After reading the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, I decided to rent the 1950 Disney movie Treasure Island, which got the highest reviews of all the movie adaptations. It was Disney’s first completely live-action movie and is pretty amazing because of the sets, the ships, and the locations. The island is pretty much how I imagined it would be as I was reading the book. The only part that didn’t mesh with how I thought it would be was the actual location of the buried treasure. I had envisioned it to be on the side of a large hill or mountain, above the jungle treeline. The rest of the island was pretty neat, though. The stockade and the inlet to the island was just like the book described.

The plot in the movie followed the book loosely, with the beginning happening too quickly. There is pretty much zero backstory told in the first five minutes. Before you know it, they are boarding the ship and heading out on the treasure hunt. In contrast, the book spent a good deal of time with Jim Hawkins at the Admiral Benbow Inn and explained much about pirates and the map. Besides this, there are some simplifications in the movie, which is understandable, and nothing that is too drastic.

The acting is really good, especially the character of Long John Silver played by Robert Newton. His role pretty much set the standard for pirate-talk as we know it today. It’s kind of cool to know that some of the the popular pirate expressions “avast”, “shiver my (not me) timbers”, etc came from him. It was like watching history unfold when I heard him speak those lines in the movie! The only part of the casting that was strange was that Jim Hawkins had an American accent, while everyone else was British. Also, all the dialog seemed very appropriate for the period, except when Jim says, “One more step, and I’ll blow your brains out!” I was like “whoa”… And he did blow the guy’s brains out, actually.

All in all, it was a good movie and still looks great today. The ship was really neat, the island looked perfect, and of course the story is a classic. If you haven’t seen Disney’s Treasure Island, go rent it! I watched a bit with Bay who is almost 6, and he enjoyed it too.

5.0 miles at the Y.

Can’t wait for our summer vacation. We are planning on hitting SoCal and NoCal. The Wine region, Monterey, SF, and of course back in the southland, Dodger Stadium! (Go Blue!) I’d love to visit that ballpark that the Giants play at (what is the name? PacBell), but I don’t think we will have time. Maybe the Giants are on the road anyways. But it’s gonna be fun to go to Chavez Ravine again. It has been about 10 years since I last went. I will have a Dodger Dog (or 2), peanuts, beer, and a chocolate malt. I can’t wait!

I made a couple batches of takoyaki the other night and I must say that I am getting pretty good at it, IMHO. The first batch didn’t look so great (they weren’t perfectly round), but my second batch was much better. They were almost uniformly round, with just a few that had some spaces. The good thing about takoyaki is that in the end, you cover them with okonomiyaki sauce, mayo, katsuo and the green stuff, so you can’t really see any imperfections. For the record, we didn’t actually use tako this time. The first batch had sliced hot dog in it, and the second had cheddar cheese cubes, which really make great takoyaki.

Sunday was very relaxing! I woke up late, I think about 9:30am. I think that was a gift from Mariko and the kids. 🙂 When I went downstairs, Bay gave me a nice Father’s Day card. The morning was spent relaxing and playing with the kids, and then in the afternoon I did a little yardwork. My fingers today are really sore from pulling weeds, but the front yard looks much better than it did on Saturday.

For dinner we drove down to South Austin for some Brazilian Churrascaria at Estancia. It was great! Pretty much like other churrascaria restaurants, but it’s the only one in town at the moment. I was so full. I ate so much meat. Towards the end of the meal, I was getting a little sick of the taste. And when we got home, I could smell a bbq grill from off in the distance, and it made me a little queasy.

Father’s Days are always great. It’s funny thinking that this is my 5th one already!

My friend Tony sent me this YouTube clip. Pretty funny.

I have never subscribed to the thinking that changing your oil every 3,000 miles is a good thing. Maybe it’s because I remember when the recommended interval was 7,500 miles. I figure it’s just the oil companies and the service stations that want you to come in and give them your money.

This isn’t so far-fetched in itself, but now I am thinking that car manufacturers themselves are in cahoots with the oil industry when they design their engines. No, I’m not talking about engine efficiency as you might think. The thing is, my car has an oil leak, and it leaks so fast that my car’s dipstick oil gauge is almost always at the lowest part of the hash mark. But damn, I have been getting about 50 miles more out of a tankful of gas. I thought it had to do with a new highway being opened up nearby, but I haven’t been using it often at all. So I am wondering if it is better to keep your engine lubed with a minimal amount of oil, or keep it topped off.

I have been reluctant to post this because once that it’s out in the open, my Sentra’s engine will probably die next week. That’s just how things seem to work around here.

Just for the record, our Honda Odyssey has a scheduled oil change every 7,500 miles. 🙂

I was just in my office breakroom looking for some tea when I found a couple boxes of Ito-en Green Tea tea bags. What a wonderful surprise! I was expecting some plain-jane Liptons or something. This is a great hot-drink alternative to coffee. I think I’ll have my morning coffee, then afternoon tea. 🙂

I just watched ZARD’s What A Beautiful Moment DVD, which is from ZARD’s one and only concert tour. She did have a couple special concerts, but this was the biggest ZARD event. It took place in 2004 and ended with a final show at Nippon Budokan. Izumi Sakai is famous for being sort of reclusive and shy, and has said in interviews that she is always nervous performing live. You can actually see on the DVD how she isn’t totally comfortable on stage, but she still sings great. Her nervousness really adds to the natural charm she has. She even messes up a couple times, and sticks out her tongue making fun at herself. It’s pretty funny.

The DVD is mostly of her performance at the Tokyo International Forum, but towards the end of the DVD, they switch around several of the other concert venues, all during the same song. It’s pretty neat to see the different buildings and stages. They also show a little footage of the crowds gathering at the different concert halls, and also some behind the scenes footage of rehearsal. I wish they would have shown more of that because it looked really interesting.

One of the cool parts of the show is when they do the band introductions. They play one of the many famous ZARD tunes, but without Sakai singing or even on stage, and they each have a small solo and their names are flashed on the big screen. It’s a pretty big band too, with maybe four guitarists, a bassist, drummer, percussionist, keyboardist, saxaphonist, violinist, and four backup singers. Most of the musicians are from other bands, including two from Garnet Crow.

While I was watching the DVD, I was wishing I had gone to see one of the concerts. It would have been difficult to swing a trip to Japan, but well worth it. Not long before her death, Sakai said she was planning another CD and concert tour. It’s one regret of mine that I won’t have the chance to see her perform in concert, but at least we have this DVD as well as her Cruising and Live special concert to enjoy.