Saturday Fun

My day started innocently enough, waking up around 9, watching some infomercials for Bowflex and some steam cleaner device. I think actually my dad bought that steamer thing and it's sitting at home in the basement somewhere, unused right now.

Next, played a couple games of craft with Dan and Dennis. We got raped both times. I felt like the biggest joke on Battlenet, it was that bad.

The afternoon involved giving my car a thorough wash and polish treatment, interspersed with watching Shawshank Redemption on TV. The process included:

- Vacuum interior
- Watch Andy Dufresne's first days in prison
- Wash with Z-7
- Towel Dry
- Watch Andy get forked by the Sistas
- Layer of Z-6
- Mix Z-2 and ZFX
- Andy plays opera music on the loudspeakers, gets sent to the hole
(by the way if you haven't seen Shawshank before, now would be a good time to stop reading.)
- Layer Z-2
- Layer of Meguiar's Tire Gloss.
- Noticed a metal screw in one of the tires. Decide to get it looked at sometime soon instead of trying to fix it myself.
- Warden shoots guy who could've testified to set Andy free
- Remove Z-2
- Layer of Z-6
- Andy escapes, screws over guards and Warden, meets Red in Mexico. YAY
- Layer of Meguiar's Tire Gloss

For those who might be interested in my advice on car wash products, I recommend the Zaino system for wash and polish, and Meguiar's stuff for tires and leather. Also, California duster products are pretty useful too. Contact me if you have any other questions.

Shawshank Redemption, goes without saying, one of the best movies ever. Possibly the best ending to any movie I have ever seen, up there with Usual Suspects and Return of the Jedi.

Anyways, I spent the evening at the Sox-Indians game with Olivia. Sox have been in a terrible slide for a couple weeks now, but I'm still more happy about this year's team than last year's. Didn't have a chance to write much about the Sox when they were doing well, unfortunately now it's all turned sour. I guess it does suck to lose your 2 best all around hitters all of a sudden, but it's no excuse to be doing this bad. Getting swept at home by the Twins was one thing, but then losing the series to KC (without Sweeney) was just not right.

In tonight's game, there were a few moments of excitement, basically all in the one inning when Cliff Lee got tired and we got 2 home runs (one 3-run shot by Robbie Alomar, and a 2-run shot by Uribe).

Towards the end of the game, I got to experience for myself the "Shingo Entrance Theme" as he came in to save the 2 run lead. It was exactly as I imagined it, except even gayer. Gong noises, Japanese words flashing on the big screen with the same 3 Shingo highlight clips being repeated over and over. Also, the words "Mr. Zero" scrolling across the screen. Surprisingly, the crowd was pretty into it, and everyone seemed to be a big Shingo fan. He then proceeded to blow the lead and get a loss by allowing 2 singles and a 3-run jack to Matt Lawton. Not good.

But the most fun of the night was when I was driving home from Olivia's condo, and my front left tire decided to go down in the Express Lanes on the Kennedy. You may have noticed there was foreshadowing of this event from earlier in this entry. Anyways, I was lucky it was in a place where there was some shoulder, otherwise I don't know what would've happened.

Even so, trying to fix a flat tire on the shoulder of the Express lanes around midnight is not my favorite situation to be in. Some cars driving by felt like they were a lot closer than I would consider a safe distance, but oh well. I'm still alive and typing a blog now, so it's all good. I thought about calling up Infiniti Roadside Assistance, but decided it would take too long. Also, I didn't want to be a pussy. A real man fixes his own flat tires, I say. A few minutes later, a cop finally pulled up behind me with his lights on, to offer me some protection and safety. For once, I got to deal with a cop who wasn't looking to write me a ticket. Kind of nice, really.

As far as the tire goes, I wouldn't so much call it a "flat" tire as I would a "exploded" tire. When I got out to look at it, the ground around the tire was splattered with all these bits of tire rubber. Not cool at all. When I got home, I decided to take some pictures to commemorate and remember this fine experience. And now I will share them with my readers:







I guess my car has a full-size spare, which is nice. I'd rather not have to use it though. Looks like tomorrow will involve me trying to get a new tire. Hope NTB is open on Sundays.

I really need to go to sleep now.

Darien

This entry is dedicated to the small town of Darien, IL.

When I say "small town", I mean relatively small. Not like one of those rural hick towns where everyone knows everyone else and you marry your cousins. But compared to most other suburbs in Chicago, it's pretty small any way you look at it. It has a population of about 20,000, less than 10 square miles of jurisdiction, and does not have its own high school. If those numbers don't mean much to you, consider that neighboring Downers Grove (where I grew up) has about 50,000 people, and Naperville (just down the road) has well over 100,000 now. Each of those suburbs is large enough to need 2 of its own high schools (I think Naperville actually has 3, if Neuqua Valley counts).

As far as my personal relationship to Darien goes, it's not the place I was born (Hinsdale), and not the place I grew up (Downers Grove). Not the place I live now, either (Palatine). In fact, out of my 24+ years of life, I think I have only spent about 3 years really living in the town of Darien itself. If you include the time I was at college, then I count Darien as my place of residence for no more than 7-8 years.

So, some of you may be wondering why I'm writing a blog about a place that few people outside of the area have even heard of, and carries little significance in my own life, in terms of traditionally important milestones.

Well, despite those things, I have to say here that the Village of Darien is actually a very cool and special place in my mind, for a number of reasons. And now I will try to explain why it is so special and cool.

First of all, whenever you enter Darien at any major intersection, you are greeted by the welcome sign: Darien - "A Nice Place To Live". Written with quotes and everything like that. Now, most people don't pay much attention to the mottos on those signs as they're driving, and I have to admit, I never noticed it myself for a long time. It wasn't until my 2nd year of college, when I was dorming at ISR 3-South and a bunch of us on the floor were all talking about where we were from. When I said I was from Darien, one of the guys was like "Hey, I know that place, isn't that 'A Nice Place to Live'?". From then on, every time any of us from Darien introduced ourselves to new people, we would have to explain that we were from "A Nice Place to Live".

Anyways, I gotta say, I really like that motto. I mean, it's not like I know a lot of mottos. Maybe the only one I can think of (other than Darien) is "Worth - The Friendly Village", because it's written in huge letters on their water tower and it, too, is a good motto. But yeah, I don't know if anything can top "A Nice Place to Live" when it comes to quality of motto. Short, simple, to the point. Yeah, it sounds like a 2nd grader came up with the idea, but hey, who wouldn't want to be in "A Nice Place to Live"?

The town itself, while small in area, has a lot of good stuff around. 2 places I always took for granted, until I moved to a place without either one nearby, were Wal-Mart and White Castle. Having the Castle, in particular, automatically puts Darien among the most elite suburbs of Chicago as far as I'm concerned. (Actually, I think our White Castle is technically in DG territory, but that's ok, it's all the same.) Wendys, KFC, Pizza Hut, Barnes & Noble, Kohls, Gap, Bath & Body Works, XSport, Burger King, Best Buy, Old Navy, and more stores are all at that same intersection too.

Of course, the most important factor in determining any town's coolness would be the people it has. As we already know, Darien had me gracing its land with my presence for a few years, which is a huge plus for any town or city. The magnitude of this fact alone must not be overlooked or underestimated.

But what really set this town apart was 5 of my best friends who went to U of I with me representing D-town. Not that we were the only ones from Darien who went to U of I that year, but we were more or less the ones that mattered. Eventually, we crossed paths and came to intermingle with the thugs from other places like Glenview, Cedarville, Princeton, Wheaton, Gurnee, and more. But the "original 6" of Darien was, and still is, a legendary group.

And I guess what brings me to write about Darien now, is the realization that almost none of us are in Darien any more. Thankfully, most of us are still in the general Chicagoland area, but the fact is that our addresses no longer all end in 60561, and our phone numbers don't all start with (630) now. A rundown of where we are:

Me - Palatine
P - Waukesha, Wisconsin
Vas - Paris, Texas/Czech Republic (?)
Rod - Downtown Chicago
Chras - Soon to be Downtown Chicago
Anuj - Only remnant keepin it real in Darien. Assuming he comes back from India.

So with everyone moving on to other places these days, I figured I better record our history in Darien before our legacy is forgotten and it all gets lost in the waves of time. After all, I feel a certain attachment to the town, as if it's almost a part of my identity. I don't know about the other boys, but I feel a certain sense of pride to say that I hail from the great village of Darien and that I'm a part of the "Darien crowd", because there's not a lot of people who can say that and thus it sets me apart in a way. Yeah, I understand that makes me a real loser, but oh well.

Sadly, it looks like the end of our era is here. But I hope the Darien spirit will live on in all of us, and through those who wasted their time reading this blog.

If anyone feels like reading more about Darien, go to this URL:

http://www.darien.il.us/

You'll have to cut and paste it into a new browser, cause I don't want the webmasters to notice their traffic tripling today from 2 hits to 6, with my page as the referral for the extra 4 visitors. But it has some history of the town and also some of the demographic statistics I listed above. I didn't know that Darien was only incorporated in 1969 and was named after Darien, Connecticut.

Okay, enough talk about Darien for one day.

Long Blog

For the record, the timing of this post is in no way related to the recent request in my comments section. I appreciate all the readers who follow my blog, but since the first days I started this habit of writing, I promised myself that the day I started to feel like I was updating it for someone else other than myself, would be the day I'd have to quit. One thing I've learned is that in the long run, doing something like writing blogs regularly is not something you can do for the sake of others, you have to really want to do it for yourself and enjoy it. Also, if I haven't been writing anything for a long time, it's most likely because either:

a) I have nothing to write about
b) I don't have the time or energy to write

In both situations, it doesn't help the cause to have anyone else telling me to write. So in the future, I don't want to have to feel pressured by anyone to update. (Least of all, from someone whose blog was last updated 9/29/03).

With that said, I will reassure everyone that I haven't lost the desire to write. The reason for the (relatively) long break since my last post is a combination of factors a) and b) listed above. I've been pretty busy, and there's not really a lot of interesting stuff going on. But now, I finally have a completely clear evening ahead of me where I can just sit down and write for a while.

By the way, I should warn you all that this will probably be a very long blog. And not so much because I have so much cool stuff to talk about. More so because I haven't rambled in a long time and I feel like rambling right now. So if you find yourself mad at me for wasting your time after reading this entry, don't say I didn't warn you.

First off, I'd like to talk about my job. Work has not been kind to me these days. It's not horrible, but lets just say that I've had better times at NG. As some of you know, I transferred from the Systems Engineering group to the Circuit Design group at our site a few months ago. Career-wise, it's definitely a good move for me. However, it's also been a very, very challenging transition and for the first time, I've actually found myself stressed out to the point where I've considered leaving.

Now, I don't think I will really end up quitting, it's just been tough times is all I'm saying. Maybe the problem is that my first year and a half at this place was too easy, I don't know. The thing is, this job is about 100X closer to what I always pictured the job of an engineer being, than what I was originally doing. Unfortunately, it's also harder by leaps and bounds. And I guess right now, a lot of questions and doubts are in my mind. Such as:

- Is this what I was born to do?
- What was I born to do?
- Is doing this stuff going to lead to where I want to go in life?
- Where do I want to go in life?

If it sounds like I'm a man with no ambitions, I'd have to say that's not the case. I want just as much as, if not more than any other man to succeed in life. I'm just a little lost right now when it comes to figuring out how to get there.

It would probably make things a lot easier if I was picking things up quicker at the new job. Unfortunately, it's been a slow learning process and I've felt pretty stupid and out of place at times. Which is not something I'm used to. These kinds of things have always come pretty easy for me. When I put my mind to something, I expect a lot out of myself, that is, to succeed 100% of the time.

That's pretty much what has forced me to stop and think about the tough questions. It's made me wonder whether or not this engineering stuff is what I'm meant to devote my life to. Maybe there's something else I should be focusing my energy on, and this is all a colossal waste of time. Or maybe I just need to give it more time and let my life unfold without worrying too much about the present.

The problem is, I'm 24 years old now, and less than half a year away from being 25. At this point, I am more aware than ever about my age and of the fact that I'm not getting any younger. If this is not what I'm meant to be doing, and it's not taking me in the right direction, then now is the time to figure that out.

Sometimes I look at the most successful people in this world and realize that in many, if not all cases, these are people who have ended up in the exact career that they were born for. For example, when you see a guy like Tiger Woods, you know know without a doubt that this is a guy who was born to play golf for a living. Britney Spears, before she turned all crazy, was clearly born to be a pop star from the very beginning. And it's definitely no accident that Donald Trump became one of the world's most powerful real estate tycoons. Maybe all three of those individuals could still have been successful had they taken other paths, but I just admire how perfectly each of those people have fit into their destined lives and how spectacular the results have been. I admire that, and I wish I knew where I fit in with respect to my own future and my destiny.

Anyways, in the midst of all the questions from the challenges at work, one thing that has been made clear in my mind. Which is, working is not easy. Making a living is not easy, earning money is not a walk in the park. If it were up to me, I would not work.

That sounds like an obvious observation, but I think it is still worth repeating. Since I am reminded of this fact often these days, it makes me more annoyed with the sector of our population I like to call "liberal college students". You know who I'm talking about, the spoiled kid attending UC Berkeley, who has never worked a day of his/her life. They typically spend their days smoking weed instead of attending class, and then taking part in whatever protest happens to be going on in the neighborhood, regardless of the cause. At the same time, they believe they know everything about the real world, how our economy works, the intricacies of foreign policy. And somehow, with 2 years of college education, they believe they know better than our country's elected leaders on what to do with this country. By the way, our country's leaders include:

President George W. Bush - Bachelors Degree from Yale, MBA from Harvard. Served in Army National Guard. Owned Major League Baseball team. Multiple term governor of Texas.

Secretary of State Colin Powell - MBA from George Washington University. 35 years of service in the US Army. 4-star general.

National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice - Attended college at age 15 (!), graduated cum laude at 19 (!). Masters degree from Notre Dame. Ph.D from U of Denver, professor and Provost for 6 years at Stanford University.

Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge - Graduated with B.A. from Harvard. Served in Vietnam, received Bronze Star. 6 terms in Congress, 2 terms as Governor of Pennsylvania.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld - Graduated from Princeton, served in Navy during Korean War, highly successful as CEO of two Fortune 500 companies, 4 term Congressman, former White House Chief of Staff, former US Ambassador to NATO.

I'm not saying that just because these people are educated, they deserve to run our country. Certainly they're not perfect, they've made mistakes, and there is a danger in having a government led exclusively by elites. I just find it to be retarded how people who have hardly contributed anything to society think they have the right to bash those who have accomplished so much. Personally, I think it's questionable whether or not people who have never paid a cent in taxes deserve to even vote in this country, although that might be going too far. Put it this way: who do you think is better suited to set policies for our country, a 20 year old who learned everything he knows about politics from Michael Moore, or someone who has personally seen military combat as a member of the military, served for years as an elected official, is experienced in the corporate world, etc.?

Speaking of Michael Moore, I could probably write a whole lot about him too, but I'll save that for another day. I haven't seen Fahrenheit 9/11 yet, but I do plan on seeing it sometime soon, and will probably have a blog eventually devoted to that.

Onto lighter topics, I have seen Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle 2 times in less than a week. I thought the movie was funny, and it is of course nice to see a movie with Asian and Indian characters as the lead, don't have stupid accents, aren't doing kung-fu, and most of all, are guys I can relate to. Also, it made me appreciate the song "Hold On" by Wilson Philips so much more.

As far as breaking significant ground for Asian Americans, I don't know about that. It's a movie about 2 guys with the muchies for crying out loud. Not that I'm putting down the movie, but let's not make it more than it is. Also, I think the first weekend's results for Harold and Kumar were disappointing, as it earned about $5 million to finish in 7th place. That's surprising to me, considering how packed the theaters were both times I went (then again, the first time was a free pre-release screening so I guess it better be packed). Anyways, the saddest thing is that the movie did worse in its opening weekend, than Catwoman did in its second. Getting beat by The Village or Bourne Supremacy or Manchurian Candidate is one thing, but come on, Catwoman? I would like to know who is buying more than $5 million worth of tickets to see Catwoman. And why they are not watching Harold and Kumar. If anyone out there has not seen Harold and Kumar, I recommend that they do, it's definitely worth the price of admission and more. Especially if you liked Dude Wheres My Car, as I did.

There are still a whole bunch of movies I need to see, which I have missed in the past year:

- Troy
- Mean Girls
- Fahrenheit 9/11
- Dodgeball
- Shrek 2

I think it is gonna be a busy movie-watching season for me once all these movies come out on rental. I might have to get one of those Blockbuster Unlimited Passes or something.

One of the things that made me feel like writing today was reading the blog of Chras's cousin DJ. Hope he doesn't mind me linking to his site, but I thought this was one of the most hilarious things I have ever read. It's even more funny if you know this kid, but still worth reading even if you don't. Substitute "Britney Spears" for "Lindsey Lohan", and "Kevin Federline" for "Wilmer Valderrama", and he is pretty much describing exactly how I felt when Britney got engaged. Also, his discussion and breakdown of Lindsey vs. Hillary reminds me of all the arguments I used to have about Britney vs. Christina. Ah, another generation has taken over... I feel old.

In the world of sports, the White Sox are not doing so well these days. I'm not too worried though. Yes, we got owned by the Twins and then the Tigers, and the team is starting to look like the Sox of late last year. But considering we lost both Frank Thomas and Magglio to injuries, it could be worse. I still think we'll make the playoffs. Also, I am happy with the Loaiza for Contreras trade.

As far as the Cubs getting Nomar goes, I have always thought Nomar was overrated, and then got worse. I hope Cubs fans aren't expecting him to be the second coming of Christ, but at the same time, basically all they had to give up was Alex Gonzalez. And that's good no matter how you look at it. Alex Gonzalez blows. I hate players like him who always swing for the fences and then strike out. Once in a while you get lucky, and then you think you're a hero or something.

In other news, I bought a laptop a couple weeks ago. IBM Thinkpad T42, Centrino 1.7 GHz, 512 MB RAM, DVD/CD-RW drive, pretty basic. First thing I did when I got it? Install Starcraft. Here is a picture of it, in an effort to make this blog more visual:



I realized today that my programs were all loading slow because of Norton Anti-Virus Autoprotect. So I turned it off and now it's fast. Hopefully I don't get a virus.

My body is getting sore from sitting here on my bed typing this blog. Therefore, I will end it here. Have a nice day everyone.

Potpurri
- Ross: "It's ok, Monica's gonna make POTPURRI"

- My sister is thinking about getting a dog. I think she wants one like the kind Jessica Simpson wanted in that one episode of Newlyweds (Maltese?).

- I was thinking about how some people (girls) criticize others (guys) who are only attracted to those based on physical appearance. But when any of us visit to a pet store, do we pick the ones who we think are the most "loyal" or have the best "personality"? Admit it, you go for the ones who are cutest. And how is that any different from when guys are naturally drawn to the girls with pretty faces/hot bodies? Yeah, people are different from animals, but still. Does an ugly puppy or kitty deserve less attention or love than a cute puppy/kitty, in the same way ugly people get less attention and love in this world? I'm not going to say yes or no to that question, since I know it's there's more to it than yes or no. All I'm saying is, I think a lot of you people who say "Guys are shallow because they care so much about looks" might be guilty of the same shallowness, only in another way.

- Jessica Simpson might have exploded in popularity and exposure thanks to her show, but it's also made it that much harder to take anything she does seriously. When I hear any of her songs on the radio, all I can think about is her talking about "dropping the kids off at the pool", or picturing her trying to do laundry. It was especially weird recently to hear her remake of "Angels", a song I actually liked back in the day. With that said, they better release some "Newlyweds" seasons on DVD soon. I think that might be the one show I actually miss the most since we cancelled our cable a few months ago. Such quality entertainment.

- It's that time again: fantasy football season is approaching. In case anyone out there is planning any events that might involve me, don't choose Sunday, 8/29. That is this year's Mcnown League draft date. Mark it down on your calendars now!

- I'm sure everyone heard about Mike Ditka being considered to take Jack Ryan's place in the Senate race as the Republican candidate. I don't know what I think about that, but one thing I found very interesting was that the whole reason Jack Ryan had to quit was because his ex-wife released embarrassing information about his past. Well, that's not the interesting part, the interesting part is that I heard his ex-wife was Jeri Ryan. The actress who used to play some hot alien chick on Star Trek, and was also a teacher on Boston Public. Not that I was a fan of hers or anything, but still interesting.

- The letters in SKABERFAT can be rearranged to form the word BREAKFAST. No I didn't come up with that myself, I see that on a cereal box every morning. Not even my own cereal box, I keep seeing it one of my roommates' boxes of Cocoa Puffs as I go to put back my own box of Cheerios. Just thought I'd share that fact because I keep thinking about it for some reason.

- Sometimes I feel like the longer I work here as an electrical engineer, the more I start to lose touch with the other parts of life. One way it is definitely affecting me is in language - the way I interpret certain words and phrases these days makes me realize how much of a loser nerd I'm becoming.

For example, "coax" used to be a verb pronounced COKES, like a synonym for "persuade" or "cajole". Now when I see the word, I hear it pronounced in my head as "co-Ax", as in the type of cable. Also, normal people hear the word "puff" and think of things like cocoa puffs, cream puffs, Puff Daddy, etc. Enginerds like me think of puff as the abbreviation for picofarad (pF, unit of capacitance). Same with "mic" as the abbreviation for microfarad. So when I hear Nas rapping about "all I need is one mic", I picture him talking to one of the techs in our lab, asking for a 1.0uF Tantalum capacitor. Then when I hear Nelly's song "E.I.", I think about Ei, sometimes used as the symbol for input voltage. Pretty sad.

- If it's not enginerd stuff, it's sports stuff. When I read or watch regular news, I forget that UK refers "United Kingdom", not "University of Kensucky". Or that "colon" is a kind of cancer, pronounced like COLE-on, nothing to do with fat greasy pitchers and not pronounced co-LONE.

Master P

This blog is dedicated to one of my best friends of the past 7-8 years or so, the one and only Piya P. (Last name withheld for privacy sake but it rhymes with "dunker", for those who know more than one Piya P.) He recently moved away from the fine state of Illinois to the land of cheese (Wisconsin), so I figured this would be a good time to write about my boy. I think he won't be getting internet access for another week, so he won't be reading this immediately, but that's ok. I'm writing this more for myself and everyone else who knows and loves him.

My first memory of Piya came in sophomore year of high school (DGS), when we were in the same gym class. It was the first day of our swimming unit, and as we were leaving the locker room to go to the pool with the rest of the class he stopped me and asked "hey, are you good at swimming?" I said no, and he replied "ok good, cause I don't really know how to swim". So that was our first bonding moment, based on our mutual lack of swimming skills. It might seem stupid, but in high school, you don't want to be the only kid who gets put in the "beginner's group" for anything, especially in gym.

The next thing I remember about P was junior year English class with Mrs. David, when I sat in the seat in front of him. Every single day for that entire year, the first thing he said to me when I walked in was "did you see Simpsons last night?" For those of you who don't know Piya, he is probably the biggest fan of the Simpsons that you will ever meet. I know some of you think that you're the biggest fan, but you're not. He is. Actually, now that I think of it, I think he signed my yearbook back then with a drawing of Homer's head. Haha.

Senior year of high school brought more common threads to our budding relationship, in addition to the ones I already mentioned (sucking at swimming and talking about Simpsons). Being both top AP students, we had around 4 or 5 classes together, and we were also both on Math Team. In other words, we were brought closer due to being huge nerds. Throughout the year, there were plenty of memories, but among the highlights were:

1) AP Physics, sitting behind Garza and Kuettler (better known as Audit Boy) and watching the fun unfold

2) English with Mr. Connaughton teaching Moby Dick, George of all people becoming teacher's pet, field trip to the Art Institute, and of course, Gina trying to hit on Piya the whole year

Anyways, despite the fun times in high school, it wasn't until college that the real fun started. There's no way I could list everything me and P went through together in those 4 years, and I don't even know where to start. One big thing was, since we were the same major, we had so many classes together. I think for at least one or two semesters we had the exact same schedule. Which meant:

- Holding each other accountable for going to class
- Using each other as an excuse for skipping class (he had to fill me in on lectures more than the other way around)
- Skipping class together to shoot pool or craft
- Many nights studying together at Grainger for the same exams
- Copying Vas's homework from last semester (thanks Vas, mad props)
- Making fun of our professors and TA's

When we weren't doing anything school related it was a lot of video games:

- Playing Starcraft while watching TRL (and many other situations)
- In NFL Blitz, me trying to get green on all the categories against him, and him just trying to prevent me from doing so
- Picking up Rover after class, then playing Triple Play with our fantasy baseball rosters. Barry Bonds capping off a huge comeback for me with a grand slam is a memory that comes to mind. Also Tim Hudson's unhittable breaking pitch is worth mentioning.
- Playing Puzzle Fighter not so much to win, but more about trying to build the hugest solid block possible of one color, and then cracking it to see how much crap you could drop on the other guy at once

And there's other fond memories:

- Fiending for the first episode of Baseball Tonight at the beginning of the MLB season
- Making immature derogatory versions of people's names and other words in normal conversation
- Pact with Chras and Dennis
- Flamin Hot Cheetos
- Running over the possum
- Using .WAV files to talk on AIM through Direct Connect (James Iha: "What up", or Local H: "You crass badass!", or Homer: "U-R-GAY hehehe", or Chris Rock: "Why you gotta say that?")

We also talked about the possible future things to do:

- If we ever started a band and made it onto SNL or Letterman to perform, we would wear ECE-Illinois T-shirts
- Someday returning to Grainger, bringing huge speakers to the quiet 2nd floor study area, and blasting Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade"

Neither sounds too likely at this point, but maybe we will actually end up accomplishing those goals, who knows?

Anyways, I don't want to make this blog too long, and it wasn't supposed to be a farewell tribute or anything like that. Just wanted to take the chance to remember some good times with one of my favorite people in the world, and share it with anyone else who also feels like remembering our buddy Piya at the moment. I don't know about the rest of you, but even though he's only an hour and a half away, it still feels to me like he's much farther away from us now. So maybe writing/reading this blog will make it almost seem like he's still around. Any of you guys out there who have favorite Piya memories should share with us here too.

The blog wouldn't be complete without some pictures:

Outside Everitt


Thug Luv


Me and P


Just Chillin'


Me and P Part 2


Kissing the McNown League trophy