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.
