Strike My Arse

Now that a strike in baseball has officially been averted (until 2006, I guess, when we can do it all again), I can finally write some of my thoughts on the whole ordeal. Some people might be surprised that I haven't already put up a long spiel about the strike negotiations and all, but I've been too busy suffering as a baseball fan to write about the topic.

The analogy has been used before, but it's seriously as if all of us collectively as baseball fans are the pathetic boyfriends who, no matter how many times their girl cheats on them or calls them a loser, always take her back. I feel like the owners and players just continually slap me in the face, insult me, and milk me for whatever money I'm sucker enough to give them, yet I just can't leave. Either because I am too blinded by love or dependence on the game, or I have simply nowhere else to go.

At this point, it really is almost meaningless that an agreement was reached. Haven't we been disrespected and insulted enough already? The fact that these people somehow found some way to split billions of dollars should not earn them a pat on the back. However, the fact that it took them this long to agree on something like this is enough to make me livid, regardless of the final terms of the settlement.

They dragged me around for months while they sat in their hotel rooms and ate room service. While fans continued to sign their paychecks, the players were practically packing up their lockers and getting ready to leave in the middle of their job. So-called "negotiators" bickered for every last cent up until a mere 3 hours before game time, leaving all of us hanging like bloody fools. Can you imagine having made plans to take your family out to Wrigley today, taking off work early, driving into the city and to the park, only to find someone there telling you to go home because the players don't feel like working?

Last night, these jackasses were still fighting because of an $8 million dollar difference in where to set the luxury tax threshold. That's just ridiculous. Baseball makes billions each year, and they argue about $8 million. It's almost like you are buying a $300,000 house, and you threaten to walk away if the owner refuses to throw in his $10 clock radio to finish the deal. Now I know the analogy isn't completely accurate because we're talking about a threshold, but still... when you are talking about the average person in this country making $30,000 give or take, these numbers are so big that they lose perspective.

I'm pretty sure neither Bud Selig, nor Donald Fehr or Tom Glavine read my blog, but I just need to spit some words at them right now. To the owners: don't sign a contract to pay your players $250 million, then complain that salaries are out of control and that you are losing money. I'd switch places with you any day. If you are not a fan of baseball, don't be a damn baseball team owner, because you are bringing the game down with your lack of love. We know that baseball is a business no matter what, but it's not like an oil mining business so run it with some sense of humanity.

To the players: I'd trade places with you any day too. So would any of your millions of fans. God blessed you with the talent and we know you worked hard to get to the major leagues, but would you please find some way to get by on your measly salaries, even though they rarely exceed $20 million per year? You, more than anyone, should love, appreciate, and revere the game of baseball enough to not walk out because of money. All I hear is that "it's not about the money" but as much as I would like to believe that, it's just flat out bull. If it's not about the money, then what is it about? Don't tell us that "fans don't understand," we understand that each and every one of you could retire from baseball, not make a single penny for the rest of your life, and live more comfortably than any of us, who fight for 9 to 5 jobs, making only a tiny fraction of what you do. And yet you still want more.

I'm sure not every player wanted to strike, but obviously most were willing to do so, in the name of the Players Union and higher salaries. Now that it's over, they will all go back to playing and pretend like nothing ever happened. To the game of baseball, they have all shown great disdain and brought shame on themselves for their selfishness. To the fans, especially the young, they have done irreparable damage by showing that this world is ruled by greed, even in America's Pastime.

I wish I could say that I will never watch major league baseball again, but alas, I know it will never happen. I'm that pathetic boyfriend who loves the game too much, or has nowhere else to turn. I know that I will not attend games for a long time, maybe for life, because in doing so I directly feed the greedy appetites of those who continually take advantage of us. Unfortunately, I won't be able to turn away from watching games on TV or tuning in to Baseball Tonight, which end up in their paychecks somehow as well.

At least football season is here, but it may only be a matter of time before greed severely tarnishes this sport as well, if it hasn't already. Go Bears.

* An Afterthought: Fans Not Happy At Angels Game *

This story describes how on the night before the strike deadline, fans expressed disgust at a game by throwing items on the field and chanting "Don't Strike!" throughout the game. Not that throwing things is the most mature or proper thing to do, but listen to what Scott Blowenweiss had to say about it:

"I would have hoped that our fans would have a little more class than what they showed tonight by throwing stuff on the field ... that could cause injury ... I know they're disappointed, but let us play the game..."

Does this not anger anyone else besides me? First of all, if you click on the link and look at the picture, it is of beach balls being tossed on the field. You freaking pansies. What about the police officers and firemen that risk their lives to save others? What about our men and women in the armed forces around the world that deal with land mines and suicide bombers every day, so that we can live in our safe little world? Maybe there was other stuff being thrown, but I laughed for about 10 minutes straight when I saw that picture right above the Homoenweiss quote, "that could cause injury."

Second of all, "let us play the game"??!?! What did you think we wanted all along, you inbred idiots! One minute you are all getting ready to strike, the next thing you say is "let us play the game"? Think about it, if you really wanted to just play the game, nobody would be throwing stuff at you and chanting "Don't strike," ok?

Just another typical example of how dumb, hypocritical, and self-righteous some of these players are.

The Art of Matching

Yet another thing that amuses me about girls is how they have to match everything. The most obvious example, of course, is their clothes. Not only do they have to match the colors of their top and their pants or skirt, but also with their shoes and socks and sunglasses and purse, earrings, everything.

It's definitely not just clothes, though. "Even" guys match their clothes. But you know, Olivia has a blue car, and inside it she had to get everything in some shade of blue. That means blue Kleenex, garbage can, Bath & Body Works jelly jar air freshener, and little things that hang and bounce up and down from the window. In her apartment, she has matching Hello Kitty shower curtain, bath mat, toothbrush holder, towels, and probably some other things I'm missing.

A girl I knew back in elementary school once even got green rubber bands or something on her braces when it was St. Patrick's Day. If I'm not mistaken, she had green frames on her glasses too, but that was all year that she had them. Maybe she just liked green, I don't know. I wonder what she's doing these days.

My mom and sister aren't that bad in comparison, but they still care about this kind of stuff more than me. I remember when I was helping my sister order a laptop from Dell, one of the things she was most concerned about was whether she could get colored faceplates with them. Not the processor, amount of ram, or hard disk space.

As for me, I don't consider myself to be Giorgio Armani, but I'm not fashion illiterate and I think I have decent taste in clothes, albeit conservative. Yet I still find myself regularly chastised for not matching, such as wearing white socks to church or black shoes with a T-Shirt and jeans, certain grave no-no's I was quite unaware of up until recent times.

I've always figured that white goes with anything, as well as khaki pants or jeans. Same with black Docs, pretty much. And I only need 1 pair of black sunglasses and one black wallet to accessorize (said in gay voice "ack-thetthorize"). I don't wear jewelry, either, so that any matching-related headaches in that department. By the way, I've always said that you should never trust a guy that wears too much jewelry. If it's just like a small silver ring or a chain with a cross on it, it's not that bad. But if the guy has on more stuff than Elizabeth Taylor or Mr. T, then watch out.

In my car, I couldn't care less if my Kleenex was white or green or blue, and I don't even have a little garbage can, I have a Walmart bag hanging off of my shifter. I don't care enough to match anything else in my life either, nor can I imagine any other guys giving these things much thought. If my computer keyboard is light beige but my mouse is gray, I don't lose sleep over the fact that my hardware color scheme clashes. Light beige goes with everything anyways. haha...

I don't know where I get my topics from, but maybe if you have learned nothing else from my blogs, hopefully you at least see that I am living proof of the fact that you don't need to smoke weed to feel insightful, sentimental, philosophical, etc. Anyways, whenever I am dry of ideas to write, all I gotta do is talk about the weirdness and complexity of girls. Never fails. But maybe I shouldn't discuss Olivia so much in detail or else she might get pissed if someday she reads all my blog. Doubt it though, hardworking girl + medical school = 0 free time to read my long frickin entries. Maybe I don't miss school and studying that much...

Pact is Intact

Area Codes

We all know Ludacris has hoes in different area codes, but what about me? I don't have hoes, but I was going through my Yahoo address book and noticed that besides the typical 630, 847, and 217 numbers, there are quite a few strange ones that I added recently. I got the 510 (Berkeley), 903 (Paris, TX), and 514 (Austin, TX), to name a few. One friend also informed me that a move to London might be coming in the near future. The weirdest one (at least to me) was 708, which Caddy and Oiy use. I didn't know people still used that area code but it used to be my own. Back in the day, I think we were all 312, then 708, then 630 came along followed by 847 and 773 and whatever else I'm missing. Somewhere along the way I thought 708 was lost or replaced or something. Pardon if the order or the regional split was wrong. Times have definitely changed since cell phones came along, as well as fax machines and dedicated internet lines.

So it's nice that my friends are moving out to new pursuits in life, to different parts of the country (and world, for that matter). At the same time, it's sad that I won't be seeing these people regularly as before, maybe for life. Other than the occasional email, visit home, and outside chance that we cross paths someday in business endeavors or something, I doubt I will have much of a relationship with a lot of the people who I was once pretty close to. Sad, but nothing I can really do about it.

I thought it was interesting that at our age, and in the era of the email and nationwide long distance cell phone plans, relatively cheap airline fares, that geography is still probably the single biggest factor in determining our close friends. Or maybe it's just me. But you know how everyone's best friend when they are little is either their next door neighbor or the only kid on your street that is your age? If not, then it was probably the son/daughter of your parents' best friends. The point is, we didn't really choose our friends back then, they were kind of chosen for us by way of convenience, or mutual neccessity, depending on how you look at it. I guess that's only expected, when you're little and all you got is a little bike so you can't travel very far anyways.

But one would think that as we get older, the convenience or distance factor would no longer be as limiting for us. Like I already said, we've got easy access to email and phones, plus most of us now have cars to take us places that bikes can't easily reach. While these things do expand our potential reach, I'm not sure all of us are ready to take full advantage of our added range.

When I think about how I met my closest friends at college, all arrows inevitably point towards one big thing: where I lived. Freshman year was room 509 at FAR and the 5 or 6 guys that hung out together there (plus the hundreds of girls that came by each day looking to get a piece of the crew). There was also Chris at IT, who I knew from high school, and from hanging out at his place throughout the year I got to meet a lot of the people from his floor, who were mostly of a race that was foreign to me at the time (white). Sophomore year was ISR 3 South, where I met so many people on my floor and we had some of the best times ever. After that, it really seemed like when I moved to apartments, my group of friends was pretty set and I didn't meet too many people in my 3rd and 4th years at college. I would be willing to bet that most people in college find their experience to be the same or at least similar.

Before I wander off any further, what I'm trying to say is that whether it is a good thing or not, we always seem to end up being closest friendship-wise to the people who are closest to us distance-wise. It doesn't have to be a rule, but as they say, "out of sight, out of mind," and as I think about my "bros in different area codes" it's at least a little disheartening. Just to consider that for the most part, the good times in the past will stay in the past, and that the future likely holds little more than an occasional conversation or dinner, all the while knowing that it is nothing more than physical distance that really separates us.

The moral of the story is, if you want to be good friends with me, move to Darien and we'll be great pals. Seriously though, I'm glad my friends have found jobs or are taking grad school at different places around the country. I look forward to visiting each and every one of you guys at some point, when I become a bum and need a place to crash and live off you. Maybe someday we will write a movie script and star in Good Will Hunting together as well. However, if you would like to visit me, I will tell you to screw off. Haha just kidding.

Music And Who Sings It

I was listening to and enjoying Aaliyah's song, "I Care 4 You" (track 6 on her last album), and a thought crossed my mind: if someone else was singing this song, would I like it so much? Especially if it was some large, unattractive, angry black mama-lookin type, like maybe Aretha Franklin (or someone else but I can't think of any other good examples at the moment). The thing is, as much as "who's singing it" isn't supposed to matter in determining whether you like a song, it does to me. I hope that doesn't make me superficial or a male pig. Aaliyah bit the dust anyways. Oops, I hope that doesn't make me insensitive.

It's just that in a song such as that one, an artist like Aaliyah is almost perfect to sing it. Something about her persona just gives off the right feeling that flows with the song, a certain smoothness about her style that goes beyond her voice. I don't think it's merely because she's pretty, but it's gotta be more than that. Something hard to describe, but perhaps "smooth" is the best way of putting it.

Maybe it's kind of like rappers; we have come to expect nothing but ghetto young black guys such that anyone who does not fit that description has virtually no chance of connecting with the public and succeeding as a rapper. Eminem is more exception than the rule, obviously, and it could be argued that he is not taken as seriously as a rapper, more as a novelty white guy who can rap and ruffles feathers by his controversial lyrics. But it's not just the expected image, or the credibility issue for the fans and public. Something about personalities like 2Pac or DMX or Dr. Dre just matches with the type of music they do. It would just not feel right otherwise.

So, my conclusion is that the best musical artists are those about whom we can say, "only (given artist) could pull that song off, and nobody else." Some songs that come to mind are: "Tonight, Tonight" by Smashing Pumpkins, "Mysterious Ways" by U2, "Big Poppa" by Notorious B.I.G., "On Bended Knee" by Boyz II Men, "Black" by Pearl Jam, and "You Drive Me Crazy" by Britney Spears. Haha sorry had to throw that last one in there.

Anglers Fish Human Head Out of Atlantic

Of all the bizarre and disturbing stories I've read, this has to be up there near the top. Not only the fact that fishers found a human head, which is weird and disgusting enough on its own. But the guys' reaction to keep fishing for a couple hours after finding the head is at least as messed up of a story.

"we decided we could either run in and ruin a perfectly good day or we could fish our way in ... now, if it had been a freshly severed head, it would have been a different story"

Ok, I don't consider myself to be a big wuss, and if I pulled in a human head while fishing, fresh or not, I would have most definitely been too freaked to continue fishing. At the very least I would have vomited on sight. Most people I know would probably say the same. These guys just stuck it in a garbage bag and kept on fishing. What were they hoping for, to find more severed heads?

Worthless Stuff

Last week I wrote on how worthless weathermen are. Well, lately it seems like a lot of other stuff is worthless too. Like traffic reports, for instance. We should all know by now that every day is gonna be the same thing because the same thing happens every day. If it's rush hour, all highways will be congested no matter how many times you listen to "Traffic on the 8's". So basically, they could play a recording of the same report every day at the given times, and nobody would be the wiser. In that sense, it's even worse than weather reports I talked about before. At least there isn't a "Traffic Channel" on Cable TV and reporters don't get billboards like Tom Skilling, so I'm not as jealous and bitter about it.

The other thing is, I usually hear traffic reports on the radio, when I'm already on the road. And by the time the guy tells me a place is congested, it's probably way too late. Either I'm happy I didn't take that road, or I'm sitting there, moving at a snail's pace and listening to the traffic man mock me by telling me what I already know. What's the point of traffic reports, then? I guess it's just to make people feel like they have some sort of advantage over others in beating rush hour. Trust me, it doesn't make any difference. Rush hour is rush hour, it sucks and if there was a way to beat it, everyone would be doing it by now. Go ahead and listen to those traffic reports, though, maybe it will at least make you feel better knowing that thousands of other drivers are suffering along with you.

Look through any magazine rack and you will find all sorts of magazines. Men's fitness magazines fascinate me a lot, because every month there is a new issue, and every month on the cover they have some new fantastic way to get "rock hard abs." Seriously, every month, every issue, same old stuff. You'd think that every known method of working abs would have been covered by now. How in the hell do they come up with new things to put in new issues every single month? Same goes for Star Trek and Karate magazines, there's got to be some limit to new things you can write about an expired TV show or an ancient martial art.

Maybe the worst of all, though, is Cosmopolitan. I was kind of bored at Olivia's apartment a couple days ago, so I flipped through a couple of her roommate's Cosmos on her coffee table. All I can say is man, is that magazine trashy or what? And apparently it is one of the best selling magazines because I see it everywhere. With these, every issue ends up having the exact same features in one form or another:

- How do I know if this guy is interested in me?
- How do I make my man desire me more?
- What's the best way to fix a chipped nail?
- Stories about what sweet thing my husband/boyfriend did for me
- Stories about getting caught having sex in public
- Recipes for losing weight
- Cutest new outfits to wear for every occasion
- Who was George Clooney with last night?

Oh my gosh, I cannot understand why that magazine is so popular. It provides no real useful information as much as I could tell. I'll acknowledge that because fashion trends change and gossip is always new, new issues each month make a little more sense than Star Trek Monthly. Unfortunately, the rest of that magazine does not make any sense at all to me. It's kind of funny to read, but I don't understand how women can read that same old bullspit over and over, and hold it so sacred to their heart as if it was their Bible.

As for these so-called men's magazines like Maxim or FHM, they may appear like they are the male's counterpart of Cosmo but make no mistake about it: guys buy it based on the hot chick on the cover, not for the relationship advice. I mean come on, trusting your relationship to a magazine like Maxim is almost as bad as getting your allergy prescription filled by a crack dealer. If you ever read the stuff in Maxim you will find that it is more funny than useful. But the thing that scares me about Cosmo is that I think many women actually take the things they write in there seriously. Yeah right, if you were not attracting guys before, you will suddenly blossom into an irresistable goddess after reading the "secret tips" in that magazine. Or, your doctor, after years of study in the field, can't help you lose weight, but some half-wit columnist is suddenly gonna let you in on the easy trick to drop 20 pounds in 2 days.

There's plenty of things in this world that don't make sense and are actually worthless if you just take a step back and think about it objectively. It would help to understand ourselves in what we really are looking to accomplish by the things we do. Traffic reports don't really have much practical use, as far as I can see, but people still listen to them all the time as if it did. Ab workout tips, Star Trek News, and Cosmo advice on how to get guys doesn't really merit the space of weekly/monthly magazines, either. I can only assume that we look to these things and hold fast as a way to feel like we have control over things that we don't. Everyone likes to feel like they have some "inside scoop" on everyone else, like they have an advantage over other people by listening to the radio or reading a magazine. In reality, all of these things amount to is a significant waste of everybody's time. The fact is, there is no way that they can possibly solve all the problems you think it will, so you should either look for a solution from a better source, or find some way to simply deal with the problems that you do have.

Anticipation

The best things in life are those things you don't expect. When you build up something to the point of thinking it will be the second coming of Jesus, you are bound to be disappointed. It's those times that something nice happens unexpectedly that I have found to be the most rewarding.

For example, movies. I already wrote a little about this before, but the big-budget hyped-up supposed "box office smashes of the summer" almost inevitably fail to reach expectations. Movies like Pearl Harbor, Star Wars Episode I, Wild Wild West, etc., get so much attention before they even open, such that when people go see it, they expect that anything less than the "Greatest Movie Ever" will be a letdown. On the other hand, movies like the first Scream, Clerks, or Swingers don't receive nearly as much press, and they are that much more enjoyable to watch, when we don't expect it to be eight-thumbs up and flat out awesome. That's why I don't like to read critics' ratings, or pay that much attention to previews for that matter. And I rarely get that excited about an upcoming movie that hasn't come out yet, except for maybe Austin Powers movies or Star Wars movies.

When I was in junior high, life was basically eat, sleep, school, and Super Nintendo. Any time I had friends over, all we would do was play video games, and if we couldn't be playing video games, we would talk about them, like what the latest codes were. Either that, or we'd be reading our EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly). Nerds, I know. Anyways, there was a time when the hottest new game coming out was NBA Jam, originally only found in arcades but now being converted to SNES. Having burned endless tokens playing the game at Enchanted Castle over the course of a few months, I was thrilled that I would be able to get the game and play it at home as much as I wanted (provided that I did my daily sheets of math problems and my mom and dad approved). Plus, EGM said the home version was gonna be awesome, and back then I did not realize that all these magazines depend on advertisements from video game companies, so they would almost never diss a game by a big company like Midway.

I waited day and night for the release of NBA Jam for a few long weeks, like I had never waited for anything else in my entire life. I drew NBA Jam logos on my binder when I was at school. I taped up an ad for the game on my wall in my room and counted down the days (March 4th, 1994, isn't it disturbing that I still remember the exact date?). At Toys-R-Us, you could pre-order it, and of course I was one of the first in line. When the day finally came, I called the store to see if it was available and when the lady told me it was, I jumped on my bike and raced there. All I can remember is the feeling of pure excitement as I was riding to Toys-R-Us and picking up this little cartridge that was gonna be the best game ever made.

It turns out that while NBA Jam was good, it never really ended up being as incredible as I expected it to be. The graphics were never as good as the arcade, but the fact of the matter is that after counting down the days for a month or so (which is like an eternity when you are a kid), nothing short of perfection would have been worth all the anticipation. I was a disappointed because I had set myself up for disappointment.

When I was in high school, my mom was panicking because I was always one of the shortest kids in my class. She would make me drink milk all the time, and constantly correct my posture, basically do anything she thought would make me grow taller. Eventually, I did start growing, but I doubt it was because of what she made me do. The point of the story is that for years, my mom got me thinking that growing tall was the only thing that mattered. If I could just grow taller, all my problems would be solved. But now that I am almost 6 ft in height (which is not necessarily considered tall but it's decent for an Asian guy and a whole lot bigger than what I used to be) I find that it doesn't make me glad in any way. Maybe being 6 feet tall is actually a world better than being 5 feet tall, but I don't notice any sort of difference in the way it makes me feel.

I noticed similar things about my years in college. We would spend a great deal of time and money to plan a few big parties for someone's birthday, graduation, or whatever, and look forward to them for weeks in advance as motivation for studying. The parties turned out to be fun times, no doubt, but my favorite memories are of other things. What I enjoyed the most in those years and miss the most now is stuff like playing cards on the Quad, or the times I spent lifting with the same 3 boys in the mornings every day, or watching the Bears' amazing comebacks in each others' apartments and destroying all the blood vessels in my hand from giving people high-fives afterwards. I miss the pickup games of softball, random tackling of people at inappropriate situations, a couple memorable games of Starcraft (haha), and thowing tennis balls at each other's cars while driving down Neil on a Saturday afternoon. Organizing things is great, but it's the spontaneous things that are the most unforgettable, and the unexpected things that turn out to be the most fun.

In sports, it's the same. When the White Sox signed Albert Belle back in the day to bat behind Frank Thomas, I thought we were gonna be awesome. By now we all know that it was a disaster ("we" being baseball fans). But a couple years ago, the Sox came out of nowhere as a bunch of no-name scrubs and took the AL Central easily. As a fan, that year was probably one of the best I can remember, even though we got swept out of the playoffs in the first round and sucked the years after that. Illini Basketball came off an impressive run to the Elite Eight in 2001, and the next year we came back ranked #2 in the nation, eventually making it to the Sweet Sixteen. Undoubtedly, 2001 was sweeter, and much more so, even though we only made it one round further. This is because we weren't really expected to be that good, but the team treated fans to a pleasant surprise.

What I'm saying here is not that we should live with low expectations. But I do think that a lot of us pin our hopes of happiness on certain things we shouldn't necessarily count on. We, including myself, think that life would be so great if only we won the lottery, had a better car, lived in Florida or Hawaii, had a good girlfriend/boyfriend, or looked more attractive. If only this, if only that. Not just the big things, but the little things. When we go to a restaurant, the food has to be delicious, waiter has to be polite, and bill must be cheap for us to be satisfied. If a fork is a little dirty or your meal arrives late, it can flat-out ruin the night for some people, just like that.

For me, I once thought that to be happy, I needed to find an engineering job like everyone else out of school, move out, and live the young, urban, professional life. When things didn't work out that way in the past year or so, the easy thing to do would be to curse the economy and curse the system. To a large extent, I do wish that it was as easy to find a job now as it was three years ago, but if I let myself cry and feel sorry for myself in disappointment that things didn't live up to my expectations, then I would be missing out on so much.

Working at home with my dad was never the plan, especially since I never had much of a close relationship with him, and because I knew basically nothing about the business world. But not finding a job out of school has turned out to be an opportunity and a huge blessing in disguise. I've gotten the chance to learn how to manage money and invest for a living. I've finally been able to understand and fully appreciate how my dad worked hard and supported his family for over twenty years. And I've gotten to know and better love a father that I had lost touch with over the course of the past 10 years or so of my life. Not only this, but I get to stay around this area and continue to spend time with old friends, keep in touch with college people, and see my girl a whole lot more often than I ever got to before.

If I had chosen to wallow in the fact that I spent 4 years studying in school for a degree that has thus far been worthless in terms of finding a job, then I might very well have missed out on the beauty of the situation I find myself in now. Even though I still plan to find a full-time engineering job soon, or eventually pursue a graduate degree, I would not have given up this summer for anything.

So, we all have the choice of how to look at things we face. Not everyone is blessed with as much as others, but everybody should have at least something that they are glad for. In the process of complaining about a rude waiter, you might fail to notice that your food is exceptionally good. If you continually tell yourself that you can't wait to retire to sunny Florida, you might never appreciate the fact that you grew up in Chicago with the chance to have snowball fights and go sledding.

What I'm saying about expectations is this: while it's good to have high expectations, our lives shouldn't revolve around them. "Take it one day at a time" is probably one of the most annoying cliches, but it is a good way to live and I am still trying to fully understand what it means. I don't get super excited about many things and I don't get extremely depressed about things either. I think we'll all be a lot more happy if we just take it easy and take whatever comes in stride. Appreciate the big things as well as the little things.

Don't think I'm trying pretend to be some sage man who's got everything together all the time, cause I'm not. Probably everything I write has been written before anyways, and in far more eloquent form at that. But sometimes I get struck with some thoughts that I believe are too valuable to me not to write down and record somewhere. I write my blogs for myself as much as I do for other people who read it, if not more (that is probably why I write so much and so often). And I honestly hope that someone gets something out of the things I write, myself most of all. Oh, please do remember that I never intend to write something long and tedious, things just blow up on me. I'm also thinking that maybe I share a little too much about myself, such as the NBA Jam story, but by now everyone knows what a big nerd I am. So oh well, why bother trying to deny it?

More Sizappiness and Nostalgizzle

People are probably tired of hearing my whining about missing school by now, but too frickin bad. Just seeing everyone move back and starting a new year of class makes me more than a little sniffly.

Life at home is nice, but there's just nothing like living on a college campus. Almost everything is within walking distance. Restauarants, bookstores, bars, friend's apartments, softball/football fields, pool hall/bowling alley, workout facilities are all around the corner.

There's crime, but you definitely feel safer than walking in downtown Chicago, and worrying about drunk college kids is about all that's worth considering. In fact, it's almost like living in a bubble, isolated from the rest of the world, and you have travel 2 hours from civilization to reach it.

Waking up early is optional but most of us pull it together despite staying up into the wee hours playing Starcraft or next video (the show was called After Hours, Vic... and after that was Dawn Patrol). Unhealthy eating habits and an irregular schedule are long gone for me by now, which is probably for the better, but I can't help missing those days of gross irresponsibility.

5 bucks could get you a pitcher of beer on almost any night at a Champaign bar, not just one bottle like in the city. IMPE was free for all of us to use, same with computer labs all over the place.

Everybody cheered for the same teams, Illini Basketball and Football, and the entire campus felt noticeably different any time a big game was going on.

Pretty much all of the people you see on a daily basis are your age, meaning that they enjoy all the same things you do, suffer the same life of class, studying, and exams with you, and basically see life from the same perspective.

There are things I don't miss, like exams, loud neighbors, and getting nailed by the bookstores every semester, and I would not go back to school just to re-live the good times. It's just weird, once in a while I'll think about all the stuff I miss, and it comes back in a huge wave of some emotion - nostalgia, maybe, I don't even know what that means really.

Fantasy Sports Ramblings

Ok, probably the best thing about the growth of the Internet in the past few years is not the convenient access to news, email, mp3s, or even AOL Instant Messenger. It's fantasy baseball and football. Besides Starcraft, it was probably the single biggest distraction from studying at school. During baseball season, every day I would rush back to my apt after class (or skip class entirely if there was a crucial pitching matchup) so I could watch a game on TV. At nights, when studying at Grainger, I would have to periodically visit the computer lab so I could check how my players were doing. Many times, what was supposed to be a short visit would turn into an hour of watching GameCast.

When football season started, all day Sunday and Monday nights were almost forbidden times to do any school-related work. So basically, during the school year, there is about a 3 or 4 month window in which I was not constantly thinking about my fantasy team. I think it just so happened that I would do the best in my Spring semester classes, especially exam 2, but I may have to look into that in more detail. If Starcraft lowered my cumulative GPA by half a point, fantasy sports probably took care of pretty much the rest for me. Sad but true.

It's a fact that to some extent, fantasy sports has taken away a little bit of the purity of sports fanhood, though this probably applies to some people a lot more than others. I've never really been able to appreciate the talents of Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk when they would regularly rape my team and put me out of contention every year. I just can't bring myself to like the Rams because it has become my instinct to hate them. Same goes for the Diamondbacks, when Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling destroy the rest of the league by putting up ungodly numbers. On the other hand, I find that I am an even bigger fan of guys like A-Rod, Mariano Rivera, Robb Nen, Alfonso Soriano, Mike Mussina, and yes, even a jackass like Barry Bonds, because they have carried my team so much in past and present years. (I purposely did not mention my specific favorites in football because there is a draft coming up and I know people will try to annoy me by taking my boys early).

A side story on jerseys while I'm on the general topic of sports fanhood: Yesterday I saw a guy wearing a Carolina Panthers Joe Nedney football jersey. It's hard for me to imagine a good reason for spending 40 bucks or so to buy the jersey of a kicker, who isn't even especially good. I can only guess that Joe Nedney is his cousin or maybe he is a really big Panthers fan. Come to think of it, there is not a single player on the Panthers who is good enough to warrant buying a jersey. So I suppose if that guy was indeed a huge Panthers fan, a Nedney jersey is as good as any.

Then again, I bet a lot people are puzzled when they see me wearing my Yankees Mussina jersey T. Even if I was a big Yankees fan, Mussina would probably be among the least common jerseys to get, considering that the team has a wealth of flashier and more popular stars like Jeter, Giambi, Clemens, Soriano, Rivera, Williams, and so on. But of course, there are reasons why I have Mussina. First of all, back in the day I was somewhat of an Orioles fan, when they had guys like Cal Ripken, Scott Erickson, Brady Anderson, Robbie Alomar, Rafael Palmeiro, and my boy Harold Baines. If you liked the Orioles in those years, you had to like the Moose. Then, the first year I joined a fantasy baseball league, I ended up with him on my team, and he turned out to be probably my only good player and most consistent pitcher. So I got him the next year, and the next, to the point where every team I ever owned had to include Mike Mussina. Thus, when my sister told me she was going to New York with her friend, and asked if I wanted anything, I told her to get me a Mussina jersey. Later, I found that wearing it on days he was scheduled to pitch was good luck, and even though I am not a superstitious man, fantasy baseball is fantasy baseball.... quite important to me.

Anyways, I have noticed certain jerseys are so popular these days that it is ridiculous and annoying. Everyone and their mom has an Iverson, Darius Miles, Sosa, Randy Moss, etc. Urlacher #54 is an exception because he is on the Bears and he is awesome. Same goes for Jordan #23 (Bulls only). But nobody I know of has a Mussina #35, so I can rest assured that I won't look silly walking down the street if I pass somebody with the exact same thing on.

Ok, back to what I was talking about originally. The real conflict that fantasy sports poses with real sports is when one of your fantasy players goes up against the team you root for in real life. For example, if Mussina was scheduled to pitch against the Sox. I personally hold myself to the rule that I should always root for the Sox, Bears, etc. over any fantasy players. Even if there is money in it for me in fantasy, I still gotta have unconditional love as a fan, right? So to minimize these conflicts, I often times bench my fantasy players when they go against my teams, and as much as possible I will draft guys from the Sox and Bears, even if they suck. Of course, one exception is like right now, when the Sox basically have no chance of making the playoffs, plus the whole baseball strike talk is turning me off from the game, so I can root for my players over the Sox as much as I feel like.

One thing I have found is that a lot of the time my overall mood is dictated by how my team is doing. That is true of sports in general, though. It just seems like when my team sucks, everything else in life sucks. Food doesn't taste as good, exams tend to be harder, and everything is a chore to do. But when my teams are flying high, so am I. You will be that much more likely to see me walking around with a smile on my face.

In my own experience, fantasy sports has only made being a fan more interesting. Yes, it wastes a lot more time when I end up watching a game like Panthers vs. Seahawks only to root against Shaun Alexander or something, but hey, that's 3 more hours I get an excuse to watch football instead of doing something useful. It's kind of funny if you think about it, I always feel like me watching my players will make them more likely to perform better. Or, I'll say something like "You've got Manning and I got Marvin Harrison, so I'm gonna have to root for more yardage since any touchdowns would cancel out." In reality, it doesn't matter who or what you root for, or how closely you watch them, but I still like to think I am somehow channeling my rooting energy through the TV to make my guys do better.

I'm gonna take this opportunity to list some characteristics that I have deemed important in a girl. (Maybe count this as an addendum or amendment to Dennis' list). Of course, not every guy has the same values as me or Dennis but you should all know what you want in your girl, from the big things to the extremely little things.

1. Understands the importance of fantasy sports - It might be near impossible to find a girl who likes fantasy sports as much as me but I'm happy as long as she doesn't get mad that I pay attention to Alex Rodriguez more than her. Haha just kidding.

2. Appreciates good music - Almost every girl I know of likes today's pop stars like N Sync, Nelly, Ja Rule, Pink, as well as every single mindless dance hit they play in clubs or on the radio. The real question is whether or not a girl can enjoy and value the old school and quality music too.

3. Not a Cubs fan - It's hard to be a legit Sox fan for anyone these days, but I could never be with someone who cheers for those freaking Cubs. I don't expect a girl to like baseball, but if she does, that's a plus. Going with me to a game is always nice too.

4. Likes cars - I don't want an import model or a hoodrat chick, and she doesn't have to change her own oil, just someone who doesn't abuse her car by driving like an idiot and hopefully knows the difference between a BMW 318 and a 330.

5. Not skanky - This is crucial. I don't wanna date a skanky girl.

6. Likes Adam Sandler and the Austin Powers series - If a girl fits this criteria, it means she is not easily offended or disgusted. Basically, she needs a good sense of humor, and to be able to understand my weird sense of humor too.

7. Likes seafood - As someone who loves crab, fish (including the raw variety of course), shrimp, squid, clams, etc., it's hard for me to imagine someone who would not love these things.

8. Plays Starcraft - Ah, yes.

9. Smells nice - Girls are supposed to smell girly, that's one of the best things about them.

Yes, in case you are wondering, Olivia does happen to fit mostly all of these little things, which is a good sign because I had come up with most of them in a mental list a long time before we got together. But it still drives daggers into my heart when she hates on Britney all the time. By the way, I am not sharing this list for her sake, because she doesn't even read my blog. I am writing it down more as some sort of informal record of my thoughts on the subject. Also, maybe it will provide something for people to think about or talk about if they read my blog. And don't mistake this to think like I only care about these things, because there are things that are more important to me of course, I'm not that shallow. It's just a blog, after all, so I'm just writing whatever and don't take it too seriously.

While I'm at it, here are some things I don't care about:

1. Good dancer - I don't dance, so it doesn't really matter if she's the best dancer in the world, makes no difference to me. Then again, I have never met a girl who didn't like to dance. Now if she has a good voice, I definitely dig that a lot.

2. If she has other guy friends - I am not that much of a jealous type. I don't expect to be the center of a girl's life. If she is prone to want someone else when she already has me, then I'm better off without her anyways. It might be even better than her having all girl friends because girls gossip too much. Plus I am pretty secure and I am confident that I'm better than all of her guy friends. tahahaa

3. Cooks and cleans - Honestly, I don't care. Not that I'm against it, if she wants to do it, but I can take care of my own shiznit. Especially if she is gonna complain all the time about doing that stuff, I'd very much rather her not do anything for me. But my future wife has to be good about taking care of kids, that's a different story.

4. Athletic - It don't matter, as long as she's healthy and isn't gonna die of a heart attack at age 35.

5. Money - My love don't cost a thing haha. I don't think a lot of guys look for a rich girl, more the other way around, but I thought I'd list it anyways.

Again, I thought of all these a long time ago so it wasn't meant to apply specifically to Olivia. For example, I know she loves to dance, and she would not complain about cooking or cleaning, that type of thing. It's just good to know what's important to you and what is not, like I already said before. I think everyone should have something like my two lists, or at least a general idea.

So I'm sorry that my mind has strayed so far from my original topic of fantasy sports, but hopefully anybody that has read this far has found my thoughts to be worth your time.

Buy One Get One Free

Last week, I was listening to the radio and a commercial came on for one of those laser eye surgery clinic places. I forget how exactly the ad went, but the gist of it was "I bet you thought laser surgery was too expensive. Don't, we've got the lowest prices around, and the best part is, if you get one eye done, the second is always free!"

I don't know if anyone else has heard this same commercial (I think it was on B96 but I'm not sure, there are like 10 stations I regularly listen to), but hopefully someone out there is just as disturbed as me after hearing it. I mean, it's not like getting eye surgery is very comparable to buying tomatoes at the local supermarket, where they have buy one get one free. Admittedly, a big part of the reason I haven't gotten the surgery is the cost, but just as much a concern is the possibility that they might pork up my eyes and I would go blind for the rest of my life. So really, the last place I'd want to go to is somewhere that is advertising a Buy One Get One Free deal. I'm surprised they haven't sent out 30 cent off coupons in the mail yet, or maybe they have and I missed it. I can only imagine what kind of TV commercials they would do. It would probably turn out like those Eagle Man or Victory Auto Wrecker commercials, something so amateur it's a joke.

And shouldn't it be kind of implied that wherever you go for surgery, they would do both eyes, not just one? Who is gonna pay thousands for someone to fix one eye and not the other? I am guessing the one-eyed pirate portion of their customer population is very limited. Anyways, what am I supposed to do with one good eye, walk around with my hand over the one they didn't fix, looking like a flaming fool? Needless to say, you will not find me frequenting this organization for their services. I will continue to wear my nerdy glasses and struggle with the inconvenience of contacts until my trust is earned by the people in this profession.

Good Songs

My Winamp playlist right now:

Erasure - Chains of Love
Aaliyah - Those Were The Days
India.Arie - Simple
John Mayer - Your Body Is A Wonderland
musiq - dontchange
Clipse - Grindin'
Avril Lavigne - Sk8ter Boi
Ashanti - Happy
Erika - Relations
Sugarcult - Pretty Girl (The Way)
A-Ha - Take On Me
Alice In Chains - Got Me Wrong
Nas - Rule
Dave Matthews Band - Dancing Nancies
Radiohead - Lucky
Ludacris - Hoe-where

Weatherman

I've never understood why weathermen actually have jobs. They don't really seem to do anything useful, other than spew a bunch of garbage about hot and cold fronts. The thing is, I would love weathermen if they could actually tell me what tomorrow's weather would be, but the reality is that they can't. If you asked one to tell you if it would rain tomorrow, they would never give you a straight up "yes" or "no", am I wrong? Instead, they would tell you there is a "40% chance of showers" which honestly doesn't do me any good cause it's pretty much the same as saying "maybe it will rain and maybe it won't." Well, you could've asked me if it will rain and I could tell you the exact same thing. Man, all you gotta do is train a parrot to say "chance of rain" and you've got a weatherman right there.

It just makes me mad because out of the few times I've watched the weather report on TV, the forecast has been wrong almost as much as it has been right. So imagine if you had planned an outdoor activity at Great America or something like that, then you saw the weather report for 90% chance of rain so you canceled it. Wouldn't you be extra pissed if it ended up not raining, having changed all your plans because some chump told you it was gonna pour? It doesn't have to be just about rain, either. I remember once I heard it would be 80-90 degree weather, then I went to a Sox game or something in shorts and a T-Shirt and ended up shivering for three hours. That's just flat out poor, and the last time I'll ever trust one of those so called weather forecasts. I might as well have called up Miss Cleo and asked her for tomorrow's forecast, plus she could tell me if my girlfriend was seeing someone else or turning lesbian.

All this "40% chance of rain" or "highs in the 90's, lows in the 70's" spiel is just designed to be as vague as possible in order to hide the fact that they don't really know all that much about what's gonna happen. If it's summer, I could tell you that it will be somewhere between the 70's and 90's and you don't have to watch the news. And any schmoe who learned about cumulus clouds in 5th grade could probably predict whether it might rain just as well as Tom Frickin Skilling. How I don't have a big ol' billboard in downtown Chicago?

The worst part is that whether or not their predictions turn out to be right or wrong, there's really no consequences for these fools. Nobody is actually gonna go hunt down the weatherman and give him a beatdown for incorrectly predicting rain, so how can they be held accountable? So basically, I think the job of the weatherman is to look like a nice, harmless guy, who people will just watch and listen to without caring whether or not he knows anything. For real, the trick is that nobody can stay mad at a old bald guy like Tom Skilling. He's almost like Santa, or at least something like everyone's favorite uncle or grandpa. If he happens to make a good forecast, then we're all happy for him. If he's dead wrong, well, we can all forgive good old Tom, can't we? Plus, within a day, all is long forgotten. And I bet when he goes out to clubs, all he has to do is walk in and all the ladies would automatically flock to him because he's Tom Skilling, baby.

During my second year of college, my roommate (Anuj) always loved to check www.weather.com every day to see how the day would be. He would be like, "it's so convenient, you should try it," but to me, looking up the weather on the Internet bordered on being one of the queerest things to do. All I'd do was open the window (of my room, not my computer), stick my hand outside for a second or two, and that would be my weather.com right there. Worked just as well, if not better. I don't need a website to tell me if it's hot or cold, if it's raining or clear. Jigga please.

So seriously, why do these "meteorologists" have jobs when Engineers from U of I don't? The whole weather industry is one big sham, if you ask me, kind of like Hallmark. It basically exists to give certain people a chance to go on TV or radio or the Internet and pretend like they know something. And so that someone will actually buy Doppler radars or whatever crap machines it is they use to give us those oh-so-valuable incorrect forecasts. Can I just ask why there is an entire cable channel devoted to weather? I can't imagine anyone other than the most pitiful losers in this world who would actually watch this channel during the day for more than a couple minutes at a time. If you find yourself enjoying the shows they broadcast on The Weather Channel (TWC, as the hip ones call it), it's time to get some help. But you know, if I was good looking enough to be on TV, I'd probably go be a weatherman. I would just spend all day watching sports, and when it was my time to give a report, just make up something about the condensation coming off the lakefront meeting El Nino's grandson and generating dry and rainy weather throughout the day ranging from 0 to 100 degrees in temperature.

Ok, maybe I am being too hard on these weather people. I tend to get bitter about little stuff like this, but to be honest, I pretty much never pay attention to the weather forecasts now because it just doesn't do me any good. I guess if other people get their kicks from listening to someone else tell them what might or might not happen in the following week, then go ahead and don't let me stop you from doing so. Just think about what I'm saying here, cause I'm telling you, these weather people might seem like super smart characters but if it weren't for their fancy graphics and terminology, they wouldn't seem all that great. Overrated, I say.

In The Name of Love... What More In The Name of Love?

So me and Olivia had a "date" yesterday. Is it just me, or does that sound very high school-ish? Do college graduates/med students call these "dates" anymore? Anyways, we had dinner and spent the evening aboard the Spirit of Chicago, one of those 3-level boats that cruises around the lake for a couple hours, giving you a chance to check out the skyline and stuff.

But what I was really gonna write about is the act of buying your girl flowers. I guess I am just more self-conscious, but it seems like every time I do something like this, I am conscious of being surrounded by all sorts of women, young, middle-aged, and elderly alike. Inevitably, the cashier, or the girl behind me in line will be like "awww... isn't that sweet, I wish my boyfriend/fiance/husband would do that" which you might think would make me feel good, but really doesn't make me feel all that great. I mean, I'm sure they are trying to be nice and stuff, but first of all, it makes me seem like I am some sort of super old-fashioned guy who is totally whipped. Also, I can't help but think I just screwed over a whole bunch of guys whose girlfriends/wives are gonna go home and complain like "how come you never do anything special for me" or something like that.

Just to clarify, I don't think of myself as being terribly whipped (not like anyone would think that of themselves) but maybe I am on the old-fashioned side. Not that I do a whole lot, like write songs or poems and serenade my lady, just the basic stuff that a lot of people overlook. I think it depends a lot on the girl. If she cares about stuff like that, maybe it makes her a little more "high-maintenance," but at the same time, I think it's probably worth doing it if the girl appreciates it. So it all depends on the individual girl. There's no point in giving your jacket or shirt to her when it's cold, if she doesn't care for that kind of thing. In that case you will be unnecessarily freezing yourself. Maybe you could consider yourself lucky to have found a girl who is manlier than you.

As for me, I personally think I need a girl who is at least kind of girly and needs me, otherwise I will probably feel inadequate. Not that I especially love buying flowers and that sort of thing, but when I do, it's nice to know that it does make her happy. Usually all it takes is a smile and "thank you" to make it worth that dumb feeling from being around all those other ladies at the time when I'm getting those flowers.

Oh yeah, about the whole flowers thing, I really know basically nothing about flowers. I normally just get roses but I decided to mix it up this time, feeling a bit spice-ay you might say. Anyways, I was just browsing and looking for whatever flowers looked nice and smelled kind of good (I try to look as inconspicuous as possible when smelling flowers in public... don't wanna look too gay, but that unfortunatley leads to less detailed smellage. Good thing I took a class on Sensory Evaluation so I can use such fancy terms, eh?). Other than roses, it's pretty much a random process for me in picking flowers... so I just grabbed the coolest looking bunch and took it to the lady. Turns out that this whole bouquet cost like "ah" (pronounced "ah" like in "crap") dollar. So what's the difference between a $1 bouquet and a $40 or $50 one? Honestly, I have no clue. I'm sure girls would know the difference, though, so I will trust that there is some reason people don't just all buy $1 flowers all the time. But if someone can give me a quick tutorial on what to look for in buying flowers, please hook me up with an explanation. Thanks.

Ok, since my blogs have been too long, I will resist the temptation to drag this subject further. Plus, I can't really think straight right now because I have a song in my head. If you like hip-hoppy stuff and haven't heard "Grindin" by Clipse f. N.O.R.E. f. Lil Wayne f. Baby (I don't know what exactly it is), download it and give it a listen. I don't know why, it seems like such a sucky song when you first hear it but it gets catchy after a while, and all I can say is that it is mad stuck in my brain at this moment.

Starting a Webpage

Sorry if the title was misleading, but this is actually about why I have not started a webpage yet, given all the time that I put into making a blog. A lot of people have asked me why I don't make one, and I tell them that I have tried to start one many times, but I just can't seem to follow through with it. I guess the main reason is that I don't have much of a purpose to do it. I mean, it's not like I own a business or lead an organization which would need any sort of website. That's the biggest factor.

Another big reason is the bad taste left in my mouth from high school years, when everyone and their momma built themselves a makeshift AOL page. All these lame sites really did was make me want to vomit. Basically, each page was exactly the same layout: get a cheesy background, include some clipped images from other sites, find a MIDI of the Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playing Games With My Heart," add a bunch of pictures with captions (usually full-size, scrolling vertically down the page), and there you have it. Links to all your friends' awful pages is a must as well. Be sure to also add a guestbook and harass visitors like crazy to sign it too. "Don't forget to sign my guestbook!!" is probably the most used sentence to end those pages. In extreme cases, I'll occasionally get a little pop-up box that tells me to "Please Sign The Guestbook! OK/CANCEL," and inevitably I'll always click CANCEL. I wish there was a "Get the #^($ out of my face button." It's all a lot like that girl from Can't Hardly Wait, "Sign my yearbook? Sign my yearbook?" except it annoys unsuspecting folk all over the internet and you can't shove her into a pool. So after seeing how terrible a personal page can become, I decided that I must tread very carefully should I ever try to make one myself.

Now, even people who have made pretty good personal webpages probably have found that it is hard to keep it up to date. And, if it's not regularly updated, people won't visit it after a while and your page will quickly lose its usefulness. The same could go for blogs, if you go months without updating, what's the point of having one? So basically, you spend a couple hours, days, weeks, or whatever it is, working to build a page which people will come, browse for a few minutes, and that's about it. This is why you need a good purpose to make a page.

There's plenty of good reasons to make one, I know. It's a good chance to learn and practice HTML, Dreamweaver, Flash, Java, or whatever it is. You can post your resume in the hopes that an employer will find it and like you, or post your picture in the hopes that a fine Asian hottie will stumble upon it and come chasing after your hot body across the country. It could be a good way to express yourself, your interests, etc. like cars, religion, or mullets. My point is, you gotta have some strong motivation to build a webpage, otherwise it will either turn out like half-assed crap or it will not get done at all. Personally, like I already said, I don't have much of a reason to make a page and I tend to prefer the not doing, rather the posting of of crap (this blog is an exception).

See, in this blog, I actually write more for my own benefit than for other people. I like the opportunity to clear my mind and write down all my scattered thoughts, which will hopefully be recorded for a long time such that I can come back in a few years and see what a freak I was back then. Honestly, even though it's definitely nice that people do read and respond to my blogs, I would probably still write in it if not a single person ever read it.

Before I wrap up yet another pointless, random entry, let me make a few more comments on good vs. bad personal webpages that might hopefully stem the tide of poorly made pages:

1. If your webpage has only one actual page, it is not a good webpage. I would hesitate to even consider it a real webpage. Every page should have a front page that at least links to some smaller sub-pages, instead of just lumping everything in random order onto one gigantic heap of confusion.

2. For pictures, using thumbnails is always a plus. There are fancy programs which will actually do this for you these days so there is almost no excuse not to use them. If you don't use thumbnails, try to organize it in some easy to view manner. At least if you have like 30 pictures, don't just pile all of them in full-screen size one below the next to form a crazy long string of images/captions, shrink them or something and put them so you can see 4 or 5 pictures within one window. I guess in this day of cable modem or whatever fast connection there is, it might not matter as much, but still.

3. Guestbooks are good - for guests. So it's pretty dumb to beg all your friends to sign your guestbook, who you probably see every day anyways. It's a nice place for people to leave comments if they randomly browsed onto your page and had some thoughts to share.

4. Almost any type of sound does not belong in your webpage. Especially MIDI's, they are extremely tacky and in many cases downright gay. Maybe in a few years, when computers and the Web as a whole are actually more multimedia and interactive, then sounds will be appropriate. For now, the only thing website sound does is annoy me like nothing else, make the site less professional, and at times scare the living crap out of me when I forget I have the volume turned up on my speakers.

I may think of more, but keep those tips in mind for now. Time for me to go again.

Recent Movie Reviews

I saw Signs the other day. (Don't read anymore if you haven't seen it). My friend brought up an interesting point - why would aliens invade our planet if they are hydrophobic? Earth is 70% covered by water, idiots. Aren't our bodies all like 70% water too? Also, is it just me, or is the idea that you can hear aliens communicating by radio (or baby monitors) kind of trite by now? You'd think they would use something far more advanced than RF, or at least a higher frequency than what an old baby monitor could pick up. These are guys with the capability of building those fancy spaceships to travel all over the universe, which seem to have some sort of cloaking device as well. Ok, I'm not seriously trying to be a nerd here, just trying to point out some legitimate concerns.

Other than that, it was an enjoyable movie. More as a funny movie than anything. The most hilarious part was at the kid's birthday party when the alien walked past the alley. Those aliens remind me of my grandpa, maybe it's just their hunched posture but still. Not that I have the best posture myself. My mom has always yelled at me for not sitting straight. That, and the fact that I refuse to wear sunblock or any type of lotion. I'd rather be burnt and have peeling skin, yo, wouldn't you?

Oh, back to Signs. How come they apparently own all these fields but nobody seems to take care of them? So the brother (Joe-ah-kwin Phoenix) works at a gas station right? But honestly, I don't think I saw a single tractor or barn or any farm equipment throughout the entire movie. Or is it customary that people just wander through others' fields in that town? And you know the guy (played by M. Night Shanana himself) that hit Mel Gibson's wife? How come he still peels out of parking lots and stuff? If I were him, I'd stop driving like a madman if I had killed someone already, you know what I mean?

I saw Austin Powers 3 as well, it was funny and not at all disappointing like I might have expected. Wise move to not give Beyonce too many lines, cause I was already getting annoyed at her saying "Shazzam" all the time. Anyways, if you liked the first 2 and haven't seen this one yet, for some freak reason, go see it, I highly recommend it. Plus, Britney has a small part in it too, which is a definite positive.

Probably one of the worst movies I've seen this summer was Mr. Deeds. I like Adam Sandler and all (Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison are 2 of my all-time favorite movies, period), but this movie sucked. There were funny parts, I'll admit, but overall, it just wasn't right. He's supposed to be more obnoxious, that's what we all love about him, isn't it?

I Am Sam reminded me how easily we all fall for a cute kid. Like Michelle in Full House, the kid (twins) from Big Daddy, Haley Joel Osment in Sixth Sense, etc. Especially girls, but everyone always likes to go "awww..." when a kid says or does something especially cute. Even me, I have a feeling that if I have a daughter someday, I will end up spoiling her. But yeah, this movie was pretty worth watching, not only cause of the little girl, it was a pretty good movie overall. Though I wonder, how does the retarded community feel about Sean Penn, a non-retarded man, playing the main part? I know for me, it's annoying when a white person plays an Asian on TV or in a movie, such as Mrs. Kwan in Mad TV for example. Not that being Asian is all that comparable to mental disability (quite the opposite in fact... muahah), but still. Is that politically correct? haha that reminds me of my favorite line from There's Something about Mary:

"Yeah, I work with retards..."
"Isn't that politically incorrect?"
"I don't care I love those goofy bastards!"

The best entertainment I've had lately wasn't from a movie, though. My dad dug up an old home video of me, my sister, and two of our best friends from 1994. I knew I was really short back then, but watching that reminded me of just how little I was, how my friend was like 6 inches taller than me. That, plus I had the token huge thick glasses and moppy hair. My voice was pretty high pitched then too. Keep in mind that I was already 14 years old by that time, it's a wonder I had any friends at all, let alone mack on any ladies.

Work is getting busy now, I better rage, yo.

More Thoughts on Music - Random Edition

If you are feeling too happy these days and need a downer, here is some sad news for you.

Britney's taking half a year off from doing new work. I wonder what she's gonna be doing? oh, I miss her already...

I remember when Nelly was just the guy with the "shimmy-shimmy cocoa pop" song (Country Grammar). Now he's all over the place. Even Justin Timberlake and N Sync want to work with him, it just doesn't get much cooler than Justin.... chance of a lifetime baby (giggle). But he's singlehandedly put St. Louis and their way of life on a national level. He's made it cool to say "herre" instead of "here," and kept most of us (or maybe it's just me) wondering what EI means. I just like him cause he raps about baseball or basketball (like the song "Batter Up" or "I play my position like a shortstop," or "I'm just Kidd-in' like Jason").

Why doesn't Chicago have any good R&B or hip-hop artists? NY's had so many stars, past and present, like Jay-Z, DMX, or Alicia Keys just to name a few in recent times. LA had Dre, 2Pac, etc. Atlanta's got TLC, Ludacris, Jermaine Dupri, Monica, Usher.... probably more I'm missing. All we got is R. Kelly, an accused pedophile whose only songs I really like are I Believe I Can Fly (played out by now) and Feelin On Your Booty Remix (played out in Apartment 312 at least). It's not like we're in Green Bay or something, Chicago used to have a really rich jazz/blues tradition, didn't it? Thank goodness that we at least had the Pumpkins in the world of alternative rock.

Maybe with the lack of talent in this area, I should start my own musical career. Probably not though, because I don't have much creative spirit in me. Then again, there is some utter crap I've heard on the radio over the years that shows you don't need to have much creativity in this business.

I think one of the reasons I love and appreciate music so much these days is that I personally suck so much at it. I remember when I was little, my mom made me take piano lessons and my sister take violin (that is another Chinese parent thing). I got ok after a few years, but not awesome. Especially considered to other Chinese friends and relatives I know. It's hard to be good at playing an instrument you don't enjoy, and it's hard to enjoy something that is forced upon you like a sledgehammer, in the form of hours of practice when the other kids are out on their slip'n'slides or playing ball outside. No, no bitterness here.

I don't have a good voice either. So, I guess that means I have lower standards for singers (a la Britney). Not everyone can have the incredible range of Chras like when he does O-Town's "All or Nothing." Showoff.

There is a song lyric for pretty much any situation, I've found. "It's gettin hot in herre" is only the latest example. Every time I tell someone to call me, it's hard not to think of Le Click's "Call me when you're down... call me when you need someone..." or if somebody asks me how I am, and I say "I'm doin' just fine", Boyz II Men pops in my head. I remember recently, someone said something like "I wish I was a little bit older," in which case it was mandatory that the whole verse would follow:

I wish I was a little bit taller
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
and a six-four Impala - Skee Lo

Once, me and Piya (Mr. Smashing Pumpkins) were watching Scream 2 for some reason (don't ask), and Courtney Cox was trapped in the kitchen or something. Then she was like "Let me out!" and we almost simultaneously did the "Cherub Rock" version, *guitar* "let me ouuuut...." If you're not a Pumpkins fan, then I guess that story was pretty dumb.

Old school Snoop Dogg is pretty solid with the lyrics too. "So turn out the lights and close the door" ... "but for what? we don't love them hoes" or "Don't cry" ... "dry your eyes ... and here comes your mother with those 2 little guys" is what me and Olivia would always do.

I'm just waiting for the day when a half Japanese girl will diss me, so I can use one of my favorite Weezer lines, "G--damn you half-Japanese girls... do it to me every time" Pardon the edit, I try to keep the language in this blog as clean as possible so as not to offend any readers. Too late for that, perhaps, but I try.

I'm glad Dennis has started a blog. I'm telling you, it's not like I try to write long entries. In fact, I try my best to cut down. It's just that I am overflowing with thoughts and I don't want to deprive everyone of more of my fine self. tahaaa.... Anyways, everyone's blog that I read is pretty good. I enjoy checking them during the day when I'm not busy working or writing my own. Keep writing...

My Mom and Technology

Almost all moms known to man have problems grasping the basic concepts of technology, but even I was surprised this morning by how bad my own mom is at understanding these things. I was trying to help her sign in to Instant Messenger on a new computer, so I asked her for what her screen name and password were. Turns out, she didn't know what her own screen name was, despite using it every day on our old computer to communicate with us in working hours. We're all used to the Automatic Login by now, but still... is it too much to ask to remember your own screen name? Anyways, I was pretty sure it was "Ruyee56" but she insisted that it was "RuyeeC," so I figured, she must know what she's talking about cause after all, it's her screen name, not mine. Eventually we figured out that I was right and she was wrong, not that I should have been too surprised, but it's just that she sounded so sure about it before.

Oh yeah, then I asked her to type in her password and she asked me, "You mean the one I use to login Yahoo! Mail?" Umm.... I don't know, you tell me, Mom. Thankfully, it was the same password.

I guess I shouldn't laugh at her too much about being computer inept. She's pretty solid in most of the other mom rating categories. And I'm sure she was pretty frustrated trying to teach me the alphabet, multiplication tables, how to take a bath, or how to cook.

One more thing, please don't add my mom to your buddy list and hit on her. She's a nice lady, but she's taken, ok? Just try not be a desperate perverted psycho.

Cops

Hey, everybody loves cops right? Well, as much as we all collectively adored the heroes in New York for 9/11, I must say that my personal experience with police officers has not been all that positive. Granted, I'm dealing with mostly traffic cops, a bloodsucking breed that we could probably all do with a lot less of, rather than those that fight real crime and actually "serve and protect." God bless the good cops, but this blog is for the ones that suck. I'm not trying to generalize, but everything I'm about to write is from my own experience, so jusrede and decide for yourself.

I think the first time I got pulled over was one Friday night, 2 or 3 years ago, coming back from church with my Mom and my sister. We were stopped at a light on 75th, and I did not notice that there was a cop stopped behind me. When it turned green, I guess I accelerated a little aggressively, and the flashing lights went on. I pull over into a little parking lot, and this officer walks over.

If you can picture this scene, there was me, a nerdy Asian boy in the driver's seat, my mother next to me, and little sister in the back, all of us dressed in church clothes. I wonder what was going through this cop's mind when he saw us there, but having already pulled me over, what else could he do but come and ask for my license and try to act intimidating nonetheless? "Do you know why I pulled you over? It's a 45 zone, I clocked you going 65, son." For people who think police officers don't lie, there's simple proof that they do. I wasn't going 65, he knew it, I knew it, my mom and my sister knew it too. Maybe I wish my car could go from 0-65 in like 3 seconds and 20 ft from being stopped at a light, but that is not possible in a 4 door family sedan. Anyways, I figure he was just trying to justify his pulling me over for little more than the feeling of annoyance that someone would accelerate quickly in front of him. All I could say was "uh... I wasn't going 65." So he kind of gave me an irritated look, glanced at my license, and said "Well, slow down, Joseph", then turned around and went back to his car, probably feeling somewhat dumb. Me, my mom, and my sister were just like "umm.... ok" and continued on home thinking about what a waste of time that was. But yeah, that was my first experience being pulled over, and even though I didn't get a ticket, it left a bad taste in my mouth for traffic cops.

Unfortunately, it was my first but not my last time being pulled over. Maybe a few months later, I was coming home on Labor Day weekend (like the first few weeks after class started, is that Labor Day or Memorial Day? I can never get those two straight), and I was also taking some people in my car too. Back then, I used to take IL-47, one of those 2 lane highways where you have to pass in the oncoming traffic lane. Back then, I was also much more speedy in my driving. Anyways, I was just flying along, like I was Speedy McSpeedster or something, doing between 90-100 for most of the way (in a 55 zone). Honestly though, it was a pretty "safe" 90-100, cause I would tone it down in areas of more traffic. What, you think I'm reckless or something? It so happens that about halfway in the trip or so, I note an oncoming car, and much like I did the whole way, I slowed down to a cool 70-80. Unfortunately, this oncoming car was carrying our friend Mr. Illinois State Trooper, who happened also to have his speed radar on. In case you are wondering if a cop can track you and pull you over going the opposite direction, I am giving you the answer of an emphatic yes.

Ok, so this scrawny looking cop comes up to my window, asks for my license, that whole thing, and says "I had you clocked at 89 back there, you in a hurry to go somewhere?" So I was like, "Umm... church," which was actually true, but it doesnt matter cause this cop didn't really give a hoot (Why are people so stingy with hoots anyways? Are they that valuable, so expensive that nobody ever wants to give a hoot?). So, I was kind of in a rebellious mood, and going against my better judgement, I decided to flat out deny going 89. After all, I did slow down when I saw the cop, to under 80, like I said. This denial thing proved also to be a fruitless gesture, but what it did accomplish was to get me a warning and repair order because I didn't have a front license plate. So then I pointed out that maybe his radar reading was on someone else. Sorry, no luck here either, because he had enough space to stop, turn around, and chase me down before another car appeared. Fudgesicles.

Then, I thought I would be a badass and ask to see his radar for myself. "No problem," he said, and then he took me back to his squad car. Sure enough, it said 89. "Dammit," said I, so being the logical man I was, I followed with, "your radar must be broken or something." As you can see, I was not only logical, but stubborn and unwise as well. On the other hand, this cop was a clever one, and he proceeded to pull out these tuning fork type things. Showing me, "this one is the 25 mph fork, this one is the 45 mph fork," then he hit each of them, put it in front of the radar, and yes, to my dismay, they did ring up to show 25 and 45. For extra emphasis, he hit both of them and stuck them in front of the radar simultaneously, showing two distinct readings on two screens - I guess these modern radars are designed to be able to read the speed of more than one moving object at the same time.

I probably would have been more impressed with that snazzy feature, if it weren't for the fact that I had no more excuses and by now I was looking pretty dumb. It didn't help that I was about to get a ticket that would eventually cost me about 200 bucks and force me to drive like a grandma for 3 months under court supervision. And, I would later find out that numerous friends taking 47 that day saw me pulled over as they were passing by. It's all that stupid cop's fault.

Another kind of amusing fact about that episode was that maybe 15 minutes after getting that ticket, I passed another cop going somewhat fast. This one didn't pull me over, he just kind of shook his head and glared at me. I think Grace would remember that one since she was in the car and pointed it out to me.

Well, you won't find me admitting it, but maybe getting that ticket did cause me to drive more conservatively, cause I didn't get another ticket for almost a year. In the name of not drawing out this blog excessively, I'll summarize. The following summer in Champaign, I got a ticket for going 39 in a 30 zone on Green St. I remember in that time, the Goods was with me so he could tell you what happened. This time, the officer asked me if I was in a hurry. I was tempted to tell him we were late for some Big Macs at McDonalds, which is where we were actually going to meet the other boys, but I doubt he would have given a hoot about that. Maybe if I made up some story about my wife giving birth or something, but I'm just not clever, especially not in thinking on the fly. Plus I probably don't look like I'm married. Still, 39 in a 30?? That's pretty freaking poor. Especially considering that my last ticket was for 34 mph - over the speed limit.

Then there was the time over last Winter Break when I got into an accident at Chinatown. Some guy was flying down Archer when I made a turn onto Wentworth. Then he tried to pass me on my right, except that was where the curb and parking meters were. Anyways, we called the cops, and first of all, it took them at least like 15 minutes to arrive on the scene. When they finally got there, the officer asked me like 2 questions and then wrote me a ticket for something like "Yield Left Turn Violation". I'm pretty sure the accident wasn't my fault; it's probably more just that they didn't feel like putting much effort into investigating so, why not just write a ticket and let me take care of it myself? Thankfully, I did take this one to court and the other guy didn't even show up, so they just threw out the ticket. Again, dumb cops.

Oh, and once I was ticketed for 81 in a 65 zone, at like 10 pm on a Sunday night or something coming back from home on I-57. There were seriously like no cars remotely close to me at the time. I don't see why the cop was there to begin with. I could have been going 120 and the only one in danger would have been myself, and maybe some possums. Certainly going 81 does not really warrant a ticket in that situation, I must say. But I guess I wasn't fortunate enough to be born with a pretty face or a nice rack. What can you do, cops will be cops. Sucks for me.

Alright, since this post has been pretty much pointless drivel thus far, maybe I should provide some useful tips for everyone out there to follow.

1. When driving to U of I, take I-57, not IL-47. This saves you time and also significantly reduces the chance of being pulled over by a cop going the opposite direction. Plus there aren't as many bugs or possums to hit, and you don't have to pass in the oncoming traffic lane, which makes your passengers nervous. Still, that doesn't mean you can't get a ticket on 57. Also, BEWARE OF IROQOUIS COUNTY! That place is a death trap, do NOT speed there.

2. If you notice a cop after you pass him, slow down. You might think it is too late, and you don't want to draw attention to yourself, but sometimes cops are in a noticeable spot not so much to pull people over, but to make people slow down. The worst thing you could do is keep speeding, because that tells the cop either that you don't care, or that you aren't paying attention as a driver. The dumb thing about my 81 ticket was that I actually set the cruise control at around 81, figuring that it would help me resist the urge to go a lot faster than that (which I probably would have). I didn't think a cop would care that much about me going 81 on an empty highway, but obviously one did.

3. If you are a girl, bat your eyes and turn on the charm. If you are a guy, just be polite and pray. Maybe you should think up a story too. Like you really gotta pee or something, and you have major UTI-phobia. It's worth a try, cause he's got you caught no matter what - arguing is only gonna make it worse (see 1st story).

4. Finding a "speeding buddy" on extended highway trips is only marginally useful. Whenever possible, stay in the right or center lane, and stay just within visible range of a speeder ahead. If you see their brake lights go on, it's probably wise to slow down yourself, even if you don't know why. It's very likely that they slowed down because they noticed a cop, not to check out one of the many hot chicks we always see walking around on the highway. Still, it's a lot safer to follow people or move in packs rather than to go alone. The chances of getting nailed by an undercover cop are much greater for the first guy who passes him.

5. Speaking of undercover cops, they are getting very sneaky with these things. I personally think it's worth it to pay attention to the people pulled over in areas you drive a lot in. For example, I've seen a lot ot people caught by green Mustangs, black Camaros, and white Ford Explorers. Sneaky sneaky. Don't forget to look out for the standard unmarked white or black Ford Crown Victorias too. And I might be mistaken, but I think in the Darien/Downers Grove/Woodridge area I once saw a souped up pickup truck chasing down someone with siren and lights. Take notice.

The best way to avoid speeding tickets is not to speed. But we all know this is unrealistic. Instead, let us all do our best to cheat the system as much as possible.

Randomness

I stole this title off of one of my favorite Thai people's blogs. I figured that I have been writing a little too formally lately, like too in depth about stuff, that I should write some of my more scattered thoughts. Such as, Thai people are cool. I don't think I've met a Thai person I didn't like. I hope people aren't insulted by my gross generalization of an entire ethnic group, but for the most part, I like how Thais are almost always chill... well marinated, you might say. And I think it's hilarious how they all have nicknames and I have no clue what to call them sometimes.

I miss the old TV shows I used to watch. I haven't watched Simpsons regularly for at least a few years. Those classic seasons of Simpsons are some of the best quality TV ever made. I also used to watch Home Improvement, Full House, Saved By the Bell, and Leave it to Beaver too, with my sister and my dad (my mom doesn't really watch TV). Pretty strange, eh? And last night, I watched an episode of Friends, an old one in syndication. I forget how good those seasons were. Yeah, it was kind of cheap soap-opera type stuff for a while, but they were all well written and worth watching. After I went to college, I kind of stopped watching any sitcoms or series and switched to late night Sportscenter reruns and MTV's After Hours.

Do they still have After Hours? I remember the days when me and the boys would sit around and watch videos at those unhealthy late hours and play "next video." Basically it amounts to predicting what the next video would be shown, and if you guessed right, you get a point. What a ghetto game, but it was seriously fun for hours. Especially after finishing a few hours working on an ECE problem set or combined with some beer and some heavy bouts of Goldeneye or NFL Blitz.

Only a handful of friends know what I'm talking about. I suddenly miss those days we would walk from IT to ISR at 4 in the morning. Or the time we waited early outside Record Service to meet the Pumpkins and then I got too tired and went back to sleep. I miss being a freshman, going to shoot pool instead of class, playing Starcraft a couple hours before a final exam, eating breakfast only after relatively unnecessary allnighters. I love my friends so much. All of you mean a lot, a whole lot to me.

I look back at how I always was scared of girls. I never knew what to say to them, how to act in front of them. Actually, I still don't, and I'm still pretty scared of girls, except maybe I can hide it better now. It's a wonder I have a girlfriend right now. I bet anyone who knew me back then is scratching their head wondering how that happened. I'm still just an awkward boy and I don't have a high opinion of myself, I honestly don't know why any girl would actually like me. I often see guys who seem to be so much better than me, who have so much more to offer than I do, but for some reason they have not found the right girl yet. That makes me feel all the more lucky, all the more thankful.

I wonder whether I have changed since I started seeing Olivia. I always promised myself that I would not ever diss my friends or my family because of a girl, and I hope I have followed through with that vow. Bros before hoes, they say... But I've found, as many others have, that maintaining a relationship is much harder than expected. I have also learned the hard lesson that it's not possible to please everyone. I don't wish to prioritize my relationships, but at times I am faced with that difficult choice in some way or another. Sometimes people leave me little choice. I'm really thankful for everyone who understands me enough to know that I try my best to do the right thing in every situation. I hate to make someone feel hurt or dissed, but unfortunately it has happened, and I don't think it's always my fault. There's not a lot I can do about those who choose to take things personally and assume that I'm trying to be rude or something. Still, I can't help but feel sad when any of my friends is upset cause of me.

I thank all of the true friends who aren't afraid to tell me something other than what I want to hear. Especially the girls I know who patiently listen to me talk about relationship type issues and give me good advice, because I'm pretty clueless. It's always nice to hear nice things, but there are times when it's important to be brutally honest.

A warning to anyone who knows me: be careful when you want to give me a hard time about something. I'm generally a very patient person and I try to be fair to others. I expect nothing less from my friends. If for some reason you feel like I have grievously wronged you, please think about it twice before you decide to attack me or confront me about it. I almost always give people the benefit of the doubt - so give me the benefit of the doubt. Try to see things from my perspective rather than assuming the worst. I hope people who have known me for more than a couple years would understand me better by now. I may seem passive most of the time, but don't take this for granted. Like I said, I'm a patient person, but once someone crosses the line, I won't hesitate to fight back and defend myself. Don't make me turn my back.

Friendship is a lot of give and take. Err on the side of giving more, don't be a taker all the time.

I wonder why so many people seem so desperate to be in a relationship all the time. It's like they can't be happy unless they are with a girlfriend/boyfriend. You shouldn't base your happiness entirely on your relationships. Worry about your own life first instead of expecting someone else to be the answer to all your problems, you will end up a stronger and happier person that way. I never had a girlfriend up till my last year of college, and I somehow did fine all those years. If I can do it, you can. And as good as Olivia is, she hasn't made every single thing right in my life, nor should I expect her to. At some point, (cue cheesy music) we all need somebody to lean on, but it's like we have all been listening to "I Need A Girl" parts I and II way too much, as awesome as P. Diddy is (snicker snicker).

I haven't played Starcraft in ages, it seems. I wonder if my skills have deteriorated severely. I haven't played any video games lately, come to think of it. I briefly considered getting a PS2 or GameCube, but only briefly. Maybe I am outgrowing those things, if that is so, I never thought the day would come. Video games have been a part of me my whole life it seems, since the days of Atari or original Nintendo. I know, how typically nerdy.

It's been a while since I've measured my own height, I think I'm close to 6 ft right now. But no matter what, I think I'll always feel short. Up through junior high and much of high school even, I was one of the shortest kids in class. I think it's hereditary because my dad said he was the same growing up, but my growth spurt didn't come till early high school and I feel like I'm still kind of growing now, at age 22. It's very possible that I could grow another foot and still feel short, because I grew up always feeling like I was short. Well, the growing another foot part isn't all that "possible," I'm just saying, you know...

My sister likes to snack a lot. She's always making popcorn, craving some junk food, making ramen noodles, and eating my candy. Me, on the other hand, I've had these fruit rollups, fruit by the foot, and Jolly Rancher chews in my room all summer and never touched it.

"Being there for someone" is one of the most underrated things, I've found. You can be the most dependable friend to someone, emotionally stable, and consistently loyal, but few people truly appreciate this much. The friends I've kept throughout the years are not the ones who always do things for me or the ones that hang out with me all the time. It's knowing that someone won't change, will be there for you if you need them. "A friend in need is a friend indeed."

One of the best things about girls is that they smell good. One of the bad things is that they usually suck at video games. Except maybe for Puzzle Fighter.

It may be many years before I buy a house, but when I do, I want marble floors in my bathroom. Something about marble is just cool, especially for bathroom floors. Maybe it is extremely expensive, but I don't care if the rest of the house is made out of dog poop, as long as the bathroom is marble I will be happy.

My old baseball/basketball cards are probably worth a decent amount by now, but I don't think I will ever sell them. I miss the days when I used to pour so much time, money, and effort into buying cards and getting special cases and sleeves to store them. It probably sounds overly sappy, but they have so much sentimental value that I want to keep them until I'm old and then pass them down to my kids. Every once in a while, I'll go back and look through them and remember when I was young, when opening a new pack of cards was the most exciting thing, and when Todd Van Poppel was a Hot Prospect.

I've always believed that if you want to talk smack about someone, you should be ready to say it to their face. Ripping on someone to another person is a real pussy thing to do. Occasionally I will catch myself doing that, but hopefully I don't do it too much. I try to avoid ripping on people too much, period.

Did I mention I like Thai people? I like people who are laid back in general, like me, and like Thai people. Life is no fun when people get mad about every little thing, and it's pretty downright miserable when you surround yourself with drama. Everyone could do themselves and everyone around them a huge favor by being more chill and lightening up a little.