Motherload of Artificial

"I can't tell you how good it is to see you again."

A dream with a familiar person and a lighter that was empty.

I haven't been in the mood to write much recently - believe me I tried and didn't get farther than a few words.

Last night an accident happened on Barranca and Culver by Mimi's Cafe which involved a car that was making a right turn and a pedestrian bicycle was going the opposite way of traffic (quickly) and the two hit (the car wasn't going very fast) but the sound was so bad. The guy on the bicycle wasn't wearing a helmet. We called 911 and I crossed the street and ran over and let them know help was one the way. I wasn't even all the way across the street and an officer could be seen down the street.

The guy riding the bike was on his side face down and not moving but he was awake. No helmet. No light. All dark clothes. Oddly enough the guy driving the car and his girlfriend were med students and so was another person who stopped. The police came and so did the fire department.

"McCain-Palin 2008 Campaign Manager Rick Davis: 'This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these emails will destroy them. We will have no further comment'..."

When someone does this sort of hacking/eavesdropping/snooping to a government official, it's called "a shocking invasion of...privacy and a violation of law."

When the government does it to you, it's called the "Patriot Act."

This was shamelessly ripped from a genius on Slashdot.

A pirate walks into a bar wearing a paper towel on his head. He sits down at the bar and orders some dirty rum.
The bartender asks, "Why are you wearing a paper towel?"
"Arrrrrrr I've got a bounty on me head!"

While buying gas today I purchased a car wash. The station I usually do this at allows you to make the purchase directly from the pump and the car wash machine code is printed on the reciept. After the pump clicked letting me know my car was full I dutifully waited for the receipt to print and zoned out at the TV atop the pump. I pulled the receipt out and the part where the code appears was cut off. Great.

I walked inside to talk to the clerk about the receipt and there was a line. An old man was talking down to the clerk in a senile manner. Apparently he wasn't happy that the clerk greeted him. I guess he comes to this location because it has a subway in it. He kept going on and on "Don't talk to me unless I'm doing something wrong." the store manager was behind the clerk and was saying something along the lines of "We love you, we're just full of love." this seemed to make the old guy angrier.

He eventually walked off and the clerk helped the guy in front of me and they started joking about it with the old guy still in ear shot and he quickly replied "...oh you think this is funny?!". When it was my turn the clerk asked me if I would get upset if I was told to have a nice day. I said "I think you should go to hell." with a big grin on my face and we both laughed.

Ahhh people.

I finally watched Supersize me this weekend. I always joked that I loved fast food too much and that ignorance is bliss. I still stand by the ignorance being bliss but once your eyes are opened you cant help but think about it.

This weekend (besides having to work both days) involved a long Friday that was spent in Anaheim and Garden Grove. I completely understand why it is referred to as Garbage Grove. There were at least two streets that were normal enough that smelled like you were next to a dumpster on a hot day. I think it topped the baked garbage smell that you're treated to when you're down wind of one of the trash bins at the beach.

I don't really find asians attractive especially Vietnamese women. I just thought they were devoid of attractive people or something. I went to a Vietnamese Cafe (Coffee House?) and it was staffed with absolutely stunning girls working in lingere. I had asked for a beer but they don't serve any alcohol - only juices and coffees. FYI Orange Juice + lots of beer in stomach = not the best mix. Apparently having half naked women with alcohol around is a bad idea... but the plus side is you could gamble and smoke inside and it was roudy.

I had a crazy vivid dream last night. The plus side is we were able to laugh and reflect on the good times. Oh and I watched Casino Royale German dub - seriously the voice actors did a good job.

Meh... 5 more days of work...

So lets see last tuesday I got a girls number who looks crazy wild. She has a tattoo of a heart muscle on her upper arm/shoulder and some dragon on the other. A large tattoo on her lower back and the word 'True' inside her lip. She's actually really pretty and went to Fullerton. I heard this once referred to as 'Marla' hot (from Fight Club) but this girl is bleach blond 5'6" with blue eyes. Trouble!

I installed Windows Vista and I am ashamed to say that I like it. The gadgets are slick and subtle touches like when renaming a file with the extension visible only the file name portion is highlighted by default. I have been using it for about a month and I really enjoy Aero. Besides that I have taken an interest in Motion Graphics (mainly in Cinema 4D) and this is where a lot of my free time has been spent.

One of my first projects was playing with a light source to replicate fire. Another project was to model an icecube. So far I haven't gotten the noise correct.

Work. One of our DNS servers hasn't been replicating correctly. One of the new admins wants to have everything inside of Active Directory - since the servers have been online for awhile some of the zones are in AD and others have been entered another way. My goal has been to export all zones with attributes and read them (so that they replicate).

Random Slashdotter's comments on George Lucas' plans for the next Indiana Jones Movie:

The franchise really depends on me coming up with a good idea

We're fucked.

Speaking of movies I've seen The Dark Knight multiple times and can easily say it was one of the best movies in the series. Heith Ledger didn't play the Joker he was lost in the character. Very gritty dark humor. If you have the option try and catch an IMAX version of the film as there are clips shot specifically for the large format that look incredible.

For several weeks I had wanted to see the film but IMAX required a day or two in advance when purchasing tickets due to the demand. I've seen the movie for the past two weekends. The IMAX theatre at the Irvine Spectrum (click for pictures etc) which seats 600 was sold out daily. Finally I made the plunge to use Fandango. I never used the service because I hate their ads.

How about a magic trick?

An earthquake hit the southern California area today. It registered a 5.8 out in Chino Hills. The earthquake was rolling and smooth on the second floor of our Office building. Coworkers were either under desks or in doorways. The expression on peoples faces was priceless. People looked like rabbits poking out of their holes - looking around wide eyed.

Our CFO was calm and during the rolling went into the conference room and held the wall mounted plasma saying "Relax, it's just an earthquake. Everyone back to work."

At the beginning of the earthquake people were going down the stairs. The stomping of feet down the metal stairs as panic set in and girlish shrieks from male office workers fleeing in terror.

Liz was outside near a grass field that is in the lot next to our building. She had me go into the office to grab her purse and cellphone (since she wanted to go to lunch). One of our designers from Arizona experienced his first earthquake today.

The best quote from lunch is "It's not like Jesus just came back 15 minutes ago."

Has left the building.

A coworker of mine was put into a hard position regarding an email. I'm not exactly sure where I stand on this one. But it's not my call.

Horrible news today...

We have arrived at yet another week. Welcome to reality. A new week full of emails, phone calls, questions, and answers. Every Friday I vainly will to never end. All that I manage to end is my fragile sleep cycle. Well something is better than nothing, right? I must need more practice...

Weekends. Hours of entertainment, rest, and eating when I feel like it. I wonder if retirement is like on long weekend? The thought of doing nothing more than I have to is foreign but I can't help but tune out thinking about it at times. I should make Saturday a religious holiday that must be celibrated with only shorts on with the AC on high.

A dual personality
A strange but true reality
They keep calling me

One of each. Spins are no fun.

The best thing after a night like that is blowing your nose. A quote from yesterday "The week flys by when you get loaded every night."

Buying paint at ACE hardware an older man in his late fifties or early sixties helped us. While looking at the paint swatches I hear a fart behind me. The old man totally ripped one, and then quickly said: "It must've been a mouse on a motorcycle!" I had to move the cart forward so he wouldn't see me laughing like a maniac. He also told us about how he had a place painted all black with the trim red. Wow.

Apparently Andy thought it was me the whole time and shrugged it off. When I told him about it in the car he was completely blown away.

One more room to go... I want sleep.

Dave: "These people are insane. Give me a gun and let me shoot myself. They said they had a few suggestions and that they would itemize them. I get a 3 page document with items A-V and paragraphs mixed in between.

"You've heard of 5 star people? Where they want 5 star everything and still complain? These people are it. They could be fed grapes and have a person fanning them and they still would say 'This isn't what I had in mind.'"

Internet is Serious Business.

Liz was hit with one of the doors in the stair well when we were walking outside on a break. The expression on her face was priceless. I laughed so hard.

I am so evil.

It is always surprising to see how people come and go in one's life. I am so thankful for the friends that I have.

"Doesn't he look cute sleeping" Regarding me Falling asleep on the sofa with glass in hand.

Today was nothing out of the ordinary except that I was restless. I didn't know exactly what I wanted but I needed to get out and I ended up driving around for about an hour. It feels good when you make nearly every light. It was a really nice day while driving around it made me glad to be where I am.

I would like to go up to Yosimite and Sequoia National Parks and really enjoy it this time around. I think I need to go camping or out of town in the mountains.

This weekend was full of vivid dreams. The one that stands out the most was a dream that I knew how my dream would end and I was able to redo it with a different outcome. I have never had a dream that I could control - I seem to always be at the mercy of my thoughts. Do you ever think about why you want some things? I think far too much some times. The things that creep into your mind before drifting off to sleep.

I wonder how I ended up liking sarcasm as a quality? I like people for the strangest reasons. Why am I interested? Oh well, dream time...

I did some last minute Father's day shopping. I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and take out some boxes left over from packages that I have received in the mail. I didn't think twice as I grabbed the boxes and locked the door. After I walked back from the dumpster to my car I realized I didn't have my keys OR my phone on me. Great. I walked to the office and to my delight there was a little clock with the arms pointing to 2:30 when the office people would be back.

I had no idea what time it was and there were no clocks anywhere. I walked back and loitered in the parking area. Well at least I had my cigarettes. No lighter. I had another one but it was in my car. Hmm, well there is a convenience store around the corner, I thought "I can buy a lighter and at least get something to drink" the gates were all locked out of the complex and no cars came or went so I couldn't get in or out.

45 minutes (I have no idea how long it was) later I walked back and waited until the Office people came back.

Ugh. Well at least I got my gift and a card. I was stressing over it earlier. Ian wanted to meet up and introduce me to Sandra and catch a show. I'm over it.

Last night wasn't very exciting. I ended up falling asleep watching a show with some friends and decided to go home and rest. I made it a point to wash my car today - it was really dirty - it had been about a month since I last washed it. It cleans up nice ^_^

Time to relax...

I shared my thoughts with one of my friends over some drinks while trying to be vague. A beer or ten later I think his story was more intertaining. It was a female WOW player from Alaska that continues to make hints that might appeal to his libido. I wonder what will happen?

Hurray for hot potato phones. Food for thought in the afternoon. Speaking of other good things: I tried ketchup on eggs today. It works! I feel as if I should feel dirty but it tastes so good. Fatkins fans rejoice.

More details this evening. Ashley brought up similarities with what I said or things that I found funny. Do I remember what they were? I just remember "annointed". Lots to think about - I got lost a few times writing this. I must be tired... hurry up Friday...

I went to lunch today with Dav. Between discussion on Linux and file systems I asked if he knew Steph since he was from the same stomping grounds. He wasn't too familiar with the name.

Dav: "Wait... the one with curly hair?"
me: "Yeah, but it's straight now."

Dav had some photos in his massive gallery since he is a camera whore. Apparently his partner took the day off and in between talk of the weekend (both of us enjoy doing nothing) he was like "So are are you interested?" I nodded. Dav followed up with "Well she's not really my type - too Type A. I think I outgrew it." but the discussion quickly digressed into the ideal height and how to shoot tapioca balls via straw. Man those things sail. I think we hit a Postal workers vehicle from 25 feet. It even had a satisfying wet pop.

To think he doesn't enjoy sarcasm. I am a friend of sarcasm.

This weekend was exactly what I needed. I did absolutely nothing and it was glorious. My battery is recharged from all of the activities from the last two weeks.

BTW the new Diesel Boy album Substance D is epic. *rocks out*

Thankfully this week is over. I worked nearly two hours beyond my normal work day to wrap up a project. Andy was having a hard time installing a trial version of WOW. Apparently the registration servers are down. Maybe it's a sign?

Yet another late night. Tonight was a rib night - great timing. I managed to get sauce on my shirt =/ plus when I was holding Angelina she had "chewed" on my shirt which I failed to notice until the wet spot cooled.

I'm not sure how Ashley and I got on the subject of my blog. For a short while I had her thinking that I was not happy with her sharing what she did but I couldn't help a smile when she thought I was serious. Ashley loves playing mind games with people so I exploit her whenever I can. Ashley mentioned a few things about Steph when we were eating the ribs like wild animals in the kitchen. I am anxious to find out more.

Random reflection: Planning things can give me anxiety - I like to be spontaneous. I am looking forward to doing absolutely nothing this weekend.

Wurst.

Ashley: "You two should get married and have children." Andy's Dad mentioned something about children last Sunday when I was still half awake sipping at boiling coffee in their back yard. I so don't want them. I am selfish and as lame ast it sounds I wouldn't want to split the attention. I want her to myself. Plus it's freedom - I don't want to surrender it. At least not now. But how fun would it be to say "Take the next week off, we're going somewhere!" and travel. Bill's words were something to the effect of "You say that now, but that will change."

Bill also mentioned how someone has had a hard time with a college math course. I am in the exact same boat. Same amount of times! How funny is that?

This week I had two dreams that stand out. I had another tooth dream on Monday (Sunday night? meh it's fuzzy now). As I look back it was probably anxiety about the work week. I have several large projects started that need to be completed. To top it off Karen asked me to help her move in two weeks. Moving things sucks, especially when it's not your own stuff. I was suckered into doing it last week (or the week before?) "It's just a TV and a sofa. It'll take about an hour." and it turned out to be a whole fucking truck load. Stairs are evil. However the day Karen wants to do it is on Father's day. I've asked to help on Saturday. I should be a willing worker...

Last night's dream involved me putting a video of myself masturbating on my website where Andy found it and promptly showed it to everyone. It was a dream in 3rd person like a reality show. The strange thing was I didn't find out indirectly from other people but directly as I walked through the neighborhood in Seattle where I grew up. Think of American Pie but with Reality film crew. Weird.

I haven't checked my snail mail in a long time and good thing I did. It was packed. I check it infrequently because all that comes is junk mail. All of the important things are paid online. The good news is that I got a letter all the way from Deutschland. It made my day.

My bed awaits. Happy Friday!

I saved myself by not writing about someone in an unsatisfactory way. The responsible parties were drowning their sorrows in Champaign, their guilt crushed under the weight of party hats and women of ill repute.

I found a way to work ill repute into a sentence. Just say it, it's great! Ill repute.

I suddenly have a lot on my mind. It makes the day scream by even though today was brutal from the previous evening’s activities. It's a fact: the cool ones are always far away. I was so over working at the end of the day I printed several crossword puzzles (to help with German) and managed to complete one with only having to look up three words. Yay.

Die gedanken sind frei. Tell me yours...

Valencia and Santa Clarita are two smaller towns that are incredibly fun to visit. I made a mistake when taking the 5 north on my journey up. I mistakenly got onto the 101 instead of staying on the 5 and in a panic I exited the first street I could which happened to be 4th street. I saw a homeless man when at a stop light who was out of sight behind a fence near the over pass. There were families at a park. The apartments and homes near the park brought two questions to mind: How much is it to rent? Why would I ever consider it?

Once in Valencia finding Ashley's home was a bit of work. Getting lost in suburbia is always a joy. A few phone calls later and I was no longer lost. The rounds of introductions were rampant with names and faces a blur. The theme was white and black. I chose black. At Ashley's birthday party there were pieces of paper cut in the shape of flowers or leaves with a green stick attached. All guests were invited to write a message. The night began with a beer and champaign. Of all of Ashley's friends I like Stephanie the best. Funny girl. Even though Leslie has been down before (and we happen to share the same last name) she reminds me of a girl from the other side of town.

Meme of the night is Steph: "Really now? Don't ya know?"

Saturday night involved a late night pizza delivery (12:30?) at the after party. A bottle of Vodka was smashed by Steph accidently. While at Ashley's house Steph got on the subject of personalities and if I was Jealous. Right then we had to relocate and she brought it up again later but we never finished the thought. I was made to promise to visit her when she is in town next since she had heard so much about me. It is a two way street. I am looking forward to it.

I remember some annoying bird in a tree outside which Andy threw rocks at. I referred to it as a Native American car alarm. I ended up sleeping with my shoes on for part of the night. My lower back is still sore from the bed I slept on. Driving around town with the windows down made my hair fluffy. I felt like I was in another country - the way the hills looked with the sand and the trees. Definately memorable.

The drive home wasn't nearly as bad as the trip up. On the way up I was stuck in traffic that was stop and go for nearly half of the trip. My car gets much better milage on the highway - I am used to driving streets to and from work and getting half the MPG.

There is so much more but it's time to relax a bit before this next work week.

Happy Birthday!

Huntington Beach is an American TJ. Ugh work in a few hours...

I have yet to find myself. Where have I gone?

"Is it true what they say? Passionate, jealous, and affectionate?"

Why are you reading this?

Nothing like seeing someone get a bj in their car in a shopping center parking lot.

I think the work day needs more bjs...

The more I see Anki, the more I like her.

I like Maren Eggert. I can see her as an old woman though... maybe I'm just weird.

From one of our recent hires in Billing:

Sean: "You bullshitted me about the job description when you hired me..."

He has put in his two weeks. Basically the position was touted as an accountant and the majority of the work is contract data entry.

I had a girl who worked at Shoe Pavillion ask me if I would eat turtle meat while I was buying some sandals today. Later while buying a shirt I was asked what I do for a living and I mentioned websites. That seemed to connect with the cashier and his future goals for "Los Pimps dot com".

I opened my mouth over some drinks Friday and ended up with two business cards for different people who want websites. If you work with websites you automatically know how the search engines work and can share the secrets.

Wine and meat are two things I really enjoy together. Thank god I have access to both. Animals! =)

"Are you doing anything special for Mothers Day?"
"My mother is dead."
"Is this one of those jokes or..."

Nothing like instigating an awkward squirm.

I had a weird sense of need tonight. Nostalgia... I really miss being in love. The intimacy. I crave it.

The last two weeks have been full of drunken nights. It's an effective distraction. At least I am around my friends and there is always tomorrow.

I have had a lot of complements recently and I have been able to show some of my skill. It feels really good for a change, and I have hope.

I am fucking tired but restless. Tonight is one of the nights that I willingly admit that I am missing something in my life. Wo bist du, hase?!

I left Andy and Newton to sleep. I waited because Newton wanted to go have sex with this drunk Korean woman who started crying and saying "I'm loser" after drinking way too much. Infact it was a two person job to get her to stand up. She was with her friends who took over.

Listening to asians say "Torqued" or "Lit" is great. For the record, asian pussy kinda freaks me out. I have much love for the white girls.

After they were both asleep I walked from Andy's apartment to my car which was at work. My feet hurt this morning since I wore my dress shoes that evening. Irvine has frogs - and I started tripping out over the sound of rabbits in the bushes. As it turns out Andy pissed the bed. Newton was really hungover "I don't want any alcohol ever again". I was smart and drank water so I have no ill effects.

Friday I had a really vivid dream. I was flying to Japan and I was driven to the airport by Bill. I remember walking through the airport looking for Meinking and while walking through the crowd near the baggage claim Sonja was there. She spotted me in the crowd and either waved or said hello. I pretended to not see her and went another way through a crowd of people. After the flight I remember finding some apartments before dark. The doors were locked so Meinking and I split up and I found a way in through some vent and while waiting around in the hallway outside of one of the apartments an alarm went off so I ran off to a Supermarket. I tried talking to a few people in the store but they weren't receptive and I remember thinking "These people are so unfriendly, bitches!" I bumped into another westerner and asked him about it. I don't really remember much after that.

In other news Sean broke up with his girlfriend and has been taking it really hard. It lasted two years and he has missed a bunch of work last week. I've tried to get the lad out but he doesn't drink, smoke, or do anything with people so I've done nothing and I'm out of ideas.

I was thinking about Sonja recently and I had really considered talking to her. I'm not sure why it's so difficult. Time fixes nearly everything and I've moved on. To be honest I've forgotten about whatever was bugging me. Water over the bridge™. What really comes to mind when I think about it that the girl I loved is not the same person today. The same can be said for me - we're different people now.

I remember shortly after the break up Newton telling me "The right girl at the wrong time does not equal the right girl. Right girl, right time equals the right girl." I'm not sure if that's good advice, but it's advice.

I told him about this and my thoughts. I carefully asked a few of my closest friends what they would do if they were in my place. Every one of them told me to talk to her. I readily supplied excuses ranging from not having her number to not having her on my buddy list. I was out with a friend (don't recall who) but I had a call from an unknown local number late one night and asked someone I was with if they recognized it and without skipping a beat "It's about time the bars let out, maybe it's her?". Looking back I wonder if it was a fluke or if she has thought about something recently. When you go on autopilot you learn about yourself. Was this autopilot? I'd like to think so.

I had been told recently that one of my friends friends Father died. Apparently they were close (the friend and the Dad) and it made me think about my Mother. Some times it gets me really down if I think about it. Seemingly random things will trigger it. There had been nights a few months ago where I've been out with a few friends and after a few drinks I'd let it all out. To those people I am grateful. I usually keep my feelings to myself. I have lots of questions I want to ask, childhood things. How I was as a child etc. Most people can't think of things like that to ask their parents if they're around. You might be surprised when you're no longer able to talk to them just how many questions you have.

Time is just a fiction of our mind.

Thursday night was an adventure. It was entirely unplanned. At about 7:30 I received a phone call from Andy who asked if I was up to anything and if I could bring him some supplies. He was at the Irvine Regional Hospital because of his daughter who had a high fever. I guess that began as soon as he arrived home from work. Initially driving there he made the mistake of taking the 5 freeway which was gridlocked. So he took the shoulder to the next exit. Anyway I brought some water and a few other things since he and Ashley had spent the whole time in the ER. They wanted some company and expected to be out of the ER within the next hour as the fever had subsided.

I went over to Andy's apartment and waited for about an hour and a half before they arrived. I got a few updates so it wasn't like I was in the dark the entire time. So next order of business besides relaxing a little was getting the perscription filled for his daughters antibiotics. We took his Montero to the gas station after googling for a 24 hour pharmacist. Thank god for CVS.

The trip to the gas station was like any other. Except for the beastly amount that rang up on the pump. Well as we get ready to leave the car refuses to start. Andy calls AAA and a truck is there within 5 minutes. I was impressed - usually you have to wait a half hour or longer. The guy pops the hood and the first thing I see is a battery with lots of white junk on it, really bad. After lots of revving the tow truck guy is able to get the Montero started with some jumper cables. The Montero turned over with a little bit of smoke. So we thought it could be the alternator as well as the battery. So Andy slips the tow truck driver a 5 and thanks him and we drive off.

At this point the car is running alright but needs to be revved when the idle gets low. So I was praying for green lights all the way. Right before the next light the thing dies with enough momentum to get it cloes to one side of the road. We pushed it off of the street near the Target parking lot off of Barancca. A guy actually stopped and was running over to help but the hard part was over.

Another call is made to AAA to get it towed. This time the truck takes about a half hour to get there. The driver hooked up a little tester kit and a battery to the car battery. The test showed that the alternator was good but the battery was toast. To top it off the battery was too small for the car anyway. So with the little kit connected to the battery and the hood resting on it. The driver tells us to take it slow and he'll follow us home. The original tow truck driver meets the other one at Andy's apartment where we park the car.

Anyway I voted to take my car. We headed over to CVS and of all the isles we walk down to reach the pharmacy in the back we go through the girl product isle. OB, Kotex etc. I'm not sure if it's a joke but the store had the pregnancy tests and condoms right next to each other. There was a girl who must've been in her early 20s loitering who did a full on look around before grabbing one of the pregnacy tests and going to the front of the store.

The pharmacists in the back were friendly but the amount of medication the doctor perscribed and what the pharmacy had in stock did not match. The perscribed antibiotics were 100mg but they apparently only came in 125mg and 250mg. So the perscription is faxed to the pharmacy again to confirm and since noone wants to be liable for supplying the wrong amount the doctor who signed the perscription needs to be consulted with. I'm not sure if Andy called or the pharmacist did but the doctor who filled out the perscription was no longer on shift. So we had to drive to the hospital again and track down one of the nurses. Luckily Andy remembered one of the nurses having a Nemo badge holder and they were able to find her.

A quick drive back to CVS and after filling the perscription there was some problem with the insurance card. In the end it went through but what a long day. I got home at 2:30. The orange monster drinks are the best...

Do not leave your resume salary history on the printer.

The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.

Tja, so läufts eben mal...

Spooning leads to forking.

I watched REC this weekend. It's a zombie movie that is shot like Blare Witch. The movie is shot entirely from the perspective of a two member TV crew doing a show about Fire Fighters. However it's in Spanish - I'll post the subtitles on the site - I highly recommend seeing this film. I expected B quality but it was shot really well and it's not super freaky (I'm really weird about Horror, The Ring scared me, while Event Horizon was entertaining).

I've had four dreams recently about my teeth. Either having a loose tooth, pulling one out, one being super rotten. Apparently tooth dreams mean a lot of things, change, getting old, anxiety. Dreams much like life need an instruction manual. For the record my teeth are in good standing.

My were bugging me enough to make me not attend a friends Birthday in Valencia this Saturday. I scheduled an appointment with an ENT (via referral) and the earliest appointment is 4/28. I know of an ENT in Newport that I can see without a referral but it's like $110 a visit. I might try my chances with that instead of screwing around another week with a different referral.

I've been cranky recently due to diet change. I had nothing but water this weekend. I was out of everything from fruit juice to koolaid. I have a few beers from a long time ago that I refuse to touch since I have to cut down on alcohol consumption. I went into Daves office this morning and grabbed a Diet Cherry Pepsi and drank it like one of the Flanders kids.

I went to Soup Plantation for lunch last week and liked it. I think that means I am an adult now. I remember going there and how bland all the food was. What's happening to me? Apparently the clam chowder wasn't so good and Liz "got sick" which is girltalk for the shits.

Two Bash quotes:
FreshBrew: i dont know why i floss before i go to the dentist
FreshBrew: i never ever do it
FreshBrew: its like going to the doctor and pretending not to be sick so he doesnt yell at you

Acero: my parents never bought me candy for shit because my moms a dental assistant
Acero: so i'd have to hide candy like drugs
Acero: thats how i got so good at it

I spent Friday night and Saturday "morning" / afternoon upgrading FreeBSD from 5.4 to 6.3. Mergemaster is such a cock tease. You think you're almost done and it keeps going. Not cool when it's 3 AM and you're tired. Oh well, Success!

May the psycho set you free!

This day couldn't be any longer.

Has given his two week notice. I figured him for a lifer too. Best of luck to ya.

In other news one of the girls in support inherited a computer that once belonged to Daniel. Daniel's computer had the host file edited by myself so that when anyone typed in "google.com" (no www) it would go to bottleguy.com. Well he always typed in the full URL or accessed it via bookmark. Fast forward a year and a half and Haelie now uses that computer. She flagged down one of the other guys "I don't want to go to google anymore! Look what happens!". I had both of the Steves at my desk a bit later laughing about it and I told the tale.

This is the same girl that they had convinced windows had .dildo files (instead of .dll).

I reviewed the results from the blood samples taken a few weeks back with the doctor this afternoon. Overall things looked good. Good I thought. However a liver enzyme is three times as high as it should be. An ultrasound showed a "fatty liver" which is caused by the consumption of alcohol or being obese. I haven't thought of myself as a heavy drinker. I hardly can be classified as obese. I don't think it involves the quantity that I consume but the frequency. This is purely speculation on my part.

There are weeks where I don't consume any alcohol and other weeks where I go out three or four times a week. I hardly consume any hard alcohol. Except when I have breakfast. I love vodka for breakfast (jk) The majority of my poison is either beer or wine which is consumed over several hours often with food.

I have to go to a specialist to see if there is damage, what exactly is causing it, yadda yadda. I always get blood work done after having alcohol too - yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. I can recall the recent times I have been drunk - my birthday and this last weekend. Birthday had an awesome quote friend: "Aaron, wake up - you're home!" me: "Where are we? why are we stopped at this shithole?" friend: "*laughter* it's your home!" (he had parked under some ratty garage).

I must return to an exercise routine and change my habits. One of my friends upon hearing the news said something along the lines of "Looks like I've got another pot smoking buddy." and put his hand up like a high five. He came up with several analogies - my body is like a car, and water is like a car wash. It lightened the mood.

Why does all the fun stuff have to be so bad for you?

I was up late last night for rereading my blog. I like how I refer to certain things. Today was a Monday with a slow start. It was one of those mornings where I heard the alarm go off and I shut it off and next time I looked at the clock an hour had gone by. I give myself about 2 hours from the time I wake up until I need to be at my desk. I think this happened subconsciously after hearing Sonja say she would give herself enough time to lag as much as she possibly could and still be on time.

Today I had one of my female friends shyly tell me about a dream she had. I hope everyone's St. Patrick's Day was as awesome as mine.

Let's start with Saturday as Friday is fuzzy. I went to the Santa Monica pier Saturday night with Andy. It was windy towards the end of the day and even more so on the pier. The hike across the bridge down to the pier was chilling. I had a leather jacket and a t-shirt on and I was having flash backs to being on the front of a boat. The way the rides looked reminded me of Hitman: Blood Money and the training level. Tequila fixes the coldness really quickly and the best part about it is there isn't a wait involved for the alcohol to work that beer has. The live music was alright, I think the band name was Purple Robot or something, it was rock.

I went out on the patio in the back for a smoke and some woman was out there. I don't really recall how the conversation started but she was here on business from Ohio - some guitar related business. Anyway she looks like she is 36ish. Turns out she is a year younger than me. I saw it on the license. I guess her boyfriend was like in his 50s. Jesus. It's like one of those things that you imagine yourself waking up to and you have a kid and just freak the fuck out.

If you haven't been to Taqueria off of Westminster and the 405 you have to. Palm sized (maybe smaller) Carneasada Tacos were 0.89 - I managed to eat six. If you like loud Mexican music, shady people, fat ladies dancing to old music blasting from some car on the other side of the parking lot this is the place for you. Best drunk food ever.

A few things that stand out from Friday is I remember pointing out some asian guy wearing a Honda t-shirt and saying loudly "Look, he has his name on his t-shirt!". Spicy chicken from Tapioca Express - do not eat if you don't enjoy spicy burps the next morning.

For your information people at the hardware store are not to be trusted. "Do you have anything that matches this?" *shows item* "Oh, thats aluminum wiring - they made that illegal in California". When in doubt, say it's illegal!

I stared at a girl crossing the street deep in Irvine and my partner in crime caught me and started saying "Jail. Jail. Jail." Bleh, work again... this message was so ADD.

I was two hours late today. Rockstar.

The feeling of waking up and the room is full of light and you're roasting in your bed. Then glancing at the clock and panicking.

Oh my god, can it go any faster!

Me: "Newton, c'mon lets get some beers!"
Newton: "...it's Monday night, and you want to drink?"
Me: "Have I taught you nothing?"

In his defense he almost came with me. On with the show...

Beer is good, right? Well tonight I fell asleep on Andy's sofa with a beer in my right hand. My right hand was resting against my right flank. After about 20 minutes Andy woke me up, the moist cool feeling across my stomach down through my boxers was alarming. I thought "Great, I piss my self for the first time on a friend's leather sofa." when in reality it was about half of a beer that had soaked into my pants. Classy.

Andy was kind enough to loan me a pair of shorts.

To my stalker: Of all the questions I can think to ask the one at the top of the list is: How are you doing? I hope you're well.

I used to stand for something but I forgot what it could be?

Sonja. Of all the people that decide to message me early Sunday morning it's her. Feelings and memories are a flutter like the embers of slumbering fire freshly stirred. My heart was pounding hard enough that I could hear it in my ears. Like the first time rolling. I think my neighbors heard it. The most irritating thing about vigoriously blocking someone out of your life is how many details remind you of that person. I just hope I don't dream about it...

I spent the evening with Andy, Ashley, and Derek. Ashley mentioned how valuable of a friend I am to Andy when we were adventuring. Andy and I are the ones that usually have adventures, and tonight, Ashley and I went on an adventure to score Oreos. It's nice to know that you're valued, even if it's during a trip to obtain Oreos.

Updates have been lacking. A few weeks ago the transmission went out in my car. I was in Huntington Beach near Bellatera. I was too freaked out to even attempt driving it home and it wouldn't really go. I pulled into the back of a Burger King parking lot. Eventually the tow truck came and I had the car dropped off at a local mechanic. Tow Truck drivers don't have the most friendly personalities. Thank god for AAA thought. This occured around 2/17. I was able to get a used transmission with 30-60k miles on it for $95. The only downside was that I picked it up in El Monte. One of the cleanest auto yards I have ever been in. I am so lucky...

This morning I woke up early (10:30!) to get tags for my car. I drove over to AAA and the fucking place is now closed on Saturdays. Two Saturdays ago they closed at 2 (I got there at around 3 after getting my car smogged, fuck me) one Saturday ago I couldn't be arsed, so I settled on it this Saturday.

It's like something out of the Truman Show. Except my show would have better music.

Two pitchers in a person is invited to our table. Newton is a friendly guy so I don't fault him for this. After some conversation we realise all is not right with this guy. He mentioned head trauma and I believe it. Anyway it gets bad enough where Newton is making faces at me when the guy is facing me. He kept calling us "Brother" but with a filipino accent. Did I mention he rode a pink bike? Strange. Apparently he got a DUI on it. After about 45 minutes I decide I want our table back. I took my glasses off and put them in my pocket and leaned close to the guy and offered him $100 to come home with my friend and I.

He laughed it off and slapped my knee and said to Newton "Your friend is funny" and Newton chimed in "No, he's serious!" and the guys mouth opened a little bit in disbelief. He started muttering something about faggots and I repeated my offer and added "No one at work will believe me, so my friend gets to watch." Homey picked up his beer and went two tables down and flicked us off.

After drinking more of my beer I finished it with saying "I'll ask you again when you finish your beer." and he took his beer and went inside. Laughter ensued.

After a retelling of the weekend adventures to Andy the term Cougar came up. Cougar refers to a woman who stalks younger prey. I watched part of Millionare Matchmaker - I can't believe it. So dumb. I had to say that...

A random reflection, I don't usually like blue eyes but Anki's are really pretty. Crazy blue. If you want to listen to something different I highly recommend Angel Dust I (you can scope it out at the bottom of the page).

I made the venture to Long Beach to attend a friend's Birthday. I was a bit late since I made every wrong turn from here to Long Beach. Parking was crazy but I found a really good spot. What made the journey seem even longer was my brakes need to be adjusted so they squeek when they get hot and my transmission is in need of some love. Anyway the place where the party was held was awesome. Vince's American Grill (or something close to that) off of 2nd Street.

I wore a jacket and tie but chickened out on the tie after I walked past a few establishments. The party was held in the back however I waited in line like a chump until Liz spotted me and lead me back. Nothing like recognizing two faces out of twenty. Oh well, getting out of the comfort zone is a good thing and good food and great wines always help the cause. I quickly made friends with a few of her friends and her parents. It was nice meeting people whom I had only seen in photos and heard stories about. The party relocated to a bar and there was some confusion on my part regarding the bill ;(

Liz's gift was a bottle of wine (Pinot Noir) I really liked that I had tasted a two or three weeks ago. I included a few movies along with a friendly card.

As the night progressed things got a little crazier. The bar was on the corner of Redondo and Beach. I couldn't believe how old one of the bartenders was, she was 39 and looked like she was in her mid 20s (I was shocked). "Someone had some cabbage or something." I am still laughing at someone saying that. Heather reminds me of the girl I lost my virginity with - and oddly enough she asked me something to that effect. How strange? I didn't think about that until today... anyway she likes similar music and knows of some groups and of the places in LA that I've visited. Tall and dark hair, I am smitten. =)

April is another friend of Liz. April was drunk and as the night progressed became louder and louder. Travis is Liz's boyfriend, and apparently Travis and April don't get along. Around 3:30 there was a big thing about being loud because of the neighbors complaining a night or two before so Travis said something to shut her up. Right before that he said "I'd call her a cab, but that would be an insult to cabs." I laughed. The real killer was a comment about April's weight - I guess she just had twins but she is larger. I would say heavy, or curvy, but when people say those they mean foldy. It was something to the effect of "Fuck you you fat fucking pig". Ah... anyway she eventually got a cab.

It was kinda weird watching Californication (or whatever that show is with David Duchovny) with comments like "See, I want to have sex like that." I gave Heather a ride home and eventually got home at 5:15. There are more details but this should work, I'm tired of writing.

On Yet Another Visit to ye Olde Lamppost:

I think it was our third pitcher, Newton and I were in a friendly mood and chatted up one of the Delivery guys and asked him what his craziest moment was while working. Face it, a large majority of us have worked in food service at least for a short stint either as first jobs or maybe it's something like a mid life crisis ala American Beauty.

Danny's response was a few weeks ago he took an order for ribs and a side of potato salad. The customer was an older woman. In between the time he took the order and when she arrived to pick it up someone ordered potato salad and got the last of it. So when she arrived to pick up her order and was told that they were out of potato salad she became irate and cussed him out. The hand gestures with quotes of what she said made it very intertaining.

I a memorable experience when I was in High School and I worked at Taco Bell. My best friend and I signed up at the same time. We had the same shifts often and one night he had register duty and that included cleaning up the lobby off peak. I follwed him out to help with the doors around the dumpster outside. The bags are tied shut at the top but sometimes the bags get really heavy with liquid and get packed so they're awkward. Usually a few swings are needed to get enough momentum to hurl the garbage over the lip of the dumpster, well Chris didn't get enough and it caught on the lip. Acting quickly he braced it with his hands to push it over the edge. The plastic bags are not the most durable things, and these had a lot of garbage in them, his hands broke through the plastic. I think I was already laughing at this point. Just imagine someone with their arms over their head in a pose like Superman flying. His hands broke through the plastic and garbage water and bits of refuse streamed down his arms and covered his chest. I laughed so hard.

I don't remember much beyond this...

Evil is as evil does.

The majority of this weekend was spent tending a portupgrade. I managed to break the portsdb. I am positive this was related to running out of diskspace during the process. However FreeBSD makes it easy to solve this by removing the INDEX-#.db file in /usr/ports and using the pkgdb and portsdb commands to rebuild the database and handling the dependancies. However the process did take some time...

You know you need to get out more when you dream about games. Friday and Saturday were both intense dreams involving video games. In one I leveled a character too high, and the other dream is fuzzy at the moment. The dream on Sunday night was related to work - I dreamed that I took over one of Jeremy's projects and I was being asked questions about it by Bill. It was stressful.

A dream involving work, and a new job. However I think it's better than the one last night where I obtained loot froma KZ.

In other news I am getting a creative itch. Stay tuned...

If you want to torture coworkers simply eat McDonald's or Steak Escape. Concentrated evil.

I still have yet to complete a Delphi (LOL) program that randomly disables vowel keys on keyboard for part of a second. Why part of a second? So the user will mash the key again and see that nothing is wrong - excellent for the computer challenged. I can envision the pleas...

Victim: "...but I press it and it doesn't appear sometimes!"
Helper: "well it seems to be working now"
Helper thinks that person is retarded.

It's bulletproof.

*The bulletproof reference was used by Dave to describe the effort put into making sure a template displays correctly in multiple browsers. Fuck it's in my head now... that and talking like Marvin Martian with words that sound like "modulator". The example that I repeated today "Perhaps you should use a CSS Validator~" *shakes head*

Apparently Rand was let go Friday - key and other info was turned in Monday or Tuesday morning. The email addresses that he was responsible for forwarding have been taken over by Sean in Tech support.

Chewbacca has turned in his resignation today.

Han: "NO NO NO! This one goes THERE and that one goes THERE!"
Chewbacca: RRRAAAURRGH!

Liz suggested that C3PO is Sam and R2 is Steve. To this day I hear Jeremy saying "Artoo, That way!".

I haven't blogged online recently. Gotta be in the mood...

Anyway here it goes. I have had a long standing interest in the demoscene. For those of you not in the know the demoscene is about 3d graphics and sound generated real time on a computer. Think of a music video or a music visualization. Generally the demos are made by teams and are themed. The demos are catagorized by size (64kb for everything) or higher or lower depending if they're intros or whatever the compo requirements are. Needless to say I think it's very cool what talented people are able to accomplish. The demos I am referring to are the 64k compos. I realize an executable packer is involved but... none the less cool shit.

I love the music too, I can't get enough of it. Infact I have an archive of over 1500 melodies. I found a german guy's website who has written a mod/xm player in actionscript! I want to setup a jukebox or something on my website - especially since the file sizes are ridiculously small (think MIDI size).

My reading interests lately have been on Assembler (with NASM and GCC) and debuggers. Getting the notation differences down has been cake but the real interesting (and irritating) part is how program logic works on the CPU. How the registers work with the flags to do math - very cool. I have a goal of writing a keygen (for what I don't know, it just has to work and play music!) and a patch for something. I don't care if it's crappy - it's just something I really want to do. One step at a time.

As this blog details aspects of my personal life, my work, and some technical junk I wanted to create another blog just for coding and patching and my whole learning process. I want to be able to share what I learn. Like how check sums work in code to prevent a your program from being picked apart.

Updates to my website recently have been behind the scenes (as always) the Latest script now no longer displays what is in the File system but what has been entered into the image database. Not sure why this took so long to do...

Anyway besides the geeky persuits life has been alright. The mornings have been kinda wet recently (or maybe my car has a leak when it rained recently) or maybe a coolant bottle I have in the hatch (trunk?) is leaky. Either way recently I had to wipe dew off of the inside of my windshield. I've let the car air out and that seemed to fix it.

Besides that I was running super late but my car was so dirty I said fuck it and washed it on the way to work. The carwash lane disappears behind the minimart building which obscures any cars that might be waiting unless the queue is really long. So I zipped into the carwash and to my surprise see 3 cars ahead of me which meant a 15 minute wait. I guess I could've reversed out of there and done it later but it was bugging me...

Time to sleep...