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  • My parents called me back yesterday, and told me, to my surprise, that they invited me to the finals!  But what they said was that if you were accepted after the auditions, you were expected to pay up right then and there.  It's like $2,000 for 6 months, $3,000 for a year, and so on.  There are like 20 training classes within the 6 months I think, and every other Saturday they bring in a director for you to audition for.  But I'm sure it could easily be like a director looking for some kid to run across the screen in some daytime soap commercial.  So we decided it's not really worth it, and there are better avenues to take then that.  The only problem is it is hard to find a film audition.  Theater auditions you can find, because it's a local thing.  But my guess is film directors dont want to waste there time with terrible people at open casting calls, so they go to these agencies who kinda already have it narrowed down for them.  If anyone hears about any open auditions, let me know ok?  Especially a Disney one because I heard they are going to be auditioning for a reality show for kids that are actors, which would be awesome for me.  I'd appreciate any news, thanks.


    Last night I went to a Giants game with Trevor, and we were reading the notes on the big screen.  I read one out to him that sounded funny, it was like: "I'll always love you Kenny shnookums honey bear, Love Travis" (or something like that, it had a lot of those playful nicknames).  Then Trevor said "Notice how it's two guys names?" And while I was saying, "Well Kenny could be a girl I guess, it could be a nickname for.." the lady right in front of me started laughing, and she said that was her!  The guy she was with turns around and he was like "Thank you, thank you."  Apparently she was Travis, he was Kenny, and she works as an intern up in the booths, and some of her friends were playing a joke on her by putting that up there.  Later in the game there was another one that said "You'll always be my Giant Kenny! -T."  I leaned over and asked her if that was her too, and she looked over and, yep it was.  Wow, that was a boring story.  Not as interesting as it would have been if you were there huh?  Trevor is a weird baseball fan.  They go early to the game, to eat dinner BEFORE the game, INSIDE, sitting at a TABLE!  True fans eat a hot dog during the game .  He's also not into the clapping thing apparently, he's more into 'the game.'  He keeps track of every play in the game in this little scorebook of his.  Anyway, my mom got home a little after I did last night, and my dad is coming home Sunday.


    Everyone should check out John's Xanga (coastercrazy2337), he's got these hiLARious stories going.


    ~Adam

  • My parents went out of town to Del Mar for a while for my dad's birthday.  The night before last, I got a call from this guy Daryl telling me that there was an audition for John Robert Powers the very next night.  I asked him all the details and said I would try to get down there, but I didn't have a ride yet.  He put me down on the list anyway, just in case.  I called Rosa, the sitter that stayed over last night, and asked her if she could take me their when she got off her other job, and she said ok, but it might be a close call (the audition was at 6:45, and she could only come at about 6:30).  Then I went to John's house and had lunch and went bowling, all the while trying to decide if it was worth it to go or if it would just be a disappointment.  When I got home I decided to give it a shot, so I got all dressed up and printed out a head shot and all that good stuff.  By the time we got there, it was about 7:00, and right when we got in the room, they started.  They gave me this commercial to memorize, and I kept saying it over and over again the whole time, after a while I pretty much had it down.  Since I was the last to arrive, over an hour later, I was the last to be called.  I went in an interview, and I think I did very well in that.  Then I went to go film the commercial... and when he turned on the camera.... I blanked.  I tried two more times and same thing.  So then I took a second to say it once more off camera, and I nailed it.  He turned the camera on again, and I got through it, but it wasn't nearly as good as it should have been.  I was extremely disappointed in myself, I usually perform really well under pressure, especially in front of a live audience.  But I guess a camera is different.  So in about 40 minutes, my parents have to call JRP to find out how I did and find out if they want me in the next round.  My guess is no, but maybe they saw some potential, and I was just having an off day.  I'll write again when I find out.  My hopes aren't too high though.


    ~Adam

  • This is for all you girls who constantly complain about how terrible boys are, but those are the guys you choose to date anyway, and for all you guys who deserve better.


    ~Adam


    Ode to the Nice Guys
    This rant was written for the Wharton Undergraduate Journal

    This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

    This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they're at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don't end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

    This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner. And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn't worry about it. This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you'd ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world. And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor. This is also for that time she didn't have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing “serious” between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: “oh, but we're just friends!” And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you're nice like that.

    The nice guys don't often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don't seem to get laid as often as they should. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can't. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches. Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn't possibly ask him out!” or the most frustrating of all: “no, it would ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can't figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I'm going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn't last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

    So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you're sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you. You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming.

  • I got home from Tahoe on Monday morning.  I played so much mini gold up there, just about every other day.  There was a mini golf tourney at King's Beach golf; it was a $1 entry fee, and I got to play 36 holes of golf, so not a bad deal, even if you lose!  There were 54 people in it, and I got 3rd place, winning 10 bucks (top 3 won money)!  I got 1 under par on the first course, and 6 under on the 2nd.  Went to the beach a lot too, as usual.  We didn't go river rafting this year though, the water level was too low.  I brought my camera along, but I didn't take any pictures, sorry .


    Well, school starts in a week and a half... not really looking forward to it to be honest.  I should get more of a move-on on that stupid summer homework.  I got my advisory lists and Karen's Klobberers stayed exactly the same except for there was an off season trade of Spencer and Tatyana... No more Spakayla!  We are the only advisory without any 6th graders now, fun stuff.


    Today I went to the funeral of Pina J. Barbieri (March 28th 1910 - August 14th 2004), she was 94 when she died.  My dad worked at Richmond Sanitary Service where he was pretty much the Chief Financial Advisor.  Pina was one of the owners of the company, the only woman owner in an all male Italian group of owners.  Before she worked their she was a teacher and principle at a Richmond school.  She was an amazing woman, always helping out and giving extra money to whoever needed it.  She never married or had kids, but had many friends and god-children.  My dad got really close with her, and he was the executor of her will.  He was also one of the pall-bearers in the funeral today.  She was an extremely strong woman, and kept fighting until the end, when she died peacefully in her sleep.  It was a really sad day, but I met a lot of very nice and cool people .  RIP Pina.


    ~Adam

  • I'm leaving for Lake Tahoe right now.  I will probably be gone for at least two weeks maybe?  I'm not entirely sure.  I want to see comments on my last entry when I get back!


    ~Adam

  • Hello everyone, if you didn't know, I'm home, just haven't gotten the drive to update this until now (9-10 days after I got home).  The flight home was nice, I sat in business class and my Kacey and Evan only got to sit in World Traveler Plus  (it was because we got 3 round trip business, and they were only coming one way with us, and the ticket was in my name, so they couldn't come up to the 2nd level where we were). I'll do a brief (hopefully) summary of each of the places we went to:


    There are too many pictures to post them all here, so I'll just link you to my Europe Trip photo album.


    http://photobucket.com/albums/v124/SoleSurvivorAdam/Europe%20Trip/


    England:


    London:  London was the most unbelievably expensive place I have ever been in my entire life.  Every dinner was at least a few hundred bucks.  The first night we just had chicken kebabs that were about €14 each, which is about $28...  It rained the first and last day we were there, but it was still a fun place, we spent 6 nights there.


    France:


    Paris: Paris is really cool, the Eiffel Tower is really amazing.  Our hotel was really small, but really cute (did I just say cute?), I got my own room there!  There is a picture of part of it in my photo album.  The neighborhoods weren't very interesting or lively, but the crepes sure were good!  3 nights.


    Provonce:  Connie!  Our favorite hotel owner...   We went to this theater festival in Avignon that was sooo much fun, likely my favorite night of the trip.  Went wine tasting for the first time, that was a ton of fun.  2 nights I think.


    Italy:


    Venice: My favorite place of the trip.  It was so amazing, the narrow streets, no cars, water and bridges all around, everyone walks everywhere.  I didn't even see ANY fast food restaurants there!  I wish America was like that, that way we wouldn't be surrounded by stupid, obese, republican, Americans who are too ignorant to realize that America is a sick place.  Most of the people you see at Disneyland wouldn't even be able to fit in some of those streets without getting stuck.  Enough of my ranting, Venice was awesome.  We met my cousin and aunt when we got there.  We went on a gondola ride at about sunset ride, and at the end, I jokingly said, "that looks easy," and so the guy let me try it, and my cousin took a picture, and this is my current background right now:



    We spent either 2 or 3 nights there, I'll need to check that.


    Tuscany: We stayed at this really cool place, and the lady who owned it was very warm and told a lot of stories.  I have a picture with her in my photo album somewhere.  There was a pool there, which was really nice.  My aunt went back home the day we left Tuscany.  We stayed there 2 or 3 nights.


    Siena: I really liked the plaza there, it was really cool.  There are some pictures of it from a tower right above it in my photo album.  They have a big no rules horserace twice a year in the plaza, once in June and once in August.  We saw a video about it, and it is one crazy event, the usually somewhat sparse plaza is wall to wall with people.  We went to this restaraunt that is in these caves called "Da Divo."  The owner really liked us, especially me, so he kept bringing out these treats in between courses.  He said something like, "I don't know how to say in English, but you are 'simpatico,' it's kind of like warm, but in a funny way you know?  Like you seem older."  We had this wine there that made the next day for us.  We really liked it, so the next day on the way to Florence, we went looking for the vineyard where they make this wine, which was QUITE an adventure which would take a long time to explain.  But in this one place we walked in and there was this older lady sitting at a table, and we showed her the wine, and she jumped up and said, "Me vino! Me vino!!!"  She showed us around and she too, took a liking to me.  She didn't speak any English, but she was talking about me and the word 'simpatico' came up again.  Her daughter spoke English, and told me that she wanted me to come back and work there.  She then gave me a business card and wanted me, Adamo, to call her, haha.  I have two pictures with her in my photo album.  We spent 2 nights in Siena.


    Florence: Florence was quite a Debbie Downer...  It was VERY hot, the city wasn't that nice, the streets were wide, and the sights weren't even that good.  I almost had a breakdown at one point when my cousin and mom wouldn't stop shopping.  If there is any place I would recomend NOT going to, Florence is that place.


    Spain:


    Madrid:  The first evening we were there, my dad and I wanted a break from the touring, so we went to a water park while my mom and Kacey went to a few museums.  It was an experience to say the least.  The park was out in the middle of nowhere, and we were sure we were lost when our cab driver took us miles out of the town.  It seemed like less people spoke English in Spain then any other country, so it was a ton of fun to talk about people right next to us outloud and not have to worry about then hearing.  For example, "This little s*#@ is standing over my clothes!" or "This fata** is trying to cut us!"  On the way back, we took 2 buses and a cab, which was a 1/5th of the cost of getting there.  That night, we visited my brother (who Kacey and my mom had coincidentally seen at the Prada museum they went to earlier) at the hotel his group was staying at for their last night of the trip.  He wanted to stay the rest of the night, so my dad picked him up the next morning when his group had left.  We didn't really spend that much time in Madrid itself, but we took two day trips out of town.  The first was to Toledo (yes, where "Holey Toledo!" originated) where I actually willingly shopped for the first time.  There is a gold threading on steel thing they do in Toledo, and only Toledo, and there are only 22 artists anywhere that still do it.  We got this plate for my room and a small vase type thing for the house, and then the guy offered me my mom and Evan free necklaces that are really cool.  We came back later, and I looked at these rings (I never buy or wear jewlery, but these were really cool), and they also had pure silver Lord of the Rings rings (they made the ring and swords for the movie in Toledo).  Both of them combined were €37, but since this guy liked me too, I was able to get that down to 30.  The next day we took a day trip to Salamanca, where my brother had been staying for the previous three weeks.  We had lunch with the lady he stayed with, and Evan was able to translate everything we said to her, and everything she said to us.  Then we got to see her house, the house he had stayed in, and I have a picture of Evan on his bed in the photo album (he shared a room with a guy from france, who spoke English and was learning Spanish).  We spent 3 nights in Madrid.  Oh and by the way, food in Spain isn't very good.


    Portugal:


    Lisbon:  My dad's cousin, Dale, and her husband, John, work for the US Embassy in Lisbon right now, so we stayed at their apartment.  They took us around Lisbon, and it was fun to get their view of things, since they live there.  Dale and John's nephew, Dan, who lives in Seattle I think, is an intern for the US embassy in Lisbon this summer, and stays with Dale and John, so I met him too.  We stayed in Lisbon for 3 nights, and then came home!


    So that's it for my Europe trip, and take a look at the photo album if you haven't already! http://photobucket.com/albums/v124/SoleSurvivorAdam/Europe%20Trip/  Ciao!


    ~Adam, via Home sweet home, Burlingame CA: 2:30 AM (Finally I can get some sleep! )


    PS. Please comment!!! I put a lot of work in it, so at least you can just leave something like "I read it." or something uncreative like that, you don't even have to think about it!

  • I'm coming home in two days!  Yesterday we flew from Madrid to Lisbon Portugal, where I am staying with my dad's cousin and her husband, who works for the US Embassy.  They have been stationed here in Lisbon for the past year, and will stay for 3 more years.  Today we took a guided mus (my name for mini-bus) all over, and then came back and I went swimming with my dad.  Now I'm going to go out and the deck and sip some nice wine and eat fine cheeses, and then we're going to dinner.  See you on Thursday!


    ~Adam, via Dale and John's apartment: Lisbon, Portugal, 8:38 PM


    PS. Expect TONS of pictures when I get home, I probably have about 350 on my digital camera.

  • Hola Paco! Que tu? Si senor, I'm in Madrid!  We are staying at a really nice 5-star hotel, and once again, there is a computer in the lobby.  Spain is really hot, so today after we got in from Florence, while Kasey (my cousin) and my mom went to the Prada museum, me and my dad went to a water park!  It was my first non-sight seeing/touring thing all trip.  It was out in the middle of no where though, and a while away, so we kept thinking we were lost during our cab ride, and we didn't know how to talk to the driver to make sure he knew where we were going.  My brother also came to Madrid today from Salamanca where he has been staying and studying.  My mom and Kasey actually saw him walking out when they were walking into the museum!  We sure have seen a whole LOT of people we know from home (probably about 10).  Needless to say, they were all pretty shocked to see eachother.  Tonight is the group's last night, and we are meeting Evan in less then an hour to 'pick him up.'  He won't want anything to do with us on his last night with his group I'm sure.  Well, that's all for now, I think I will be back home on Thursday!  See you then!


    ~Adam, via the Villa Real Hotel: Madrid, Spain, 10:01 PM

  • Right now I am in my hotel in Siena, Italy.  My cousin is on the other computer in the room, and my aunt left this morning to go back home.  Hopefully I'll get to spend a lot of time with everyone when I get home.  We are going to travel around Italy for a little longer, then we go to Spain where we pick up Evan (my brother, if you didn't know) and meet the family he has been staying with, and travel there for a while, and then we go to Portugal, Lisbon specifically, and after that come home!  I think we get home on the 28th, so give me a call then!


    ~Adam, via Siena Italy, 8:01 PM

  • Hi again!  I am in an airport in Italy right now, in between flights (I'm going to Venice next).  It is hard to type on this thing but whatever.  Today I meet my cousin and aunt in Venice, and then my cousin is going to travel with us the rest of the time (It's a good thing too, because it gets a little hard to spend 247 with just your parents ).  The food has been great, great restaraunts every night.  I have to board my flight in a couple of minutes, so I will hopefully write some more later.  See ya!


    ~Adam, via Italy, 2:13 PM