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...........
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)