I sip my coffee trying to shake off the lack of sleep. I'd gotten the DVDs of James Clavell's Shogun before the long weekend and started in on them after the kids would go to bed. Problem is "going to bed" is not the same as "going to sleep" and there'd be sounds of roughhousing necessitating loud intervention by the evil Daddy. In short, I would get to watch the DVD's in peace starting at around 10:30 and ending well after midnight. Not really a problem since I'm more night owl then morning person but - damn! - it was hard waking up this fine Tuesday morn. Part of it was that I couldn't fall asleep due to the LA heat and some mis-casting in Shogun.

I'm a big fan of the book, having read it far too many times. In the movie I have a big beef with casting and some plot liberties. If you don't care about Shogun skip to the next yawn-inspiring paragraph. OK, in the book Kiku (the first-class prostitute) is young and drop-dead gorgeous; in the film - ewww! She's too old and looks shop-worn. In the book Fujiko (Anjinsan's consort) is plain looking but in the DVDs she's arguably the prettiest one around and that's including Mariko! Gyoko (the mama-san) is supposed to be plump according to the book but needs fattening in the film. Omi appears a tad too old but the rest of the cast is right on. Plotwise the film doesn't play up enough the sliminess and plotting of Yabu which is a shame because the actor is perfect in appearance. But I get it - the film is about Blackthorne and Mariko, and since the film weighs in at 9 hours they had to cut out some stuff. Yet, yet, yet, it's still a great series and highly recommended but get the book too to read what's missing.

We had a nice, quiet 4th o' July. There's a church on a hill that does a fantastic, free fireworks show so we went and had a picnic, and had a good time. No excessive politics. No blatant evangelism. Just 15,000 Americans together to celebrate the nation's birthday. My kids ran into their friends and happiness reigned, though not in a sickening propagandanistic way. Ooooh, cool word. And then on Monday we did a very American thing: we replaced a dead car battery at Sears and ate at Northridge Mall. Very consumerist.

So Kerry picked John Edwards. Yawn. Whatever. Pretty boy in 2008. Don't think that anti-Bush as I am that therefore I must be pro-Kerry. The dagger I wield is two-sided. Both sides come under scrutiny as my expectations for excellence don't change. As I see it Kerry is better than Bush the same way gonorrhea is better than syphilis.

Lakers, Lakers, Lakers. Maybe it's time for Dr. Buss to sell the team. I'm sure some cash-rich corporation would pay handsomely (*cough* Microsoft Lakers *cough*).