The Bates Dynasty has moved

So I finally took the plunge and setup a website.

I like blogger and could have happily continued to use it as an acceptable blog, but China keeps blocking it and it's just getting annoying.

So I have a fully functioning website now that should be regularly updated and even have lots of media, like photos and videos, hardwired right in.

web.mac.com/thebatesdynasty

enjoy...

Also, if anyone has a clue how I can import some of my blogger posts into my .mac site, let me know...

Barkley vs. Godzilla

I don't remember things from when I was young. Some might say that there's something wrong w/ my memory when it comes to recalling events from my 'childhood', we're talking 0-16 years old. I don't know why, I just don't remember little things. But there is one thing that I remember VERY well, and that's when Nike came out w/ the Barkley vs. Godzilla ad campaign.

Some of you might have realized by now that I love basketball, you also might have realized that Charles Barkley is my favorite player (refer to my dog over on the right) so it should come as no surprise that this ad campaign was a magical moment for me. But it's not just the association of two things I love, I also think this is one of the most genius commercial ideas ever! Later that year Barkley hosted SNL (Nirvana was the musical guest and it was their last appearance on SNL) and so they did a sketch 'Barkley vs. Barney', man I wish I could find that on Youtube!

Recently, to re-cash-in on an old cash cow, Nike reissued the t-shirts from this commercial and, of all things, I found one here in China. Now I probably won't wear the shirt very much, but come on, I had to buy it; I was like Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory!


This is the original campaign poster graphic on the T-shirt. I took this w/ my cellphone so it's not 'hi-def' by any means.

So w/o further ado, and w/ the help of Youtube, here's those two commercials:

Barkley vs. Godzilla (the trailer)


Barkley vs. Godzilla (the feature, which is shorter than the trailer...)



Here's a promo for that SNL episode I mentioned above. It's kind of a cool little moment even though I'm not one of those Nirvana crazies.



and this is the closest thing I could find to the Barkley vs. Barney clip. Some one used the video from the sketch but covered it w/ the Barney song, man I wish I could find a clip of that complete sketch.

Ok, back to blogging (it's a long post)

So I've been a little derelict in my duties...

In my defense, I had a crazy busy schedule the past three weeks getting everything squared away at the end of school. I had to do a bunch of stuff for Bet on top of all the stuff I was supposed to do.

On top of all that, I had to do all this purchasing, reserving, and moving of household items for a certain couple moving here. (one half of this couple is an avid Batesdynasty reader and the only frequent commentator)
So as he frequently passes judgement, I'll just continue to take the high road and turn the other cheek... j/k

So this is going to be a brief 'all encompassing trip.' (nice Pearl Jam reference, eh?)

Ok so Bet has been in Connecticut taking grad school courses at Wesleyan for three weeks now. (ya she's smart)
It's been tough b/c:
a. We're not used to being apart this long. (not that anyone should be 'used to it')
b. School's out so no one's around. So I'm stuck eating by myself a lot.
c. The afore mentioned purchasing/reserving/moving of a certain sibling-in-law's future belongings. (cough-cough)
d. My dog has/had a chemical burn on his back end from the shampoo used by the Chinese vet, (awesome right?) so I have to take care of him by myself; I have to wash him twice a day and prepare his medicine. This wouldn't be so bad if my dog weren't so squirmy and I had a little help. I'm not whining, I'm just saying it's difficult by myself...

I'm guessing it didn't help matters that they put him in this 'oven' for 20 minutes after his bath. I don't want to sound mean, but the Chinese medical profession is highly questionable at times...
e. This hippo...

This hippo could probably make the list as well... Not really, but the last two photos lead me to a quick preview of what's to come; I'm going to start a new 'Periodical' called 'from the cellphone camera' b/c I see some crazy crap here so it's worth a little mention on the ol' blog from time to time...

I've been opening the gym for basketball workouts and there's been a decent turnout. The schedule has been sporadic so far but starting next week we have the gym reserved three nights a week 7-9pm. (and three mornings a week as well, for the girls that can't come at night) Some of the girls seem to be benefiting a lot from this extra training time. While I am super stoked about doing it, it's still 'another log on the fire,' thus helping explain why I've more busy the last few weeks than I am during the school year.

Lastly, a large portion of my days have been spent tutoring. I'm currently tutoring a Chinese business woman 2hrs/5 days a week for some extra cheddar. (pretty nice) Tutoring in English is usually bothersome but this hasn't been bad at all. The woman I tutor is really nice and she works really hard.

So that's been my daily life, now on to blog type stuff...

Music:
The White Stripes had an album come out (Icky Thump) which I might have mentioned before... It's pretty solid; it won't dethrone their last two albums anytime soon but I'm enjoying it and it's got the potential to pull of an upset. Highlights include Effect And Cause, Little Cream Soda, Bone Broke, Catch Hell Blues, and Icky Thump. But to summarize; it's very solid, there isn't a mediocre song on the album, go buy it!


Ryan Adams put out a new album 'Easy Tiger' and I haven't listened to it as much as 'Icky Thump' but it is a really solid album. It seems to be a culmination of his previous albums w/ some really great songs. After I listen to it some more I'll talk about it in further detail.


Due to a combination of my location the last 5 years, and this particular band's lack of mainstream coverage, I totally missed the release of 'Live From Paradise: The Best Of The Toadies.' I LOVE THE TOADIES, not many people would agree w/ me but I frickin' love them. My love for them mixed w/ the fact they only have two full albums, makes this an awesome discovery! To explain this album I'll just give you a summary of the media blarb that was written up about it: This album was recorded, for better or worse, as a 'warts and all' live performance. There's no edits, no overdubs, no exceptions or additions, it's just a show recorded straight through. So there's lots of horribly off key vocals, some missed chords on the guitars, some regrettable audience banter, and LOTS OF ROCK! It packs a lot of energy and a lot of what I love about the Toadies, ROCK! Did I mention it ROCKS? Hey it may sound like a hair-band cliche but I love when a band just cranks out some loud, screaming, grooving, rock that swaggers along like a drunk tiger. (did I just say drunk tiger? I might be losing my mind...)


Another little gem I found, while trying to use up all my eMusic downloads for the month, was a b-sides/remixes/live cuts album from one of my favorite bands, The Violent Femmes. I haven't had adequate time to rummage through these 22 tracks but I'm loving the stuff I've heard so far. There's some great covers on there like 'My Way' by Elvis and some great live takes on older songs I love like 'Waiting For A Bus.' If any of you out there are actually VF fans (which I doubt) drop me an email or a comment and I'll email you some songs from this album. (is that legal?)

(not album cover)

Movies:
I went and saw Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 two weeks ago; it was entertaining but admittedly lame. (how's that for a review?)

I'd give it '1 thumb up' as well

Life:
I mentioned a bunch of stuff already but two other things that happened since I did a proper post were the 'closing ceremonies' of our men's 'Ping-pong and pizza' guys' nights. We had a weekly crew of dudes that, you guessed it, got together once a week for ping-pong and pizza. It was a great year and deserves a proper post, but I don't have it in me right now so you'll have to check out what 'The Senator' wrote about it over on his blog. Here's a preview...

'The Kid' is missing from this picture but you get the idea...

Also in the last month, we went on an awesome trip to Yangshuo. Me and Bet have been to Yangshuo 4 or 5 times now but this was by far the most enjoyable of all our trips there. Numerous reasons:
a. We went w/ John and Mandy Taylor, two really great people and friends
b. We flew there (nuff said)
c. We stayed in a hotel room instead of a hostel room that could double as a POW 'box'
d. We rode electric scooters everywhere instead of bikes
e. We did a 'greatest hits' type trip, meaning we just did our favorite things

Check out John's post for a different perspective.
Here's some pics (probably from John and Mandy's collection b/c we didn't take many pictures this time)

Water cave


Moon Hill


Ladies


Gentlemen (possibly in my top 5 favorite pictures ever)


Mid air high five (children, don't try this at home)


Not a flattering picture of John, but it cracks me up! If you know John, this picture is a lot funnier. But you probably don't, so you'll just have to trust me...


Bet w/ some monkeys


Me and the Wifey

I'll post more of these pictures on Flickr when I can. (China is blocking Flickr right now and I really can't figure out why)

Well I'm going to wrap this one up for now but trust me, I'm getting back into my blog form so I'll be posting more soon, stay tuned...

The other day...

i was walking Barkley while riding my skateboard. (yes, i had him pulling me) well on that day he decided that the skateboard is a living, breathing, evil thing and thus 'had to be destroyed.' ever since that day he has taken it upon himself to protect the world from the 'skateboard of death.' watch the video below and you'll see what i mean.



don't worry, he's just playing. he doesn't really ever bark so this behavior only comes out when the skateboard comes out.

thanks to Buster for filming

For John and Dan

apparently it's not cool to mention when it's your dog's 1st birthday. two of my 'friends' (the senator and the gentleman) decided i'm lame for my 'dog blog', calling it a faux pas...

well guys; next time a 'D C' or 'confidence' joke pops up, I WON'T HAVE YOUR BACK!

THE REBEL HAS SPOKEN, KA-BLAM!!

(after posting this i realized that neither of them can comment on this post b/c they're also here in china where blogspot is blocked and you can't comment while using anonymouse to view this page. hehe)

super bulge!

my dog has a 'super-human' bulge! (can that be used in reference to a dog?)

read on, trust me it's nothing gross

here's how it happened:
two months ago, after we had his 'luggage' surgically removed, the stress caused him to lose a nickel size patch of hair on his left hip.(no lie) so we took him to the vet and they gave us some some pills and some spray; we never really questioned what either was until yesterday.

so yesterday, when we got Barkley back after a washing/grooming session, we noticed a peculiar bulge on his left hip (upper butt basically) and thought he had some swelling going on, maybe an allergic reaction.

to preface a little; we took him in to get 'the works' b/c he's been shedding his winter coat and puppy coat simultaneously, thus WRECKING our house and we have my basketball team's party at the house today so...

so after the grooming, all the tufts of under coat were gone, groomed away, accept this amazing bulge. we investigated a little and realized that it wasn't swelling or anything; evidently the spray we administered was some kind of crazy hair strengthening spray or root strengthener b/c the 'bulge' on his hip is simply undercoat that will not let go!

it's thick, soft, poofy, full of body, and relentless!
(it's almost like he has one of the nelson twins on his hip)

now i fear that his hip will over heat this summer


you can kinda see it there, the light angle is making a shadow across the front of it.

Barkley's birthday

(sorry, this post is about my dog)

so it's barkley's birthday, or so we say. we didn't get him till he was 6 months old and that means he was born in early april; so we decided april fool's day suits him quite well. now while he didn't have an exciting day today; yesterday he went w/ me to watch Bet play ultimate frisbee. two of my (wonderful) students were there and he got to run around w/ them for a couple hours; its probably the most fun he's ever had. one student was scared of him so he got to chase her and the other loved him so he got lots of attention! (which is what he loves the most!) they took some great pictures of him, something i've totally failed at, so once she gets me those photos i'll post some in here and in our flickr site.

don't fall for that face, he's evil...