Vacation
After 15 months of working at this job, I finally decided to take some of my vacation time. For whatever reason, the past couple of weeks have just really burned me out. Whether it was the working late, the frickin freezing weather, or just the night at Duffy's, I'm not sure. I just decided I really needed some time off for once, to relax or have a little change of pace to my life.
I've decided to list some of the things I've accomplished by skipping work:
- Bought Friends Season 6 and 1 DVD sets. I told myself before that I wouldn't get in the habit of buying DVDs, but this is hopefully an exception. After borrowing seasons 1-5 from my sis, I had to get 6. And then there were these special offers, a $10 rebate from the manufacturer and a $10 discount from Best Buy if you bought more than one set. So I guess they suckered me into getting Season1 too.
- Bought an iron, ironing board, and this starchy spray stuff. I decided that since I'm 24 now, maybe it would be a good time for me to leave the days of wrinkly clothes behind. So if you see me in the coming days and notice that I suddenly look more sophisticated, it's probably because I took some time to iron my shirts and pants. And be sure to compliment me on it too. One thing though, so far I am not happy with the starchy spray stuff. It doesn't spray out evenly and sometimes it leaves little marks where too much of it landed and soaked into the fabric.
- Signed up for Yahoo Mail Plus. It costs $30/year, which doesn't sound as much when you think of it as $2.50/month. Then again, it's more than the $0/month that I've been paying. Mostly, I decided to pay for it so I could use Outlook to read my email at home or on my Pocket PC (apparently this feature used to be free on Yahoo but not anymore). A side benefit is that now I get 25 MB of storage instead of the measly 6 MB on my free account. Now I can let messages pile up in my inbox for about 4 times as long before having to delete stuff. SWEET
- Cleaned my room. Finally made the effort to fold up the pile of empty boxes spilling out of my closet and throw them out, making my room look about 26% more spacious. Also moved a lot of the scattered stuff on my desk to a "shelf" or the "garbage can", making my room look about 17% more organized. I'm very proud of myself.
- Ate some Lunchables
- Played this flash game Dan sent me: Smack the penguin. The highest score I've gotten is 593.5, a few times. I don't know if that's a good score, but if anyone beats it, let me know.
In summary, I would like to say that vacation days rule.
*****
Superbowl Prediction: Panthers 20, Patriots 19
Friday, January 30, 2004
Monday, January 26, 2004
Another Year
The past week marked the passing of the Chinese New Year, and also my so-called "golden birthday". I don't know exactly how the lunar calendar works, but it seems like Chinese New Year was especially early this time. I'm pretty sure that it usually comes after my birthday, since I was born in the year of the Goat, not Monkey like most other people my year. Oh well.
So anyways, now I'm 24. I've been saying this for a while now, but I feel old. The other night I was stopped at a light on Dundee, when a Mustang pulled up next to me and started revving his engine hard. I looked over and it was this high school or college kid (I can't even tell anymore) with his girlfriend, both giving me the "let's go biatch" look. If this were me a few years ago, I definitely would've raced these kids. But this time, I didn't even have the slightest urge to go for it, so I shook my head no like an old middle aged loser.
Another example of feeling old: Last week, I ended up working pretty late almost every night. By the time I left work on Thursday, I was feeling pretty worn out and on the drive home that night, I just wanted to listen to some relaxing music to soothe my nerves. So I tuned my radio station to the Lite 93.9 WLIT, only to find that they were playing all this upbeat stuff like Peter Frampton's "Baby I Love Your Way". I was kind of pissed about that at the time, but yeah, you know you're getting old when you think the music on the Lite is too heavy.
Also, I was thinking about how the worst birthday present to get as a kid was clothes. I hated getting clothes back then, since that meant it was taking the place of something better such as video games, action figures, or baseball cards. Well, this year, I was actually very happy to get some clothes for my birthday. I guess that's another sign that I'm not 10 years old anymore.
By the way, I definitely want to thank everyone who got me any gift, card, bought me a drink, or simply said "happy birthday". Many of you even did more than one of the above, and for that, you get double or triple thanks from me (I bet you all are going "SWEET" right now). I also felt especially honored to have a birthday haiku done for me, by my favorite haikuist.
Went to Duffy's on Saturday night, and before I forget, Happy Birthdays should go to Chras and Nicki too. It was a good time, I'll probably post some pics when I get home tonight.
One last note, I saw Along Came Polly and thought it really sucked. You know how sometimes you see previews for a movie and think, man, they probably showed all the funny parts already, so why bother watching it? Well, I didn't expect that would be the case for Along Came Polly, but it turns out that the previews pretty much did show what few entertaining scenes there were of the movie. It just wasn't a very funny movie at all and I would discourage anyone out there from seeing it. It even made me think about dropping Jennifer Aniston out of my Top 10 rankings, but I won't.
*****
Duffy's 1/24/04
Me and Olivia
Me and P
Me and Cindy
Me and Coxy
Me and Caddy
Me and the Boys
Me and Vira
The past week marked the passing of the Chinese New Year, and also my so-called "golden birthday". I don't know exactly how the lunar calendar works, but it seems like Chinese New Year was especially early this time. I'm pretty sure that it usually comes after my birthday, since I was born in the year of the Goat, not Monkey like most other people my year. Oh well.
So anyways, now I'm 24. I've been saying this for a while now, but I feel old. The other night I was stopped at a light on Dundee, when a Mustang pulled up next to me and started revving his engine hard. I looked over and it was this high school or college kid (I can't even tell anymore) with his girlfriend, both giving me the "let's go biatch" look. If this were me a few years ago, I definitely would've raced these kids. But this time, I didn't even have the slightest urge to go for it, so I shook my head no like an old middle aged loser.
Another example of feeling old: Last week, I ended up working pretty late almost every night. By the time I left work on Thursday, I was feeling pretty worn out and on the drive home that night, I just wanted to listen to some relaxing music to soothe my nerves. So I tuned my radio station to the Lite 93.9 WLIT, only to find that they were playing all this upbeat stuff like Peter Frampton's "Baby I Love Your Way". I was kind of pissed about that at the time, but yeah, you know you're getting old when you think the music on the Lite is too heavy.
Also, I was thinking about how the worst birthday present to get as a kid was clothes. I hated getting clothes back then, since that meant it was taking the place of something better such as video games, action figures, or baseball cards. Well, this year, I was actually very happy to get some clothes for my birthday. I guess that's another sign that I'm not 10 years old anymore.
By the way, I definitely want to thank everyone who got me any gift, card, bought me a drink, or simply said "happy birthday". Many of you even did more than one of the above, and for that, you get double or triple thanks from me (I bet you all are going "SWEET" right now). I also felt especially honored to have a birthday haiku done for me, by my favorite haikuist.
Went to Duffy's on Saturday night, and before I forget, Happy Birthdays should go to Chras and Nicki too. It was a good time, I'll probably post some pics when I get home tonight.
One last note, I saw Along Came Polly and thought it really sucked. You know how sometimes you see previews for a movie and think, man, they probably showed all the funny parts already, so why bother watching it? Well, I didn't expect that would be the case for Along Came Polly, but it turns out that the previews pretty much did show what few entertaining scenes there were of the movie. It just wasn't a very funny movie at all and I would discourage anyone out there from seeing it. It even made me think about dropping Jennifer Aniston out of my Top 10 rankings, but I won't.
*****
Duffy's 1/24/04
Me and Olivia
Me and P
Me and Cindy
Me and Coxy
Me and Caddy
Me and the Boys
Me and Vira
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Tired Tired Tired..... Tiiiiii-yeeeeerd
It's mornings like these when I wish I had married P Diddy at age 18, had a kid with him, then divorced him and lived off of monthly child support payments of $30,000 a month. Too bad I wasn't a hot model back then, and now here I am, tired and grumpy at work. All for a paycheck that's a tiny fraction of $30,000 a month, I might add.
One thing I noticed about sleep is, I always feel much more refreshed if I wake up an hour later than usual, than if I go to sleep an hour before usual the night before. I don't know why that is, when you're gaining the same amount of sleep time. Maybe it's just my imagination.
These days, something I find to be insulting is waking up in the morning, checking my email, and finding messages sent from my mom or dad. Of all people, my mom and dad are up later than me and sending me emails when I'm already in bed. I know I'm getting old, but still... it's my mom and dad!
What happened to the days when I went to sleep later than everyone else and still woke up for class/working out in the morning? I never used to wake up to any emails those days. Oh, I know what happened. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, that's what happened. Sheeeeee...........
It's mornings like these when I wish I had married P Diddy at age 18, had a kid with him, then divorced him and lived off of monthly child support payments of $30,000 a month. Too bad I wasn't a hot model back then, and now here I am, tired and grumpy at work. All for a paycheck that's a tiny fraction of $30,000 a month, I might add.
One thing I noticed about sleep is, I always feel much more refreshed if I wake up an hour later than usual, than if I go to sleep an hour before usual the night before. I don't know why that is, when you're gaining the same amount of sleep time. Maybe it's just my imagination.
These days, something I find to be insulting is waking up in the morning, checking my email, and finding messages sent from my mom or dad. Of all people, my mom and dad are up later than me and sending me emails when I'm already in bed. I know I'm getting old, but still... it's my mom and dad!
What happened to the days when I went to sleep later than everyone else and still woke up for class/working out in the morning? I never used to wake up to any emails those days. Oh, I know what happened. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, that's what happened. Sheeeeee...........
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Clayness
If you know me, you know that I'm not a person who is ever ashamed of listening to any sort of music. No matter how flamish it makes me look, I don't care. I've proudly supported Britney Spears throughout the years, for one. I've also never been afraid to admit my love for a lot of the other "questionable" stuff either, such as Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Korean/Chinese pop music, Disney songs, Spice Girls, Christmas songs, Carpenters, and more. Either I have a thick skin, I'm oblivious and ignorant to the rest of the world, or I'm just that secure in my manhood and a trendsetter to boot.
Well, I think finally, I might have met my limits. For the first time, there is a song and artist that I find myself liking, but am afraid of people knowing. Nevertheless, I will share with my favorite people in the world (readers of my blog) that the song I like is "Invincible" by Clay Aiken.
I never really followed any of American Idol, in either season, so I can't really say that I'm a fan of Clay at this point, or know anything about him at all. I do know that he is very effeminate and as Olivia would call him, kind of "crusty". Anyways, the first time I heard his song was on TRL last week (I don't watch TRL these days either, I just tuned in to see if Britney's new video was #1). It turned out that Britney finished second that day, and so of course I had to watch the video that beat her, which was, as you might have guessed by now, Clay's song.
Normally, I would have been really pissed that Britney lost to some fruitcake on a countdown show that she has consistently dominated ever since coming on to the scene 5 years ago. I mean, she practically made TRL what it is today, and vice versa. But I guess I'm getting older these days, I've become a kindler and gentler man, so I didn't let my emotions get in the way of enjoying "Invincible" for the first time.
And yes, I did enjoy the song. After hearing it, it was stuck in my head for the next 3 days straight. In fact, I'm hearing it in my head right now as I type this entry at work. Now, I will say that I haven't made the effort yet to get the mp3 on my computer, but I think this is mostly a matter of self denial and fear of fully admitting that I like the girly man's music. It's probably only a matter of time, but for now, this just means that I get that much more excited when his song comes on the radio.
There, I said it. Please don't judge me.
If you know me, you know that I'm not a person who is ever ashamed of listening to any sort of music. No matter how flamish it makes me look, I don't care. I've proudly supported Britney Spears throughout the years, for one. I've also never been afraid to admit my love for a lot of the other "questionable" stuff either, such as Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Korean/Chinese pop music, Disney songs, Spice Girls, Christmas songs, Carpenters, and more. Either I have a thick skin, I'm oblivious and ignorant to the rest of the world, or I'm just that secure in my manhood and a trendsetter to boot.
Well, I think finally, I might have met my limits. For the first time, there is a song and artist that I find myself liking, but am afraid of people knowing. Nevertheless, I will share with my favorite people in the world (readers of my blog) that the song I like is "Invincible" by Clay Aiken.
I never really followed any of American Idol, in either season, so I can't really say that I'm a fan of Clay at this point, or know anything about him at all. I do know that he is very effeminate and as Olivia would call him, kind of "crusty". Anyways, the first time I heard his song was on TRL last week (I don't watch TRL these days either, I just tuned in to see if Britney's new video was #1). It turned out that Britney finished second that day, and so of course I had to watch the video that beat her, which was, as you might have guessed by now, Clay's song.
Normally, I would have been really pissed that Britney lost to some fruitcake on a countdown show that she has consistently dominated ever since coming on to the scene 5 years ago. I mean, she practically made TRL what it is today, and vice versa. But I guess I'm getting older these days, I've become a kindler and gentler man, so I didn't let my emotions get in the way of enjoying "Invincible" for the first time.
And yes, I did enjoy the song. After hearing it, it was stuck in my head for the next 3 days straight. In fact, I'm hearing it in my head right now as I type this entry at work. Now, I will say that I haven't made the effort yet to get the mp3 on my computer, but I think this is mostly a matter of self denial and fear of fully admitting that I like the girly man's music. It's probably only a matter of time, but for now, this just means that I get that much more excited when his song comes on the radio.
There, I said it. Please don't judge me.
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
How About Them Apples
About a month ago, I started bringing an apple every day to work because I figured it might make me healthier. Not that I know much about nutrition, but hey, my momma always told me to eat more fruit, and I don't know too many people who would say fruit is bad for you, so might as well eat some fruit right?
Now originally, I wanted to bring my favorite fruit (oranges/tangerines/clementines), but after further thought, I decided that they rot too easily. Since I don't like to go to Jewel or Dominicks more than I have to, I eventually settled on a more versatile product, the apple. It lasts a long time, so I can buy it in bulk, and the taste/texture isn't too shabby either, but I think the clincher was that it has it's own snazzy little saying ("An apple a day keeps the doctor away"). You know a fruit is good when it has its own saying. How can it not be?
Well, I wish I knew someone who was more of an apple expert than me, because I'm full of questions with no answers. First of all, what kind of apple should I get? When I went to buy some apples for the first time, I was confounded by the number of options. I forget most of the names, but there were little ones, big ones, red ones, green ones, reddish green ones, and more. I just picked the ones that looked closest to my personal image of what apples should look like, which turned out to be "Royal Gala".
Also, I didn't really know whether it would be better to just get one of those preselected bags/baskets, or choose them myself. I have no idea how to choose fruit, basically, I just try to find the ones that are least dented and don't look diseased. For some reason, though, I get the feeling that there's some secret out there to choosing fruit that everyone knows except for me.
Anyways, the Royal Gala apples turned out to be pretty good, but in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder if there's something more, something better out there for me. Today, I decided to try a "Red Delicious", which Olivia told me was pretty standard. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that "delicious" either. I'd describe it more as "somewhat tasty", but I guess realistically, nobody's gonna buy an apple that's called "Red Somewhat Tasty", even if that makes the name more truthful. I think eventually, I might also delve into Fujis and Washingtons, which I've at least heard of before. Other than that, I guess I really don't know what's out there in the wide world of apples.
The other thing is, I haven't yet figured out whether or not I should be eating the skin. My mom always told me to spit out the skin, or peel the apple before eating it, because they put wax and other chemicals on it to protect from insects and stuff. However, I've also heard that the skin has a lot of valuable vitamins, and that it's perfectly okay to eat the wax as long as you wash the apple first. Again, this would be a great question to ask the apple expert friend I don't have.
About a month ago, I started bringing an apple every day to work because I figured it might make me healthier. Not that I know much about nutrition, but hey, my momma always told me to eat more fruit, and I don't know too many people who would say fruit is bad for you, so might as well eat some fruit right?
Now originally, I wanted to bring my favorite fruit (oranges/tangerines/clementines), but after further thought, I decided that they rot too easily. Since I don't like to go to Jewel or Dominicks more than I have to, I eventually settled on a more versatile product, the apple. It lasts a long time, so I can buy it in bulk, and the taste/texture isn't too shabby either, but I think the clincher was that it has it's own snazzy little saying ("An apple a day keeps the doctor away"). You know a fruit is good when it has its own saying. How can it not be?
Well, I wish I knew someone who was more of an apple expert than me, because I'm full of questions with no answers. First of all, what kind of apple should I get? When I went to buy some apples for the first time, I was confounded by the number of options. I forget most of the names, but there were little ones, big ones, red ones, green ones, reddish green ones, and more. I just picked the ones that looked closest to my personal image of what apples should look like, which turned out to be "Royal Gala".
Also, I didn't really know whether it would be better to just get one of those preselected bags/baskets, or choose them myself. I have no idea how to choose fruit, basically, I just try to find the ones that are least dented and don't look diseased. For some reason, though, I get the feeling that there's some secret out there to choosing fruit that everyone knows except for me.
Anyways, the Royal Gala apples turned out to be pretty good, but in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder if there's something more, something better out there for me. Today, I decided to try a "Red Delicious", which Olivia told me was pretty standard. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that "delicious" either. I'd describe it more as "somewhat tasty", but I guess realistically, nobody's gonna buy an apple that's called "Red Somewhat Tasty", even if that makes the name more truthful. I think eventually, I might also delve into Fujis and Washingtons, which I've at least heard of before. Other than that, I guess I really don't know what's out there in the wide world of apples.
The other thing is, I haven't yet figured out whether or not I should be eating the skin. My mom always told me to spit out the skin, or peel the apple before eating it, because they put wax and other chemicals on it to protect from insects and stuff. However, I've also heard that the skin has a lot of valuable vitamins, and that it's perfectly okay to eat the wax as long as you wash the apple first. Again, this would be a great question to ask the apple expert friend I don't have.
Monday, January 12, 2004
- The other day I was flipping channels and I happened to stop on this celebrity poker thing on Bravo. One of the contestants was this lady that looked really really familiar. She was about 50-something years old, kind of loud and annoying, and I couldn't figure out who she was. I watched for about 10 minutes agonizing about where I knew that face from, until finally it hit me - it was Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher). It was such a wave of shock when I realized who it was, because I've pretty much only seen her in the Star Wars movies as this young, skinny, beautiful girl. And here she was, playing in some lame celebrity poker game, with a wide grandma body and wrinkly grandma skin, acting crass on top it all. All I can say is, the years and aging really took its toll on her. The experience totally shattered my lifelong idolization of Princess Leia and even made the original Star Wars movies seem a little less sacred to me. I don't know what I was expecting, for the Princess to never get old, but still.
- Another channel flipping experience was last night when I turned to ESPN2 and they were showing Sportscenter highlights in Spanish. I thought it was a joke at first, but apparently it was actually a shared broadcast from the new "ESPN Deportes" channel. Since I only know about 5 words in Spanish (I took Japanese and German in high school and I don't remember much of either of those either), and half of the words I know are curse words, I couldn't understand anything that was going on. It was really trippy to see all the familiar ESPN format, such as the Bottom Line, all the stat graphics, and even the NBA promos, except with Spanish words instead of English everywhere. One thing I noticed was that there were a lot more highlights of soccer and not that much of NFL playoffs. Also, I thought it was especially funny that for the NBA commercials, all they kept showing were clips of Eduardo Najera. He must be some sort of god in the Spanish speaking world.
- Over the weekend I bought the extended DVD sets of Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. It was a lot harder than expected to find the first one, but after checking Best Buy in Darien, Wal-Mart, Target, Hollywood Video, and 2 different Cockbusters, I finally got it at the Best Buy in Arlington Heights. After watching the first one, I must say that it was well worth the $30 and all the hassle of finding it. Even though it was so long, I think a lot of the extended scenes helped the whole series make a lot more sense for me. I'm definitely looking forward to watching the second, and of course I will have to buy the third when it comes out.
- I'd like to take the opportunity to vent about one of the things that pisses me off the most in traffic - people driving slow in the left lane on highways. A couple weeks ago Chras was telling me about how Illinois police are gonna start ticketing people for clogging up the left lane, and I think that's long overdue. In my opinion, it doesn't matter how fast you are going, if someone is going faster and approaching from behind, you better find a way to get to the right so he/she can pass. Personally, I don't care if I'm going 85 or 90 in a 55 zone, I always move right to let people pass if someone's going faster behind me (and then I speed up and try to follow him as a speed shield, of course). If everyone would just follow the simple concept of "Slower traffic keep right", I bet it would seriously save at least 20% cumulative travel time for the general driving population. And it would probably save a good deal of accidents that happen when people are forced to pass on the right. Everytime I get stuck behind one of these white minivans or beat up old Ford Escorts in the left lane, driving under the speed limit, and the right lane is open but 5 cars are tailgating him in the left, I want to stop this person, pull him out of his car, and kick his ass. I'm not even that road-ragey of a guy, it's just that I can't understand why people can be so stubborn and stupid about driving slow in the left lane. There's no excuse, I say.
- Another channel flipping experience was last night when I turned to ESPN2 and they were showing Sportscenter highlights in Spanish. I thought it was a joke at first, but apparently it was actually a shared broadcast from the new "ESPN Deportes" channel. Since I only know about 5 words in Spanish (I took Japanese and German in high school and I don't remember much of either of those either), and half of the words I know are curse words, I couldn't understand anything that was going on. It was really trippy to see all the familiar ESPN format, such as the Bottom Line, all the stat graphics, and even the NBA promos, except with Spanish words instead of English everywhere. One thing I noticed was that there were a lot more highlights of soccer and not that much of NFL playoffs. Also, I thought it was especially funny that for the NBA commercials, all they kept showing were clips of Eduardo Najera. He must be some sort of god in the Spanish speaking world.
- Over the weekend I bought the extended DVD sets of Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. It was a lot harder than expected to find the first one, but after checking Best Buy in Darien, Wal-Mart, Target, Hollywood Video, and 2 different Cockbusters, I finally got it at the Best Buy in Arlington Heights. After watching the first one, I must say that it was well worth the $30 and all the hassle of finding it. Even though it was so long, I think a lot of the extended scenes helped the whole series make a lot more sense for me. I'm definitely looking forward to watching the second, and of course I will have to buy the third when it comes out.
- I'd like to take the opportunity to vent about one of the things that pisses me off the most in traffic - people driving slow in the left lane on highways. A couple weeks ago Chras was telling me about how Illinois police are gonna start ticketing people for clogging up the left lane, and I think that's long overdue. In my opinion, it doesn't matter how fast you are going, if someone is going faster and approaching from behind, you better find a way to get to the right so he/she can pass. Personally, I don't care if I'm going 85 or 90 in a 55 zone, I always move right to let people pass if someone's going faster behind me (and then I speed up and try to follow him as a speed shield, of course). If everyone would just follow the simple concept of "Slower traffic keep right", I bet it would seriously save at least 20% cumulative travel time for the general driving population. And it would probably save a good deal of accidents that happen when people are forced to pass on the right. Everytime I get stuck behind one of these white minivans or beat up old Ford Escorts in the left lane, driving under the speed limit, and the right lane is open but 5 cars are tailgating him in the left, I want to stop this person, pull him out of his car, and kick his ass. I'm not even that road-ragey of a guy, it's just that I can't understand why people can be so stubborn and stupid about driving slow in the left lane. There's no excuse, I say.
Friday, January 09, 2004
The Apprentice
Thanks to the recommendation on Rich's Xanga, I checked out some of "The Apprentice" after watching last night's Friends. From first impressions, I thought the show was pretty stupid, but I kept finding myself switching back to NBC throughout the night to see what was happening. (This could also be due to the lack of any other good programming on at the time).
One thing that pissed me off, for the first "competition" they broke up between the guys and the girls and had them see which team could make more money selling lemonade on the street. Even as Donald Trump was first announcing this to everyone, all the girls started celebrating before the competition even started, while all the guys basically looked at each other and said "sheeeeee....." As well they should have, it doesn't take a business genius to know that people on the street will always buy more and pay more for anything when there's chicks involved, than from a bunch of guys in suits.
So they show the competition, and the stupid thing is, the girls are horribly organized, and in typical female fashion, they waste a whole lot of time bickering and arguing about stuff in the beginning rather than taking action. Don't get mad at me girls, you know I'm right. The guys actually had much better business skills from the beginning, getting local stores to sponsor them and stuff, only they made the mistake of picking a bad location. But I don't think it would have mattered, considering they were selling cups for $1 each while the girls were getting people to pay $5 (about $1 for the lemonade, $4 for a kiss on the cheek or their phone number). Needless to say, the guys lost pretty handily by the end of the day, in a 3 to 1 margin.
But in my opinion, much of the show's entertainment value for me was recouped in the last half hour. I think once I remember writing in this blog about the guilty pleasure of listening to someone get chewed out by a manager/VP at work. You kind of feel sorry for them, but there's just something fun about hearing someone get ripped a new one. Well, it's even more fun when Donald Trump and his 2 steel-faced assistants are doing the ripping, and the guys being ripped are the ones who pissed you off in the show. It's also interesting to see how quick they turn on each other when they're being grilled.
Anyways, I think I liked the show enough overall to plan on watching it again next week. Well, chances are, I'll forget to watch it and then I'm screwed for the rest of the series, like what happens whenver I try to follow any other reality show that's not on MTV. Someone please remind me to tune in again next Wednesday.
*****
For Anuj
Alright focker.... I'm gonna go through this one more time to show you that I was right and you guys were wrong.
Path #1: From Darien, taking 355 N to 290W to 53N to Palatine E gets you to Dave's house in about 45-50 mins (let's say average 47.5 mins).
Path #2: From Darien, taking 294 N to Willow gets you to Dave's house in about 40-45 mins (let's say average 42.5 mins). From Dave's to and from Vernon Hills Hooters is about 10-15 mins each way (let's say average 12.5 mins). Since the Hooters is located pretty much due north of Dave's house, it basically means you're driving that distance twice. So for the total travel time, you have to take 42.5 + 2*12.5 = 67.5 minutes.
As the math shows, Path #2 (your choice) is 20 minutes more, pretty much exactly the same difference I showed you guys using Yahoo Map numbers that day. 20 minutes is a pretty big number, considering it's almost 1/3 of your total travel time in Path #2.
Local vs. highway is already factored into these numbers, in fact, Path #2 has just as much local driving if not more. You shouldn't really even count Palatine Rd. as local, it has 3 or 4 lanes each direction and has speed limits of 45-55 mph for most of the way. I'll admit, your so-called "Woodfield Christmas season traffic" in that quarter mile stretch (generous estimate) between 53 and the mall loop might add a little bit of time to Path #1. A liiiiitle bit of time. But it's still not gonna come close to making up 20 minutes worth of discrepancy in the simple math I explained above.
By the way, Chras can attest to the fact that I took him through Path #1 from Dave's house to his house in about 40 mins flat last week. I'll even give you guys the extra 7.5 minutes for the sake of calculation, because I drive pretty fast and there was light traffic that night.
Thanks to the recommendation on Rich's Xanga, I checked out some of "The Apprentice" after watching last night's Friends. From first impressions, I thought the show was pretty stupid, but I kept finding myself switching back to NBC throughout the night to see what was happening. (This could also be due to the lack of any other good programming on at the time).
One thing that pissed me off, for the first "competition" they broke up between the guys and the girls and had them see which team could make more money selling lemonade on the street. Even as Donald Trump was first announcing this to everyone, all the girls started celebrating before the competition even started, while all the guys basically looked at each other and said "sheeeeee....." As well they should have, it doesn't take a business genius to know that people on the street will always buy more and pay more for anything when there's chicks involved, than from a bunch of guys in suits.
So they show the competition, and the stupid thing is, the girls are horribly organized, and in typical female fashion, they waste a whole lot of time bickering and arguing about stuff in the beginning rather than taking action. Don't get mad at me girls, you know I'm right. The guys actually had much better business skills from the beginning, getting local stores to sponsor them and stuff, only they made the mistake of picking a bad location. But I don't think it would have mattered, considering they were selling cups for $1 each while the girls were getting people to pay $5 (about $1 for the lemonade, $4 for a kiss on the cheek or their phone number). Needless to say, the guys lost pretty handily by the end of the day, in a 3 to 1 margin.
But in my opinion, much of the show's entertainment value for me was recouped in the last half hour. I think once I remember writing in this blog about the guilty pleasure of listening to someone get chewed out by a manager/VP at work. You kind of feel sorry for them, but there's just something fun about hearing someone get ripped a new one. Well, it's even more fun when Donald Trump and his 2 steel-faced assistants are doing the ripping, and the guys being ripped are the ones who pissed you off in the show. It's also interesting to see how quick they turn on each other when they're being grilled.
Anyways, I think I liked the show enough overall to plan on watching it again next week. Well, chances are, I'll forget to watch it and then I'm screwed for the rest of the series, like what happens whenver I try to follow any other reality show that's not on MTV. Someone please remind me to tune in again next Wednesday.
*****
For Anuj
Alright focker.... I'm gonna go through this one more time to show you that I was right and you guys were wrong.
Path #1: From Darien, taking 355 N to 290W to 53N to Palatine E gets you to Dave's house in about 45-50 mins (let's say average 47.5 mins).
Path #2: From Darien, taking 294 N to Willow gets you to Dave's house in about 40-45 mins (let's say average 42.5 mins). From Dave's to and from Vernon Hills Hooters is about 10-15 mins each way (let's say average 12.5 mins). Since the Hooters is located pretty much due north of Dave's house, it basically means you're driving that distance twice. So for the total travel time, you have to take 42.5 + 2*12.5 = 67.5 minutes.
As the math shows, Path #2 (your choice) is 20 minutes more, pretty much exactly the same difference I showed you guys using Yahoo Map numbers that day. 20 minutes is a pretty big number, considering it's almost 1/3 of your total travel time in Path #2.
Local vs. highway is already factored into these numbers, in fact, Path #2 has just as much local driving if not more. You shouldn't really even count Palatine Rd. as local, it has 3 or 4 lanes each direction and has speed limits of 45-55 mph for most of the way. I'll admit, your so-called "Woodfield Christmas season traffic" in that quarter mile stretch (generous estimate) between 53 and the mall loop might add a little bit of time to Path #1. A liiiiitle bit of time. But it's still not gonna come close to making up 20 minutes worth of discrepancy in the simple math I explained above.
By the way, Chras can attest to the fact that I took him through Path #1 from Dave's house to his house in about 40 mins flat last week. I'll even give you guys the extra 7.5 minutes for the sake of calculation, because I drive pretty fast and there was light traffic that night.
Thursday, January 08, 2004
- This morning as I pulled out of my garage on the way to work, I caught the traffic report on the radio: "North-South Tollway is backed up with an accident around the North Ave. exit". I kind of feel guilty, but I seem to get a sense of pleasure from knowing that people are stuck in traffic on the very road I used to drive on every day, while I can now enjoy a smooth 9 minute commute. There's even a little voice in my head that sounds like Nelson from the Simpsons going "HA-HA".
- One of my lesser known passions in life these days is knowing the shortest routes from one place to another. You might say I'm a little obsessed with trying different paths and figuring out what way will get me there in the fastest time. When I first moved to the townhouse in Palatine, I kept a stopwatch in my car so that I could measure the times it took from various exits on 53 to get to the townhouse, then record them in Excel, average the numbers and analyze them (the best exit is Euclid West to Hicks north). *nerd alert* A couple weeks ago, I got into a heated argument on the phone with Chras, Anuj, and Andy about which Hooters to meet at before going to Dave's house for cards. I let them have their way, though not without a fight, but when I arrived at Hooters in Vernon Hills, I was armed with a 3x5 Post-it Note to show them I meant business. On the Post-it Note I had drawn a crude map diagramming why I was right and they were wrong, and apparently Andy, having known me since high school and roomed with me for a year, predicted that I would do something like that beforehand. But the important part is, I was right: it would have been significantly faster to have met at Schaumburg Hooters instead and then drove to Dave's, than to drive past his house to Vernon Hills and come back.
- As part of my important policy of talking about Britney Spears in my blog, I thought I'd pass on the latest information I have. Her next video is set to premiere on January 13th. The video is for the song "Toxic", and apparently features her as a homicidal girlfriend out for revenge on her cheating lover. Sounds spicy. The song itself is probably my favorite on the album, so I am especially excited. It sounds a lot different from any of her other music, features the Stockholm Strings as well as her sexy voice, and above all that, is quite catchy. I know I had it in my head for about a week straight after I first bought the album. So now that I've hyped it up, everyone watch MTV next Wednesday as I will most definitely be doing.
- One of my lesser known passions in life these days is knowing the shortest routes from one place to another. You might say I'm a little obsessed with trying different paths and figuring out what way will get me there in the fastest time. When I first moved to the townhouse in Palatine, I kept a stopwatch in my car so that I could measure the times it took from various exits on 53 to get to the townhouse, then record them in Excel, average the numbers and analyze them (the best exit is Euclid West to Hicks north). *nerd alert* A couple weeks ago, I got into a heated argument on the phone with Chras, Anuj, and Andy about which Hooters to meet at before going to Dave's house for cards. I let them have their way, though not without a fight, but when I arrived at Hooters in Vernon Hills, I was armed with a 3x5 Post-it Note to show them I meant business. On the Post-it Note I had drawn a crude map diagramming why I was right and they were wrong, and apparently Andy, having known me since high school and roomed with me for a year, predicted that I would do something like that beforehand. But the important part is, I was right: it would have been significantly faster to have met at Schaumburg Hooters instead and then drove to Dave's, than to drive past his house to Vernon Hills and come back.
- As part of my important policy of talking about Britney Spears in my blog, I thought I'd pass on the latest information I have. Her next video is set to premiere on January 13th. The video is for the song "Toxic", and apparently features her as a homicidal girlfriend out for revenge on her cheating lover. Sounds spicy. The song itself is probably my favorite on the album, so I am especially excited. It sounds a lot different from any of her other music, features the Stockholm Strings as well as her sexy voice, and above all that, is quite catchy. I know I had it in my head for about a week straight after I first bought the album. So now that I've hyped it up, everyone watch MTV next Wednesday as I will most definitely be doing.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Crocodile Hunter
I was watching some news thing and they were bashing the Crocodile Hunter guy because he "endangered" his baby son on one of his shows. Then they showed the tape, and basically from what I saw, all he did was hold his son in his left arm while feeding the crocodile a piece of meat with his right.
Now, I'm no lover of the Croc Hunter, actually I find him to be very annoying, but I gotta say, leave the man alone! I think people are way too sensitive about kids and babies these days and this is just another example of that. I mean, babies are cute and all, but let's not get carried away. It's like we worship children in this society, and that's taking it too far.
Obviously, I believe we have to protect kids to some point. It's not like I'm saying it's ok to dangle your toddler over a balcony or anything. And it goes without saying that I'm against child abuse, molesting, whatever other bad stuff that people do to kids and babies in this cruel world (by the way, I would include abortion somewhere in this category).
But this Croc Hunter guy, working with these dangerous animals is his life. If you've watched any of his shows you know that he's regularly in a lot more dangerous situations than feeding a crocodile a piece of meat. Whatever "danger" he put his baby son in, he put himself in at least twice the risk if not more. I gotta say, if I were a kid, I'd rather be brought up by a dad who is gonna expose me to risks and dangers in life (within reason), than to be constantly sheltered and "protected" from anything that might remotely harm me.
I think all these people who act so horrified that the Croc Hunter would bring his baby boy on his show are probably the same parents who would raise their own kids in a bubble if they could. In their minds they think it's about protecting children, but really, it cripples the kids in the end. You know the parents who don't let their kids play in sandboxes with other kids for fear of them getting sick? Guess what, their kids are the ones who grow up with underdeveloped immune systems, not to mention a severe lack of social skills.
Well, I think now I'm getting carried away. I guess all I'm saying is, some people in this country need to chill. Kids are great, but how about we don't act like every single 2 year old is the second coming of Christ. Thank you.
I was watching some news thing and they were bashing the Crocodile Hunter guy because he "endangered" his baby son on one of his shows. Then they showed the tape, and basically from what I saw, all he did was hold his son in his left arm while feeding the crocodile a piece of meat with his right.
Now, I'm no lover of the Croc Hunter, actually I find him to be very annoying, but I gotta say, leave the man alone! I think people are way too sensitive about kids and babies these days and this is just another example of that. I mean, babies are cute and all, but let's not get carried away. It's like we worship children in this society, and that's taking it too far.
Obviously, I believe we have to protect kids to some point. It's not like I'm saying it's ok to dangle your toddler over a balcony or anything. And it goes without saying that I'm against child abuse, molesting, whatever other bad stuff that people do to kids and babies in this cruel world (by the way, I would include abortion somewhere in this category).
But this Croc Hunter guy, working with these dangerous animals is his life. If you've watched any of his shows you know that he's regularly in a lot more dangerous situations than feeding a crocodile a piece of meat. Whatever "danger" he put his baby son in, he put himself in at least twice the risk if not more. I gotta say, if I were a kid, I'd rather be brought up by a dad who is gonna expose me to risks and dangers in life (within reason), than to be constantly sheltered and "protected" from anything that might remotely harm me.
I think all these people who act so horrified that the Croc Hunter would bring his baby boy on his show are probably the same parents who would raise their own kids in a bubble if they could. In their minds they think it's about protecting children, but really, it cripples the kids in the end. You know the parents who don't let their kids play in sandboxes with other kids for fear of them getting sick? Guess what, their kids are the ones who grow up with underdeveloped immune systems, not to mention a severe lack of social skills.
Well, I think now I'm getting carried away. I guess all I'm saying is, some people in this country need to chill. Kids are great, but how about we don't act like every single 2 year old is the second coming of Christ. Thank you.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Britney Spears
It seems like everyone I know has informed me in the past couple days about Britney Spears getting married. I guess for some reason people tend to think of me when Britney Spears is in the news. Why, I have no idea? Anyways, for those of you who haven't heard the story, I guess she "took a joke too far" with her high school boyfriend in Vegas, they got married, then she had it "annulled" 55 hours later. Seems like a really unlikely story, but then I think about some of my friends and how they take jokes too far. If Britney and this guy are anything like us, I could kind of see it happening. Instead of being like "Boats?" or "40's?", it would be like "Get married in Vegas tonight?", and you know neither one can back down once it's said. The only thing is, I can't really picture her saying "shibby", which is kind of key in those situations.
*****
Pete Rose
So the guy gets caught betting on baseball, and he's banned from the sport entirely for the past 14 years or so. Meaning he can't coach in the major leagues, and he's not eligible for the Hall of Fame. Then this whole time he's stubbornly denied ever gambling on baseball, until the past week, when all of a sudden he finally admits it. I guess that's great and all, but in the words of Chris Rock, "what you want, a cookie?"
Well, what he really wants is to be allowed to coach again and voted into the Hall of Fame. Personally, I don't really care if he does either one or not, although I think if you break a rule knowing the exact consequences of getting caught, then you should suffer the consequences when you do get caught. But really, when I think about the whole thing, I just wonder what it's like to be Pete Rose. If I were him, I'd just go away. What's the point of forcing your way into the Hall of Fame, or wasting your time trying to coach in a league where half the people hate you to begin with?
It seems like everyone I know has informed me in the past couple days about Britney Spears getting married. I guess for some reason people tend to think of me when Britney Spears is in the news. Why, I have no idea? Anyways, for those of you who haven't heard the story, I guess she "took a joke too far" with her high school boyfriend in Vegas, they got married, then she had it "annulled" 55 hours later. Seems like a really unlikely story, but then I think about some of my friends and how they take jokes too far. If Britney and this guy are anything like us, I could kind of see it happening. Instead of being like "Boats?" or "40's?", it would be like "Get married in Vegas tonight?", and you know neither one can back down once it's said. The only thing is, I can't really picture her saying "shibby", which is kind of key in those situations.
*****
Pete Rose
So the guy gets caught betting on baseball, and he's banned from the sport entirely for the past 14 years or so. Meaning he can't coach in the major leagues, and he's not eligible for the Hall of Fame. Then this whole time he's stubbornly denied ever gambling on baseball, until the past week, when all of a sudden he finally admits it. I guess that's great and all, but in the words of Chris Rock, "what you want, a cookie?"
Well, what he really wants is to be allowed to coach again and voted into the Hall of Fame. Personally, I don't really care if he does either one or not, although I think if you break a rule knowing the exact consequences of getting caught, then you should suffer the consequences when you do get caught. But really, when I think about the whole thing, I just wonder what it's like to be Pete Rose. If I were him, I'd just go away. What's the point of forcing your way into the Hall of Fame, or wasting your time trying to coach in a league where half the people hate you to begin with?
Monday, January 05, 2004
What I Did On My Winter Break
A while back, I wrote about how working life was becoming routine for me and predictable. I said that having a routine wasn't so bad after all, that it was actually comforting to feel like everything was in order and "been there, done that".
Well, comforting as it might be, I had a week off from work for Christmas and New Year's, and in this relatively short time, I quickly fell back into a life that was happily nonroutine. Waking up late, eating my first meal at 5 pm, laying on my bed and watching TV for hours at a time, and not working out. It didn't really help that my mom, sister, and girlfriend all left for Taiwan, leaving me by myself (or with my dad) for most of the time.
I definitely enjoyed the extra rest, the freedom, and the Newlyweds marathons on MTV while it lasted, but in many ways, I think I'm about ready to get back to the grind. Not so "ready", of course, that I would voluntarily choose to end my break and come back to work, but it's not as miserable being back here as I thought it would be. Definitely a different feeling than coming back from Winter or Spring Break back in the college or high school days.
You know that game Jenga, where you build up a tower of wooden blocks and then take turns removing blocks until the tower falls over? Well, I never really liked that game, cause I'd rather just leave the tower there after making it nice and pretty, but that game was kind of like what the past 12 days reminded me of. I spent a good deal of time and effort in the previous months to organize my life and get it to a situation where I felt like almost everything was in the right place. Then, when the holidays came, I started taking out blocks left and right (cause it was the "fun" thing to do for whatever reason), but all the while I had to be mindful of not completely messing everything up.
The good thing is, I didn't really mess up my life's tower too much during my break, but I think that's the direction I was headed. So even though it means I have to wake up early again and start grinding away towards the weekends like before, I guess it's for the better.
Nevertheless, I will say that the holidays were very fun and I hope everyone out there had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as I did. I've decided to record some highlights here:
- Washed my car with Dennis. I don't care if it's the dead of winter, as long as the sun is out, it's not too windy, and the temperature is above freezing, I'm taking every opportunity possible to give my baby a bath. Our experience was not without obstacles, however. The hose was packed with ice, so we had to spend a lot of time massaging it to break up the ice, then pouring hot water into and around the hose to speed up the melting process. It was a tedious and messy process, and Dennis wanted to give up, but I persisted and in the end we were rewarded with flowing water. The whole thing was pretty ridiculous, but probably an entertaining scene for anyone watching us. I even took a few pictures to remember the story, maybe I will post them sometime.
- Hung out with friends on New Years Eve. Played some Cranium and Pictionary, drank some champagne, and argued about whether or not the kid in About a Boy looked like Roi. The next day, I had one of the worst hangovers ever. I didn't even feel like I had that much at the time, but I guess wine and champagne give really bad hangovers, much more so than beer or regular liquor. Basically, it took me out of commission for most of January 1st, not a great way to start out 2004 but oh well. By the way, I didn't make any New Years resolutions, I think for the first time in my life. I decided that those are dumb and don't work for me, either that or I just forgot and didn't feel like thinking of anything.
- As I mentioned earlier, I watched a lot of Newlyweds. Me and Chras agreed that the show is just as funny, if not more funny in reruns as it was the first time around. Everyone rips on Jessica Simpson for being dumb, but I like her. At least she's not mean spirited or anything, and she tries to be a good wife. You could do a lot worse than that. Sure, she's whiny and spoiled, but she can also be a really nice and sweet girl. And you know what? I think there's a little bit of Jessica Simpson in every girl that I've ever met, and it's not entirely a bad thing.
- When I was little, one of my best friends was Jason, whose mom was friends with my mom. He moved away when we were still like 8 years old or so, but we kept in touch for the next few years by "snail mail". Jason's dad was in the Air Force, so their family moved a lot, but whether he was in North Carolina, New Orleans, Portland, or wherever, he would always send me a letter to tell me about what was going on. Somewhere along the way, I think around the time I moved to Taiwan, we eventually lost touch, but last week he sent me an email out of the blue. It turns out my old friend Jason is now a 3rd year med student in Virginia. I can't explain how weird a feeling it is, that one day we're just these kids playing Atari, having snowball fights, and making Chinese Stars, and then all of a sudden I'm working as an engineer and he's close to becoming a doctor. It was definitely cool to hear from him though, and exciting that I got to talk to an old friend on the phone. And I really hope that with the technological advances in email, IM, and cell phones, we won't lose touch this time.
- Went out to Lions Head Pub on the Day after Christmas. A good night, got to see most of my favorite people there. Took some pictures which I might post soon, if I remember to.
- Went out to Barleycorn on a Monday night with most of my favorite people who didn't have to work the next day. The place was so chill and empty that night, which was weird cause I've never seen it in any situation where it wasn't completely packed with people.
- Played a healthy share of cards. Our holdem games are getting huge, with enough people to make multiple tables and everything. I think I've been playing too much lately though. Wouldn't quite go as far as to say I'm "pokered out" just yet, but maybe I should try to keep things moderate. All right, so my rule shall be: NO MORE THAN 3 TIMES A WEEK WITH NO EXCEPTIONS... haha
- Played some Starcraft and realized that I still suck a lot.
- Watched the 1st season of Friends on my sister's DVD. This show was so good, especially in the early seasons. Not only was it funny, but I think they did a good job with the Ross and Rachel story. I actually kind of cared about what was gonna happen with their relationship, which is more than I can say for Chandler and Monica. That one just seemed so contrived to me. And then the Joey and Rachel thing was even more unneccessary. Anyways, I think I might have to buy the Friends DVDs for myself. The only bad thing is that the commentary and special features were pretty weak. It was hard for me to understand how such dry and lifeless people could actually be the creators of this entertaining and well written show.
- Drove through a lot of snow yesterday and was reminded of how rear wheel drive sucks in snow. Although, I think I might have to write an Ode to Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) sometime. That being the feature in my car that electronically stabilizes the vehicle when it starts to skid by cutting power to certain wheels and stuff, a feature that probably saved me from crashing more than a few times yesterday. What disturbed me most throughout the whole driving in snow experience was not that it was cold, or hard to maintain control, or that it was such a pain to clean off all the slush and ice. I was most freaked out when I saw a Honda Element driving by on the road, and caught myself almost wishing I had one. Well, then when I realized what thought had just crossed my mind, I threatened to kick my own ass, so hopefully that won't happen again. Those things are UG-LEE...
- Played football on Saturday. It was just touch, but I'm still sore today. I kind of wish we had played in the snow instead, that would've made for some fun tackling. Also watched a lot of the NFL playoffs. It sucks that I won't have my fantasy team to root for anymore, but I guess that means I can go back to being a regular fan and just watch the games for purely entertainment value. I kind of forgot what that feels like.
*****
The Frozen Hose
Pieces of ice that we broke out of the hose:
A gallon of hot water used to speed up the melting process:
Finally, the breakthrough:
*****
Lion's Head 12/28/03
A while back, I wrote about how working life was becoming routine for me and predictable. I said that having a routine wasn't so bad after all, that it was actually comforting to feel like everything was in order and "been there, done that".
Well, comforting as it might be, I had a week off from work for Christmas and New Year's, and in this relatively short time, I quickly fell back into a life that was happily nonroutine. Waking up late, eating my first meal at 5 pm, laying on my bed and watching TV for hours at a time, and not working out. It didn't really help that my mom, sister, and girlfriend all left for Taiwan, leaving me by myself (or with my dad) for most of the time.
I definitely enjoyed the extra rest, the freedom, and the Newlyweds marathons on MTV while it lasted, but in many ways, I think I'm about ready to get back to the grind. Not so "ready", of course, that I would voluntarily choose to end my break and come back to work, but it's not as miserable being back here as I thought it would be. Definitely a different feeling than coming back from Winter or Spring Break back in the college or high school days.
You know that game Jenga, where you build up a tower of wooden blocks and then take turns removing blocks until the tower falls over? Well, I never really liked that game, cause I'd rather just leave the tower there after making it nice and pretty, but that game was kind of like what the past 12 days reminded me of. I spent a good deal of time and effort in the previous months to organize my life and get it to a situation where I felt like almost everything was in the right place. Then, when the holidays came, I started taking out blocks left and right (cause it was the "fun" thing to do for whatever reason), but all the while I had to be mindful of not completely messing everything up.
The good thing is, I didn't really mess up my life's tower too much during my break, but I think that's the direction I was headed. So even though it means I have to wake up early again and start grinding away towards the weekends like before, I guess it's for the better.
Nevertheless, I will say that the holidays were very fun and I hope everyone out there had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as I did. I've decided to record some highlights here:
- Washed my car with Dennis. I don't care if it's the dead of winter, as long as the sun is out, it's not too windy, and the temperature is above freezing, I'm taking every opportunity possible to give my baby a bath. Our experience was not without obstacles, however. The hose was packed with ice, so we had to spend a lot of time massaging it to break up the ice, then pouring hot water into and around the hose to speed up the melting process. It was a tedious and messy process, and Dennis wanted to give up, but I persisted and in the end we were rewarded with flowing water. The whole thing was pretty ridiculous, but probably an entertaining scene for anyone watching us. I even took a few pictures to remember the story, maybe I will post them sometime.
- Hung out with friends on New Years Eve. Played some Cranium and Pictionary, drank some champagne, and argued about whether or not the kid in About a Boy looked like Roi. The next day, I had one of the worst hangovers ever. I didn't even feel like I had that much at the time, but I guess wine and champagne give really bad hangovers, much more so than beer or regular liquor. Basically, it took me out of commission for most of January 1st, not a great way to start out 2004 but oh well. By the way, I didn't make any New Years resolutions, I think for the first time in my life. I decided that those are dumb and don't work for me, either that or I just forgot and didn't feel like thinking of anything.
- As I mentioned earlier, I watched a lot of Newlyweds. Me and Chras agreed that the show is just as funny, if not more funny in reruns as it was the first time around. Everyone rips on Jessica Simpson for being dumb, but I like her. At least she's not mean spirited or anything, and she tries to be a good wife. You could do a lot worse than that. Sure, she's whiny and spoiled, but she can also be a really nice and sweet girl. And you know what? I think there's a little bit of Jessica Simpson in every girl that I've ever met, and it's not entirely a bad thing.
- When I was little, one of my best friends was Jason, whose mom was friends with my mom. He moved away when we were still like 8 years old or so, but we kept in touch for the next few years by "snail mail". Jason's dad was in the Air Force, so their family moved a lot, but whether he was in North Carolina, New Orleans, Portland, or wherever, he would always send me a letter to tell me about what was going on. Somewhere along the way, I think around the time I moved to Taiwan, we eventually lost touch, but last week he sent me an email out of the blue. It turns out my old friend Jason is now a 3rd year med student in Virginia. I can't explain how weird a feeling it is, that one day we're just these kids playing Atari, having snowball fights, and making Chinese Stars, and then all of a sudden I'm working as an engineer and he's close to becoming a doctor. It was definitely cool to hear from him though, and exciting that I got to talk to an old friend on the phone. And I really hope that with the technological advances in email, IM, and cell phones, we won't lose touch this time.
- Went out to Lions Head Pub on the Day after Christmas. A good night, got to see most of my favorite people there. Took some pictures which I might post soon, if I remember to.
- Went out to Barleycorn on a Monday night with most of my favorite people who didn't have to work the next day. The place was so chill and empty that night, which was weird cause I've never seen it in any situation where it wasn't completely packed with people.
- Played a healthy share of cards. Our holdem games are getting huge, with enough people to make multiple tables and everything. I think I've been playing too much lately though. Wouldn't quite go as far as to say I'm "pokered out" just yet, but maybe I should try to keep things moderate. All right, so my rule shall be: NO MORE THAN 3 TIMES A WEEK WITH NO EXCEPTIONS... haha
- Played some Starcraft and realized that I still suck a lot.
- Watched the 1st season of Friends on my sister's DVD. This show was so good, especially in the early seasons. Not only was it funny, but I think they did a good job with the Ross and Rachel story. I actually kind of cared about what was gonna happen with their relationship, which is more than I can say for Chandler and Monica. That one just seemed so contrived to me. And then the Joey and Rachel thing was even more unneccessary. Anyways, I think I might have to buy the Friends DVDs for myself. The only bad thing is that the commentary and special features were pretty weak. It was hard for me to understand how such dry and lifeless people could actually be the creators of this entertaining and well written show.
- Drove through a lot of snow yesterday and was reminded of how rear wheel drive sucks in snow. Although, I think I might have to write an Ode to Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) sometime. That being the feature in my car that electronically stabilizes the vehicle when it starts to skid by cutting power to certain wheels and stuff, a feature that probably saved me from crashing more than a few times yesterday. What disturbed me most throughout the whole driving in snow experience was not that it was cold, or hard to maintain control, or that it was such a pain to clean off all the slush and ice. I was most freaked out when I saw a Honda Element driving by on the road, and caught myself almost wishing I had one. Well, then when I realized what thought had just crossed my mind, I threatened to kick my own ass, so hopefully that won't happen again. Those things are UG-LEE...
- Played football on Saturday. It was just touch, but I'm still sore today. I kind of wish we had played in the snow instead, that would've made for some fun tackling. Also watched a lot of the NFL playoffs. It sucks that I won't have my fantasy team to root for anymore, but I guess that means I can go back to being a regular fan and just watch the games for purely entertainment value. I kind of forgot what that feels like.
*****
The Frozen Hose
Pieces of ice that we broke out of the hose:
A gallon of hot water used to speed up the melting process:
Finally, the breakthrough:
*****
Lion's Head 12/28/03
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