Summer slump

Been feeling a little out of it lately... Weekends do not come soon enough and when they do, they just seem... Unfulfilling and unsatisfying.  Being 25, I feel like I am falling behind.  I thought my life would be more stable by now with more direction, but everything seems so uncertain.  I have no idea why I am still going to school or why I am working at a job I absolutely hate.

Being in this situation makes me realize how valuable happiness really is.  Am I becoming a hippie?  Is happiness really more important than money?  I guess it depends on how much happiness and how much money... Yea... I guess I have not changed...

For the most part, I have always been able to control my emotions rather well.  I could always suppress anger.  I could always bypass shame.  Subvert optimism, tolerate annoyances, etc.  But one thing that I could never control was depression which makes feeling like this so much harder to deal with.  I know it is normal to feel lost and blah blah blah, but this feels like so much more than that.  It goes beyond the normal realm of sadness and disappointment. 

Iamalostsheep...

-Thundalips

Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun

Big ups to the birthday boy.

First things first.  The Sharks were eliminated last week in a devastating fashion.  Another year, another disappointment.  Here are some of the upsides:

• "There's always next year..." -Sharks motto
• Most of the core players are locked up beyond the next season
• No shame in losing to a superior team
• Facing adversity will help the team grow - nothing came easy this season

Downside?

• No parade
• Longer wait for start of next season
• Guch up as restricted free agent
• More ammo for critics to call them chokers

Since school has ended, things have been fun again.  But fun means bad things for my body.  I can already see the extra calories from the alcohol affecting my body.  And my brain.  I feel slower...  But at least I am enjoying myself.  Need to start exercising a bit more to balance out the heavy drinking.  I think I drank almost everyday in the past two weeks.  And I have exercised twice.  Not good.

A lot of things have happened, but it's past midnight so I will continue this later.  I have missed you blog.  See you soon.

-Thundalips

Yes man? No man...

Been listening to a lot of house lately.  Favorites so far: Kill Everybody Fire in Your New Shoes Feel it in My Bones Dynasty

People have been asking me a lot lately if I have started my Yes Man project because I guess I have been doing a lot of uncharacteristic things.  After my first semester, I feel like I finally have the time to go a little nuts and I guess people are getting confused.  I am definitely having a great winter break so far and hope it continues to be just as good.  I have not been very productive though...

I started to clean my room but gave up when I saw how much junk I have.  I tried to fix my uncle's computer but could not figure out why it was having trouble booting up.  My work out plan is sporadic at best.  I am however getting a lot of partying done.

In preparation for Vegas in March, I have been familiarizing myself with more house, electronica, and, dare i say, trance.  More house than anything though.  One of my classmates made me three CDs of an artist that has a pretty unique sound.



The going gets good around @1:00.  His name is Parov Stelar.  He's considered the founding father of Electroswing and hails from Australia.  I have always enjoyed swing music and big band music like Hey Pachuco! but never really looked for more songs or artists. Now that I have some time between now and the 10th of January, maybe I will look for more.  Or just let Pandora take care of it for me. 

In the past few weeks I have also came up with some ideas for some new ink.  The one that I will probably get first is a falling King (chess piece) on the inside of my left bicep.  You might be thinking, "Alex, how can you make it look like it's falling?!"  "With a shadow, my friend!" I would say.  The only thing holding me back is I am not sure what size I want.  Ideally, it would run almost six inches.  But, I am afraid it will be too big and stick out of my tee shirt sleeves.  Not looking to get caught by the parentals. 

A possible third would be Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici across my collarbone.  Or a smaller version under my left collarbone.  I have been back and forth on this one since I actually stole the idea from a friend who already has the tattoo.  It's also very hard deciding on what font to use.  While searching for more Latin phrases, I came across some very funny ones:

1. Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri? - (At a barbeque) Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?
2. Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus! - Let's all wear mood rings!
3. Braccae illae virides cum subucula rosea et tunica Caledonia-quam elenganter concinnatur! - Those green pants go so well with that pink shirt and the plaid jacket!
4. Brevior saltare cum deformibus mulieribus est vita - Life is too short to dance with ugly women
5. Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam - I have a catapult. Give me all your money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head
6. In dentibus anticis frustrum magnum spiniciae habes - You have a big piece of spinach in your front teeth

A few months ago, Calvin borrowed my iTouch to crack his PS3.  After returning it, I had to redownload my apps.  While looking for more free ones, I decided to download a free version of chess.  I have been playing it everyday for at least half an hour.  I think one of my New Year's resolutions will be to learn how to play chess at a higher level.  It's always been fun but I never understood all the terminology or strategies.  After a decent Wikipedia adventure, I was introduced to some of the intricacies of the games and read up on some of the more memorable matches.  I know I will never be competing in a nationally ranked tournament, but it would be nice to go play with the gang on 5th and Market one day.  Right now one of my biggest problem is seeing all the possible moves with the clock running.  Playing chess under time constraints is very difficult...

Until next time,

A game of chess is normally divided into three phases: opening, typically the first 10 to 25 moves, when players move their pieces into useful positions for the coming battle; middlegame, usually the fiercest part of the game; and endgame, when most of the pieces are gone, kings typically take a more active part in the struggle, and pawn promotion is often decisive.

-Alex Thunderlips

Without distraction

My online class started on Monday.  So now I am taking Bus 210 "Managing and Developing People" and RA106 "Regulatory Affairs".  The combination of the two is destroying me.  My mind is being blown by all the information thrown at me.  I have probably read more in the last month than I have in the last two years.  This is definitely one of the hardest things I have ever done.  There's so much work that I am taking Monday off from work to catch up.

To help me concentrate on school work, I have eliminated two of the most time-consuming activities: TV and Facebook.  Andy and Kevin came over today and helped me move the TV in my room to my sister's room.  I can't remember the last time my room didn't have a TV... I still remember when I had three TVs in my room.  I could watch TV, listen to sports on another, and play game on the third.  It got so bad to the point where my room looked like this...

This is how my room actually looked in high school.  And it was not intentionally set up this way.  It took weeks of abuse and neglect to get it this messy.  Those were simpler times... 

When I study, I usually have music in the background since I'm sedatephobic (fear of silence).  Since I can't concentrate when listening to music with words, I turn to Pandora for generated playlists.  My studying playlist is a combination of Yiruma, Escala, and Bond.  Almost everything they play is pretty good with that lineup.  That's where I found the song above.  Pretty nice music to listen to.  I've listened to Pandora so much that I've already hit the maximum hours allowed.  I've already played 40 hours of music this month on the site and if I want to continue using it, I'll have to pay.  Did you know there was a friggin' limit?!  I think I'll just wait until October...

Without Facebook, there isn't much left to do on the web.  I check the sports pages and the news every half hour or so, but there's nothing really left after that. 

On the plus side, now that the TV is in my sister's room, I have a new place to work out (if I ever have time).  Her room has windows and gets plenty of air so it'll be perfect. 

I'm also thinking about getting an iPad for my mom.  If she likes it, she can keep it.  But I have a feeling she would be too frustrated with learning how to use it and give up.  In that case, I'd take it.  So it's really a gift for me.  I've been debating about which iPad I want.  I definitely only plan on getting the 16GB (smallest one) but I'm not sure if I want to go with the 3G or just the Wi-Fi.  With the 3G, I have the option of using internet where ever there's a 3G hotspot but it costs a whopping $130 for that feature.  In addition to that, you also have to go through AT&T to get the data plan which is 250MB/month for $15 or 2GB/month for $25.  The good thing about the plan is that you don't have to pay for it unless you use it since it's month to month.  So I think I will buy the 3G iPad but hold off on getting the service until I need it.  It would be a great asset if I ever go on that road trip around the U.S. that I've been working on...

Until next time,

Some interesting facts I learned from my readings:

• 54% of Americans are using prescription medication; 35% use 1-3 and 19% use four or more
• Only 2 of 10 marketed drugs return revenues that match or exceed R&D costs
• Since new medicines were approved in 1995, the AIDS death rate has dropped more than 70%
• The death rate for cardiovascular disease fell 26.4% between 1999 and 2005. This includes a 29.7% decrease in stroke death rates an a 34.3% drop in death rates for coronary heart disease. Nearly half of the decline is attributable to medical treatments, including increased use of prescription medicines such as cholesterol drugs and blood thinners.
• In a study, a $1.00 increase in prescription drug spending saved $2.06 in hospital spending
• Generic medications account for 74% of prescriptions filled - up from 49% in 2000

There's a lot more interesting stats and things but I don't want to number you to death... Interesting though ain't it?

-Alex Thunderlips

Free porn!

Definitely my favorite song right now.  I wake up every weekday hoping to see this video while I get ready for work.  Just absolutely delightful. 

I watched the VMAs today.  After the show, I had no idea what was on so I changed the channel to the TV guide channel.  Usually if it's not already scrolling through my favorite channels, I just check the website.  They were already in the 100+ channels which I don't have so I moved on to check the website.  National Treasure was on USA!  Without looking I picked up the remote and hit channel down.  I had completely forgotten that I was on the TV guide channel and when I looked up hoping to see Nicolas Cage, I saw two blondes completely naked touching each other in a bubble bath.  Free softcore porn!  I felt like Joey and Chandler in Friends.  It wasn't like regular TV.  This was porn porn.  I had no idea what was going on and I changed the channel to double check.  That's when I realized when I was watching the public access channel.  There's no regulations!

If you read the title hoping to see free porn, sorry to disappoint.

So if you don't already know, my graduate studies have begun.  Three weeks have passed and I have no idea what I'm doing.  The class is moving so fast and I can't seem to keep up with the workload.  The lectures and book are very straightforward and easy to understand, but when it comes to doing assignments, I just can't seem to connect the dots.  I feel totally lost and my first assignment, a group project, is not going well at all.  My team doesn't trust me and gives me little responsibilities.  My ideas and suggestions didn't seem welcome or seriously acknowledged.  Whatever.  Part of being a good manager is putting up with people's shit.  I need to learn to adapt. 

Been hatching a lot of schemes lately as well.  I have some great ideas to change my life forever.  I'd like to share them, but I will just let you know as they come.  No need to excite you prematurely.

Until next time,

About half of Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace. C'mon people!  It's time to explore the world!

-Alex Thunderlips

P.S.  Sharks pre-season starts in less than two weeks.  Finally...

Mo' Monae, Mo' bloggin'

Listen to it.  Now.  It will blow your mind.  Turns out the album I downloaded a few weeks ago wasn't the actual album released.  About half of the tracks were "fake".  Even so, I enjoyed the album very much.  After hearing the real version, I'm only more impressed.  This is a great album from a very talented artist.  Much love for Monae and her awesome afro/pompadour (she calls it "The Monae").

As you may have noticed, I haven't been blogging.  Why?  Superstition.  The Sharks were doing well and I didn't want anything to change.  They still lost.  My playoff beard is no more and holds a record of 6-5.  Next year I'll start it from the get-go.  And of course, they'll make it to the playoffs.

Last night I got take out from Americana.  I ordered a rib eye steak since they were out of the T-bone and a large pizza cheese steak with fries for lunch today.  I brought the sandwich in my usual Tupperware and put it in my usual spot in the refrigerator.  Even at 1:30 I wasn't very hungry so I decided to just eat half.  I left half of my sandwich and fries in my Tupperware and wrapped it in a plastic bag and put it back in the refrigerator. 

When I came back at 5, my Tupperware was missing from the refrigerator.  I looked around the area and found it sitting on top of the refrigerator.  It was empty.  Someone ate my sandwich.  Or threw it away.  Equally unacceptable.  That half sandwich was worth almost $6.  That's almost as much as a whole sandwich at most places!  I'm going to write a letter to building security about securing my godamn sandwiches.  Someone owes me $6 and I'm willing to take them to small claims court.  Don't think I won't do it!




My sandwich?! MY SANDWICH?! MY SANDWICH?!  I hate work people. 

Quick update on everything in my life:

Work has been work.  I thought I was going to get fired a few weeks ago since my boss had repeatedly been on me about my effort.  She ended up giving me more assignments which, of course, means I can't get fired yet.  Good news for me.  I need the money.  Today I also found out that I have been approved for the use of Microsoft Communicator and Live Meeting.  I think with these two programs I'll be able to go on AIM again. 

If you haven't heard, the bird is the word.  Also, I got into graduate school so hooray for me I guess.  Even though I got accepted, I'm not sure this is what I want to do.  But, I figure I'll get the degree regardless and see if I can grow into it.  Worst case scenario, I graduate (actually not graduating and failing out of the program would be worst case scenario) and work a few years in a manager's position making close to or above $100,000.  The degree will pay for itself in a year or two.


Classes meet twice a week and the program was intended for those who are employed full time.  This means I'll get to continue to work (if they renew my contract after December) and go to school.  But it also means most of my time will be taken up.  If they let me go after December, I'm going to take more classes and just enjoy being a student again.  Debate club/team, beginning ice hockey classes, and who knows what else.  It will be magical. If my contract does get extended, it will be less magical but mo' money. 

So, in a nutshell, that's been my life lately.  How have you been?

Until next time,

A jiffy is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

-Alex Thunderlips

Back to blogging

That guy is ugly.

I finally finished my applications for graduate school!  That means more time for blogging, COD, and just general merriment.  But technically I'm not done completely.  I still have to actually apply.  That doesn't make sense to you yet but let me explain.  I have already sent in my application for the program that I am most interested in, but I am still waiting to apply to two other programs.  Both websites don't have open applications for the semester I am applying for and both schools are currently on spring break.  What does that mean?  I have to wait until Monday to call both admission offices to get help.  And the kicker is: I've already asked my professors to send in their letters of recommendation so the schools might get it before my applications.  I already have all my information ready to be thrown onto a form but I still need access to the site. 

In the mean time, I have loaded up on hours of COD and lounging.  After a few more days of this, I'll probably start cleaning my room again.  Something that is long overdue.

Last night I was talking to Andy about my birthday plans this year.  I have none.  Ever since graduating college my birthday's just haven't been as good as the college years (to be honest nothing has been better than those college years).  This is by no means a cry for a surprise party or anything of that nature so keep that in mind.  I really have no energy to do the things that I used to do.  We discussed possibilities to celebrate the occasion but nothing really tickled my fancy.  Maybe I really am just getting too old.

Lately work has been great.  I'm seriously starting to hone my ass-kissing skills, and they're coming along quite nicely.  I find myself in my manager's office at least once a day just chatting.  She gives me advice on life and tells me things from her personal life.  It's a pretty nice situation.  She even made me "assistant manager" a few weeks ago.  This was an unofficial title and had no benefits except having power over my other coworkers.  I had the opportunity to create the assignments for everyone and take charge of the project for a week or so.  It was a great learning experience.  What did I learn?  I'm glad you asked.  I learned that I love the power of being a manager.  I can seriously see myself as a power-hungry tool in the future.  I'm sure you can see it too.

Ah, and last but not least, my romantic life.  Or lack thereof.  My dad mentioned a few times in the past week that I should start looking for a nice Chinese girl to settle down with.  This was very unsettling.  You know that you've been single too long when your parents start telling you these things.  The only thing that could have made it worse is if he tried to set me up with someone.  It would be nice to settle down soon though. 

Recently my dad has been exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's.  The other day he showed me an old $100 he had (the one with the small heads like the $1).  He complained that the casino had cheated him out of $100 and gave him fake money.  Apparently he forgot that that's how they used to look.  I spent the next few minutes explaining to him that these were the old printed hundred dollar bills and that they had changed the design to curb counterfeiting.  He honestly forgot, which was scary.  He just had no recollection of a hundred dollar note ever looking like that.  A lot of little things like that are starting to add up and it's very obvious now that there may not be a lot of time left before he becomes completely senile.  It would be nice to bring a girl home to make him happy (and myself too). 

Until next time,

-Alex Thunderlips

Home-body

I really should be finishing up my personal statements but seeing as I haven't updated in a while, I'll just leave a quick blurb.

I've been working the last couple of Sundays which has completely changed my weekend outings.  This past weekend specifically, was immensely uneventful.  Other than the Sharks game, I did absolutely nothing.  I can't remember the last time I didn't go out for at least one day out of the weekend.  And by out, I mean out drinking.

Looking back at it, it's surprisingly refreshing to have some of that pressure gone.  Every weekend I have high hopes of something fun happening and I'm rarely disappointed.  But now that I've had time to digest the nothingness that was the weekend, I realized how much calmer my life had been.  I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I think I may begin looking for more non-nightlife things to do around The City.  I'm not exactly sure what else there is to do since I hate a lot of things like watching movies in theaters.  If anyone knows of any social gatherings that frequently occur please let me know.  If I had my scooter, I could attend local scoot-abouts.  I'm not sure that's what they're called but that's definitely a cool name for it. 

I'd really like to meet more people...and actually possibly remember them.  Alcohol is deteriorating my mind.  I feel like I'm getting stupider with every drink.  Will I(t) ever stop?  I don't know.  Turn off the lights and I'll glow.  To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal.  Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle.  Dance.  Hellz yeah, bitch.  See what I mean?  I'm also finding more money in my pockets.  I didn't even need to go to the ATM for the past two weeks.

To all you fellow bloggers, your comments for your posts will be arriving shortly.  I'll get to it :]

Until next time,

Cheers.

-Alex Thunderlips

Para-more more more. Why don't you like me? Nobody likes me.

Fact:  I have family in Haiti.  I learned the other day my great grandfather married another woman in Haiti and had two daughters and a son.  Yes, they are black.  My aunt tells me there are pictures at my grandma's house.  As soon as I can get my hands on them I will post them as proof.  I guess the jungle fever runs in the family.  I have a genetic predisposition for the sistas. 

Things to resolve by the end of the month:

• Finalize list of programs I will be applying to
• Have at least a fitting for a helmet (hopefully I'll have my scooter)
  
• Work on vocabulary

Things to avoid until the end of the month that will keep me from doing the things listed above:

• TV
• COD
• Magic
• General laziness

Until next time,

Keep your eye on the ball...

-Alex Thunderlips

A little bit of everything at once.

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.

Until next time,

Stay classy San Francisco

-Alex Thunderlips

Dream a little dream.

Last night I had one of the most random dreams I can remember.  It began with me and my mom shopping at Safeway and for some reason there was a Chinese barbecue area.  My mom lined up to buy a roast duck and I looked behind the counter and saw a guy passed out with a zip loc bag of mushrooms in front of him.  When I turned to look at the food, my mom had already started walking away.  I followed her and within a few feet of walking she started to spasm uncontrollably and started flailing her limbs in every direction.  When I asked her what the hell was wrong with her she said she stole the guy's mushrooms and ate it.  She was having a majorly bad trip.  Then Gary came out of no where and I forgot why but we started arguing.  It escalated and we started swinging.  I remember getting a few good licks in but I was completely overwhelmed and dominated by his strength (which is how I'd imagine a real fight with Gary would be).  Then, as the fight ended, I started to walk away but Gary came up behind me and hugged me from behind and said "Gary Wu laab you..."  It was weird.  Next thing I know I'm trying to stop an altercation between two of my friends, both named Frances.  Some other weird stuff happened and I went to meet up Andy.  We walked around the streets and he asked if I wanted to go watch him in an eating competition.   It was a competition at Subway where the eaters must eat a one foot open face sandwich (I have no idea why) as fast as possible.  I told him I couldn't go since I had to prepare for the GRE exam (which is really true).  Then I woke up.

Sharks win.  Boring game.  Clowe fought some jackass near the end of third which was pretty good.  Vesce had his first NHL goal.  Overall sloppy play though.  Congratulations San Jose but your next matchup will probably be your most difficult of the season thus far. 

-Alex Thunderlips

Blame it on the girls.

 

Another day, another adventure.  Spent most of the day narrowing down which graduate schools I am eligible to apply to.  Then I have to see which graduate schools would be stupid enough to accept me.  I really wish every university would come together and create a universal user-friendly webpage.  Got my eye on 14 schools right now and I'm only a third of the way through the list.  And of those 14 schools, only three are in California.  What does this mean? Road trip across the U.S.A.!  Definitely need a change of scenery...

-Alex Thunderlips