Interesting plot

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the director of a program I am applying to.  To prepare for it, my dad thought it would be a good idea to promote my Chinese heritage and the medical background of my family.  I sat down with my dad for an hour this evening so he could tell me his ideas for getting into the program.  This is where I realize how much of a narcissist my father really is.  The entire hour, he talked about how he helped people as a doctor and all the great things he's done: founding the first school for Oriental medicine, restoring the health of terminal patients, being offered thousands of dollars in cash for his work, etc.  The entire discussion was one-sided.  When I asked how this would help me get into the program he said, "Yea", and continued telling his story.  At this point, I know there's no hope so I humor him and just listen to what he has to say.

While listening to his stories about the faults and inconsistencies in western medicine, I began to drift off into my dream world.  Then I had an interesting thought.  What if all medicine was a lie?  What if it turned out that everything we think about medicine is false?  The millions of dollars spent every year turns out to be for nothing.  Everything we ever thought about the healing powers of pills and vitamins turn out to be nothing more than the placebo effect in global effect.  What if medicine weren't real?  If people found out and lost faith in medicine people would die faster than the people in Haiti.  YA BURNT! Too soon?  But anyways, it just got me thinking how much of a placebo effect there is.  Another spin-off of René Descartes "I think therefore I am" notion.

Just a thought.  May have potential to be written as some sort of fiction book or movie.

Until next time,

Take the red pill.

-Alex Thunderlips

Dreams of a functioning psychopath

Great song.  Legit track from Ke$ha's album, Animal.  I don't understand the reason why people don't respect her or her music.  She has an album that most likely has already gone at least platinum, she holds the record for highest downloaded record for a female artist (of all time), and she's only 22.  What have you done with your life that's so great?  Shut up then.

Last night I had a very strange dream.  Most of my dreams are.  As I explained to Gary this weekend, my mind is unlike any other.  I often identify myself as a functioning psychopath.  The thoughts in my mind are rarely expressed out loud, and that's what makes me functional in society.  If I were to actually do the things I'm thinking about, I probably wouldn't be alive today.  It's okay to think it as long as I don't do it.  Right?

So my dream is segmented in three pieces.  I woke up twice in the middle of the night from the cold since I decided to sleep pants-less and with only one blanket.  The dream began with me, Doug, and my mom in a hotel room.  Nothing special about the room.  Typical two queen beds in a room lit with slightly yellow bulbs.  I don't remember exactly what was going on but I do know that I was in a competition with my mom.  I cannot recall the stipulations but the events that follow were somehow the basis of our battle for supremacy.

As my mom lay in one bed, Doug was in the other.  I jumped on top of my mom and mounted her in a TOTALLY non-sexual way.  You'll understand in a second.  I grab this off the table between the beds.  

Next thing I know, I jam it into my jugular and blood starts pouring out from my neck over my mom.  I then take the same tool and stab her once in the jugular.  But, for some reason, she doesn't start bleeding.  The blade of the scraper went through her neck but her neck was soft like Jell-O.  At that point I begin to panic because I'm losing a lot of blood.  I stab her neck multiple times until she starts bleeding but even then, there's not a lot of blood.  At that point, I look at Doug and I'm about to faint from the loss of blood.  I tell him to keep talking to me so I don't fall asleep.  Apparently, the competition between me and my mom was to see who could lose the most blood and stay awake.  Doug talks to me and I end up "winning" this round.  I eventually pass out after my mom. 

Seems crazy right?  The words do no justice to the images that have been burned into my mind from this dream.  After that the rest of the dream will seem boring. 

The next thing I remember is waking up (in the dream - as in waking up from passing out).  My neck is hideously scarred and scabs are all over my neck even though I'm still slightly bleeding still.  I find a first aid kit in the bathroom and wrap my neck multiple times over with gauze to the point where my neck has become stiff.  My mom, realizing I had "won" the competition, offers to take me to eat at a buffet.  The three of us walk through a long dark tunnel with the walls completely lined with old broken down washing machines and dryers.  A homeless guy runs past us to a washing machine and opens it up.  He pulls out a duffel bag and screams in excitement.  It was filled with all of his belongings which he had hidden there before he went to prison.  Don't really understand how I knew he just got out of prison but it was just one of those things you know in your dreams.

We get to the buffet and my family is already there.  We split up to get food and all of a sudden the setting changes from a buffet to a library and the cast of Community is sitting at the table across from me.  Jeff looks over to me and asks me for my notes.  I get up to hand it to him and when I turn back around, there's a girl sitting in the seat I just left.  My notes and books were thrown on the floor and she just stared at me like she didn't do anything.  Oh well.  I walk away and there's a table full of guns just like in Call of Duty.  It takes me a millisecond to decide that I want my seat back.  I wasn't going to ask nicely for it.  I get strapped and start walking back to my table.  The scene turns into 16-bit and I have to shoot two people to get to the seat.  In my radar  I see the first person I shot is not quite dead so I pull out my credit card which has a sliding top-half - almost like if my credit card were a Transformer.  I flip the top up and down really fast and the credit card fires a bullet right into the persons skull.  Yes.  My dream weapons are insane.

At this point I wake up again from my dream because of the cold.  The last segment is a very short one.

It starts out in a giant garage complex and a few friends and I are walking towards some other people.  As I walk closer, I see that it's a group of girls, one of whom I already know.  If I had to guess, this girl has been in one out of every ten dreams.  It's funny because I never think about her when I'm awake and I haven't seen her in probably three years and haven't talked to her for slightly longer.  As I walk toward the girls, she leans in and gives me a hug and kiss.  I realize she's my girlfriend and we walk off together out of the parking garage.  This was even weirder since I haven't thought about her in that way.  Somehow we end up in my grandma's house which turned out to be where we lived together.  And then I woke up for good.

The last part was more for me since no one else really knows what the hell I'm talking about.  It's just interesting to me that the same girl keeps showing up in my dreams when I hardly think about her when I'm awake.  And I'm sure the rest of my dreams has left my image tainted.  Don't worry.  I'm not really that crazy.  I would only kill you in my dreams.

To try and clear up some of the crazy, I will try to explain why I dreamed what I dreamed.  I spent most of Sunday cleaning the garage with my mom.  We threw out a lot of junk and moved a spare washing machine we have to the back of the garage.  This may have been where the tunnel of washing machines came into picture.  While cleaning my mom picked up a pirate sword left by someone after the pirate party.  She pointed it at me and made a threatening face and said "Alex..."  I found one of my old BB guns, a USP, and pointed it back at her and said "Mommy..."  We had a laugh and went back to cleaning.  Possibly where the first part of the dream came from.  The buffet is probably just cause I'm fat.  Call of Duty is obvious and recurring.  So, in conclusion, I am not crazy.  I am "colorful". 

Until next time,

Stay out of my head.   

-Alex Thunderlips

90210

Definitely my favorite track of the album.  I'm a bit of a sucker when it comes to music with tragic lyrics.  If it tells a story then it's only about a bajillion times better.  I guess it's comforting just hearing that someone out there could be doing worse than me.  It's a great reminder to really cherish what I have. 

Work has been crap as of late.  I got stuck on support which means I have to carry around a cell phone from work 24/7.  Rain or shine, night or day, I have to answer any calls from any of the service people covering 7,000+ machines in production.  So when they have a problem, they call me and I have to determine the cause of the problem and attempt to fix it.  Sounds scary eh?  I got a call today on my way to lunch and had to turn back to take care of the problem.  After half an hour of walking through the problem, I was able to figure out what the person did and fixed it.  As I was walking out for lunch again, I got another call.  My first attempt to eat was at 12:15.  I didn't eat until 2:30. By the way, did you like how the first paragraph talks about being grateful for my life and then I quickly transition to how work sucks?  I'm a flip-flopper.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is ruining my life.  Someone take it away.

Until next time,

-Alex Thunderlips

Poetic Justice

On Monday my family and I went to a lunch buffet in Daly City called Kome.  My uncle suggested it because it was a new restaurant.  He had already eaten there a few times and said the food was really good.  Since I'm almost always up for new eats, I went with my mom, uncle, and aunt.  If you know where Todai used to be in Daly City, that's where it's at.

When we get there, we see the line is ridiculously long.  The restaurant opens at 11 and we arrive there at 10:45.  The entire lobby is wall to wall of people trying to get a table.  Meanwhile, my uncle arrives and tells us there's no wait.  So we follow him and the four of us walk all the way to the back of the room and sit down at a table.  Apparently my uncle knows the owner.

I have never seen so many Asians in my entire life.  Chinese people have a tendency to try new Chinese restaurants in bunches.  I thought the line to get a table ridiculous.  Little did I know, the line for food was worse.  The restaurant has the exact layout of what used to be Todai.  There is a separate island for sushi and salad, an island (more like a row) for hot foods, a noodle station, and a dessert section.  Since I had sushi on Sunday night, I opted for hot food.  I lined up all the way in the back of the line which moved as fast as molasses.

It took more than 20 minutes for me to reach the plates.  All the while, I was harassed by a toddler standing behind me with an empty plate he grabbed from another section.  This fat Asian boy had no sense of personal space and kept bumping into my behind.   As you may know, my rather large posterior isn't exactly impossible to avoid, but this kid had every intention of ignoring my personal bubble.  He bumped me at least 20 times while I was waiting in line for food and each time he did I turned around to stare him down.  After about ten times, the kid's father finally tells him not to stand so close.  Finally.  Some relief.  That's what I thought at least.  Next thing you know, the kid lifts his plate, digging into the bottom of my ass.  He literally put my ass on his plate.  At that point I'd had enough.  I waited and baited him.  Slowly the line moved and I stood still hoping he'd get closer.  Then,                      (for dramatic effect)             I totally let one rip in his face.  He was at the perfect height to eat every fecal particle I had to offer.  Victory is sweet.

Enough with the story.  Onward of the review.  The food was actually pretty tasty for a buffet.  I would definitely recommend it even though Yelp users gave it low scores.  Considering lunch buffet is 10.95, it is definitely worth a shot.  My uncle tells me that a few of the chefs were actually from Koi Palace so you know at least some of the food is made by professionals.  The Chinese BBQ and dim sum section is definitely the highlight of the buffet.

As we left the restaurant, we all got a peek of the line.  The line at this point (1PM) stretched past the next two or three store fronts.  My uncle told me that the owner of Kome got many complaints from the neighboring restaurants about its patrons blocking the entrances to their shops.  Most of the reviews you'll see on Yelp complain about the wait but if you have the inside track or don't mind going early this is definitely a place to check out at least once.  [End review]

Last night I had a very strange dream.  Chadwick, Andy, Gary, Anjuli, Kevin, a few other friends and I were sitting in a circle somewhere outside.  For some reason in this dream, Chadwick had a baby (his) in his lap and was bouncing him up and down.  Chad turned to me and asked me if I could hold the baby while he grabbed something from a bag.  I take the baby and hold him so he's facing outward.  With one hand under the baby's bottom and the other across his body, I wait for Chadwick to grab whatever he needed.  I look at the baby's face and I know what's coming next.  Doo doo butter.  I yell at Chad and tell him to take the baby before he defecates on me, but everyone just watches as the baby craps all over my hand.  Everyone there starts laughing at me which upsets me.  I look at Chad and he's laughing so hard he's on the floor.  With the crap in my hand I chuck it at him and hit him square in the chest.  Everyone continues laughing and Chad throws it at someone else.  Next thing I know, everyone is throwing doo doo at everyone and I'm carrying the baby under one arm and diving out of the way while throwing doo doo bombs at people.  [End dream]

Poetic justice...

Until next time,

Keep the doo doo to yourself.

-Alex Thunderlips

POWER METAL!

Craving power metal lately.

Crazy dream last night.  I had to write down everything I could remember before I forgot.

It started with Andy, Gary, Chad and me at a ghetto high school.  We were surrounded by hundreds of black people and the four of us were preparing for a rap battle.  We all had our notebooks out with our scribbled rhymes deciding who would go first.  Then our names were called and we walked toward the stage.  I dropped my notebook and when I looked up the three of them were gone.  Out of nowhere, four white guys (wiggas) jumped me from behind and the smallest guy gave me an atomic wedgie.  At that point I'm not feeling the rap competition so I walk away.  All the black people I walk past are asking me where I was going and how they wanted to see me perform.  Apparently, in my dreams, I'm a very good rapper.

I left the high school and got into a car where I met up with my black girlfriend (why are there so many black people in my dream?).  I told her about the atomic wedgie and decided that I wanted to get even.  We knew where the wiggas were going so we drove to a parking garage where they were going to wait them out.  At that point, we find the perfect vantage point to watch the entrance of the garage.  The plan was to seal them inside and fight them.  Then, my dream girlfriend hands me a box of C4 rigged together as a car bomb.  I said that was too drastic and I just wanted to get even.

We wait for a bit and Andy, Gary, and Chad meet up with us.  As I step out of the car to approach them, the four wiggas turn the corner and are right in front of me.  I immediately throw the small one through the window of the house we're standing next to and the other three guys run.  The small wigga is stunned after I had thrown him through the window.  I grab a wooden chair and smash it over his head.  Out cold.  Awesome.

As I walk away, someone suggests going to Henry's house to play Call of Duty.  I agree and we start to drive over there.  When we get there, I look at the TV and it has the most absurd dimensions I've ever seen.  It was ridiculously long horizontally but very short in terms of height.  It was so distorted I had trouble seeing all four players on the screen.  Oh yea, and for some reason Virginia was already at Henry's house when we got there.  [End dream]

Until next time,

Gotta love the blacks...

-Alex Thunderlips