The Andrew Lai Dot Com Blog

Total Bargain

Certain things are totally worth their cost even though cheaper options are available: more refined vodka instead of cheap stuff, flying to Vegas instead of driving, etc.  The newest edition to the list is valet parking at the Bob Hope airport in Burbank.  As if flying out of Burbank wasn’t easy and painless enough, the valet takes it to a whole new level of comfort.  You drop the car off right out front and you’re at the security check in within 2 minutes.  Then upon your return, you scan your valet ticket at a kiosk outside your terminal where you pay with your credit card.  Once your payment is submitted, the valet is notified that you’re on your way out, and two minutes later when you arrive at pickup, your car is waiting for you!  The total amount of time between getting off the plane and getting into your car is 5 minutes.  For $20 a day, it might be worth it.

Finally, Karen’s Back

I’m so glad Karen Sharp from KOST 103.5 is back from vacation.  Christine Martindale was killing the love song dedications.

Top 10 Songs of 2009

It doesn’t feel like I had a lot of time to follow new music this year, but I was able to come up with a list of about 45 songs that I really liked.  I whittled it down to 10 favorites.  For me, 2009 had plenty of ipod plays for Phoenix, Blind Pilot, YYY, Regina Spektor and Telekinesis.  They all found spots on this year’s list.

1. Phoenix - 1901
2. Blind Pilot - Go On, Say It
3. Telekinesis - Foreign Room
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
5. Metric - Help I’m Alive
6. Regina Spektor - The Calculation
7. Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind
8. Hockey - Too Fake
9. Telekinesis - Coast of Carolina
10. Passion Pit - Eyes as Candles

Free Net

I love it.  Whole Foods also has free wifi.

McDonald’s to lift fee for Internet access

Move is seen as a way for fast food giant to combat Starbucks in coffee war

The Associated Press

updated 4:10 p.m. PT, Tues., Dec . 15, 2009

McDonald’s Corp. said Monday that it will soon offer free wireless Internet access at most of its U.S. fast-food restaurants as it tries to broaden its appeal still further.

Hong Kong / Taiwan

Weeds

I’m 100% hooked on TV.  Over the past 6 months, I’ve watched Scrubs and The Wire from start to finish in their entirety.  I now just finished off 5 seasons of Weeds in a few weeks and I instantly started the search for the next TV series to conquer.  Currently I’m only watching live airings of Top Chef and The Office.  Entourage ended for the season so that freed up some time to dedicate to a new series.  I briefly browsed Netflix for streaming TV series and I found out that 30 Rock streams, so that will be next.  I should be caught up in about two weeks.

Please Defeat the Phillies

I love playoff baseball. Some of the best hours of the last 12 months of my life were spent at Dodger playoff games.  I don’t want to jinx anything, but since 2004, I’ve been to 6 Dodgers playoff games and the Dodgers are 5-1 in those games.  Someone from the Dodger organization should be buying me tickets. I so badly want the Dodgers to win the world series.  It’s been a tough 20+ years for Dodger fans.  I hate the Phillies.  They currently are my 2nd most hated sports organization in the world along with USC (1st), Manchester United (3rd), Yankees (4th).  Thursday.  Game 1.  4:30pm PST.  Go Dodgers.

I am Not a Poser

While watching Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist today, I was shocked by a scene where Michael Cera’s character’s cell phone rings.  It wasn’t the scene’s significance that caught my attention, but rather the ringtone; it was the Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry”.  I’ve had that song as my ringtone ever since I got my blackberry.  It took me a couple hours to choose a ringtone and I eventually chose Boys Don’t Cry because 1) I like the song 2) it has a cool intro that starts immediately and 3) the intro isn’t sharp or sudden which would startle me when my phone rings.  WITH THAT BEING SAID, I got my blackberry on July 21, 2008 and Nick and Norah hit theaters on October 3, 2008.  So for the record, I want to make it clear that I am by no means a Michael Cera poser, although I enjoy some of his movies.

Squirrel Pic

A squirrel picture-crashing this couple’s shot.  This is possibly one of my favorite animal pictures of all time.

Movie Marathon

I joined Netflix with the goal of catching up on movies on the Must See list.  This list includes movies that everyone should have seen at some point and whenever someone hears that you haven’t seen a movie on this list, they can’t believe it.  Then they usually follow with a question like “Do you live in a bubble?” or something of that nature.  The original list was built on my own, and the later additions were taken from asking around.  So far I’ve seen 6 movies this month (7 if you count 500 Days of Summer which I saw in theaters and thought was really good.  The soundtrack is pretty good.).  Got lots more to go.

• Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• High Fidelity
  
• Juno
• Knocked Up
• Milk
• Pulp Fiction

Also on the topic of entertainment, I saw the Fonz at the Century City mall.  I put the Fonz in the same humor class as AC Slater.  With that being said, that is a very very good class.