Stream of Consciousness - Continued

I've been listening to mp3's so much lately, I forget that there is still a huge gap between mpeg-quality and CD-quality sound. Listening to my Alicia Keys on the way home today, I was reminded of that fact.

Circuit City is an excellent place to get CDs at a good deal. I got two quality CDs there for 25 bucks today.

One of them was the ZWAN CD/DVD combo. I've already heard most of the songs, so I already know the CD is gonna be good. Haven't watched the DVD yet, I'm sure it will be entertaining. But the best part of this thing, by far, is the STICKERS that are included. It reminds me of the old days of opening packs of baseball cards, or better yet, Botan Rice Candies. Probably only the chinkers reading this know what I'm talking about.

Did anyone hear the news about how Thai people and Cambodian people are throwing down in their respective homelands? Supposedly there's all these riots set off because some Thai actress said that Cambodians stole some Wat from Thailand. And now all the Thai people living in Cambodia are fleeing the country by airlift, while the Thailand border patrol has been instructed to bar Cambodian nationals from entering.

It's so sad that Asian people cannot get along. Across the board, you see tension and conflict, not only between races but within races. North Korea, South Korea. North Vietnam, South Vietnam (before the war was lost). China, Taiwan. And everyone still kind of despises Japan.

One of my upcoming political blogs will most likely be about the China-Taiwan situation, a subject near and dear to my heart. This is assuming the first few political blog entries don't flop and I'm not stoned for my controversial views.

Good thing that the tensions back in Asia haven't really transferred here. I'm friends with Thai people, Japanese people, Flips, Koreans, half-Cambodians, and Mainland Chinese alike. Today, I got a postcard wishing me happy birthday from one of my top 3 favorite roomates of 312, Ray, who despite being a mainlander, still represents all the way from UC Berkeley.

I'm watching the ZWAN DVD now. Matt Sweeney reminds me very much of Dave Grohl. Now there is some guy doing "the worm", he's not bad actually.

Happy Chinese New Year! Ok, so it's a little bit early, but tomorrow I will be busy partying up to celebrate CNW, so I might not write a blog. I'm scurred, my Grandma and Grandpa are crazy party animals so I might end up hammered. Maybe I will bring all the leftover MGD, Skyy Blue, and Mike's Hard that nobody drank during the Superbowl and get trashed with the 'Grands at their apartment, the Illinois Chinese American Residence for the Elderly (I-CARE).

I better not though, gotta wake up to go to work on Saturday at 8. Only a half day, but still sucks.

One last thing... apparently, after reading my blog last night, my sister IMed me to advise that I should wash my car. Cause it eats away at the paint. Haha gotta love my sister. I was just kidding about the salt thing, meh... don't worry.

Currently playing on my Winamp: The Used - Buried Myself Alive
Sorry, even though the guy and Billy Corgan hate each other, this song is not bad. A little on the pop-side to be played on Q101, but it reminds me of Eve 6 stuff.

Stream of Consciousness

I had a craving for some spaghetti and meatballs today for some reason. Though it isn't that hard to make, I didn't feel like doing it. Too bad there isn't a Fazoli's around here.

Besides Fazoli's, I also miss Murphy's down at Champaign. There was the Logo Cup Nights, good fries, and quality specials every day of the week. My personal favorite was Bacon Cheeseburger and fries.

I like McDonald's $3 deal for a Triple-Cheeseburger and Large Fries. The only problem is that it is pretty freaking unhealthy.

I feel pretty unhealthy right now. Haven't done squats in a few weeks and my whole lifting schedule is out the window these days. On top of it all, my sleep issues continue. I can't imagine a more frustrating feeling than being tired all day, struggling to keep my eyes open at work, then finally getting to my bed at night and not being able to fall asleep for an hour.

An hour is a long time to waste, yesterday it took an extra hour to drive home from work because of the snow. Today, I was able to leave work 10 minutes later, get rejected from buying the ZWAN CD/DVD combo from both Best Buy and Circuit City, fill up a tank of gas, and still get home earlier than I did yesterday. Stupid snow.

One thing that puzzles me is, why does snow accumulate on my car? I would have thought that the protective coating of salt that has steadily built all over my car would keep the snow from staying, but I guess it just shows that the salt has little use besides its pleasing aesthetic qualities. I wish they sold road salt in as a type of wax, then I would apply it on my car all year round. Well, I guess for now, I should be content to have a salt-covered car in snow season only.

I wonder if anybody who makes air fresheners for cars has ever thought of making a flavor for "new car smell". I really wish my car still had the new car smell. I'm sure it would sell so much better than the other crap that's out there. I don't want my car to smell like frickin pine trees. What do I look like, a deer hunter? An owl? A deer-hunting owl? No, none of the above. I want new car smell, yo.

Those 14 comments on that blog a couple days ago is probably gonna be a Dudo509 blogspot record for a while. Even though half of those are my replies to your comments, I'm still impressed. Usually when I see a lot of comments on someone's blog, it is either because they are part of a Xanga blogring with very active commentors, or it is because two people are arguing about something and it becomes a flame war. That blog was just another random blog, nothing controversial or especially thought provoking. I don't expect to get that many comments all the time, but it could always be a pleasant surprise.

I haven't done any serious blogs in a while. Over the next few weeks I plan to start posting a series of entries detailing my thoughts on today's political issues. We'll see how it goes.

Currently playing on my Winamp (I might start making this a regular feature): Rob D - Clubbed to Death

Gets you in a Matrix-y mood. Matrix Re-visited is coming...

Reverse Psychology

Yesterday was the first day in what will be at least 3 weeks of overtime. So my schedule will be, 8-5:30 on M-F, and 8-12 on Saturday.

After day 2, all I can say is, this sucks. It's not so much that I'm actually working an extra hour than usual. I've done that before. I think the thing that sucks is that I don't have a choice about it this time, and that I'm gonna have to do this for at least 3 weeks.

It's weird, back when I was a kid, I used to hate playing piano more than anything else. Now, I really wish I had more time so I could play for fun. You know that story in Tom Sawyer where he hoodwinks his friends into painting the fence for him? Well, I guess I am kind of like those friends.

Some things are ok, as long as I feel like I have a say about it. I don't know about the converse though. If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to play Starcraft all day, I don't think I would mind too much. Like that one Simpsons episode where Homer eats a forbidden doughnut, goes to hell, and they have a "Ironic Punishment Division". So they force feed him doughnuts expecting him to get sick of them, but he never does. Yep, that would be me, except substituting Craft for doughnuts.

What I Learned On My Weekend

- Superbowl Squares is one of the stupidest ideas ever. All it brought me was a night of misery: hoping for safeties, missed extra points, and 4th quarter field goals in a blowout. It's all Anuj's fault.

- There's plenty of fun to be had with digital cameras. Too much, in fact

- Kettle popcorn sucks

- Tombstone thin-crust pizza sucks. Haven't had the normal ones yet.

- Dave Chan + 151 = Bad news for me

- Britney cheated on Justin with Wade. How could she do such a thing? By the way: I'm just wondering, if a girl is dating someone like Justin Timberlake, would she still get pissy if he didn't call her often enough or plan special things to do on dates? Or would his hotness override all of that? Just a question to think about...

- Flaming Hot Cheetos and Sprite are good for satisfying cravings when it's that time of the month.

- Cosmo is a woman's Bible

- I learned that I really have no business being involved in "girls talk" in any way... it just doesn't work too well, I guess I lack the female instinct

- I am lucky enough to have some of the best friends in the world, and to have the best girlfriend ever too. Even though a lot of the people I'm talking about don't read this blog, I still had to write it down somewhere.

- Yep, still lactose intolerant. dammit

23

Thanks to everyone who happened to remember my birthday. I appreciate the phone calls, emails, e-cards, blog comments, blog entries, etc... If you didn't know it was my birthday, it's aight. I don't really talk about it much because I don't really celebrate my birthday. So I don't expect other people to celebrate my birthday, it's just a bonus when they do.

Me and Olivia went to Todai for dinner, which is a big Japanese seafood buffet place in Woodfield if you haven't heard of it. I highly recommend it to anybody who likes sushi, shrimp, crab, and oranges, especially make sure you go on your birthday cause they give you a coupon for a free lunch/dinner. The sushi is not bad, for a buffet, but the snow crab legs are simply to-dai for. Haha I was thinking of that joke all day at work, and when I finally busted it out at dinner, Olivia just gave me one of those "you are such a loser" looks.

Then we watched Just Married, which was pretty entertaining. Although it was cheesy at times, and I'm not a big fan of Brittany Murphy. But since Ashton Kutcher's performance in "Dude, Where's My Car?" was so inspiring, I decided to watch this movie. And now, I am eagerly anticipating "Seriously Dude, Where's My Car", which is gonna be the sequel. Seriously dude, that's the title.

You might all be wondering what Olivia got me for my birthday. Well, it was a 2 parter. First was the DVD for Crossroads (Britney Spears' movie). This was a very touching gift, because I know she had to swallow a lot of pride and personal distaste for Britney in order to make me happy. Definitely a good gift. The other thing was a picture frame, which folds out, and she put a picture of her on the left, a picture of me on the right. I would scan them and show them here, but these are pics of when we were like 4 or 5 years old and they are somewhat embarrassing.

I think tomorrow I am gonna go shopping at Best Buy and get myself a birthday present. There's a Sony flat-panel monitor that is attracting me, but I don't know if I will pull the trigger on that one. Maybe I will settle for getting myself a CD. Or maybe I will buy a flat-panel TV. Depends on how spendy I'm feeling. Last month my credit card bill reached a new high, so I should probably be careful. Oh well, we'll see.

R Kelly

I've always been a fan of R Kelly, he's got some pretty solid songs, plus he's from Chicago. He even wore a Sox hat in the Fiesta remix video, I think, another reason to be a fan.

So even when all the child porn accusations were coming out earlier this year, I tried to avoid judging him (see this written way back in June). And even though he got arrested this week for that stuff, the Ignition Remix is still being played the most on my mp3 player.

But one thing that has changed is that now I feel kind of uncomfortable listening to his songs. Like, I gotta wonder who's he singing this to, some 13 year old girl who has braces and a Pokemon lunchbox? That would really tone down my enthusiasm for his music, when you think about it like that.

It's kind of like listening to Erasure these days, after finding out that they are gay. Sure, they make good music, some of the best love songs ever made. But who were they written for? When he goes "touch me satisfy me, warm your body next to mine", I'd rather not be picturing a man. So I still listen to Erasure, I just have to block out homosexual thoughts.

Now when I listen to "Down Low" or "Bump N Grind", I have to block out thoughts of underage girls. It's pretty sick, you know, some of the kids I teach in Sunday School are like 11 or 12, not that much younger than 13 or 14. Even girls that are 18 or 19, legal, I would feel weird about being attracted to them.

And R Kelly is like 10-15 years older than me, what's the matter with him? Not to mention he could easily get plenty of 20-something girls with his status. I just don't get it.

Randomness

On the way to work today, I was driving behind a car with the following bumper sticker: "Horn Not Working - Watch For Finger". Which I've seen before, but this one was next to a fish symbol with "WWJD" written inside it. For those who don't know, the Fish on the back of a car represents Christianity, and WWJD stands for "What Would Jesus Do?" I guess Jesus would flip you the bird if his horn was broken.

I used to think birds were cool, but now I hate them. You'd think that since they're advanced enough fly, smart enough to fly in formations and build nests, that they would be way past the "spraying-their-crap-wherever" link in the stage of evolution. That's so unbelievably inconsiderate, I mean, do I go into your nest and take a dump on your eggs and stuff? No, so how about you foos stop dropping your nastiness on my car. It even eats through the clear coat, what's up with that.

There's one of these public awareness signs at work that says "Beware the Social Engineers!" and lists the suspicious characteristics to watch out for, like "outwardly friendly", "appear harmless" or "social conversationalists". It's actually a warning telling people not to talk about their project details with everyone, because there could be spies you don't know about who "appear harmless" as an average engineer. I just thought it was funny that there's a sign telling us to be wary of "outwardly friendly" and "social" engineers. It's true in general, if you think about it. Not many engineers are like me, the life of every party I walk into.

You know, if some ping pong balls had bounced differently in the NBA Lottery last year, we might have been looking at Yao Ming playing for the Bulls. That would've been awesome.

I think second-hand smoke is one of the worst things imaginable. Not only the "increased odds of lung cancer" thing, but basically, you get to smell and feel nasty without ever enjoying the nicotine high yourself.

Some guy just stopped by my house and when I answered the door, he was like "Is your mom or dad home?" What, do I look like a 12 year old? You need to talk to my mommy and daddy? Anyways, he was talking about wheelchair basketball or something so I was still polite.

Post Zwan Blog

After a long day of work, it was my turn to go with Master P to the ZWAN show at the Metro. The show was good, especially with Paz. I'm a fan now. She reminds me of Trashelle from Real World. I'm tired and I really need to sleep, being the old man that I am, so I'll just say, much thanks to P for hooking it up with the tickets. You get mad J-props.

DAMNATION I have just been informed that the Sox acquired Flash Gordon. Not good times, bad times.

Soundtrack To My Life

I feel like an old man lately, going to sleep early, waking up early, seeing high school kids wherever I go. And it doesn't help that when I listen to the radio these days, I hear stuff like "Killer B Flashbacks" or "Q101 Nineties Nooner" and it's all the stuff I used to listen to.

When I was a little kid, I thought my mom and dad were old cause they listened to stuff like Carpenters, Crystal Gale, Bee Gees, and J Lo. But now, kids probably think I'm old for liking Mariah Carey (pre-ho days), Stone Temple Pilots (pre-sucky days), and Boyz II Men (when they were actually Boyz).

Oh well, since I like to reminisce, why not make a list of songs that remind me of certain times in my life. These weren't all necessarily released in the exact time I list them in, they're just the songs I was listening to at the time. They're not all songs that I like either, but most of them are.

*The Year I Lived In Taiwan - Freshman in HS*

Sheryl Crow - All I Wanna Do
4PM - Sukyaki
All 4 One - I Swear
Boyz II Men - I'll Make Love To You
Mariah Carey - Without You, Anytime You Need A Friend

I think I woke up to Sheryl Crow on my clock radio at least half the days I was living in Taiwan. There's one English radio station that you can hear there (ICRT) and they always played like the top 5 hits on the pop chart over and over. So if it wasn't Sheryl Crow, it was Sukyaki. Back then I didn't really know anything about alternative music or hip hop stuff.

*Sophomore Year of HS*

Seal - Kiss From A Rose
Blues Traveler - Runaround
Ace of Base - The Sign, Don't Turn Around, All that She Wants
TLC - Waterfalls
U2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Real McCoy - Come And Get Your Love, Another Night, Runaway
Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise

This was when I got my own walkman (Sony WM-470, I saved up like 30 bucks for it which is a lot of money), and I started buying tapes. Either me or my sister own most of these tapes, but I don't know where they are anymore. Anyways, back at that time, we were just moving back from Taiwan so we had to stay with a friend's family for a few months. Even though they were very cool for letting us live there, it was one of the toughest times for me. I still kind of hung out with my old friends, but after a year out of the country, it wasn't the same.

Kind of sad, but my only close friend was my walkman. I would just listen to it all day whenever I could, and it was like an escape from the outside world. Maybe that is why music means so much to me today, cause it's all I had for a while.

*Junior Year of HS*

Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song, Big Empty, Lady Picture Show, Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Today, Tonight Tonight, Thirty-three
Green Day - Brain Stew, Basket Case
311 - Down
No Doubt - Happy Now?, Don't Speak, Just A Girl

The first CD I ever bought was Purple by STP. I still listen to it all the time, it's one of my favorite albums ever. Anyways, if you can't tell by the list, I pretty much had Q101 on all the time. I remember coming home from school every day, watching TV, then doing my homework to the Top 5 at 5.

Another thing that sticks in my mind from back then is when I was at the arcade at Yorktown, they were showing the video for "Don't Speak". For some reason, I was enthralled with the video, even if it was just pretty much the band playing in the garage. And even though I distinctly remember not thinking Gwen Stefani was hot in any way. Weird, but when I watch the video now, I think it is one of Gwen's best looking moments.

*Senior Year of HS*

Puff Daddy - I'll Be Missing You, Can't Nobody Hold Me Down, All About the Benjamins, Mo' Money Mo' Problems, Senorita
Backstreet Boys - Quit Playing Games, As Long As You Love Me
Allure f. 112 - All Cried Out
Babyface - Everytime I Close My Eyes
Usher - U Make Me Wanna, Nice & Slow
Sarah MacLachlan - I Will Remember You
Green Day - Time Of Your Life
Freak Nasty - Da Dip

I started listening to less Q101 and more B96 starting around the summer before senior year. Half of these songs stick out in my head because of all the stuff that goes on when you're about to graduate, like the Senior Video and Prom. I hated that Green Day song with a passion.

Also, I had no idea who the Backstreet Boys were, but when I finally saw one of their videos, it was one of the more shocking moments in my life. I don't know why, it's not like I expected them to look a certain way. But I could've done without seeing the Boys soaking in the rain.

*Freshman Year College*

N Sync - God Must've Spent A Little More Time, I Drive Myself Crazy
Paperboy - Ditty
Notorious B.I.G. & Bone - Notorious Thugs
Turbo - December, Goodbye Yesterday
Jinusean - Celebrate, Marl Hae Cho, How Deep Is Your Love
DJ Doc - Biguk Biguk, Docdance'
H.O.T. - We Are The Future, Candy
Kai - Without You
Fin.K.L - Blue Rain
Bone Thugs & Harmony - Crossroads, Mo Murda, 1st of Tha Month
DMX - Ruff Ryder's Anthem, How's It Goin' Down
Warren G - Regulate
Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time, Sometimes
Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way
Big Pun - Still Not A Playa
Master P - Make 'Em Say UHHHH
Boyz II Men - Human II

One of the first things me and Andy did when we moved into our dorm room at FAR was to download mp3s onto my comp. I don't know why I'm admitting this, but our first mp3 ever was "God Must've Spent A Little More Time...", back before Napster or Kazaa. We had to use AOL chatrooms, and eventually Scour.net to find songs. For a couple weeks, I think that was the only song we had, which is kind of flaming now that I think about it.

There's so many memories of this year and the music that goes along with it, this was probably one of the most musically-rich times of my life. The best moment of the year was the following story: Me Chras and Anuj up late playing Goldeneye or something one night at IT, and after we were done we were just watching MTV and one of those "Spanking New Video" or "Buzzworthy Artist" things came on. The video was none other than "Baby One More Time," little did we know how big that would explode.

For about half the video, the 3 of us were just silently watching, thinking like "what the hell is this?". Because there really wasn't much teeny pop music at the time at all and we were used to all hip-hop or alternative kinds of videos. Then near the end of the video (about when she's in the pink top doing cartwheels, then in the yellow with the basketball), Anuj was like "she's hot." Me and Chras agreed, and we went online to look up more information on who this Britney Spears girl was.

Believe it or not, there was ONE site returned from the search engine (remember Altavista?), and I think it was made by one of her relatives or something. Today, if you search for Britney Spears on Google, you probably have to sort through a sea of fake-celebrity porn sites just to find one that's actually on Britney.

Anyways, that was our first encounter with Miss Spears and I have been all about Britney Spears ever since. Except now, I hear she is seeing Fred Durst. Not that I liked Justin, but Fred Durst, I'm sorry, that's just freaking poor. If it's true, I must say I have lost a lot of respect (of whatever's left) for Britney.

Also, I am NOT Korean. Me, Andy, and Will were all Chinese, but we had a ton of Korean influences around and they got us listening to all the K-pop stuff that year. We even set my computer wallpaper to a picture of Hyori from Fin.K.L. And H.O.T.'s "Candy" is one song that I think every single Asian person our age knows, whether they are Korean or not.

*Sophomore Year of College*

Britney Spears - You Drive Me Crazy, From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart
Backstreet Boys - Larger Than Life, All I Have To Give, Show Me The Meaning, The One
Limp Bizkit - Nookie
Mo Thugs - Ghetto Cowboy
2Pac - (everything)
Rage Against The Machine - Guerilla Radio, Bulls On Parade
311 - Come Original
Smashing Pumpkins - (everything, but especially Machina songs)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Around the World, Otherside
Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly, Next Year
Yuki Hsu & Yoo Seung Jun - Deng Bu Ji
Mariah Carey & Brian McKnight - Whenever You Call
TLC - No Scrubs, Unpretty, Silly Ho

Ah... the thing I remember most from this year was the Craft & TRL tradition that me and P carried on almost every day. After class we played Starcraft almost every day, and in the background I always had MTV on. So I associate a lot of the Britney and Backstreet songs with this year. That was the life, playing Starcraft and listening to music.

Then there were the MarioKart battles in my room when we (all male college students) would be belting out the high notes of "Whenever You Call" at the top of our lungs. Good times.

Another thing to note was the concerts we went to - 311, Foo Fighters/Chili Peppers, and Pumpkins (actually that was the next fall for me). Not to mention Britney in the summer at Wisconsin. I think I already wrote about these concerts before so I won't write any more here.

And these were the days when I kept track of what songs were on my Rio on my .plan (remember those, the precursor to blogs). I was just going through some of those that I saved and I forgot how huge of a song "You Drive Me Crazy" was. That's still my favorite Britney Spears song and video of all time.

*Since Then*

I guess junior year of college and beyond is still too recent to really reminisce about, so I'll cut this list off there. Man, that was a lot of writing and thinking. Hopefully one day I'll look back on this blog and be glad that I wrote all of this down.

First Post From Work

Hopefully I don't make a habit of this, but I'm not that busy this morning yet, so why not write a blog.

My excitement is building with every day we get closer to baseball and Opening Day. Since I don't really care who wins the Superbowl, I need the baseball season to start right now. Till then I guess the Illini will have to tide me over.

Speaking of the Illini, man was that a frustrating game to watch yesterday. Losing to that queer-looking bunch of Iowa Hawkeyes is not cool. But at least that queen fairy of them all Puke Retcher isn't on that team anymore. We'll be fine, it's just one loss, but our defense on the road doesn't look so impressive. Especially Stick Smith, he's just terrrrrible.

One thing that doesn't excite me that much is the Sox getting Bartolo Colon. Somehow I think he's just gonna continue the tradition of offseason free agent pitcher acquisitions that come here and don't do jack once the season starts. David Wells started it, then Todd Ritchie continued it and took it to another level of sucking. Have I ever mentioned how much Kenny Williams blows goats? If not, maybe I will have to write a whole blog on that. Maybe when the season starts.

Just got my first Performance Appraisal System (PAS) report done with my supervisor. My score came out to be 3.54, somewhere between "Met Objectives Completely" and "Met and Exceeded Objectives". And apparently I "demonstrate a conscientious attitude" towards my work. Nice. Hopefully next year I can raise my PAS score to the 3.6 level or above?

One thing about my supervisor, he's one of the nicest people you will ever meet. I think he's great, but I have to say it's hilarious to watch him type. He's been here 35 years, is well respected and when he talks at meetings, everyone shuts up and listens. But he still uses the "two index finger poke" system to type on the keyboard. Seriously, it took him like 5 minutes to finish 1 sentence, looking for each letter individually, pressing the button, then looking for the next letter, screwing up, then looking for the backspace button. A little hard for me to avoid snickering in that situation, but I was strong.

Haha that reminds me of when I was trying to teach someone how to play Tekken Tag Tournament. I will protect her identity, but it was a girl and that probably explains the difficulty right there. I think girls just aren't born with the ability to tap buttons quickly on a controller. So that basically rules out pretty much all of the combos and special moves you can do in Tekken. I was like, "OK, tap Circle-Circle-X fast" but no matter how hard she tried, couldn't do it. Now this girl is not stupid, when we took classes together at school, she almost always beat me on the tests. But she just can't tap for the life of her, when to me and most of my boys, it's a way of life.

"Just tap it in... tap it in... tap tap taparoo" - Happy Gilmore

Someone just paged "Frank Thomas" here on the PA system. Once in a while "Jerry Rice" gets paged too. I wonder if those are real guys who work here, or it's just a joke. But those are pretty common names I guess. And I don't think people here would joke around on the PA, cause Security is nothing to mess around with at this place.

Tuesday Thoughts

Last night I went to sleep early (9:30-ish) and today I woke up feeling very refreshed, quite swell, and maybe even a bit spicy, you might say. I wish I could do that every night, but I can't. It's really rather amazing how much difference what an hour's worth of sleep can do for your day.

Anyways, that put me in a good mood to start the day, which was surprisingly not dampened by the 1 hour and 20 minutes spent on the road in the morning commute alone. I didn't even curse the gapers for causing delays.

So we had the first department meeting of the year today, and everyone had to introduce themselves, mostly for the sake of the newer people (like me). There's a couple people there that are around my age, but the rest of them are older. It's weird hearing all these guys saying "I've been working here for 25 years" or "I've been here 35 years" when I haven't even lived that long myself.

I don't know if that will be me in 30 years - managing, supervising, and holla-ing back at the young'ns, and then going home to play with my grandchildren. They all seem pretty happy with where they're at in life though. I wonder if they had any idea they'd be at the same company for so long when they first started out. As for me, I can barely picture where I'll be in 5 years, let alone 20 or 30. One day at a time, I guess.

Something I noticed in the parking lot is that I probably have a more expensive car than all but about 1% of the cars in the lot. While the fact is, I have been at this company and probably make less than about 99% of the people there. Maybe engineers don't care what they drive. One of my managers has a early '90s Buick, and another one drives an old Camry. But what about the corporate people? I'm guessing they just choose to drive the crappier car to work, with the snow and all, while saving the M5 or Porsche for the weekend pimping. Well, for me it's either the G or the minivan.

Or I could take the Skyline:




It's kind of small though, and the driver's seat is on the right. Too bad.

I just realized that I missed watching High School Reunion on Sunday. I guess I am just not very easily hooked on those kinds of shows. It's too much trouble to remember when everything is on, that's why I prefer Real World cause MTV shows those marathons all the time and I can catch up on all the episodes at once.

Oh, and I went to Cub Foods the other day to pick up some stuff for making my lunch, and I looked for Squeeze-its. But I'm sorry to say, they were nowhere to be found. I will have to look at Dominicks or Jewel, the more high-class supermarkets.

Hey by the way, there is a sale this week at Dominicks starting Thursday, 5 for $10 Jack's Frozen Pizza. That's right, for a mere $2 each, you too can own up to 5 of these delightful creations. All it takes is a little bit of preheating and 12 minutes in the oven, and it's ready to eat. Then you could be like Kevin McAllister and say, "A lovely cheese pizza, just for me."

At the Movies

It seems like I have been watching a lot more movies the past couple years than before. Watching movies is almost like a way of life now, that I wonder what people used to do before movies were so popular, when there were no AMC 30 screen theaters, no student discounts, and when high school kids still spent their time studying and doing homework.

Well on the news the other day, they were talking about how the movie industry set another record high in revenue for 2002, breaking the record set in 2001 by a big margin. So I guess I am not the only one who has been watching more movies lately.

One thing I wonder though: is it just me, or do movie previews seem much lamer these days? Almost all of the previews I have seen lately kind of really suck. They don't give me much to look forward to. Except maybe for the movie with DMX and Jet Li. That preview was so good that I don't even remember the name of the movie. But I do know it comes out Feb. 28th. Hopefully DMX is in this movie more than he was in Romeo Must Die. When he got shot in that movie, it was one of the all time biggest "WTF" moments I have ever experienced in any movie.

Anyways, my plan for this blog was to give some reviews on the movies I've watched most recently, within a couple weeks. I'm not a professional critic but here is my take on the following flicks:

About Schmidt

A lot of people haven't heard anything at all about this movie, including myself, up until 2 weeks ago. It's nice to go into a theater and not know what to expect of what you are about to watch, unless of course the movie ends up sucking really bad regardless of expectations. But this one was pretty good. It's basically about an old guy dealing with life after retirement and after his wife dies. Played by Jack Nicholson, who is hilarious. I have a renewed sense of respect for his acting abilities after watching this movie.

There was one really unfortunate part of the movie, which was the scene involving the mom from the Waterboy and the hot tub.

Other than that, it was a good movie to make you think, kind of like the stuff I wrote on life a while ago in this blog. I learned two major lessons from this film:

1. It doesn't matter if you are a 60 year old guy who can retire comfortably after a long career in the insurance industry, or a 6 year old orphan boy in Africa who is malnourished and probably suffering from a load of diseases. Everyone has problems, "it's-all-relative". So in the end, it's how you deal with your problems that actually makes one life different from another.

2. The world waits for no one. Sometimes I think life would be great if you could freeze time and have nothing ever change. But this is impossible. People change, situations change, very few things stay the same over time. With this in mind, we shouldn't be wasting time trying to control our surroundings, we should learn to take things as they come without putting too much stock in the future.

Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers

Finally I got to watch these movies, the first on DVD and the second at the theater. One thing I've always wondered is, what was it like 20-25 years ago when the original Star Wars movies were coming out? I don't think LOTR is quite as huge, but it has to be pretty close, in terms of the excitement and hype generated.

And surprisingly, these movies actually live up to the hype. The story is good, of course, but more than that, I don't know if I have ever been so impressed with the visuals of a movie as in LOTR. Maybe it wasn't the most technologically advanced special effects, but watching the movie in the theater is one of those experiences you will probably have to see for yourself to understand what I'm saying. Watching it reminds me of some of the parts in Crouching Tiger, when the music, the scenery and the plot all fit together seamlessly and it really feels like it's more than just another movie on the big screen.

25th Hour

"A Spike Lee Joint" Why does he call it that anyways? Do people actually think that's cool? How many good Spike Lee Joints can you think of? I'm sure there's probably a couple, but when I hear his name, the first thing I usually think of isn't awesome movies. It's those old Nike commercials with Jordan and Mars Blackman.

Well, I didn't really see this movie cause it was directed by Spike Lee. More because I respect Edward Norton's abilities, and also because Nina and Vira said it was supposed to be good. So, in spite of Anna Paquin's skankiness, I had pretty high expectations for this movie going in, and I came out only partly satisfied.

It was one of those movies that is supposed to make you think, which is good. Basically, it's about Edward Norton's last day before he has to go to jail for dealing drugs. After the movie, I thought it was funny that P and Greg said "it's just kind of like how you feel the day before you have to go back to work, after a vacation or something, except worse." Yeah, worse in that you would have to worry about being raped by 300 pound criminals, not just having to wake up earlier.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is also in the movie. I can't think of what other movies I have seen him in, but all I gotta say is, he just plain looks like a pedophile. I mean, maybe he is the most normal guy around, but if I had a daughter, I'd make sure to keep her away from that man.

Overall, not a bad movie. Could've been better, could've been worse. I still like Edward Norton, he is one of my favorite actors/actresses of all time, up there with Harrison Ford, Macaulay Culkin, Gwyneth, and Britney Spears.

A Day In The Life

Work - Today was pretty much like any other day at work, except I got my clearance from the Department of Defense. Now I can officially authorize and handle "Secret" material. It's a weird feeling, kind of like an angel getting his wings, except it's me getting my 2 stars, and also I didn't do anything to earn them. Other than not joining a terrorist organization or plotting the violent overthrow of the United States government.

Woodfield - I had to stop by Woodfield to exchange/return a scarf and gloves for my sister. The stuff was from J. Crew, but for some reason my sister put it in a Express bag. So since I wasn't really paying attention, I just went straight to Express. I was supposed to look to see if there were any of that style of gloves to exchange (cause the ones she got had a hole in them), and if not, I was instructed to return them.

Of course, I am almost never in Express, and when I am, it's usually with a girl. I knew it would feel weird to be walking around that store by myself, but I seriously felt like I was sticking out like a sore thumb, like I was naked or something. And as I had no idea where the gloves might be located, I decided to ask one of the chicks working there. She pointed to the back left corner and said "go all the way to the wall, then they will be on your right. I looked at the back left corner, and noted that it was all underwear. "Hmmm...." I thought to myself, is she trying to make me look dumb by sending me to bra and thongs section?

But I went anyways, and the gloves ended up being kind of where she pointed, but not exactly. I was kind of pissed at that chick because it's hard to be looking around an area surrounded by bras and stuff without feeling weird. Maybe I am just immature, but still.

Anyways, I didn't find the same pair of gloves so I got in line to return the ones I brought. I waited for at least 10 minutes in line, and when I finally got to the counter and gave the girl the gloves and receipt, she looked at it for a second, then looked at me funny, and said "uhh these are from J. Crew." Sweet, didn't I look like a dumbass. And no wonder they didn't have that pair of gloves. I was in the thong section feeling red for nothing. So I was like "my bad" and scurried out of that store as fast as I could to head to J. Crew.

Finally I went to J. Crew. They didn't have the gloves either, so I returned them and put it back on my sister's J. Crew card. One stupid thing I noticed is that I still had to sign, and that she briefly glanced at my sister's signature on the card and compared it to my signature before giving it back to me. Since I signed my own name, there's no way the two signatures could have even remotely matched, but I guess she was already in the motion of giving me back my card so who cares. Why should I have to sign anyways, I'm putting the credit back on that freaking card anyways, it's not like it's going to me.

Dave & Busters - A friend from church is moving to Cali for a job, so we had a little dinner and party for her at D&B's. I used to think it was annoying that they were strict about people being 21 and over, or escorted and whatnot. But, now I think it is nice to not be surrounded by punk high school kids whenever I go somewhere. I swear, every place I go there are these loud annoying high schoolers, whether it's the movie theater, mall, Streets of Woodfield, Great America, EVERY DAMN PLACE.

I have to wonder, were we this obnoxious 5 or 6 years ago? I think the answer is a clear and emphatic no. In high school:

1) I was always doing homework
2) I didn't have a car until senior year
3) I didn't have money to burn

Now you see all these kids putting turbo kits on their Acura RSX's and racing around town till 2 in the morning. WHAT THE FLUX IS GOING ON.

Another nice thing about D&B's (in Addison) is that it has Daytona USA, the original. That is one of the best arcade games ever made, without question in my mind. Not many places still carry Daytona.

Home - Came home, my mom and dad were watching Lord of the Rings which me and Olivia rented last Sunday but havent returned yet. I thought that was funny, my mom and dad watching Lord of the Rings. That really doesn't seem like their type of movie.

Read some blogs before writing this one. Since Stork was writing about entropy, that reminds me of something that I was thinking about once. The concept of entropy basically says that things always move from a state of order to disorder, never the opposite unless energy is added to the system. The most common example to illustrate this is the order of your bedroom, it only gets messier and messier, not cleaner and cleaner, unless you expend energy to clean it.

This is one of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics (I forget which one exactly), which all scientists pretty much agree on. Modern science also subscribes to the theory of evolution as the origin of life, over the concept of divine creation. Now, if you think about it, the concept of entropy really should dispel the idea that out of nothing (or a pool of "life soup"), came bacteria, then multi-celled organisms, then plants and animals and eventually humans, all by the process of evolution alone.

Instead, one would have to think that some outside force must have been working and putting energy into the process of evolution to make it work. Remember, the laws of entropy require that disorderly states do not become orderly without energy being put in to the system.

My conclusion: scientists and supposed scholars contradict themselves when trying to disprove the existence of God by "scientific logic." I believe in the validity of evolution as a process, but I do not believe it means life came out of nowhere. Look at how complex human beings are, not only physically but also mentally. And even more complex and intriguing is the spiritual side, which I have no doubt exists in all of us. Can a series of random events, uncontrolled mutations of DNA really result in what we are today, even after billions or trillions of years? No, there must be some force acting that has driven us to become the highly developed species walking around right now. Basic thermodynamic laws tell us this much.

Hopefully, I didn't lose anyone there in my logic. It makes sense to me, but maybe only because I am dead tired.

Insomnia

I think one of the worst feelings to experience is not being able to fall asleep. It drives me nuts that I can be so tired throughout a whole day, struggling to keep my eyes open at work, then when I finally get to my bed, I lie there for like 40 minutes, wide awake.

It's been a long time since I have slept well, and I wish I knew why. One thing is that I seem to always be thinking about stuff. I try to clear my head, but so many things are on my mind.

They're not always deep or stressful thoughts, but all kinds of stuff clutters my brain. I get excited that baseball spring training is only a couple months away. I think about a game of Starcraft and what I could have done to play better. I think about work, about friends, about Olivia, about my future.

Sometimes people ask me how I always have weird ideas for blogs. Or, how I always seem to write so much. Well, I think the answer to both is that my blog is just a reflection of my life. Throughout the day, I've been spending a lot of time in personal thought, some of it is by choice, other times, I wish I could just relax and not think about anything. It's not like I sit around thinking "what should I write for my blog?" but more that I have so many random thoughts and the most accessible outlet these days for me is this blog.

The past year has been a tough year, among other things. And after talking to some of my friends, it seems that they have gone through (and may still be going through) tough times of their own. In my life, I don't think I really ever went through any identity crisis or anything when I became a teenager, or when I went through high school and college. As I have written before, the first 21 and a half years of my life were somewhat of a honeymoon for me, in that everything was laid out for me and that there were few things for me to doubt.

But right now, I think I'm going through maybe a mini-identity crisis. No, I'm not gonna quit my job and go pursue a life of painting or something. But I often wonder, where do I stand and where am I going? I've graduated college and found a job, now what?

I used to look up to people in my position and say to myself, "that is where I want to be. That is what I work hard for." And here I am, having essentially reached my goal. Who do I look up to now? What should I work hard for?

Even though I still admire my dad and respect him for being much older and wiser than me, he's no longer the invincible master of all knowledge and undisputed authority in everything. A lot of people see this earlier in life, but the realization that my parents are as imperfectly human as anyone else has only struck me in recent times.

So this is a time for me where the one feeling that seems to blanket all of my thoughts is one of ambivalence. For example, I feel too old to be buying clothes from places like Abercrombie, but I'm not ready for shopping at Marshall Fields or Nordstrom for stuff my mom or dad would wear. I feel like I should be past the college habits of sleeping late, going out to bars, etc., but at the same time I feel too young to leave that all behind now and start going to theater and musicals instead, drinking brandy instead of beer and listening to Kenny G and Celine Dion instead of Nelly and Britney Spears.

I don't think I want to be dating "just for fun" like in high school or college, but marriage and settling down with kids feels like it should be at least a few years away. And I know it's only a matter of time before I will move out from my mom and dad's house, but on second thought, am I really ready to live on my own, alone in this world? Scary.

As always, I've wandered far from my original topic. And of course, I don't really have any answers or solutions for myself. I'm just babbling here. At least now you know that I can't fall asleep, and maybe you know a little bit about why. But yeah, it sucks.

New Years Resolutions

I didn't notice very many people talking about their 2003 resolutions on their blogs/xangas. Even though I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, I am usually kind of interested to hear what kind of stuff people come up with and see how long it lasts for them.

Maybe everyone is lacking the creativity to think of their own resolutions these days, so I have a few suggestions for all my readers, as a special dudo509 blogspot treat. Feel free to print out any or all of the following and tape them on your wall or whatever, if you decide to take on a resolution listed below.

DISCLAIMER: These are only suggestions! Adopt and use at your own discretion and risk. I take no responsibility if you get lung cancer, lose your job, or just plain turn into a fat smelly sack after following any of these resolutions.

1. Show up later to work each day - Time is of the essence, they say, and I couldn't agree more. My time is precious to me; the more I have, the more I can sleep, play Starcraft, or watch TV. So this resolution is designed to help me maximize the time I have to myself by shaving off unneccessary time spent at the job.

The first thing I'll try is to arrive 6 minutes later each day. Simple math tells me that this alone will save me half an hour per week. Now, if I should be so bold, maybe the next step will be to show up 6 minutes late and leave 6 minutes early, saving me a grand total of 1 hour/wk. Eventually, I might have the gongs to make it up to 12 minutes each way. That amounts to 2 hours of savings which I could use for any of the above activities listed! It all adds up, as you can see.

2. Watch more TV - You know, that television set downstairs has been pretty neglected these days. Sure, I already spend all weekend watching football, not to mention Monday nights, and I also watch ESPN and ESPN2 pretty often too. But unfortunately, this leaves out plenty of other quality programming. For starters, it's a pretty disturbing thought to me when I ponder how many Jennifer Lopez and B2K videos I've probably been missing lately, just by failing to watch enough MTV.

Well, all that's gonna change starting right now. I'm gonna kick my TV-watching repertoire up a big notch across the board, whether it's MTV, VH1, BET, ESPN Classic, or Comedy Central we're talking about, as well as the basic channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and the WB.

Since I won't be able to catch everything, I'm gonna first try to focus on those reality dating shows. You know, like Dismissed, Elimi-Date, The 5th Wheel, stuff like that. Those shows rock. And after that, I guess I'll just squeeze in whatever else I can.

3. Eat more fast food - Throughout the years, it's always been a constant struggle to obtain enough calories in my daily diet. No matter how many fruits and vegetables or lean white meat I eat, it inevitably seems as if I'm just barely meeting the requirements set by my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This has become more than an annoyance in lifestyle, it's simply unacceptable.

So, after doing a little bit of research, I have found the solution: fast food. Consider the fact that most people's BMR falls in the range of 1000-2000 food calories, depending on weight and exercise. Now, if you get a Big Mac and large fry at McDonalds, thats like 1000 right there. If you Super-size that shiznit and add a Coke, you're pretty much set for the day, right? For me, I resolve to eat such a meal twice a day, just to make sure I'm getting enough calories, but you could probably still get by with just one of these meals per day, and go back to your vegetable and fruits crap for your other meals to patch up the rest.

The only problem is, I might get sick of eating McDonalds. Well, I guess if this happens, there's always Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, White Castle, Wendy's, etc. Just an endless assortment of similar restaurants surrounds us all. What a great country we live in!

4. Shower less - The utilities bill has been steadily growing the past few months, so starting this year, I've resolved to do something about it. Effective right now, I am gonna cut my showering frequency in half. Think about how much water we waste by taking unneccessary showers, and how much you could potentially save just by doing this one simple act.

But the savings don't end there. Half as many showers means half as much shampoo, conditioner, and soap used. It also mean you change your clothes half as frequently, meaning you will save yourself from doing laundry nearly as often as you do now. You see, the hidden savings are plentiful. It's like a chain reaction, one good deed begets another. If you've ever seen Pay It Forward, you probably know exactly what I mean. (I've never seen that movie, but I'm just guessing here)

5. Take up smoking - This year, I'd like to pick up the habit of cigarettes. I've gone too long in life without that sweet nectar they call nicotine. Reasonably, within a year I should be up to at least a pack a day, if not more. Once I become a more advanced and experienced smoker, my next resolution may be to start smoking weed. After that, who knows? Perhaps one day you'll see me on the street as a crackhead, if all goes well.

6. Drive more aggressively - 1 hour and 40 minutes is way too much time to be spending on the road each day. By cutting more people off, accelerating more forcefully, and using the ofter overlooked path they call the "shoulder" to pass traffic in rush hour, I hope to cut my daily commute time to about 1 hour and 38 minutes.

But time saved is not the only benefit. Driving like a jackass will make me look cooler and more dangerous, which in turn attracts more fine women. I'm thinking, if I can follow through with my resolution to take up smoking, I can also smoke in the car and toss cigarettes out the window while I'm on the road, in order to increase my cool factor even more. Maybe on lucky days, the cigarette will end up flying into the face of a toddler playing on the side of the road and burn him. Won't I be the ultimate bad boy then?

You might say that overly aggressive driving leads to decreased safety. Well, that may be true, but according to a wise man named Greg, "Being safer is good, but not as good as looking cool. A good motto for life." haha

7. Use more curse words - Will Smith doesn't cuss in his songs, but Eminem does. Now look who's more successful? It's easy to see from this example that the more swearing you do, the cooler and more popular you will become. So, this year will be the year that I beceome as nasty as I wanna be. I'm quite confident that I can keep this resolution, when I think about how simple it is to add profanity to my normal everyday conversation. For example, "I'm gonna return the video" could easily become "I'm gonna return the F-ing video." See how that works? It just takes some practice.

For now, I'm just gonna focus on expanding my vocabulary by the basic 4-letter words, but someday I hope to incorporate and more complex expressions of vulgarity. After that, maybe I'll even throw in some racial/ethnic slurs here and there as well. Baby steps, though, baby steps.

Weekend Update

This blog is dedicated to my 2 blog fans in the world. You know who you are.

I changed my oil on Saturday for the first time. This will be the first complaint I have about the G35. This car has a cover for the underbody for "protection and aerodynamic purposes." Which is fine, I guess. They even left a hole for the drain plug so people can change the oil without taking off the cover.

But for some reason, they didn't do the same for the oil filter. It's designed so that unless you are Stretch Armstrong or Gumby, there is no possible way to unscrew the filter and change to a new one. Trust me, I have a forearm full of scratches from trying.

And if you didn't know, it's pretty much expected that you change the filter every time you change the oil, it even says so in the manual. The manual gives you a whole step by step guide to changing the oil as "Do-it-yourself maintenance," and there is a part that says "If oil filter is to be changed, remove and replace it at this time. See later in 'Engine oil' for changing oil filter." So I found the section and guess what it said? "Contact your INFINITI retailer if replacement is required."

How awesome, eh. So did I give in and take it to the dealer? Hells no, that would be the loser way out. I ended up taking out about 15 screws so I could get that stupid cover off and change my oil filter. Took me a while, but I am proud of myself for this effort.

Later on that day, my homie Dr. Dre came through with a gang of Tanqueray, and a fat ass J of some bubonic chronic that made me choke...

Actually, we just went to the Buzz. I think I am getting too old for this stuff. Sad, I know, but I really don't think I would ever go unless a lot of good friends were gonna be there.

A couple hours ago, my sister was heating up some oil to make popcorn and she left the stove running while she went upstairs. Meanwhile, I was watching High School Reunion on WGN (more on this show later). A couple minutes pass, and my sister comes down and she just goes "OHMYGOD", which makes me turn around and see that there is a pretty decently sized flame coming out of the popcorn pot.

At this point, my sis is like "whatdoidowhatdoido?!" and I was like, "cover it!" So she takes the lid, looks at the fire for a few seconds, then turns to me and goes "can you do it?" That look on her face was classic, if there wasn't a growing fire I would've pulled out my digital camera and taken a picture. Finally, I covered the pot and everything ended up ok. Except maybe the pot might not be usable anymore, we'll find out. She told me not to tell my mom what happened but I think my mom found out anyways.

Oh well, if you didn't like that story, you had to be there.

Ok, I don't want to make this blog too long so I will just say something quick about High School Reunion. It's a show where they hold a high school reunion at like a vacation house or something and film it like "Real World" or "Survivor." So they have all these characters and their descriptions like "the Tall Girl" or "The Nerd" or "The Bully." And of course some of them are looking to hook up with their old crushes and stuff. The first episode was pretty entertaining. Catch it on the WB Thursday, I recommend it.

I've said it before but I'll say it again: Jack's frozen sausage pizza rules. Tombstone drools.

Post-holiday Hangover

6 am, Thursday January 2nd, 2003, clock radio wakes me up and it's back to work. "Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got, I'm still I'M STILL Jenny from the block. I used to have a little, now I have a lot..." - such inspiring words by the poet of our generation J-Lo, I gots to say. Brings a tear to my pretty eye.

Anyways, it wasn't so hard waking up. But staying alert throughout the day was a different story. One discouraging moment was around noon, after 4 hours of hard work I decided to reward myself with lunch (roast beef sandwich, chips, and Capri-Suns as always), then the thought hit me that for the past week or so I probably would not have even woken up by that time. Oh well.

I'm getting kind of sick of Capri-Suns, next time I go to Dominick's I'm gonna look for Squeeze-its. Hopefully they still make those.

It's probably not a good thing to do on your first day back at work, but I had to check what our next holiday is, just to see. Sadly, it is not for another 3 1/2 months, Good Friday 4/18. I am really appreciating holidays so much more since I started working. Next time I have time off, we are all going to do something cool, kind of like the Museum but something else. I'll think of something good hopefully.

Something that entertains me a lot is listening to Eminem, and then hearing one of his songs on the radio. I just like to hear how he tries to replace some lyrics with less offensive ones. The latest example is in "Superman" where almost half of the song is changed in the radio edit from the album version. Like, "bitches" becomes "chickens" or "tricks", "hoes" becomes "girls" (but only some of the times), "slap you off that barstool" becomes "bump you off that barstool." My favorite is "Superman ain't savin spit" cause I didn't know anyone else besides me used that. The one that puzzles me is, how does "leave footprints all across you" make it any better than "leave handprints all across you"?

Now that I got used to my optical mouse at home, the plain old roller mouse at work just doesn't cut it anymore. Kind of like going back to driving the old Ford Taurus after taking a spin in the G, but not as drastic.

The question for tonight is, to lift, or not to lift? I'm leaning towards no.

1. It will almost definitely be crowded from all the stupids who made a New Year's resolution to work out (which I can pretty much guarantee will be broken within 2 weeks), and

2. I am tired and I want to sleep early

Time to eat.

2002 - The Year In Review

Well, here it comes. A reflection on my life in the year 2002.

- Final semester of college

4 years spent studying electrical engineering at the University of Illinois culminated in one last semester of class and graduation in May. These were probably the most memorable years in my life, and in this time I can honestly say that grew a great deal physically, mentally (I hope), emotionally, and spiritually.

But most of all, they were great times with really great friends. As I look back on my last semester, I think both of how much fun I had, but also how much I may have missed out in the 3 1/2 years preceding it. It wasn't until my last few months at school that I actually spent time chilling on the Quad in nice weather, or playing tennis at IMPE, or broomball, and all kinds of stuff that I should've been doing all along instead of studying at Grainger every night or playing video games in every spare moment (not knocking video games, video games are good).

Even though I loved all 4 years at U of I, it seems like I didn't make the most of my time there until it was almost over. Which is a little sad, but I'd rather look at it as a positive, that I went out on a good note and didn't overstay my welcome in Champaign-Urbana.

- Working For My Dad

After graduation, then what? A bachelor's degree in electrical engineering bought me next to nothing coming out of school, other than some scattered looks of sympathy in light of the slumping economy. Thankfully, I was able to spend some time working in a whole other field, the world of business with my dad. I already wrote quite a bit about this experience in an old blog, but mostly all I can say is that I am glad that I got this opportunity to learn and understand what my old man had spent 20+ years working in. And if nothing else, it was out of this time that dudo509.blogspot.com was born.

- Job at NG

A few months later, I got the call and accepted a job offer, beginning the Northrop Grumman chapter of my life. How long will this chapter last? Who knows. For now, I should probably just be content and happy to be where I am. It's been a good 2-3 months so far and I'll just take things as they come, I guess.

- G35

2002 also saw me wave goodbye to my first love, the '97 Maxima, and say hello to my new buddy, '03 G35 sedan. Of course I love the Infiniti, but as they say, you never forget your first love. At least I get to see her whenever my sister comes home. Meanwhile, I fully plan on keeping the G and driving it until he dies. That would be a sad day, but lets not think about that right now.

- Fantasy Baseball/Basketball

Another year, another set of failures in my fantasy sports leagues. In baseball, I had maybe the best collection of star hitters ever seen on one team. But in the end, A-Rod, Barry, Soriano and the boys could not overcome the pitching of the Jobberz, namely Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. And in football, Kurt Warner killed me once again, except this time from within. The team stumbled out of the gates, recovered momentarily, then faltered again before a hot streak to finish the season (5-1) fell short of 2nd place and its accompanying $10 glory prize. More importantly, the team came up empty once again in two matchups against Dave's gang of thugs.

2003 - The Year Ahead

Well, it may be hard to top 2002 in terms of life-altering events, but I expect nothing less in terms of personal growth and making memories. I don't believe in making New Year's Resolutions, I think you should just set goals and make changes when they are needed throughout the year at any point. But there are some things I do hope to see or accomplish in the coming 12 months:

I definitely hope to see more of my friends and get to know some people better. I will also work on being a better son, a better brother, and a better boyfriend.

I want to move out of the house, learn to cook and take care of myself and live on my own within 1 year.

I want to beat Dave's team in fantasy football, just ONCE, even if I lose every other game in the season.

I'd like to take more pictures and be a little better at photography, so I can record some of the moments I experience in the coming years.

I hope I continue writing in this blog, and that I continue to have different and new things to say. Whether it's a quick journal of what I did today, some random thoughts about commuting to work, stories about my mom, a list of songs I'm currently listening to, or deep thoughts on life, I want to keep on doing it. If I ever lose the feeling of enjoyment from writing, I don't know what I'd do. It will be a sad day if it ever happens.

I am gonna get some more Star Wars action figures to go with the Falcon. Maybe some X-wings, TIE Fighters, and AT-ATs as well.

That's all I can think of for now. If anyone else has a suggestion for me, I'm listening.