half the ref gave a second yellow card to a Galaxy player and sent him off - so the Galaxy had to play with one man down. With only 10 men, the Galaxy soon gave up a goal: 1-1. But 10 minutes later, we scored a shorthanded goal. Landon Donovan scored one more goal which the ref called off because he said he was offsides, but that was okay, we ended up winning 2-1.

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SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2005

Jamie Morris : We Don't Need No Stinking Dodgers! : Niki & Jamie At The Ballgame
Niki & Jamie At The Ballgame
We Don't Need No Stinking Dodgers!

I've had a pretty busy weekend. On Friday night, I went to a screening of Fever Pitch which turned out being a better movie than I expected. The idea of the movie orginated from Nick Hornby's autobiography in which he tells his life story through Arsenal soccer matches he went to. Nick Hornby is best known in the US for writing High Fidelity and About A Boy. The movie I saw starred Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon and was about baseball (not soccer), specifically the Boston Red Sox. There's also another Fever Pitch movie about soccer which came out in Britain a few years ago and stars Colin Firth.

It was sunny and warm all weekend, so on Saturday morning I went to the beach. In the afternoon, I went to the Santa Monica Festival with Niki. We spent more of our time at the youth stage watching some local high school bands and poets. They were pretty good. On Saturday night, we went to see a movie at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the first one of the season. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre was the movie. It was made back in 1948 by John Huston and starred Humphrey Bogart and has a quote so good, there's a website dedicated to the history of it: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

On Sunday, we went to the Dodgers game. Before the game we went to Philippe's French Dip Restaurant for lunch which turned out to be quite the pre-game hangout. The place was packed as usual and half the people there were wearing their Dodger gear. The food was delicious, especially compared to the crap they have at Dodgers Stadium. Gone are the days of King Taco and Krispy Kreme at the ballpark. The game started out good. In the 6th inning, the Dodgers were in 1st Place, they were winning the game 2-0, and their pitcher was throwing a one-hitter. Three innings and three homeruns later, the Dodgers had lost 5-2 and dropped to 3rd place. But it wasn't a total loss, Niki got herself a Dodger Jersey and I got an Eric Gagne Sweatshirt.

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SUNDAY, MAY 08, 2005

Jamie Morris : Mad Hot Ballroom Premiere : Ballroom Dancing At Paramount
Ballroom Dancing At Paramount
Mad Hot Ballroom Premiere

This afternoon I went to the Los Angeles Premiere of Mad Hot Ballroom, the new Paramount Classics documentary about kids in New York City competing in a ballroom dancing competition. The premiere was at Paramount and there were so many people there, they had to open up both theaters. A few of the kids from the movie were there as well as a couple of their teachers and the producer and director of the film. The movie is really cute. It reminded me a lot of Spellbound, the Academy Award nominated documentary about the national spelling bee. After the screening, there was a street fair with food, games, music, and dancing. Erin, Eddie, Ellie, and Erin's momma came too.

I saw one other movie this weekend: Sin City. A visually stunning and very violent film based on Frank Miller's graphic novels. I haven't seen a movie this cool looking since Sky Captain.

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SUNDAY, MAY 01, 2005

I shook hands with Muhammad Ali!

My excitement for this week happened on Saturday while I was walking on the Santa Monica promenade and I saw Muhammad Ali right in front of the Adidas store. He was just standing there next to a big guy who appeared to be his bodyguard (I found out later that it was his son). I walked up to him and he shook my hand. He seems like a really friendly guy, but he doesn't speak much because he has Parkinson's Disease. Also this weekend I saw the movie Guess Who, which wasn't that great. Glad I didn't pay for it. I went rollerblading a couple of times. I found out that in October there's an Inline Skating Marathon in Long Beach. I think I'll sign up for that. It's only 26 miles which isn't that far to skate. I've skated over 40 miles before. And tonight, my friend Elizabeth took me out to dinner.

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