Sentinel Blogs

Stay out of the sauna

July 2, 2008 – 8:31 pm
I really don’t think people quite understand what a mixed martial artist really goes through. How difficult this sport is and how tough it can be on a person and it’s family. The other night I get off work at the Sentinel about 11 p.m. and I head down to InShape to finish my day with a 5-mile run. Often times I will just sit down in the sauna for a bit, just to relax and think a little bit. A few minutes into my relaxation in the sauna, three guys walk in and they start having a conversation about some up coming fights at the Palace on the 17th (They’re really on the 18th). They start gabbing about this fighter and that fighter and who isn’t any good and who is. Most of the talk surrounds a couple of local fighters. All the while I just sit in the corner, resting my head against the ...

Posted in The Project by Jeremy Luchau | 4 Comments »

American Mosaic: 45 reasons why I love America

July 2, 2008 – 12:00 pm
1. My old alma mater winning a baseball national title. 2. The First Amendment. 3. Pancakes at midnight and a hamburger at 7 a.m. 4. Obama vs. Clinton in the 2008 Democratic Primary. 5. Donna Reed in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (Oh, the wonderful phone scene between her and Jimmy Stewart. And she can really throw a stone pretty far.) and the movie “Casablanca” and its humor (Funny scene: Capt. Renault: What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca? Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters. Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert. Rick: I was misinformed.) 6. The idea of a road as a place to figure out your own strength as a human being: Think “Thelma & Louise” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” 7. Solitude in a serene Buddhist temple in a remote Vermont countryside. 8. A drive in San Francisco (love it or hate it). 9. People who don’t force you to agree with them, worship the president ...

Posted in Alien Asylum by Eiji Yamashita | 3 Comments »

Trying to believe the music

July 1, 2008 – 4:23 pm
As Friday's 232nd anniversary of this humble experiment in democracy called the United States of America approaches, I keep hoping I can believe the music that I'll be hearing as I partake in various celebrations before ensuring freedom of the press continues by working on your Saturday Sentinel. I think you know the songs, usually a tune or two talking about our greatness as a country and how we'll get whoever did whatever to us. As things continue to unravel in some of those institutions we hold near and dear as a nation, sometimes I wonder if our differences have become so deep, we won't be able to maintain our level of greatness. It feels, at times, that the sprit of cooperation that turned us from 13 colonies in a strange wilderness into a world power has dissovled into some sort of spite-filled society, where assigning blame becomes more important than ...

Posted in My Corner by Richard de Give | No Comments »

What’s next?

July 1, 2008 – 4:19 pm
So , when I named my blog "Daydream Island" I had every intention of writing about my scattered musings and daydreams, some TV shows, some traveling, etc. But California lawmakers are making that tough.  There is a line in the 1998 child's flick "Madeline," where one little girl tells the rest of the little girls that they are all nuts. Another little girl chimes in with "Yeah, cashews." It's pretty funny. But right now, I feel like telling Cali lawmakers they are all nuts for creating this hands-free cell phone law.  I visited the DMV's Q&A page to make sure I had all the details down for this extensive piece of legislature and found that drivers under 18 can't talk, text or use a hands-free set while operating a car. There are so many things wrong with just that part of the law. Most kids now have had cell phones since they ...

Posted in Daydream Island by Shannon Milliken | 2 Comments »

Love thy child

June 27, 2008 – 2:34 pm
I heard a stunning statistics this week, and it made me sick and angry. Five children died just over the last seven months because of either abuse, neglect or “shaken baby syndrome,” a form of traumatic brain injury that happens when a baby is violently shaken, according to Kings County Child Protective Services. The number was hair-raising to a layperson like me, who knows little of the evil world of child abuse. And it was certainly a horrifying number even for veteran social workers who deal with the problem day in day out, like Tina Garcia, social services program manager for CPS. “It has increased over the years, but from our perspective, this is just too high. In my experience, one or two deaths a year has been the norm,” said Garcia, an 11-year veteran in the field. Among the five cases were: • One shaken baby syndrome case (A month-old infant), • Two physical ...

Posted in Alien Asylum by Eiji Yamashita | 6 Comments »

Up and away

June 27, 2008 – 1:45 pm
Dear reader, I'll be in the mountains for the next 10 days, probably choking on the foul air that has engulfed California. So there will be no new posts at least until July 7. If you have any blog topic suggestions on the brain, spell em out here. Adios. P.S. Get all of your friends to click on this blog. I need the traffic so I can argue for a raise — and for more time to sit here writing about whatever the heck I want to write about.

Posted in Signposts by Seth Nidever | 11 Comments »

Geek Review: Get Smart

June 27, 2008 – 11:43 am
Maxwell Smart and I go way back. In elementary school, I had a TV in my room. My bedtime was something like 9 or 10 p.m. But, secretly, I would stay up late every night, because that is when they’d air “Get Smart” reruns. If you’ve never seen the original show, you are missing out. Don Adams played CONTROL Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, a deadly serious, but rather inept, super spy who once got lost in the Pentagon for three days. Created in part by Mel Brooks, the man behind “Blazing Saddles,” “The Producers,” and “Spaceballs,” the show skewered the James Bond spy genre to great effect. Covert operatives hid in mailboxes to deliver secret messages, a common shoe could turn into a rotary phone and the arch-nemesis of CONTROL, KAOS, was filled with just as many buffoons as the organization that opposed them. The remake, as Max would often ...

Posted in Panic Button by Joe Johnson | 6 Comments »

Green card blues

June 26, 2008 – 11:49 am
Dear America, Dad gum immigration lawyers. I never thought I’d say this in my life. A couple of honest lawyers in Fresno helped me get my first temporary working visa eight years ago – what a nervous, laborious, tedious process that was. Then just about when I gave up on the idea of settling in the United States permanently, I found a lawyer in L.A. who helped me get an extension for the visa. Now I await a green card – a relatively good place for a foreigner to be in. But when I read an MSNBC story yesterday about a major immigration law firm in New York under federal scrutiny, I was deeply disturbed – though not surprised – by the news. (See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25356825/page/2/) At issue is whether the law firm helped Fortune 100 companies to deny American job applicants in order to give high-paying positions to immigrants. The U.S. ...

Posted in Alien Asylum by Eiji Yamashita | 4 Comments »

Two Muslims and a Christian

June 26, 2008 – 10:00 am
Yesterday, I sat down at the Hanford Mall and had a conversation with two Muslims. One, Francisco Ramirez, is a friend of mine. The other, Nasradden Alkobadi, is a friend of Ramirez' whom I met for the first time. Both attend the mosque on 10th Avenue just south of Highway 198. Now, call me crazy, but it's unusual for a Christian in Hanford to sit down and break bread with a couple of Muslims. I run into Christians all the time. Everybody and their cousin is one. But here were a couple of Muslims in the middle of the food court. I started paying close attention to what they said. Who knows when this opportunity might pop up again? Of course we talked about God. This is the topic on everybody's mind these days, whether it's atheists railing against God or believers anxiously trying to defend Him. There are a certain number of irritated agnostics out there who ...

Posted in Signposts by Seth Nidever | 11 Comments »

My sports corner: Wonder(ful)dogs

June 25, 2008 – 7:37 pm
2008 College World Series champion Fresno State Bulldogs. There ... just had to see it in print once to let it sink in. Even this San Jose State Spartan, but one who's a confirmed baseball junkie, had to love the ride the Bulldogs have taken Valley sports fans for the last month or so ... winning the WAC tourney, battling back to win the Long Beach Regional and Tempe Super Regional, and, once in Omaha, taking command of their bracket early, then coming from behind to win the whole enchilada.. For the briefest of moments, all the storms swirling around Fresno State athletics have disappeared. They'll be back in a day or two, but a little easier to deal with now, with a trophy winging its way back from Omaha. This was a team that was just plain fun to watch play the game. They hit the ball, hit it hard and far, had ...

Posted in My Corner by Richard de Give | 6 Comments »