wildyams

January 28, 1986. I was in 5th grade at the time, and had one of the toughest teachers of my life back then. I remember being in class that morning with my classmates and wondering where the teacher was. Evidently she was in the teacher's lounge with the rest of the teachers watching the Space Shuttle Disaster and the aftermath of that. Being a teacher, naturally she (and the rest of the teachers) were very affected by the death of Christa McAuliffe. I myself remember being very affected by it too. It was something of a loss of innocence for me, growing up in the mid 80s when we were still very big on space exploration and NASA and the Space Shuttle. I remember learning a lot about those subjects growing up, being one of the "I want to be an Astronaut when I grow up" crowd. When the Challenger exploded, it ended a lot of that for me and for many people. It was a realization that it may seem often that Americans do lead charmed lives, but that everything is not perfect here.

I'm a long way from the 12 year old kid I was back then, but I still remember, and its why this new Space Shuttle Disaster affects me today.

You know, I really hate this obsession with biggerism (to borrow a term from Chuck Thacker) here in America. I think I may have found the answer to my car quandary, but the damnable thing is that its not available here in America (at least it doesn't appear to be) and the main reason seems to be because its not big enough. My dream car looks to be the MCC Smart (or something close to it). Its tiny, which I prefer, its extremely fuel-efficient, and its cheap. Its just what I'm looking for. Maybe some day it will be available here in America, but for now you have to go through ridiculous hassles (and lots of cash) to get one here.

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I did, however, come across this site which looks like its a good idea. Naturally its not started yet, and its starting in Atlanta first, with no ETA for when they will come here. But it sounds like a good idea, although I'm not sure if it will work or not. Its essentially a sort of communal idea about having a whole group of cars that are shared by everyone who's part of the program, and when you need one you just take it, then return it when you're finished. Its not even geared soley towards people like me who don't want their car (although that's certainly some of the target audience); its also for people who have more people than cars in their household for when someone needs a car in a pinch, or for companies to provide their employees with temporary transportation (kind of like the way golf carts are used at movie studios I suppose). Anyway, I put myself on their mailing list and hopefully they will start up here in LA soon.

No this isn't about the Lakers (although they're doing quite well these days after beating the Suns, Kings and Jazz this last week). This is about my day today with my Dad. I had to be at his place today at 3 this afternoon, so I slept in, got up and went over there. First we went for a walk with my stepmom, Janelle, and it was rather nice. I got some good shots of it (see below). Then after we got back, my Dad and I went to see "Antwone Fisher", and I have to say I thought it was a really good movie. Just a good story that's based on the real Antwone Fisher. If you haven't seen it, check it out, it made me feel pretty good. After the movie, we went to Club 41 in Old Town Pasadena for dinner, and I had clam chowder (its really fantastic there) and fish and chips (about half of which I have left over). Just a nice day.

On my way to my Dad's house I drove past a car that made me stop and take some pictures of it (see below). Turns out it was a Ford Think City (which I'd never heard of) and is a totally electric car, which is really small (2 seater) with a plastic body. It looks a lot like the kind of thing I'm looking for, except that since its electric I don't know how that would work for me, since I park in a big underground parking structure that does not have any kind of electric recharging outlet, at least not that I know of. But it takes 8 hours to fully charge one of these cars, so I'd need to have something right in my spot to charge it. You can lease one of these things for $200 a month for 34 months with nothing down (which actually comes to about what my car is listed for in Kelly's Blue Book), so that definitely makes me curious. If I couldn't plug it in here, I would consider moving, since I've been giving that some thought anyway. Mario at work said that one of the units of the area he lives in is open for rent (it was a couple weeks ago anyway, maybe it won't be anymore, who knows). Judging from Mario's place, its bigger and nicer than where I am now, but its also another $200 per month. Now, the place I live in is pretty cheap, so I could afford a better place, but I'd kind of rather save my cash and hopefully buy a place down the line. But if I could sell my car and get something like this Think City, then maybe it would be worth it in the long run (especially if my insurance went way down). Currently its costing me $1500 a year to insure my car, and that's with them aware that I'm only driving it 3000 miles a year, and to me that just seems damn wasteful, but I know a lot of that has to do with the fact that I live in Hollywood. So I don't know, its a lot of things for me to consider: moving to a different area with (hopefully) cheaper insurance rates and a place to plug in an electric car, then selling my car, taking on more money per month in rent, etc... Anyway, seems like some possible leads there in my quest to alter my current state of affairs. By the way, I didn't post it last week, but I drove 46 miles last week and 33 this week, so I am still staying under my allowed miles.

Sounds like I may be going out with Steve-o and Grover this Tuesday, and possibly Jon, so that gives me something to look forward to. That's enough for now, I'm off to bed. Enjoy the pics below from this past week:

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This one is complements of Mr. Greenspan (my co-worker, not the Chairman of the Fed). I had never heard of this till today, but check out Flexcar. Its a service where you pay a one time $25 fee and you're a member for life. Then, anytime you need a car, you call them up, make a reservation and go pick one up. You get charged $10/hour that you have the car and are allowed to drive 10 miles in that hour (you get charged 35 cents for each mile you go over). Seems kinda steep maybe, but you don't have to pay for gas or insurance on the car, they cover that. They have a couple different places around LA where you can pick up or drop off a car (and I'm guessing you get billed monthly or something). They have a pickup/dropoff point down at Union Station downtown, so I could take the train there very easily, then pick up a car and go wherever. They also have a station at Parsons in Pasadena, so that would be convenient for going out to my Dad's or to Dave's. Ok, but here's the problem: essentially I'm looking at $20 roundtrip to my Dad's or to Dave's. True, I don't go out there more than say 3 or 4 times a month, but if I do 4 of those trips a month then that's $80. Now that is cheaper than what I pay now ($230 a month in car payments and about $125 in insurance, although the car payments stop in another 3 months), but I do have the benefit of having a car here if I need it to go out for anything else. This would definitely discourage me from making any unnecessary trips in a car, but it would also make my life fairly complicated if I ever needed to go out towards the valley, for instance, or down to the beach (they have a station in Long Beach, but I'm talking about out by Santa Monica or by where Jon lives. Plus, once the MetroRail extension to Pasadena goes in this July, I wouldn't be needing to take a car out there. I dunno, its another possibility to consider, I suppose. Sounds like a good idea though, they just need more pickup/dropoff stations.

Its another online quiz, this time "What Poetry Form Are You?" But beware going to this site cause the popups are really bad.

Thanks to Dave and Jean-Claude Van Lambro for these two:

Click the Pic

Click the Pic

I'm an idiot, I overslept again today (this time I got up, crossed the room, turned off my alarm and though "I'll just lay down for a second..." famous last words, huh?). As a result, I took my car to work for the first time this year. Ugh.

That means lots of sleep is imminent :-)

Things are good in the world of basketball. The Lakers are over .500 for the first time this year and have their longest winning streak of the season right now (5 games) heading into the All Star Break (I'm guessing Kobe'll be MVP again). One fantasy basketball league finished last night and I won (making me 2-0 in these leagues here). The other league is still going, and I've been number 1 in that league for the last week or so, and that's really nice cause the top 3 finishers in that league split $300. I guess all that proves that my poor showing while still at the old job was because my genius at fantasy hoops was severely diluted with the idiocy of my partner: the Fish. At least, that's what I think :-)

I'm now going to go do some 7 Minute Abs.

Hello dad, I'm in jail
Hi dad, I'm calling you from jail
Hi dad, happy birthday, I'm in jail
Jail, jail, hi dad

All those years, I'm in jail now
I'm in jail, I like it here
It's nice, I like it
Hello dad, I'm in jail
Hello, hello dad, hi, I'm in jail
Say hi to mom, from jail
I'm in jail, I'm gonna stay here
I like it here
I like it, yeah, throw away the key
I'm in jail

Hello dad, I'm in jail
Jail, jail, jail, jail

I don't have much to say, had a good weekend though. Here's some pics from last week (most of them were taken by Mario). Enjoy:

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Fuck the Oscars, these are the more important awards: The Razzies :-)

And the nominees are...

Worst Picture:
THE ADVENTURES of PLUTO NASH (Warner Bros.)
CROSSROADS (Paramount)
Roberto Benigniís PINOCCHIO (Miramax)
STAR WARS: EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES (Fox/Lucasfilm)
SWEPT AWAY (Screen Gems)

Worst Actor:
Roberto Benigni (Dubbed GODZILLA-Style by Breckin Meyer) PINOCCHIO
Adriano Giannini/SWEPT AWAY
Eddie Murphy/ADVENTURES of PLUTO NASH, I SPY and SHOWTIME
Steven Segal/HALF PAST DEAD
Adam Sandler/ADAM SANDLERíS 8 CRAZY NIGHTS and MR. DEEDS

Worst Actress:
Angelina Jolie/LIFE, OR SOMETHING LIKE IT
Jennifer Lopez/ENOUGH and MAID IN MANHATTAN
Madonna/SWEPT AWAY
Winona Ryder/MR. DEEDS
Britney Spears/CROSSROADS

Worst Supporting Actor:
Hayden Christensen/STAR WARS/EPISODE II: YADA-YADA-YODA
Tom Green/STEALING HARVARD
Freddie Prinze, Jr./SCOOBY DOO
Christopher Walken/THE COUNTRY BEARS
Robin Williams/DEATH TO SMOOCHY

Worst Supporting Actress:
Lara Flynn Boyle/MEN IN BLACK II
Bo Derek/MASTER OF DISGUISE
Madonna/DIE ANOTHER DAY
Natalie Portman/STAR WARS: EPISODE WHO CARES?
Rebecca Ramijn-Stamos/ROLLERBALL

Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie (New Category!)
ADAM SANDLERíS 8 CRAZY NIGHTS (Sony/Columbia)
CROSSROADS (Paramount)
JACKASS: THE MOVIE (Paramount)
SCOOBY DOO (Warner Bros.)
XXX (Sony/Revolution)

Worst Screen Couple:
Adriano Giannini & Madonna/SWEPT AWAY
Roberto Benigni & Nicoletta Braschi / Benigniís PINOCCHIO
Hayden Christensen & Natalie Portman STAR WARS/EPISODE II: SEND IN THE CLONES
Eddie Murphy & EITHER Robert deNiro (SHOWTIME) Owen Wilson (I SPY) or Himself Cloned (THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH)
Britney Spears & Whatever-His-Name-Was/CROSSROADS

Worst Director:
Roberto Benigni/PINOCCHIO
Tamra Davis/CROSSROADS
George Lucas/STAR WARS/EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE GROANS
Guy Ritchie/SWEPT AWAY
Ron Underwood/THE ADVENTURES of PLUTO NASH

Worst Remake or Sequel:
I SPY (Sony/Columbia)
MR. DEEDS (Columbia/New Line)
Roberto Benigniís PINOCCHIO (Miramax)
STAR WARS/EPISODE II: WHAT-EVER (20th Century-Fox)
SWEPT AWAY (Screen Gems)

Worst Screenplay:
THE ADVENTURES of PLUTO NASH, Written by Neil Cuthbert
CROSSROADS, Screenplay by Shonda Rhimes
Roberto Benigniís PINOCCHIO, Screenplay by Vincenzo Cerami and Roberto Benigni
STAR WARS: EPISODE II: THE BOREDOM CONTINUES, Screenplay by George Lucas* and Jonathon Hales
SWEPT AWAY, Screenplay by Guy Ritchie

Worst ëOriginalí Song
'Die Another Day' from DIE ANOTHER DAY, written by Madonna and Mirwais Ahmadzai
'Iím Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman' from CROSSROADS, Written by Max Martin, Rami & Dido Armstrong
'Overprotected' from CROSSROADS, Written by Max Martin and Rami

I drove to work today, but I didn't drive home. Weird huh?

Allow me to explain...

See, as I've stated many a time, I'm a rather lazy guy (which is why this whole thing with the car is sort of out of character for me, but fuck it). As such, I do not do my own laundry. No, I hated all the effort that went into doing my own laundry (I did it for years), and I hated that it took me nearly an hour to sort and fold my clothes after I was finished. I hated that in my apartment building of approximately 30-40 units that we had 4 washers and 4 dryers, and that the washing machine room was closed after 10 pm. I hated fighting off my neighbors for the machines and I hated having to blow a weekend day doing my laundry or having to get motivated after work to do it. So my solution was to just take my laundry to a Fluff n Fold and pay them to do all that for me. Sure its more expensive (about maybe $30-$40 a month on average), but to me that is a small price to pay for my comfort (see how the car thing is out of character for me? lol). Anyway, one of the drawbacks, now anyway, to getting my laundry done is that it requires me using my car, so I've been putting off my laundry for at least 2 or 3 weeks now and have just been going through some of my least used clothes, but I finally decided enough was enough and broke down and took my clothes in this morning. This meant using my car, and since it was raining today and all, I figured fuck it and just went from there to work. But then I had an idea: maybe I could just leave my car at work in the parking structure till Thursday when I have to pick my clothes back up. So my car is sitting right now at work, probably getting rained on (it needed a bath anyway lol).

After work I was gonna take the subway home, but instead I went to Best Buy with Mario where he hooked me up with some minor stuff (rechargable batteries, a headset for my phone, etc...), then afterwards we went for dinner, and then he was nice enough to drive me home. I think part of Mario's willingness to drive me home may be attributed to the fact that he bought a new car last night and was all psyched to break it in (can't blame him lol), but then again he's a nice guy anyway, so who knows. Anyway, I appreciated the lift, and I'm sure he enjoyed the drive in his new car. As payment I'm burning him a bunch of CDs (I was gonna do this anyway, but whatever lol), and I'm sure he'll enjoy those :-)

This was so funny and weird I had to blog it:

From the judges decision in the 1994 case of Carl Sagan vs. Apple computers:

"Plaintiff's libel action is based on the allegation that Defendant changed the 'code name' on its personal computer from 'Carl Sagan' to 'Butt-Head Astronomer' after Plaintiff had requested that Defendant cease use of Plaintiff's name...There can be no question that the use of the figurative term 'Butt-Head' negates the impression that Defendant was seriously implying an assertion of fact. It strains reason to conclude that Defendant was attempting to criticize Plaintiff's reputation of competency as an astronomer. One does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase 'Butt-Head.' Thus, the figurative language militates against implying an assertion of fact... Furthermore, the tenor of any communication of the information, especially the phrase 'Butt-Head Astronomer' would negate the impression that Defendant was implying an assertion of fact." - Judge Lourdes G. Baird

How evil are you?

No, I didn't cheat on this.

I just got back from seeing "The Pianist", and I'll just say that movie is a warning. Its a warning that we can not think of the Holocaust as an aberration, and that we need to be ever vigilant that something like that NEVER happens again. If you think about the Holocaust, really think about it, don't you have to wonder how things got to that point? Its dismissive to simply blame Hitler, because for something that enormous and that horrifying to happen, it required an entire generation or more to agree to it, to participate in it, or to ignore it. It didn't start with concentration camps, it started small. It started with people being afraid of another group of people because they were different. It got to the concentration camps not in watershed implementations of oppression and tyranny, but through small incremental measures. They simultaneously made those doing the opressing more and more sadistic by having them achieve one level of sadism before asking them to do the next most sadistic thing; and they lulled the oppressed into accepting their fate by not making it so bad all at once, but making them think that "things can't get any worse, this will all be over shortly"; and they divided them against each other by thinking "if I do nothing maybe they won't single me out."

We as Americans are in a very dangerous spot right now. We our government and we the public are thinking and acting based on fear right now. We seem to be willing to accept small deductions from our freedoms, and seem to be willing to overlook some evil things we may say or do, because we think sometimes you have to bend the rules to get things done. Even if these freedom-infringements aren't directly affecting me or you or the person next to you, the fact that they're affecting somebody should be cause enough to worry, and we should not just accept that or ignore it. We need to watch out for our fellow man, not just our fellow Americans; and we need to think and act based on what is right, not based on what our fears tell us to do. We're living in dangerous times right now, but its when things are at their worst that we need to be at our best.

Ok, I had an entry I made in here about, oh, 12 hours ago, in which I said Happy Birthday to Dave, and then talked about how psyched I was that I got filesharing to work between my Mac and my PC. I also talked about how I was probably a loser for talking about that, either because I knew how to do it, or because I just figured out how to do it. Anyway, about 5 minutes after I posted that, it stopped working for me and I could not get it to work again, so I took the post down figuring maybe I'd jinxed myself, or in any event figuring I shouldn't have a post up about that if I fucked it up anyway lol. Well the reason it crapped out on me is kinda funny. What happened was my PC crashed (as will happen frequently on Windows 98), and that yanked my connection to my Mac offline. Well as I learned with OS X, it doesn't like it when you yank a mounted drive offline without ejecting it first (found that out the hard way when I unplugged my digital camera and it crashed my computer lol). So my PC crashing like that ended up screwing something up on my Mac (how often does THAT happen lol). So anyway after fucking with my Mac forever, somehow it works now. I'm not even totally sure what I did, but somehow its working. Oh well, I'm not going to question it, I'm just going to be happy about that :-)

I'm upgrading my blog to Movable Type 2.62, and I probably don't know what I'm doing (I'm gonna follow their manual, of course), so if I fuck it up and lose everything, then oh well. Sometimes you just gotta say "what the fuck", right Miles?

Well, I tried to upgrade to 2.62, but I need Jason to grant me a little more access on the server so I can set file permissions before I can do it, and since I'm sure he's got much better things to do than hold my hand as I try to update my blog (lol), that hasn't happened yet. Not that most people would probably notice a change here anyway I'm sure lol.

I didn't have work today, and so I occupied my time by not doing , and I loved it. Well, I'm off to bed, here's some pics from last week, enjoy:

Click for Pics

It was a good day. Work wasn't too bad (busy, but not hellacious). Went and got a new battery for my phone after work with an unnamed person from an unnamed place (wink lol). Had dinner at Fuddruckers, then came home and watched Kobe kick the shit out of the Houston Rockets all by himself (well, he had some help, but he certainly carried the load tonight).

In other news, I'm not gonna update my blog, cause I found out that if I screwed up I could could fuck Jason's whole server, and believe me I do NOT want to even risk that (who wants 10,000 blogrollers out to lynch you? Not I lol). I may get Dave to help me upgrade it here in the next week or two though, we'll see, but really my blog is cool as is. Ok, that's it. Bed time :-)

I didn't do a whole lot today other than work from 9 am or so till about 10:30 or 11 or something. After which I came home, got food, ate it, and sat down here. I did manage to take a 5 minute break at work to catch the final minute and a half of the Laker game though, and Kobe scored 40 points tonight as the Lakers beat the Jazz. This makes it 7 straight games for Kobe with 40 points or more. The all time NBA record for most consecutive games of 40 or more points is 14 by Wilt Chamberlain, so as incredible as Kobe's been he's still only half way there. However, this also marked Kobe's 11th straight game with 35 or more points. While Kobe is even further from that record (33 straight games, once again by Wilt the Stilt), Kobe did pass Michael Jordan on that list (the most Jordan ever had was 10 straight). Jordan, however, did score 40 or more points in a game 9 straight times back in the 86-87 season, so Kobe's got 2 more games to go before he catches up to His Airness. Tonight was also the second consecutive win for the Lakers over a playoff-seeded team without Shaq, and its pretty impressive that they beat the Jazz in Utah tonight (at elevation, mind you) after going to double overtime against Houston last night. But LA's got a much tougher task ahead of them on Friday when they play the surging Portland Trailblazers. So anyway, there's your NBA update for you, hope you enjoyed it :-)

Anyway, this weekend I'm going up to Big Bear to celebrate Steve-o's birthday (which is today actually, Happy Birthday Steve-o!). I guess that's the biggest news in my life right now. Ok, bed time, laettner :-)

I should be sleeping, but instead I'm up getting the pics ready from the weekend and I'm here to give you the rundown on everything:

Friday - Well actually I should start with Thursday. Thursday night I went to Dave's and dropped off all my clothes and my inflatable bed for the weekend. I would have just brought that all over Friday, except that there is nowhere on Dave's street for me to park all weekend otherwise I'll get ticketed. So we agreed either he'd pick me up from work on Friday or I'd ask John to drop me off on his way home. So on Friday, I asked John, and he said it was ok for him to give me a ride, so he dropped me at Dave's where I was going to meet up with Dave and Jen, and where Jon was supposed to meet us about 30 min to an hour later with Heather. However, Jon got stuck at work, so Dave, Jen and myself went to Hamburger Hamlet with John and Kate, where we had a nice meal and watched a tiny bit of the Laker game (they won and Kobe ran his streak of 40+ games to 8). Afterwards we went back to Dave and Jen's to wait for Jon, but Jon was really detained so we didn't get on the road till about 11 or so. Driving up there wasn't bad for me, but Dave and Jen got rather carsick (Jon and Heather were fine though). But all of that aside, we got up there at like 1 or 1:30 and Steve-o was awake (or woke up when we got there, anyway...). Steve-o immediately wanted to test out some drinks he learned from the barteneding school on everyone, so people got a little booze in them, then we talked for a bit, and everyone went to bed at like 2:30 or 3 or so. I stayed up for a while longer and read because unlike everyone else I wasn't gonna go snowboarding the next day. So there I am, just about asleep when all of a sudden the whole fucking house starts shaking like a bomb went off. It turns out at 4:19 am there was a 5.4 earthquake that had an epicenter located approximately 5 miles from where we were staying (and it was way shallow as well, or so I'm told). This was really quite a jolt, and for me it was the most violent quake I'd ever been in. In any event, it made me a little nervous about sleeping right next to this rather large wood and glass display of plates and trinkets and whatnot, and being that I was sleeping all by myself in this large living room with vaulted ceilings, it freaked me out and it was a good 2 hours or so before I could really get back to sleep (there were aftershocks virtually the whole time I was up there, look at this list and see for yourself. But eventually I got back to sleep... just in time for sunrise lol. Then that kept me up for a bit and once I finally felt like I was settling into sleep everyone else woke up and started making breakfast, and like I said, I was in the living room, so really once anyone else woke up, then I was up by default.

Saturday - So I got up and ate some breakfast, then in the next couple hours everyone else went off to go ski/snowboard/horseshoe/ice fish or whatever they were doing, and I was left there alone, so I decided to read for a bit on the balcony. After I did that for a while, I decided to go upstairs and watch a movie, where I discovered an Academy Screener copy of "Punch Drunk Love", which I have to say I really enjoyed. Steve-o and Jon really detest that movie, but then again they didn't like "Bottle Rocket", so that shows what they know lol. Steve-o returned from skiing during the movie, and we went off to BLT's for lunch. Then when we got back from that everyone else got back from their day on the slopes, which seemed like it had been bad news for everyone involved. Jon evidently tried an enormous jump and caught an edge or something on the way up and ended up landing on his back and was in pain for the rest of the trip. Dave and Jen took beginning snowboarding lessons and both came back looking rather haggard and complaining of soreness in their legs. Things went ok for Pierre, Emi and Heather though I guess. Anyway, Jon had to run off to go to a snowboarding instructor clinic and Dave and Jen went to Carl's Jr. for a snack. After an hour, Pierre, Emi and myself went to go pickup Jon, but his clinic ran long, so we hung out for an hour. After getting Jon we went back where preparations were underway for Dave and Steve-o's birthday dinner and cake afterwards. Dinner was great and then Dave cut the cake into about 100 bite sized pieces, so we all had a couple lol Through all of this, I was feeling more and more sleepy because I'd gotten almost no sleep the previous night, so after dinner and cake and all, I went and laid down on my inflatable bed in my clothes and everyting and conked out for about 2 hours. When I woke up everyone had gone upstairs so I got ready for bed and went back to sleep. And sleep I did :-)

Sunday - I got up at like 11 today feeling well rested, but feeling kinda crappy nonetheless. Turns out I was allergic to one (or more) of Steve-o's FIVE cats (Heather was too, and by the end of the weekend seemed like Dave was as well). I got up and had some cereal and then everyone else went off skiing again, so I went back to reading my book until everyone came back. Dave and Jen were too sore from the day before, so instead of skiing or snowboarding they went for a walk, but they weren't gone too long, so when they got back we went to look for a place to eat, but instead we ended up eating at BLTs again lol. When we got back from that everyone else was around and we just kinda hung out and chatted till it was time to go at 7. We got back to Monrovia and stopped at Outback for dinner (the Laker game was on, and even though I didn't see it at all, LA won again and Kobe ran his streak of games with 40+ points to 9). After dinner they mischarged us on the bill (mistakenly charging Jen for 11 chicken dinners instead of one lol). We straightened it out and then Jon dropped Jen and Dave off then brought me back here. And there endeth the weekend.

Fuck that was long, I'm sure nobody read it. Here's pictures from the weekend (and two from Friday at work):

Click for Pics

I came across this article today, and it kinda struck a chord with me. According to what this guy says in his article, I seem to fall right into the introvert category:

"Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?"

I dunno about being able to give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but otherwise that's pretty much me to a tee. I've never considered myself shy, but according to this guy's definition you don't have to be shy to be introverted:

"Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say 'Hell is other people at breakfast.' Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring."

I like the Sartre quote lol. I'm guessing this description maybe makes me sound like an asshole, and maybe I am an asshole, I dunno. I don't find everyone tiring, but I will say that most people do tire me out, or perplex me, or confuse me with their interests and motivations. However, these people I do not spend much time with, so odds are if you know me and spend time with me, you are not one of these people (so don't think this is directed at anyone out there lol. Odds are if you're reading this, its not about you).

My one complaint with this guy's article is something that bothers me about a lot of people. I hate people who make statements about how intelligent they are. For me there is nothing that is a surer sign of ignorance than boasting about how intelligent you are. So this bit in his article really annoyed me:

"Are introverts arrogant? Hardly. I suppose this common misconception has to do with our being more intelligent, more reflective, more independent, more level-headed, more refined, and more sensitive than extroverts."

This is a rather contradictory statement, don't you think? 'I'm not arrogant. You just see me that way cause I'm better than you.' Uhhh, hello? lol Who the hell knows who's smarter or more sensitive or refined than anyone else is? Making comparisons like those seem like a waste of time to me. Anyway, other than the occasionally haughty statement like that, the article is kinda interesting, so read it if you've got a chance :-)

Kobe only scored 32 points tonight, meaning his streak of 40+ games is over, but that is ok with me cause LA won the game. As much as I'm a fan of Kobe Bryant, I'm a Laker fan first and the win is what counts. Besides, I feel lucky to have a player on my team who is so good that you end up using phrases like "only scored 32 points tonight" lol.

In other news, I had started reading "Naked Lunch" the other day, but today I decided to stop, but only for a while. I got about 20 pages into it (maybe more like 40 with the introduction and foreword and all) and realized I had no idea what had happened so far lol. I've heard this about this book before, but I mentioned it to Matt today at work. He told me that he tried to read it twice, and after getting 50 pages into it he realized he had no idea what was going on in the book, so he started over, and when he got back to page 50 he realized he still didn't know what was going on, so he gave up lol. Now I have a lot of respect for Matt and his intelligence and reading comprehension, so I figured maybe it wasn't just me that found the book a little hard to follow. Anyway, its definitely quite a switch from the hacker and computer books I've been reading lately lol. So I decided I was gonna try a different book for now, and I'd get back to "Naked Lunch". So I started reading "On the Road" instead, and its a lot more coherent, so I'll use that to ease my way into "Naked Lunch". I guess I should have been tipped off when in the foreword the author (William S. Burroughs) said he didn't remember writing the book lol.

So that was the big news for me today really. Other than that I just had a really long day at work with a bunch of shit to work on. Its weird how right now it seems like its kinda slow for most people, but for me its so busy. Nick's pretty slammed too. Oh well, that's how it goes: sometimes its hellishly busy, sometimes its dead, although its been more busy than dead lately. Between the two though, busy is better cause it means our company has work coming in, and with the way the economy has been, that is definitely a good thing.

Yep, its time for another quiz. Is my result good or bad? See for yourself:

Feels weird today, like there isn't much to say. Work is work, same ol. Didn't do anything today really, just the routine. But I wanted to say something, even if that something is really nothing, like this is. Maybe someday I'll look back on this essentially meaningless entry and I'll be able to glean some insight from it.

Stranger things have happened ;-)

Let me just say I fucking hate my PC. All I wanted to do was hook up a second monitor to it, so I got an extra video card, got a set of BNC cables so I could share one of my monitors, and set off. I installed the second video card (a Voodoo 5 to go with my Radeon 7000), and it loads up, the second monitor tells me:

"If you can read this message, Windows has successfully initialized this display adapter. To use this adapter as part of your Windows dektop, open the Display option in the Control Panel and adjust the settings on the Settings tab."

This is the standard message you get just before setting up a second monitor on Windows. However, when I go to Settings under Display in the Control Panels, it doesn't even acknowledge that there is a second monitor there. So essentially it gives me no way to activate the second monitor.

So I checked my Device Manager (or hardware profiles or whatever the fuck it is on 98se), and there's a little yellow exclamation point on my Radeon 7000 card, which means its got a message to tell me. The message says to turn off EMM or any memory checking devices in Config.sys because the memory allocated for my Radeon is being used by another device (my Voodoo 5). So I went to msconfig and clicked on "EMM Exclude A000-FFFF" then restarted my computer.

This solved the problem and I finally had my two monitors working (something I've been waiting for for months now, if not years). So this was great I thought, till I opened AIM to talk to Koga and it told me "this program has performed an illegal operation, blah blah blah" and closed. So I restarted my computer, and tried opening it again. Same result. So I went to AOL.com and re-installed AIM and tried it again. Same result. So I opened AOL and tried to check my mail. AOL froze and I had to restart my computer. After restarting it, I suddenly noticed that my whole OS had become unstable, so I tried to uncheck "EMM Exclude A000-FFFF" and restart. That just made it so I could only use one monitor again, but my system was still totally unstable (no programs worked for more than a few seconds).

So I figured fuck this, and tried to re-install Windows, but that crashed in the middle. So I tried it again and it crashed even earlier. I have now tried shutting it down and restarting it a couple times, and am attempting to reinstall Windows 98se for the third time (its gotten much farther along this time, but I'm sure its only a matter of time before it hangs and crashes on me). This is my last shot tonight though. Either it will reinstall Windows or it will crash. Either way, I'm going to bed after this.

If it crashes and I can't fix this, I'm going to run F Disk and wipe my fucking hard drive, then try to get XP installed on it. However, since I have a hardware conflict in my system, I can not install XP on my hard drive with my current motherboard (believe me, I tried). So I'll take my hard drive out and try to get it cleanly installed somewhere else, then put it back in my system here and hope for the best.

But basically Microsoft can kiss my fucking ass.

If I can't get XP on my current setup, I'm almost surely not going to get another PC, and will instead use my money to just get a faster Mac. They're clearly better anyway.