I did fail to mention that Cindy was my original source for this blog. I had never heard or seen one until she showed me hers. I did make lots of fun of her and thought she was a techno-geek. But after thinking of doing a web site of my own, because it was hosted for free by my cable internet provider, and seeing how easy it was to do a blog instead, I opted for easy and something that I knew most of my bored working stiff friends would look at on a regular basis. I also failed to mention my two favorite Cindy stories: leaving a bag of adult Depends undergarments at my doorstep after I unknowingly complained of the hassles of having to go to the bathroom so many times drinking in a crowded bar or watching football games and leaving a retarded looking stuffed animal cat in my cube as a birthday present from my mangy, neighbor cat, Sammy. Who wants to come over drinking with me and Sammy??

CINDY CINDY
I want to also announce the birth of another friend's baby girl, Jillian, which occurred one day before Jack to Cindy & John Akers here in San Diego. I added pics of Jillian to the site below.

It was a long pregnancy for Cindy, but now both mother & daughter are doing great. Cindy and I have been friends for about a year and half now after working together at Retardoland Imaging. She was way too experienced for her job and I was plain bored with mine so we hung out and made fun of people. I also used her computer to burn lots of CDs and she was the first to warn me that I probably shouldn't be using Kazaa and other music downloading sites to store music on my computer at work. I didn't listen and later got busted by our IT police on two different ocassions for having the software and keeping over 5 gigabites on the network server. Where's the perks, man?? Cindy has been a ton of fun to hang out with, especially before she was prego when we would have dinner parties at my place and see how many bottles of my wine we could go thru. After making fun of our English counterpart at work, going out to dinner at ZAO on a thursday, many great dinner parties in LJ, a fun, drunken wedding, a great baby shower ( I won best onesie paint design), I don't think this Mom will be losing any of her fun, boisterous, excitement for life. Congratulations and best wishes.

I'm off to the beach (sunny, 80 degrees with 70 degree water temps) after just watching the opening act from the MTV VMAs over again...and again... As Tony Baldini (and Homer Simpson) like to say: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............................................

Dear Ndugu,
Today I'm announcing to all what has easily been the most significant and special event of the year, the birth of baby Jack to Kevin and Eileen Isola. Born Sunday, Aug 17th in Scottsdale, AZ, I finally have pics to compliment this announcement.

http://photos.yahoo.com/kevin_shimamoto

I am also extremely proud to announce that this semi-angry, unemployed, beach bum is the Godfather. So you may want to kiss my hand next time you see me. I think almost all of my friends either know Kevin personally or at least have heard me talk about him. For those who don't, Kevin is my oldest and closest friend. We grew up in the same neighborhood together with our houses almost directly in back of one another playing before we were even in school. We went to St Martin's elementary school and St Francis High school together. I had my very first beer with Kevin. I was his confirmation sponser. We wrestled on the same team. We got Minor in Possesion charges together drinking while camping and had to go to court with our parents. I've spent more time partying in his parent's upstairs game room than in any other location to this date. We visited each other in college at UCD making girls say "Its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog" in order to get into fraternity parties and in San Diego at USD lighting his couch on fire on the beach. At bars throughout the country, we've seen pixie dust spewn, friends left in TJ, particpated in fights at taco stands, and seen another friend standing arm against railing with his unit hanging out his shorts in full view for god know's how long until we looked over. (The bar was Rosie's in Tahoe City for those trying to guess who this was.) Kevin, not Pappa Rex, was the one with me when I broke my back skiing and had to take care of me and eventually drive me home. (Also, taking my pain killers with beers with Billy Albert up in Tahoe). I've seen more concerts with Kevin than I can count, with my very first (Jefferson Starship) to Elton John to Nirvana to Norah Jones to Alice in Chains. I was by Kevin's side at his wedding, suffering from a memorable rehersal dinner night of Tony Keeler's in Monterrey the night before. His parents, Jake & Bob, are my second parents. His disfunctional brother, Kurt, is not. My stories with Kevin can go and on. This birth represents an incredible journey for Kevin. Way beyond his recent moves from Austin and Boston and jobs and houses, this guy has transformed himself into one of the most responsible, honest, respectable people we would want our our kids to grow up to be. But things wern't always like that, my friends. For those that do know Kevin, I'm sure you're wondering how he even procreated children in light of all the toking he did throughout his youth. There's a reason, why to this day, I call him "Stone". But anyone can see the inspriration and motivation for such a turnaround was easy once he meet his beautiful wife, Eileen. Eileen has quickly and easily become one of my closest friends. She is smart, classy, sweet and so much fun to talk to, its a match made in heaven. (She does have a relative who should start her own blog. When anyone uses "I GOT CONDOMS" as foreplay, that's stuff to good NOT to share. ) Kevin has always been there for me. He is a friend for life. One I always know I can count on and will be a part of my life. I can't tell you how much it means to me for them to ask me to be godfather to their first child. I wish them all the luck and love in the world. Congrats again to Kevin & Eileen. I can't wait to come out to see all three of you very soon.

Quote & quizes of the Day:
The greatest thing to learn is just to love and to be loved in return"

What movie is this quote (the movie remakes Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" into a musical) and the intro from my blog from (think Angry Guy)?? Winner gets a Summer of Kevin candle holder and wine glass. Oh wait, Rex's kids broke those. Guess it'll have to be their sand toys then.

FU^%. I just wrote out three long paragraphs and lost them all somehow. No way I'm doing it over again so here's the short version.

See the MTV Video Awards last night?? Let me recap the opening. Britney singing "Like a Virgin" in white, skimpy, mini skirt. Then joined my more scantily clad, Christina Aguilera. (Bad from Britney as Christina's voice dominated ). Then Madonna joins. Some dirty dancing ensues. Then, Madonna open mouth kisses Britney, then Christina. NICE. Don't believe me??

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nypost/madonnas2kinkykisses

I received an email from an old buddy with words of encouragement and decided I needed to change my blog site title to ensure people know I'm actually having the best time being unemployed. Besides, angry is all relative, right Jim Schmidt??? So the new title is based on an old Seinfeld episode. (I'll get to the real Costanza, Jeff Nicholson, next week.) That old buddy was Chris Kjome, aka Meat. Who doesn't love Meat? A star pitcher at UC Davis, he helped me get my business degree, went to cheer me on at my matches, and saved me from more than a few ass kickings at drunken fraternity parties. Then there were the fishing trips, nights out in Palo Alto, and road trips up to Tahoe "you want some jelly with those rolls??" I hope to see this one grey eye brow (what the hell happened??), one ear hearing (poked with a q-tip too hard), dipping (give that shit up), fishing good ol boy very soon. A toast to meat. Have a great long weekend and enjoy what its like to have a 7 day weekend every week.

Question of the day:
Who is hotter?? Mary Kate or Ashley???

Oprah Jr’s Book Club

With all my leisure time these days, I’ve made a goal to get caught up on my reading. And I’m not just talking about Maxim and Rolling Stone. I have amassed a small collection of books and recommendations I have started to read which I thought I’d pass along. In addition to the list that follows, I must highlight and highly recommend the purchase of one book which will enlighten everyone, written by one of my very good friends. And this is NOT the book I recommended from my friend in Spain that caused the litany of ‘reply all’ emails highlighted by Jim Schmidt’s bashing of my poor VP of banking friend.

A little about the author, Tony Cantor. Tony Cantor and I met at Penn State after his second year, which he spent the entire year abroad, and my first year, where I was heading abroad. We met through a mutual friendship with my roommate that year, Michael Pescherine. Tony and I have remained good friends ever since and he has journeyed from his current residence in DC to San Diego a couple of times over the last few years. Tony is one of my most stand-up, loyal, funniest, smartest friends. Tony is a great guy I wish all of my friends could meet. He has an incredible gift to talk to anyone anytime. On his first visit out to SD, I had to work and let him roam around LJ. He met more people in 5 hours than I had in 5 years. Tony is also angry, following in the footsteps of pioneer angry men, such as Pesh, Jim Schmidt, Jeff Nicholson and myself, all PSU MBA alums. Coincidence??

Tony has written two previous novels, has a wealth of travels, great business experience and is getting married in September. He’ has started his own company providing career counceling and vocational training, www.docvoc.com. Tony has recently written a book called, “Lights, Cubicle, Action”. Its what I describe as a self awareness book for any business person. It examines the inner self within any business environment. It offers a realistic and true perspective of what corporate America is and what we need to do to cope and succeed. Its written thru directives, so is somewhat a different format. But each directive will ring true to you, help you and make you think. Besides yourself, everyone will know someone particular that this book is geared towards. I highly recommend picking up this book. Its currently available on Amazon.com. Is $12 going to kill you?? Don't be a cheap bastard & buy it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970872801/qid%3D1045323833/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-8029869-0428825

One more thought. If you were at a wedding, at work, a party or at any other place where you heard me scream “TOUCH IT”, Tony Cantor is the man who brought this into my vocabulary.

Once you buy the book, if you have any contacts, leads or recommendations on how Tony can better sell his book, please let either of us know. I am committed in helping Tony make a huge success of his book. He is currently selling in Office Depots and will be doing book signings and sales in Borders.


Oprah Jr’s other recommended books:

A Cooks Tour
Kitchen Confidential
Both by Anthony Bourdain. Both great books I just finished. A Cook’s Tour is his guy’s journey around the world in search of the perfect meal. He travels from Vietnam to Morocco to Portugal and lots of other exotic locals ending up at the French Laundry in Napa (where our good friend, Tony Baldini’s brother now is employed once again). Kitchen Confidential describes his culinary career and provides a ton of insights into the restaurant business and how your food is prepared. Takeaway: Don’t order fish on Mondays. It’ll convince you to look into the kitchen of every restaurant you eat at, never invest in one (unless its me asking), and never complain about your food.

Kurt Cobain Journals
Unbelievable. As I told everyone in 1990, as I played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” over & over, this guy is a genius. Nicholson (we’ll spend an entire blog on my other PSU roommate nicknamed Costanza) made fun of my Cobain shrine in our apt and knocked my candles with his golf balls chipping. Schmidt & Pesh mocked me when Cobain died. But you all will see his talent in this book. And why he could have killed himself.

Milton’s Marlyn
The ultimate coffee table book. I’ll spend another entire blog on my friend, Joshua Greene and his father, Milton H. Greene’s incredible work.

Books I’m currently reading:

Under the Tuscan Sun by Francis Mayes
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakuaer
WINE by Konemann
Pros & Cons by Jeff Benedict
The Toa of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

Alright, so I’m not reading all that much. But I subscribe to 10 magazines and a daily newspaper and can’t even get thru those. For the record, I only subscribe to MAXIM for two reasons: Tony Keeler and Tony Baldini. There were complaints at the B&B in 2002 that their favorite reading material was not on reserve.

Crap, I just called the lake where I was planning on going fishing today and they told me nothing is biting mid-day. That means I have to wake up early.

Today’s quote & quiz of the day:
Scenario:
Seated at Jose’s bar (the local LJ drinking establishment) with me after several cocktails, staring at one particularly attractive female:
“Fuc@ me or I’ll kill your family.”
Guess which one of my demented friends said this and win a Phogenix lens cleaner.

What the hell is a blog and why are you here looking at it?? Because I'm unemployed, angry, buzzed and bored. And most inportantly, because I'm sick of people calling me in the morning waking me up asking me what my job prospects are and what I was doing that day. Oh, I'll tell you what I'm doing and what I'm thinking. A blog is a web site with my personal postings whenever the hell I feel like it for whoever to look at. Mine will be filled with rantings, recommendations, updates, pictures, quizes and other crap. Just bookmark it and take a look once in awhile when you're bored during your so very important day with no time to spare but you find time to surf useless sites anyway.

Today, I'll fill you in with some of what I've been doing in the past 3 months since my sorry ass company got dissolved by two large multi-national companies with bad management who couldn't get along. In essence, I've traveled, visited friends, entertained guests in La Jolla, cooked, ate and drank, reading and did more physical activities than you've done in 5 years. My favorite activities have been surfing, kayaking, snorkeling, running, biking, hiking, weight-lifting, camping, fishing, and punching the munchin. All while getting paid thru my severance. But that severance ends, baby. And my shoulder is is getting thrashed yet again. So while I take this week from major activities, George is getting angry and bored. And alas the Summer of Kevin is coming to an end.

New posting coming later this week are:
* Recommended movies & DVDs
* Required reading
* Why is Jim Schmidt so angry analysis
* Why SD nightlife blows
* Places I've been to lately and where I'm going to next
* Weddings, babies and friends with craploads of kids who visited me lately announcements
* Why I'm fat and gained weight despite doing all these activities

So thats it for the first blog. I think you can send comments and if you don;t have anything nice to say, ZIP IT.
your little unemployed friend,
Shim