Timbaland and OneRepublic do it again. Toe-tapping, head-bobbing, lip-syncing goodness. Easy to sing to the many, many, many "Whoa-oh-oh-oh". Shock Value II is decent. A few memorable tracks and a few that are forgettable. The songs featuring some of the bigger names (The Fray, Daughtry, Nickelback, Keri Hilson) are probably the better ones. Just for fun here's another.
I like this song because the entire time Timbaland is rapping, it sounds like he has a cold. He sounds extremely stuffed up. Another interesting fact is the female rapper on this track, Bran Nu, is actually Brandy (@2:05). Yes. Moesha.
She's scary good. Singer turned rapper. One of the few. Legit.
Will be posting all my Christmas gifts soon. 90% of the gifts were from me. I love me.
Both good albums. Nothing great. Something that surprised me from both albums was how different the sounds were. Each album was very eclectic in their own way, mixing styles of their classic rhythm and blues with a bit of rock, jazz, contemporary, and others.
During a meeting at work today, my team took about 15 minutes at the end of the meeting reflect on the year as its coming to an end. Many had complaints saying it was a terrible year and that they can't wait for it to be over. Maybe they don't realize the only thing that changes is the calendar. If your life sucks, it's going to suck until you make it better yourself. It's hard to imagine that the simple act changing the calendar year will change the future or your "luck". Blame your life on your own decisions and faults. I sure do. Some things are out of your control though. In those cases, you just have to find the good in the bad and move on. Easier said than done. Something I'm having trouble with now.
I'm in a bitter mood. And who do I blame? Myself of course. Who else is responsible for my emotions? No one. Got confronted for not doing much at work today, got yelled at for listening to my music too loud at home, and might be getting sick. On the upside, I actually proved to my boss I was working and had gotten a lot done.
Based on the current itinerary, I am not looking forward to the Vegas trip with my family this Friday. Supposed to be a four day trip. Leaving on Christmas morning and should be back Monday morning. But we're driving, so there goes 20+ hours depending on traffic. We really have two full days and that's about it. My family is going to watch the Lion King at Mandalay Bay, but I chose not to go since I've already seen it so I'll probably be at some table gambling. Shouldn't complain too much though. I know my mom really enjoys the time we spend together as a family so I'm going to try and make the best out of it. It's the least I can do for her. Doing the Asian thing and going to Aria to look around at the new place and then try out their buffet. We'll see how it goes...
Until next time,
Reminder to the world (including myself): In the words of Hiep, "Quitcha bitchin'"
1:35. If anyone wants the movie, I already have it.
A few days ago I slept funny and strained my neck. Since then, something bizarre has been happening to me everyday. Every once in a while, I feel a hand running through my hair from behind. I have no idea what nerve is being pinched or what is happening but it feels awkward. I don't really like people playing with my hair in the first place. It's even worse when you feel it and there's no one there. If I believed in ghosts, I'd be scared. But, I'm a scientist. And in science, there's no room for foolishness.
Interesting happenings at work. I found a pretty big bug yesterday with the project I'm working on and as a joke, I told Serena that I deserve a prize. She asked what I wanted and I told her I want some Pop Tarts. Smores of course. Today she actually brought me a pack of Pop Tarts. But, they were strawberry which I hate so technically they're up for grabs. First come first serve. Work is really slow when there's no bugs to be found, but as soon as one happens, everything gets hectic and crazy. That's how I'd prefer it to be. Sitting in front of a screen performing monotonous work isn't as fun as people think it is.
I know it's still way early, but I've been thinking about my birthday a lot. I want to get a bottle of Johnny Walker: Blue label. Class it up. I'm an alcoholic...
Until next time,
Don't walk up behind me and run your fingers through my hair.
After this weekend's debacle, I figured it couldn't get much worse. Of course, the universe decides to prove me wrong. I bought a wireless adapter for my Xbox 360 about a week ago and it arrived two days ago. Today I decided to try set it up. Seems like a simple and great idea. Plug it into your Xbox and you can connect wirelessly to your network and stream music and videos from your PC. I had a problem since the only ethernet cable I had runs about 100+ feet; ten of which I need. So there's 90+ feet of cable laying around waiting to cause an accident. This adapter would eliminate all that mess. Sounds like a great idea right? Fairly easy to set up. Plug in and go.
I was very excited to watch all my shows through my Xbox without having to flash everything and then plugging it in. So continuing with the story, I plugged everything and I was good to go. I turned on my Xbox and it froze. No big deal. It's happened before a few times. Turned it off and back on.
...
...
...
Not as bad as the RROD I guess, but still. You never want to see that happen. So now my Xbox is dead. Clearing my weekend schedule (as if I actually had plans to clear anyways) to fix this bastard so all my Xbox stuff doesn't go to waste. If nothing works I still haven't ruled out buying another Xbox. One that will be legit in case I do get the RROD. I already regret flashing my Xbox. I don't even play that many games on it and the ones I do play I wouldn't mind waiting for them to get dirt cheap to buy.
I was so ready to forgive the events that occurred this weekend. I said to myself, "It's all just material things. They can all be replaced." And then, my Xbox dies. What a horrible month for electronics. And my laptop died?! What is going on? We're only half way through the month! The universe is testing my patience.
Once all the scientists die and go to heaven. They decide to play hide-n-seek.
Unfortunately Einstein is the one who has the den...He is supposed to count upto 100...and then start searching...
Everyone starts hiding except Newton...
Newton just draws a square of side 1 meter and stands in it right in front of Einstein.
Einstein's counting 1,2,3...,97,98,99,100...He opens his eyes and finds Newton standing in front...
Einstein says " Newton's out...Newton's out..."
Newton denies and says "I am not out...I am not Newton..."
All the scientists come out to see how he proves that he is not Newton.
Newton says "I am standing in a square of area 1 meter squared...That makes me Newton per meter squared...Since one Newton per meter squared is one Pascal, I'm Pascal, Therefore Pascal is OUT...!!!!!!!!!
A weekend filled with highs and lows. For an entire week, I had been planning on going to Target to get more eye juice. Today, I left the house with my sister at 2:15PM expecting to be home by 4:00PM. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. Someone had broken into my car. Again. That's twice now. One per car. My car was a block away and I hadn't driven it since Wednesday night. So sometime between then and 2:15PM today, someone broke into my car and pillaged what little I had in my car. My amp, subs, and $50+ were all taken. But the thing that hurt the most was that the bastard took my longboard. My $275 longboard that I had for 4+ years. To make matters worse, while I was cleaning the glass shards out of the back seats I cut my finger. Then, I stepped in doggy no-no. And to top it off, I broke a nail. And I'm not bitching about some little chip off the fingernail. This one was deep. It still stings when I wash my hands. Everyone in my family thinks my car was being specifically targeted since this has happened before. My previous car, an old Volvo, was broken into also. And in two separate incidents, my tires were slashed and my side mirror was smashed. Someone either really doesn't like me or I have horrible luck. This gives me another reason to move out of the city. It comes with the territory when you live on the mean streets of Balbeezy.
That was the low. The high was Friday night. TVLand Party at Tiana's. Met a bunch of new people and saw some familiar faces. It wasn't surprising that people didn't recognize me after already having met me. I never leave a great first impression. But then again, if it was horrible, they would've remembered me. So I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. Shout out to Tiana who apparently has read my blog. Pretty fun night. Not such a fun day today though.
Unofficial video. Love this song. So happy and light-hearted. Absolutely ridiculous looking band though. The lead singer looks like an older Jessie Katsopolis and the guy playing the ukulele looks like Howie Mandel. The drummer looks like a complete tool. What a team.
I was helping my mom clean and rearrange the dining room since we have guests tomorrow. We picked out all the crap from the stuff under the table to decide what to throw away. While rifling through a bag, something caught my immediate attention. I reached in and grabbed it and said, "Cool! Brass knuckles!" Brass knuckles they were not. Being a guy, I had the natural impulse to grab what I thought was a weapon. Not even close.
It was so soft. I said to my mom, "Hey. What is this? It's not brass knuckles." She looks at me and says, "Those are toe separators." First instinct as a microbiologist. Scream. I've never actually seen them before so I didn't know what they were. Washed my hands immejiately.
Tomorrow is a very promising day. Activities planned with a possible special surprise in store for tomorrow night. We'll see depending on how much time I have after work. Maybe I can get off early. Hmm...
beillin: knock knock
pee23: who's ther!
beillin: owls say
pee23: owls say what?
pee23: woot woot!
beillin: oh my god
Later on...
pee23: can i try again?!?!?!
pee23: here how bout we switch roles
pee23: knock knock
beillin: no
beillin: the moment is over
pee23: ((and..for the record, i KNOW how knock knock jokes go..i was too focused on figure out the joke..hahaha)
pee23: NOOOO PLEASE?!
pee23: knock knock!!
pee23: KNOCK KNOCK!
pee23: alex: who's there?
pee23: v: owl
pee23: alex: owl who?
pee23: v: owl love you forevers!!!
pee23: alex: awwwww i loves you too!
Why is it so hard to do knock, knock jokes online?!
Another great show. Watched about nine episodes? I think. That scene had me laughing out loud like crazy. It was so great. I also finished the first six episodes of White Collar. What a great weekend of TV.
Reminder to self: Stop eating cheese pizzas cause your farts are horrendous.
Super caked on, super shopped, or maybe both but still beautiful. Because I have time, this will be a long read. Make sure you have relieved your bladder and bowels before reading on. Grab your favorite drink and snack and enjoy.
So, as of yesterday, my laptop caught the 700m pandemic going around. The back light is loose or blew out leaving the monitor another desolate screen that once displayed beautiful vibrant images of the young lady pictured above. I've been reading up on forums and this is quite common amongst 700m owners. This happened to my brother almost exactly a week ago and somehow my laptop caught the disease. Since the screws on the bottom panel have been frayed and stripped to being almost unscrewable (<
This weekend I decided to be a hermit and stay in. Not much is going on anyways. That I know of. Plenty of activities that I can do indoors anyways.
This week, I received many packages from various online purchases made on the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Got my two portable hard drives from Dell a few days ago, my Tekken 6 Fightstick bundles, and my copy of Fearless: Platinum edition. I spent much of the morning backing up all my files from my laptop and then putting all my music on the new hard drive. Still en route are my other two external hard drives that I plan on returning, four books from Borders, and my clothes from Urban Outfitters. Since receiving the fight sticks, I've been catching up on my SF2HD. Purchase of the game via Xbox Live was made possible by my sister and her 10 friends, Andy, Doug, and Calvin. Thanks! Next game purchase will be Ikaruga, which I'm 400 points away from buying. After playing twice online, I have come to the conclusion that Xbox Live players are much more competitive and unforgiving than their Playstation network counterpart.
To test out the game after I first downloaded it, I played one game online and destroyed my competition. This was at 7:45 AM right before I started doing my business to get ready for work. I shut off the system and went to work. I came back to a message by the person I played saying "Run scrub run". I replied "It was 7:45 AM in San Francisco. I was testing the game before I left for work. Some of us are actually employed." No response back. Then a few days ago I had some time and decided to give it another go online. I played one on one with some random guy and lost 8-10 (ish) before quitting since dinner was ready. Minutes later, I received a voice message from him saying "You know why I played you like an ass hole? Because you were using Zangief. Playing one on one. How cheap can you get. Fuck you suck at this game." First off, SF2HD is a one on one game. How else can you play it? One vs. two? Ridiculous. Secondly, if the developers put certain moves in the game, they want you to use it. It's the same reasoning they add cheats in video games. Games go through rigorous testing to balance characters and certain characters naturally have different functions otherwise every character would be the same. I was practicing my Zangief's crouching jab+jab to 360 with LP (Andy you know what I'm talking about). Basically the combo at 1:48.
Needless to say, I caught him enough times (almost twice a round) to make him angry. Probably got two or three perfects too. So far, that's two for two. Two ass holes in two sessions of SF2HD. If I hadn't flashed my Xbox, I would have definitely reported this guy. I do not want to cause trouble for myself. Oh, the limitations resulting from illegal mods...
At work yesterday, our group held it's annual end-of-the-year party. I spent the first two hours of work zoning out and napping while waiting for the company lunch. The admin came around at 11 and asked me to go with her to pick up the food (our lunch was catered). I said yes hoping to get to know her better since she was the youngest person in our group. She's probably around 28. The next youngest person is probably in their early 40s. It's an old bunch. After we picked up around ten trays of food, I called the team from the car to come help bring the food in. I asked one of my coworkers to bring four or five other people to help unload the food. After handing out all the trays to them, I realized there was nothing left for me to carry. One of my coworkers, H a r s h i t (yes, his name is H a r s h i t and I realize it's one letter away from being Hardshit and I'm spacing out the name to avoid google searches), joked around saying that I called all of them to do all the lifting. During the lunch, our boss, Jimmy, made gave a speech and thanked the admin for organizing the event and ordering the food and then thanked me for "being the muscle." Harshit immediately pointed at me and smiled knowing that I didn't carry any of the trays. I interrupted Jimmy and told him that other people helped. Harshit busted me out saying, "Yea, Alex called all of us to carry all the food!" Jimmy then congratulated me on my upper management skills in pawning off all the work on other people. I guess I am management material after all. This became a running joke throughout the party which I thought was pretty hilarious.
Okay. Here comes the inevitable rant of the entry. After the lunch, the group has a traditional white elephant gift exchange. The rules are, the gift must be a minimum of $25 and cannot be a recycled gift from the years before. THAT'S IT! The rules of the game in this case, was a gift can be stolen up to three times before being locked up. The gift I bought was a large dream dictionary and Snuggie, which I personally think is a decent gift. I drew number 20 of 50 (there were 33 people). First pick by first person, 7" digital photo frame. Obviously from the boss, Jimmy, and guaranteed to be stolen. Here's why. All the other gifts were lame beyond compare. But before I get to the horrible list of gifts, let me first share with you the sequence of events involving myself since this is my blog. Now this is where the game takes a horrible turn. There was nothing I wanted to steal (you'll see why) when it was my turn, so I chose a gift from the pile. I picked one that was relatively large with a nice heft to it. Inside was an inflatable twin mattress (with pump). This was definitely one of the better gifts, but I thought no one would want to steal it. I was wrong. A few turns later H a r s h i t stole it from me and I decided to pick another from the pile. At this point, after watching several picks, I came to the conclusion that anything that was horribly wrapped came from a male gifter and was almost certainly something tech-y. I picked the third to the ugliest one because of the shape of the box. Inside was a very good gift compared to the rest. A clock radio with side speakers and a dock for Ipods.
Something like that but not as nice of a model. Definitely will get stolen. A few turns pass and Serena, another coworker, steals my gift. This was fairly upsetting because we were getting down to the wire on unopened gifts and I did not see anything worth stealing. I took another gamble and picked another poorly wrapped gift. This is what I got stuck with:
What...the...fuck... Seriously? A fucking DTV converter box? A gift that was probably free from a government rebate? At this point the entire room started laughing because they knew I picked gift that was almost certainly unwanted by everyone in the group. This group of people have no fucking respect for the people who actually play the game with decency. Now, for the list of the worst gifts:
A T-shirt. Obviously NOT worth $25
A small twist-chopper thing and a bowl
A pen set
USED billiard balls. Obviously repackaged poorly with loads of tape. The cue ball had scuff marks on it. Who would give this as a gift at white elephant? What percent of people actually own a personal table and can use this?!
Cheap wine that was clearly for the budget-conscious
A teddy bear with candy. There's always seems to be one jackass who does this (no offense to Dillon or David whoever brought that stuffed animal last time)
A fucking step ladder. A STEP LADDER!!! WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE DO THAT!? The best part about this gift was the wrapping. Black garbage back. With a step ladder in it. Of course it was the last gift picked
A tea kettle. A fucking tea kettle. And not just any tea kettle. A tea kettle that clearly was a few years old. The box was faded and scuffed up horribly and looked like someone bought it at Ross. Don't get me wrong. I love Ross. But this clearly was the worst gift and there is no way it could have been worth more than $10. The person who picked this had it stolen from Jimmy. Every year, Jimmy bails out the person with the crappiest gift when it's his turn to pick. That way the person with the crapiest gift (at the time) gets another choice. Jimmy was sixth to draw meaning that the people who picked the crappier gifts could not be bailed out. Like me.
And of course the DTV converter box
Why? Why do people do these things? No respect for the game or their coworkers. Some people at least have the decency to play the game with honor. Highlights of "good" gifts:
7" digital photo frame
8GB flash drive (two people gifted them. One Sandisk and one generic brand which any tech-y can tell you is not $25 but at least people want these)
Safeway giftcard
Clock with Ipod/dock
Set of four great looking tumblers
An emergency road-side kit. Probably one of the most useful gifts. Included jumper cables, gloves, flares, other tools, an orange cone, and other miscellaneous items.
Jesus fucking Christ. At least if I'm there next year I know I can get away with bringing crap gifts like a DTV converter box. My god... Work people are ridiculous. If I had written this yesterday, you can bet that I would have used more profanities but I have cooled down a bit since then. Worst white elephant in the history of white elephants. While the gifts obviously sucked, it was pretty funny to see people making fun of everyone else for their poor gifts. Overall, it was a fun experience even though I walked away with one of the worst gifts of all time. People were even joking that the reason why someone gifted it was because they lost their rebate form and such. I was a little sad that everyone didn't really like the gift that I brought either. My manager actually picked my gift and tried desperately to give it away. My gift ended up being stolen once and traded at the end of the game so at least a few people liked it. There was actually another gifter who bought a Snuggie and combined it with a pair of Slipper Genies
To clean your floors while you walk around the house. At the end of the game, I told Serena that my friend just got a pool table recently and that if she didn't want the billiard balls that she picked then I would be happy to take them. She said that she didn't want to just give it away and didn't want to trade me for my DTV converter which is completely understandable. But then another coworker said, "Just give it to Alex. You have no reason to keep it." She replied, "Oh, it's ok. I'll just throw it around or something." Bitch. Huge bitch. Let me tell you some of the things she's done. My coworker Gary set up a slide show presentation of his trip to Europe with his girlfriend. One of the pictures showed them in front of a very expensive store. I forget if it was Gucci, Prada, or something like that but when that picture came up Serena blurted out "Oh that store is expensive. You guys probably didn't buy anything from there cause you can't afford it huh?" Everything she says is me, me, me. "Oh look at what I've done. I'm better than you at everything. Everything I do is great and everything you do is wrong. I'm right. And everything that's yours is cheap stuff." Clearly not true. Before I moved my mattress back from San Jose, I was telling her that I had some back problems because of my mattress. Her immediate response was "Oh you probably have a cheap mattress. I have a very expensive mattress and it's very good." Bitch I've been using the same mattress since I grew out of a crib. What a fucking bitch. And another time she was walking around holding a CD and asked me "Can I use your T-shirt to wipe off the gunk on the CD?" Uhh... No. "Why are you being so stingy? Just let me wipe it with your shirt." Ok. One. My mama bought me this shirt and it was one of my favorite shirts and I'm not letting some bitch use it to wipe shit off a CD. Two. Just because it's a T-shirt doesn't mean it's cheap. It was an expensive T-shirt. Three. You have a fucking shirt. Use yours. "But my shirt is expensive and it's not made of cotton." Shut up. I dress the way I dress because it's comfortable and I don't have to try and impress you fuckbags at work who mean less than nothing to me. Want to fire me for the way I dress? Fine with me. What a fucking bitch. Learn some manners. How are you married? -End rant.
This week I moved my Xbox up to my room which finally allowed me to plug my USB somewhere and catch up on my shows. I am up to date with HIMYM, BBT, Community, 30 Rock, and finally got a chance to watch the episode of SNL where Taylor Swift was hosting. Next up is Modern Family, FlashForward, White Collar. I have all of Heroes for this season but will probably delete them before I watch it. I quit Heroes. Community is one of the funniest new shows on television. It will definitely be renewed for at least another season and hopefully longer. On the other end of the spectrum, Monk aired it's final episode of the series last night. I'm about six or seven episodes behind and have not yet downloaded any episodes. From what I've been hearing, the ending is going to be awesome. I will definitely miss this show. Upcoming shows to look forward to include 24 and Chuck.
Sharks played the Calgary Flames at the Tank tonight but couldn't come out with a win. The Flames' goalie was phenomenal and made save after save. McLaren had another fight but took a beating. I like the way this kid plays. Sticks up for his team mates and does not take crap from anyone. I think in the last three games, he was in a fight in each game. But rather than bore you with statistics that you don't care about, I would like to share an interesting tidbit I heard while watching the last game. There is a contest of sorts to come up with the best nickname for the first line of the Sharks. Currently, San Jose's top line is Patrick Marleau, or Patty, Joe Thornton, or Jumbo, and Danny Heatley, or Heater. The first name that the announcer's said was "Team Canada". A nickname they said was too generic and overused. Second nickname was "The Great White" (because they're Sharks duh). This was kind of interesting. But the third was definitely the best. Someone suggested their line be called "The Burger" line. A Jumbo, Heated Patty. Genius. Next game will be at home against the L.A. Kings. A game that I have tickets to. Should be a great game considering they are not only division rivals, but it's also a battle of California.
Big thanks to Gary who gave me his remaining Magic cards. Haven't had the chance to go through everything but it's a good amount of cards. From what I have gone through, I didn't see anything of value to my main deck. Still very nice of him to give me his cards. Wiltron get ready.
What a fucking slow start to the "holiday" weekend. Got in trouble at work for losing some cards (which I found out 20 minutes ago that I had taken home on accident) and left work early frustrated and upset. Boss set a deadline for my project and I might not be able to finish my work. Going back into work Friday morning on my regular schedule to try and complete my task. Got a free lunch at Buca. I still don't see why people like that place. I wouldn't eat there again if it was free. Maggiano's is still my go-to place for Italian. Came home to watch the Sharks game which I thought was going to be a really exciting game. Lost 7-2 and let Chicago score three consecutive short handed goals and another four straight until Danny Boyle answered back with a goal with about five minutes left in the third. What a fucking joke. And it was a home game. The first loss in regulation of the season. Hopefully something will change my mood because today was not a good day at all.
^^Very interesting video. I love the ending but the build up takes too long.
Today was full of visuals. Started off the day watching new music videos on the telly while getting dressed and such. Saw the "new" Rihanna video (sort of) and some other videos that I had no idea who they were. On the way to work, a very beautiful lady stood in front of me on the bus. I had something pretty to look at for the next 25 minutes or so. I guess you can say it balanced out the homeless man sitting behind me drinking two Sierra Nevada's that he had hidden in his jeans. Boy was she beautiful. It's quite rare to see someone that beautiful riding public transportation. Usually the bus is just filled with normal people or ugs (and the occasional homeless drinking in public).
At work I read an interesting article about optical illusions (yes I purposely titled this post "allusion" to allude to the content of my post).
All of the orange circles are the same size but it's quite tricky.
The same goes for this picture. Picture (b) was quite tricky for me. If you'd like to read the article here it is:
Then I saw this video which was completely mind bottling. "You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle?"
After work I came home and watched two hours and a half hours of PBS. There was the NOVA special that runs every so often and this particular episode was titled "What Are Dreams?" The episode discussed all parts of dreams and how they relate to our lives. I lost interest at some parts and got distracted with my dinner (although I did not taste much. See previous post). The second show was a lot more interesting. The show, Human Senses, spent the first half hour discussing our sense of touch while the second half discussed vision. The first half hour was also somewhat uninformative since I already knew about most of the topics they discussed. Main points were that pain can be altered depending on influences. During the test the show conducted, a panel of volunteers were given one of two pills. The first pill was said to enhance sensation and pain while the other was a painkiller. Both were just flour and sugar but the volunteers were not made aware of this. The experiment used electrical pulses to sent a shocking sensation to the volunteers and those who took the "pain-enhancing" pills had a stronger reaction to the same level of stimuli. Those who took the "painkillers" felt little sensation. The first segment also introduced hypnotherapy as a way of using mind over matter to reduce the amount of pain felt. The most interesting part of the segment was definitely the part where the host's body was altered to show where the most sensitive parts of the body were. It looked something like this:
The only difference was that the host was of course, moving. And the lips on the host were a lot bigger. "Steven Tyler would be proud." The second segment about vision was a lot more interesting. The opening of the segment explains the basic operations of the eye and how it works. Then there was an experiment where volunteers were hooked up to a machine that detects their eye movements. The volunteers then waited in a bar for the tester and were unaware that their eye movements were being monitored and recorded. The room was filled with hired models and beautiful people and then the volunteers were shown what they were looking at. It was interesting to see how people had no idea they were looking at certain people for a long time. They were either staring or made a lot of visual passes at the same people numerous times. The episode then moved onto another experiment which I totally want to try. Somewhere (I forgot where), a man developed goggles to invert images. When the host put on the goggles, everything he saw was inverted. He was tested for 8+ hours where he had to learn to adjust to the changes. The inventor had been wearing the goggles for 14 days without taking them off and had learned to ride a bike with the goggles on. The argument was that given time, your eyes could adjust to a lot of stuff. Because of the inverted vision, the host had trouble reaching into a refrigerator for a bottle of milk. It was hilarious seeing him hit the top of the refrigerator over and over trying to get to the milk. Definitely something I'd want to try. Two other experiments were done to prove that vision can be distorted when distracted. The first experiment involved the host asking a random person directions before a couple of construction workers pass between the person and the host holding a door. During the pass, the host switches with one of the people holding the door to test if the person had noticed that the person who asked for directions had changed. More than half of the people had no idea that the person had switched out. They were preoccupied with thinking about directions and explaining on where to go. The second experiment involved five basketball players. They were told to pass three balls as part of an exercise. They were recorded while doing their passing drills and a group of volunteers were asked to see how many times the players in the yellow jersey touched the ball. What the volunteers failed to notice was another person dressed in a gorilla costume walking in the middle and pounding on his chest before stepping back out of the clip. Only five people noticed the gorilla out of a group of over 20 people. Of course, I thought to myself, "How stupid are these people that they didn't see a gorilla walk in the middle?" Then the host said, "I know you're thinking, 'How stupid are these people that they didn't see a gorilla walk in the middle?' Throughout the episode, a gorilla has been in plain view. How many times did you spot the gorilla?" And to be honest, I actually only noticed it twice. Maybe a third if I think back to it really hard. The host the went back and showed all the different places a gorilla can be seen in the background. There were a total of five gorillas. I guess two out of five isn't that bad.
Side note: I spent about an hour reading up on eugenics and euthenics. Very interesting. I may have to buy some books to read up on it. I keep saying I'm going to read more but I always end up watching the telly and wasting my life.
For the past six months or so, I feel like my sense of smell is degenerating at a steady pace. I have trouble smelling most things unless they're extremely pungent or if the scents are within a certain proximity. Since my sense of smell has been deteriorating, my sense of taste as also felt it's effects. Everything that used to taste good no longer has the same flavors I had become familiar with. It's quite sad. Food, for the most part, has become less enjoyable and I find myself tasting the textures now more than the flavors of foods. The lack of my sense of smell doesn't bother me as much as my sense of taste does. I really miss being able to enjoy food as much as I used to. Ironically, I have gained weight since coming back to San Francisco. Maybe the tasteless food causes my brain to signal my body that I haven't been satisfied so I eat more.
I had a physical for the first time in my life a few weeks ago with full blood work and was cleared. Maybe it's something else that they have to look for specifically. I wonder if I have some sort of condition that isn't known or documented. It would be interesting to have doctors pay me to use my body for tests.
My sister wants me to let her borrow $1,600 for this dog. I wouldn't pay that much for any dog. Unless it was like a cyborg dog that could shoot lasers out of its eyes or had bionic legs. Like this:
Rappers and singers with accents are awesome. For a long time I didn't understand how an accent could make a woman hot, but in the past few years it's been growing on me. I guess when I would think of a hot girl it would be more superficial. Now, I notice more things beyond physical appearances that are very attractive. Accents is one of them.
It's been a hectic week or so which means no blogging. To catch you up on my life, my post will be a significantly long one to try and cover all bases. It will not be told in chronological order, but in the order that the events come to me as I am typing. And the story begins with a dream.
Two nights ago, I had another bizarre dream. In this particular dream, Andy, Chadwick, and I were all sitting down having a nice afternoon meal at some Chinese restaurant. Out of the blue, some Arab guy, about our age, ran in the restaurant and told us that the Arabian mob was following him. He asked if he could sit with us because he was scared of the people after him. So being the good people that we are, we told him he could sit with us. Then, a whole mess of people came spilling in the doorway looking for this guy. Sure enough, it was the mob the guy was talking about. They didn't see him right away so they sat down at a table and began scoping the place out. All of a sudden one of the guys recognizes the guy at points at our table. Without even getting up, they all pull out their pistols and uzis and start spraying in our direction. I duck out of the way but Andy, Chad, and the Arab guy just sit there - backs straight, chin up, without flinching. Bullets are flying and hitting them in the face and chest but bouncing off. The three of them just look at the mob and shrug it off. I ask, "What the hell just happened?" Then I look over and see Brian in the corner of the restaurant and he says "How did you do that?!" Andy and Chad explained that they had used an anti-bullet spray on themselves which makes them immune to all gunfire. Brian looks over at me and I'm still ducking. He asks me "Did you use it too?" I give him the eye and reply "If I had used it would I be ducking?! Of course I didn't use it!" He stares back at me and says "I don't believe you." Then he pulls out his own pistol and shoots me in the chest. What...the...hell... I look down and I'm bleeding and I can feel the bullet lodged in my lungs. I start to panic and experience a shortness of breath. Then I woke up. I can't believe Brian didn't believe me. He dream-murdered me.
The evening before that, Andy, Chadwick, Gary and I went to Poleng Lounge for Kate and Annie's birthday. I pass by it every day on the 5 on my way to work but I never really noticed it. It was dead and we ended up just sitting down and chatting. It wasn't that bad except for the part where I got tricked into donating money to hurricane victims. Now, I'm a victim too. Had a couple of beers there and then took off to meet one of Andy's friends at Ambassador. It was my first time there but it seemed like an okay spot. Not too bad. Just hung out with the boys for a while and challenged Gary to a chugging contest. The first one was too close to call but the second round I beat him by about a half of a second. It was pretty intense. I knew I had the second round even though Chadwick had his money on Gary. The official record is 1-1-1 and Gary said every time we go to a pub we should continue the tradition. Sounds like fun. Then we went to some pizza place across the street and it was delicious. Greasy food after alcohol always tastes good. Gary let me have a few bites of his slice since I didn't want to eat a whole one. Still watching my weight. And it's working.
Been spending most of my time this week applying to two programs for graduate school. Unfortunately, I think it may have been a complete waste of time. The deadline is December 1 and I have not received any of the three letters or recommendations that I asked for. But, I realized yesterday, that this may in fact work out in my favor. The program I am applying to begins in Fall 2010, but the program also has a second session beginning in Spring. If I change my application for the Spring semester, it will give me more time to complete my 18 month contract at Wells Fargo. I guess there's always an upside. I can't believe I'm becoming a glass-half-full kind of guy. The program that I really want to be in has an April deadline so there's plenty of time for that one. Probably will have a sit down meeting with the program director in the next month or so. She seems really nice.
About this gun law situation. Apparently it is legal to carry a gun as long as it's holstered, unloaded, and not concealed. If I had known that earlier, I would have carried a gun everywhere. I'm preferable to the p228. Nice and compact. It really only takes one bullet to kill someone if you know what you're doing, so I don't need a giant magnum or anything silly like that. A simple p228 will do the job. If I don't kill them with the first shot, I'll at least have immobilized the person. Time to exercise my rights granted to me by the second amendment.
Something has been bothering me for the last half year or so. Ever since Chadwick's brother started playing Magic (the Gathering of course), I got sucked back into it. I really don't mind except for the fact that I have no one to play with other than him. Also, it sucks that sometimes it's all I think about. I know this makes me sound like a loser but I don't care. Sometimes all I do is think about how much better I could make my deck if I had certain cards. I've actually gone out of my way to ask people I know who used to play to see if they had these cards. It's just annoying knowing that my deck has not met its full potential. But it's also satisfying to know that it beats Wilton's decks more than 50% of the time. And it's even more satisfying knowing that he gets angry when he loses. I love winning... I doesn't matter if I win against a four year old or a 90 year old. Winning is winning. FnF reference. I need some howling mines. When I get really desperate to play, I'll just walk down to the comic store. There's always nerds there. I have to buff up my deck first though so I don't get embarrassed. I sometimes think about how awesome it would be to walk into the comic book store as an unknown and challenge everyone there. They'd have no idea what my deck is capable of. Yes. I am a loser.
Last night I finally got a chance to listen to the Howard Stern rant about religion and Kirk Cameron's ridiculous arguments for public schools to not just include intelligent design, but make it the main topic of science classes. I don't like to use profanity in my blog but what a fucking tool. Howard Stern made a lot of great points about religion and argued that evolution is the only thing that should be taught in public schools. Agree 100%. Kirk Cameron is such a douche. These are the people that are so completely ignorant they just make me want to punch their babies. Listen to this if you have time. Part 1 of 2, totaling about 18 minutes.
Black Friday is coming up. I'm scheduled to work but if there are deals that I have to line up for then I might have to call it a half day. I worked a half day on Thursday and my boss let me count it as a full day. That's four hours of work for free. I hope she'll let me keep the eight hours on record if I take a half day on Friday too. This year, I'm looking for a new TV for my room. Looking for at least a 46", 1080p, 120Hz LCD. Brand isn't so important but I definitely would prefer a Samsung, Sony, Sharp, or maybe a Vizio. Other than the TV, there's not much to line up for. Also on my list for "wants" but not necessarily something I'd skip work for is a flash drive, a microsd card, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia DVD seasons 3-4 + A Very Sunny Christmas, Monk (the seasons I don't have but I'm not sure which ones they are), Fearless Platinum edition, some board games, a new laptop, and maybe some other stuff, but those are the things I can name off the top of my head. This is, of course, assuming there are amazing deals. I have a price in mind for all of those items. We'll see how it is when I get all the ads. I'd also like my own PS3. There's no point of buying a blu-ray player when you can buy a PS3. I figure when I move out I'll want my own anyways so if it's cheap, I'll probably end up buying one. I know I will eventually.
That's all for now. I'm also trying to think of a more creative sign off. There needs to be more pizazz to my closing signature. Time to experiment.
Finally got my package after placing my order on 10/16. The stuff got shipped 10/28 but due to some shipping issues with UPS I didn't get it until last night. I don't understand how UPS works at all. They leave a notice saying there was no suite or apartment number listed in the shipping address so they don't know where to deliver it to. Uhhh...You left the notice at the right place. So why wouldn't you just drop it off there? Anyways, got my package from Triumvir. As hoped, I received a free flannel due to processing and shipping errors (refer to previous post). Lucky me! Got my jacket, a free flannel, and a beanie, which I'm giving to Andy. For some reason, I just do not look right with a hat or cap of any kind. Tried beanies, caps, and military style caps. You name it, I've tried it. Nothing works. With the exception of the hard hat apparently.
Someone at work said something to me yesterday which confuses me more than UPS. Why do people say "It's opposite day" to cover up a mistake? It doesn't make sense. If it was in fact opposite day, you would be saying "It's not opposite day." And when you say that the other person will think that it's not opposite day at all. So you still look like a douche. Unless it's planned or known ahead of time, it's impossible to tell people it's opposite day. It's a paradox.
Yesterday I had an interesting spur of the moment debate with Chadwick via AIM. He asked me why was English important and we went on for about 45 minutes debating both sides. I lost track of time and ended up missing my usual lunch time by a half an hour. I took the side of English not being important. It was pretty interesting to hear what he had to say. And then we started talking about RASSLIN'! It would be a pretty fun match up. I'm the perfect weight for him to practice on but I'm a lot taller than his cousin. We'll see.
Today, on my day off, I'm getting back to basics. Tutoring. Helping out my younger cousin in chemistry. Should be fun. I just hope she's not a super slow learner. I really do miss school. I tried putting those lectures in my ipod but they wouldn't play. So I listened to music again all day yesterday. Tomorrow I'm taking another day off. Spending the day in San Jose and watching the Sharks game at night.
Not much to blog about lately. The weekends go by as fast as a speeding bullet but the weekdays are as slow as molasses. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. It's been eight hours of staring at a computer screen pretending to work for the past week or so. Tomorrow should be the same except for about an hour of meetings. Can't believe they're paying me for this.
So the progress on the scooter is going slower than expected. The person I expected to learn from has suddenly fell out of my life. Sort of... If I don't get a chance to learn from someone, the chances of me getting a scooter will drop dramatically. I won't even know how to ride it off the lot without some help. I need to brush up on how to ride.
I feel like I'm losing my science skillz too. I'm going to throw all of my lectures into my ipod and listen to them at work for the next few days. Hopefully the sound of my professors voice won't put me to sleep at work. For a full year (two semesters), I probably fell asleep twice in this class even though it was at 7:30AM every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The teacher was so intimidating that I didn't want to get yelled at. This teacher was the best teacher I've ever had. His method of teaching was through intimidation. It made me feel so inadequate just listening to him lecture. He's a professor at SJSU, Santa Clara University, licensed veterinarian, owns his own construction consulting company, and has so many side projects it's ridiculous. This guy was the shit. I studied harder than I ever have in my entire life for this class just because I didn't want to look incompetent. A letter of recommendation from this guy would probably be the best one I could get. One of his top students is now the head microbiologist for Revlon. This guy is who I want to be.
Had a fun filled weekend. Haven't had a weekend like this in a while. I can't say every moment was great, but collectively, it was a lot better than the past few weekends. On Friday, celebrated Chris', Brenda's, and Nigel's birthdays at Supperclub. Then on Saturday, had dinner at Velvet Cantina and went bar hopping afterward in the mission district as a send off for Jenn who's moving to Chicago. Bunch of people came out and it was pretty nice. Went to a house party right afterward for a little bit which was pretty fun. As we were leaving the last bar in the Mission some random white guy said something like "You guys are like locusts", referring to our large group of Asian people. I think we were in his way or something. That was kind of a downer. But right after this other random white guy walked up to us and started talking about how crazy he was and how we'd never known a real crazy person like him. He was pretty funny.
Best moments of the weekend:
Watching people try to work the stripper pole at Supperclub
Lifting Chadwick while chanting his name
Seeing people I haven't seen in a while
Beating Chadwick in basketball
Getting my diploma in the mail
Worst moments of the weekend:
Getting blocked twice by Chadwick
New show to start watching. Lopez Tonight. The commercials promoting the show have been running for at least a month. Until last Friday, I just thought they were moving the George Lopez show to TBS. It's actually going to be a late night talk show with George Lopez as the host. Should be pretty funny. His guests for tomorrow night are Eva Longoria, Ellen, and Kobe Bryant.
Big ups to Nabby for his 49th career shutout. Going to a game on Thursday with Cindy and her boyfriend. They're playing the Dallas Stars. The last time I saw them play the Stars, we lost 4-1. Hopefully things will be different. Tried to get the Sharks family pack this weekend. Fail. Sold out within 15 minutes and I couldn't even get to the page. So much for that...
^^ Kellie Pickler will be opening for Taylor Swift in April.
Right off the bat, I knew it was going to be a bad day. I woke up 15 minutes early but somehow ended up leaving the house 15 min late. Got to work 20 minutes late and did my usual half an hour coast. When I decided to start working I realized all of my test cards and test checks were missing from my ATM work space. I started looking around and one of my coworkers asked me if I had left my stuff out. Of course, being an honest guy, I said yes. She told me security had their nightly walk-through of the test lab and found cash laying out in the open. Apparently, I had left $55 in $1 bills out in the open. She told me security was pissed and had filed a report. I went to the security to retrieve my belongings and got an earful. I was in such a rush to leave the night before that I forgot to clean up after myself. Normally I don't leave my cash out, but I always leave my test cards out. After getting in trouble like that, I always get really flustered. I couldn't concentrate all morning. Luckily I had a meeting which went long. So I had 90 minutes to forget about it. Fell asleep in the meeting again though. Today we were talking about some genius in Texas who was cheating the machines using ridiculously smart techniques. We're working hard and fast to try and come up with a fix to prevent people from doing this. I'm so close to getting fired.
Lately I've been feeling an urge to leave the City. All of these new regulations and laws are getting ridiculous. The City already gives tenants more power than landlords, they've banned smoking in most places (this one doesn't bother me so much), Styrofoam has been banned, plastic bags have been banned, they have all these gay rights things(which I'm indifferent about), and worst of all, they're giving animals rights. City government has now put a ban on all declawings of cats. The reason given is that it is animal cruelty and torture. THEY'RE FUCKING ANIMALS! Humans domesticated cats a long time ago. What does this mean? They are, for the most part, dependent on us. Animal rights is the biggest oxymoron invented. Animal's don't have rights. They're for our benefit whether it be for food, labor, or entertainment. We are on top of the food chain. They have no rights. We keep giving animals more and more rights. At what point do we start to value human life? I don't want to pay more for my steak because some ass hole wants farmers to start regulating their animals better. It's not cost efficient and that will trickle down to the consumer resulting in an increase in price. Whatever they've been doing, it's been working. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
AND ANOTHER THING! What's with this compost bullshit? If people want to compost, go ahead. More power to you. But don't force people to do it and don't fine them for choosing not to do it. Now my family is forced to use another garbage can for compost. And we have to buy special compostable bags. This city is being torn apart by retarded politicians with their stupid agendas. What a nightmare. This city is becoming more and more difficult to live in. I'm not sure about everyone else, but I'm finding it hard to see the purpose of living here if garbage and animals have more priority than me. The worst part may be that other cities may follow suit. What ever happened to human rights?
Help control the animal population. Shoot an animal in the face.
^^One of six new tracks on the re-release of Fearless. Probably my favorite of the six.
Let's start off November's blog with dream sequences. Last week I had a couple of dreams that were memorable for different reasons. In the first dream, me, Anjuli, Andy, and a few other friends were walking out of some store and through the parking lot. As we were walking to our car, hundreds of field mice scurried their way out of the bushes from an island between the parked cars. I grabbed one by the tail and put it in a plastic box, the kind that turtles are sold in. Then, I took it home and put some water in the box. Just enough to cover its feet. The mouse started absorbing all of the water like the spongy dinosaurs that you soak in water. It grew big enough to fill the box and that's all I remember. My second dream was terrifying. I was in my room arguing with my dad for some reason and it got really heated. He muttered in Chinese something like, "My own kids don't even love or respect me." He started to walk away towards my sister room and I tried to stop him. As I approached the doorway of my sister's room, I saw him open the window. I could tell this was not going to end well. He opened the window and jumped out as I reached out to stop him. That's all I remember and it was pretty depressing to wake up from that dream.
It made me feel guilty for mistreating him for all these years. My father is a very difficult man to understand and deal with which is still no excuse. For the past few days, I've been trying to talk to him more, but, like me, he's in a funk that he can't shake. It's depressing just knowing how depressed he is. My mom also tells me that he may be going through the initial stages of Alzheimer's which is even more depressing. It's believable. My mom said he probably has five to ten years left before it really starts to affect his daily life. At this point, he's already forgetting people's names and has trouble remembering little things. I guess I'll need to try and patch things up. Time to learn to be more patient.
Unfortunately, my patience has run out for a certain someone. This person will remain nameless but a few people know what's going on. I guess it's interesting to actually know someone THAT narcissistic. To be clear, narcissism does not mean loving yourself. The correct definition of a narcissist is someone who loves the image they project of themselves. You may not like who you are on the inside, but you take pride and enjoy the image you present of yourself to others.
People are oblivious. To quote Frank Outlaw, "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." Definitely one of my favorite quotes of all time and applicable to everyday life. If everyone would be more aware of their actions and how it affects everyone else, the world would be a better place. I am, in no way, saying that I am perfect. But, I at least take responsibility for my actions. For the most part. I think... But, what can we do. The human race is built on selfishness. Challenge?
Which brings me to my next point. If I ever go back to school, I am definitely joining the debate team. Doesn't matter what school. I don't think I enjoy anything as much as winning an argument.
Went to a concert yesterday. It was amazing! The whole evening was ridiculous. Opening band was We Are the World. It was a mix of lasers, crazy interpretive dance, and screaming. It was so bizarre. The only way I know how to describe their clothing is "Arabian ninjas". If you imagine any Arab in a charcoal and black robe, that's what they looked like. With ninja masks. The band had four members: a singer, two back up vocalists and dancers, and a drummer. The set was more of a show than a musical performance. It was crazy. The music was really dark and Kevin said it was probably his favorite band of the night.
Next up was the group MEN. The video above is one of five songs they played. This group was my favorite of the night. Their performance was so awesome. They had the most ridiculous outfits of the night. This particular band had three members. The lead singer, JD Samson, is also a member of Le Tigre. Turns out the singer is a girl. Lesbanin. She had a mustache though which led me to believe the singer was a guy. I guess he/she takes testosterone pills? Anyways, the lead singer was wearing some kind of weird oversized shirt that was obviously homemade. She drew windows on it to look like a building and one of the windows were on fire. She took it off later and wore a shirt that said "SEMEN YA" all over it. Also homemade. The guitarist was wearing just a black leather vest as a top that was two sizes too small. He was wearing tight red pants on the bottom. But most unique outfit goes to the other guitarist. She wore a purple unitard with chain mail on her head. That's it. It was so ridiculous. The music was great and the show was awesome. Great lead in for the headlining band Gossip.
Gossip was just average. Nothing too special. To be fair the lead singer was sick and I'm almost positive she lost her voice after this performance. The lead singer, Beth Ditto, was a lot larger than I had anticipated. Probably 250+ lbs. Beth was hilarious though. She talked to the crowd between songs and grabbed a girls shirt and wore it for the next few songs. After she put it on she said "when you get this back it'll smell like ham." She had some jokes. I think I want to start going to more concerts.
It's 8:03AM and I've been up for almost two hours now. Had trouble sleeping last night and then I heard my mom's cell phone go off just as I was about to fall asleep. Half awake, I thought I heard her give the phone to my dad saying it was a call for him. Then a few minutes later I heard my mom walking down the stairs and opening the front door to leave. I looked out the window and sure enough, she was walking to her car fully dressed. I wasn't sure where she was going and my phone was too far. For no particular reason, I thought it was 1:40. I didn't look at a clock but that's what time I thought it was. I dozed off for what felt like a few hours and woke up when she came home through the front door. By that time, the sun was coming up and I went downstairs to ask her where she had gone for so long. She said she went to McDonald's to get breakfast. Apparently the call was a wrong number and she didn't pass the phone to my dad, she left the house around 7 to get breakfast, and I was wrong about everything. And now I'm tired but can't fall back asleep.
My brother came home from Davis on Thursday and he bought the Perfect Push Up thing. I tried a few out of boredom and curiosity. It feels cheap and flimsy. If I was as buff as the guy on the box, the handles would probably collapse under me. I don't think it works that well. I've been trying to get back into the rhythm of working out again. Everyday after work, I do a bunch of lifting for about 1.5 hours. Of course, I stretch out my reps because I'm always watching TV. Hopefully I'll trim down a bit soon. My mom keeps calling me a fatass. The more I seem to do, the more I feel my body is turning into the same body type as Chuck Liddell. He has a gut and he looks fat all the time until he flexes and you can see all the lines. That's where I'm at right now. This is, of course, before I eat.
Taylor Tickets are on sale soon. Don't really understand the breakdown of when tickets go on sale but the latest will be October 30. I joined the T Sweezy website just to see if I could get the code. I also have an AmEx card so probably will try that too. No idea how many tickets I'm going to get but so far I think the group going will be me, Anjuli, My, Ya, Erica, and maybe V and my sister if she's back. Ticket prices range from $25-59.50. I don't mind paying top dollar for great seats. Sixty dollars isn't that much anyways. Not for Taylor. Also not sure how many I'm buying (if I'm buying for people or separate). Probably best to get them together to guarantee seats together. I'll probably aim for 8. I can always sell them later. Everyone wants a piece of her.
That yellow dot is where I want to sit. Sixty dollars? Well worth it. Everyone be on the look out for radio contests and such. I want backstage passes. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!
