Showering At The Olympics.

Seems like time is flying. It's day 7 of my 8 days off in a row, and it doesn't even feel like I've taken time off. It's been a blur of house work, classes, showers, and Olympic games. I still don't feel rested. I start work on the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, so I'll probably have something interesting to say about that.

But I did ponder a few interesting thoughts this week.

Yesterday we bought some of the big ticket items from our baby registry, namely the mattress for the crib and the glider chair. The mattress was easy to assemble, I just slid it into the crib and called it a day. The glider was easy to assemble too, but the realization was that it's a large chair and it's a small babies room/Dan's closet. So with a little bit of maneuvering, I think we've found the spot for the glider along the wardrobes that are full of my clothes. At first, I was a little disappointed that I had to now perform a blend of tai chi and yoga to slink around the glider to get to my clothes. But the more I think about it, after Sean Patrick is born, I'm not gonna be wearing the nice clothes I've got boxed in. This all may just work out.

The Olympics are over. I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal. I really do like the Olympics and sports in general and as I've said before, it's always nice to be exposed to different cultures and their choices in sport. America loves competition, that's why we had the most athletes and the most medals. I was sad at first when the women's softball team lost the gold medal game to Japan, and at the same time, happy we lost thus proving softball is a world sport, and should remain in the Olympics. Sort of the same way I felt in 2004 when our basketball team only got the bronze.

And speaking of accomplishments, how about that Brian Clay guy winning the decathlon at the Olympics? Why proud? Da buggah when go Castle High School, where I went grad.

And speaking of Hawai'i, I was quite proud of those little leaguers from Waipi'o. The pretty much walked all over Mexico in the finale. I stumbled on a chat room thread at the Honolulu Advertiser website regarding the little league win. I can't find it now, but it was really interesting because there was one person posting and everyone else was attacking him. What he was saying was designed to incite anger and retaliation, mostly by saying that Hawai'i people put to much emphasis on state pride and being a rabid fan was ridiculous. Claiming to be a former wide receiver at the University of Florida, he stated that college and professional athletes have no respect for the fans, especially the ones that hang on every win and loss.

Since I can't find the thread, I'm going to post my rebuttal here.

While I agree with you that rabid fans are ridiculous, saying that you have no respect for them is really a kick in the teeth to all professional athletes. Fans are the ones that pay their salaries. Fans are the ones that can give the psychological boost to the players when needed. Why do you think the term, "home field advantage" exists? There are many fans out there who love there sport and love their team, but aren't living and dying by wins and losses. They at least deserve your respect, because they give you respect for your talents. I also find nothing wrong with a little Hawai'i pride. As a state, we get little respect as anything but an exotic vacation spot that also happens to speak English and takes U.S. dollars. When we show that we have more, like talent on the playing field, we have pride. If you had seen the game, you would have heard the parents chanting, "USA! USA!" against the opposing team chanting, "Mexico! Mexico!". And before I step off the soap box, it should be noted, that others were putting the emphasis on Hawai'i before the Hawai'ians were. As if to say, "We can't believe Hawai'i has another little league team in the world series! The first one wasn't a fluke!"

I pick up my soap box, and leave the corner...

We also finished our baby classes this weekend, save one tonight on breast feeding. I found the classes informative and interesting, but what I didn't much care for were some of the other couples in class who couldn't seem to grasp the concept that the teacher was telling us about all the things that COUL D happen during child birth not that everything WILL happen. I think my favorite question, "Will I still get vaginal tearing if I get a C-section?" Um.... No.

It was also a good advertisement to show that the interweb machine doesn't always give you good information. There were a few couples asking questions that you could see in the teachers eyes that they were just being alarmist. I just wanted to hear the teacher say something like, "Did you look that up on the internet? Yeah, I thought so." with a roll of the eyes. Instead, she would answer as politically correct as she could that there was often a less than 1% chance of that happening during their birth. Just because the internet says it happens doesn't mean it will happen to you.

My favorite part of the entire 4 classes was when the teacher asked for any mother who's not going to let the father touch the baby raise your hand, and one lady did. When everybody looked at her, she basically sold her partner out by saying he was going to be too rough with the baby. Nice going lady.

And finally, we had our baby shower this past weekend. We saw people we hadn't seen in years. Thank you all for coming and showering us with some terrific gifts. We have some very giving friends and some very talented ones to boot. Big Mahalos to Shawn and Mia for having the party at their house. Their backyard is gorgeous. Here's some photos I stole from Anita. Thanks Anita!

It ain't a party unless it's catered by L&L Hawai'ian Barbecue! A little bit of home here in L.A.. And everyone likes it, I think.


Somehow, Mimi keeps showing up for the important events in our life. She was at our wedding and now she shows up at our baby shower. Why is this amazing? Because she lives in Pittsburgh! She is a talented young woman. She made the baby gifts herself!



And speaking of talented, here's another one, Rachel. We hadn't seen her in quite sometime, mostly because Dan is always on tour and getting together when I'm home never seems to happen. But she also made all the baby gifts herself. We are so lucky to have friends like this. But sadness.. She is moving to New York City soon.


This is Kevin "Mutherf**king" Cauley. The ONLY single dude to show up at the party. The other men where there with their significant others. Thank you Kevin for the awesome gift. It's already given me hours of entertainment.


I don't know who these two chicks are, they just sort of showed up at the party drank our wine, ate our food, mumbled something my blog and then left.

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Who? Me?

Not much to report really. I've had a long and short week of work. I went to three separate gigs, one of which was in Pasadena close to my house. Which was fine aside from the fact that there was nothing for me to do so I went home for most of the day. I still got paid, which is nice. Sunday marked the end of Jingles, a tear to my eye. Watch for it in November. If anything, just to see the terribly mediocre lighting. Couldn't tell you what channel, or for that matter, if it got picked up by a network. More than likely it will be on a cable station like Bravo or something.

Yesterday marked my return to Mun2 and Vivo which I did all of last summer... I just realized. I've been blogging for a year! I just checked, and my first blog posted on August 2 2007. How's that for commitment? That illustrates how the more things change, the more they stay the same. I was at Vivo over a year ago, and the lighting rig is still the same. The lighting director and I pretty much phoned the show in. It's been a year and I slipped back into the same boredom. But it's a paycheck so I can't really complain too much.

So much for the update, now here's the rant.

I'm not planning on buying an iPhone until it's unlocked and available to use on any network, but what's been grinding my gears lately, is this whole "MobileMe" thing that Mac has started doing. It's the straw that broke the camels back.

The 80's was known as the "me" decade. It was all about me, what's in it for me? How does that benefit me? You think Judd Nelson looks like me? If it was up to me, I would have dated Ally Sheedy and not Molly Ringwald. You get the point.

But it really feels like now is the "me" decade. MobileMe, Myfoxla.com, my accuweather forcast, my ringtone. Marketing seems, to me (ha ha!), aimed at increasing our selfishness. I get to program the remote control for me, and Nicole can program it for her. The make showers now that you can program to set the temperature and sprinkle pattern for me. Car seats have settings that remember me.

It seems like nothing is geared toward the greater good of the people. In one of the great lines of the Star Trek movies (if not one of the cheesiest), Spock states, a few times during the 2nd movie, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." "Don't worry, I've got the check, enjoy your dinner." I threw that last one in because I hate math and am tired of people dissecting a check down to the last penny as to who owes what. Either everyone throws in a 20 and we divide the change up evenly, or someone treats. Don't make the mistake of just ordering a salad with me, buddy.

It could be that I'm getting sensitive to all this stuff, being an expectant father. I know, in less two months time it's not about me anymore, it's about Sean Patrick. What can I do for him.

A scary prospect, but a most exciting one.

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NOT ME.

So it's another slow day at Jingles so I thought I'd google my name to see what came up... There are A LOT of Daniel Boland's in the world. I don't know if my computer knew I was looking for me, but of course the first few post that came up where me and some profiles I have lounging around on the internet (myspace and the like). But as I scrolled down, I found this on youtube:



Here's the description with the video, "Daniel Boland does a fantastic streak during the higher line soccer league final..frank,theres one 4 ya!"

It's not me. I'm not that white. I'm not as tan as I used to be, but I'm not that white. Well, maybe my bottom is that white...

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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Even Closer!

You know what's great about the Olympics? It gives us a chance to see sports that are popular around the world. To see things that we, as Americans, don't get to see, much less dominate as a country. True, the biggest news in America right now regarding the Olympics is "Redeem Team" basketball team. Every game is televised live and then recorded and shown again during prime time. I don't really care. I'm more excited by the fact that we won all three places in womens saber fencing! That's something! But we only hear about it once, maybe twice during the repeats. I was actually awake the other night, watching the woman who eventually finished 3rd in her semi final match. It was really exciting.

I remember as a kid on a Saturday morning, wanting to watch cartoons, but my dad was watching the Olympics, I whined and fussed until my dad said, "Fine, you can watch cartoons today, but not again for four years. The Olympics only happens every four years. You should watch this instead."

All the athletes at the Olympics are very passionate about their sport. This is their biggest stage and it only happens once every four years. I think we should give everyone their due and watch some of those other sports. You may find something really fun to watch. I rather enjoy watching handball and field hockey, even though the U.S. isn't fielding a team handball. Badminton is a quick game and I can't wait until they start televising table tennis! I did miss the first shotgun event, Olympic trap. But I'm not gonna miss the next one.

And speaking of which, I went shooting this weekend. It's been a long time. And I even found a course closer to home than Oak Tree.

Triple B Sporting Clays is down the street. I don't have to get on a freeway to get there if I don't want to, and it's a decent 15 station course. Sunday morning Nicole, my sister-in-law Anette, and I were sitting around. I was supposed to go shooting that morning with a friend but he never called. We started talking about it and Anette decided she wanted to try it. So we packed up the truck and went down.

I'm not a fan of shooting on weekends, it's often really busy, which this place was, not to mention it is summer so it's pretty hot out. But we went anyway with the intent of also finally purchasing my shotgun. We walked into the pro shop and I told the lady what I was looking for, "I'd like to buy a 12 gauge over/under Browning Synergy with 30" ported barrels." She looked at me for a moment and said, "Which Synergy? There are a few different ones."

"Ummmm... The cheapest one with ported barrels?"

"That would be the Synergy Classic Sporting, and we don't have 30" inch barrels in stock. BUT we do have a demo model you can go shoot if you'd like... 32" barrels though."

No problem, I just wanted to shoot. I took the rental, bought some shells and took Anette and Nicole out to the course. Here's the photographs...

In a word, Form. Fantastic form.

Anette knew nothing, I had to show her how to hold the gun, aim the gun and pull the trigger. Even in this picture I had to place her left hand in the crook of the gun so she could balance it right for the pose.

Dan and his trapper.

Admittedly, she does have good form. But then again, I taught her.

I only bought 50 rounds for each of us, and Anette was too afraid of the gun and only shot 10 rounds. I shot 75, before we ran out of money on the card (the only drawback of Triple B is that they don't give you extra targets to "view a pair"). I did okay, hitting 39 of 75, about 50%. I may not shoot great, but I look good doing it.

One week of work, and then on the 21st, I order my gun!

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On Your Mark... Get Set... NEST!!!

They say when a woman is pregnant, as the date draws near, they begin to display signs of "nesting". For those who don't know what that means, it's that a woman prepares her home for the coming of the baby. It is said that most nest is exhibited in irrational ways, like cleaning gutters or yelling at men at the recycling place who park their cars across three parking spaces and block all the recycling bins using the excuse, "Well no one else was here". Thankfully Nicole doesn't display the first one, mostly because we have no gutters on the house.

But we have started the nesting process. I'm not mad that I had to move all my stuff out of my "closet" to turn it into the baby's room. But I am bitter. And once that process finished, the painting began.
I did the trim and Anette, Nicole's sister, did the bulk of the walls with the roller.
With that little project done, Ikea stepped in a sold us the changing table and crib which I had to build. Ya gotta love Ikea and their easy to understand directions, I only put the drawers together twice!

The proceeds from our garage sale went to another nesting task, getting the carpet in the living room and baby's room/Dan's overflow closet cleaned. We folded up the two lawn chairs, moved all the little bits of furniture we could off the carpets, and then invited Stanley Steemer in to work their magic.


This led to another trip to Ikea and another big purchase, a new couch to replace the one we sold at the garage sale. But it didn't stop at the couch, nesting made us buy new lamps and a console table as well as a mud bench to put by the door.


I don't think nesting is gonna stop anytime soon. But at least the jobs haven't been silly.

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Say Hello Sean Patrick!

I'm guessing most of you who read this know, I may have mentioned it in a blog or two. But in case you didn't know, or don't remember, Nicole and I are expecting our first child. Hoorah for us.

Here's what we do know:

- It's a boy.

- He's due October 9th, with any luck, Nicole will put a cork in it until the 25th which is my birthday. Last year, I tried to get Susan, my sister-in-law to put a cork in until then, which she did, but then waited until the 30th to have Dylan, our first nephew. Geez.

- Seeing as he's a boy, we figured a good name for him is Sean Patrick Kamiano Boland. Yes, I know it's one more name than we need. But we really like the ring of Sean Patrick. And I insist on having a Hawai'ian middle name, so why not mine? It doesn't matter really because his nickname is already Zeus. That's us sticking with the Filipino tradition of having a nickname that is completely unattached to the kids real name.

On Wednesday, we partook in some of the new fangled technology out there and got a 4D ultrasound done. Yes, I know, there is no 4th dimension, and the 3D ultrasound is still technically, 2D on a print. But with the use of light and shadow, it makes for a really nifty picture. Oh, and the 4th dimension, if we bought the DVD of the ultrasound, we would have had sound too. It would mostly have been of the nurse cursing because Sean Patrick was being difficult. That and his heartbeat...

Sean Patrick was being most difficult for the ultrasound. We went into the office, Nicole plopped down on the bed, the nurse put in some nice ambient baby music, greased up Nicole's tummy and started rubbing the wand around, looking for the head of my son.

But Sean Patrick had other plans, he buried his head behind his feet and leaned back so the nurse couldn't get a good shot. We tried to wake him up, we walked around the block, Nicole drank cold water, we raised her feet to see if he would shift. Nothing.

Then, Freddy Mercury brought us a miracle. The nurse pulled out the silly baby music and slid in Queen's Greatest Hits and three stomps into "We Will Rock You" Sean Patrick was alive and, well, frankly, kicking. He squirmed and danced enough for us to get some good shots. Including ones of him playing with his wiener and sucking on the umbilical cord.

The miracle that is 4D ultrasound! Oh, and the creation of life. Here's a two of the better pictures of Sean Patrick.

Hoooo, da cute!

Here's a link to the full gallery if anyone wants to see all the pictures (including the one with him playing with his wang).

Once again, hoorah for us!

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